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?

11. Chapter 5: Fallen Angels - Deadly Life

Historia… Historia…

I started to feel faint as my legs wobbled a bit.

Jack had his hand in front of his mouth, glancing away.

"Why did… she…?!" Lily mumbled, taking a step back. "W-was she gotten by the person…?"

Enima had a frown on her face. "That's probably the case…"

I… I watched her fall down to her death… I thought to myself, not moving a muscle.

Suddenly, I felt someone place a hand on my shoulder. "Riley."

I snapped out of it having not realized I had lost focus. Stephan was now here, and so was everyone else. Apparently the body discovery announcement went off. "What… I… Huh…" I glanced back at the body. She was… really gone…

"Fell to her death… huh…" Robin glanced over at the body.

"What's stopping the killer from killing again!?" She looked around the place. "A body has been discovered. That should stop them, right?"

Suddenly.

Bear.

"Right you are!" Monokuma said. "Since a body was discovered, they can no longer kill everyone." He let out a small laugh. "What a tragedy, though."

"You don't sound very beat up by it." Robin noted.

The bear was silent for a few seconds before grinning. "No matter the outcome, as long as there is a dead body, I'm happy." Then he paused briefly. "But I bet you will all be happy to hear that this is the last trial where you are going to need to solve a murder."

"The last…" Jack started to say. "But there will be more, judging from your phrasing."

"Of course!" Monokuma called out. "Here, the fun never ends." He covered his mouth, laughing a bit.

"Ugh…" Caren rolled her eyes before glancing at the body. "Another one…" She looked at the ground with a frown.

"How about you give us the Monokuma File, and then leave?" Jack had his arms crossed.

"Oh, not in the mood to talk? But this is going to be the last Monokuma File I'll be giving you." He pulled it out. "Don't you want it to be special?"

I snatched it from him, sending a glare. "Fuck off, won't you?"

The bear stood still for a little longer before finally leaving.

I frowned, looking down at the file. I… I didn't want to have to read it. Reading it would make it all hit me again.

But, I had no choice. We had to figure out who killed her… I opened up the file.

.

Monokuma File #6

.

The victim this time was Historia Lenz, the Ultimate Historian. She has fractured bones from a large fall, as well as several stab wounds on her. She died at 4:36pm from being stabbed repeatedly.

.

"Historia,,," I mumbled sadly, looking back at her body.

"Moping about it now won't fix anything. We need to use any and all time we have." Stephan told me, placing another hand on my shoulder.

I slowly nodded my head. "R-right…" Might as well get the hardest part out of the way… I approached her body to investigate it. God… it was horrible. There was so much blood, of course she died from that. Not to mention the time. From discovering the body, and her time of death, only about eight minutes had passed.

She seemed to have several stab wounds in her legs, about four. God… as for her stomach, there seemed to be two there. And she had one stabbed right through her hand.

"This is too much…" The ninja mumbled, shaking his head. "I can investigate the body for you, if you want."

"No." I told him, sounding a little more rude than I intended. "I need to do this… I need to do this myself…"

Her body was entangled with a rope that seemed to be attached to her feet. In fact, the tarp was also tied up. The one that was partially covering her. It had paint on it, so maybe… "Jack?" I looked around to see if I could spot him.

He was a little bit away. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Is there any sort of art room, or anything like that?" I asked him.

The critic remained silent for a bit before grinning slightly. "As a matter of fact, there is. The fortieth floor is an art room. The entire floor is layered with different canvas, and now that I think about it… Those tarps are from there too." He tilted his head back slightly.

Then that's where I'm going to need to go after this, it seems. Besides that, the second tarp didn't seem to be attached to her at all. I had to move her legs slightly, but the second tarp was absolutely covered in various paints, almost to the point of making a brownish, blackish mess. The ground around it was also splattered with the paint.

Stephan knelt down, looking at the paint. "Well, there doesn't seem to be much blood in there."

"You can… tell…?" I tilted my head slightly.

He shrugged. "I actually don't know, but assuming the other tarp was in the way, there shouldn't be much blood at all."

I mean, I guess he has a point. I was getting ready to leave when I noticed that Historia was clutching something in her hand. I needed to see what it was, so I slowly opened her hand. Luckily it was the injured one. But inside it, was a slip of paper, whose handwriting I recognized immediately.

.

me if you could understand how I felt. I'll write more tomorrow…

.

Day 4

.

Yeah, they definitely were planning stuff. Because they came back worse than normally. The mayor's place was torched completely. He managed to make it out alive. But there was for sure an intent to kill this time. They were out for blood. A lot of people stopped supporting them. But they seemed fine with it. However, it's the people who started supporting them more that were the problem. They started trying to fight back against the police. They didn't want the curfews anymore. They didn't want the mistreatment. I decided to do a little bit of research myself, and I found out just how awful some of the police officers were. But still, I wasn't going to do anything illegal, so I stayed in my house. It wasn't a problem for me. I just hoped that the issue would get resolved soon. I am nothing but a bystander in all of this.

.

Day 5

.

It's only been worse from here, it seems. Now, the next place they attacked was a prison, from what I heard. And no, not to kill the prisoners. To set free the ones they deemed to have been judged unfairly. Which, in their eyes, were a lot of prisoners. Were they really wrongfully imprisoned? It was hard to tell, and I didn't find anything of worth. They opened up a big hole in the side of the prison to free them. And, like always, they set it ablaze. What a prison break that/

.

So… she found another one… But then she was killed. Was someone trying to stop her from reading this?

Stephan leaned over my shoulder. "What is that, is that what you mentioned during Serena's trial?"

I slowly stood up, clutching the letter. "Yeah, it's what she and I have been looking for. I found one while we were parkouring to get more food. Which is why I stopped that one time."

He had his arms crossed. "Well, I won't read it; It's probably of no interest to me. But why did she die with it?"

"That's what I want to know, too." I nodded my head.

I was going to leave to head to the art room, but something inside me told me to check the body once last time. I was hoping my instincts were onto something… And they were. Under her body was a destroyed keycard. It seemed to have been crushed. I grabbed it to look at it closer. "Do you think this will still work?"

The ninja shook his head. "It seems pretty beat up. It must have broken from the fall."

"Right…" I turned to walk over to Jack. "Hey, we need to go to the art room, could we borrow your car-"

"No." He said coldly. "I still need mine to check around the entire area, so you'll have to take someone else's."

Gee, thanks. Well, I know who to ask next.

Lily was still in slight terror about another body being discovered. You never quite get used to it, after all. Unless you're Stephan, but. "Hey… Lily…"

She quickly glanced over at me. "Y-yes?" She seemed on edge. Was she still worried about the traitor killing more people?

"They won't kill any of us anymore, we're fine." I reassured her.

She took a deep breath, calming down slightly. "How can I help you?"

"We just need to borrow your key card." Stephan told her, extending his arm out.

She reached out for it, but stopped herself. "Actually, can I go with you guys?"

"I don't see why not." I told her, starting to walk over to the entrance of the building.

Robin was standing there, humming to himself.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked him.

He was silent for a bit, but he let out a small sigh. "I was in the building too, but I guess I was just on the wrong floor, huh. Maybe if I was on the right floor, I could have stopped whatever happened."

"What floor did you go to?" The ninja asked, leaning against the wall. "Personally, I didn't even come to this building. Didn't really interest me that much."

"I was in my lab, I was hoping that since flicking the switch gave me flashes of my memories…" He trailed off. "They've long since left my head, and I wanted to see if I could get them back."

"But that put you in a coma!" Lily pointed out. "Why would you want another coma?"

The tactician stroked his chin. "I was just out for a day or two, hardly a coma. And because, I was hoping that there was something in my past I could remember. Maybe some info that would help us…" He let out a sigh. "Unfortunately, the switch that I had used was busted. Was that how it was stopped the first time?"

"Yeah, Enima kinda busted it." And I'm glad she did, I don't want Robin activating it again and risk getting himself killed.

He waved us off. "Well, I might go inspect the body myself, I'll tell you if I find anything of use." He then left the front of the entrance.

Alright, now to head into Paradise.

Speaking of which… It's odd that the journal has made no mention of it yet. You'd think the person writing it would have mentioned something about it at one point. It's very odd. This building is practically the landmark of this entire city. Then again, if it was around five years ago, and I haven't even heard anything about it. And it doesn't seem Jack has either…

Once we entered the building, we saw Enima, who was looking at the map, humming. What's with the humming?

"And what are you doing?" Jack crossed his arms, glancing away. Seems he decided to follow us into the entrance. But he won't give us his card.

She looked over at him, sticking out her tongue. "That's no way to greet the girl of your dreams." She teased.

The critic rolled his eyes. "Please, you aren't the girl of my dre-"

He didn't get the time to finish that sentence as she had walked over to him, placing a finger on his chest. "Oh, I think I'm exactly your type."

Well, it seems like she was right, because his cheeks were flaring up. "Get her off me." He ordered.

