I don't know how long I was standing there, mortified. What had I just witnessed? Volvo… Volvo just died in front of us? What… What the hell?!
"AAAAAAH!" Lily covered her eyes, looking away. Next to her, Caren instinctively went to cover the eyes of a child that was not there. Realizing that such a child did not exist, she brought her hand back to her.
Near the back of the stage, Josef stood, looking at the body. His mouth was agape, not being able to say anything.
Suddenly, the sound of an announcement could be heard.
.
Ding Dong! Bing Bong! Ding Dong! Bing Bong!
.
The screen in the auditorium lit up to show Monokuma's face. "A body has been discovered! Please gather in the auditorium. After a certain amount of time, a class trial will be held."
That announcement pretty much just confirmed it… We were looking at a dead Volvo.
Enima slowly stood up. "Then if we only have a certain amount of time, we should try and figure out what happened."
"How… How can you be so calm…?" Lily asked, making her way towards her. "It was like when we found the hanged man!"
"Hanged man…?" The babysitter mumbled, slowly turning to face them.
Before that conversation could go any further, the doors burst open. "What in god's name happened here?" Cameron shouted out, no longer tired. Three people were standing behind him. He froze up slightly seeing the body in the distance. "I… I should have known something happened when I saw these three appear in the lobby." I looked behind him to see Bella, Jean, and Marcus.
"Bella!" Lily's face filled with glee, having seemingly already forgotten what had happened. She ran over to her, tackling her to the ground.
I shook my head before turning my attention to Jean and Marcus. I quickly moved over to them. "Are you guys alright?"
"Yeah… it wasn't that-" Jean started to say before glancing at the explorer, who kept walking.
He stopped halfway down the stairs, looking down at Volvo's body. "What the hell… What the hell happened?!" He clenched his fist.
"It appears someone died." Robin noted. Brilliant deduction there. He walked down to the stage.
"So we're just supposed to investigate…?" I mumbled, looking down at the body. I shook my head. No. I don't want to do this yet. I just need… a little more time...
My attention turned back to Jean and Bella. Maybe I should talk to them, ask how they are doing in more detail. "What was it like?"
He shook the back of his head. "We were just trapped in a building for the most part. I mean, there was pen and paper, but not that much. And I didn't use it." He looked at the ground. "It was nothing but boring, honestly. We didn't even have food." He looked over to Bella. "If anything, I had to keep her occupied since she wouldn't stop whining."
"Hey!" She called out, having finally been freed from the tackle.
The librarian looked at her for a few seconds before ruffling her hair. "Whatever you say, kid." He smirked to himself.
"Did you have anything to eat, at least?" I asked him.
He looked at me for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Nope. Nothing. He did stop by a few times to torment us." He shrugged. "But after a day or two, you become accustomed to it."
Suddenly.
Bear.
"Oh riiiight! You guys need some food!" Monokuma said, pulling some bread out of seemingly nowhere. "Well then, you better eat this, then!" He handed a piece to Jean and Bella, before running off to give some to Marcus.
"Well… at least you got some food." I said.
Bella took a little nibble into her bread. "I forgot what food tasted like."
Jean looked at his before handing it to Bella. "Wouldn't be the first time I've gone days without eating." He turned around to walk away.
Jean… I mumbled internally.
Suddenly, Monokuma walked back. "Whoops! Almost forgot about the most important part!"
"Water?" Bella asked.
"The Monokuma File!" He replied.
I heard a beeping sound from my E-Handbook. I slowly pulled it out, turning it on. Instead of the usual loading up screen. Instead, there was like a book cover that simply said: "Monokuma File #1." Oh, number one. That's reassuring. I shook my head trying to get the thoughts out of it. I then opened it.
.
Monokuma File #1
.
The victim this time is none other than Volvo Hiuk, the Ultimate Hairstylist. He was killed in the Ultimate Host Lab at 9:30am. He was stabbed by multiple sharp objects before being flung into a wall. He died rather quickly after that from shock. Nothing else unusual about the body was found.
.
Is this… supposed to help us? Well… I guess it is. I let out another sigh as I glanced over to the body. I didn't want to, but no one else seemingly wanted to either. So I guess I had no choice. I approached Volvo. Standing nearby him was Marcus and Robin. A little bit away was Josef, who hadn't moved from his spot.
I looked at Marcus, who seemed to only be covering his mouth. With his other hand, he was gripping onto his rope at his hips. "Are you alright?"
He glanced at the ground, tipping his hat down. "Why did he have to die…?"
"I… I don't know…" I looked at his body again. From what I could see, he did have the injuries the Monokuma file mentioned. I gulped slightly. I felt like I was going to faint from all the blood in front of me.
"It's a horrible sight… but we have to do this. At least for him." Marcus told me, still keeping his face hidden by his hat. Seems he didn't want to see the blood either.
I glanced over at Robin, who was reading the file, and looking at the body.
"Anything you can tell us?" I asked, hoping to get some answers from him.
He slowly shook his head. "Nothing out of the ordinary. There's nothing wrong about the file. It even shows where he's been punctured on it. So this won't be much help."
"Right…" I mumbled. I figured that the file itself would almost be useless. Although, the cause of death being shock does interest me.
Next person I walked over to was Josef, who had yet to move away. "Hey… Are you alright?" I felt myself asking, despite disliking how he had been the entire time before.
"I… I… I… I… I… I… I…" Was the only thing he seemed to be able to say at the moment. He probably had a horrified expression on his face, but it's hard to tell with his glasses on. I wish he would take them off.
I looked up at the thread, hoping to find where it leads to. Eventually, it led me backstage, where I saw Enima, Jack, and Caren standing.
The first person I approached was Jack, who seemed to have his arms crossed. I don't remember seeing him sitting with everyone else. "Hey, where were you when this was all going down?"
He didn't respond for a few seconds before finally making eye contact with me. "What do you mean, I was in the audience, like the rest of the people who showed up. I was just in the back, so you didn't notice me."
"But I loo-" I started to say before he sent a small glare at me.
"Does it really matter where I was? No, so let's stop debating about that right now. I just want to get to the bottom of this whole thing."
Marcus shook his head slightly. "Well, did you find anything?"
This was met by more silence, before a small grin appeared on his face. "Did I find something? Well, of course." He looked to his side, where a thin thread could be seen. "This is part of the trap." He noted.
However, looking at where it connected to, it didn't seem like it actually did anything with what we saw earlier. Infact, it looked like it snapped. I turned to look at Jack. "Are you sure this is part of what happened?"
He looked off into the distance, before looking down at the ground. "Look, this isn't my expertise, I'm just stating it looks part of it, or at least someone attempted to do something with it."
I took another look at the wire, but really, I don't know what it could do. Was it missing something?
Marcus shook his head again. "Well, let's go see if anyone else has found anything."
Right, that would probably be for the best.
The next person we went to was Caren, who also had her attention on the wall, similar to Jack. "What are you looking at?"
She turned around a cog that was mounted on the wall and it turned like one would. Some small bits of thread appeared to be caught on the cogs. She turned to look at me. "This is from the daycare, I remember seeing them."
I took another look at them. They seemed rather childlike, so yeah, it made sense. Hey, wait a second. There seemed to be one missing at the top, odd. Did it fall off when it was in motion?
"I'm probably going to head there to see if I can find any that were similar." And with that, the babysitter left.
I looked around the area, but didn't seem to find any cogs. However, there appeared to be some dried up liquid on the ground, as there was a wet spot. "What do you think that could be?"
Marcus leaned down, staring at it for a few seconds. "If I was a liquid expert, I would tell you." Thanks.
The last person in the area was Enima, who seemed to be walking around without much care for what was happening.
"And did you find anything?" I approached her.
She slowly turned to look at me. "No, not anything of interest. Just a little interested in this whole trap thing." She looked up at the spear like objects that were dripping blood. "Someone really wanted to make a person suffer, but they didn't seem very good at it."
"Not very good at it?" I asked for clarification.
