"Geez, what a jackass." I had to resist bursting out in laughter and giving my Monokuma away at Mondo's quip. I hate to agree with a gang leader on principle only, but I had to agree with him on this. As expected, Byakuya was the first one to break off from the group and begin the investigation; with or without my prompting.

He was such a cocky ass during the first few chapters, especially in the first two chapters. It was infuriating most of the time, at minimum, and it was the entire reason most people wanted to see him parish in the first place. I myself just wanted him to be knocked down a few pegs, but I won't pretend that I would have shed a tear had he kicked the bucket.

"Regardless, he has a point." Replied Kyoko, still as stoic as usual. "It would be best if we investigate before Monokuma tries anything else to impede our search."

Ah, that's a cue if I ever heard one. Making the bear walk out from under the counter, I listened to Hina ask, "do you think he'll do something like that?" and decided to make myself known.

"Like what?" I asked, startling the hell out of her with my appearance behind her, resulting in her practically leaping into the arms of the closest form of protection she could find with an absolutely adorable yip; and by that, I meant Sakura caught her, of course. "Oh, that is just precious."

"Stop doing that!" She yelled at the bear with her cheeks all aglow as Sakura held her aloft effortlessly. Though only Hina seemed to be red in the face, both she and the ultimate fighter were glaring daggers at Monokuma. "What do you even want now?"

"Aw, what? I can't just visit my cute little students?" My sarcasm was once again underappreciated as the teens glares intensified. Jeez. "Alright, alright, fine. I had some time to think about it, and I've finally decided on what kind of punishment to give to our little rule breaker."

The glares quickly faded for looks of apprehension as I turned to focus on my comatose sister, my bear's squeaky feet seeming far more intimidating then it had any right to be. As I got a bit closer, I took my time to look at their patch job on her leg.

I had to admit, I had to turn off the mic momentarily as another wave of bile threatened to end up all over the controls. It was about as bad as I'd expected.

Oh, not the wrappings; those were fine. Each wrapping was carefully placed and held the thick pads of cloth against her wounds tightly. There were a couple of blood stains that had managed to make it through, but it didn't seem all that bad compared to what it had been. Especially since the stain on the edge of the bed dripped all the way down to the floor and the two halves of the blooded spear had been haphazardly tossed on the ground.

I was more referring to the shame I felt gnawing at my stomach and making me feel even more sickly. I had done this to her. I had consciously gone out of my way to run this poor woman's leg through, ruining who knows how many ligaments and tendons in the proses; and for what? What was my reasoning for this poorly made choice?

Because I couldn't stand her standing up to me. Even knowing that it was just an act, I still reacted as if it were fact. And like a brat, I'd snapped and attacked her for no good reason.

What was worst, there didn't have to be such an incident. All I had to do was stay on the flipping stage and none of this would have happened. But no, I just had to get down to their level where these events would happen. I just had to be dramatic about things.

It was heart wrenching to see her like this, a mostly noble solider struck down by the idiot running her sister's body, all because he couldn't control his own ego and stick to the plan he had made for himself to follow. I didn't care that the same result would happened had Junko been the one to do it, the fact that I had been the one to in this case was a big pill to swallow. At this rate, my calling myself Junko might become more fact then fiction.

I was taken out of my self-destructive musings when a certain lucky boy stepped into my line of sight. While I was, a bit taken aback, I did my best to recover quickly. "Well, well, well. What do you think you're doing, hmm?"

Makoto frowned at me and held his arms out to block me from accessing his friend, a steely glint in his eyes that hadn't been there before. It was rather nice to see him with a backbone, though I could see past the image he was trying to instill on me. His knees were shaking ever so slightly, and a sheen of perspiration on his forehead. His gaze, though strong, still held a slight trace of doubt that kept me from feeling any form of steadfast resolve. Credit where it's due though, it was an improvement over the last time he stepped up.

"Leave her alone." He told me in no uncertain terms. "She's already been through enough."

I had the bear tilt its head to one side, saying, "Are you sure about that?"

His glare swapped out for a confused one for a moment, but it returned about just as fast. "What do- Yes, I'm sure!"

I gave of another one of Monokuma's signature laughs and mocked him with, "Oh, you think you do, do you? You think you know anything about her really. Like a psyche analyst or some nonsense, you think you know so much about her after only a week in her company. That's so sweet that I might just vomit and die from sheer diabetes overdose."

Straightening the bear up, I dropped the happy attitude faster than you could say, "bipolar", and stated while cracking my knuckles, "Alright then tough guy, how about we check that little theory of yours with a little test."

Faster than he could say "huh?" I took full control of Monokuma. With my fingers practically flying across the keyboard, I had him leap over Makoto onto the bed, pulling off a nice triple front flip in the process, before quickly turning in place and grabbing onto his arm and yanking him off balance. As he and the others gasped in shock, I was quick to force both his and Mukuro's bands together and rapidly began pressing nonessential spots all over both heart monitors before abruptly letting go, causing him to lose what was left of his balance and fall on the floor.

Not quite done with my performance, I had Monokuma preform a leaping pirouette over him before sticking the landing in front of the other students. Only partially surprising to me, the others took a slight step back at the sight, as if expecting the bear to suddenly leap at them next. They were stunned by the sight of the fat bear practically defying everything they thought they knew about it with that display, so it was understandable that they'd gain a new reason to be wary of the plushy.

Straightening up from his fall with a slight groan, Makoto rubbed his wrist gently and began to look at his arm band. Of course, he couldn't find anything since I hadn't done anything, but the freaked-out expression he made was all worth it. "What did you do?"

"Oh nothing much," I breathed out, ignoring my jamming heart beat as best that I could, that had been far more exhilarating then I'd expected it would be. "I just decided, if you're so sure of that slut, then why not swap out something important of yours with something roughly as important to her, and we'll see how well she treats it. Just a small thing, nothing much, you'll barely even miss it. I only swapped out… your lifelines."

Gasps from the others from behind me told me that the others understood what I was referring to, just as well as the widening eyes of the boy before me. "Swapped their- You can do that!?"

With turning of a plush heel, I had the bear pad the back of its head sheepishly to Asahina's question and continued to completely fib about things. "Of course I can. It's barely even a challenge for me to do this kind of thing. Though, to be fair mister Makoto, you did volunteer to share her punishment."

"I did?" he questioned, but it would go unanswered as I walked the Monokuma back to the center of the room.

"In any case, now that that problem has been resolved, I would like to ask the rest of you a question. How would you like to know who attacked your friends last night?"

Of course, I was immediately met with cries of, "you serious?" shouts of "of course!" and one yell of "justice must be made swift!" as I had expected, but it was when Kyoko stepped forward that I got the question I was waiting for.

"What's the catch?" She asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion as her stern tone reminded the others of who they were dealing with in the first place. I gave a small chuckle at that. They had no idea.

"Oh, it's not so much a 'catch'; more like, it's a decision for you all to make." I paused to see if I had their full attention, and while some of them were looking at each other curiously, I did have most of their eyes on me. "You see; I want to give you the answers without any hassle. Get it done and over with, no mess, no fuss. However, as a firm believer of the education system, and the fact that I could lose my job by doing that, I have to take any chance I can to teach you on some level."

