As there is no tvtropes page for this story, (how notable do you think this is, ... System Restore?), reviews are the only way I can gauge reactions. Please leave a review. (The longer and more in depth the better)
As two new signs went up for Ishimaru and Oowada, the hearts went down, and the second trial was underway. This time the trial was blu-ish.
. "Well, how should we approach this?" Celeste asked. "Should we start with who killed Ishimaru or who killed Oowada?"
. "Let's start with Oowada." Naegi said. "We have a much chance of figuring out who did it, and figuring out his death may give us something to go on for Ishimaru's murder."
. "Fair enough." Togami said. "The last time any of us saw Oowada alive was when he came rushing in to inform us of Ishimaru's demise."
. "Let's ignore Ishimaru and his closed room for now." Kirigiri said.
. "Yeah, that's what I'm doing." Togami said. "Anyway, the only people who weren't there were Ishimaru, the other victim, Hagakure, and Yamada."
. "Are you saying that either Yams or I murdered Oowada?" Hagakure said.
. "Why not?" Togami said. "Neither of you were there in the cafeteria when Oowada rushed into a rage over Ishimaru's death."
. "Using your inductive reasoning, Togami?" Celeste said. "Inductive reasoning can backfire spectacularly."
. "Well, say what you will, I've used it to narrow down the list of potential suspects for Oowada's culprit."
. "If you say so."
. Kirigiri said. "Inductive reasoning is flawed. Let's use deductive reasoning instead."
. "See, Kyouko Kirigiri agrees with me." Celeste smiled.
. "Do my ears detect a potential duo?" Yamada said.
. "Yamada. Now is not the time." Maizono said.
. "A-a-re you shipping them?" Asahina asked. "What?"
. "What? Without Ishimaru..."
. "Yamada, enough." Naegi said with deadly stoicism. "Shipping, really dude? No wonder you're such an outcast."
. "Naegi?" Maizono asked.
. "Really? Dude, our classmates are dead. That doesn't matter to you. That doesn't matter to you at all." Naegi said. "We've all been put in a situation where the wrong move can result in our demise. And you're still thinking like this is an anime or manga."
. "Master Makoto Naegi, on behalf of otakus everywhere, I will defend them from your attack. What's wrong with being an otaku?"
. "Nothing."
. "So then what's the problem?"
. "The problem is most people don't understand you. Can't get on your wavelength. Over these last few days, you've proven yourself to be quite secluded only coming out because you have to. You've willing isolated yourself out of belief that you're somehow more superior than everybody else. In short, the problem is being an otaku isn't enough. You may have gotten here by being an otaku, but now you have to be more."
. "Be more how?"
. "Do something else. Show there's more to you than just otaku-related things."
. "You make references to anime and manga all the time, Mr. Harem-Master."
. "RIGHT THERE. RIGHT THERE. You're confronted with something and you immediately jump to a cliche anime and manga trope. First of all, anime and manga is not all there is to me. Second of all, f**k you, you think I wanted Enoshima to lay down her life for me?"
. Everybody's eyes widened. Naegi cursing was not something anybody had ever expected to hear.
. "Whoa, dude." Leon said.
. "Naegi." Maizono said.
. Kirigiri sighed. "Well now that's gotten out of the way. Let's get back to what happened to Oowada."
. "Alright." Fujisaki said.
. "Just to be clear, who were the three people to discover Oowada's body?" Asahina asked.
. "It was myself, Naegi, and Kirigiri." Maizono said. "Kirigiri had just been released from her 'imprisonment' in between trials."
. "Which I still find suspicious." Fukawa muttered.
. "Anyway, the two of us had gone over to the red doors to greet Kirigiri back and inform her about Ishimaru's body being discovered."
. "I know." Kirigiri said.
. "You knew?" Maizono said.
. "Yeah, Monokuma said he was releasing me because there had been a murder."
. "So that was Ishimaru's murder?" Fukawa said.
. "I can only assume so." Kirigiri said.
. "It all ties back to Ishimaru's death." Leon said, scratched his head. "Perhaps we should try to solve Ishimaru's death first."
. "With that closed room? Forget it." Fujisaki said.
