Chapter 35
"Well, then, let's discuss the specifics of the victim." Togami said, getting right down to business. "First, we need to clarify who exactly the unidentified victim is."
. "It's Ikusaba." Naegi said. "The tattoo is the mark of Fenrir."
. "Correct. I just wanted to lay that card out on the table." Togami said. "Based off what we know, the corpse appears to be the Mukuro Ikusaba."
. "Yeah, so what." Celeste said. "Our mysterious sixteenth student shows up and dies."
. "That seems unusual." Genocider said. "There's no way you have such a mysterious and obviously important character only show-up postmortem. Especially considering Fenrir is the Wolf of Ragnarok. Usually, when there's a scene where an important character dies, it has more detail, am I right?"
. "I had expected someone to claim Kyoko Kirgiri was the latest evolution in ghost technology." Monokuma cried. "Oh, that would be hilarious!"
. "That would be stupid." Fujisaki said. "Who do you think we are?"
. "But it means we were wrong in thinking that Mukuro was the mastermind at all." Togami said.
. "But, I mean... being the Ultimate Soldier seems like a pretty mastermind-y title to me. She knows how to kill people, with all the resources the mastermind has, she could easily set this up." Maizono interjected.
. "But the fact that she has ended up dead means she was the same as us- just another participant." Togami said.
. "So who is the mastermind?" Leon asked.
. "Is it not the headmaster?" Genocider said.
. "No." Kirigiri answered.
. "Is it possible for someone to have more than one talent?" Naegi said, pondering.
. "Are you saying that Mukuro could be both something like Ultimate Despair and Ultimate Mercenary?" Kirigiri said.
. "Okay. Okay! We're in the middle of a trial right now! Figuring out who killed Mukuro is first and foremost."
. " So you confirm that it is Mukuro? Strange. After you went out of your way to conceal the identity of this trial's victim." Celeste couldn't help but notice Monokuma words.
. "Fine. Uncovering the identity of the mastermind will have to wait. I stake my family name on it." Togami said, defiantly.
. "Logic Errors. Logic Errors abound." Fujisaki said.
. "So we move on." Togami said.
. "Is it possible that the Kirigiri we're dealing with right now is an impostor?" Genocider said.
. "What?" Leon said.
. "That would be interesting." Celeste said.
. "What are you talking about?" Kirigiri said.
. "Is there an Ultimate Impostor?" Togami asked. "That would neatly solve most of these conundrums."
. "No. The Ultimate Impostor is not one of you guys." Monokuma said in frustration.
. "We'll have to take his word for it." Naegi said.
. "Okay, next question." Fujisaki said. "What is Fenrir?"
. "The mark of Fenrir." Genocider said. " In Norse mythology, it is the wolf of Raganarok, the end of the world. The opponent of Odin. Son of Loki. Also the name of a prominent werewolf in Harry Potter."
. "I mean, in this context." Fujisaki clarified.
. "Fenrir is an elite mercenary group. Supposedly, they've gone inactive." Togami said. "According to Ikusaba's profile, she joined them after bailing on a family trip to Europe."
. "That family trip." Naegi said. "There has to be something to that."
. "It's a loose thread." Kirigiri said. "It has nothing to do with her murder."
. "She's right." Togami said. "Ikusaba appears to have been killed by the mastermind."
. "What?" Leon said.
. "You're going to jump to a sweeping conclusion like that." Fujisaki said.
. "Of course, I think it's obvious." Togami said. "We already knew that the mastermind had one mole: Sakura Oogami. It's possible he had another."
. "But what about that masked figure?" Naegi said.
. "A ploy to fool all of us, especially you. It's entirely possible that this mastermind had Sakura Oogami kill Mukuro Ikusaba, and then put the corpse on ice to use at this point." Togami said. "Unless Kirigiri has something else to say about the corpse. I assume that's why you were late, checking the corpse, Mrs. Detective."
. "Wait a minute, you just said the mastermind killed Ikusaba." Leon said.
. "I never said that the mastermind killed her directly. Oogami was a pawn."
. "Hold on, if Oogami had killed Mukuro, why wouldn't there be a class trial for it?" Naegi said.
. "Because it wouldn't have the same impact." Togami said. "He wanted one of the fifteen at the gate to be the victim." Togami said. "If Monokuma dusts off sixteenth student to be the victim, then the chances that it would spur us to murder each other wouldn't be as great as watching one student brutally murder another right in front of us."
. "No, she didn't kill anyone else." Naegi said. "I was the first one she attacked."
