Guest, first of all thank you for the review (I wish I could respond in a PM and say this to guests more often), but PinaColadaFox would like to make you aware that Robin is hers…not Gustav. That is all. XD

Oh wait. I feel the need to say something else. I should let you lovely people know I know absolutely nothing about Dangan Ronpa Zero. I'm also uneducated when it comes to Dangan Ronpa 2 because Fatgami's death was too traumatic for me to move past, among other things. It just wasn't the game for me. So I guess I would like to apologize for any similarities or future occurrences because apparently there's some Future Foundation thing and…yeah. Didn't they try to explain how the despair incident went down too? And the answer was less than satisfying? I don't even know. I'm probably going to get facts wrong. I'm just keeping stuff limited to the first game where everything was open-ended. Just FYI. :)

Last of all, the trial is split into multiple parts. Yeah it's short (actually this chapter alone is 3,500 words so not too too short), but it's more climactic that way! And the climax inference is super fun…as are all of the executions. ^_^ Enjoy!

Silence reigned.

Teresa looked at all of the faces around her. Everyone's eyes were on her, gleaming with expectations. You're the SCL Prosecutor, they read, you figure this out.

She lifted her chin and said importantly, "All right, I'm going to do my best to solve this case. But I need everyone's participation. I haven't even decided on a culprit to prosecute yet, though I might have one or two in mind."

"Who?" Carter asked suspiciously.

"Later. I don't want anyone jumping to conclusions." Teresa pulled out the notes she had taken. "First, I'm going to present the evidence. Grant, keep me on track in case I miss anything. When I'm finished, we're going to view Libra's footage to try and establish alibis." She nodded to a projector and a blank, white screen that was nearby for their use.

Grant offered an easy smile, ready to provide his knowledge. Everyone else remained quiet and allowed Teresa to take it away.

"As you are aware, the victims died at 12:44 and 1:12 AM last night. The scene was set up to look like they had murdered each other. We have deduced that they did not kill one another, as the crime scene was tampered with. A great deal of blood was missing, despite the methods of murder. Elaine was killed with a beer bottle blow to the head. Karah's throat was slit…with what; we have yet to find out. We think it may have been a glass shard, but it seems unlikely."

"We know all this already." Asui mumbled under her breath.

Suddenly, Reeta burst out, "Don't forget the evidence we found!"

Teresa suppressed an annoyed sigh. "I was getting to that, girls. Reeta's group found spots of blood at the bottom of a luggage trolley. Apparently, Blake's ID card was found in the basement…also with blood on it."

There was a loud thud. Gustav had dropped over in a dead faint—a fake one, of course. He didn't seem to be taking this seriously at all. Charlie, who was next to him, let loose a chuckle. "Well, I guess that about sums it up. Nice knowin' ya, Blake."

"I'm not the culprit!" Blake burst out, throwing up his arms, "I swear, I'm not!"

"The culprit shouldn't lie to us…" Kirby murmured, "Killing someone and then lying about it is despicable…"

"I didn't kill anyone!"

"I didn't say you did! I just meant in general…!"

"People, people!" Noah interrupted, waving his hand in a relaxed fashion. He was leaning heavily on the railing in front of him, eyes half-closed in contentment. "This is all very entertaining. But if you ask me, we're straying off-topic. We gotta think about what's important. Teresa…?" He turned his gaze to her.

"Thank you." She returned, smiling sweetly at Noah, "There was one more thing Grant found that might be of interest."

Grant blinked. "Oh yeah! I found some traces of blood-soaked paper underneath Elaine's body. It was practically disintegrated. I'm not sure how it went down, but I think it's pretty safe to assume this is how the blood was absorbed from the scene. Shame we couldn't find this paper. The culprit probably hid it."

"…Interesting." Alistair said, blinking slowly.

"We'll get into more detail later." Teresa said firmly, "I think it's time we looked at Libra's footage. Then we'll have some alibis covered."

The film director was so absorbed in capturing the moment that she didn't hear her name called. Robin had to reach over and tap her on the shoulder to get her moving. Flustered, she uttered a quick apology and went to play the tape.

