Danganronpa MV 3: At Destiny's Edge

by Otterplay

Sixteen Ultimate Students wake up in the remnants of a long abandoned city only to find out they are going to be forced into a killing game. What choices will they end up making. And will it even matter, or is there something bigger at play here?

9. Chapter 4: Under Duress - Deadly Life

I just stood there, frozen for a few seconds. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. "S-Serena…?" I mumbled taking a step back.

Historia had covered her eyes. "This still doesn't get easy to look at. I'll… I'll go find the others." She then ran off.

Right… Only two of us found the body. So there wouldn't be a body discovery announcement. I took a few steps inside. "I don't want to…" But I shouldn't waste any time. I had to start investigating now.

I walked over to the body, because of course that's the first place you should check… But something caught my attention when I got there. In her hand, was crumpled up pieces of paper. "Wait…" I reached over and grabbed them." These are the papers that were stolen this morning…" I covered my mouth, humming in thought. "That must have been her bird this morning. But why was she after them?"

Which made it even more odd that she was in this room too. We had hid the fourth piece of paper here. I walked over to the books to look around, but the place was a mess. There would be a very low chance I'd find it. But… if she didn't have it. There was a chance that it was still hidden. I'll come back here after the trial.

Soon, Historia walked back in with some people. "I found who I could." Walking with her were Caren, Jack, and Robin.

Caren upon walking in, just seemed more annoyed. "Come on, it's been like three days. Can't you all stop for at least a week." Kinda insensitive, but I do wish we didn't get a murder every few days.

.

Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Ding!

.

The monitor in this room lit up to show Monokuma's face. "A body has been discovered! Please gather in the Ultimate Mathematician Lab to see who it is." He then covered his mouth. "Puhuhuhuhuhu!" And then, the screen turned off.

Robin had a small frown on his face. "It would seem it's Serena this time…"

"I knew that chandelier was going to be dangerous…" Jack mumbled, crossing his arms.

"No you didn't…" I deadpanned. I turned to look back at the body and frowned slightly. Now we were only down to eight. We truly were at the halfway mark now…

Suddenly.

Bear.

"It sure is a shame!" Monokuma said, not feeling bad in the slightest. "Who would murder someone like her?"

"You, but you said you wouldn't interfere in the game like that." Caren said with bitterness in her voice. "When are you going to stop hiding behind a stuffed bear?"

The bear went silent for a few seconds. "Five days!" He finally answered.

"Is that a serious answer, or are you just messing with us?" Jack tilted his head back a little.

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out." He covered his mouth slightly. "Anyways!" He pulled out a tablet. "You know what time it is!" He handed me the Monokuma File.

I took a deep breath, before opening it.

.

Monokuma File #5

.

The victim this time is Serena Darabond, the Ultimate Huntress. She died at around 9:31am when a sharp object pierced her abdomen. She also has other stab wounds around her arm and legs.

.

Other stab wounds, huh? Well at least it told me something useful. I put the tablet away. I was going to figure out what the hell happened here.

Soon, the rest of the group arrived. I could tell because Lily let out a small scream upon entering the room.

"Why does this keep happening!?" She yelled out, covering her eyes.

Enima glanced around the room. "So you do have an Ultimate Lab, I forgot about what you used to be."

"Let's not talk about this right now…" I mumbled, shaking my head.

I walked back over to Serena's body. I would need to, I had gotten distracted by the journal entries to actually do any investigation.

Like the Monokuma file said, she had two stab wounds in her leg. But there didn't seem to be anything lying around which could have done it. I went to explore the stab wound from the chandelier, but it started being lifted up.

I glanced up and saw Stephan pulling on the rope. He looked down at me. "This thing will only get in the way, so for now, we'll have it be moved up."

"Works for me." I replied as I went back to looking down at her body. The wound was rather deep, almost going completely through her. It made me kinda sick.

I thought that was all, but I saw something written under her, but barely. I decided I should move her body. It was surprisingly easy to move. However, what was written under her didn't help me much at the moment. The letters. "Stant" Was written there, and the rest was covered in blood from her. What was she even trying to write?

I shook my head and put the body back on it and stood up. Next to her, was her bow. The bow still seemed to be in good condition and wasn't damaged at all. As for her quiver, only one arrow remained. It had the number eight on it. Meaning she had in total eight arrows. "Wait… that means she also shot like seven arrows…" She was clearly fighting someone… I looked around the room. But there was definitely a struggle of sorts.

I remembered Serena mentioning that she numbered her arrows, so it's possible that I could maybe figure out what happened based on where the arrows ended up. "Can you all look around for arrows, please?" I smiled at everyone. It would be easier to find if we all looked for them. I'm not sure what else I could look for at the moment.

"I have one here." Robin called out, holding out an arrow.

I walked over to him to examine it. It had lodged itself into the wall on the other side of where the bookshelf used to be. "There's one here, huh…"

The tactician stroked his chin. "Trying to figure out how the murder happened by following the arrows, a smart move, might I add." He poked the arrow. "This one has the number seven. I remember her saying something about the numbers…"

Judging from how the arrow lodged itself in the wall, it seemed to have been going down, instead of straight. Interesting.

"So, how many arrows are we looking for?" He asked me, still poking the arrow. "I'll leave this one there so we can refer to it later."

"We're looking for seven arrows, so this is one of them. She had eight in total, and one of them is still in her quiver." I answered him.

He glanced at the ground. "She was very efficient with her arrows. To make her have to use seven, and still end up losing?"

Yeah… that does strike me as strange… I glanced over at the wall and noticed that there was a bloody handprint. "Well, whoever it was had to wash their hands…" Besides her fingers, Serena didn't have any blood on her hand, let alone that hand. It could still be her blood… or her attacker got shot and had to lean on the wall… Hmm…

The next place I went to was near the bookshelf.

"Hey, I found one." Historia said calmly, moving over some books. Under the books, was another arrow. It seemed to have hit a book in the center. "Oh, well, at least she hit a book…" I mumbled sadly to myself. I shook my head and checked the number. It was the number five. Alright, so this one was earlier than the last one.

"Oh, wise math genius, will you be able to use your math skills to figure out where everyone was when the arrow was shot." Historia said with a bit of sarcasm.

I shook my head. "Don't patronize me."

I walked over to the fallen bookshelf and saw another arrow.

"Oh, by the way…" Caren mumbled. "There's one here."

"Are you… alright?" She's been off for these past couple of days, but I never really bothered to ask.

She sent a glance my way. "What do you mean…" She grabbed her arm. "Of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know… I… You're just really different from when I first met you." I informed her.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry Riley, but unlike some other people here. I'm not an optimist."

"Actually… I don't think anyone but Lily is an optimist here…" I said.

"You get my point. I'm not going to act like everything here is fine." Didn't you just say you were fine?

I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Look, I know I'm not optimistic, and in fact, I'm kinda pessimistic too. But getting beaten up about all of this isn't going to help anyone."

Caren looked at me for a few seconds before shaking her head. "Look, it's not that easy, alright. Anyways, shouldn't we be investigating?"

"R-right!" I completely forgot about that part. I looked over at the arrow that was in the bookshelf. "Alright, the number on this one is four…" I trailed off.

Caren rolled her eyes. "That doesn't really help much, does it."

Oh, it will help plenty. I stood the bookshelf up so that it was easier to see everything. But it wasn't easy to do, especially with Caren not helping me.

"Oh… did you want my help?" She asked, eventually jumping in to help me.

I shook my head slightly. "This will just make it easier to walk around." And if any more arrows are under the bookshelf…

"There may not be any under there…" Jack said, picking up some pieces of broken wood. "But there is this…" He handed me bits of what looked like a broken arrow.

"Hmm… but where's the tip of it…?" I surveyed the room.

The critic moved himself and pointed at the ground. "Right there, but you're crazy if you think I'm going to pick up something bloody like that."

I glanced down at the arrow that was destroyed. "Why is this one…"

He simply shrugged. "If I knew, I would tell you. Maybe someone was just venting their anger."

I highly doubt that. I glanced over at the arrow itself and saw the number six.

Jack adjusted his glasses. "Well, that's enough work for me."

"You found one arrow." Caren deadpanned.

He looked down at her. "Oh, and how many arrows did you find?"

She looked like she was going to say something but remained silent.

"That's what I thought." He turned to look at me. "So, how good are you at math? Able to calculate angles and such?"

I slowly nodded. "Yeah, I was hoping to maybe figure out where Serena was when she was shooting some of these arrows."

Jack smirked to himself. "I wonder if Monokuma did this on purpose. You did recently admit to being good at math, after all."

"I highly doubt he would do something as stupid as this on purpose." I told him, shaking my head. But anyways, back to investigating. "This probably shot the attacker, now that I'm thinking about it…"

"Seems likely, breaking it in a fit of rage after being shot. I guess we are looking for someone short tempered." He glanced over at Historia.