She nodded, pointed at the snapped thread from earlier. "I don't think they knew what they were doing. It's a miracle this trap even worked at all."
I don't think that's what I would call a miracle. I shook my head. "Why, are you a trap expert?" I joked.
Enima let out a small laughter. "No, it's just something I noticed. Besides that, there's not much else of note.
"I think that's everything behind here covered for now." Marcus noted.
I nodded at him as I left the place. "Alright, there's still some other people I want to talk to…" Then, an idea popped in my head. "Oh! Marcus! Do you have any memory of being taken away?"
He lowered his hat slightly. "No, not really, I went to bed at the hotel, and then woke up when Jean and Bella shook me awake."
Oh, that's not helpful. Maybe I should ask one of them two exactly how they were kidnapped.
Once I was back at the front stage, I saw Josef pressing his cane against his head.
Deciding I wanted to see what he had to say. "Hey, you went backstage at one point."
He stayed still for several more seconds before lowering the cane. "Yes, I did go backstage, and I did notice something odd there, the concraption wasn't there before. But I didn't think much of it." Seems he was doing better. And, any rudeness he had in his voice seemed to be gone. "Nor was it there when I stopped by yesterday morning… So sometime between then and there, someone visited this place."
That's some good information. "I smiled softly. "Thank you." Looking around the place, there were a few more people who were still here. I decided to go see what Bella and Lily were doing.
The latter, seemed to be hugging the former pretty tightly.
"Don't ever leave me!" Lily yelled out, loudly.
Bella was attempting to escape her grasp, but it proved to be futile.
I let out a small chuckle as I walked over and forcibly separated them. "She just came back, don't hug her too much."
"R-right!" The florist took a step back quickly.
I turned my attention to focus on the ecologist. "Do you think you could tell me what happened before you were taken?"
She thought for a bit before shaking her head. "I don't actually remember how I was taken. I think I was sleeping or something, but Jean woke me up sometime late at night. There was a small barred window, and we couldn't see the sun or the moon."
Yeah, I figured it was nighttime. But, that doesn't really help to know when people were taken exactly. Then, something came to mind.
.
"Perhaps he just decided to sleep in late today." Daniella said, sliding down the bench of the table. "He told me he was going to stay up late reading, so he might not have gone to bed really late."
.
If he was up late, it might be able to pinpoint how late he could have been taken. I waved the two goodbye and made my way over to Jean, who was sitting down on one of the chairs. He saw Marcus and I walking up to him, and shook his head slightly. "What do you two want now?"
I tilted my head slightly, glancing away. "Well, I know I asked about where you were taken, but now I want to ask about how you were taken. Were you asleep?"
"Asleep…" He repeated, crossing his arms. Then, he shook his head slightly. "No… I don't think I was asleep. I was up late at night reading some books…" Then he seemed to remember some more. "Right, I don't know how late it was, but I was sitting at the desk in the room, and I think someone came from behind me and covered my mouth. My memory is a little hazy after that."
"You don't remember how late it was?" I asked with a small frown.
He nodded, clearly not happy with the answer he gave me. "I get absorbed when I read, so I never bothered to check. If I remember, I'll make sure to tell you."
Then, Marcus and I walked away. "Well, that didn't give us too much…" I mumbled.
He shook his head. "Nonsense, I'm sure if we keep asking around more, we'll eventually find something. No need to feel discouraged." A smirk appeared on his face.
I looked at him for a little longer before the smirk appeared on my face. Seems it was contagious. "Very well, let's go ask some more people."
There were still two people I hadn't talked to, but I found it better to approach Cameron, who still seemed half asleep. "And why are you so tired."
He had resting his head on his arm, staring straight ahead of him. Slowly, he tilted his head, moving back slightly, having just realized I was standing there. "When did you get here?"
"Like a minute ago…" I deadpanned.
"Oh…" He rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah… I kinda stayed up all night last night to get some planning done."
"Getting some planning done?" I repeated.
Marcus shook his head. "At a time like this? Why?"
He kept eye contact with him, trying to formulate an answer, but it seemed to come back blank. "I… I don't know, because of the whole thing, I hadn't had much time to plan, so I thought last night would be a good time, so I was at the library till six in the morning." He informed me.
I frowned slightly; It seemed suspicious, but I didn't have any reason to doubt that he would.
"Did you see anyone else last night that could confirm your alibi." Marcus asked him.
He remained quiet for a few seconds. "I think Daniella was in the lobby at the time, so she could tell you."
I looked around the place, but I didn't see her. Had she left the auditorium? Where could she have gone.
"Besides that, that's all I can offer you." Cameron frowned slightly.
"No, no! It's fine, it's more than enough." Not really, it barely told me anything.
And lastly, Historia was standing near the wall on the left, looking up. She had a frown on her face. When I glanced up, I saw a small blood splatter there. Right, that's where Volvo hit the wall after being stabbed. Just the thought of it made my body tremble. I never wanted to see something like that ever again.
The historian glanced over at me, realizing I was looking at the same thing. "Can I help you?" There was slight bitterness in her voice.
"Oh, I'm just looking around the area." I informed her, looking back up. "Awful, right?"
She remained silent for a few seconds. "Yeah, it is…"
"Hmm…" Marcus hummed as he moved over to the curtain against the wall. He removed it, to reveal a rather tall wooden ladder was hidden by it. "Was this always there…?"
Josef, who had moved away from the center stage shook his head. "No, not by my knowledge. At least not that ladder. There's some smaller ones in the back, but not enough to reach that high."
A ladder? Where did this come from? Well, I should take note of it anyways. It has a small familiarity to it.
Historia backed up slightly. "I think we should move the curtain out of the way, get a view of the whole contraption."
"... On it…" Josef said as he got the curtains moved.
I moved over to the stairs so I could get a grand view of the place. And it was odd… A lot of the spots weren't used. On the right, there seemed to be a sword sticking out of the wall. And it was never used. Volvo went straight up into the spear like object, then he slammed against the wall on the left. Then it ended… Was there possibility more to this? Not to mention, off to the back right, there seemed to be a circle made of tape. But that seemed to be all I noticed. "I think that's most of what would be in here, I think we should head out now. There's some people who aren't here." Like Daniella, Serena, and Stephan. They seem to be missing.
Marcus nodded, tipping his hat slightly. "I agree, although, I don't know where to start."
"I'm sure we'll hopefully end up at the right spot." I said as I started to leave. When we stepped outside of the building, I would run into Serena, who was attempting to walk in. "Oh." She mumbled.
Well, would you look at that. One person I was looking for. "Where have you been?"
"Not here, obviously." She looked away, avoiding eye contact. Then, she looked back at me. "I didn't really care to come here like Josef wanted, so I didn't bother."
"But everyone else came here…" I mumbled.
"Everyone else is a loose term to mean most people. A couple others didn't bother going, so I don't see why I was required to go. I wanted to do some other stuff." She glanced up at the sky like she was looking for something.
"Are you searching for something…?" I asked as I too, looked up at the sky.
She stared longingly into the sky for a little longer before looking back at me. "I don't know, but my instincts are telling me to search the skies." Instincts, huh.
Marcus tipped his hat. "Instincts are important. Sometimes, you gotta follow them."
My instincts normally consist of not doing anything different. Life will guide me anyways, like it already has for all of these years. "Anyways, we should go explore some other places."
"Right." He replied as we left.
Not long, we made our way to the Ultimate Babysitter lab, or, I guess just the daycare repurposed as that. I slowly opened the door, stepping inside.
Caren was on the ground, rummaging through some toys that were left behind.
"Find anything?" I walked over to her.
She slowly stood up, glancing at Marcus and I. "Well, they definitely took all the gears here. There were a good dozen of them." A dozen of them? There were only five, and maybe a missing one, but that doesn't explain the other six of them. Odd.
"Anything else?" Marcus asked, approaching her.