Once again, Robin leaving with an armful of beer bottles was the very first thing to appear. His face turned redder than it already was. This time, he did not keep his mouth shut on the matter.

"Why did you include this? It doesn't even take place during the murders!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Teresa replied, adjusting her sunglasses, "That's the murder weapon. You're one of the people who left the party early and therefore have no alibi…just like Natalie, Kirby, and Carter."

"Hold it." Carter spoke up softly. He had been listening to each detail in silence, his mind trying to work over some sort of solution. But as soon as his name came up, he could not afford to be quiet any longer. "The three of us have an alibi."

"Yes! We do!" Kirby burst out, looking immensely relieved. "The three of us went back to me and Natalie's dorm for a quiet night in. We played Scrabble."

"Carter won." Natalie offered. When everyone looked at her, she blushed and sunk down a little bit as if to hide. "Um…just in case you needed to know."

"So you were together until well past midnight?" Alistair questioned calmly. His tone held no suspicion in it.

Kirby nodded, speaking up for her friends. "We invited Carter over a little later because we thought he might be lonely. And we still wanted the night to be fun for all of us!"

At that moment, Asui reached into the pocket of her cargo pants and pulled out a crumpled note. It was her list from earlier, the one she had been using to keep track of who the culprit was. She crossed out the Scrabble trio's names. These three never seemed the killer type… She mused to herself, except maybe Kirby, carrying that Bible around with her. It's like she's trying too hard to make us think she's a good person.

They watched more of the film. In a stroke of luck, Libra's camera had been running during Elaine's murder. They spotted various faces—Noah, Charlie, Grant, Karah, Teresa, and Reeta were all accounted for. Alistair was not seen but his voice was heard as he asked why Libra wasn't drinking.

"There's me!" Blake sighed with relief when he saw his dirty blonde head resting on the arm of a couch.

"I was there too, the entire night," Asui said nervously, scanning the screen. Her expression grew hard. "I was just staying out of the way because I knew what Libra was up to."

"What was she up to?" Kirby wondered innocently.

Asui didn't respond and glared at her roommate. Libra avoided everyone's eyes, not looking sorry at all. Gustav, who was back on his feet, began to complain that he wasn't there either. It was as if Libra had purposely gone out of her way not to film him. Alistair tried to steer the conversation back on topic.

"I took Karah home after that." He admitted, "She can't have been killed not long after I left." He was aware that everyone was shooting him furtive glances, wondering if he had snuck up on Karah and slit her throat. He pretended not to notice.

Grant, meanwhile, was racking his brain to remember last night. He wished he hadn't drunk so much. Otherwise it would be incredibly easy to say who was there and who wasn't. "Can we finish the film before we talk more?" He asked.

They viewed the rest of the footage. It was from Libra's point of view as she tried to lasso the drunken college students. Just before leaving, she had focused on a shot of Blake passed out on the couch, yelling at him to wake up. She had even slapped him lightly on the cheek, but to no avail. Teresa, Asui, Noah, Charlie, Gustav, Reeta, and Grant left with Libra's aid.

"This doesn't mean anything," Teresa interrupted, "The culprit could have returned to the party; it ended so many hours after the murder."

Libra sounded slightly defensive, muttering, "Sorry, thought it might be important."

"Guys, I think I got this figured out." Blake announced, eyes lighting up.

A snicker nearly escaped Teresa's lips. She seriously doubted he had come up with anything, but she allowed him to continue.

"Someone stole my ID at the party while I was hammered and tried to frame me!" He said, his voice rising and filling up the courtroom. "And then they used it to get into my room and wipe the blood on the bathroom ceiling. And they transported the blood with the trolley, I guess."

Silence followed his words. Monobear let out a cruel laugh and leaned back in his chair. He had been so silent the others had nearly forgotten about him. "Is that your final answer?" He teased.

"There's…there's blood on your bathroom ceiling?" Grant murmured, looking rather excited.

Blake nodded. "Yeah. Some kind weird-looking stain that might be blood." Suddenly, everyone was looking at Robin again.

"Oh, come on!" He said through gritted teeth, "You really think I'd kill a girl then smear her blood on the ceiling of a bathroom another person has access to?"

"That's what I want to know." Charlie snorted.