. "Wait, A murder. As in the singular." Fukawa said. "Is it possible that Oowada murdered Ishimaru and then killed himself in the sauna?"
. "What?" Asahina asked. "Why would he do that?"
. "Well, perhaps he secretly hated all of us, and wanted all of us to die. I mean, this is the guy who punched Naegi in the face." Fukawa said. "I mean, he was the one that reported that Ishimaru was dead. That seems awfully suspicious to me."
. "Aw man." Leon messed with his hair. "That means we wouldn't solve Oowada's murder because it was a suicide. What happens if we have to rule a suicide?"
. "You vote who caused the death of someone. If you commited suicide, then you've caused the death of yourself." Monokuma explained.
. Naegi was still somewhat puzzled.
. "No, wait. I think Leon is onto something."
. "What do you mean?" Togami said.
. "Well, perhaps we don't have to figure out who did it, but potentially how they did it. That may lead somewhere."
. "Do you have something?" Celeste said. "Let's hear it. Let's hear how you think Ishimaru died."
. "Well, first off, when I was exploring the store room. I noticed that the sports drinks had been opened. Who had been drinking them?" Naegi asked.
. "That would be me, Oowada, Ishimaru, and Hagakure." Leon admitted.
. "But not Yamada?" Togami asked.
. "No." Leon said.
. "So that just leaves... Hagakure for Oowada's body."
; "Indeed, and the motive works to for Hagakure. The amount of money Monokuma presented is more than enough to pay off his debts." Celeste said.
. "Wait, how do you know that?" Hagakure accused.
. "This is one of the best schools in the world." Celeste said. "If you think I would come here without knowing anything about my classmates, you're wrong."
. "Hey, Toges, I'm telling you. I didn't do it."
. "Hold up now, Togami." Kirigiri interjected. "If Hagakure really is the culprit for Oowada, then tell us what did you use to lock Oowada in?"
. "What?"
. "Oowada was locked in. Can you tell us what you used to lock him in?"
. "How should I know? I was guarding Ishimaru's body with Yams."
. "And there's your proof that Hagakure didn't do it. Oowada was locked in the sauna. There's a period of twenty to thirty minutes that Oowada needed to be in the sauna." Kirigiri said.
. "So what's your point?" Celeste said.
. "My point is this. Did anybody see where they came from?" Kirigiri said. "Did anyone see which way they came from?"
. "They both arrived from the way the direction of the other dorm rooms." Fujisaki said.
. "Exactly." Kirigiri said.
. "But they could have taken the other route." Togami argued.
. "Why would they take a less-direct route?" Kirigiri argued. "If one of them murdered Oowada in the sauna and heard that Ishimaru was dead, then they would have taken a much more direct route."
. "One of them?" Yamada said, interjecting. "Why am I still a suspect?"
. "If Hagakure isn't the one who murdered Oowada, you're our next most likely suspect." Maizono said.
. "Truly, Miss Sayaka Maizono, do you still hold a grudge for that 'kawaii princess' comment." Yamada asked.
. " 'Kawaii Princess' comment?" Celeste asked, rather perplexed. "When was this?"
. "It's not important." Maizono said.
. "Yamada is side-tracking us on purpose." Fukawa said.
. "That's strange." Kirigiri thought. "With most of the evidence pointing to Hagakure, her paranoia should be leading her to claiming that Hagakure's guilty right now, not Yamada."
. "Anyway." Naegi said, continuning. "Can I present my theory on how the culprit was able to get to Ishimaru inside that closed room?"
. "Go on, Naegi. Show 'em." Maizono encouraged.
. "Well, my theory is this. Ishimaru wasn't specifically targeted. Someone put a slow-acting substance in the sports drink that Ishimaru drank."
. "That's an interesting theory." Togami said. "But what substance would that be?"
. "That hypothetical substance involved would probably be laundry detergent. Kirigiri said. "When I checked the laundry room, I could not find any laundry detergent at all."
. "Laundry detergent?" Yamada said, shocked. "Now our desires for clean clothes lead to our demises. How truly horrific."
. "Keep saying that, you murderer." Fukawa said.