Enima rolled her eyes, turning back to look at the map. "Just trying to see if we can figure out where everyone was…"

"Oh!" I walked over to the map. "That isn't a bad idea. If we figure out where everyone was, it's likely we'll be able to figure out who did it."

She tilted her head to the side. "Well, maybe not entirely, but we'd get a better understanding, at least."

I turned to look at Lily. "Were you in the building?"

"O-oh, yeah, I had decided to head back to the spa. I wasn't really in the mood to try and find stuff, and even if I tried, I doubt I'd actually find something." She told me.

Jack adjusted his glasses. "She did fail to find any keycard, after all."

"Hey!" She put her hands to her hip, pouting. "You didn't need to say it so bluntly."

Stephan rolled his eyes. "Well, we'll be heading over to the art floor."

"Have fun." Enima waved at the three of us as we left. The elevator up there was long, but we soon made it there.

And what we saw was exactly what we were expecting. There seemed to be a lot of blood everywhere, mixed with the paint, seemingly.

"This floor… hmm…" Stephan looked around the place.

While it seemed to have paintings that were in the process of being painted, there seemed to be some rather famous paintings in the mix on the wall. "They've gotta be forgeries…"

The ninja approached the paintings. "Some are forgeries, but not all of them are…" He shook his head. "Amazing, a place like this was able to take these…"

Lily walked over to a painting, tilting her head slightly. "How were you able to tell if these were real or not?"

He remained silent for a bit, shaking his head with a shrug. "I've seen the real ones, so."

Well, right now was not the time to get distracted by paintings. I walked over to the area where the blood was again. There were lines of blood, probably from a knife coming out of the wound. And, oddly enough, the blood didn't seem to stop at all. Which means that the floor wasn't covered at the time, right?

The next thing of note was that the window at the far back was open. The floor was rather large, but the elevator was always next to a wall.

When I approached the window to peek out, I could faintly see the body all the way at the bottom. It just reminded me how much of a long fall that was…

"Hmm… I can't seem to find any knife." Stephan noted, as he walked around the place.

I turned to look at him. "None at all, then they must have taken it with them…"

The ninja walked over to the window. "Or maybe… they got rid of it…" Then, he turned back to look at Lily. "Have you been to this floor yet?"

She shook her head. "I haven't really been to too many floors, actually…" She admitted. "I haven't actively explored this building."

"Well, Jack seems to have been here before." I informed Stephan. "We should ask him for a little more information." I started to walk to leave, but then stopped when I went to put my keycard in to open the door. "It's so annoying that you need a keycard to leave the floors like this…" When I placed it in, it buzzed. "Huh…?"

Lily quickly made her way over to me. "Oh! You actually need my card for this." She placed her card in. "It doesn't work for the Lower keycards. It's weird…"

I stepped away from the keycard reader. "That's the weirdest way to do that…" I mumbled.

The florist scanned her card, and the elevator door opened again. "Here we go."

All three of us stepped in, and we were going to head down to the entrance when Stephan stopped her from hitting the button.

"Why are these three available?" He pointed out the buttons for the top three floors.

"What…?" I instinctively pressed the button for the fiftieth floor to see if we could go there. The elevator started going up. "Oh, I guess we are going there."

After a bit, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. We were greeted with the roof of the building.

"This leads… to the roof?" I looked around.

Caren was up on the roof, looking down the edge, at where the body most likely fell.

"Hi Caren!" Lily shouted out, which made the babysitter jump slightly. Thankfully, not off the roof.

"I swear, Lily, you are going to be the death of me." She didn't seem too happy at the moment.

The florist took a few steps back.

"What are you doing on the roof?" Stephan walked over to the edge to take a peak.

Caren crossed her arms. "Well, it was open when before it wasn't, so I thought I'd take a look up here. Maybe this has something to do with the murder?"

Why would the killer need to come here? And if they did, I should probably look around at what's here… Not that there's much in the first place. There wasn't any blood here, so it was unlikely the body was taken here.

"We've got rope!" Lily said, holding up a rather large piece of rope. She pulled on it. "Rather sturdy too."

"Well, it was probably for construction, so it needs to be sturdy to hold the weight." Stephan informed her.

I tilted my head slightly to the side. "That, and the knot has to be really good. Some knots are better."

"We don't need a knot lesson." Caren crossed her arms.

"R-right…" I mumbled sadly. Well… either way, the rope should be something we remember. Although, it seems to be very long.

The babysitter walked over to what appeared to be a pulley system. "There's also this here."

A pulley system, huh. It seems kinda rusted, if anything. It's been there for years, after all.

"Is that all that's up here?" Lily asked, glancing around. "I don't think I see too much else, so we should probably head back."

"Yeah, we should see whatever else we can find." I told the rest of them. We seemingly still had some time left, so might as well use all of it. We all got into the elevator. We didn't need a keycard for this, but interestingly enough, there was a place to insert a key card in. But it seemed different from the other ones.

It was a long elevator ride down as we made our way down the entire building. The top three floors seemed rather large, and might have turned out to be more than one floor. Not like that info is of any use.

And, eventually, we made it to the ground floor.

Jack was writing some stuff down on the map. "Ah, you're all back from the art floor. Did you find anything of value?"

Oh yeah, I needed to talk to him about that. "So, you've been there before, right?"

He nodded his head. "I made sure to explore every floor my keycard offered. At least the better one, that is."

"Anything you could potentially tell us about it?" I asked him, titling my head slightly.

The critic hummed in thought. "Not really, the only thing worthwhile I found were the paintings, which seemed to be genuine. Although there were a few fakes in the mix, alas, can't expect them to have all of them."

Stephan shook his head. "This is pretty much stuff we already knew."

"Well, it's like I said, it's not like anything useful for the case would be there. All that was there was paintings, brushes, and several cans of paint." Jack continued on.

"Oh? Cans of paint? Where were they?" Lily asked him.

He shook his head. "You should have seen them when you entered, they were lined along some of the paintings, and even windows."

Well, there weren't as many as he was describing. "Maybe there was a couple, but…"

Enima walked up to the group. "So, I figured out where everyone was, so I'll be telling you all during the trial." She turned around to walk away.

Alright, good. Everyone is trying their best here. I should go see how Robin is doing.

When we entered outside, Robin had laid down the rope. He saw us approaching and smiled. "Well, I just measured the length of the rope. And I've got to say, it's really long. I'd say the entire length of this building, long. Maybe even more."

"Jesus! That's a long rope!" Lily yelled out. "Why would they even need one that long?"

"Probably for the construction." Stephan pointed out.

Getting things up from the outside is probably much easier than using the elevator. "Is that all you found?"

"Well, there was only one knot. The one attached to Historia's leg was the only one. And it was also tied up to the first tarp." He continued.

"Oh? And the second one wasn't attached?" I asked him.

The tactician shook his head. "I'm a frayed knot."

"Shut the fuck up."

.

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

.

The monitor nearby lit up to reveal the face of Monokuma. "Well, I think that's enough investigating for one day, wouldn't you say?" He covered his mouth to hide his laughter. "Well, I think it's finally time to get this show on the road. To find out who murdered Historia. Was it in cold blood? Was it in fear? Who knows? Please, meet up at the courthouse!" And then, the screen turned off.

"Ugh, the hotel is such a far walk away…" Lily complained, crossing her arms.

Jack approached our group, a smirk on his face. "Luckily, we don't have to worry about that at all." He turned to walk off in a direction. "There's a shortcut to the courthouse, and we don't even need to take the elevator."

The florist's eyes sparkled. "Really?"

He nodded his head. "Well then, shall everyone follow me?"

We made our way down the street, and I knew exactly what he was talking about. "Basically, we found the courthouse in this area, so we figured it would be easier just to walk over to it." No more awkward elevator ride. Instead… an awkward walk… Not that that is any better.

The rest of the walk was spent in silence, until we finally arrived at the exterior of the building.

"To think we could actually go see this place…" Enima mumbled, looking up at it. "This area feels like it has the entire jurisdiction section of the city. Prison, police station, courtyard…"

I turned to look over at her. "Not to mention Paradise had its own courtroom too."

"The deeper we go, the more we start to get the bigger picture." Jack noted as he walked over to the doors, opening them. "Well, we should head inside now."

We all stepped inside the courtroom, which was a different feeling than leaving from the elevator. The podiums were all still there. Including all the pictures from before, except now there was one for Historia, which just had a simple red X across it. Seems she was one of the people who didn't get something special. I slowly walked over to my podium. This should be the last trial, right? Monokuma said they'd reveal themselves tomorrow. But that's probably all just some lie he told us. As if he'd reveal himself like that…

My eyes slowly looked around at everyone else. We were ready for this…

.

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.

Historia was killed today…

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.

By someone who has secretly been working for Monokuma this whole time.

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.

I don't give a damn who they are! I will avenge Historia!

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Class Trial…

Commence!

.

"You know, the less people left alive, the less suspects there are…" Robin made an observation.

Caren rolled her eyes. "Way to start the trial off with that."

He shrugged. "I felt like everyone would have remained in silence had I not."