Robin took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. His heart was pounding in his chest. As calmly as he could, he explained, "You say that someone must have stolen your ID while you were drunk, so you couldn't have noticed…well, I left the party before everyone got smashed. When she—" He signaled to Libra, "pulled out her camera just as the rest of you started getting rowdy. I left and I never came back!"

"You could've stolen it from his dorm! You room together!" Reeta accused, beginning to get fired up.

"Wrong!" Robin retaliated, "We all needed to get our IDs to get into the party. I was with Blake when we came in."

Asui's eyes burned with accusations. "How convenient."

"Monobear can vouch for me." Robin said. Bile rose in his throat as he was forced to look to the bear for help.

Monobear hopped to his feet and raised a paw, giggling, "That's right! Mr. Football Star used his ID to get into the party. So why did his ID make it home, but he didn't…?"

"Ooh, I know! I know! Because someone stole it!" Gustav said cheerfully, bouncing up and down.

Teresa couldn't have been happier to have everyone conversing like this. But she felt like they were constantly getting off-topic. "Asui, who doesn't have a solid alibi so far?" She asked, looking across the room to her former friend.

Asui pondered the list. "Robin has no alibi for either murder. Everyone else…I think we're all covered for the first murder, but there are a number of people that could have committed the second since Libra turned her camera off."

Robin realized that the brunt of the suspicion was on him. And it was not going away anytime soon. They were truly beginning to believe he had hurt Elaine. He swallowed his nerves, trying to come up with a way to defend himself. "You already know I didn't steal Blake's ID card. Why would I, when I can get into my room myself?"

"To frame him," Teresa responded easily. Her voice was tough as steel.

Robin tried to ignore her and go on. "Someone could have stolen it and came into our room themselves. Maybe when I was sleeping. But why would they smear blood on the ceiling? Doesn't that seem like an odd thing to do?" He could see many people weren't having a change of heart. He decided to attack this from a different angle. "You know, Elaine was a girl! And a smart one at that, a psychologist for God's sake. She wouldn't have let me into her room!"

"You're a businessman." Carter murmured, "I'm sure you could have convinced her to."

"And she might have had something to drink!" Gustav suggested helpfully. "Her judgment would have been more skewered than a shish kebob!"

Alistair smirked knowingly. "If you were as observant as I, you would know that Elaine didn't drink. I happened to be nearby when she tried the beer and she immediately spat it out. But in the meantime…I do believe Robin is onto something."

Robin blinked. "Ahh…I am?" He said lightly.

"A character study is in order." Alistair declared, unbuttoning his black jacket. He reached inside one of its many hidden pockets and pulled out a familiar-looking notebook. "Do you all recognize this?"

Noah scratched his head. "You're going to have to be more specific. We're not playing twenty questions, you know."

"Fine. It's Elaine's notebook. She carried this with her wherever she went, even up until her death. She recorded many of her observations and has entries on each of us."

"Where did you get that?" Teresa asked, surprised.

Alistair couldn't help but smile a bit. "I took it off the body."

"Wow, you must be some kind of ninja!" Grant laughed, "I didn't even notice."

"You were just absorbed in studying the crime scene." Alistair said modestly. "Monobear…would you be so kind as to allow me to read a few entries?"

"Aww, you're sweet." Monobear chuckled, "Go right ahead, you don't need my permission, Mr. Magician!"

"Illusionist," Alistair corrected. He flipped open the notebook, turning to the notes Elaine had made on Robin. He was the prime suspect at the moment.

Everyone listened, straining to hear what Elaine had to say about her prospective killer.

Alistair cleared his throat and read in a lilting voice, "'Robin comes off as a polite and warm young fellow. But by reading his microexpressions, it's clear that he dislikes most people. I have observed his cynical personality slip through his businesslike demeanor more than once. Now that Monobear has announced this 'game,' I feel like he can't be trusted.'" When he had finished, Alistair lifted his eyes and looked to Robin for his reaction.

After a moment, Robin realized his jaw was hanging open like a fool. He was speechless. Everyone was glaring at him, the desire for vengeance lining every feature of his or her faces.

"Dislikes most people…can't be trusted…" Reeta repeated under her breath. "I think that just about does it."