"Fortunately for you all, I'm also a believer of choice, so I've got a couple of options for you. One, you all can do whatever you like for the day without any answers. Investigate, throw a fit, read a book if you got one; it's all on you. While this is happening, I will clean up the entirety of the crime scenes and we'll just pretend that none of this ever happened. I mean, yeah, the suspect will get away with it and might try again later, but you got to roll with it sometimes. Plus, on the off chance they do try again, I'll be nice and give you all a freebee point in their general direction."

Most of them didn't look to excited about that option. "Two, we could host a supplement class trial. Now hold your horses, let me explain." I stated when it appeared some of them were about to get uppity with me.

"Now, a supplement class trial is admittedly quite like a regular class trial in regards to the basic rules; I won't deny that. Thankfully, this is a bit different. For starters, while you're investigating, you may call on my assistance for a small hint if you so desire. Be warned that each hint will cost a lot of Mono-tokens and you may only have three per person, so pick your hints carefully. Next difference is, when you get to the actual trial, the rules change a bit. You will still debate over who done it, and afterwards, whether your guess is correct or not, I will reveal who the perp was for you before you vote on their fate. Simple, no?"

I looked up at their faces as they glanced around worriedly, not liking either choice. More than a few of them even grimaced when Kiyoko summarized for me. "I see. So basically, we either pretend that nothing happened and let the culprit have another chance, or risk everything in a class trail and guaranty them getting caught."

"Yep!" I stated in a chipper tone. "Of course, this all depends on whether you all vote on it. I'm talking majority votes people, and whichever one you all vote on will change the outcome of the day before us. So, what do you all say?"

For a while, no one spoke. I don't know if it was a result of them honestly thinking about their vote, or if they were just scared out of their wits, but I was patent as I watched them silently looked at each other with questioning gazes. Eventually, someone decided to speak up with their thoughts.

"I-I think we should hold the trial." Mumbled out Hagakure from his spot on the bed, causing everyone gazes to wonder over to him in surprise as he sat there gripping the sheets that had been covering him. His face was down, so they couldn't see his expression behind his crazy do, but I with Monokuma's much lower perspective, could see him chewing on his lip.

"Dude, are you insane?" Leon stated to the hobo like fortune teller, honestly shocked that he would vote for something like that. "If we mess up, then we're all-"

"I know!" Hiro interrupted loudly, his hands now moving up and grabbing at his hair before he continued in a softer voice. "I know. But I can't…I can't just let it go, man. I almost freaking died last night! A-and now I'm hearing that they could just get away with it and just try again? I don't want that hanging over my head. I don't want to be up every night, worried that they could come and finish what they started. I've been on the streets guys! I've seen what that can do to people! I don't want to be one of those straight jacket, crack cases. I-I don't…"

The others were as stunned as I was at the sight of him breaking down like that. For the whole past week, it was as if nothing could faze that ignorant attitude of his, no matter what anyone had said. Nothing had could shake him from his belief that this was all just a set up by the academy. So to see him in this broken, sobbing state, it tore at the heart strings.

A sigh came from one of the others before the ultimate biker stepped forward with his hands in his jacket. "Yeah, I got ya. You want justice done, right? Well, we aren't gonna get it done with our thumbs up our asses. I say we go for it."

With his hands pressing into the table, Kiyotaka grit his teeth as he made his decision. "Owada is right. We can't let what has happened blind us. We must find the guilty party in this case before they do anything else!"

The three teens statements appeared to have struck a chord with most of the others, their wary faces slowly morphing into more resolute looks. There were still some like Chihiro and Hifumi that seemed conflicted on the matter, but they seemed like they were ready to help as best as they could despite their trepidation. However, one student didn't seem so enthused.

"I-I don't know guys," stated Leon as a thick bead of sweat rolled down his face. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I want to find out who did this as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure we really need to have a trial over it. Can't we just, you know look at it ourselves and try and figure it out without it?"

I could tell he was nervous about offending the other's choice in the matter, and to be fair, no one wanted to go against the biker gang leader without a good reason. I could also see his reasoning on the matter as well. Why risk it when you don't need to? If you didn't have anything to risk it, would you have investigated any crime scene without a reason?

Unfortunately for him, our resident amnesiac detective was going to blow away that idea. "But, then Monokuma would interfere with his "cleaning up" and we could lose valuable clues in the process."

I had to agree with her on that one. "She's right you know."

He grit his teeth at that remark of mine, knowing that he was beat. Once more he was out of ways to win this fight of wills, and he knew it. So, with clenched fists, he slapped on his best scowl befitting his punk style and stated, "I know she's right, man! I was just making sure you guys weren't gonna back down on me! Yeah! No way am I gonna let this stupid bear stop us from finding the truth!"

"I really don't appreciate you talking like I'm not here." I pointed, drawing his glare to my Monokuma.

"You're not involved right now!"

"…I'm feeling pretty involved…But, I can take a hint. I'm out, dog. See ya at the trial." And with that remark, I quickly vacated then premises and swapped out the Monokuma's control screen for another, more relevant one. The Monokuma files.

Well, that wasn't the official name for it, the real name being forensic files, but that was what it was called in the documents. So, who was I to judge?

Now, the file itself was a program that was used to make forensic reports on a corpse for other people who were more squeamish. It was surprisingly simple to use, all you needed to do was input some basic information on the subject, things like their name, weight, height, body type, and things like that. After that, all you needed to add was some minor additions in the notes, like time of death, the kind of injuries and their location on the body, and the place it happened. In was rather convenient. Props to whoever programed it.

The best part about it was that it had a little feature in it that let you use a full body picture of the person to make a two-facing silhouette of them that would then be labeled with blood splotches almost exactly like whatever information you put in it. Not gonna lie, I spent a good solid hour messing with it the first time I found it.

I'm easily amused, so sue me.

Thankfully, the school files I had on these guys made it very easy to put together the files for both injured parties as it came with all the information I would ever had needed. It even had their profile pictures, surprisingly, which meant that all I had to do was drag the image into the forensic program for it to figure out and add the notes.

You got to love technology.

Anyway, once I'd finished imputing the data and saved the two files, all I needed to do was to send them to the student's handbooks. Interestingly enough, the school computer had a feature that allowed the headmaster to send out a mass email to all students within a curtain radius of the school building independent of any internet connection. It would explain how Junko could keep making these files as well as adding new rules.

In less than a minute, I had the Monokuma reports made and sent out to them with a small text telling them what they were for. It wasn't as impressive as Junko's practically finishing in seconds like in the game, but it was still something I could take pride in. Then again, she could have just made the reports in advance and sent them off after the announcements. That's a possibility.

Regardless, now that the files were finished and sent, I decided to tune back in to the chaos that I knew would be awaiting me back in the gymnasium. As expected, the moment I had left the control room I could hear panicked denials coming from the television in the center of the room.

"Y-You've got it all wrong!" came the panicking shout of the unfortunate luckster as the others seemed to back away from him with suspicion. "It wasn't me! I just swapped rooms with her and…"

I had to grimace a bit as I knew the cause for this sudden hostility the others were displaying was because of my Monokuma file for Sayaka. As I said, one of the things that could be imputed was the location that the injury was sustained, both on the body, but also the place and time it was received. Junko only used them because she mostly needed them to understand those things to keep the situation fair. She wanted them to fail, yes, but she always gave them a sporting chance to succeed anyway. It was one of the few things I could respect about her.