"But he's right. There's only seven people here. And assuming Historia didn't jump out of the window on her own accord, that means that it might be easier to figure out. If you aren't the killer, you have a one in six chance of getting it right by blindly guessing." I told everyone. "Although… we definitely shouldn't blindly guess at all, unless we can't figure out anything else…" Even then, though…

"Oooor…" Enima tilted her head. "We just pray the attacker didn't kill her. But that's highly unlikely based on how she was found, so let's throw that theory right out the window."

Jack nodded his head. "Yes, let's review the basic info we know about the body before we proceed."

"Well…" Robin trailed off. "Historia had obviously fallen, based on the state of her body. But she was also seemingly stabbed multiple times."

"And the knife that was used?" Caren glanced at him.

Enima shrugged. "It was never found, so."

"Right, we looked around the art room, but didn't find anything of use at all." Stephan nodded.

"There were pretty paintings." Lily smiled.

The ninja shook his head. "Once again, nothing useful at all…"

"Well, then let's just get the next step out of the way then, shall we?" Enima pulled out what appeared to be a map. "I wrote where everyone was when Historia was killed. Or… where they claimed to be…" She looked around the room. "Well, Jack and Riley can confirm that I was on the sixteenth floor."

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I saw her entering the elevator. And because I got on the elevator right after I saw the body falling. There's no way she'd have time to go down. Same with anyone on the below floors like Lily."

"Who was at the entrance." She continued.

The florist nodded her head. "That's when I heard the splatting noises…"

Enima took a deep breath before continuing. "Caren says she was on the fifteenth floor, so right under the floor I was on."

"What floor is that again?" Jack had his arms crossed.

Caren tilted her head to the side slightly. "It's just the park."

"What kind of useful info would be in the park?" The critic asked her.

She glanced away. "Hey, I didn't know what floor was what, so I just picked that one, alright?"

"Continuing on…" Enima sighed in annoyance. "Robin claims to be in the room he fell unconscious in."

The tactician stroked his chin. "Well, that has been my best lead so far, so I thought I'd explore it again. It's a shame you broke the switch that caused my memories to reappear briefly."

She gave him a deadpan look. "Did you want to pass out again?"

"That's what I said!" I blurted out.

"Well, I would have been prepared this time." Robin said with a smile.

Caren shook her head. "I highly doubt that…"

"And finally…" Enima continued, hopefully no longer being interrupted anymore. "Jack was on… the forty sixth floor. Right under Robin. What were you doing there?" She looked up at him.

The critic had his arms crossed, with a smirk on his face. "Well, I'm glad you would ask. Same reason Robin was where he was. I had a lead to something."

"Your lead hung up on you." I deadpanned.

"Shssshh!" He covered his mouth with a finger. "It's still a lead. And I'm sure there were more things that could be of use to us there."

"What exactly is on that floor, anyways?" Stephan tilted his head to the left slightly.

"A military room, if you will. Why would a building like that need one? It beats me, but it is curious…" Jack grinned to himself.

"Hey…" Lily pointed to Stephan. "Where were you during all of this?"

Enima looked at her map. "Actually, even I don't know, I never asked him."

"I wasn't at the building." The ninja looked away.

"What were you doing?" Caren asked him.

He was silent for a few seconds before his eyes drifted towards her. "Ninja stuff."

"Not to be confused with nerd stuff." Robin added.

"But…" Stephan trailed off. "To be more specific, I went over to the prison. I wanted to see if there was anything worthwhile looking for. And I found a place that hadn't been opened up. Seems like a higher security. A lot of dead bodies were in the unopened cells."

"Hmm…" Caren looked away. "When we went, we didn't go that far in. But most of the cells we found were open."

That's when I remembered the letter I found that Historia had. If I combine it with another page, then it said not all of the prisoners were set free. Only the ones that were seemingly wrongly accused.

Enima clapped her hands together. "Anyways, now that we know where everyone was. We can easily narrow down the suspect list. There are only three possible suspects, to be honest."

I took a small step back. "How can we already narrow it down to three people? The trial hasn't even really started."

Robin shook his head. "Well, it's been going on long enough to accuse someone, so."

Enima rolled her eyes. "Come on, Historia was attacked in the art room, right? Isn't that place only accessible with an Upper Lower keycard?"

"Oh! It is." Lily quickly said. "Wait… does that mean?"

"Someone with that card is the killer." She said bluntly.

Well… I mean, I guess… I glanced away. "So, you're saying it was either Jack, Lily, or Robin, huh?"

Enima nodded. "Of course. One of those three are the people we are looking for."

Jack shook his head, a small smile on his face. "Oh, I'm one of the accused this time? Well, very well. But it's not me, I can assure you that."

"What's stopping someone from hopping in with Historia?" Robin asked, stroking his chin.

"Yeah!" Lily pointed at Enima. "That's right!"

I shook my head. "I don't think that would have been possible at all."

"Oh?" Jack crossed his arms, tilting his head back slightly. "Then do tell us what evidence you have."

"It's simple. Sure, they could have gotten off with Historia, but they wouldn't have been able to leave. The card she had was destroyed, and with her body." I informed them. "Because of that, the killer would have to use their own card to get back on the elevator."

"Or they jumped out the window!" Lily suggested.

"The art room is on the fortieth floor…" Caren mentioned. "They aren't going to simply jump out."

Enima nodded her head. "Then that leaves us with our three suspects, it seems."

Jack, Lily, or Robin. One of those three… huh…

The critic shook his head. "Isn't it too early to be making any accusations like this? Maybe we should be talking about the art room first before we start pointing the finger. Moving too quickly like this could cause us to miss some evidence."

Enima rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. But only because I like you." She teased him.

"Stop that." He ordered her.

I think he's into it.

"Well, we went up to the art floor for the investigation, so." Stephan started to say. "There was paint and blood splattered everywhere, in front of a painting near the elevator." He looked off to the side. "And according to Jack, there were several paint buckets. But there were only maybe a couple. And all the others were empty."

"Odd, I remember there being several full ones." The critic said.

"Well, either way, they weren't there anymore. So somehow, this all fits into the murder." I told him.

Robin hummed in thought for a second. "Well, the second tarp seemed to have a lot of paint, but I don't know why it would. There was a lot of paint splattered on the ground where the body landed, so."

"That's probably what they did, but we don't really have a reason, do we?" Caren asked.

The tactician shook his head. "No, but there's a reason for everything, so I'm sure we'll find it later."

"And also, the weapon was never recovered. So either the killer disposed of it somewhere we would never think to look, or… The killer still has it with them." Stephan said.

Enima laughed a little. "I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to bring a weapon with them to the trial."

The ninja nodded. "Exactly, so it's much more likely that they threw it away somewhere. But with several floors, it would be impossible to actually search for it."

"Besides that, the tarps were taken from the art room too. The only thing that wasn't from there was the rope." I informed everyone.

Jack nodded. "Yes, I don't remember seeing any ropes at all when I initially went there."

"But…" Caren trailed off. "There were ropes on the roof of the building."

"The roof? Wasn't that closed off?" Robin asked, humming in thought.

I nodded my head. "Yes, but for some reason, it was open for us to explore this time. The only thing of value there was some long rope, and a pulley."

The tactician seemed to be deep in thought. "Does the killer have some way to get to the roof… or…?"

"Well, I doubt it was up to them. Because the roof remained open for everyone else, so…" Caren informed him.

I turned to look at Monokuma. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

The bear covered his mouth. "Maybe I did… But who knows?"

"You." Robin answered quickly.

"Well of course I know! But the question is, who else knows?" He said to everyone.

I shook my head. "I don't think we are going to get any answers from him…"

"Shall we go back to the accusation train? I don't believe we have much more to talk about, right?" Enima suggested. "I think someone like Lily, we can mark off the list as a suspect. While she had a keycard, not only was she on the ground floor when we came down, I just don't think it's in her nature at all to kill."

Jack gripped his sleeves. "That leaves us with two suspects, Robin and myself. And I highly doubt it was either of us. But if it's come to that, then obviously it's Robin."

The tactician shook his head. "No, I don't think I did."

"You don't think?" I asked him. "Very reassuring."

He shrugged. "I don't remember a lot of things, can you blame me?"

"Another thing to mention, they were both seemingly on top of the art room, so." Enima brought up.

Caren nodded. "Yeah, and then they could act ignorant of a body falling down by the window."

"You didn't react either." Enima pointed out, before waving her hand dismissively. "Buuut, it shouldn't be you." Her attention turned back to the nerds. "So, tell me gentleman, what were you two doing?"

Jack had a smirk on his face. "Doing about the only useful thing here. I've found a lead, and I was pursuing it."

He might be talking about the military, but he probably wouldn't want me to mention that.

"Oh?" Caren looked at him. "And what lead is that, if I can ask."

The critic chuckled at that. "Please, this is a lead only kept between me and someone else. And I trust she'll keep silent about it too."

Silence failed the air.