"Hey, fuck off." She said rather calmly.

He shrugged. "Doesn't appear to be her."

What kind of detective work is this?

I shook my head and headed off.

"Oh! Riley!" Lily called out waving at me. "I found one." She winked.

"Standing.. By the door…?" I deadpanned. "Are you standing there so you don't have to be near the body?"

"W-what?! Of course not!" She shook her head, pouting slightly. "I'm helping out a lot!" She pointed to the door. "There's an arrow stuck even here."

I glanced over at the door, and sure enough, there was one. In fact, this one had the number two on it. "Getting closer to figuring out how this all started.

"See, I can be helpful in investigations!" She said proudly. "So far, the only thing I've done is pass out in the first trial, and then talk about plants in the second one."

"What did you do in the third one…?" I don't remember her doing anything of note.

She ran her hand through her hair. "I think I screamed…"

"Lily… You've screamed every time." I deadpanned.

She hummed in thought. "I'm not good around bodies."

"I don't think any of us are." I informed her.

She pointed to Caren. "But Caren is good at that. And Stephan seems like he would be fine."

"Stephan is an outlier, and should therefore not be counted."

"Heard that…" He was hanging down upside from his weird rope thing.

"Of course you did." I rolled my eyes, but I had slight amusement in my voice. "Did you find anything?"

He pulled out an arrow and let it drop to the ground. "It was lodged in the wall next to the door."

"Then why didn't you leave it there?" I asked, annoyed. "It would have made it easier to know the angles and stuff."

He dropped down on the ground. "Because there's still a small hole in the wall where it was shot."

Fuck it, I'll take it. I walked over to the wall in question. It was like a foot away from the door. "Huh… Which way was the arrow pointing?"

"Mostly straight, but it had a small downward angle." He informed me.

Lily took the arrow off the ground. "And it has the number three on it. Right after the one I found."

Alright, that's a logical series of events right there. "Perfect." Now I just gotta connect it with the rest of the arrows. "Is that all you have?"

He remained silent for a few seconds before nodding ."Besides the arrow, there doesn't seem to be very much to investigate here…"

Yeah, whoever did this didn't leave too many clues. Although you'd think they would take the arrows too… I walked around the room until I eventually found Enima rolling an arrow on the ground with her foot.

"Huh… having fun there?" I asked her.

She glanced up at me. "For the most part, I guess. I found one of the things you were looking for."

If I had to take a guess, this would be the first arrow. I picked it up and looked at it. "H-huh!?" It wasn't the first arrow, it was the ninth! That didn't make sense at all.

"I never seen someone react like that over the number nine." She snickered at me.

Wait a second… I rushed back over to Serena's body and pulled out the arrow that was in there. And when I did, I saw something even stranger. The tip of that arrow had blood on it. "How does that…" I trailed off.

"What's wrong?" Historia approached me. "Oh, a bloody arrow, it seems one of them actually hit something."

"But…" I scratched my head. "How…" I shook my head. "No, I'll figure that out at the trial." I stood back up. "So there's still missing the first arrow…" I mumbled to myself.

Well, I better keep looking around. I was in the process of walking down the area Enima was, so might as well resume there. A little further from Enima was the area where the chandelier was being held up by. Or at least where the rope for it was. Like I had noticed earlier, it had snapped. This is probably what caused the chandelier to drop down in the first place. Was Serena lured into a trap, and the killer was waiting here…?

"What a way to go, though…" Enima commented, leaning on the wall. "She probably saw it falling towards it, but didn't have enough time to react. I doubt even Stephan would have had time to react."

The ninja, as he's been doing for a while, lowered himself from the ceiling again. "Oh, I would have been able to avoid it, trust me."

"Thanks for the words of feedback…" I mumbled. "Glad to know you would have survived it."

He slowly pulled up on the rope to lift himself back up.

I rolled my eyes and continued on. I passed by the bloody handprint again, and a little later, I reached a window that was broken open. I glanced at the shards of glasses still attached to the frame and saw more blood. "Well, this sure is interesting…" Not only that, but there were also feathers on the window. "Right… the bird…" I glanced back and saw all the feathers on the ground. When I first got here, they were still in the air. But it's odd since there wasn't much wind current in this room. I looked around for a clock and eventually found a clock. It was almost ten now. Wait…

I pulled out the Monokuma File and looked at the time of death. "9:31am…" I mumbled to myself. "I was for sure up at that time." Wait… This was recent… I put away the tablet and walked back to the window.

"What's got you bothered?" Caren walked over to me.

I glanced over at her. "Oh… it was just about the time of the murder."

"Oh yeah, half an hour ago." She commented.

I blinked a few times. "Wow, I should really keep track of the time…" Didn't think I would wake up that early. I guess I was kinda preoccupied with the bird in my room to even realize the time.

I leaned my head out the window and saw some blood outside. "Say…" I hopped out the window.

"Hey, where are you going?" Caren leaned her head out of the window.

I glanced over at her. "Just going to follow this trail of blood."

She looked at me for a few seconds before jumping out. "Well, I'm going to. More blood can never be a good thing."

We followed the trail of blood for a bit, before it turned into an alleyway, and stopped at the dead end.

"Well, that doesn't make much sense, now does it?" I mumbled.

Caren glanced up. "They wouldn't have escaped from going above… right…"

Well… depends on who's blood this was…

.

Ding Dong! Dong Ding! Ding Dong! Dong Ding!

.

The monitor nearby lit up and showed Monokuma. "You know what, I think that's enough investigation this time." But that was even less than last time. Is he trying to stop something? "There's no way that I would make the fourth trial easy. You've got to really want to live this time."

Caren moved some hair from her face. "What's he trying to do…?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea…" We started making our way back when I noticed a second blood trail. Looking up, I noticed there was some blood on the wall slightly. "There's another one…" I mumbled.

The babysitter glanced up before shaking her head. "I don't think it's worth it…" She mumbled. "We can't reach that height."

But I know who can. "Stephan! I know you're nearby!"

The ninja leaned his head out the window. "What do you want this time?"

"Think you can follow that blood trail?" I pointed towards the wall.

He looked at it for a few seconds before nodding. He jumped out the window and started to run up the wall using some of the windowsills to help his way up.

Caren and I waited for a few seconds…

"He's not coming back anytime soon, is he?" She mumbled.

I shook my head. "I… I don't think so… We should probably head back to the hotel, we'll probably see him later."

"Yeah…" We both made our way back to the hotel, where everyone but him were waiting.

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Hmm… not everyone seems to be here…" He looked around. "Where's the ninja?"

"Lurking in the shadows, as ninjas do." Robin replied.

The bear pointed at him. "I don't want to hear any snarky remarks from you."

He lifted his hands in defense, but a smirk on his face. "But it's only the truth. He always lurks there."

"I don't believe you!" He sounded angry.

"But I'm right here." Stephan was leaning against the wall in the lobby. "Sorry if you can't see me. But doesn't that mean I'm doing a good job?"

This only got Monokuma more mad. "Whatever! When I call you somewhere, you should show up and not hide anywhere." He covered his mouth. "Now, it's time for you all to head towards the trial grounds."

Then. he vanished. I glanced over at Stephan. "Find anything?"

He nodded. "Well, kinda…"

"Kinda isn't going to do it." Caren crossed her arms.

He rolled his eyes, slightly annoyed. "I followed the trail on the buildings till I reached the edge of the city, near the forest. Doesn't seem to be one of us."

All three of us got into the elevator. "Not one of us… huh…" Well, that means only one thing.

The elevator started moving as we made our way towards the trial grounds.

"The more stuff like this happens…" Lily started to say. "The worst it gets to be in this elevator. Remember two weeks ago? There were so many people…" She looked at the ground. "But not just that, it's harder to believe one of us is a killer…"

That's right… I surveyed the room. "The worst part about all of this is that one of us standing here killed Serena.

"How many more times is Monokuma going to make us do this?" Jack had his arms crossed. "At this point, it's become quite the nuisance."

"Probably until we are all dead, if I had to guess." Caren replied, standing in front of the door.

I looked around at everyone. Not much time had passed since the motive was finally given. I talked to pretty much everyone, but from what it looked like, none of them would kill for their families. I don't really see anyone here kill- That's not true. Most people here I don't see killing...

Soon, the elevator arrived at its destination. I took a long deep breath as I walked out of it. The trial grounds still looked like they always did. Although, there were two new things. A picture frame for Cameron with a critical one on it, and one for Serena, with two arrows crossed to form an X. Everyone walked over to their podiums, feeling a heavy weight on them. None of us wanted to do this again. I glanced over at Monokuma, who simply laughed at us. Seems he was really going to be watching this trial this time.

.

Several pictures appeared.

One of Jean leaning back to the side, reading a book.

One of Lily holding a bouquet of flowers, picking one of the petals off.