She slowly shook her head. "Not that I can think of." She moved over to the other stuff. "Yeah… that's it, nothing else of value could have been taken here."
Well then yeah, I think that's all we'll find from here. We should move on to another place.
"Is this case making any sense to you?" Marcus asked as we walked to our next area. We were on our way to the temple.
I looked at the ground, thinking of all this. Nothing really came to mind, so I shook my head. "No, nothing comes to mind…" I don't know who could have done this, but it falls on us to figure out who did it.
Then, something caught our eye. We saw someone turning down the alleyway. We didn't get a good glimpse of them. Marcus and I shared a look between each other before heading off towards the person.
Following them led us back to a familiar building. It was the "Store" that was filled with nothing but weapons and the likes. I slowly walked over to the door and opened it.
The person we saw was Daniella. Seems she had a fixation on this place.
She turned to look at us and smiled with her eyes closed. "Oh, someone came here to investigate."
Looking around the room, it was obvious that this was related to the murder that just took place. All the glass was shattered, and some of the weapons were missing. "I guess that explains one thing."
"Couldn't they have simply opened the glass cases?" Marcus asked, walking up to them.
The secretary tilted her head slightly. "You would think, but in reality." She stuck her hand down her shirt while I covered Marcus' eyes, who simply yelled out. "Hey!"
She pulled out a key tied to a necklace. "I found this the other day while I was looking around the place. You have to be thorough in an investigation; Wouldn't want to miss a way out."
"So, someone broke in here last night…" I mumbled moving some glass over with my foot so I could walk over to the cases more easily. "Guess they took the swords and spears…" I hummed in thought. And some rope it would seem. Could have sworn there were two when we first checked. Maybe my memory is just bad? I didn't see any at the crime scene, though.
"Oh, and I think it's worth mentioning…" Daniella started to talk again. "I was being stalked last night."
"Stalked?" I turned towards her. "By who?"
She simply shrugged, not really a care in the world. "I don't really know who did it, their face was obstructed, but someone was following me while I was taking a nighttime walk."
"Huh…" Marcus scratched the back of his head. "Why were you walking around late at night?"
She tilted her head slightly, looking upwards. "I just love looking upon a full moon. There was one last night."
"Why would you go outside when all of this is happening?" Marcus was worried. "No one could have helped you if something went wrong!"
She laughed a little, smiling the entire time. "Oh, nowhere is really safe, if someone was determined enough, they could kill someone in the hotel. Besides, it was a really beautiful night."
I don't think a beautiful night warrants going outside in a situation like this. Was there something else I needed to ask her? Oh right! "Huh, did you see Cameron last night?"
"Cameron?" That got her attention. "Actually yes, I did. I was sitting in the lobby when I saw him passing by. He seemed like a man on a mission." She smirked slightly. "He was mumbling something, but I didn't quite catch it."
"Thank you." I smiled warmly. Alright, that should be everything here. Now, for the one last thing. The temple. And then, I need to find Stephan, he's been disappearing as of late, and he never showed up to investigate the body. Frankly… I'm kinda worried about him.
"Alright, to the temple." Marcus tipped his hat to obscure his face.
I nodded, turning around. "Right."
We walked for a bit and eventually made it there, but once again, we were surprised by what we saw.
Stephan was walking out of the temple, his hands in his pocket.
"Where have you been?" I looked at, mad that he kept going off on his own, but also happy he was fine.
"Oh, me? I just wanted to go do some exploring…" He crossed his arms turning to the temple. "And I think I found us some valuable info." He turned to look back at me. "The wall with symbols at the end of the hallway is gone."
What…? "Gone?" I asked him. But it was just there yesterday…
He nodded, looking down. "Seems someone figured out the code for it."
"Really…?" Marcus seemed dumbfounded. "That easy? It should have taken days for a team to decipher something like that. And we didn't even have knowledge of it before!"
He lifted his hands up defensively. "Woah, woah, I don't know how they did it. But whoever did it, must have also gone further into the place. I didn't find any traps there…"
"None at all? What's to say there was any further in to begin with?" I suggested, knowing that probably wasn't the answer.
He smiled at me. "Yeah, that's a possibility… Although, none of the traps were tampered with all the way up to that secret passage…"
None? "Wait, you checked them all?"
He let out a small laugh, rubbing the back of his head. "It was a pain, I almost took my own head off. Probably should have asked you and Serena for help." He was addressing Marcus.
He slowly nodded. "You probably should have… we don't need another dead person on our hands."
.
Ding Dong! Bing Bong! Ding Dong! Bing Bong!
.
We glanced around, and soon found a monitor which turned on, revealing Monokuma's face. "Well, I hope this is enough time. You had a lot of time just to explore, so…" He stood up from his chair. "It's time to start the class tria! Please, everyone meet up in the lobby!"
The lobby, ugh… I have a bad feeling about all of this, I don't want us to be wrong about this…
Marcus put a hand on my shoulder. "It will be alright!" Oh, my face must have been showing my emotions. He grabbed the rim of his hat, tipping it down. "Inside there, it's up to us and everyone else to come to a solution. We won't let fate escape us!"
Fate? How could we let that escape us? It's set in stone. "Right… if you say so."
Stephan walked past us. "Well, don't want to keep the bear waiting!"
The three of us made our way back towards the lobby. When we got there, we would see that everyone else already gathered.
"We're all here, now what?" Jack asked, looking around.
"I guess we just debate here!" Cameron threw out an answer.
Josef slowly shook his head. "I highly doubt we would do a trial in a hotel lobby. Monokuma must have a secret location in mind. Perhaps there's a courtroom further inside the hotel that we didn't see yet."
After a few seconds, a loud ding could be heard. All of our focus changed to look at the elevator, which just opened.
"Oooor…" Stephan but his hands behind his head. "We just head in the elevator."
"But that's… really creepy…" Lily mumbled, looking away from it. "And isn't the limit on an elevator like eight people? Aren't we fifteen?"
"There's no limit to anything!" Cameron shouted as he tossed some dice, surprisingly hitting no one.
Daniella walked into the elevator. "Well, are we going or not, I would hate to see what happens if we keep the bear waiting."
This was followed by silence, until one by one, we all entered the elevator. And then, the door closed.
Honestly… the elevator felt…
"Big!" Lily finished my sentence. "Oh whoops, half of that was said in my head." Oh, seems we had the same thought. "But yeah, this is way bigger that I thought it would be!"
The elevator started going down.
"Huh… We didn't have a basement, and now we are going down." Jack hummed in thought. Then… we stopped going down and then started heading backwards. He remained silent for a few seconds before adjusting his glasses. "Honestly, I didn't think elevators did this."
"Wish we had a window to see what was happening?" Cameron was stuck looking at a wall.
Jean shook his head. "Wouldn't we just see a wall anyway? We're underground."
The dungeon master frowned a bit before a smile appeared on his face. "Come on! You aren't using your imagination!"
I smiled slightly, seeing that some other people could still have normal conversations. But then I frowned, looking around. Bella was leaning against a corner, hugging herself. She definitely didn't want to be here… Caren also seemed deep in thought. There were a lot of people who simply didn't want to be here. But others didn't seem to mind. Well, not that they didn't mind, but they didn't seem bothered. Serena was glancing off to the side, more annoyed, if anything. Enima seemed bored of this elevator ride.
"What do you think will happen in there?" I asked Marcus, looking up at him.
He hummed in thought as he tipped his hat. "I hope we find out who did this…"
My attention turned back towards the door. Yeah, same. I hope we do find out who did this. It's… it's our lives or theirs. And that's a horrible way to think, but that's how we are going to need to think about this.
Then, the elevator stopped going horizontally, before going back up.
"Alright, back to being a normal elevator." Lily smiled.
And after a few more seconds, it opened up to what looked like a courtroom.
"Knew it…" Josef said, stepping out.
Everyone else slowly stepped out, taking in the place.
It had a modern courtroom vibe to it. Well, why wouldn't it? The doors leading outside were closed, but we could see through the windows. It was a part of the city we hadn't even explored yet.