"Wait!" Blake spoke up. Everyone looked to him in wonderment. His brow was furrowed as his mind worked over Elaine's journal entry. "Uh…wasn't the point of reading this…finding out what Elaine thought of Robin?"

Teresa gave an exasperated sigh. "Well done, Blake. At least you've managed to keep up until now." She said, the sarcasm clear in her tone.

Blake grimaced and shook his head. "No. I mean—Elaine didn't trust Robin. Why would she have let him into her room? Besides, the lock on the door wasn't broken…was it?"

"No it was not!" Grant confirmed.

"So how else would he have gotten in?"

Robin began wringing his hands, a nervous grin twitching at his mouth. "Yes, yes, that's true! Thank you for pointing that out, my friend."

"You're making it sound like you're already in the clear." Asui said, sounding disgusted.

"BZBZZT!" Monobear spoke so suddenly, so loudly, that a few students cried out in surprise. He was sitting upright in his chair, grinning. "I do believe it's time for a short break. Please exit the courtroom and gather in the lounge area you saw when you first came in."

Gustav clapped his hands. "You're giving us a break?"

"Yeah, you guys are probably tired from standing, aren't you? I'm a very caring bear, you see. I keep all of my students' best interests at heart."

"I'll bet you do…" Libra mumbled, lowering her camera.

"Wait!" Teresa said, throwing up a hand, "Before we part ways, I'd like to review everything we've covered so far…Robin." She turned to him.

He flinched, knowing what was coming.

"You are our number one suspect. The way I see it, you took Blake's ID card before leaving the party…even if he wasn't drunk, you managed to pickpocket off of him, somehow. You returned to your room with a few bottles and drank yourself silly. Then, in one way or another, you got into Elaine's room and tarried at the crime scene. When Karah came, you had no choice to kill her too. Your drunken state led you to catch the blood with paper and wipe it on the ceiling, for some strange reason. I'm still trying to work in the trolley…I've considered the notion that the crime might have taken place somewhere else, but it seems more likely you used it to transport the bloodied paper."

"Number one, I didn't 'drink myself silly.'" Robin said, his face sinking into a scowl, "Number two, your hypothesis is riddled with—"

"Hey, hey!" Monobear growled, waving both arms, "I said court was dismissed! Now get in the lounge area before I make you!"

Unwilling to face the wrath of Monobear, the students hurried out. Those that held onto evidence made sure it was secured before leaving. The fourteen teenagers huddled in the narrow lounge area, talking in hushed voices. A water cooler provided a nice drink to those with parched throats. Most of them congregated around there, casting suspicious glances towards Robin, who had collapsed in an armchair on the other side of the room.

Libra approached him, smiling nervously. "Mind if I interview you?" She asked, attempting to look endearing.

Robin wasn't swayed, but he agreed to it anyway. Libra sat across from him and flicked the camera on. Then she began rattling off a number of questions. Robin glared straight into the camera, answering each one in clipped tones.

"If you're not the murderer and everyone winds up voting for you…well, could you even begin to imagine that?" Libra asked intently.

Robin clenched his fists, wrinkling the smooth fabric of his dress pants. His eyes narrowed. "If they vote for the wrong person, we all get executed. Correct?"

Libra nodded.

"Then at least I can find solace in the fact that all of my classmates will die alongside me and pay for their mistake."

"How could you!"

Both Libra and Robin looked up to see Kirby standing before them. Her Bible was clutched tightly to her chest and grief shone in her eyes. She covered her mouth with a hand and said in a trembling voice, "How could you say such a thing? Don't you care for the people around you, even a little…?"

Robin was surprised at the amount of hurt in her face. He immediately felt ashamed of his actions and desperately grabbed for words of comfort, but none came to him. He could only stare at her like a deer in headlights.

Kirby reached up and wiped at her eyes. "I'm…I'm sorry." She turned and walked away, head bowed. She felt terrible for her outburst. All her life, she had believed everyone had some good in them. Her parents, who had homeschooled her, taught her this. She clung to those beliefs.

But that was before two girls wound up dead. That was before she found out the murderer was among the people she thought were 'good.'

Now, she didn't know what to believe.