One of Marcus, tipping his hat down, with a small smirk on his face

One of Serena, loading her bow with an arrow.

One of Stephan, with a more serious expression, with a finger covering his mouth slightly.

Another person has fallen amongst our group.

One of Historia, with her arms crossed, unhappy.

One of Bella, holding her hands together, with a small frown.

One of Enima grinning to herself, her eyes, conveying a hint of sadness.

One of Josef holding his cane against his forehead.

One of Cameron, throwing his dice at the camera.

And somehow, the motive has to fit in somewhere.

One of Robin, cloaking himself in his robe.

One of Caren running her hands through her hair, a more annoyed look on her face.

One of Jack, adjusting his glasses, looking off to the side.

One of Riley, looking determined.

One of Daniella smirking with her eyes closed.

Whatever the case, I'll find the killer this time too.

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Class Trial…

Commence!

.

.

.

I glanced around the room, waiting for someone to speak up first, but it looked like this was on me. "Alright, I guess I'll start this off…" Although, I didn't exactly know how to start it off in the first place.

"The victim this time was Serena Darabond." Jack decided to start it off after more silence. "Killed when the chandelier pierced her abdomen. Or so the file says."

"Do you doubt the file?" Enima asked him.

He tilted his head back. "What? No. I'm just saying that's what the file said."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, when you say something along the lines of "Or so blank says", it's normally because you doubt it's true."

"I don't need an English lesson from you, right now." Jack warned her.

"Alright, please, let's not get sidetracked." Caren said, her arms crossed. "The quicker we solve this, the quicker it's over."

"But if it's over… we are going to need to-" Lily started to say.

But she was cut off by Stephan. "That person refused their rights to keep living the moment they decided to kill here." Alright, way to make that sound edgy.

I held my hands together, glancing away. "Let's not treat them too harshly, alright." After all, people like Marcus and Cameron still killed…

"Let's go over what we know of the case so far…" Robin started to say. He pulled out an arrow, which made me think I should have probably brought them with me. "Serena fired off multiple arrows in a fight with someone. And luckily for us, she was kind enough to have them be numbered." He showed off the arrow with the number seven. "According to what I heard, she tended to fire them in order."

"That's what she told me too." I reaffirmed what he said. "In total, she had nine arrows. And seven were used." Or maybe it was eight. I still need to figure out how the eighth one got blood on it.

"So from there, we are going to try and reimagine how the scene could have played out, right?" Historia asked, looking at everyone else.

The tactician nodded his head. "Yes, that's the plan. So we should probably start with the first arrow. Did anyone find arrow number one?"

The room fell silent.

"What, no one found the first arrow? How could that be?" Monokuma covered his face.

Everyone was looking around though, there's no way we would miss an arrow… And that's when it clicked. "Oh, we couldn't find arrow number one because someone destroyed it."

"We don't talk about that." Stephan was looking the other way. "She shot at me, so I broke one of her arrows."

I mean, I guess that's a good compromise. "Either way, that means she couldn't have used this arrow at all today. And she didn't replace the arrow because she says that even the tiniest bit of weight difference can throw off her game."

"Like a small difference like that is actually going to do anything. Especially close range." Caren rolled her eyes. "But either way, that's what she believed, so.

"Right, although, she was right about the arrows." I informed her. "Heavy arrows resist wi-"

"I'm not here for a lecture." The babysitter said.

Alright, guess we are moving on, then. "The first arrow we found was lodged inside the door to my lab. Specifically on the inside of the door.

Robin nodded. "Right, which means the killer must have entered the door, and Serena shot an arrow at them."

"Why shoot an arrow unprompted?" Caren asked, running her hand through her hair. "I feel like there had to at least have some sort of unpleasantries for there to be an arrow fired."

The tactician shook his head. "No, not really, she doesn't always intend to kill when she fires her bow." He lifted up his robe to show the small hole in it. "The other day, she shot me so Stephan and I would stop fighting. It was effective, but left us unharmed."

"So…" Historia trailed off. "What you're saying is it could have been a warning shot.

I nodded my head. "That's very likely that it could have been. She draws her bow and aims at the person and fires. How the killer reacted is what tells us the rest we need to know. Because she shot again right after. The killer had to have done something for sure that time."

"Moving on to the next arrow, number three." Stephan looked away. "If you are facing the doors from the inside, the killer would have gone right, because a few feet away, there was another arrow."

I glanced over at him. "As you described it, the arrow was mostly straight in the wall, with a small downwards curve."

"I don't know why, she wouldn't have been standing far enough for it to curve downwards." The ninja mentioned.

"Well, there's the chance it was someone shorter than herself, so she aimed lower." Historia suggested. "She would probably have shot towards the heart, after all."

I guess she would. "She is a huntress after all, so it's probably instinct at this point."

"After that, the person probably kept running towards the right of the room." Jack mentioned.

"Right, the next arrow was number four, and this one was stuck inside the side of the bookshelf. It's hard to tell the angle because it fell, but it was probably similar to number three."

Caren placed a hand on her hip. "Yeah, if I had to take any sort of guess, I'd say they ran and used the bookshelf as cover."

"Most likely the case, yes." Robin nodded. "There were a lot of them in the building, so it would be stupid not to use it."

Jack tapped his podium. "One thing to note is that the bookshelf is closer to the middle of the room."

"Yes, that is true, it's probably because the killer wanted to close the gap between them." I said.

Enima put her hand on her hip. "Probably because they didn't have any long range weapons, and needed to get in real close."

"So does that eliminate Stephan?" Lily pointed out.

The ninja took out the hook thing. "Yeah, this has a decent range on. It would probably be better for me to keep my distance too, unless the enemy has the advantage that way."

"Well, Serena doesn't exactly seem like the up close and personal one. So she would probably be at a disadvantage up close." Caren rolled her eyes. "So the killer probably closed the distance because of that.

"Right, she's a ranged attacker." Why is Robin talking like this is DnD? "So once someone gets up close, she probably can't do much. And even if she could, the other people could probably still beat her."

"That brings me to the fifth arrow." I started to say.

"This is the one I found, back off." Historia jumped in. "This one was found under the bookshelf, stuck into a book. So it's likely in an attempt to get closer, they used a book to block an arrow."

"They're close, now what?" Caren asked.

I frowned slightly, "This is where the series of events make a little less sense. The six arrow was destroyed, but the tip was covered in-"

Jack cut me off. "-Blood. So that seemed to have hit someone."

"Which means that Serena finally got a good hit on them." Enima smirked. "This might have caused them to back off."

"The killer was probably enraged that they were shot, and broke the arrow." Caren suggested. "Although, I'm not actually sure if they would have had enough time."

Well, we'll figure that out if we have to, but for now. "The next arrow is way further than where number six was found. It's on the wall with the window, behind the bookshelf."

"Well, if Serena stayed where she was, then that means the bookshelf would have had to have collapsed by that point." Lily suggested.

Historia nodded. "Makes sense to me. Not like she can shoot through the shelves. Especially with all the books in the way."

"The thing that bothers me is why is there such a large difference in locations between arrows." Stephan mentioned. "Something happened to have caused all of this."

"It is odd that Serena would choose not to fire. It's possible that she was being conservative of her arrows, but it wasn't like they were gone. She could still collect them. And not just that, but her killer had been shot already once. So they would have moved much slower."

"Which makes moving over there to be even more weird. It's possible only an arm was shot, but still…" I said.

"Alright everyone!" Lily blurted out. "Strip!"

The room fell in silence, before a voice said something.

Historia shook her head. "No one is that du-"

"Alright, if you say so." Enima said, starting to remove her shirt.

The historian's cheeks lit up red. "P-put your shirt back on!

"Yeah!" Monokuma yelled out, getting a little angry. "I can't just have people strip inside a courtroom. Ladies, contain yourself!"

She let out an annoyed sigh. "No one is any fun here." But she complied.

"We're trying to solve a murder here, not have an orgy." Caren glared at her.

"Yeah, save the orgy for later." Robin replied before going deep into thought. "Let's worry less about where they had been shot. We should focus on why Serena might not have been able to shoot them for a period of time."

"Well… there's only one reason I could think of that." I told him. "She had been injured too, in the legs, twice. It's possible that's what caused her to stop briefly."

The tactician nodded his head. "Right, I saw that too." He looked up at me. "If that were the case, the killer could probably have enough time to step back."

"The only problem is the length of the bookshelves." Historia mentioned.

"Then they simply toppled them over." Lily suggested.

Stephan shook his head. "Unlikely, since the shelves fell towards the center of the room. To make them fall that way, they would need to push them from the other side, or pull it towards themselves. Both are highly unlikely cases."

"Then the bookshelf should already have fallen then." Caren suggested. "That way she can just climb over."

"But that creates a problem with something else." I mentioned. "The seventh arrow had an arc to it."

The babysitter was silent for a few seconds. "And?"