"Oh, we have names on our podiums." Lily noticed as she walked over to one that had her name.
Everyone slowly shuffled over to the podium containing our names.
I frowned slightly, looking around at everyone. I really didn't want to be here. Then, my attention shifted towards a picture frame. It was a picture of Volvo, and it appeared to have a red pair of scissors opened up to look like an X. I let out a small sigh. "Why did someone have to die…?" I found myself saying out loud.
"That's something we're going to figure out now!" Cameron announced, clenching his fist.
I looked around at everyone.
.
Several pictures appeared.
One of Jean leaning back to the side, reading his 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 smile, waving.
One of us decided to kill…
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 an unknown emotion.
One of Josef holding his cane against his forehead.
One of Cameron, throwing his dice at the camera.
I don't want to believe it so, but we have to figure it out now.
One of Robin, cloaking himself in his robe.
One of Caren, running her hands through her hair.
One of Jack adjusting his glasses, looking off to the side.
One of Riley looking determined with a little fear in her eyes.
One of Daniella smirking with her eyes closed.
One of us is a murderer! And I intend to find out who!
.
.
.
Class Trial!
Commence!
.
.
.
Monokuma was sitting down on the seat where the judge would normally sit. "Well then first of all, let's give a basic summary of the tr-"
"We know how trials work." Jack interjected.
The bear remained silent for a bit. "-Summary of the tri-"
"We know how a trial works." Robin added right after.
More silence. "... -S-"
Historia crossed her arms. "Just get on with it…"
"Fine! I won't explain! Have fun being lost!" Monokuma said, but no one cared.
"Alright, well, I still think we should go over a few things…" I mumbled, looking at everyone else.
Bella quickly nodded. "Not all of us know how court systems work."
Jack rolled his eyes, clearly in annoyance. "Fine. But all I'm going to go over is how the victim died, since not all of us were there."
"You weren't there either." Lily pointed out.
He mumbled something under his breath before looking back up. "Then why don't you explain what happened.
Her face paled up slightly. "N-no! I can't recall that."
"Volvo walked up on stage to confront Josef." Enima started up, and seemed she recalled everything. "But his path was shortened when he stepped on a trap that entangled his leg and sent him flying towards the air. He was stabbed by multiple spears before being thrown away to the backstage. Then, he came back, smacked against a wall. Suddenly, the trap stopped working, suspending his body midair until the cord finally snapped." Yeah, that was pretty much it."
Cameron paled up slightly too. "W-what? That's horrible! Who could do such a thing!"
Historia had a hand on her hip. "That's what we're here to find out."
I gulped slightly. Whoever built that trap must have been a monster…
Robin chuckled slightly. "Well, I think it's pretty obvious who it is."
"I-it is?" Bella asked with a slight hopefulness in her voice, but there was a little fear too.
He pointed to three different people. "Well, based on the temple visit, Marcus, Serena, and Stephan are the most likely."
"And why would that be?" Serena looked away, unamused.
The tactician simply shrugged. "Well, you three are the ones who seemed to have noticed the traps when we explored the temple. So it would make sense that-"
"I was kidnapped." Marcus cut him off.
"I can't build traps." Stephan countered.
"And I only hunt animals." Serena said, although her argument was the weakest.
Robin paused for a moment. "Alright, fair point."
"Tsh… Only the first two were fair points." Historia rolled her eyes. "Serena, your argument doesn't hold any ground here."
She tilted her head at the Historian. "Look at my face, that's how much I don't care." It was a very uncaring face.
"We aren't really getting anywhere here." Jean interjected, placing his hand against his forehead. "Can we at least take this a little more seriously."
"I have an idea." Enima chimmed in. "How about the people who really wanted us to go to the auditorium?" Her eyes glanced over to Josef.
"Nonsense, I wouldn't set such a thing on my own stage. How dare you accuse me!"
She simply shrugged. "It's either you, or better yet, Daniella."
A small gasp came from her direction. "What did I do to earn suspicion?"
"You were very eager to have everyone go see Josef's little show." She countered. "While most of us didn't care, you insisted."
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Daniella shook her head in amusement. "Well, Josef wants everyone to meet up at his Ultimate Lab, so maybe we can all head over the-"
.
She rolled her eyes. "I just wanted to get it over with so he would stop harassing us."
Enima chuckled slightly, tilted her head down. "What a likely excuse. But I doubt it."
The secretary crossed her arms. "Are you going to just simply keep accusing me?"
I can see where the accusation is coming from, but I don't think it's her. That's right!
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"I don't think it's her." I interjected. Then I realized all eyes were on me. This was probably a bad idea.
"And why's that?" The mysterious girl asked me, clearly annoyed.
"Well… huh…" Why did I stop the argument. Oh! That's right! "Well, some of the things taken from the store… as Monokuma calls it-"
"Store?" Jack asked, tilting his head in my direction. "What store?"
"Oh… well… if you turn down an alleyway and keep going, you'll eventually run into a store that contains weapons." I told him.
"What?" Cameron took a step back. "Why is that a thing? Why haven't we been informed?"
Marcus tipped his hat down. "Because, the more people knew, the worst it would be."
"What… What kind of weapons are there?" Bella asked, slightly curious.
I tilted my head, glancing to the side. "Well, there were some swords, spears, lances, axes, rope, and other stuff. The swords, spears, and I think one bundle of rope was used."
"You… think?" Jack asked me. "You don't seem too confident."
Jean shook his head. "A rope was never found, nor did it seem like it was used, so for all we know, there wasn't another rope there."
Marcus clutched his own rope. "It kinda looks like mine, so I would have easily spotted one." He explained, before letting go of it.
Thanks for backing me up. "Yeah, and-"
"What does that have to do with Daniella?" Enima asked, finally getting to the point I was trying to make.
Right… "Well, Daniella managed to find a key to the cases, since they were locked." That should be enough, right?
"I hate to be the bringer of bad news…" Stephan sighed slightly. "But that doesn't really prove anything. I mean! It could be the truth, and I don't want to doubt… but it's kinda life and death…" He mumbled that last part.
Daniella took out the key to demonstrate. "Here is the key we are referring to."
"Why was that stor-" Cameron started to ask before being skipped entirely.
Enima leaned against her podium. "That could be a key to anything. Who's to say it's from the case?"
That's a valid point… I never even bothered to check if it opened the case.
"Well, where would she have even gotten the key anyways, and why bring attention to herself if it wasn't what opened the case?" Caren jumped in. "I think it's highly likely that it is in fact the key to the case."
"It was locked tight, so there is in fact a key to it." Marcus said, tipping his hat down. "So I believe her."
"Can we stop worrying about the key and start worrying about the trap itself." Serena said, getting annoyed.
Enima rolled her eyes, lifting herself off the podium. "Whatever you say, Miss Huntress."
The huntress simply crossed her arms, annoyed.
"Well, for one…" The mysterious girl continued. "Whoever built the trap was very bad at making them."
"Yeah, you mentioned that earlier." I added in.
"Whatever they tried to do, didn't end up happening. Although, it still killed someone, so I guess it still worked." She continued.
"Elaborate what you mean by, poorly made…" Stephan looked over at her.
Enima rolled her eyes. "If you could take just one look at the thing, you'd understand. It wasn't very stable at all, definitely not enough to support the weight of a human."
The thread itself seemed sturdy, so what happened to make the trap fail?
.
"Well, I think the trap was missing a piece…" I explained. "When we looked at the contraption close to the ground, there seemed to be a missing cog that would make the thread go somewhere else."
"Probably fell off because of the force being applied to it." Historia said, looking at me. "Or someone took it."
"Yes…" Jack mumbled "... And also yes…" He pulled out what appeared to be a cog from his pocket.
"You took it?" I called out. "Why didn't you tell us?"
He simply shrugged. "I was going to bring it up during the class trial, since it seemed like the better place to mention it."