"So it's a she?" Enima asked, placing a hand on her hip. "Are you cheating on me?"

"I have a confession." Robin lifted up his hand. "I've actually been a girl this entire ti-"

"Shut up." I deadpanned.

Jack was gripping his sleeve shirt tightly. "Of course, I only said she so you would assume it's a girl, but in reality-"

Enima rolled her eyes. "Let's move on, shall we?" Her eyes turned to look at Robin. "What were you doing?"

"I said it before, but I was back at my Ultimate Lab. It had a really nice interior decor, and it had a nice simulation I could run of a battlefield. But the main reason I was there was for my memories. I was hoping I would be able to get them back. But the controls were smashed in…" He said that with a little sadness in his voice.

"These are both believable stories though, it's things the two of them would actually do…" I mumbled.

Enima let out a small sigh. "You're right, but it has to be one of them, don't you think?"

Normally, it took a while to actually manage to accuse someone in some trials. But this one, we were going out of the gate with it. Could this truly end up being a short trial?

Jack shook his head. "I refuse to believe we are the only two suspects… Besides, Stephan doesn't have proof he was where he claimed to be, right?" He pointed out.

"Admittedly, that's true…" The ninja started to say. "But, wouldn't it be lame for me to be the one working for Monokuma. If I were, I would have kept my identity a secret, and yet, here we are. You, a critic, accusing the ninja."

He grabbed his sleeve tightly. "While revealing yourself wouldn't make sense if you were helping Monokuma, it doesn't throw you out of the equation quite yet. You only revealed yourself because Serena shot you, correct? Would be near impossible to play something like that off to us."

Stephan rolled his eyes. "I don't exactly have any proof per say. But no one saw me enter or leave the building, right?"

"Huh…" I glanced away. "I kinda blacked out after I found Historia's body. Everyone else just gathered around a little after." In fact, Stephan was the one who snapped me out of my trance. "Did… anyone else see him?"

"No… I didn't…" Lily admitted.

Robin nodded. "I saw him from my lab, he seemed to be walking the streets around the prison around the time the body discovery announcement went off."

Jack crossed his arms. "I don't believe that. You are on one of the top floors, almost impossible to see anyone."

The tactician nodded. "You're right. However, my lab is very special. It gives me a semi layout of the city. And while I couldn't actually see it was Stephan, I saw a figure moving around. And since everyone claims to be in Paradise, it seems like it could only be him."

Jack nodded his head. "Yeah, I guess that's some good logic. And if you were the killer, you'd have no reason to lie…" A small smile crept up on his face. "Which is why I don't think you are the killer, and lying anyways!"

Robin took a step back. "What good reason would I have to lie?" Oh, that was a new facial expression. He seemed slightly frustrated.

The critic tapped his arm, before adjusting his eyes. "Isn't it obvious why you would? You two are rather close, aren't you? You even had a friendly spare. And you are on even fighting levels."

"That…" The tactician shook his head. "That doesn't mean anything. This is a life or death matter, hmm? Once again, I have no reason for lying."

"I doubt you saw me, Robin…" Stephan admitted. "I know you're lying for my sake, but honestly, I was nowhere near Paradise. I wasn't even in the prison. Didn't want to have to admit it, but I was chasing a different lead…"

"And what would that be?" Jack was getting rather impatient. "We aren't going to believe him, are we?"

The ninja shook his head. "I was investigating a lead from Serena's trial. The trails of blood we found." He looked at me, and Caren.

"Oh? Did you find anything interesting?" The babysitter asked.

He nodded his head. "If you think a person running around in the shadows is interesting, then yes. I saw someone else. If everyone else was in Paradise. Then we aren't alone in this town…" He covered most of his face with his mask. But he quickly uncovered it. "However, that is unrelated to today's trial, so let's not worry about it too much."

Jack shook his head. "Yeah, I'm going to choose not to buy that, what do you all think?"

I looked away. Someone else here? Is it the person behind all of this… Or someone unrelated? The thought of the Insurgence popped into my head. No, it couldn't be them… right? Although, they seemed to have ties to the city…

"Riley, you don't believe this, do you?" The critic asked, snapping me out of my train of thought.
"H-huh, but it could be something that happened."

Lily shook her head. "Either way, I never saw Stephan leave the building, so it couldn't be him, right?" She said, shaking her head, before getting an idea. "Unless he can survive a fall from the building."

"If you look at Historia's body, you can tell no one could survive something like that." Caren said coldly.

The florist grabbed her arm. "R-right…"

Enima let out a small yawn, stretching her arms. "Can the rest of you just realise who the most likely candidate is? They've been the only person on the attack the entire time." She pointed a finger over to Jack. "So stop trying to deflect the blame elsewhere."

The critic adjusted his glasses. "Is it really deflecting the blame when it's not me?"

"But it is you." She deadpanned. "Please, you claimed to be a floor above the one Riley was. You have access to that floor too." She put a hand on her hip. "Actually…" She leaned forward slightly. "Don't you have a keycard for every floor?"

"Well, yes… but…" Jack crossed his arms, looking away. "That means nothing. Just because I had an Upper Lower keycard means nothing."

"But…" I trailed off. "It could only be you or Robin. Lily was at the bottom of the building the entire time."

Jack then pointed a finger to Robin. "Then it's him, but it's not me. I can assure you that."

Enima rolled her eyes. "Then where's your proof? Huh? Go on, tell us."

He snickered at us. "Oh, have you already forgotten the motive? The motive was that a person amongs us was actually some sort of killer. And they were working for Monokuma." He paused for a second. "Or Monokuma was working for them… I don't know, they kept it rather vague. They attacked Serena too-"

"If I remember, you were one of the people in the area near where Serena died." I cut in, sending him a small glare.

"Y-yes…" He adjusted his glasses again. "But so were Robin and Caren."

"I didn't have a keycard like that, so leave me out of this…" She mumbled.

He quickly shook his head. "Anyways, the one other thing that Monokuma mentioned, was that they had an ideal, and most of us didn't fit in with the ideal. Now, do pray tell, what ideals would I have, and how would Historia not fit into it?"

"Well…" I started to talk. "The only ideals I could think of are about the elites. You even handed out the keycards in a way to represent status… So that's one thing."

"I knew you'd say that." He said with confidence in your voice. "Then, if I valued rich people, then why would I kill Historia? She's from a rather wealthy family, is she not?"

Enima snapped her fingers. "What if it was the other way around?"

This caused Jack to stop slightly. "What… what do you mean?"

A grin appeared on her face. "What if you wanted to remove any other elites? Sounds stupid, but I doubt a killer would have any common sense at all. It's possible Jack wants his family to stand at the top."

"That is ridiculous!" He called out. "I'm inclined to say you are the killer if you're accusing me with that sort of evidence."

"Riley." Enima looked over at me. "He was in the elevator with you, right? How was he?"

I tried to recall when I first entered the elevator…

.

When he saw me, he had a slightly surprised face. "Oh? I thought I was alone here." He glanced away. "I was just off in the military room. Trying to see if I can find out anything about the Insurgence…"

.

"Now that I think of it… that's some pretty weird phrasing. And he seemed shocked to see me here."

"Came from an upper floor…" Caren started to say. "Check. Had the correct key card? Check…" Her hand hovered over the voting button. "Everything you say just keeps sounding more convincing everytime I hear it."

But was that really the truth? It couldn't be… Right?

"Hands off the voting button." Jack ordered Caren. "I thought you were at least a more rational person. But is paranoia finally setting it?"

Her hand moved away slightly. "Look, don't try to influence my vote. Out of you and Robin, you are more likely to be the killer."

Enima extended her arm out. "Not just that, but wasn't he the one who said that splitting up was probably the best option?"

.

Jack shook his head. "Yes, safety in numbers, but Paradise is a rather large building, and individually exploring that would take an eternity." He placed his hand on the table. "I think we are going to need to split up for this one."

.

"Not to mention…" She continued on.

.

Jack had his arms crossed. "But we also don't want to make any rash decisions, do we? It would be easier if they told us themselves, but we shouldn't just start throwing the blame around."

.

"Trying to halt us from figuring out who it is, much?" She put a hand on her hip.

Robin stroked his chin. "That does seem rather suspicious…" He looked over at Jack. "I don't want it to be you, but I will vote for you. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't vote for you."

He clenched his fist. "Because it's not me. There isn't even any damning evidence!"

'"You did know a lot about the murder room…" I mumbled out. "You knew about the paint, although you claimed they were there to begin with. Probably in case someone else had gone there." I looked over at him. "Not to mention you probably checked every single floor already, so you'd know which one would be best for killing someone." I looked away. "And I think Historia would have trusted you enough to get off on the same floor… So she wouldn't have expected anything…"

"Riley, not you too…" Jack clenched his fist. "What use would someone like me, a critic, have for killing people."

Enima snapped her fingers. "There we go, I just thought of something…"

He seemed slightly worried. "What do you mean?"

"You just brought an idea to my head." She bowed slightly. "You're critical of stuff, right? Everything, to be precise. Games, movies, books, restaurants. Everything."