"She would have a reason to do that." I informed her. "If it was arced, it was likely that she had to shoot over the bookshelf." Then an idea struck me. "Or, her target was on top of there."

"The killer was on top of the bookshelf?" Lily tilted her head slightly. "But why would they be there?" She asked.

"Puhuhuhuhuhu. Isn't it obvious?" Monokuma asked. "It's so they could have the high ground!"

Robin stroked his chin. "Which means Serena's reply would have had to be something like…" He coughed into his arm a few times. "Don't underestimate my power." He said in a slightly different voice."

Well, at least it's only hi-

Jack jumped in. "Don't try it." He replied, but with no voice change.

Stephan shook his head. "Does that make me the only normal male?"

"Shut up, you're a ninja." Historia replied.

"Ahh…" He sighed.

Caren was tapping her podium, getting frustrated. "Can we stop wasting time quoting a movie here."

"No." Robin replied immediately before raising his hands in defense. "I'm just kidding. We should probably head back to the discussion."

"Thank you." The babysitter said coldly. "So if you are implying they climbed up the bookshelf, then how do you suppose they did that? I don't remember seeing any easy way of getting up."

"Well, you got me there." I rubbed the back of my head. "I'm not exactly sure yet, but there's gotta be a way they did it."

"I mean, jumping is a great solution." Enima suggested.

"Show me a person who can jump twice their height, and then we'll start talking." Caren rolled her eyes.

"I introduce you, Stephan." Robin said with a smirk.

The ninja closed one eye. "Actually, it's more like 1.5 my height. Not quite at twice my height."

"Oh, but that implies that you plan to get it to that point eventually." The tactician pointed out.

Stephan was silent for a few seconds. "Perhaps."

"All of this talk just for one arrow…" Caren sighed.

"Oh!" Lily lifted up her hand. "I've got it. Wasn't there a chandelier they could have used?"

The babysitter shook her head. "No, that was too close to the center of the room."

"How many of you have actually gone to see the room before the murder?" I asked, looking around. "I know Historia, Jack and I have."

Caren glanced away. "Admitedly, I did not see it till the murder."

"There we go. Then there's one thing that I would love to point out. The chandelier was in motion."

"In motion?" Lily asked, blinking a few times. "Like swinging back and forth?"

"Exactly." I smiled. "It went pretty far. Historia had to get on top of me to reach it. But none of us can jump really high."

"Historia was on top? I always imagined her as a bottom." Enima smirked to herself.

"Not this shit again." She said bitterly, glaring at the mysterious girl.

She simply laughed. "I'm only kidding. But anyways, why were you trying to reach the chandelier?"

Well, I can't tell everyone about the notes. "Trying to see if it could be stopped, it could not."

"While you may have not found a way to stop it, Serena sure did." Monokuma covered his mouth.

"Since when do you banter during a class trial? Is it your birthday?" Robin asked him.

He tilted his body back. "What day are we? Oh! That's right, you don't know!" He laughed at us. "Anyways, continue on with the trial. Wouldn't want to hold you back too much."

What was with Monokuma today? Something was fishy, but I couldn't quite tell what. But he did seem happier than normal. "What I was getting at, is that they could have used the chandelier to get onto the top of the bookshelf. They were most likely trying to put some distance between them and Serena."

"And that's when she took the shot." Robin figured out. "It might not have hit them, but it probably would have toppled the bookshelf when they moved suddenly."

Jack nodded his head. "Yes, I see. And because they weren't hit, the arrow would have continued on until it hit the wall with the arc needed to stay like that."

"Exactly!" I said with a smile on my face. But then here comes the hard part.

"So, what about arrow number eight?" Lily tilted her head.

I can't exactly describe this one… "Well… that was found in Serena's quiver… but there was blood on it."

"Blood?" Caren narrowed her eyes. "So, did she shoot someone with that arrow?"

"That's besides the point here…" Robin hummed in thought. "If she would have shot that arrow, then how did it end up back in her quiver."

Jack nodded. "Yes, that is quite an interesting point. Maybe this one managed to hit the killer too, and she went to collect it."

"That seems like the most likely solution." Stephan nodded. "So the killer was shot twice. Then, they went and recollected the arrow. Maybe they thought they finished the deed?"

I shook my head. "While that's a good theory, I'm sure she would have picked them up in the order she fired the arrows. I don't think she would have started with the last one…" I covered my mouth slightly. "Besides… there's one more arrow we haven't talked about."

"Another one? I thought they only went up to eight." Lily pointed out.

Enima snickered a bit. "Well, leave it to me to find an arrow that doesn't make any sort of sense. Between arrow three, and seven, there was arrow nine."

Stephan hummed in thought. "A ninth arrow, was it used?"

"It was outside the quiver, so I assumed so. Although it wasn't lodged anywhere. It was just on the ground." She informed him.

"Why would it…" Robin started to mumble.

"Probably just hit something metallic, or just wasn't strong enough to lodge itself into the wall." Enima suggested. "Like a last act of desperation… Maybe she didn't have enough energy." She imitated pulling a bow. "Maybe she went for the double tap, but just didn't have the energy for it."

"Are you saying that she might have fainted?" I asked her.

The mysterious girl shrugged. "Something like that. Maybe she walked to the center of the room and collapsed."

Jack tapped his podium. "Are you trying to imply that she passed out right under the chandelier and the killer dropped it on them?"

She simply shrugged. "It's a possibility, no?"

I tilted my head to the side. "She didn't have a pained expression on her, so it's possible she was asleep when she died." Even with how horrible it was.

"That's an interesting case…" Robin hummed in thought. "But there's no way to know if that's right or wrong. At least for now."

Yeah, at least for now.

"But is it the truth…" Caren crossed her arms. "I'm not satisfied with an answer like that."

"Uuugh!" Enima leaned her head back. "Of course you aren't. Any contradictions?"

"Well…" She glanced to the side. "No, not really. But it doesn't feel right to assume that's how it happened."

"She only had two injuries to the leg… right?" Lily asked. "That doesn't sound like enough."

"They didn't seem to be deep either… it wasn't a typical stab wound either." I brought up.

"But it was still a stab wound, yes?" Robin asked, looking in my direction.

I pulled out the Monokuma File. "According to what it says here, it's a stab wound."

"No other weapons were recovered from the room, right?" The tactician asked, looking around the area.

Stephan shook his head. "I looked everywhere, and found nothing. The killer took it with them."

Robin crossed his arms and looked at the ground. "Keep yourselves entertained while I think over here."

"Keep ourselves entertained?" Lily crossed her arms, pouting a little. "You can't just opt out of the conversation like that."

The ninja shook his head. "Let's just keep talking about other possibilities."

"There isn't much else that we could figure out unless Robin speaks up." Enima said that last part rather loudly. She only got the middle finger from him. "Fuck you too, love."

Caren let out a sigh. "Well, like he said, the killer probably took it away. Probably grabbed a knife from multiple locations here."

"Or… Simply snatched one from Serena, assuming she might have been carrying one." Jack suggested. "If you recall, her Ultimate Lab had knives in it. So there's the possibility that she had one on her person."

"Stabbed her, and then left, cold…" Caren mumbled.

"It would also be what they used to drop down the chandelier on her." I suggested.

Jack shook his head, a grin appearing on his face. "Unless they took multiple knives, wouldn't there be blood on the rope from the knife?"

Oh! I didn't even think of that. "I-I guess that would be right. Unless they wiped the knife clean…"

"I doubt they did that…" The critic looked away.

"Alright…" Robin said calmly. "I don't think the killer brought anything beforehand, maybe they could have, but I don't think they used it. The thing that gets me is that the stab wounds weren't deep, like it struggled to get in deep enough. That's when it hit me. What's stopping the killer from taking one of Serena's arrows and using it against her? They grab an arrow and stab it into her leg. Of course, it won't be deep because it wasn't shot." He started stroking his chin, looking to the side. "And that would explain why they got in close to her. Now, it's a matter of what arrow they took, so we can know when they were shot."

"Then let's consider our options, shall we?" Jack smirked to himself. "If they took arrow number six, then Serena wouldn't have shot them till arrow number eight. Which means that the theory that after she shot the killer, she tried for another shot, but couldn't, actually holds some grounds."

"On the other hand…" Caren jumped in. "If the killer stole arrow eight, then Serena would have shot them right after that, which would give them an actual reason to retreat."

I looked at the two of them. "Well, I think the one that's the most likely to have happened is…" I thought about it some more. "The killer took the sixth arrow. I don't think Serena would ever turn her back on someone trying to kill her, which means that the killer would have a rather hard time getting the eight arrow. She places them in a way that the lower numbered ones are easy to grab."

Stephan tilted his head to the right. "Not just that, but if they were shot, it would make it quite difficult to get on top of the bookshelf, let alone dodge an arrow, and then make sure you don't fall down onto the ground."