"What are you doing with the missing cog?" Lily asked. "I don't think you built the trap."
He put the cog on his podium. "And you would be correct, I didn't. I felt something was fishy and went to investigate the back area. I eventually found the cog on the floor next to a puddle of whatever. Didn't think to check at the time, but I'm sure someone did." He rolled his eyes.
"So why did you want to tell us this now?" Caren asked, hoping it would at least give us some answers.
The critic grabbed the cog, tossing it in the air and catching it. "Well, a few seconds after I picked it up, the trap roared to life, and I saw it action, from a different angle. A more important one." AKA the angle that made him avoid seeing someone die. "The trap seemed to have broken slightly when it was going on, and a thread snapped off. Throwing off wherever the body should have gone, and grinding it to a halt."
"Yeah, that's pretty much in line with what we saw on our end." Caren glanced away. "It… wasn't a pretty sight."
It was… horrible…
"Luckily.. Some of us were able to avoid it…" Jean sighed in relief. He missed it, but I don't think he was talking about himself. My attention shifted to Bella, who was holding her head. A small thankful smile appeared on my face. At least she didn't have to witness that.
"I think we should take on a different way of thinking of this." Stephan said, looking at all of us. "Instead of figuring out how it works, we figure out when it was made."
A small smirk appeared on Jack's face. "I like that idea, if we can number down when it was made, we might have ourselves a suspect."
"Or, we can just realize something." Enima smirked slightly, her attention shifting towards Josef.
His face paled up slightly at the look she was giving him. "W-what do you want from me, witch?"
"Oooo! I love being called that," She was weird. She shrugged. "I meant, it's your Ultimate Lab. So you probably spent the most time in it."
He pressed his cane against his head. "True, I would have spent the most time there, but I'll assure you, I did not make that trap. I wouldn't even know how." He countered.
"Saying you don't know how isn't much of an excuse." She deadpanned.
"Worked for me." Stephan jumped into the conversation, before promptly being ignored by us all.
Josef twirled his cane around. "Well, you might think it's not a good excuse, but I stopped by my lab at 8:30 PM and the trap was not there. But I think I saw parts of it when I went in this morning."
"Yeah, but you could have done it at any time." Historia said. "Last night, or this morning."
The host shook his head, slightly aggravated. "But I didn't. Besides, this morning wouldn't have been too much time. I left for my lab an hour before everyone else arrived."
Marcus tipped his hat down. "Well, that would still be enough time, wouldn't it?"
Josef lifted his cane, pointed it at Marcus. "Don't you dare accuse me again. Why would I want to murder someone in my own Ultimate Lab. It-" He shook his cane slightly, bringing it back to him. "I… I never want to see something like that again." Seems he was still reeling from what he saw.
"Isn't it odd?" Serena asked, fiddling with one of her arrows. She then looked up at the host. "From what I've heard, the trap was set up on stage. And somehow, you managed to avoid it completely. It was only triggered when someone else walked on stage."
Josef adjusted his glasses, which started to fall slightly. "Well, that was but a stroke of luck."
Luck…? Was it really a stroke of luck…? "Actually…" I glanced down. I was going to use that as an example on trying to prove his innocence? Man, have I lost my mind?
.
I took a deep breath "When he was talking on stage earlier, I stood up at one point right as he was approaching the end of the stage. Because of that, he didn't step any further. I think he might have continued on and stepped on the trap…"
This was met by silence from the room. Alright, I guess I should explain something. Ever since I was a kid, I've always had this weird power that I couldn't quite explain. It wasn't very helpful, nor could I do much with it. The power allowed me to sense when something bad was going to happen. Whether it be something bad to me, or something bad to someone else. It would feel like time was slowing down, and I would feel immense pressure on me. Or anxiety at least. The only issue is that I've never been able to do anything. Either someone else changes the outcome, or the outcome happens. It didn't use to matter since what happened was never that bad. But now… with the threat of dying, my sense has been going off every day, pretty much.
"We aren't going to take that for word, right?" Jack crossed his arms, with his eyes closed. "Yeah, he somehow avoided it because you stood up, likely."
Josef hummed in thought before looking up at me. "I… I thank you…" Seems he was really going to step on it.
"Then why have it on stage?" The critic asked. "He was clearly trying to bait one of you into getting on stage with him."
"Um…" Bella poked her fingers together. "This may sound horrible… but what if the trap was for…" Then she stopped herself. "No, forget I said anything."
Wait… "No, tell us!" I called out. I didn't even realize I had raised my voice.
The ecologist simply shook her head. I would need to figure out what she meant herself.
.
"Are you saying… the trap was for Josef?" Silence befell the room.
"Yes…" The sweet girl mumbled.
"The trap… was for Josef?" Lily repeated. "Oh my sweet child! How could you think of something so horrible!" She brought her hands to her head.
The ecologist covered her face. "I-It just popped up in my head, I swear I don't think of these types of things all the time!"
"A trap… for me…?" Josef mumbled, taking a few steps back.
Josef, as the target? But then why did it end up as Volvo?
.
.
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Class Trial
Intermission!
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"I highly doubt someone was trying to kil-" Jack started to say before letting out a sigh. "Alright, believable enough."
"What?!" Josef yelled at him. "Why is someone trying to kill me so believable."
"Well…" Caren looked away. "You were kinda a prick the whole time."
"That-That!" He started to say.
"Moving on…" Jean sighed. "So someone set up a trap in an attempt to kill Josef. Now, who would want him dead?" This was met by silence. "Right…" He scratched his head. "This doesn't help at all."
"Once again, I think we should figure out a time that they could have built a trap." Enima suggested. "If Josef was there till 8:30PM. Then that leaves an hour and a half window yesterday, and a two hour window this morning. Or whatever, I don't remember when he left." She shrugged.
"Wait… what about night time?" Lily asked in a curious tone.
The mysterious girl rolled her eyes before pulling out her E-Handbook. "Because of rule #2."
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Rule #2: "Nighttime" is from 10 pm to 7 am. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.
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"Most places are closed at night, which would probably mean some place like the auditorium." She explained.
"Well, that isn't a lot of time to do it…" Stephan mumbled. "But morning seems like the way better time for this to be done…"
"And if it's morning…" Historia's attention turned towards a certain someone. Right, the most likely morning candidate is…
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"Serena?" I asked, looking at her.
"What?" She didn't seem pleased to be accused.
"W-well… you vanished this morning to do your own thing…" I explained. "That could have been to set up the trap."
Her grip tightened on her arrow. "Like I would make it that obvious if I was the killer. No, I didn't go and set up a trap." She put her arrow away to cross her arms.
Robin brought his hand to his chin. "Didn't you say you could spot a trap from a mile away? Isn't it weird that you didn't come to the auditorium? You could have spotted the trap. But then again, if you did come, and did set it up, it would look weird on you if you didn't point it out."
The huntress drew her arrow and aimed it at the tactician. " I didn't make the damn trap!"
"Then what were you doing?" Jack glared at her. "To leave so early in the morning with no reasons…"
"A bird." She simply replied.
This caught the critic off guard. "A… bird?"
She tilted her head slightly, a small blush on her face. "I'm looking for a bird willing to land nearby."
"You're not planning on killing it, are you?" Bella mumbled.
"What? No!" Serena quickly shook her head. "I like having a pet bird. Besides, my instincts are telling me to look up at the sky." That's right, that's what she said to Marcus and I.
"So… you left early in the morning, to search for a bird?" I repeated. It did kinda sound stupid.
She paused for a few seconds, probably realizing how ridiculous it sounded. "Well… yes…" Then her head snapped back towards Robin. "Why am I being accused anyways? So what if I left early? It could have been anyone before me."
"Not with the rule set in place." Jack crossed his arms.
"What if the rule isn't for the auditorium?" Jean asked, placing his hands on the podium. "I don't know why we started assuming that."
"Oh?" Robin turned to look at him. "And what proof do you have that it doesn't apply?"