. "I'm telling you I didn't murder Ishimaru or Oowada."
. "R-r-i-g-ht."
. "Fukawa." Togami said. "Do you have anything more to contribute besides baseless accusations?"
. "Yes, my white knight. I do. I think Hagakure murdered Ishimaru and Yamada offed Oowada. I think they were completely independent of each other. We could be making connections between the two where there were none."
. "But wait, Fukawa. We agreed that Hagakure's motive would have been money." Kirigiri pointed out.
. "Hey, I didn't murder either of them." Hagakure said.
. "Well as long as both of your alibis consists of being your rooms." Celeste said. "There's not much more we can do than follow the possiblity that you could be the murderer. Because you could. It hasn't been disproven yet."
. "As I was saying." Kirigiri started again. "Nobody ever saw Ishimaru after the motive was presented."
. "So what's the problem?" Fukawa said.
. "When I first examined Ishimaru, he showed signs of being dead for over twenty-four hours. Apparently there was less than twenty-four hours between the motive being introduced and the discovery of Ishimaru's body." Kirigiri said.
. "And another thing." Naegi said. "Why would Hagakure risk his own life? He could have grabbed the bottle with laundry detergent himself, and then he would have died."
. "See I told ya." Hagakure said.
. "H-h-e-s probably stupid enough to do that by accident."
. "While I don't disagree about Hagakure's intelligence." Togami said, "We must assume Hagakure displayed some level of common sense."
. "HEY!"
. "Leon." Fujisaki asked. "Do you know whom grabbed the sports drinks?"
. "It was Hagakure." Leon said.
. "No, I didn't." Hagakure denied.
. "Yes, you did it. I was there when... you opened the package." Leon trailed off. "Naegi as brilliant as your theory is, I think it's invalid. The box of sports drinks wasn't opened at all before Hagakure got to them. Otherwise, do you have a way for Hagakure or Yamada to introduce laundry detergent without opening the containers containing the drink?"
. " No. No. I don't. So my theory has been disproven. Well that's disappointed. I thought I was onto something."
. "Well, it was a decent stab at it." Maizono said.
. "So we're back to square one." Fujisaki said. "We don't know how Ishimaru was killed. We only know that he was killed in a closed room, and we have no way of figuring out who could have done it."
. Leon closed his eyes and started thinking of what had happened.
. "Kirigiri, you said that Ishimaru had likely been dead for over twenty-four hours. Does the Monokuma file say what he died of?"
. "Yes, it says he died of internal injuries."
. "Well, there is one more thing for Ishimaru. When we were drinking our sports drinks, he got up on a table."
. "Yeah, I remember now." Hagakure interjected. "He fell off the table."
. "The hell." Asahina said. "Why was he on the table?"
. "He was trying to change a lightbulb." Leon replied.
. "And you say he fell off the table." Kirigiri said.
. "Yeah."
. "Well, that would explain the internal injuries and the closed room."
. "Wait. What?" Fukawa said. "Are you saying that Ishimaru DIED OF NATURAL CAUSES! I thought we only had class trials when there was a murder."
. "And it's been confirmed that Oowada was murdered." Kirigiri replied.
. "Do you have any evidence to set this up?" Asahina asked. "Because I'm having quite a hard time buying this.
. "I'm sure we can cobble enough of it together to confirm or deny it." Naegi said. "I'll start. It explains why the Monokuma announcement was cut off."
. "What?"
. "Does anybody else remember Monokuma's announcement? "'Ding Dang Dong. We got a corpse here."
. 'Wasn't there supposed to be a second half to that announcement? ' '" Monokuma only said the first sentence. Remember when Enoshima and Oogami had that double knockout? Monokuma not only played the full announcement. He even played it twice in succession."
"It gets better, Naegi." Kirigiri continued. "I just remembered Fukawa's comment from early and that sparked something that Monokuma said when he released me, he said he was releasing me because there was A murder. Singular. At the time I thought it was because the rest of you had discovered Ishimaru and he had been murdered, but really it was because Oowada had just been murdered."
, Monokuma started turning pale. He never expected the students to use his own statements and even the announcements as proof in class trials.