Unfortunately for Makoto, I couldn't afford to let that info slide by, so as to prevent any mistakes on their investigations, they needed to know that bit. Now that they had that, they could localize their searches.

It was time for the best part. "Let the investigation start."

Today was quickly becoming the worst day that Makoto could remember, just barely surpassing when this whole mutual killing game had started. Barely an hour into the day and he had found that his childhood friend and one of his classmates had been attacked in the dead of night, leaving both of them in critical condition and near deaths door. Then, during the morning announcement, another of his friends snapped and tried to take on their captor, resulting in her being in just as close to death as the other two had been. But at the pinnacle of this utter disaster of a day was when said abductor revealed that Maizono, his friend whom he swore an oath to protect, had been stabbed in his room, resulting in everyone believing that he had been the one to stab her.

And it wasn't even noon yet.

Now here he was, standing outside of his own room were his close friend had been attacked, trying to psych himself up to begin the investigation to prove his own innocence in this endeavor. To open the door and see where she had been brutally harmed and the mess that had been the results of her struggles again.

He didn't want to open the door at all. He didn't have any desire to see this horrible sight once more, just the thought caused his stomach to churn and his palms to become moist. Unfortunately, he knew he needed to do this. He needed to be the one to clear his own name and find the one responsible for this travesty. It was the only way he could be sure that both Maizono's and Hagakure's attacker would be brought to justice.

Not for his sake, but for everyone.

With this resolve in his heart, he strode forth, idly wondering why someone would swap his name plate with Maizono's, he continued into his bed room.

"Huh? Owada?" Immediately upon entering, he was caught off guard by the sight of the pompadour biker standing near the door way. He hadn't seen the gang leader on his way here, so Makoto had assumed that he had gone elsewhere.

"Yo, Makoto. Sup?" Mondo said when he noticed the smaller boy in the doorway, a single hand of his waving slightly in greeting.

"What are you doing here?" Inquired the Luckster, legitimately confused as to why the burly teen would be here investigating the scene of a crime. It wasn't that Makoto thought ill of Mondo, far from it. But, he just couldn't see the biker investigating.

Thankfully, Mondo was more than forthcoming with information. "Yeah, me and Sakura got drafted to oversee the crime scenes. Make sure no one messes with the joint, ya know?. See, that chick told us we'd be in some real deep shit if someone went and trashed any evidence, so the two of us were told to stand watch. I hate racking my brain anyway, so it's fine by me."

'Chick?' wondered Makoto silently before glancing around the corner that the gang leader thumbed to. To his surprise, there stood Kiyoko examining the door to his bathroom with an unreadable expression.

"Kirigiri!" he explained in shock, not having expected her to be there. Last he'd seen her was when she was examining the infirmary. She barely reacted to his exclamation aside from moving her eyes towards him briefly and giving him a very slight nod of acknowledgement before returning to the door.

"Have you just begun your investigation?" she asked, straight to the point as usual. With a confirmation from the luckster, she gave another small nod. "I see. I'm already finishing up here."

'She's good.' Makoto thought to himself, impressed at how quickly she was. It hadn't even been ten minutes since they'd all left the infirmary and she had everything nearly wrapped up already. But it raised some questions in his mind about her.

'I wonder what her story is.' He thought, his eyes glued to the side of her face as she worked her hand up and down the door frame for whatever reason he couldn't think of now. The mystery surrounding this woman had been the topic that he'd been wondering about since the first day, and no matter what he or anyone else had said and done, the enigma that was Kiyoko Kirigiri continued to remain unsolved. 'I still don't even what field of "ultimate" she is.'

He might have continued this train of thought further, but he suddenly became very aware of Mondo giving him a very disturbing glare while popping his knuckles repeatedly with an audible "Crick" sound. "Oh, by the way. Don't get any ideas about tampering with the crime scene. I'll crush the life out of ya if you're planning to pull any funny business. You feel me?"

"I-I got it!" Makoto nervously confirmed, his hands held up in a placating manner to show the much stronger teen that he fully understood. With that out of the way, he turned his attention back to the room.

As it was before when he first arrived, it was still very trashed. It didn't appear to have changed any from what he could see, but that didn't mean much since the last time he'd been in here he'd been to horrified to absorb the details properly. Now that he'd calmed down, he could examine the crime scene thoroughly to piece together what had happened.

Immediately, his eyes were drawn to an item laying near the center of the room; specifically, the gold colored katana that he knew was supposed to be on display on his shelf. Just like the room, there was noticeable damage on it, the sheath itself having sustained a large gouge on one side. Strangely, the blade had been drawn and there were large flakes of the delicate paint missing from both the dull bladed edge and the handle, revealing the wood underneath.

'What is this doing out?' Makoto wondered as he looked at the replica sword puzzled. 'and why does the sheath have a large cut in its side? It's like someone tried to carve into it.'

He would have continued had he not heard a loud sound emit from his electronic handbook. Confused, he whipped out his handbook to see what had caused that noise. He was rather surprised when he saw a picture of the very katana he'd just been examining appear on the screen. There was also a small section right next to the picture

"Oh, right, already forgot about that." Turning his attention to the speaker, Makoto bore witness to Mondo scratching at his cheek with an annoyed expression on his face. "Yeah, apparently Monokuma doesn't trust us not to waste time with worthless info, so he's got some kind of "evidence folder" for when we investigate shit. Said something about having most of the important stuff photographed and that he'll send us each a picture of what it is when we find something of use."

"Oh, well, that's convenient." Said Makoto mildly, a rather unorthodox way of helping he'd admit. Appreciated since that meant he wouldn't have to try and guess what was important and what wasn't, but it was still something that felt a bit weird.

The biker then stepped closer and pointed at the word box next to the picture of the sword. "He also said something about keeping your own notes on everything you find on your own. We can even write down testimonies if someone says anything important. Only real problem I have is that he's gonna be stalking us with those damn cameras to see when we find anything. Fucking creeper."

That was… much less reassuring. Now he was going to be constantly worried about the bear popping up where he wasn't wanted. Still, there wasn't anything he could do about it, so he decided to suck it up and push on.

After jotting down a quick note on the replica sword and looked around a bit more before he spotted Kyoko opening the drawer one the other side of his ruined bed. A casual glance inside turned into a shock as he saw a plastic box full of tools. It was only a few basic things, a basic hammer, a pair of screwdrivers both Philips head and flat blade, some wire cutters, and a few other tools he couldn't name.

"Eh? Why is there a tool kit in my drawer?" Makoto questioned as he looked closer at it. Had that been in there the whole time?

"Yeah, you aren't the only one, all the guys got one in their rooms too. The girls all got sewing kits." Answered Mondo.

"What for? Shop class?" The luckster continued asking. It didn't make much sense to him why they would be given such a thing.

"The guys and I were talking about it when you took your… Ahem, 'nap' the first day." The biker said while a small embarrassed blush developed on his face, which was mirrored by Makoto as he recalled what his friend was referring to. "None of us were really up to making anything anyway, so as far as I know, we haven't used our kits either."