The librarian scratched the back of his head. "None so far… but maybe someone here went to an Ultimate Lab at night."
Who would have gone to an Ultimate Lab at night?
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"Cameron, now that I think about it-" I started to say.
He covered his face with his arm, in a mysterious way. "So… you think I did it?"
"What? No!" I quickly said.
He uncovered his face, looking a bit awkward. "Oh…" I don't know what he was expecting.
I shook my head. "You said you went to the library last night, right?"
"OH!" He finally realized what I was talking about. "Yes, I did stop by the library last night."
Enima smirked slightly. "What were you doing over there big man?"
"Planning my DnD campaign!" He commented.
The room fell in silence.
"Fucking nerd." Enima said.
"Fucking nerd." Historia said.
"Fucking nerd." I said.
"W-what?" He quickly turned to look at me. "You are part of this group too!" He placed his hand against his forehead. "Anyways, yeah, I went to the library last night, so I guess maybe Ultimate Labs are open."
"Of course they are open!" Monokuma laughed out. "Why wouldn't they be, I only limit very specific areas, like the cafeteria, and some later areas, will be closed at night."
"So yes, the auditorium would have also been open." Caren said. "As well as the daycare, and the temple."
I guess most of the labs were used somehow for this murder. "Yeah, but now that it's open at night, that makes it so anyone… can do it…" Great, we are back to square one. Didn't really think of that.
"Isn't it obvious now?" Josef shook his head, a small smirk appearing on his face. "Not many people were out at night. There's only two candidates who could have done it, and we already gave reasons for why one of them couldn't do it."
"Who is this person then?" Cameron asked with a smile.
You are going to make me say it, huh?
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"Yourself." I replied to him.
The dungeon master stood still for a few seconds before returning to the same pose he was earlier. "So… you think I did it?" Here we go again.
"Would explain my stalker." Daniella rolled her eyes with amusement.
"Stalker?" Cameron tilted his head slightly. "I didn't stalk you!"
Daniella smirked slightly. "But if anyone were to stalk me, I feel like it would be you."
Cameron held onto the podium. "What have I done to warrant that?"
The secretary sent him a look before rolling her eyes. "Nevermind. But you were one of the only people I saw head outside."
"What time did you head outside?" I asked her. That could be some useful information.
She twirled her hair. "Well… I sat down at around 9:00pm in the lobby." She started to explain. "And I saw Cameron walk past me at 9:30pm. And finally, I myself, left a little after 10:00pm to watch the night sky. Such a lovely moon."
"Someone could have simply left before Daniella sat down there!" Cameron countered. "Who's to say I'm the only one? And besides, I don't know how to-" He stopped for a moment to scratch his head. "Oh wait no! I do know how to build traps!"
"Is this for some DnD stuff?" Jack asked, pushing his glasses back up.
The dungeon master nodded. "Sometimes, setting up a live dungeon for your players to go through is very exciting. So I would make traps for fun. Of course, non lethal traps…"
"Come to think of it…" Historia had just thought of something. "I think I know where one of the things we found came from."
One of the things we found?
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"Right! The ladder." I said with a small smile. "We found a hidden wooden ladder behind the curtains while investigating. And… now that I think of it, it's the type that would appear in a library."
"Oh, a wooden ladder? Yeah, we had one of those." Jean told me. "It's how I reached some of the books I wanted to reach. Didn't even notice it went missing. Not that I could have…" He trailed off, probably talking about the kidnapping.
Cameron clenched his fist before tossing a dice, which landed on the podium. It was a low number because he reacted poorly. "Damn! Couldn't have been a higher number?" He clenched his fist. "It's not me, but I don't have any defense!"
Jack crossed his arms. "As much as I would hate it to be Cameron, since I was looking forward to his campaign, a lot of the evidence points to him."
The dungeon master clenched his fist some more. "I swear, I was just reading at the library the entire time! The ladder was already gone by the time I got there, or at least, I don't remember seeing one."
Daniella put her hand to her hip. "Likely excuse."
"Puhuhuhuhu!" Monokuma laughed. "You know, if you are all convinced that he is the killer. You can vote."
"Voting for me will lead to your downfall!" He took the same pose where his hand obscured his face.
Voting…? I glanced down at the screen in front of me. Voting, already? Is it alright to do that?
"Well, I think our answer is final." Daniella smirked to herself as she reached to vote.
I'll just do what everyone else is doing. I can't be faulted for that, right? My hand extended to vote, until suddenly, everything felt slow. There it was again. Was this a bad idea? I stopped my hand, and looked around. No… this could be wrong. I went to speak up, but someone else spoke before I could.
"Now let's wait a minute…" Marcus tilted his hat down. "There's still some mystery stuff we have to talk about."
"Oh? More to talk about?" Enima leaned on her podium. "Enlighten us, Indiana Jones."
Her calling him that got a snicker from him. "Very well." He flicked his hat back up so he could see everyone again. "I still have something bothering me. Mainly the liquid, and why there was extra cogs missing, right Caren?"
She nodded. "Back at the daycare, there were a dozen cogs, and they've all gone missing."
"And we only discovered five of them, six, now that Jack showed us the cog he took." I started talking. "So, we still have a few things unaccounted for." The liquid too, huh? Not sure what use that would have.
"It's just a little liquid." Josef countered, twirling his cane around. Then, he pointed it at Cameron. "It's clearly this man here, he tried to kill me."
"I solemnly swear that I did not attempt to kill you! If I would have made a trap, it would have been better than that!" The dungeon master countered.
This isn't going anywhere. I have to figure out what the missing pieces mean. A terribly made trap, more missing cogs, and some liquid on the floor… How are these connected? "Like Enima said, whoever made this was very bad at what they did. So I think if Cameron has done this stuff before, he wouldn't have made it this bad."
"Alright! One person believes me!" He took a glance around the room. "Only thirteen to go…" He mumbled.
Marcus flicked his hat upwards. "Hey, I believe you too." He grinned.
"Still a fail with that many people against me!" The dungeon master cried out.
Who could have some knowledge on traps, who wouldn't be good at making them?
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"Stephan?" I glanced at him. "You were able to avoid the traps back in the temple… and you said you didn't know how to make them… But that doesn't mean you couldn't…"
He crossed his arms, looking at the side. "Well, that's pretty true." He smiled. "But honestly, just on that alone isn't worth making me a suspect."
"You also walked out of the temple earlier today saying the wall with the symbols were gone." I continued.
"What…?" Serena glanced at me before diverting her attention to the parkourist. "Did you do that?"
He simply chuckled. "Wish it was me, but I found it like that too. Most likely whoever the killer was did it."
"Which…" Caren trailed off, tilting her head slightly, her eyes focused on the ground. "Could just be you."
Stephan was silent for a few seconds before smiling. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Then, his expression got a little bit more serious. "But it's not me. I can assure you that. If it was, I would have opened up the ruins a while ago. When I first explored it."
That's right, he managed to get ahead of us the first time we explored. "Yeah, I believe him. I felt like he would have opened up the way the first time."
"Then who does that lead us with?" Lily crossed her arms with a thoughtful pout.
"Want to know what's surprising?" Robin asked, crossing his arms slightly. "I thought the killer would have slipped up by now." He brought his hand to his chin in a thinking pose. "Or maybe… they already have."
Slipped up by now? "No… I don't think the killer slipped up yet."
The tactician glanced away. "Hey, I'm just throwing out a suggestion here."
I looked at the ground. Had someone really slipped up without us noticing.
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"It was locked tight-"
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! Wait a second… What someone said flashed into my mind. That… That can't be something… slipped by the killer? Right, no, I refuse. I, I don't even remember who said it.
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No… I do, How would he have known that? "Marcus?" I asked with a calm expression.
His attention shifted over to me. "Yes, Riley?"
"Earlier, you confirmed that the door to the weapons were locked tight." I started.
He nodded, tipping his hat down. "And of course, they were."
I glanced off to the side. "But… I never saw you actually test that out."