Caren glanced at us two. "Now that you mention it, it does seem more likely to be the sixth arrow."

Robin nodded. "At least we are on the same page now. So the killer was shot after getting off the bookshelf."

"Wait.." Enima tilted her head. "But then that means the arrow that broke was the one that they stole. I thought we established that it was the arrow that they were shot with."

That is a good point. "Yeah… that would mean the arrow that was returned, was the one they were shot with…"

"Alright, then maybe let's see it like this." Jack said. "The killer was still holding onto the arrow when they were shot. And as most people grip down when they are in pain, they managed to break the arrow. Most people can go beyond their limits when in a lot of pain."

"Then they probably threw the pieces away, and they landed near the bookshelf." Robin suggested.

I nodded my head. "Makes sense to me."

"Also, for arrow nine, there's a possibility that it's a red herring." Enima suggested. "Who knows, but it doesn't look like it did anything. I think it's a safe bet."

"I'm willing to discard it for now." Jack started. "But we should still keep it in mind in case we need a big clue."

"Alright, we've got a pretty good idea on how the murder happened…" Caren trailed off. She glanced up at all of us. "But that doesn't seem to bring us any closer to who the killer is.

Right… All that time debating, and we still don't even know a thing about who the killer could be…

.

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Class Trial

Intermission!

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"I guess all that's left to do right now is figure out who would even want to murder someone." Robin said, looking around.

Jack shook his head. "I can't see a reason any of us would want to kill anyone."

Historia nodded her head. "The motive was pretty dumb, and Monokuma should feel dumb."

"The motive was… dumb…?" The bear seemed to be getting furious. "Hey! I'll have you know I thought long and hard about that motive! And I wasn't just going to change it beca- oops!" He stopped himself.

Caren slammed her hand on her podium. "Hey! What were you going to say."

"Who knows~" He said in an irritating voice. "Only I will." He let out a laugh. "Either way, when I think of a motive, I don't want to let it go to waste. Sure, none of you care about your famil-"

"H-hey." Jack crossed his arms. "I never said I didn't care about them."

Monokuma tilted his head slightly. "Oh? But didn't you say you wouldn't murder for them? Anyone who wouldn't murder a fellow human being just to protect their family, clearly doesn't love their family at all! You're just a fake!"

The critic glared at him. "I don't think I need to be getting a lecture from some bear."

"It's MAYOR bear!" He yelled out. "Wait, no, it's Mayor Monokuma!"

"At this point, I'm starting to think he just wants us all to die in this trial." Caren deadpanned.

"Oh, right! Trial!" Monokuma remembered. "I won't get in the way for a bit."

Oh, for a bit? Sounds reassuring. "Well, I think it's best we go over possible motives, and such."

Jack shook his head. "Like I said, I would-"

"We're skipping you." I told him, so he would shut up.

"For now…" Monokuma added, covering his face.

Not helping…

"Well, I also told you about my family situation." Enima smirked. "They were rather neglectful of me. They wouldn't care what I did, as long as it wasn't illegal. And if it was illegal, it was fine as long as I got away from it."

"Basically they didn't want you to be a problem to them." Historia said, a little harshness in her tone.

The mysterious girl snapped her fingers with a grin on her face. "Pretty much. It was a nice life, but sometimes it would be nice for some recognition." She turned to look at Jack. "He-"

"No." He crossed his arms.

Wow, he pondered that even less than my breakfast.

"While my parents were extremely strict, it helped shape who I am today, and it developed my critical mind." He said. "So all in all, I think they were rather good parents."

"But… don't you ever wish to let loose?" Lily mumbled sadly.

He had his eyes closed for a few seconds before opening. When he opened them, he was looking away. "Sometimes, but it's better this way, I can reassure you."

"Let's just move onto someone else…" Caren sighed.

Robin lifted up his hand. "I think I can already be removed from the list of suspects. Why would I kill for people I don't remember?"

"Puhuhuhuhuhu. Do you truly not remember?" The bear asked.

He blinked a few times, "Am I supposed to remember?" He had a facial expression I couldn't exactly read. But he showed more emotion here than any other time.

"It's just a maybe. I didn't mess with your memory, so I don't know." The bear shrugged.

"So, my amnesia was induced by something else, huh." The tactician hummed. "I was under the impression that when you took all of our memories, you somehow overdid on me and left me with only a few seconds of my life at random intervals."

"What if you struck a deal with Monokuma." Enima suggested.

"Excuse me…?" Robin asked, a little confused.

"Yeah, like let's say he did have all your memories, and he could offer them back to you if you killed someone." She said.

The tactician let out a small laugh. "As if I'd do something like that."

She simply shrugged. "Can never know with you."

He had a confused look on his face before shaking his head. "Anyways, that's it for me. Anyone else want to share anything?"

The room was quiet for a while longer.

"I'm not exactly sure if any of this is going to help…" I mumbled sadly. "No offense…"

"Like I said before, I don't really care much about my clan, so…" Stephan started to say.

Robin shook his head. "That's not what you told me the other day…"

"Nnn…" It looked like he flinched in pain.

"Wait… did you lie to me? You said you were told to never get attached to anyone from the clan!" I called him out.

The ninja covered his mouth slightly. "You aren't supposed to… yes… but…"

"Aww, you do care about them!" Lily said with a smile on her face. "I knew it!"

"You didn't even know about the clan." Stephan deadpanned.

"W-well… I knew you cared about someone!" She replied quickly.

The ninja rolled his eyes. "Can we move on now?"

"No." Enima said coldly, a small smile forming on her face. "That could give you a motive, you know. A clan is composed of a lot of people, honestly."

Stephan frowned slightly. "Ah yes, I would kill someone just after admitting I was a ninja. Buzz off."

She snapped her fingers. "Exactly, now's the perfect time."

Robin shook his head, looking at the ground. "I fail to see how it's the perfect time. Besides, we already went over reasons why it couldn't be him. For him, distance wouldn't have been a problem. And I'm sure he would have been able to do more than just stab her twice and drop a chandelier on her."

He nodded his head. "If we were in the fight, she'd have blunt force trauma instead." He started swinging his hook around. "This tends to hurt a lot when you whip it at someone." He demonstrated by sending it towards Enima.

It didn't hit her, instead, denting the podium she was standing on. She looked at it for a few seconds before looking up. "Alright, I get your point." She raised her hands in defense. She glanced around the room. "So who does that leave us with, exactly?"

"Well, let's continue to discuss different people. We are bound to come up with something." Jack said, looking around the room. "Like Lily, perchance. I don't believe you ever mentioned your family to us."

"Oh, well, that's not important. I love my family, but I wouldn't kill anyone for them." She said.

Caren rolled her eyes. "As if you'd ever even imply that she would kill someone. She's an angel."

"I think she's actually a succubus." Enima smirked.

Now it was Historia's turn to roll her eyes. "Can't you see this discussion is going nowhere? Everyone is just going to say the same thing. It's not like someone is going to say. "Oh yes, I would murder for my family."

"Then…" The mysterious girl hummed in thought. "Why don't we just target the person with the most to lose?"

"The most to lose? Please elaborate." Robin looked over at her.

Enima slowly pointed at Caren. "I remembered hearing her mention something about having a ton of siblings."

She glanced away. "And?"

"Not just that, but you have an older sister vibe to you. And you are also the Ultimate Babysitter. So you probably spent all your time with your siblings." The mysterious girl continued. "Basically, you're someone who cares way more about their family than the typical person. I have issues with mine, Stephan doesn't have a family, Robin can't remember anything." She listed just a few suggestions. "It's not hard to believe that you would do something to save them."

"I was just speaking about how annoyed I was of all the killings, you really think I'd go out and murder just have that?" Caren asked, getting a little more frustrated.

"Hey, leave her alone…" Lily mumbled.

"But we are running out of things to talk about. There wasn't much else at the body…" Jack mumbled.

"Well… there was one more thing. But I didn't bring it up because I couldn't find the use of it." I mumbled, holding my arm. "Under her body, were the letters.'stant'"

"Stant?" The critic repeated.

"Don't they make thermostats?" Robin asked, stroking his chin.

Historia put a hand on her hip, rolling her eyes. "I highly doubt Serena would be trying to tell us something about thermostats in her final moment."

"Well, part of it was covered by blood, so it's possible it said other things…" I suggested. "But besides that, I don't know what else would even be said."

"Stant… Stant… Stant… Stant…" Jack repeated over and over again, seemingly trying to come up with a connection. "Unfortunately, I can't think of any reason she would write something like that in blood. What's even saying she wrote it?"

"Her finger had blood on it." I blinked a few times.

The critic shook his head. "I've seen enough murder mysteries to know that it's normally the killer who writes something in blood to throw everyone off."

"What if it's actually numbers…" Robin suggested. "Or upside down… 1103-" We ignored him again.

"I don't know the exact reason, but there had to be some reason. She must have left it vague in order to make sure the killer didn't even think about it." I said.