Makoto could understand that. With all that was going on, they wouldn't have had any motivation to work on anything with their own tools at all. Then again, what could they even work on with…

'I'm just going to stop that train of thought right there.'

Moving on from that, he took a brief glance under his bed and found something poking out. Curious, he pulled it out only to find that it was his lint roller. He had been wondering what had happened to it since it had disappeared the other day. However, there was a noticeable difference to it since he'd last seen it.

"Why does it look like there's a lot less of it now?" On closer inspection, he saw he was right. The sticky roll of paper was quite a bit smaller than it had been when he first saw it a week ago. He knew that he hadn't used it at all, so the question was, who did, and why?

"It would appear that someone has already destroyed some evidence." Stated Kiyoko as she looked over Makoto's shoulder, startling the poor boy a bit in the process. "I thought that it was strange that there didn't seem to be any hair anywhere. Now I see why."

"Shit, really?" Mondo's exasperated question came from his spot in the entryway. "Damnit. It's probably already been burned in the trash room by now."

Makoto nodded along with understanding. It would seem he would need to be making a stop by the trash room at some point as well as the other places he needed to check.

"…Say, do you know what is with this door?" Turning to look at the door in question, and the purple themed girl who asked said question, Makoto responded with, "Oh, that. I have the only bathroom door that gets jammed, but it's really easy to open when you know the trick."

"I see..." She said slowly as if analyzing his words with extreme precision. "So the door doesn't open easily. However, I was referring to the stain."

'Stain?' he wondered before stepping closer. Sure, enough, blending into the wood was a new splatter decorating the door with a small trail dripping down to the floor. But, what was more concerning was what the stain was made of.

"I-Is that blood!?" asked a panicked Makoto as he looked at the marking. Why hadn't he seen this earlier!?

"It would seem so." Stated Kyoko with what the luckster thought was far too much monotone for such a chilling discovery.

"But why is there blood here!?"

"…Why indeed." Kyoko said as her hand lightly pressed her hand to her chin, her eyes closing briefly as she thought, though over what, Makoto could only guess. "Makoto, did you tell anyone about your finicky door?"

"Huh?" he turned back to her, not quite understanding what had brought that on. "No, I haven't. It actually slipped my mind until recently."

To his surprise, a small grin broke out on her face. "I see. That settles it then."

Huh? "Settles what? I'm totally lost here."

His question went unanswered as she turned and began to walk towards the door, leaving both him and the biker behind in the bedroom. With Mondo focusing on maintaining vigil over the crime scene, Makoto was practically alone now to think over what he'd discovered. However, he didn't know what to think.

Why had someone attacked Maizono in his room? How did they get into the room in the first place? Why was there blood on his door? There was so much still left unanswered, but he couldn't find those answers here. With a brief farewell to Mondo, he followed the mysterious woman in the hopes of finding his answers.

To find the truth, he needed to continue forward!

"God damn it! I don't have a clue what I'm doing!"

Slamming his forehead into the wall next to him, Leon groaned as he tried to gather his thoughts again. It hadn't been long since they had all left the infirmary were Junko, Maizono and Hiro were recovering from their own individual stab wounds. Hiro himself had offered to act as a sort of alarm just in case something were to happen while the others did their investigations. Though it was met with some reluctance seeing as it was, you know, Hagakure doing it, the others had to admit that it would allow them to cover more investigative ground if less people were guarding them when they could be gathering clues.

The only problem was, barely any of them knew what to look for!

Seriously, it was like no one had seen an investigation in their life. Barring Mondo and Sakura who at least had guard duty, everyone was pretty much just standing around, barely even looking at anything besides some curiosity glances. Hell, when he last saw Asahina she told him she was taking a break, even though they'd only just started half an hour ago!

The only exceptions he'd seen so far were Byakuya, Kiyoko, Makoto, and to a lesser extent, himself. They had found Byakuya outside of the laundry room examining the door frame for some reason and had brought him up to speed on what Monokuma was doing, as well as informing him about the trial that they'd agreed on. Of course, Byakuya, being the utter dick that he was, basically gave them an, "I told you so" in that condescending way of his, then buggered off to do his own investigations.

Both Makoto and Kiyoko had then gone to look at the bedroom where it all went down, so he decided that he would just have to meet them half way and investigate the laundry room where Hiro got shanked. The problem there was that, he didn't even know where to begin.

No, that wasn't it. He did know something about where to begin, it was more that he didn't know what he could investigate that wouldn't incriminate himself in the process. Already his blasted handbook had rung, like, seven times so far, telling him any anyone that was near enough to him that he'd found clue. But each time it had happened he felt like ripping out the blasted bear's fur because he didn't want anyone to know about the clues he kept stumbling across.

Begrudgingly pulling out his handbook, he looked at the list of evidence he'd gotten so far. Already he'd gotten the bloody frame from where Hiro had his head busted open by Maizono, the dried puddle where he and Junko had tried to mop up the two injured student's blood with what had been left of his jacket, glass shards that he accidentally stepped on that were from Hiro's so-called "crystal ball", a white button from someone's outfit that he figured might be either his or Hiro's, the drippings from when they'd dragged them to the infirmary, the Monokuma files that everyone got, and of course, Junko's still dirty hoodie from when he accidentally bumped into the washer and caused the door to pop open.

Now he had a whole bunch of evidence to use in the trial, evidence that he and anyone that had been close enough to hear him finding it could use, and none of it he wanted to use. Not if he wanted to keep his promise.

It was when he felt a hand softly pat him on the back reassuringly that he was reminded of the other problem he had on his hands. Turning to his right he could see the soft delicate gaze of who he thought to be the second cutest girl in this place looking him in the eyes and making him feel a heat rise in his face. Her soft hand pressed into his shoulder blade almost tenderly as she said in that delicate voice that had won over the hearts of dozens of guys and some girls nationwide, "It'll be okay, Leon. I don't know much about investigating either, so I don't know if we're contributing much. But, I just know we'll find who did this!"

'Damnit Fujisaki,' he thought to himself as he forced a reassuring grin onto his face to placate the programmer that had practically glued herself to his side for pretty much the entire investigation. 'Why do you have to be so cute!? It's not fair!'

Sometimes he hated how easy it was for girls to convince him to do things he didn't want to do. First it was his mother getting him to start baseball, then it was his crazy cousin getting him to go pro before her sick obsession with dating him started to grow, then it was that one hot chick that said she only dated musicians, then it was Maizono before she tried to kill him, and now it was Fujisaki getting him to help investigate a crime he'd already known the answer to the entire time. It was quite frankly, getting old.

"Yeah, your right." He said with a grin to get the girl off his back. Thankfully, it seemed to work as she gave him a small smile and she moved away to another part of the laundry room. With that time bomb momentarily avoided, he gave an explosive sigh. 'Since when was Chihiro so supportive?'

Seriously, it was like a switch had been flipped in the little girl's brain that kept her from being the meek wallflower she'd been since the first day. In fact, this had been the most he had talked to her in the entirety of their time trapped in this place. Not because either of them had outright tried to avoid each other or anything like that. It was because of them all focusing on escape more so then trying to interact with each other. So, to see the shy girl approach him and offer to assist, it still through the all-star for a loop.

Looking at her as she kneeled next to the table for folding laundry, he decided now would be a good time to ask. "Hey, Chihiro?"