Marcus remained silent for a few seconds. "You just had your back turned. Plus, I went a few days ago." When would he have even gone?
"So… I think you realized it was locked when you attempted to pull something out last night, and that's why Daniella got stalked… Because I guess you figured she would know about it…" I hate accusing him, but… "What's more…" My attention turned to the rope at his hip. "I'm certain you never had to begin with, I just never questioned it before…"
He grabbed the rope and held it out. "What kind of explorer would I be if I didn't have a rope on me?"
"But… you never had a rope with you before." I countered. "It popped up after you came back from your kidnapping."
Jean rubbed the back of his head, sighing. "You know what, you're right. I never saw it either."
He remained silent for a few seconds before lifting his hat up slightly so I could see his eyes. "Are you guys accusing me?"
N-no… Well… "Yes…" I mumbled. I didn't want to, but we were seriously running out of leads!
He tipped his hat back down. "Interesting… Well, I'm just going to have to go against what you're saying."
"Wow, so calm, even when being accused." Enima noted. She looked at everyone else. "Most of you can take lessons from him."
"Do tell me, how was I supposed to set up the trap when I got kidnapped?" Marcus asked. "Besides, I would have made a rather good trap."
"O-oh… right…" I mumbled… Why did I even accuse him…?
Jack grabbed the cog, tossing it in the air, and catching it again. "You know, there could easily be an explanation."
An explanation? To how Marcus could have made the trap. What has been missing…?
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Jean shook his head. "A rope was never found, nor did it seem like it was used, so for all we know, there wasn't another rope there."
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She nodded. "Back at the daycare, there were a dozen cogs, and they've all gone missing."
"And we only discovered five of them, six, now that Jack showed us the cog he took." I started talking. "So, we still have a few things unaccounted for." The liquid too, huh? Not sure what use that would have.
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"Well, for one…" The mysterious girl continued. "Whoever built the trap was very bad at making them."
"Yeah, you mentioned that earlier." I added in.
"Whatever they tried to do, didn't end up happening. Although, it still killed someone, so I guess it still worked." She continued.
"Elaborate what you mean by, poorly made…" Stephan looked over at her.
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Wait a second… The trap wasn't poorly made! It was…
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"Incomplete…" I found myself saying out loud. "The trap was incomplete."
"Incomplete…?" Jack repeated, gripping the cog he had in his hand. "Are you saying that Marcus never finished his trap?"
It's all starting to make sense now! "Yes, I'm saying he couldn't finish the trap."
"And why couldn't I finish the trap?" He tilted his hat downwards to cast his face.
He couldn't complete the trap because…
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"Of the motive. You must have been kidnapped while doing it!" I quickly said.
Marcus remained silent for a few seconds. "If that's true, two things, wouldn't that be Monokuma stopping me from killing someone and…" He looked up. "What's your proof that whoever made the trap went missing."
Oh… right… There's not really any proof.
"Actually…" Jean mumbled, looking at the ground. Then he glanced up with a smirk. "I just remembered something." Oh, this is probably what I need to help me out. "Now that I think about it, it was around midnight when I was kidnapped. And…" He trailed off. "I think I was chloroformed… Or a liquid that works way better. Chloroform actually sucks, but it makes a good verb." He mumbled that last part under his breath.
Chloroform? That would make sense, actually, why didn't we think of that as a way they were kidnapped.
"And what about it? There's no proof that chloroform was used in the auditorium." Marcus countered.
Actually…
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"Not true, we found some liquid on the floor near the cog contraption that could be chloroform." I said. We were getting closer and closer.
Marcus remained silent, keeping his hat tilted down. "And did you ever confirm if it was chloroform, or simply something like water?"
Oh… we never did check… "No… we didn't…"
"Not so fast…" Jack crossed his arms with a smirk. "You are forgetting one thing. We don't need to have tested the puddle itself. We can use something else."
What else could we use…?
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"Are you talking about the cog…?" I asked.
He nodded. "I found it in the liquid, so it's possible some of the chloroform residue is left on it."
"So… who's gonna test it?" Robin asked, looking around the room.
Lily shot her hand up. "Oh! Me! I'll test it out!"
Jack looked at her for a few seconds before obliging and tossing her the cog.
"It's still wet…" She said, a small smirk appearing on her face. "So I guess I just smell it?" She took a sniff of it, but then nothing happened. "Guess not…"
The room was met with silence.
"Doesn't chloroform take a few minutes to take effect-" Jean started to say before Lily collapsed on the floor.
The room was met with more silence.
The librarian scratched his head. "Or maybe it was more than just chloroform…"
"Lily!" Bella shouted out.
Enima shrugged. "She'll be fine." She put her hand on her hips. "So, I think that pretty much confirms that someone was kidnapped here, which means it could only be Marcus."
The explorer still had his hat tipped down.
"I say we vote now…" Historia mumbled to herself as she pressed her screen.
Everyone around us slowly started pressing buttons on a screen.
"Puhuhuhuhu!" Monokuma laughed. "Let's see what the results are now!"
A screen above Monokuma lit up to reveal a slot like machine on it. Eventually, they stopped on the face of Marcus, with the words guilty, written below.
The bear couldn't help but laugh some more. "Ding ding! You're right!"
Seeing the results, the host turned to face Marcus. "What do you have to say for yourself?" Josef pointed his cane towards him.
"All I have to say is…" He adjusted his hat so he could look at the host. "Is that you should have died when you were supposed to."
He froze up slightly. "S-so you did try and kill me!"
I found myself frozen. No… it was really him… I… didn't even believe myself and I was the one accusing. "W-why…?"
He tilted his hat downwards. "Why do you think I did it…?"
"Because you wanted to kill Josef?" I answered, which honestly, wasn't a good answer.
He shook his head. "No, I just chose him as the target…"
Then…
.
"The motive…?" I asked.
He slowly nodded. "I couldn't just stand by and do nothing. Who knows how long it would be till nothing could be done." He clenched his fist, which was still holding his hat. "I'm not someone like that! After the second person went missing, and no one was doing anything. Josef finally set me off."
The host looked at the ground, pressing his cane against it. He didn't say anything.
"My plan was never to get away with it…" Marcus sighed, leaning his hands on the podium.
That's why he…
.
"Now let's wait a minute…" Marcus tilted his hat down. "There's still some mystery stuff we have to talk about."
.
"Marcus… you didn't have to do this…" I said sadly.
He didn't reply for a few seconds. "So let's go over the entire case now, shall we?"
The entire case… Yeah… let's do that to get a little bit of closure…
.
"Act 1: This all started when Monokuma decided to give us a motive so we could kill each other. Every night, someone would vanish until our numbers dwindled to zero. The first day, Jean was the first one that went missing, but we didn't do anything at that point. It wasn't till the second day and Bella went missing that the killer started to get more worried. And hearing Josef mock the whole thing probably didn't help that much. At that point, they started on their plan.
.
Act 2: Because Josef was planning to have a meeting in his Ultimate Lab, the Auditorium, the killer found it wise to set up a trap in there. Leaving a few minutes after 8:30 pm to enter in the small window where no one was in the lobby, they made their way to the library. Grabbing a ladder, and bringing it to the auditorium, making sure no one would notice, they went to collect some other things. They collected some wooden cogs from the daycare, as well as the thread from the traps of the temple. To avoid people finding them missing, they opened the way to a secret passage and took those traps apart.
.
Act 3: When it came time to get the weapons for this trap, they seemed to have mistaken how something worked. They couldn't get into the cases because they were locked. Not wanting to break the glass and risk someone hearing them, they thought of who could have the key. The person they were looking for just so happened to have been walking outside at the time. Unfortunately for them, they were spotted and had to retreat, resorting to breaking the glass anyways.
.
Act 4: With all they needed, they returned to the auditorium to start setting up. The first thing they did was get the weapons in place. The spears of the ceiling, and then the sword on the right. The plan was to probably have the sword deal the killing blow. But it didn't work out like that. They had gotten most of the stuff set up like the thread, and now, they were setting up the cogs. But, they didn't exactly get to finish.