. "That's better?" Naegi snarked.
. "So we agree that Ishimaru died of natural causes." Maizono said. "That's ... kinda unexpected. First, the double knock-out and now a death of unnatural causes..."
. "I'm fuming!" Monokuma interrupted. "I had been hoping for several straight-up murders or even murder attempts by this point, and instead we get that double knock-out of an action scene and a death of natural causes."
. "Nevertheless," Togami started. "this exposes a logistical flaw of the game. I'm willing to bet the idea of death of natural causes never crossed anybody's mind, even Monokuma and the mastermind's."
. "He also never anticipated the idea that we could add people." Yamada said.
. "Seriously. You pervert." Celeste said.
. "Anyway, that idea still takes nine months to execute. That's a rather slow and tedious way to break this game." Fujisaki commented.
. "ENOUGH!" Monokuma raised his paws in frustration. "I understand the temptation. You guys are all teenagers ... and Hagakure, but we are NOT, under any circumstances, ADDING PEOPLE."
. "Oh good, that means you're not going to kidnap people from the outside and force them to join this game to keep this continuing. Once this game ends, it ends." Naegi said.
. "Aie-yai-ii" Leon said, shaking his head. "Way to completely miss it, Naegi."
. "Miss what?"
. "Never mind, Naegi." Maizono said, expasarated.
. "So that just leaves trying to figure Oowada's murder." Asahina said.
. "Indeed, it does." Celeste said. "And to just be recapped, he was killed inside the sauna."
. "Yes, he was." Fujisaki said. "The punches on the interior of the sauna door prove it."
. "Hey, Fujisaki, have you mentioned your little physics thing yet?" Leon asked.
. "Physics what now?" Fukawa said.
. "Save it for later." Togami said. "I think I know who killed Oowada."
. "If you're going to say Hagakure or Yamada, forget it." Asahina said.
. "No. The murderer is none other than Genocider Syo."
. "WHAT!" The other students all said in unison.
. "And what evidence do you have for that?" Leon said. "Yer saying we've got a serial killer inside these walls."
. "Yes."
. "Well, do we know who it is?" Maizono asked, fearfully.
. "All in good time, Maizono. All in good time."
. "Wait, we're just going to skate past this?" Naegi said. "We've got a serial killer in here."
. "Yes."
. "Hey guys."
. "Yeah?"
. "I think we're fucked."
. "What's your proof, Togami? Is it the scissors?" Kirigiri asked.
. "Yes. How do you know?" Togami asked, shocked.
. "It's because Kyoko Kirigiri is actually Genocider Syo." Fukawa said, pointing.
. "What about the scissors now?" Leon asked. "The scissors are the proof?"
. "Yes. The scissors are unique to Genocider Syo. Sure they made have been used in an unorthodox manner but the scissors are Genocider's."
. "So now we know who did it." Asahina said. "So now we just need to figure out who Genocider Syo is."
. "Is anybody else still uneasy about the fact that we have a SERIAL KILLER AMONG US?" Naegi pointed out.
. "Well, we're trapped in here with a robotic teddy bear that's trapped us in here with the express intent to 'despair'. "Fujisaki said. "Would throwing a serial killer in the mix really be that surprising?"
. "So how are we supposed to keep a serial killer in check?" Leon asked.
. "It looks like Syo is the culprit, so we don't need to worry about that." Yamada said.
. "Unless of course, Syo is not the culprit." Celeste said.
. "Oh no. Oh no. No. No. NO! IT HAS TO BE SYO!" Hagakure said.
. "Wait, what are you implying, Celeste?" Maizono asked.
. "I'm saying it's entirely possible that someone else knew about Syo and stole the scissors to use them as a red herring."
. "Wait, what?" Togami said. "Where are you going with this?"
. "I'm saying that there are only two people in here who knew about Syo before the scissors. Genocider Syo himself and you, Byakuya Togami. It's entirely possible that you two are one and the same."
. "Wait, Celeste." Fujisaki said. "Togami did say that Genocider Syo was likely to be the alternate personality of someone here. He even showed us the case file."