*Thunk* "Ow!"

Unfortunately, his sudden call had startled the soft-spoken programmer, and caused her to jump and bang her head on the bottom of the table. Shocked at what he'd done, Leon quickly rushed over to assist the poor girl clutching her head with tears prickling at the edges of her eyes.

"Oh, geez. Sorry about that." Leon said, feeling guilty for causing her any sort of pain. She was like a porcelain doll; you almost couldn't help but want to protect it and you would feel bad whenever you failed to do so.

"I-I'm okay." Said Chihiro as she pressed lightly at the small bump she had received, hissing lightly when she tapped a particularly sensitive spot. Thankfully it wasn't too bad and it would most likely be forgotten by the end of the hour. With that confirmation in mind, the meek computer whiz turned to address the worried all-star without any hard feelings for what had happened.

"What were you saying?" she asked Leon, no longer concerned with her minor bump on the head. It took the red headed teen a moment to recall what exactly it was that he had wanted to ask, but eventually it did kind of click.

"Oh, right! So, why are you following me around?" Immediately, the wannabe punk rocker regretted his phrasing as Chihiro's hurt expression caused his heart to clench. Waving his hands in panic, he quickly tried to play damage control. "I-It's not that I don't appreciate the help. I do! It's just, I just don't get why you would be hanging out with someone like me. I would have thought you'd be hanging around someone like, I don't know, Hina and Sakura or one of the girls."

As the pained expression faded to one of understanding then one to deep thought, Leon gave a soft sigh of relief. It wasn't something he held against her, but he didn't like to see her cry. Girls in general he didn't like to see break down sobbing, but it was even worst when the girl was crying because of him. He never knew how to get them to stop afterwards and it would always leave him feeling miserable afterwards.

Thankfully, it seemed that there wouldn't be any of those shed today, so he could relax a bit and wait for the reply from his classmate.

"Well," She started, "I guess it's because I feel safe around you." Well, while that was flattering, it didn't answer his question; something he made sure to express with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean," she said with a blush that did nothing to stop making her seem adorable. "It isn't that I don't like hanging out with the others, all of the girls are really nice and all, but I just feel more confident around the guys. And out of all of them, you seem to know what to look for; even if you don't believe it."

Well that was a bit of a confidence booster, but before he could comment on it, she continued. "I mean, you've been finding these clues that all of us have been missing, and so quickly too! I don't mean to say the others aren't doing their best, but you've been so helpful so far with all of these cool things none of us could do. Like with Junko! You're amazing."

Just like that, the little boost was gone, replaced with a feeling of guilt at being praised for something he'd only known about second hand. Worst still, it was information that he only had because he'd been too trusting of Sayaka and he'd nearly gotten killed because of it. If it hadn't been for Junko…

Shaking himself free of those depressing thoughts again, he looked at the chick that had been making him relive last night and was about to try and tell to tell her otherwise when he noticed they had company. Thanking whatever deity that was watching over him for giving him a chance to escape this awkwardness, he waved the boy over with a call of, "Yo! Makoto!"

Said luckster turned at the call of his voice and walked over to greet the two classmates. "Hi Leon, Chihiro. Are you guys investigating too?"

"You know it." Leon replied, happy that he didn't have to continue the previous conversation. "Chihiro and I figured something might have been in here that Hiro forgot about that could give us a clue."

The petite programmer nodded in agreement before adding, "Yeah, we've found a lot of clues so far already."

"That's great!" stated Makoto as his eyes practically lit up. "What'd you find?"

That was when the luckster grew a bit confused, because right as he said that, both of his friends cringed and turned away from him. "What's wrong?"

"Yeah, about that." The all-star said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "We can't actually tell you what we found."

"What? Why not?" responded Makoto, a bit hurt that his friends would try and keep this all secret from him. What reason could they have to hid evidence from him when they were all after the same goal?

Thankfully, Chihiro had an answer. "I-It's not that we don't want to tell you. It's just that, Monokuma forbade us from it."

Leon jumped in to elaborate when he saw how little that had explained it. "Look, Monokuma said that, unless we have an emergency of some sort, we're not allowed to show each other what we've got in our evidence folders during investigations. He said it was to keep us from, "tampering with each other's results" and to "prevent making him have to remember who had what beforehand". I think it was just an excuse for him to fuck with us."

Nodding at what Leon said, the programmer continued sadly, "He also said that the only exception to that was if you're in the same room as someone else when you or they find something. We tried to help Sakura by filling out hers for her earlier so that she wouldn't be too lost, but that was when Monokuma interrupted. We can show you where we found things, but we just can't show what we found. I'm sorry I couldn't be more useful."

'Shit, not again.' Instantly, Leon cringed at the sight of tears once more poking at the edges of her eyes. Thankfully, Makoto came to his rescue.

"That's not true!" Makoto said passionately. "If anything, I'm glad that you're doing your best to help out!"

With teary eyes, Chihiro looked at the luckster, unsure of the slightly taller teens sincerity. "R-Really?"

Taking the opportunity, Leon interjected with, "Totally! It's like Taka keeps saying, we've just got to keep working together, and we'll be out of here in no time! Right, Makoto!"

Though slightly taken aback at being interrupted, the luckster smiled along and nodded in confirmation. "Yeah! And it's not like you can't help at all. You said it yourself, even if you can't exactly show me what the clue is, you can still point me in the right direction so that I can find it myself!"

"Then we won't break any rules that way! Thank you, guys!" The sight of the small mousy girl breaking out a wide, closed eyed, smile that caused the two to grin as well.

"No problem, Chihiro." Leon said, giving her a thumbs-up. "Now, let's find ourselves some clues!"

"Right!" Responded the other two before they began their search. It was only now that Leon thought about what he had just said, causing him to stop in his tracks.

'Damnit, it happened again.' Once again, he'd let some pretty face distract him from his plans and now he had to look to avoid suspicion being placed onto him. Worst still, now Makoto was involved too, so he had even less reason to fool around.

'Then again…' he thought as he watched the boy investigate the washer where Hiro's clothes were. 'Maybe that's a good thing. I mean, it's not like helping him clear his own name will be that bad for me in the long run…Right?'

He was interrupted from his musings when Makoto pulled a bloody blue hoodie out of the washing machine.

Leon only had one thought in response.

'…Shit.'

"Okay, I think I've got it. Thanks, guys!"

After waving good bye to the two classmates in the laundry room and briefly thanking Sakura for letting him into the room in the first place, Makoto made his way towards the cafeteria to look for clues there. The reason was rather simple; it was the only place he could recall any form of knife being present. He thought it would be best if he could confirm whether the one used on Hiro and Sayaka came from there.

As he walked, he couldn't help but think on what he'd found already thanks to the others help. After investigating his room, he had followed what Mondo had said and gone to check out the trash room. Sure, enough, with a little help from Hifumi who was on trash detail this week, he could find out that someone had indeed used the incinerator to destroy something, yet somehow without opening the gate blocking access. Though the Otaku had been distracted with trying to find the "fairy" that he swore must have been responsible, Makoto had his own suspicions regarding the shards of glass he found on the floor by the control box.