.
Act 5: While they were about to put in the last cog. Someone attacked them from behind, putting a cloth to their mouth. There seemed to be chloroform on there as well as some other chemicals on them. There was a struggle because some of it spilled on the floor, including on the wooden cog. Then, they were taken away, having not finished the trap they started.
.
Act 6: The next morning, it was time for Josef to talk to everyone on stage. Most of everyone went, some of us deciding they had better things to do then to go watch Josef. Daniella was the one who eventually made us go. We all sat there while Josef droned on. At one point he almost stepped up into the trap made for him, but me standing up caused him to stop walking. It wasn't until Volvo, pissed off, got on stage, did the trap activate.
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Act 7: The trap pulled Volvo upwards into the spears. Meanwhile, backstage, Jack witnessed the trap breaking as the thread snapped because of missing cog, as well as many missing things. Volvo was then smacked into the wall before the trap fully broke, and his body came plummeting down. Then, the kidnapped people were released. The killer probably saw that the wrong person was killed ,and was devastated.
.
And this murder is something that could be commited by only you, Marcus Avventira, the Ultimate Explorer!"
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Marcus had a small smirk on his face. "You got almost everything right…"
"Oh? What did I get wrong?" I was sure everything was how it happened.
He glanced around the room, looking at each person individually. "I didn't open the way into the temple. Someone else did… And that person refuses to speak up, don't they?"
Silence befell the room.
The explorer grinned slightly. "I figured as much." He turned to look at me. "Make sure you explore the rest of the temple… There might be some interesting things in there. Hopefully some things that will shine some light on what's happening in this city."
What, there was something in the temple worthwhile? "What is in there?"
He shrugged. "It's hard to explain, and it's incomplete. So get yourself a team and head down there one day. Doesn't have to be soon… Either way, there might be more passages we can't go to because of the symbols."
Monokuma stood up from his seat. "Well, I think that's enough chatting. You know what time it is?"
"Time to sleep?" Robin asked.
The bear paused for a second before realizing something. "Yes! But only for Marcus!"
Marcus lifted his hat up slightly. "Everyone, I wish you luck in ending this. Don't kill unless you absolutely have to."
"I've prepared a very special punishment for Marcus Avventira, the Ultimate Explorer!" The bear said with glee.
"But… but you didn't have to kill! I'm sure everything would have worked out-" I started to say.
"No…" He said coldly, turning his attention to me. "This isn't a place where things will simply just work out." He tipped his hat down. "Bad stuff is always going to happen…"
"Let's give it everything we've got!" The bear continued.
He tipped his hat upwards, a small smile forming on his face. "Riley, you might have thought this to be the worst action to take. But sometimes, the worst action to take is no action at all."
Not taking any action could be the worst action… That's never worked like that for me. Doing nothing as always worked out for me...
"IT'S... PUNISHMENT TIIIME!"
"Hopefully, none of you will be joining me to where I'm going." He tilted his hat down again. I could see a single tear rolling down his cheek.
"Marcus!" I shouted out. But, it was too late to say anything else.
Marcus Avventira has been found guilty! Time for punishment!
.
Marcus looked at everyone else, who seemed to have sad eyes, for the most part. Suddenly, a collar came out of a door, wrapping itself around his neck, before dragging him off beyond a door.
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Marcus Avventira, Ultimate Explorer's Execution: Temple of Dread.
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Marcus stood in front of what seemed to be a podium. On top of the podium, was a golden statue of Monokuma. Against his own will, he moved over and slowly grabbed it, replacing it with something else. Unfortunately, that didn't work, and the podium lowered itself. A low rumbling noise could be heard. Turning around, he realized what the sound of it was. A large boulder had just dropped from the ceiling, and was slowly heading towards him. Making haste, he left down a hallway, quickly turning the corner. Without even realizing it, he stepped on a trip wire, which shot some arrows at him. He managed to avoid most of them, but one nailed him in the shoulder. But it did not hinder him. He wasn't going to stop; He still heard the boulder following him. Turning another corner, he was met by an axe swinging from the ceiling. He avoided this one, but it managed to take a little bit of hair off of him. He barely avoided the second one, almost falling into the pit of spikes below. But still, he pressed on. He kept running, and didn't find another trap until a loud slamming could be heard coming from behind him. Glancing around, he would notice the wall quickly closing in on itself. He picked up the pace, but he didn't notice a thread that he ran into, causing him to trip. Luckily, he tripped outside of the area where the wall would close in on. But, he dropped his hat. Doing the classic Indiana Jones thing, he reached out for it, only to have the wall close down and crush his hand. He screamed in pain, pulling back until his hand was ripped off. Bleeding a lot, he slowly stumbled up. He had to continue… He had to get out of here. He encountered many more traps, like venomous snakes, which he managed to avoid, falling floor, more arrows, which unfortunately managed to hit him, so he was running around with arrows inside him. And soon, he saw it! The exit! He kept running towards it, almost limping when suddenly, the low rumbling returned. He froze in place as the boulder came out of a hallway further up, blocking the exit. And then, it started coming towards him. Quickly turning around, he ran off. He wasn't going to let that thing kill him! Not here! However, while running away, the floor below him opened up, and he started to fall down towards a pit of spikes. He managed to grab onto the ledge with the arm that was left. He probably could have held on for another few minutes… But fate had a different plan. A snake slithered up to him. He stared at it for a few seconds in horror, before it bit his hand, causing him to let go of the ledge. He fell down into the spike, and some pierced his arm and legs. Luckily, one didn't pierce through his skull, despite one spike being right under it. He was having a hard time breathing, the venom slowly circulating into his system. And then, there it was again. The rumbling. Glancing up, he saw the boulder slowly rolling towards the edge. He let out a small sigh, knowing now that fate couldn't be escaped. He was doomed to die here. The boulder fell into the pit, and when it connected with Marcus, it drove his head into the spike, impaling his head. And then, he was lifeless.
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I remained frozen at what I just saw unfold in front of me. If Lily was conscious at the moment, I bet I would have heard her shriek.
Bella her face in her hands. "T-that's horrible! I want to go home!" She cried out.
"This is how you are doing executions?" Cameron took a step back. "Y-you can't do that!"
Monokuma laughed without a care in the world. "Sure I can! It's written so right there in the rules!"
"Fuck the rules!" The dungeon master shouted out.
Jack put a hand on his shoulder. "Let's not lose our cool. That's just what he wants. Trying to get us to break rules, aren't you?" He crossed his arms.
The bear covered his mouth, suppressing his laugh. "I don't even need to try. I'm just making sure you guys really don't want to stay here. To make killing look more appetizing."
"I'm no expert, but I don't think after showing an execution like that, any of us will be killing." Enima said, in an annoyed tone.
Monokuma simply shrugged. "You are probably right, but it won't stop people from doing it all the same. I'm sure human selfishness will take over, and another body will turn up."
"Leave…" I told him.
He looked at me for a few seconds. "Leave? LEAVE? You can't just order me aro-"
"I said leave…!" I ordered him. I did not want to see his damn face again.
The bear remained silent for a few seconds before grinning. "Well, till next time!" And then he was gone.
The room was overtaking by silence. But the silence spoke a lot about how we were all feeling.
Caren had picked up Lily, who still seemed a little drowsy. "We should go now…" She said as she headed towards the elevator.
One by one, we followed her into the elevator. Unlike the ride here, the ride back felt longer. Instead of questions like: "Who could have done it?" In our minds, most of us were probably thinking. "Who's next?" A terrible thought, but one that appeared in my head. What do we do next? I looked around at everyone else. I… I wanted this to end… I don't care how. But… I don't think someone like me can do that, if someone ends this, it would need to be someone else. The elevator door opened, and everyone left, heading to their rooms. I did the same, and went to sleep. That night, I didn't sleep soundly, nor did I ever think I would again…