The critic adjusted his glasses. "Yes, and?"

Enima tipped her cheek a few times. "Would that also… extend to people?"

To people? I turned my head to look at Jack. "No…" I mumbled.

"What a lunatic accusation!" He yelled out.

Caren tilted her head. "You know… that kinda makes sense, now that I think of it…"

Stephan looked around the room, gripping his sleeve tightly. "Although, I think it's too early to make any sort of decision…"

"We don't have to make a decision now." Enima looked over at the ninja. "I'm just throwing out my opinion on the table. So if anyone has any counter argument to throw out there, they are free to do so."

I was looking around the room, at everyone's faces. It couldn't be Jack, right? There had to be someone else behind it. Quick! I need a counter argument.

But… nothing came to mind. Normally, at a point like this, some other evidence would come up. But… nothing did. And that only happened when the person in question was the killer… Is Jack really the killer?

"I've got nothing…" Robin admitted. "I can't even confirm if Jack went to the floor he said he did…"

Enima hovered her hand over the vote button. "If everyone else wants to do this, then we can."

Lily took a step back. "I… I don't know… I don't think I'm going to vote until everyone else does."

My hand floated above my own button. There was other evidence that was unused, but… What did it have to do with anything? Were they all red herrings…?

As my hand got closer to the button to vote Jack, time started to slow down. At that moment, I realized I was going to make a wrong decision… "Wait, everyone stop!" I looked up at everyone, to be met with a horrible sight. Three different people were holding down the button.

.

.

.

Class Trial.

Intermission.

.

.

.

They actually voted. Three people. "We're only seven people, one more vote, and it's decided…" I mumbled. "Our lives on the line here…"

Enima slowly removed her hand from the button, looking away.

Caren shook her head slightly. "You should have said something sooner…" She mumbled.

Robin moved his ha-

"What's your excuse!? You should be smarter!" I called out.

He shrugged. "All the cool kids were doing it."

Half the time, I don't know whether to consider him a genius, or brain dead. For now it's the latter."

"Why did you try and stop us…" Caren looked over at me.

I shook my head. "I… I don't think it's Jack. I know he has a ton of evidence stacked against him, but something is telling me it's not him."

Enima tilted her head slightly. "Oh, you have a gut feeling?" She was silent for a few seconds. "But you've been good at figuring out stuff for now."

I looked at the three of them. "Alright, if it's truly not Jack, then I think we have a new suspect pool." I announced.

"A new one? Already?" Lily asked.

I slowly raised my hand and pointed at three people. "Caren, Enima, and Robin. If it's not Jack, then it's one of you three."

"W-what?" The babysitter took a step back. "Based on what evidence?"

Well, not evidence per say, but… "Based on logic. If it's not Jack, and not any of you three. Then the true killer would simply need to vote Jack, and they would get to escape alive." I looked over at Stephan and Lily, but none moved towards their buttons. "So, because we are like this, that means that you three, plus Jack, are the only people it could be."

"Let's not forget about the keycard." Jack mumbled. "The thing you used to try and frame me? Robin has one too, doesn't he?" He leaned his head back slightly.

The tactician took out his keycard. "I sure do. But it's not me."

"Well, if it's not Jack." Enima put a hand on her hip. "I don't see how it could be anyone else. It's not Lily, since she hasn't voted yet, and because she was at the bottom of the building. If Riley went to the elevator right after seeing the body falling, it wouldn't make sense."

I nodded my head. "That's right, so we can once again, eliminate Lily from any suspect list." Not that she was ever on it to begin with. "Besides, it would be impossible for anyone els-"

Robin hummed in thought. "Impossible you say?" He looked up, out one of the windows higher up. It was considerably darker now than it was earlier. "You know what they say, right?" He looked over at me. "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

"I…" What? Why was he saying that quote all of a sudden? "What are you getting at?"

The tactician hummed in thought again. "You say that it would be impossible for anyone else without an Upper Lower keycard to be the killer? I deny that, and instead substitute that it was improbable."

"Are you implying… that it would still be possible for someone who didn't have that keycard to commit the murder?" Stephan asked, looking at him. "Or are you deflecting the blame?"

"Both, I'm deflecting the blame by presenting yet another possibility. And if that turns out to be impossible, then we move on to the next. We've done this countless times before. When has anything ever played out the way we thought it would? Marcus was the killer of the first trial, yet he wasn't even there. N-"

"We get it…" Caren shook her head. "You don't need to go on a monologue." Her head tilted slightly. "If that's the case, it would have to be Enima, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "Nice try, but it's not going to happen." She turned to look back at everyone else. "Well, let's start figuring out how this killer possibly managed to get out of that room."

I… Haven't quite figured that out yet. I just need one idea… one…

Wait a second… Earlier, while I was standing by the window, my power activated… Historia should have been dead by then… So why would that have affected anything? Unless… That wasn't Historia...

Then, there's only one way the killer could have gone. "It was actually suggested earlier, but was kind of pushed aside." My eyes trailed over to Lily. "I think they jumped out the window." I announced.

"They did what?" The florist acted a little shocked. "Oh wait, I was the one who said that." She wasn't very bright. "I know I said that, but I… I don't think they could have survived the fall…"

I shook my head. "They would not be able to survive the fall out the window."

"Then why suggest the idea…?" Caren asked, crossing her arms.

A small smile appeared on my face. "Oh, at least let me finish my train of thought, won't you?" I lifted up a finger. "It would be rather simple, honestly. All they really needed was rope."

"And there was some attached to her leg." Robin confirmed. "So it was definitely used in some way."

I nodded my head. "Not just that, but on the roof, was a pulley system of sorts."

"Yeah, there was." Lily agreed. "Although, there was nothing attached to it."

"There might not be anything now…" I started to say. "But there could have been something at one point. I find it odd that the roof was open, and that there was rope there. Clearly, the killer went there at one point."

"How long was the rope?" Caren asked.

"Quite long, actually." Robin jumped in. "I measured it while everyone else was exploring, and it would probably reach the bottom of the building from the top, or maybe not. It was used in construction, so it would make sense."

"I'd hardly consider that calculating, if you're unsure." Caren shok her head.

I rolled my eyes. "Either way, my point still stands… I think they tied the rope to Historia, and jumped out the window. They must have weighed more than her, so they could be lowered."

The babysitter shook her head. "Wouldn't someone notice someone slowly going down the building?"

"Doesn't that just bring in another problem…?" Enima frowned, adding another counter right after Caren.. "Where did they go? From the sounds of it, they must have gone to the bottom of the building." Her attention turned to look at someone.

"H-hey!" Lily took a step back. "I didn't do anything! I swear…" She paused briefly. "Nor did I see anyone, but I swear it's not me."

Lily does throw a wrench in my plans… "I'll need to think a little more about this…"

She raised her hand. "But I swear, I heard the noise from inside. Splat, and then splat!"

Wait… two different splats? "Are you sure about that?"
"Mmmhm." She hummed in confirmation. "That's what I heard. Two separate noises. They were several seconds apart."

Wait a minute… Something just came to mind…

.

"Well, it's like I said, it's not like anything useful for the case would be there. All that was there was paintings, brushes, and several cans of paint." Jack continued on.

"Oh? Cans of paint? Where were they?" Lily asked him.

He shook his head. "You should have seen them when you entered, they were lined along some of the paintings, and even windows."

Well, there weren't as many as he was describing. "Maybe there was a couple, but."

.

"Well, I can fix one of those issues." I announced, looking at Caren. "The killer would have fallen much faster because they had grabbed a tarp-"

The babysitter shook her head. "But tarps aren't that heavy…"

"Let me finish." I said rather loudly. "The tarp had a lot of paint in it, to increase the weight. That way they would fall faster."

Enima shook her head. "But then what, the killer just lands in the street somewhere? A fall like that would still kill them."

No, that wouldn't make sense. Them surviving a fall like that would be… I looked over at Robin. Impossible, so remove that idea. "Then simply put, they landed on one of the floors." Well, that didn't sound any better.

"That's… a stupid idea…" Caren shook her head. "Are you even listening to yourself?"

Well, yes I am, but you are right… it's not the most thought out plan. "But it's the only thing that would make sense… They had to go through a window…"

"Lily." The babysitter turned to look at her. "Did you hear the sound of anything breaking?"

She covered her mouth slightly. "No… I don't think so at least. And no glass shards fell down either…"

Then that means… "The window was already open, if that's the case."

"But there's no way the killer would have been able to plan all of that." Caren started to say. "Prepare the rope, open the window. Knowing the length of the rope, and how far it would reach. This would have had to be decided long in advance, and anyone doing that would have been suspicious."

She raised a good point. That would have taken too much time… Unless…

"Then they had nothing to do with the window…" It was a weak argument, but it was the only thing that I could say.

She sent me a glance. "Nothing to do with the window? So they just stumbled upon an open window. Are you even listening to yourself?"

Alright, that didn't sound too smart, I'll admit.