Once that had been finished, he went to find out what had gone down with Hiro. Thanks to the report, he could easily find where the fortune teller had been attacked. With permission from Sakura, he checked out the laundry room entry way and found a stain on one of the door frames that was located high enough to confirm it was where the clairvoyant had bumped his head. There were also signs of someone using something to soak up the blood pool from Yasuhiro's stab wound, mostly just some easily missed splotches in the crevices.

That had been all he could find outside before he went in and found Chihiro and Leon doing their own investigations. While he wasn't happy about Monokuma's stupid rules preventing them from helping him find clues, he was still glad for the impute they gave him on the items he could find.

Now, he needed to find out if his thoughts about where the knife had been found were true, and to do that, he needed to check the kitchen.

To his surprise, as he entered the cafeteria he found Asahina sitting and one of the tables, munching sadly on a box of donuts. She took notice of him and nodded as he entered, but stayed uncharacteristically silent. Worried about this, Makoto stepped up to her.

"Asahina. Are you investigating the dining hall?" he started with, not wanting to risk upsetting her with stupid questions right out of the gate.

"Nope." She said, popping her lips at the end. "Just taking a break. Actually, I've been doing that the whole time. I don't know anything about investigating."

'I can believe that.' Thought the luckster as he nodded in understanding. It made sense after all. From what little he'd learned about her; he could tell this wasn't something she'd be good at since it required a lot of staying still and thinking then action.

Deciding to get straight to the point, Makoto asked her, "…Do you know anything about the knives in the kitchen?"

"Sure do!" She replied earnestly, "One of them went missing recently. They were all together last night when I went to make myself some tea, but when I went to clean up one of them had disappeared."

"Were you here the whole time?" the luckster asked, pieces of the puzzle starting to be put together within his mind.

"Yep. I was here all yesterday evening until nighttime was called and today. I'm not sure why, but I really find this place relaxing." She giggled at that bit, finding it a bit humorous that this would be the place she enjoyed being the most considering her talent as an athletic swimmer. It was even more funny to her since she knew people would have assumed that someone more like Hifumi would be hanging around this place considering his stature.

Surprisingly, the opposite was true. Hifumi rarely stayed in the diner hall unless he got into a conversation with someone beforehand. Of course, the others would mostly do the same, those like Byakuya and Toko especially stayed away from the group whenever possible. It was just the fan content creator not staying where the food was that Hina found a bit funny.

Unaware of her thoughts, Makoto was noting this down in his handbook as "Hina's account" for future reference. Now that he knew where the knife came from, he could try and find out more who had taken it in the first place. After that, he could try and find out where it went.

Thanking Hina for her help, Makoto left the cafeteria and began making his way to the infirmary. He had a few questions he still needed answered and the one that he knew could be answered best was by the Ultimate clairvoyant himself.

"Man, this sucks."

Yasuhiro sighed to himself as he sat on the stiff hospital bed, looking around at the bland room once again. He'd already gotten bored counting the spots in the ceiling tiles and with the other two residence of the room unconscious and the others investigating, he had no one to speak to.

He knew that he had no choice in the matter. Not only was he wounded, which would severely hamper his ability to search, but they needed someone to stay and watch in case something where to happen to Junko and Sayaka. Not just if someone decided to finish the job, but also in case one or both happened to wake up at some point.

With his injured state, the others felt confident that he would be unable to try anything to the two girls in the off chance that he was the attempted murderer, and yet he would be able to alert the others should someone else try anything. He didn't know how to feel about being essentially a living alarm system, but at the least he knew he was helping.

Now, if only he had someone to talk to again.

"Hey, Hiro. You got a second?" As if his prayers were being answered, the fortune teller heard the door open as his good buddy Makoto walked in to the room. Smiling a bit at the luckster, Yasuhiro retuned the greeting.

"Yo, Makoto. Perfect timing. I was wondering if everyone forgot about me for a moment there. You need something?" At his question, Makoto stepped towards him and held up his student E-handbook and showed the seer the picture on it.

"Does this mean anything to you?" Looking at the picture, Hiro saw what looked like a pile of glass shards next to a pole of some sort. At first, it didn't make sense to him why Makoto was showing him this, but when he looked a bit closer at one of the larger shards that still held most of its round shape, his eyes widened in shock.

"That's my crystal ball! Aw man, what happened to it!?" Indeed, there was no doubt about it. Those shattered little bits were what was once his crystal ball. And this after looking for it all night and getting stabbed "Geez, talk about rotten luck."

"So, it is yours." Makoto more stated then asked as he pulled his handbook back, a bit glad that he was on the right track. Hiro nodded back sadly, upset to have lost one of his tools of his trade.

"Yeah, that's it alright. Or it was it anyway. Man, and after all that talk about how it was 'unbreakable orb held by the biggest powerheads of the world like Gorge Washington, All Capone, and Napoleon Bonaparte'. All of it was seriously BS?" He groaned to himself at that. In all honesty, saying it out loud, it was rather unbelievable. He didn't even remember why he even fell for it in the first place. Maybe it was the man's accent.

"…I'm probably going to regret asking, but how much did you pay for it?" Wincing at the memory, Hiro looked up at the luckster and cringed.

"…one hundred million yen." He didn't know which was worst, the newly learned knowledge of losing that much money for a fake crystal ball, or the look of completely dumbfounded disbelief on Makoto's face. "Yeah, that took two whole years' worth of fortune telling. To be fair, it would have been chump change if it actually did give me the power to control the world."

Apparently, that was the end of their conversation because the luckster turned on his heel and walked over to the resting Pop Sensation. 'Yeah, even I realize how dumb that was… now. Honestly, I should have figured that out when he said they were part of a set.'

"…There's gold on her wrist." The statement caught Hiro by surprise and effortlessly derailed his train of thought. Looking over at the luckster, Hiro saw him holding up her right hand slightly. As the luckster had said, on the swollen part of her arm where her wrist had been broken there were a few flakes of gold paint on it.

"Oh, so that's what she was looking at." Hiro stated with realization in his tone. He had been wondering why she had been paying so much attention to the idol's arm when she'd come to investigate, but he had been unable to say anything to her because she just seemed so unapproachable to him.

"She?" Asked Makoto, uncertain of who he was referring to. There were a lot of girls here after all.

"Yeah, Kiyoko came in here a while ago, but she didn't stay long. Just enough to change Sayaka's and my bandages. Now that you mention it, I think she left her wrist exposed because she found that gold stuff you were talking about. Maybe she wanted to make sure the others could find it themselves."

It wasn't the best theory he had about what she'd been doing, but it was the most logical one he could come up with now. Aside from aliens abducting her and either replacing her with one of their own or brainwashing her. But that wouldn't be to believable to the others, and with his light headedness from all the blood loss, they would likely write it off without a thought.

Maybe later then.

That was when Makoto spoke up again, a bit of confusion in his voice, "Hey, what's that on your jacket?"

"Huh?" Hiro responded oh so intelligently as he began looking for whatever it was that the luckster was talking about. He didn't have to look long before Makoto decided to elaborate.

"Right there, on your shoulder. There's some kind of stain." Now armed with a better idea of what he should be looking for, the clairvoyant turned to look at where the Makoto was pointing. Yasuhiro then cried out in shock at the sight of the new addition of golden handprints all over the collar and shoulders.