Caren thought for a moment. "But still, if I was the killer, I wouldn't care what they actually wrote, I would get rid of it. I'm not going to stand around and try to figure out if it was incriminating or not."

"Then it's possible they didn't even see it in the first place…" Stephan hummed.

"They would have been recently shot, so they probably dropped the chandelier on her, and left without much thought." Historia suggested.

I glanced at her and nodded. "Yeah, they must have been in a hurry, and if they stayed any longer, Historia and I would have walked in on them."

"Right, the time of the murder was really close to the body being discovered…" Caren pointed out. "So we can probably rule out Riley and Historia from being the murderer. They have each other as an alibi, after all. Unless there was a time where you two were separated."

I shook my head. "Nope, we walked there together, so we didn't have any time to do anything."

The babysitter looked around at everyone else. "We probably should have established alibis early on, right?" She turned to look at Stephan. "You?"

"I was just meditating at the shrine." He said.

"Ah! There is no shrine, I see through your lie-" Lily blurted out.

"There's a shrine at the top of his Ultimate Lab. At least that's the only place a shrine could be…" Enima rubbed the back of her head. "Am I right?"

The ninja looked at her for a few seconds before nodding. "There's a parkour course in my attraction, and if you get to the top of it, there's a shrine to represent my true talent. I go there a lot to have peace of mind."

Caren looked over at Jack. "And you?"

"I was just at Cameron's lab; There were some things I wanted to check out. But I ran into Historia upon my departure." He informed everyone. "She had already gathered Caren by that point."

"Right…" The babysitter mumbled. "Didn't think that was his lab, just thought it was a regular building. But it is still close to the murder scene."

The critic remained silent for a few seconds. "I will admit, that is close, but I had nothing to do with this case. But where were you?" He tilted his head back.

"She was at the pool, about to do some swimming." Historia said. That, I could believe.

She frowned slightly, holding her arm. "My plans for this morning were ruined."

"And you didn't invite me?" Lily seemed somewhat offended.

"I wanted a nice alone swimming time, not whatever you would have done…" Caren said.

The florist seemed a little hurt by that. "I was only going to splash you a little bit."

"And before you ask me, I was just roaming the streets. Nothing suspicious about that." Robin said with a smile, basically telling us to challenge him.

Enima rolled her eyes. "Everything about that seemed suspicious…"

Historia shrugged. "It's where I found him. I found him on the way back towards the murder scene. So it's likely that he could have done it."

"Say, weren't you also good at fighting?" Caren asked, humming in thought. "Didn't you have a fight with Stephan that ended up in a draw?"

"Yes… we did do that…" Stephan admitted, looking away. His attention turned towards Robin. "You didn't do anything, did you?"

He shook his head. "Of course not. Just because I'm good at fighting, doesn't mean I attacked Serena. Plus, had it been me, the scene would be very different. Although, I do gotta give some credit for the use of their surroundings, I would have done something similar enough, but more extreme."

I rolled my eyes. "Let's try not to praise the murderer here."

"Why do we have this problem every trial?" Historia mumbled. Honestly, we really do, huh?

Jack hummed. "Well, we should keep Robin on the list of main suspects, it pains me, but if he's the killer, then justice will be served." I guess he would do a similar thing he did with Cameron. "So, who else didn't we talk about?"

"Well, I was back at the greenhouse." Lily admitted. "It was a rather hot day, so I decided to see how the plants were doing. They were fine."

Enima put a hand on her hip. "And who knows where I was, it's going to be a mystery."

"Not… really helping you, but alright." Historia pointed out.

"I was just in my room, I saw Lily when she was heading back nearby the hotel after the body discovery announcement rang out." She explained.

The florist nodded her head. "Yes, I saw her on the way to the crime scene."

"So that leaves the most likely suspects… Caren, Jack, and Robin…" Historia looked at the three of them.

"Heh, being a murder suspect, huh." Jack had a small grin on his face. "Very well. I will prove my innocence."

"How will you do that?" Enima asked, with a small grin.

The critic gripped his shirt sleeve. "I haven't figured that out yet." He thought some more.

"You… You need help?" Caren asked, looking slightly annoyed.

"No, nono. I'll get this eventually…" He hummed, thinking even more. "I'm not sure if this will count, but I took some things out of the lab when I went there." He pulled out several cards of Magic the Gathering. "They interested me, so I thought I'd take them. Although I had to go through a lot of cards first."

"Nerd." Historia told him.

He seemed to recoil slightly from that. "Better a nerd than a killer. Right Riley?"

"Please don't talk to me." I told him. And don't lump me in with you guys.

Enima walked away from her podium and snatched the cards. "Hmm…"

"Hey!" Jack blurted out, reaching over for them.

She simply put a hand on his face to keep him away. "I don't know anything about Magic, but these seem like they could be rare."

"Don't damage them…" He mumbled, still trying to reach for them.

She handed them back to him. "Don't worry, they're fiiine."

"Cards like that, you must have been looking through them for a while." Robin mentioned. "It's possible it's just a fabrication to make us think he was busy but still, he would have had to bring them with him if he was the killer."

I blinked a few times. "Are you saying Jack wouldn't bring them with him because it might ruin the cards?" I looked over at Jack, who was checking if the cards were fine after Enima touched them, and I believed that a little more. "Alright, that's nice, but then that just leaves you and Caren, if we count that as proof that Jack is safe."

Robin shrugged. "I shouldn't be worried since it's not me. I may not have any good evidence to back my claim up. But if I did kill someone, would I really be wandering the streets? Wasn't the killer attacked? I would think getting rid of any blood would be the first thing you should do."

Enima's eyes slowly drifted over to Caren. "Yeah, get rid of the blood… huh…" She smirked to herself.

"W-what? You don't mean to think I did it." The babysitter seemed angry.

The mysterious girl tilted her head slightly. "Well, you were near the crime scene, and you also went to the pool. It's possible that you went there to wash off in the showers. Not to mention, you didn't invite anyone to swim with you. And on top of that, you have the most to lose right now."

"Stop… Stop trying to accuse me…" She said a little coldly. "I didn't do anything. Even if I wanted to murder, why would I choose Serena? We've gotten along before." The picnic came to mind. "And if she had a sister she didn't know about, why would I kill her before she ever got the chance to meet her. I know how important family bonds are. Are you saying I'd rob someone of that?"

Robin hummed in thought. "Still, there aren't that many people left who it could be…" Well, it might still end up being you.

"Say, Robin…" Stephan brought up. "I don't think it's you, and I definitely don't want to accuse you."

"Sounds like you're accusing me." He said.

The ninja shook his head. "Nothing of that sort. You're still wearing the robe that Serena shot the other day, right."

"Of course, why?" He looked down at his robe.

He simply shrugged. "I just like if it was you, there would be another hole somewhere in there. Which I fail to see…"

That was a good point… But this just made the entire thing confusing…

"Isn't this whole thing being based on whether the killer was shot or not?" Caren brought up. "If they weren't actually shot, there would be no reason to clean up…"

No, I'm sure the killer was shot… "It's not like Serena would hit her own bird with the arrow, and also, there's the bloody handprint on the wall we have to think about. That much blood couldn't have come from Serena."

"We are going nowhere fast…" Historia let out a small sigh. Let's find something else to talk about…" Dammit, ever since we figured out the order of events, we've made no progress. Whoever this killer is, they left barely any evidence for us to use.

"I told you this one would be way harder than the previous ones. You must really want this one to figure it out. Or else you will all perish." Monokuma warned us.

"Not helping." Lily pouted.

"I do wonder something…" Jack hummed in thought, crossing his arms. "Why did Serena even go there? There wasn't really anything worthwhile there. And I don't think she liked math or anything."

I didn't quite know why she went there. "Maybe… Maybe someone wanted to meet her there?"

"A probability, yes." The critic nodded. "So maybe someone called Serena to the room to kill her, but she simply struck first…" He suggested.

"Or…" Enima trailed off. "Serena invited someone so she could kill them."

"No, she wouldn't do that!" Lily jumped in, shaking her head. "Besides, what motive would she even have if she couldn't remember her family that well?"

Exactly…

Historia looked over at me, mouthing the words. "Should we mention the notes…?"

Should we? Now didn't really seem like the time, but maybe we could get some answers if we did.

"She was… after a journal I think…" I brought up.

"A… Journal?" Robin repeated, looking at me.

I nodded. "Yeah, a journal entry. Over the past two weeks, Historia and I have been looking around for a specific journal. Someone had written it, but the pages separated. We managed to recover four pages so far… and we know there's at least a fifth page somewhere. Maybe even more."

Jack hummed in thought, a little ticked off. "And you didn't bring this to our attention… why?"

"Because I told her not to." Historia called out, a hand on her hip. "I don't know who to trust here, but I think it would be wise to bring it up here."