"Well, maybe we should think of this backwards." Robin suggested. "Let's start with why the killer wouldn't have opened the window below if they were planning on jumping out of the window."

"Then they weren't planning on jumping out the window." I suggested it before I stopped. "What…?" Why was I confused about my own words? "Wait, that's it. The plan to jump out the window was improvised. That wasn't the initial plan."

Jack adjusted his glasses. "Then why would they do that?"

"Isn't it obvious? Because they had no choice. The keycard was the only way out, and it was crushed when Historia landed on it." I continued. "Thus, the only possible way out would have been the window."

"But then the rope was already there, what was the reason for that?" Enima asked.

I shook my head. "The killer was probably planning on using it to lower Historia's body. So they had it ready. They just had to improvise the tarps and paint to lower themselves."

Caren shook her head. "That still leaves the question of where did they get off? Was a window just open somewhere?"

I'm… I'm not sure… I don't remember seeing any windows open… or… Do I…?

Then, another flashback came back to me.

.

"It's unavailable with both cards…" I informed him. I walked over to the monitor screen. It showcased what the others were doing. Caren was at what appeared to be a gym, she was inspecting a broken window, it seems.

.

"The gym!" I announced. "I didn't explore the floor myself, but I saw it on the cameras."

Stephan nodded his head. "Actually, now that you mention it, I saw it too. In the footage I saw, the gym had a broken window.

I slowly lifted my finger up to point at someone. "And you knew this, Caren."

"W-what?" She took a step. "Are you trying to accuse me!?"

"Of course I am!" I snapped my fingers. "You saw the broken window, and yet you conveniently didn't bring it up at all."

Caren grabbed her arm, looking away. "W-well, I simply forgot. I didn't go to Paradise that often, only for the spa and whatnot. Of course a broken window is going to stay out of my memory."

Enima hummed in thought. "As much as I think she's the killer…" She trailed off. "I don't think she's the person Monokuma was talking about."

"What? You don't think she did it?" I asked, slightly confused.

She let out a small laugh. "That's not at all what I said. I said I don't think she's the person Monokuma was talking about. I doubt that only that person could do some killing. What's stopping someone else from killing? Couldn't that be why only one body turned up?"

So… the killer of this case wasn't even the killer Monokuma warned us about. "But then, what reason would she have to kill?"

"Paranoia…" Robin mumbled. "You're scared, aren't you, Caren?"

She clenched her fist. "I'm not scared of anything. I don't know what you are talking about. And even if I was, why would I kill Historia? She's a trusted person."
Lily extended her arm. "Stop accusing her this instant. Caren would never do anything like that."

"But she knew about the broken window…" Enima said, shaking her head. "It fits with everything else."

"She was probably on the roof to get rid of any other ropes that were there when we arrived." Stephan brought up.

"I think I heard enough." Jack glared as he slowly moved his hand over to vote.

"Not right now!" I yelled at him. I needed to find that damning piece of evidence, because even after all this, there was still doubt in mind. I know Caren hasn't been the nicest lately, but it was still out of character.

"Your life's not the one on the line right now." Jack said, his eyes slightly furious. "I see no other reason that it could be someone else." And he pressed the button to vote.

"Jack!" Lily yelled out, a little angry.

I quickly turned my head to look at Monokuma. I slammed my hand against the podium. "What if there's a tied vote?"

He let out a little laugh. Clearly, he was enjoying this trial the most. "Well, as long as one of the people in the tie is the blackened, then still, they alone will be executed."

Alright, we can still do this. I turned to look at Lily and Stephan. "Do not vote unless I say so!"

"Please, I'm not an idiot that gives into paranoia, or…" His eyes turned to look at Robin. "What was your plan exactly?"

"I'm an agent of chaos." He replied.

I rolled my eyes. "Alright we just need to look for one thing-"

Jack shook his head, looking at Caren. "I swear, it has to be her."

She was getting increasingly angry. "I wasn't even on the gym floor! I was in the park, that's the fifteenth floor. The gym is on the sixteenth!"

…

…

The sixteenth? I felt like someone was there. I turned to look at Enima. "Hey, did you ever mark down where everyone had gone?"

She shook her head. "No, not exact locations. Only approximations."

"But… didn't you have a map-" But it wasn't there anymore. Was it never there to begin with…?

She shook her head. "I think you're just imagining things…"

Lily tightened her fist. "It was you." She was pointing to Enima.

"Eh?" She placed a hand on her hip, annoyed. "And why's that?"

"Because you said so yourself at the start of the trial!" The florist called out.

.

"Well, then let's just get the next step out of the way then, shall we?" Enima pulled out what appeared to be a map. "I wrote where everyone was when Historia was killed. Or… where they claimed to be…" She looked around the room. "Well, Jack and Riley can confirm that I was on the sixteenth floor."

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"You even had a map too!" Lily yelled out.

I turned my attention towards Enima. "Don't you lie your way out of this one, bitch." Finally, the rage I've been holding in has an outlet. That's how I know we've picked the right person this time. "I will bring you down."

This got a yawn for her. "Wow, never have I seen someone so wrong before. Assuming it was me, Historia never would have trusted me. I don't think she actually likes me. So no way she would have agreed to explore with me." She pointed her finger to me. "You, however, are someone she would trust without a doubt. You could have gotten her alone in a corner without a single consequence."

I clenched my fist. "I would never kill her. I would never kill anyone!" But I still needed to give a reason for why Historia would even go with her. Then, it dawned on me. "She may not have fully trusted you. But she wouldn't turn down any information. Especially the information she was looking for."

"Eh? What are you getting at?" Enima placed a hand on her hip again.

I pulled out the final page of the journal we had been collecting. "She had this in her hands when I found her body. It was the last page of what we were looking for. We've gone to great lengths to get them all, and I doubt she would turn down someone else handing her the page." I put the paper back in my pocket, and then pointed at Enima. "So you used that to lure her to her death." I pressed my hand on my button to vote. "This is the outcome I have come to."

Stephan was the next one to press the button. "Then I will vote for it too."

Lily was the next one to press it. "Yes, so will I."

"You guys are making a mistake!" She yelled out.

I glared at her. "Here's the entire murder, from start to finish!

.

Act 1: Once the motive was given out, the killer figured they had no choice but to make some moves. Although they didn't strike yet. It took until Monokuma gave additional information that they were forced to act. Having found the last page of the journal that Historia and I were collecting, they set out to "find" the traitor. Acting like they actually gave a damn about their identity, the killer managed to make the main focus finding out who it was. They even made us all go to Paradise, having suggested it as a potential location to search. They wanted easy access to the people they wanted to kill.

.

Act 2: Next, came time to set up the kill. They had noticed that the final three floors were opened, and decided to check out what was on top first. There, they found some rope and a pulley system. They were then struck with a brilliant idea. They set up the rope with the pulley so they could use it later, and set off back down towards the room they were going to murder in.

.

Act 3: The killer quickly met up with Historia, who was probably pretty skeptical about being alone with anyone she didn't trust. Only person she would probably have been alone with, was me. However, the killer had found the last page of the journal. Using that, they managed to convince Historia to go into the art room. Probably under the premise that they shouldn't let other people see it.

.

Act 4: Having been given access to a floor they couldn't possibly have been on, the killer struck at Historia, stabbing her multiple times. She probably died quickly… of blood loss before she even had the time to react. However, her body must have fallen on her card, and broken it. For some reason, I don't think it was the killer's intention to be stuck on this floor. The damaged key card reader should be proof of that.

.

Act 5: Stuck on a floor they couldn't leave, and with the body they had killed. The killer had to act fast. Getting some tarps, they placed the body on one of them, and dragged it over to the window. Then, they got another tarp, and filled it up with paint, tying it up. The next step was to tie the end of the rope to Historia's leg, including the tarp. They grabbed onto the loose end of the rope, and holding the tarp full of paint, they lept out of the window.

.

Act 6: The portion the killer grabbed was filled with paint, so this caused them to lower down the side of the building. And, because of the length of the rope, Historia's body started going upwards towards the pulley. Once the killer had reached the floor with the gym. They managed to get into the window, letting go of the rope, and the tarp of paint, which fell to the ground and splattered. Then, having no weight pulling it up. Historia's body was the next one to start to plummet, joining the paint tarp shortly after. Then, the killer took the elevator, where they ran into Jack and I. They had to act like they had also spotted the thing falling.

.

This crime could only be committed by someone like you, Enima Palapeli!"

.

The three of us had voted for her. She remained silent looking at the ground.

"Well… you just made the wrong choice, didn't you…" Enima mumbled.

No… we couldn't have. All evidence pointed to her, after all!

The room remained silent for what felt like an eternity, before a knife was wiped towards Jack.

I saw it all in slow motion, but I wasn't able to do anything.

Instead, Stephan lunged onto his podium and knocked the knife away.

It flew around in the air before falling down and being caught by Enima. And then, she started laughing… "Oh… it seems fate wants you to live, mister elite." She pointed the knife lazily at Jack.