"W-What the hell?" Stated the clairvoyant as he looked at the prints littering the top of his favorite jacket, completely shocked by the sight of the golden stains. "When did those get there!?"

"You didn't know about that before?" Inquired Makoto, somewhat shocked that Hiro hadn't noticed them before now. With how deeply the brightly colored gold hand prints contrasted against the dark brown of the jacket, it really should have been one of the first things the clairvoyant noticed.

But apparently, Hiro was as dense as he acted, because he followed up with, "No way, I didn't even think to look. I mean, I just washed this thing yesterday, I would have known if someone had touched it."

'I mean really, why on earth would anyone do this?' Hiro knew that he wasn't the most liked person in the world, but that didn't mean that he deserved this kind of thing. Was this supposed to be some kind of prank or something, because he wasn't laughing.

"Hey, do you think they'll be okay?" Makoto's question pulled him out of his thoughts and he ended up looking at one of the most miserable expressions he'd ever had the misfortune to witness in recent years. Seriously, he'd seen starving puppies that didn't look as depressingly desperate as this guy did right now.

And the worst part was that just looking at the boy's eyes. Hiro would be the first person to freely admit that he was, often, blind to a person's feelings. It was just something he had trouble picking up on at a glance. However, this look that he saw right now was so apparent that he knew he'd have to be a complete mental patient to miss this hopelessly worried face.

It felt inherently wrong, somehow. Like such an expression should never exist in those eyes. It almost felt like his chest was squeezing his heart just from the sight of it. It almost… hurt just seeing that look in this boy's eyes.

Why was that? What was it about seeing Makoto looking so miserable that was causing this reaction? He'd barely known the kid for over a week so why was…

"Don't worry Hiro. I'm not mad. A little upset, but not too mad. We've all make mistakes these past couple years, but we'll fix it. Together."

A sudden spike of pain lanced through his skull as the world momentarily seemed to switch out with another. For a second there, the Makoto that wore that depressing look had been over layered with another, slightly younger looking one that had a tired, yet completely hopeful look that caused him to suddenly feel… determined.

Determined to help someone other than himself. To give them something to believe in. To give someone a reason to be hopeful again.

It was a strange thing to be honest. These feelings coming out of nowhere from what he could only guess was a flashback of some kind. If it wasn't then that whole, 'brain washing through radio waves' conspiracy might be more plausible then he'd first thought. It could have been a vision of the future that he occasionally had, but it wasn't likely since that Makoto looked a bit younger than this one.

"Hiro?" it took him a second, but he remembered that the lucky student was waiting for an answer. Deciding to put that thought aside for later, Hiro took a quick look at the two girls to stall for time. Truthfully, he had no idea if either of them would make it.

Now, he was the furthest thing from a doctor that he could think of, that much was fact. With that in mind, he still didn't think either of them had much of a chance at living though this. Both girls had apparently lost a lot of blood, and even with the blood packs fixing that, it would be touch and go for a while.

When he had finally noticed the two of them after Monokuma's deal had been made, he had thought the worst had happened. Thankfully, the others had straightened it out for him that they were both alive; if in critical condition.

Unfortunately, neither one was in any condition to continue this killing game and either one of them could die at any moment; by their injuries or by other party was up to chance for the moment. It was not looking good for them right about now.

Still, he slapped on his best optimistic grin for his friend and said, "No worries man. Their gonna be fine. I'm sure of it. You just focus on the investigation; I'll keep them safe."

It wasn't much of a lie. He was going to be stuck here anyways, so he might as well say it. Sure, he knew that if anyone tried something he wouldn't be able to stop them, but it made Makoto cheer up a bit anyway, so he counted that as a win.

With words of thanks, the luckster decided to move on to the last clue he needed and left the grinning clairvoyant behind with the comatose fashionista and pop idol. There was just one more stop he had to make, but Yasuhiro didn't know that. All he knew was that, he had a job to do right now.

"Alright, just about time now."

I muttered to myself as I watched Makoto head into the audio video room with Sayaka's DVD in his hand, knowing that he would be playing it soon in an attempt to get a better understanding of his friend's actions yesterday. A valiant effort, I must say. I only wonder if I would have done the same thing in his shoes.

With much of the clues gathered by those of the class that could do any sleuthing on their own, and Makoto just about to finish his list himself, I leaned back in my chair as I thought about the choices I had made regarding the investigation process.

Most of them had been something I'd had come up with on the spot to explain their appearance in the games. For starters, there was the "truth bullets", the evidence gathered during the investigation to be used in the trial. A thing I noticed after tinkering around with the E-handbook, was that, for all its sophisticated technology and space age design, it didn't have any camera systems to take pictures. This meant that, unless they had gotten a picture from me/Junko, there wouldn't be any way for them to properly record their own findings.

Of course, that was unless they were to use the notepads they'd all been giving; but that wouldn't work since Makoto's notepad provided an important clue that proves his innocence. That piece of intel would never had been found if he was lugging that around with him the whole time, so I provided an alternative. Using still images from the cameras and a few pictures I'd found in the school's database, I was more than able to facilitate some photos for them.

The note feature was something they'd already had installed into the tablet, so all I had to do was send them the picture attached to an empty note, then they could modify it as they saw fit. Yeah, I could have filled out the notes myself, but then I'd be to tempted to include spoilers that would have made them suspicious in the long run. It was honestly the best thing I could do for them, just let them figure out the items significance themselves so that they would have reason to think it through.

That, and I was lazy.

To be fair, I had already had to endure the nonsense of last night. I was already exhausted; I didn't want to do much more if I didn't have to.

That being said, the second part had been brought to my attention was the fact that, in the manga and anime adaptation most of the smaller evidence would be picked up by someone and it usually wouldn't be seen again till the trial. This was something that happened in game too, but it was far more prominent in the adaptation and it meant that a lot of them wouldn't be able to piece the info together themselves until that moment it became relevant.

Now, I knew why it had to be done this way. This process would let the others have their moments to shine, while also causing the time for the trial to lengthen for longer gameplay. Unfortunately, this also caused trials that could have been solved in ten to twenty minutes to drag on into two to four hours. Yes, this meant they would be thorough in their discussions to find the culprit, but the long run time would occasionally cause me to lapse in attention from time to time and forget important details. Never for long, but long enough.

Now though, with nearly everyone able to find the same evidence, theoretically it would mean that these trials would move a bit faster.

That, and the fact that the others wouldn't be doing that whole, 'forcing the protagonist to figure out everything with passive-aggressive BS questions'. That'll help.

Still, I had to make it somewhat difficult for them in some way, otherwise there would be no tension, no drive to their own search for answers. That was why I'd told them they couldn't just give each other the clues they'd found. Yes, it made more work for me to do to pay attention to who found what, but it also encouraged them to work together to find clues, as well as separate individuals. Working together would let them find clues faster, and occasionally separating would let them have a chance to piece the facts together themselves.

Now, obviously, there were some hick-ups in this plan. Some of the students were unable or unwilling to investigate some things themselves. Toko especially since she couldn't risk passing out from the sight of blood and summoning her inner-serial killer by mistake. Then there were those that would be guarding the scene of the attack, and the ones in the doctor's office would be just as clueless as her. This meant that the others would have to pick up the slack for them and fill them in along the way.