. "How do you know?" Togami said.
. "Because she said she had to kill someone. If she had killed Mukuro Ikusaba before then, she wouldn't have had to kill me." Naegi said. "Remember she chose me at the mastermind's suggestion. Who's the easier target? The Ultimate Soldier or the scrawny guy."
. "I see your point." Togami said. "So we can get rid of that idea."
. "So we're back to square one." Genocider said.
. "Let's write an algorithm." Fujisaki said, in frustration. "That should help us figure this out."
. "An algorithm?" Celeste asked as Fujisaki produced a pen and some paper.
. "An algorithm is a basic component of computer program. Programmers and mathematicians alike use this in order to create a sequence of events."
. "So you propose the creation of an algorithm in order to figure out Ikusaba's murder."
. "Yes."
. "Alright, I'm game." Leon said. "Might as well. It's not like the debating-in-circles methods is going to work this time."
. "Let's start with the appearance. Assuming that the masked figure was always Mukuro." Fujisaki said.
. "Well, who else could be?" Leon said.
. Kirigiri was silent.
. "It's time for me to admit something." Fujisaki said. "Before Alter Ego was destroyed, he managed to find a group of files. Aside from discovering that the headmaster's name is Jin Kirigiri, Alter Ego discovered sixteen scanned student profiles." Fujisaki said.
. "Oh yeah, I remmeber you bringing that up to me." Maizono said. "It was after Naegi got knocked out."
. "You mean, like this one." Naegi produced the page of Ikusaba's file for all to see.
. "Yeah."
. "So that means Ikusaba really is the Ultimate Soldier." Leon said. "There's no mention of Ultimate Despair or any other potential title."
. "So I see you went into my room." Kirigiri couldn't help but notice. "But I thought Togami had the key."
. "I accompanied him." Togami clarified.
. "Anyway, that's when I found the file on Ikusaba. It was extra-encrypted. Alter Ego was working on it when he got smashed to bits." Fujisaki said. "I don't know what was in that file, but it seems Ikusaba was slated to join us. I had originally hoped that she had just been fortunate to miss out on this game, but between her profile as the Ultimate Soldier, and her status as the victim of this trial, it seems that hope was mistaken."
. "Aww, that's so nice." Monokuma cooed. "I can't believe it. Someone hoped for the best for the Ultimate Soldier. Usually, people don't touch those students with a ten meter pole."
. "That would have been interesting." Genocider said.
. "If by interesting you mean having the Ultimate Soldier and the Ultimate Serial Killer in a Mutual-Killing game, then that would have just been fan-fucking-tastic." Leon snarked.
. Fujisaki listed 'Discovery of Mukuro's existence' as the first entry on the piece of paper.
. The next task was identifing when the masked figure first showed up.
. "Did anybody see her before her corpse showed up?" Fujisaki asked.
. "I did." Naegi admitted.
. Fujisaki began pencil it in that Naegi had seen Mukuro Ikusaba first.
. "So what happened in that encounter?" Togami said.
. "Not important right now. Save it for the Naegi Encounter module." Fujisaki said. "We'll come back to it later if we need to expand it."
. "Module?" Leon said.
. "Yeah, sort of subroutine. It's a part of programming." Fujisaki said. "Right now, it doesn't matter what happened in Naegi's first encounter, only that it happened. And that was how long ago?"
. "It was the day after Alter Ego's execution. I'd say about 36 hours." Naegi said.
. "And what happened?"
. "Hang on..." Leon interrupted. "Are you playing 'The Power of Love' by Huey Lewis & News."
. "From the first Back to the Future film?" Maizono interjected, incredulously. "What an odd backdrop."
. "Speaking of Huey Lewis, I always forget he didn't write Ghostbusters." Leon commented.
. "I hope you all follow up a white traditional Sicilian position with Bishop F-4." Togami said in exasperation.
. "What?" Naegi said, confused.
. "You know, you've got a Knight on D-4, by putting a Bishop on F-4, Black will fork the two pieces with a pair of diagonal attacks from a pawn to e-5." Togami said as though it was the most obvious piece of knowledge in the world.
. "Isn't it marvelous that my White Knight knows chess so well?" Genocider couldn't but comment in appreciation.
. "Won't stop him from getting played." Monokuma muttered to himself.
. "Stop talking in chess terms, Togami." Kirigiri said, exasperatedly. "It's not like we're going to understand what you meant anyway."
. "As much I like the trope 'Notable Nonsequitur' can we get back on topic?" Fujisaki said.