"W-what?" He seemed rather shocked. We all were. She just tried to kill someone in a trial.

She started playing around with her knife. "Oh, to think you'd be saved twice in one day…"

"I was only saved once, just now. When would I have been saved before?" The critic crossed his arms.

Enima was silent for a few seconds. "If Riley wouldn't have been on the elevator, I would have slit your throat the moment I walked in.

"W-what…?" I looked at her in horror. My logic from earlier that she couldn't have been the killer because she would have killed us both. "Then… Then what was stopping you from killing us both?!"

She pressed the tip of the knife against her cheek, humming in thought. "Well, for starters, you don't really fit into my kill criteria. Although, you do have a habit of not acting."

"What…" I mumbled. "The only reason you didn't kill Jack was because I was there? Why wouldn't you want to kill me? Wouldn't you want to avoid a trial?!"

Enima moved the knife away from her face, shaking her head. "Trial or not, I didn't care. I just wanted to kill three people. The others could live, and I could die. It was fine by me."

"Who…" Lily started to say. "Who are those people…?"

"Well, obviously, Historia was one, given the fact that she was dead. Jack is obvious because I just said I would. But…" She trailed off, pointing her knife at someone else. "You were the third person, Caren."

"M-me!?" She took a step back. "What the hell did I ever do to you?"

The mysterious girl twirled her knife around. "Nothing to me per say, you've just been going down a downward spiral for the past week and a half." She pointed the knife back at her. "You wouldn't have been a target at the start, but honestly, you've become kind of a bitch these past several days. Lashing out at people, I'm sorry, but someone needs to call you out."

Stephan had his arms crossed. "I don't think someone like you is really the right person for that."

Enima clapped her hands together. "Oh, and look who's talking. Stephan, the ninja who only saves cute girls. Trying to bang one of them, aren't you?"

"What…?" The ninja shook his head. "I don't know what kind of ideas you have in your hea-"

She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, but your princess is in another killing game." She tilted her head back slightly.

"Another killing game?" Caren mumbled, looking at her. "So there are others?"

The mysterious girl nodded. "Of course, after this one, there are two more planned."

"Which one is this?" I asked her.

Enima held up one finger. "It's only the first one. And, if things go to plan, there should only be two more." Her head looked around. "Oh, by the way Stephan, while I may not care for you much, you aren't on my kill list."

"Why… Why was Historia on your kill list…?" I mumbled out.

She gave me a deadpan look. "Are you serious right now? Has nothing clued you into what I was doing." She pointed to Jack. "Pricks like him, people who think they are either better than other people, or mistreat people. People who have anger problems. People who lash out. They have no use in a world like this."

That's when it hit me. Monokuma talked about the killer having an ideal world that most of us didn't fit in with. "Wait, that just sounds like you are killing people you don't like."

Enima remained silent for a bit. "I mean, I guess you could take it like that, but no. That's not it at all. People like them just make the world worse, don't you think."

"Shut up…" I warned her. "You can't decide the true nature of someone. Historia shouldn't have fit in that criteria."

"She might treat you nicely, because you're someone she gets along with. But people she doesn't like, they get the shorter end of the stick. I know I have."

"No… she wasn't like that…" I clenched my fist. "And even if she was, people have a chance to change."

Enima tilted her head slightly. "Sure they can, Serena was able to get off my list. She used to treat her little sister like shit. But in the last few months they ever saw each other, they had gotten super close, and they would have done anything for each other."

Robin stroked his chin. "Oh, is that the case? Then you had no desire to kill her?"

"Of course not." The killer said.

The tactician nodded his head. "Interesting…" He hummed in thought. "So, I can assume her attacker wasn't you?"

A smirk appeared on her face. "You've got it. I was nowhere near her when she was attacked. In fact, the one that did it was the mastermind behind all of this."

"Oh, so they tried to pin the blame on you?" He nodded his head. "Interesting."

Monokuma stood up. "Well, I think it's time we get to the exec-

A laugh came out of Enima. "Oh please, this is my time in the spotlight. Don't ruin it. You should remember. I know who you are, and you are on my kill list."

"Wait, the mastermind is on your kill list? Then why are you working for them?" Lily asked.

She shrugged. "Well, I believe in their ideals for the most part. Their methods… are just not something I can get behind. And also, they've gone downhill since five years ago. Before they had actual goals, now, not so much. They are nothing but a remnant of their former selves. An idea revived from the dead to serve a purpose."

"Oh, glad to see a monster like you can have boundaries." Stephan rolled his eyes.

She raised her hands in defense. "Woah there, ninja!"

"If you don't believe in their method, why do you work for them? The question still stands." Robin asked her.

Another smirk appeared on Enima's face. "Honestly, I couldn't care less what happens to the mastermind of this game. But… There are some other members who I don't want to die."

"What do you mean, other members?" Jack adjusted his glasses.

"There it is…" She said, taking a step back. She sent a glance over to Monokuma, who seemed a little furious. "Have you ever heard of… a group called UA?"

"No, can't say I have…" The tactician shook his head.

Enima put a hand on her hip. "Well, the name should be quite obvious if you take some time to think about it. The first part is something you hear all the time, being part of Hope's Peak and all…"

"Ultimate…" I mumbled.

She nodded her head. "Exactly that, yes. As for the A, it's more so what we brought upon this world…"

Jack gritted his teeth. "Apocalypse…"

Enima snapped her fingers. "You got it. I'm part of a group named the Ultimate Apocalypse. Although, that wasn't the name last year. It's more of a recent name, if anything. But the group has been around for a while…"

"Why… why would you join such a group…" Lily mumbled sadly.

The mysterious girl frowned slightly. "Our goal wasn't to end the world when I joined. It was a group of misfits who were tired of how the world was treating everyone. How the world beat them down, how the people around them would rather they be gone. Sob stuff like that."

Robin nodded his head at her. "Oh yeah, what's your sob story?"

"Funny you should ask." A smirk appeared on her face. "I got too close to the sun, I guess."

"What does that mean, exactly…?" Caren mumbled. She had been rather quiet lately.

"Paradise is an awful place. A place built for the elites huh. Well, let's just say, I dated a guy who would have been one of the people to have been on the top floor, once it was completed. Of course, I didn't go for him because of that. I went to him because he was nice, he was cute, and honestly, just my type. At the start, we were happy. But after a while, he started showing some of his true colours to the world… his friends seemingly didn't see any difference. Isn't that right, Jack?"

"W-what…?" He adjusted his glasses. "I don't know what you mean…"

Enima let out a little chuckle. "Of course not, you don't have your memories, after all. But Jack was friends with him, and he simply turned a blind eye, because his friend was so influential…" She glared at him. "Over the months of my time in the reserve course…"

"Wait, you weren't lying about that?" I asked her. "I… I thought you said that because you didn't want to reveal your actual talent."

"Nope, I'm truly a reserve course student. And if you had seen the page, it would confirm it…" She continued.

"But you ripped it up." I pointed out.

Enima stared at me for a few seconds. "That's what happens when it all comes back to you at once. Maybe realizing what I actually was jogged my memory back."

"A question still remains… How come you're here with us?" Robin asked her.

Another grin appeared on her face. "Well, my old boyfriend was an Ultimate. After I killed him, I took his place."

Lily took a step back. "Y-you killed him? I know you said he was a bad person… b-but still."

"He was more than just a bad person." Enima's face got serious again. "I started doing some digging into Paradise and found some things I shouldn't have found. Just some illegal things." She glanced away. "And from that point on, he'd been trying to get rid of me. By making me want to leave the relationship. Of course, poor old me was naive and thought we had just reached a rough patch. We just got to pull through this, and everything would be OK. God, how much of an idiot was I?" She clenched her first. "It eventually moved on from verbal abuse. Then, he got one of his friends pestering me to break up with him. But still, I thought I had just done something wrong, and went with it. Until one day, he took me out of the city, and abandoned me near a forest in the middle of nowhere, in the pouring rain." She gritted her teeth. "I could have died that night. From the freezing rain, to being somewhere I wasn't familiar with. Hell, even the animals could have torn me to shreds. I think that's the night I snapped."

"So what, you found your way back and killed him?" Stephan asked her.

Enima tilted her head slightly. "Something like that. I found a man, about...let's say six years older than me. He found me when I finally made it back to the road. He was kind and took me out of the city. I think that's the point I really snapped. Because he told me I should seek vengeance on who wronged me. Sure I might have been hesitant at first, but he offered a knife, and drove to his house." A smile appeared on her face. "Ah… killing that good for nothing shit for brains makes me happy every time I think about it." The smile slowly faded away.

"Alright, I think you've finished your backstor-" Monokuma started to say.

I pointed a finger at him. "You, shut up. I'm going to milk all of this for what it's worth."

Enima started to unclip her purple hair extensions. "Oh? You want more out of me? I'm game." She was willing to give more info.

"What was his talent? You say he was an Ultimate, right?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but that's one of the few things I won't admit." She removed the gauze around her arm to reveal some scars, probably from some knives. "Well, I don't need all of this anymore."