"But what does that have to do with Serena…? She didn't know about it, seemingly." Caren mentioned. "Unless it was you three who found it."

"This morning…" Well, this was going to be embarrassing. "I was awoken by a bird who flew into my room. I didn't think much of it at first, until it stole the three pages I had, and flew off."

Robin let out a small laugh. "Did you leave the window open or something?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. My AC wouldn't work for some reason." I told him.

"Ugh, don't remind me. It was unbelievably hot the day before." Historia rolled her eyes.

"Maybe that's what Stant meant…" Robin mumbled to himself, but everyone just ignored him.

"I actually really like the heat." Lily added with a smile.

Enima rolled her eyes. "You probably just like it because you can strip."

"N-no!" She clenched her fist and pouted. "That's not the reason at all! It's because Spring and Summer are where everything grows and blossoms."

The mysterious paused briefly before nodding. "Alright, fair point."

"So, what are the contents of the journal?" Jack asked, tilting his head back.

"It's just a diary of someone, we found it an interesting read." Historia answered him before I could.

He simply chuckled at that. "Don't pass it off as some mere journal. Especially if you imply Serena went there because of them. And even seemingly sent a bird out to steal them." Yeah… that was for sure her bird.

"Maybe she just liked reading?" Robin suggested.

Caren leaned on her podium. "I think you guys are missing something. She said they had four pages, but only three got stolen. What happened to the fourth one?"

I knew that was coming. "We… left it in my Ultimate Lab…"

"Then that would explain why she went there." The babysitter smirked. "So, these had to be valuable for her to go after them."

"This also brings up the fact that her bird must have been with her." Robin mentioned. "I do remember seeing some feathers on the ground."

"Oh…" I just realized something. I hadn't put much thought into it because the body was much more important. "When Historia and I found the body… the feathers were still fluttering to the ground."

"Then her bird must have been attacked." Caren noted.

Stephan gripped onto his shirt sleeve. "Well, that could clear something up. The reason the killer gave some distance between the two could have been because of the bird. Let's say Serena sent out her bird after she got stabbed, the bird could have potentially fended off the attacker. I'm not sure what kind of bird it was, but it seemed like a smaller falcon of sorts."

I think it was a black falcon or something like that… I don't know, I'm not a bird expert.

"Well, as a bird expert." Robin started to say. "It was indeed a black falcon."

"When did you become an expert on birds?" Jack glanced at him.

A small smile appeared on his face. "The day I was named Robin."

Alright… enough bird jokes. "So if the bird did attack them, it would explain why they went onto the bookshelf. Maybe after the bird put some distance, they intended to kill it."

"They… they killed the bird?" Lily mumbled sadly.

I shook my head. "I don't think so, a dead bird wasn't found, not just that, but there's blood leaving out of the room. Sure, that could be the killer, but there's two blood trails. One for them, and potentially one for the bird."

"Two blood trails? Where did they lead?" Historia asked.

I shook my head. "One led to a dead end, and the other led to the rooftops."

Stephan nodded. "I went to investigate the rooftop myself. But it headed towards the edge of the city, so we can assume that that one was the bird's."

"We may be confined to the city, birds, not so much." Jack grinned.

"But… to want to kill a bird that badly…" Lily mumbled, covering her mouth. "Why would someone want to do that?"

I glanced off to the side. "Well, it was putting a hold on the fight…"

"The thing I find the most odd, is the fact that the killer went out the same way the bird went. As if it was trying to hunt it down." Stephan glanced away, then he made eye contact with me. "Were they trying to make sure it's dead?"

"Wouldn't want a bird to fly in and reveal you as the murderer, right?" Robin asked before dramatically looking at the window, but no bird came. "Alright, guess not."

"You know…" I trailed off. "I always wondered why that bird was drawn to her in the first place…"

"Her spirit animal is a wolf, and I'm sure some birds interact with them." Lily said with a smile.

I never thought of her spirit animal, but a wolf… Was pretty much right. "Do all birds do that?"

"Mostly just ravens…" Stephan said. "But whatever, close enough, I guess."

"Hmm…" Robin hummed some more. "Actually, now that I think about it, the bird she has isn't even native to America. It's native to the other end of the world. Australia, isn't it? And we sure aren't there. So what's it doing here?"

"Maybe someone who lived here owned the bird, but it was set free?" Historia suggested.

Robin shook his head. "No, I don't think so. The bird seemed fairly young. I know most can reach the age of 17 in the wild, but still."

"Then obviously the only solution is that there's a crazy bird keeper staying in the nearby forest!" I joked.

Everyone gave me a deadpanned look.

"I-it was a joke." I defended myself.

Caren shook her head. "It wasn't very funny. "

Wow… rejected…

"Well, whatever the reason, maybe it was just Serena's before and it's been following our kidnappers." Jack started to say. "It would explain why it was so friendly with her. Most birds don't just randomly follow a specific human's instruction unless they were acquainted before."

The babysitter shook her head. "We are getting off topic here. The only thing that really matters is finding out who killed Serena." She glanced around the room. "And that person is one of us."

Monokuma let out a small laugh.

She glared at him. "What, do you have something to say?"

The bear shook his head. "Oh, it's nothing important! Don't worry about it."

That just makes us more concerned… "No, spill it."

"No." He glared at me. "My innermost thoughts will forever be a mystery you will never be able to unravel!" He then looked over at Robin.

He was deep in thought before shaking his head. "Nope, I've got nothing."

"See? Not even he can do it, and he always knows how to push my buttons in the wrong way!" He seemed rather angry.

The tactician simply shrugged. "You make it so easy."

I looked around the room to see what everyone else was doing, and Caren seemed to be deep in thought. "Caren?" I asked her.

She looked up at me before glancing away. "Just thinking, leave me alone."

"... Alright…" I glanced away to go back to the discussion.

"We are at wits end here…" Lily said with a hint of sadness in her voice. "Would it be too much to just ask the guilty party to confess?"

"I confess." Robin said before shaking his head. "I confess that that's a stupid idea, and no killer would do that."

The florist pouted. "Meanie, don't make me think you actually did it."

"Maybe he actually did do it, but he's doing that to get the suspicion off of him." Enima suggested, a small grin on her face.

The tactician let out a small laugh. "Perhaps I am. I was just wandering the streets. So if you think executing me would do you any good, go ahead. But we will all just perish together."

Jack glanced over at Monokuma. "You can see this isn't going anywhere. Can you at least throw us a bone? The killer hasn't messed up once. And you barely let us investigate."

"The killer hasn't messed up? But they have." Monokuma laughed again.

Something was seriously wrong. Why… Why was he laughing so much? "What do you know?!" I yelled out.

The bear tilted his head slightly. "What do I know? Why, I know everything. Puhuhuhuhuhu…"

He was starting to get on my nerves now.

Caren let out a small sigh. "If this is how you want to play, Monokuma, then very well."

I glanced at her. "What do you mean?"

She took a deep breath. "Does it… does it really matter who she fought?" She finally asked.

I looked at her. "Of… of course it matters. Why wouldn't it?"

"Yeah! What do you mean it wouldn't matter." Lily screamed out.

The babysitter remained silent. "I'm saying, I don't think it really matters who the attacker was."

That… that didn't tell me anything.

A small smirk appeared on her face. "Oh, that's the angle we are going for? That's an interesting one for sure."

"I'm not sure I follow…" Stephan mumbled.

"You don't need to for now." The mysterious girl smirked.

I glanced at the two girls. "Why don't you just tell us what you are thinking."

Caren remained silent however.

"Say, Riley, do you think it matters who the attacker is?" Enima asked me.

"I already said, of course it matters." I told her. I still didn't know what they were getting at.

"Maybe!" Robin lifted his finger up. "There was a third part-"

He was ignored. "You have words, use them."

The mysterious girl looked up. "No… not today."

Are they going to make me figure this out myself? This is such bullshit.

I glanced around the room, looking for any sort of help, but there was none. The only way I was going to get any sort of answer, was to go along with what they were saying. "Fine, I'll agree with you for now."

"No!" Lily shouted out. "Why are we trying to go away from figuring out who the attacker is? We have to know who it is!"

"Give it up, Lily." Caren warned her sincerely.

I glanced at the three girls. I couldn't help but feel like I was being drawn into a trap. Was one of the two the killer? No, it couldn't be… But Caren has the most to lose. Such a large family. "You aren't pulling my leg, are you?"

The babysitter shook her head. "I don't have any reason for that."

"And while I'd hate to agree with Caren, she has a point." Enima said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She deadpanned.

The mysterious girl simply shrugged. "Hey, I'm agreeing with you. The attacker doesn't matter in this trial."

Lily hit her podium. "Of course it matters! Are you saying you don't care about Serena?"

Caren placed a hand to her head. "No, that's not what I mean."

"Everyone strip! I'll see who's injured." She called out.