That also meant that, those that preferred to be on their own and gather their own clues like Kiyoko and Byakuya would have the sole advantage that they wouldn't have to tell anyone of their findings unless someone just happened to be in the room with them at the time. Like when she was in Makoto's room and he and Mondo both received the same clues she found by the sole benefit that they were in the same room.

It would be a bit mean of me to forget those people, but it was for the best. They needed to figure this all out on their own that the best way to solve these cases would be to work together. I could only push them as best that I could, but it would be up to them to figure it out for themselves. Sure, I could enforce a rule that they needed to work together, but that would only drive a wedge in-between them. Most of the best teams I've seen in times of adversity were from those that chose to work together instead of being forced to.

Moving on, one thing that I did find strange was how…unobservant most of them seemed to be. It was strange, I had thought that more of them wouldn't follow along with the actions of the in-game counterparts and would do more to help their case. Yet, it seemed that, while they certainly had been more active in the investigation, it still looked like only Makoto was the one searching everything. Kiyoko and Byakuya pulled a lot of weight here and there with their own inspections, but it looked like our resident Luckster was pulling the lion share of it.

I wondered why that was. Kiyoko, I could understand since, despite her amnesia she was still the "Ultimate Detective" and could figure out most of it with minimal assistance, so some of her clues could be simply because I didn't know she was finding them just yet and I would see the results more so in her results then her actions. Plus, I knew that she would be making Makoto figure this out to prove himself innocent. I could see her reasoning too.

If she explained everything right off the bat, it would put the spot light on her in seconds and would raise all kinds of red flags with the others. It would also cause the others to be wary of her if she alone destroyed every question lobbed her way without even the slightest hesitation. Plus, with her memory gone for more thoroughly then the others, she didn't know just yet who she could trust, nor did she know if it was because of the "mastermind" that she lost those memories or not. So, she was laying low as best she could.

Also, by making Makoto be the one to solve this mystery, she was insuring that he would come to terms with what his so-called "friend" did to him. It would hurt him, that much was true, but at least he would be more likely to come to terms with Sayaka's betrayal then if she solved it for him.

Byakuya… I never understood his thought process. He always seemed to take this whole "game" thing a bit too seriously for everyone's tastes. It wasn't too apparent right now, but it would be within a few days. I never learned to trust him like others did. I just didn't like someone like him who could look at a situation like theirs and choose to worsen it because they thought it would be funny. Even as I watched him doing his own investigations, I felt like socking him in the jaw just because of that damnable smirk of his.

As in the game, it was as if he was a nonfactor during the first investigation. He mostly stood in the hallway between the dorms, long having finished his own inspection and just waiting for the trial to begin so that he could have entertainment.

I would have continued to mentally rage had I not heard Makoto start to freak out at what he'd seen in Sayaka's DVD. I couldn't blame him though, the sight of such a popular band laying on the ground either dead or unconscious on stage, all while silhouetted by a massive screen behind them displaying an uncomfortably close shot of Monokuma's face would make anyone shout in shock. The demented bear's words about the group "disbanding" and there being no where for the pop idol to return to didn't help matters.

I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for her to see all her hard work and dreams dead like that. She even admitted to doing some…unsavory things to earn her position, and I only knew of a few of them thanks to a brief glance at her folder. I had to admit, some of them caught me off guard, but still.

"N-No way." Makoto stammered as he stepped back, shocked from what he'd seen and utterly confused as to what could have happened to the girl band. "I-I mean, if this really happened…it'd be a big news story, right…?"

I only wish that would have been the case. Oh, there might have been news at some point, but when the world went to hell, shortly after these kinds of things started popping up all over. It couldn't be that it went unnoticed, but I couldn't find anything about it so far in the school computer. Give it time though, I might.

Either way, it looked like things were winding down for them. All the important clues had been located by at least one or two of the students by this point and it only took a couple of hours. I figured it was about time to call for the trial to begin. If any of them needed anything else, they had each other to rely on.

Hopefully, this would go well.

Playing the school chime, I walked back to the control room and switched to the announcement Monokuma that always popped up with its glass of wine. It wasn't wine. I checked. It was just some kind of chemical to looked like wine. Trust me, I took a wine and spirits class. Besides, wine doesn't tend to smell like glue.

"Ahem. So, I'm getting kind of bored up here. I think it's about time for us to dive right in to the highly anticipated…class trial! Please head to the courtroom through the elevator behind the big red doors in the school zone. See you all in a bit!" I paused for a bit before a thought occurred to me. "…incidentally, all conscious students are required to attend. Those that are unable to walk will be provided either a wheelchair or a crutch to use for the duration of the trial only."

I knew that would piss off more than a few of them, it was basically me saying that it didn't matter if they were on deaths door, they would have to attend if they were conscious, no matter what. No regard for a person's injuries; if you were awake, well to bad, you're going.

Unfortunately, I needed access to the two that were still sleeping and Yasuhiro would just get in the way. So, sadly I had to do just that.

It didn't take long for them to gather up at the elevator. A few minutes at best, the last one being Hiro wheeled in on a wheelchair by a Monokuma wearing a stethoscope and a small doctors coat. I couldn't resist.

"Dun dun-dun dun! Someone page a doctor? It's Doctor Kill brew on the scene." What could I say, I have a sick sense of humor sometimes.

"Just get off!" Yasuhiro said, having tried to take control of the chair the whole way. Sad to say, the 'doctor' had him beat in the strength department. It had to be to singlehandedly lift him off his cot and into the chair without reopening his wounds.

"Here you go then, and remember to drink plenty of water. You lost quite a bit of blood back there, so it's in your best interest to rehydrate as best you can before you possibly get executed, it'd be a shame for you not to be able to leave a big stain for me to clean up." I intentionally ignored his glare as I put a tall glass of purified water in his hand. "And do try not to drop it, I'd just hate to make one of the others clean it all up for you."

I had to suppress my laughter when he sloshed some of the water into the Monokuma's face. I didn't even care that this could technically be count as breaking a rule, it was funny.

"Well, if you're going to be rude about it, you can just forget about me assisting you to the courtroom. I'll meet you at the bottom. Don't keep me waiting~" And with that, Monokuma was gone, and the students, who were all still wary, climbed into the massive elevator. All I had to do now was wait for them in the courtroom. But before that, I had something big to take care of.

And believe me, it would be a doozy.

Hello people of the internet, viewers, fans of Danganronpa and of this little piece of fan fiction here. Firstly, let me just say, thank you all for your patience with me and the long wait times. It's not easy to make time to work on this, so to know that people like it means the world to me. My apologies for the long wait times between chapters. I try to do as much as I can to get them out bi-monthly, but sometimes things pop up that hinder it. That being said, I recently was given the "Danganronpa 1.2 PS4" addition to my collection, so I plan to run through it one or more times to remind myself of some key characters personality traits and make notes of them. Shouldn't take to long, I'm hoping. I don't plan to put in these A.N. notes very often, I feel that they break up the flow of the story to much and more often then not they end up skipped over anyway, but I felt the need to put one in this time to say how happy I am that others are enjoying what I write.

I'm also planning on writing some small one shots every so and so, some prompted, some my own. So, watch out for that in the future. Collage graduation is almost here for me, so with luck, I'll have more time to devote to these. Hope to see you all in the future!