I should have realized something was under it, and it wasn't just some fashion statement. "Well, we still aren't done here…"

"Of course, of course. But here's the thing. I won't give you all the answers." Enima informed me.

"But…" Robin started to say. "You will give us some answers?" He thought some more. "Why are you doing this? You aren't trying to misinform us, but you aren't helping us all the way."

"Have you ever thought of the possibility that…" She trailed off. "I want neither side to win?"

"Neither… side…" Caren mumbled. "Why would you want neither side to win? Aren't you loyal to UA?"

Enima shrugged. "I couldn't care less about the person running all of this. They are also on my kill list. I can count on my hand the amount of people I'd actually care about from UA. She held up five fingers. "One of them I care deeply about, which is why I won't give too much useful info…"

"Do you know who the Insurgence is?" Jack asked, getting right to the point. "They seem to be against us."

"Don't worry." She smiled. "They aren't on our side either. Honestly, it's a six way war out there. The people who want to help you, vs UA, vs the Insurgence…" She paused to look at Stephan for the next one. "There's the Church of the Shattered God. And also a rather influential family. They were set to be a family that was allowed to join Paradise, but they turned down the offer, saying they had no place being there." She hummed in thought. "I guess I said six groups, but I don't know anything about the last one."

"What has the world become…?" Lily mumbled sadly.

This got a small laugh out of Enima. "The world has gone to shit, and a lot of people who are uninvolved are paying the price."

Robin stroked his chin. "Isn't that in part, your fault?"

This got a smirk from her. "I guess, yeah."

"You're starting to piss me off…" I glared at her.

"Oh? I thought I would have pissed you off when I killed Historia. Did you not like her as much as I thought you did?" She was starting to have a real punchable face. "Either way, this isn't time to be wasting words on stuff like that. You want info right?"

"Why are you telling us all of this…?" Lily mumbled. "Aren't you going to die now too?"

"Please, whether I was silent, or spoke up. My fate would remain the same. I'm not even certain if I will die or not." Enima looked over at Monokuma. "It's all up for him to decide, really."

The bear remained silent, but his eyes were trained on her.

But then, she let out a little laugh. "Although, my fate was decided long before I said anything. If I was always going to die, then it would remain the same. Just like how I wasn't able to kill anyone else, it means I was never supposed to." She put a hand on her hip. "If I had to take a guess, they are going to kill me soon."

"And why's that?" I asked, glaring at her.

A grin appeared on her face. "Because, it's simple. I don't think they'd make two fake executions."

I blinked a few times, trying to figure out what I just heard. "W-wait! Back up! What?"

"You heard me." Enima said coldly. "Now, I could be lying, but I might as well put everything on the table, right?"

"You're saying that there was a fake execution?" Stephan was now giving her all of his attention. "Whose?!"

"Well, I can't say that!" She wasn't going to tell us? Come on! You can't just give us that info?
"Why even tell us?!" I yelled out. "What do you gain from this?"

She slowly turned her head towards me. "Didn't you hear me? I want neither side to win. I want both sides to face as many casualties as possible. It's no good for me if you all die here."

I narrowed my eyes slightly. "And why's that?

"If you all die here, the group supporting you will die off too quickly." Enima replied. "Once again, can't have that happening."

Robin stroked his chin. "So what, are you saying by telling us nothing, we don't stand a chance against the mastermind?"

She nodded her head. "Pretty much. This game has been rigged from the start, but you have to figure that out yourself… However… I will tell you this. One person who should be alive is dead, and one person who should be dead is alive."

"Why do you have to be so cryptic?" Jack clenched his fist, a little angry.

Enima let out a laugh. "Because it's more fun this way." Her smile turned to a frown. "You should be thankful to someone. Because of them, half the work is already done. And I'm not talking about myself."

"Half of the work, what do you mean by that?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "Can't go into details for that, but know that it's the truth. I've only lied about two things in my confession. One was to protect someone I care about. The other, you'll find out eventually." She turned to Monokuma. "Oh, and one final thing for you…" A wicked grin appeared on her face. "How does it feel to be alone now? Are you crying? They are never coming back."

The bear didn't move a muscle for a long time. Whatever she said really got to the Mastermind.

But then, the bear slammed down on the execution button.

Enima bowed down. "I bid adieu to the only person who would care about me." She glanced up into a corner of the courtroom. "If they're watching, that is."

Monokuma seemed rather mad. "Well then, let's get this execution on the run! Goodbye you good for nothing sad excuse of a person!" He really was pissed! "I've prepared a very special punishment for Enima Palapeli, the Ultimate Backstabber!" The bear said with glee.

She stopped bowing to look at me. "By the way, master that ability of yours…"

"My what…?" She can't possibly know about that at all.

Enima had a smirk on her face. "Oh please, I can tell you have the same thing as me. The power to see the changes in fate."

She… she has it too…?

"Let's give it everything we've got!" The bear continued.

"I know you have it…" Her hand motion was so quick, even quicker than when she threw her knife at Jack. It came flying towards me, but still, I was able to sidestep out of the way thanks to my power. Stephan was even too slow to react.

"See, I knew it." She smirked. "I did my part, it's time for you to do yours. And please, watch out for the dark." I don't know why she was giving me warnings like that. I couldn't quite tell what her full game plan was.

"IT'S… PUNISHMENT TIME!"

She looked back at Monokuma, before looking back at everyone else. "See you on the other side, losers." She grinned.

Enima Palapeli has been found guilty! Time for punishment!

.

Enima was being led towards the center of an old town, she had a blindfold around her head. The town Monokuma all had pitchforks, lifting them up in the air, screaming.

.

Enima Palapeli, the Reserve Course Student's Execution: Salem Witch Trial

.

She was being led to what appeared to be the gallows of sorts, and there was a rope hanging from it as one would expect. However, once she got there, they didn't actually hang her at all. Instead, they took the noose and used it to wrap her around the pole. Hanging her was too quick of a fate, after all. No, there would need to be suffering in this. Slowly, the Monokuma's started to throw hay at her feet until it reached her lower body. She let out a small sigh of boredom, prompting them to hurry up some more. When there was finally enough, the executioner Monokuma slowly walked over to the start of the hay trial, and lit on fire.

Slowly and slowly, the fire crept its way down its path towards Enima, who now had a smile on her face. She must have thought that this was a fitting death for her after.

After a few more seconds, the fire finally reached her legs, and she started to burn up. Her skin slowly turned red as the fire made its way up to her stomach.

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to be the way she died either. Enima felt a pull at her leg, and the pole broke. She went with it, being dragged away towards the lake. On her leg, was a chain with a metal ball attached to it. She was then dropped into the water where she quickly started sinking.

After a bit, she managed to get herself free from the pole that she was tied to, but she still had the problem of the chain. Not that she was trying to escape to live or anything. She tried to break her leg free from it, when suddenly, a hand reached out for her, grabbing her arm. It was a semi transparent arm that had a watery vibe to it.

This caused her to freeze a little, probably a little spooked by it. Then slowly, a face crept towards her, showing the spirit of a crying person. Soon, more hands started to grab hold of her, slowly dragging her down. She let out a small scream, but because of being under water, only water filled her lungs instead. Then, one of the figures placed a hand over her mouth so she couldn't scream anymore. And slowly, she was dragged down to the dark blue below, to her watery death.

.

We all just stood there. None of us really seemed sad, but witnessing another death like that wasn't great… even if it's someone who got us into this mess.

"We are down to six now… Monokuma can't possibly want to continue all of this…" Lily mumbled, gripping her hand.

"Of course not!" The bear laughed loudly. "There's way too few people left. Besides, Enima was just the penultimate act, after all!"

I looked outside. It had gotten really late now, in fact, it was probably past midnight at this point. My attention turned towards Monokuma. "It's been five days like you said. Are you ready to reveal yourself now?"

The bear covered his mouth, laughing slightly. "Oh, I'm just about, but that's no fun if I just tell you who I am. You will need to figure that out on your own."

"We've come this far…" Stephan said, with his arms crossed. "I'm sure we can do this too."

"Then I welcome you!" The bear laughed loudly.

This is it, we may finally be able to start piecing together every puzzle piece we found. This is that day all of this ends.

.

.

.

The man was sitting on a stump, eating a piece of meat from something he killed. His eyes, reflecting the flickers of the flames. He looked up to someone, who was sitting a little further. They weren't illuminated by the light at all, but there was clearly someone there.

"So… you're planning on heading back in there…?" The person asked.

The man slowly nodded his head. "From what I gathered, they'll be making their move soon. I can't afford to wait here on the sidelines while all that happens. I want you to stay her-"

"No…" They said rather coldly. "I'm going too, I can't just a-"

"My words are final. You won't be of any help right now anyways…" The man stood up, having finished his meal. Then, he walked away, adjusting his hat as it almost got blown away by the wind.

The shadow figure watched them leave. When they were gone, they put the fire out, turning the entire scene around them into darkness.