. "Is that why you starting rambling about Sonic 3 & Knuckles all those days ago?" Monokuma said. "God I hated that, editing it for the broadcast was a pain. Do I leave it in? Do I cut it out for time? Would it get the viewers more invested in Fujisaki? Would the Sonic fanbase riot towards the school and tear down our walls to save one of their own? And you guys have done a great job of never making sure I never knew what was going to be important for the viewers to have context about for what was going on in these class trials! What do these students know? To my surprise, they're learning calculus."
. "Well, it's like Hagakure said all those days ago about this game. 'Because you've chosen the worst possible candidates for it, a bunch of teenagers." " Fujisaki couldn't resist pointing out.
. "You seem to be place a high priority on this game's presentation." Togami said.
. "Of course, I do. I need you guys to fall into despair fair and square. I've said it before and I'll say it again." Monokuma replied. "Oh, and by the way, what was with all the extraneous information during the class trials? Speculating about Code Geass AU-s, and shit like that.I kept expecting Yamada to bring up how watching Neon Genesis Evangelion at the age of four made him into an otaku at a young age. Not even on topic, but because he was so, I don't know, socially tone-deaf! "
. "Next thing you know, Chekov's Boomerang is going to come play here." Naegi said.
. "And the conversational troping. The fucking conversation troping!You got punched in the face! Mondo Oowada almost knocked you out! And your first instinct is to reference a goddamn entertainment website." Monokuma said, waving his pawn. "Like hell that makes any sense."
. "Someone's really impatient." Celeste said.
. "I guess you could he's approaching his limit!" Fujisaki said.
. "What was that?" Leon said.
. "Was that a calculus pun?" Kirigiri said in disbelief. "Now I've heard everything."
. "Make up your minds! Are you trying to parody this concept or play it straight?" Monokuma said, burying his face in his paws.
. "Yeah, but why?" Naegi thought. "Does he think he has us? That this is a murder we can not solve. Listen up, you fucker, we solved Asahina's murder even though the culprit was already dead! There's no way we won't be able to solve this one too."
. "Maybe Monokuma really is being operated by the Hope's Peak Headmaster?" Genocider suggested once again.
. "No, the headmaster doesn't have anything to do with this." Just like before, Kirigiri was firm about that fact.
. "But your information on Mukuro Ikusaba was incorrect, which throws that into question, too." Togami said.
. "How?" Naegi said.
. "Excuse me." Togami said.
. "Those two facts are completely unrelated. It's not like they're linked in any way..." Naegi trailed off.
. "Anyway, my information was not incorrect." Kirigiri said.
. "But nobody here has more than one talent." Genocider said. "It's not like Mukuro can be two things at once."
. "Really?" Fujisaki argued, seeing that his attempt to modulize the sequence of events leading to Mukuro's murder was getting steam-rolled into futility.
. "Yeah. The two statements about the headmaster and Mukuro Ikusaba have not been proven to be linked in any way." Celeste said.
. "Sure, liar girl." Togami said, dismissively.
. "You know what, I'm going to make this very clear." Monokuma said. "A Class trial is held when a murder between students in the academy. Make sure you pound that point into your heads."
. "In other words, both the victim and the culprit are students." Togami replied.
. "So one of us eight is the culprit." Genocider said.
. "Not necessarily." Celeste pointed out. "Remember, Trial 4's culprit and Trial 3's victim were one and the same: Yaushiro Hagakure."
. "And before you guys start introducing the idea of a seventeenth student, there is no such possibility. There are a total of sixteen high school students participating."
. "But are those sixteen high school students the only ones in here?" Genocider said, waving her scissors about.
. Monokuma was silent.
. "I think we've hit something here." Leon said.
. "We'll have to come up with it later." Kirigiri said.
. "In any case, we've already narrowed down the list of suspects." Togami said.
. "That's right." Naegi said. "Kirigiri and I are the suspect list."
. "No way, then it has to be Kirigiri." Maizono said.
. "Let me clear things up for everybody's sake." Togami said. "Last night, just after the nighttime announcement, I went to the garden. I can attest to the fact that there was no corpse. This means that the murder occurred at some point after I was in the garden."
. "Then couldn't it have been you?" Maizono pointed out.
. "No way, I was there." Genocider said.
. "Never thought having a stalker would be useful for creating an alibi." Leon bemusedly pointed out.
. "Anyway..." Togami continued. "After that, the rest of us were basically in the gymnasium until morning."
. "In the gymnasium?" Kirigiri said, surprised.