. "Anyway, getting back to the physics thing Leon mentioned earlier, it'd be much easier to just show you. Everybody follow me."
. "Wait, where do you think you're going?" Monokuma angrily ranted.
. "I thought I discussed this before the trial began. We're still participating in the trial." Celeste said. "But no rule ever says that participation has to take place inside the trial room itself."
. "Argh." Monokuma said.
. Everybody piled into the elevator, and it went back up.
. "It feels weird going up with other people." Kirigiri commented.
. "Yeah. You missed that." Leon said.
. Fujisaki led everybody over to the sauna where Oowada's charred body was still there. Monokuma popped out.
. "Yeah, I don't remove the bodies until the trial is over."
. "Okay. That makes sense." Leon said.
. Kirigiri put her finger to her chin. "Hmmm, Monokuma doesn't remove the body, yet he didn't plan for us to leave the trial room mid-trial."
. With the exception of Togami and Fukawa, everybody piled into the sauna.
. "See." Fujisaki pointed out. "The punches exert zero force on the door."
. "How is that possible?" Yamada asked.
. "Because the Force is perpendicular to the door. Which means the angle is ninety degrees. To calculate Force in the x-direction it would be Force times the cosine of the degrees. Since the degree is ninety, cosine ninety is zero. That means the total force is zero." Fujisaki explained.
. "Okay. I'll just take your word for it."
. Everybody nodded in agreement, and they all headed back to the trial room, and resumed their position.
. "An odd thought just occurred to me." Kirigiri said. "How did Yamada and Hagakure even find out that Ishimaru was dead? Was it the body discovery announcement?"
. "No. 'Giri." Hagakure said. "There was a knock on my door saying that Ishimaru was dead."
. "Same here." Yamada said.
. "And who knocked on your door?" Maizono asked.
. "It was ... 'Kawa."
. "Fukawa here as well."
. "Now that I think about it" Celeste commented. "Fukawa wasn't with us when we discovered the body."
. "I-uh-wait."
. "Well, that explains a lot." Togami said. "Then tell us, Fukawa, who is Genocider Shou? Where did you get those scissors?"
. "Listen... I am Genocider Syo. Syo is my alternate personality."
. "Yeah right, you murdered Oowada to satisfy some twisted desire of yours, eh?"
. "NO! I murdered him in self-defense. After he came bumbling in screaming about Ishimaru's death, I left because I didn't want to be around him. I had seen what he had done to Naegi when he got angry so I was trying to stay away from him. How was I supposed to know he would come into the sauna and start attacking me in blind rage? So I knocked him out using the Genoscissors, push him into the sauna, locked it up, and turned up the heat."
. "Well, I think that's it." Naegi said, sighing.
. "But why not go back to your room?" Leon asked.
. "Because my room was right on the way past Ishimaru and Oowada's. I figured Oowada would be one of those two rooms." Fukawa replied.
. "Yahoo." Monokuma shouted. "I think you've all figured out whom the culprit is. Vote now."
. A second later...
. "You're all correct. And now a punishment for the SDHSL Bookworm, Toko Fukawa."
. A strange contraption rose up in the center of the trial stands.
. "What's this?" Kirigiri thought. "I totally forgot to check the area in the center of the trial stands. That oversight."
. All of a sudden, the contraption shot out metallic ropes and grabbed Fukawa's four limbs and dragged her into the seat. It plopped a helmet on her head and with an electric shock, she lay there, motionless.
. "Fukawa?" Naegi asked hesistantly.
. "I can totally mess with people's minds this way. I've chosen to make Toko Fukawa completely braindead. In another couple of minutes, she'll be dead physically as well. Say goodbye to Toko Fukawa." Monokuma said.
. All of a sudden, the helmet came off, and Fukawa was ripping the metallic ropes off her limbs.
. "Ahh!" Monokuma shouted. "What's going on?"
. "Fukawa?" Togami asked.
. "You're right, Monokuma. Say goodbye to Toko Fukawa. But say hello to Genocider Syo! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!"
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was originally going to have Naegi say "So my theory's been Jossed. BUT: 'Jossed' did not exist as a page until 2013. Dangan Ronpa was released in 2010.