Monokuma stood up in his seat. "I said no stripping! It's now against the rules to do that in this courtroom!"

"They probably patched it up by now…" The babysitter mumbled.

"But we won-" The florist started to say.

Caren slammed her hands down onto the podium. "Lily!" She shouted. "I said enough. Do you want to know why it doesn't matter? You want to know why I have a hard time saying it? Because I don't want it to be what happened, because it's awful!"

The florist took a step back, remaining silent.

The babysitter frowned. "Wait… I didn't mean to yell."

Robin shook his head. "Hey, I'm glad we're staying out of this fight."

"Silence, they'll notice us." Jack glanced away.

And Stephan wasn't even at his podium anymore.

"Tell me…" Lily mumbled.

"I think Serena was her own downfall." Caren told us.

Her own… downfall. "You don't mean…"

She glanced away. "Maybe I do…"

Nononono, that can't be the case. How would something like that even happen…

"That's one theory, I guess." Stephan said, now back at his podium.

Jack tapped his arm. "Well, we just might need to explore this one."

"But… I don't even know how she would have even done that…" I mumbled.

Historia shook her head. "There's nothing backing up that theory…"

"So, I see everyone is avoiding just straight up saying it." Robin noted. "So I'm going to say it. Are you all saying Serena killed herself?"

"Yes, Serena actually just went crazy, and there was never no attacker!" Monokuma laughed.

"Alright, ignoring the bear, it's still a crazy theory…" There was definitely an attacker, though. We saw the blood going away from the scene.

"Well, let's just think of the one piece of evidence we weren't very conclusive about…" Caren said.

I started going through everything we talked about, and finally, it hit me. The-

"I still refuse…" Lily said, a very sad expression on her face. "Nowaynoway." She called out. "If we don't figure out who the attacker is, they are just going to be free, I don't care if they aren't the killer, we can't let them go for what they did."

"Lily, you're infuriating right now." Caren told her.

"There's a distinct possibility that the actual attacker was Serena, and the person who walked in was supposed to be the victim." Jack brought up.

What… "But what reason would she want to kill someone? She didn't even remember her siste-" I was cut off.

"Puhuhuhuhu…" Monokuma laughed at the mention of sister.

I slowly turned my head to look at him. "No.. what did you do!?"

Everyone turned their attention towards the bear.

"She just… you know, stopped by after the motive was given. And just so happened to ask about her sister." He said.

"What did you tell her!?" Jack clenched his fist.

"I didn't tell her anything! You know the old saying right? Show, don't tell. I simply gave her back all the memories of her dear sister." Monokuma laughed again.

I froze slightly. "You… gave her her memories back…" I felt myself getting angrier. "You did that… you knew it would turn out like this!" I yelled out.

"Probably." Was all he said.

"You're despicable…" Caren glared at him. "The worst thing to have ever been on this earth."

The bear tilted his head. "I don't know, have you met most people?"

"Enough." Historia demanded. "We won't hold you accountable if you come out and say she attacked you first. So please, just admit it and save us the trouble."

We all waited in silence, but no one came forward.

"Coward…" The historian mumbled.

"I still… I still want to know how she got herself killed…" Lily held her hands together.

I let out a small sigh. "It was the final arrow. She shot it at the attacker, and missed. Unfortunately, she hit the rope that was holding the chandelier. She must have not had enough time to react before it smashed down…" It was painful to say, but that seemed to be the truth of the matters.

She shook her head. "N-no, what are the odds of that happening?" Heh. the odds.

"Well, the person was on the other side of the room, near the rope, so it was likely that-"

"W-what about the arrow they had, they had two, couldn't they just use that?"

Stephan shook his head. "I personally checked the rope, and no sign of blood was on either end. It was cut by something clean. And judging how the arrow was on the ground, it's likely that's what it was.

Lily covered her mouth. "But then… why won't the other person come forth?"

"Probably because they don't want to admit they tried to kill someone." Enima brought up. "They might be blamed for Serena's death." She smirked.

I took a deep breath. "I think I'm ready for the closing argument."

.

"Act 1: Serena had made her way towards my Ultimate Lab-" "Wasn't this the only Lab used in the murder this time?" "Shut up. Anyways, she was looking for something that she thought might be inside my lab. But there's nothing of interest there except math. But maybe, she was waiting there for someone else to show up. When that person showed up, Serena turned towards them and shot an arrow.

.

Act 2: The person didn't have much time to avoid it, but still managed to do so. They started to run off towards the right side of the room. Serena took another shot at them, but missed again. This time, the person hid behind the bookshelf, where a third arrow hit. Figuring that they had no choice but to fight, they came out from their hiding place and used a book to block another arrow.

.

Act 3: Closing the distance between them and Serena, she was left with not many options since she wasn't a close combat fighter. The person managed to grab an arrow from her and used it to jab into her legs. This was probably when Serena sent her bird after them. They had no choice but to escape by jumping up and using the chandelier to reach the top of the bookshelf. Serena was stunned for a second or two before quickly getting back to aiming at the person. She shot another arrow, which missed, but the person fell down the shelf, causing the whole thing to collapse.

.

Act 4: The person started trying to escape again, but Serena managed to actually land a hit this time. In pain, the person broke the arrow they stole from the huntress. Seeing that they finally won this fight, Serena took aim with her final arrow. What she wasn't expecting was that the person had enough energy to dodge right away. They ducked, and the arrow cut the rope holding the chandelier. Serena couldn't avoid it, and got skewered by it.

.

And this is what happened to Serena Darabond, the Ultimate Huntress!"

.

I let out a sad sigh when I finished.

Stephan had a serious look on his face, but he quickly looked away.

"That was wonderful!" Monokuma laughed.

"I've been meaning to ask." Historia had a hand on her hip. "Why are you so annoying now? You were annoying before, but. Not to this scale."

The bear pondered this for a second before shrugging. "Maybe it's because I'm finally getting into this killing game. Maybe you were all boring early on!"

"Enough of your games…" Lily mumbled sadly. "I don't want to do this anymore."

"I don't think any of us wanted to do this to begin with…" Robin glanced at her.

Enima frowned slightly. "Poor Monokuma, you don't get to do an execution this time."

"Oh, well if I wanted to do one, I have an unused one, but why would I show that one?" He smirked to himself. "It will remain unused."

"Did you have one for Serena?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "Nope, never needed one for her. Especially if she just goes up and kills herself. Now who's going to take care of her sister?"

The more I heard him talk, the more I just wanted him to stop. "We should all just go back…" I mumbled to myself.

"Yes, go back! Let despair ring!" The bear called out.

We all walked over to the elevator, and for the most part, it was a quiet ride back. It was only broken by Robin coughing on purpose.

When the elevator reached the hotel lobby, we all walked out and started to head towards the stairs.

However, I was stopped by Stephan. "What is it?"

He looked at me for a few seconds before leaning back on the wall. "This whole ordeal is fishy. Every trial has been fishy… I don't trust anything that's been happening."

"Well… of course every trial has been-" I started to say.

He shook his head. "Not the regular kind. This whole thing oozes suspicious stuff. We should make a move soon."

"Wait… what are we doing?" I didn't like the sound of that. We can't win against Monokuma…

"If we get a new area tomorrow, we have to explore it as quickly as we can, and uncover everything we can. We need to know the entire history of this city. We need to see if there's any secret areas…" He continued on and listed a few more things.

"Hey…" I said calmly. "I wonder where her bird flew off too…"
Stephan leaned his head back against the wall. "Well, it's probably free now, so we don't have to worry about it."

"Right…" I started walking towards the stairs. "Let's make sure no one else dies, alright?"

He nodded his head. "Of course… I'll be up for a little longer, alright? The night is kinda my element after all." He turned around, heading outside, before disappearing into the shadows. It was time for me to pass out…

.

.

.

It was late at night, and someone was dragging something along behind him. He was heading towards the woods, where a faint fire could be seen. He stopped when he finally reached the stump he would sit on. He let go of the ropes he was using to drag the thing and took a seat. He looked like the kind of person who would pull out some sort of pipe to smoke, but he didn't do that. He moved over to an injured bird and started trying to fix its wings. "It's alright there, buddy."

Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing could be heard. The boy stopped and let out a small sigh. He put it on speaker phone and went back to tending to the bird. "Can I help you?"

The line was silent for a few seconds before the voice of a woman spoke up. She had a British accent. "Yes, I was just calling to check for a status report."

"Status report, problematic. I ran into a snag that set me back… On the bright side…" He went back to focusing on the bird again. "I found a place to enter, but I shouldn't use it often, because I'll be discovered."

The phone was silent. "What kind of snag did you run into?"

He waved her off, despite her not being to see him. "It doesn't matter. Now can I be left alone? I have some work to attend to, and you're being quite the bother."

"Very well…" The voice was rather bitter at being told to go away, but she did hang up the call.

The boy rolled his eyes slightly, and went back to helping the bird.