. "We were disassembling Monokuma. As a precaution, we avoided individual activity during that time, we even went to the restroom in multiples."
. "In other words, everybody else has perfect alibis." Naegi said.
. "That's why you said you'd narrowed the suspect list." Kirigiri said.
. "Precisely."
. "Hang on, can I add something about my alibi." Naegi clarified.
. "Do you have any objections?" Togami said.
. "Before I make the objections, I'd like to try and narrow down the time frame of the murder." Naegi pointed out.
. "If you can't provide an alibi for the whole time, you can at least provide an alibi for part of the time." Fujisaki said. "Smart."
. "My White Knight checked the garden at about 10 PM." Genocider helpfully disclosed.
. "So right now, the time frame is from 10 PM to 9 AM." Celeste said.
. "Well, I remember that I met up with everybody around 7:30 AM." Naegi said.
. "Naegi's alibi is lacking from 10 PM to 7:30 AM." Fujisaki said.
. "It's time I prove that the murder couldn't have taken place when I didn't have an alibi." Naegi said.
. "How?" Kirigiri said.
. "The sprinkler system at 7 :30 AM." Naegi said. "So we can narrow down the time frame of murder from after 7:30 AM. And yet the corpse showed no signs of being wet due to the sprinklers."
. "Looks like we've gotten it to Kirigiri." Togami said.
. "If I am executed here, for this, then the truth about this academy will never come to light." Kirigiri pleaded. "I will not let that happen."
. "There's no way I could be." Kirigiri said. "This is obviously a set-up by the mastermind."
. "So everything got too tough for you, and now you're trying to blame me." Monokuma chortled. "Too bad."
. "Hold up, you have a motive." Togami said. "A motive to kill Mukuro Ikusaba. You believed her to be the mastermind. And yet you miscalcuated."
. "She's got motive and no alibi. At this point, it's pretty much set in stone. Kirigiri's the culprit." Leon said.
. "If she's the culprit, why is she remaining cool as ice?" Fujisaki said.
. "Naegi's alibi is inadequate." Kirigiri said.
. "How?" Maizono asked.
. "Fine. Just because the corpse wasn't wet from the sprinklers doesn't necessarily mean she was killed after 7:30 AM."
. Naegi was stunned.
. "Oh-ho." Monokuma said. "Things are starting to heat up."
. "There's a way to prevent the body from getting wet when the sprinklers go off."
. "You have my attention." Togami said, interested.
. "You could cover it with the blue tarps from the garden." Naegi said.
. "There were other tarps?" Celeste said.
. "Yeah, the white tarps in the Physics Lab Prep room. But I don't think those are important here."
. Monokuma was silent.
. "So you noticed." Kirigiri said. "But yes, if the culprit had covered the corpse with that sheet, then it could have been in the garden. And that's exactly what was done."
. "Damn." Naegi said. "She's backing me into a corner. And yet, I didn't do it."
. "Naegi would have had time to do it." Togami said.
. "The way the sheet is soiled adds to that." Kirigiri said. "Only one side is dirty."
. "Seriously?" Leon said.
. "The culprit covered the corpse with the vinyl sheet so it wouldn't get wet."
. "Hold it. That means it came into contact with the corpse." Naegi said. "But the other side of the sheet wasn't even a little bit dirty."
. "Because the sprinklers didn't get it wet!" Leon argued. "That side was facing the corpse. Of course, it stayed clean."
. "What about the blood?" Naegi asked. "It doesn't make sense for only one side of the sheet to be clean. Remember... before the explosion, the blood on the body hadn't dried yet. Togami even pointed that out."
. "Maybe the culprit washed it?" Leon said.
. "Then they would have washed both sides. Only washing one side doesn't hide anything." Togami said.
. "Indeed..." Celeste agreed. "Wait a minute, why wouldn't the culprit have moved the tarp somewhere nobody could have found it. Kirigiri wouldn't have been pressed for time." she thought. "The one who benefits from the fake alibi is Naegi."
. "Ah well, you have a point." Leon admitted.
. "And what if the blood on the corpse is a red herring planted by the culprit?" Kirigiri argued.
. "In other words, after riding out the sprinklers by using the vinyl sheet, couldn't the culprit have killed a chicken and used its blood over the body?" Kirigiri continued.
. "Wait, what if they had used transfusion bags in the infirmary?" Genocider said.
. "Transfusion bags?"
. "I doubt it. If they had been seen by anybody else, it would be a dead giveaway." Kirigiri continued.
. "Even so, that doesn't explain everything. You're saying that the culprit waited out the sprinklers and then poured the chicken blood over the corpse?"
. "Yes." Kirigiri said.
. "Had they done that, some of the blood should have spilled onto the ground around the body." Togami pointed out.
. "Yes, it is strange." Kirigiri admitted.
. "Perhaps the fake blood was prepped in advance."
. "What?" Naegi said.
. "Was the body actually wearing the lab coat?" Kirigiri asked.
. "No, her arms weren't going through the sleeves. The lab coat had just been placed over the body." Maizono remembered.
. "Bingo. That means that the murder occurred before the sprinklers went off. If it had occurred afterward, there would be no need to go to such lengths."
. "That method does make it possible for the murder to have occurred before 7:30 AM." Maizono admitted. "But still, Naegi murdering someone?"
. "We all have the motive. And in Naegi's case, he saw Mukuro before anybody else. It's not that much of a stretch to think that that masked figure is the mastermind." Fujisaki pointed out. "However, something seems fishy here."
. "But they would have had to enter the garden after 7:30 AM."
. "I have a test. It's time we exit the trial room." Celeste said. "Let's see how fast both Naegi and Kirigiri can run. Does anyone have some stop watchs?"
. "I have a stopwatch from the Mono Machine." Fujisaki said. "But why?"
. "I want to see how much time it would take for either Naegi and Kirigiri to get from the first floor to the garden on the fifth." Celeste said.
. "Well, that's one way to do it." Togami said. "That's inventive. We've certainly been allowed out of the trial room for reasons before. I think it's time we use that again."
. "Wait." Monokuma had dozed off slightly. "Why are all of you getting into the elevator?"
. "We're going to test something." Togami smirked.
. "Hey wait." Monokuma said, waving his paws.
. "See you on the first floor." Togami said, as the doors closed.
. In the few minutes, the red doors opened and they were on the first floor.
. "It's time." Celeste's gamble would have to pay off as accurate. "It's a shame we don't have Asahina here. She could keep pace with both of you during these jogs and walkings."
. "What are you saying?" Kirigiri said.
. "We'll have to station everybody somewhere along the route." Celeste said as everybody climbed the first set of stairs. They turned the corner, and climbed up the second set of stairs for the third floor. "I'll need someone here. Say, Maizono, how in shape are you?"
. "Excuse me?" Maizono asked, indiginantly.
. "I'm going to need you to match their pace for these races in order to make sure both move at the proper pace. It would be bad if they added time." Celeste said, quickly explaining.
. "Yeah, I can keep pace with them."
. "Good."
. After some silence, they were finally out of the garden.
. "Togami, I'll need Genocider to stand here."
. "Genocider."
. "Yes, sir!"
. The remaining seven people then went down a floor.
. "All right, Fujisaki. I want you to stand approximately here." Celeste said, standing at the outside corner of the stashed away room where Monokuma was operated. "I want you to be able to see the staircases when they come up from the third floor and then the other staircase when they go to the fifth floor."
. "Leon, since the third floor winds around, I'll need you to take that floor."
. "Seriously?" Leon complained.
. "Yes, let's make good use of your baseball talent." Celeste said, impatiently.
. "What does that mean?" Togami said.
. "It means that he's always sprinting around the bases." Celeste pointed out. "I mean, anybody has ever watched baseball can tell you that the running involves turning."
. "I suppose... that's fair."
. That left five people going down to the second floor.
. "Togami, stand in this corner."
. "I get it, from this vantage point, I can watch both staircases."
. That left Maizono, Celeste, Kirigiri and Naegi for the first floor.
. "Oooo, Naegi..." Monokuma had shown up. "Another harem situation?"
. "Shut the fuck up, you fuzzball." Naegi said angrily.
. "See! There's the anger to murder." Monokuma said.
. "We're going to have to do it multiple times. In order to make sure that the results are accurate." Celeste asked.
. "Why?"Monokuma said.
. "I get it. There are many different possibilities. Either could have run in their footwear, their socks, or their bare feet." Maizono said.
. "Kirigiri, Maizono, Naegi. Do any of you need anything before we start?" Celeste asked.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The fun thing about having a different sequence of deaths is that you can easily get creative with what happens. There's been only two straight murders in this story. (Fukawa and Yamada) Besides, it gets more intriguing that way. Leaving the trial room happened once in the canon, but in this story, I can take all sorts of scenarios and run with them. I got Steins;Gate 0 on November 29th, 2016. So I've been playing that.