HOLY CRAP! THE PELICANS GOT THEMSELVES DEMARCUS COUSINS. BOOGIE AND AD TOGETHER! GET HYPED! (on Izayoi's birthday) AD AND BOOGIE TOGETHER. Now if only the guard depth wasn't so shallow. So lately, it's been harder and harder to reach 4000 words per chapter. Mostly because my mind is moving too far ahead in the story.

Chapter 37:
. Makoto Naegi was in trouble. Well, that was an understatement. In a few seconds, he would be dead for a crime he hadn't committed. And yet strangely, he had a feeling that the other main suspect Kyoko Kirigiri was innocent, and while he appreciated the avenging attitude Maizono had, he was still trying to find a way for him to get out of there.
. "So here I am. Should have known I was going to wind up dead sooner or later.":The conveyor was moving awfully slow, or was his brain moving extremely fast? He was barely paying attention to Monokuma's lecture on sex ed.
. "Crap, I hope Maizono finds a way out of here. Damn it, Kyoko, I'm the one being executed here. You owe me. Get here out of here." Naegi thought silently hoping Kirigiri could somehow be psychic to read his mind.
. "All right, can I move my hands? Slightly. Can I move my legs? Shit. No." The crusher was getting closer.
. "What if I'm able to scoot the desk over off the conveyor belt? Maybe. Fuck it, Komaru will never forgive me if I don't try to do something! Aww, crap, Komaru. She's watching this. Or has she averted her eyes? This is being broadcast to who knows how many people and only Monokuma knows the truth that I didn't murder Mukuro Ikusaba. Just my luck."
. Naegi began wiggling the desk over.
. "Hey, what are you doing?" Monokuma asked indignantly as though Makoto was being discourteous.
. "If you think that I'm going to let you execute me, especially considering I didn't do it, you've got another thing coming."
. "What are you talking about?" Monokuma argued. "You're the culprit. You were voted as the culprit."
. Naegi smirked.
. "Wiggle all you want, you're not getting out of there."
. "Maybe so. But I'll be damned if I get out of here without a fight."
. "You think you're going to use your Luck to get you out of this? I don't know if you have this notion, but listen pal, you think you're the only Lucky Student? Bitch, please. I met someone who was luck personified."
. The rest of the class could only watch as Naegi attempted to get out of his own execution.
. "And his name was?" Naegi said, as he hoped to distract Monokuma from his progress.
. " The 77th Class's Lucky Student. Nagito Komaeda. Could blow up a school gymnasium and GET AWAY WITH IT. I don't know how the administration convinced themselves to blame that trio from Class 76. Especially the Blacksmith. Though I suppose they thought he could have made the actual bomb. Then again, it WAS before my time."
. "The hell." Kirigiri said. "My father actually let someone crazy like that stay enrolled at Hope's Peak enrolled AFTER that."
. "Wait a minute,..." Celeste thought. "I've met him before. I know I did."
. "Sure thing, sister. Jin Kirigiri cared a little too much about talent. Or maybe it was because Nagito Komaeda was always very intriguing."
"So you're not the headmaster." Togami said.
. "Bingo." Monokuma replied. "Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Monokuma directed his attention back to Naegi who gotten at least part of the desk off the conveyor belt.
. "Eh, I needed a distraction." Naegi said. "And this Nagito Komaeda wouldn't happen to be the same voice that was talking to us earlier."
. "No, that was the Musician, Ibuki Mioda. Killer AMV music maker. Same class as Nagito Komaeda though. Good ol' 77-B."
. "Another one!" Kirigiri was in shock.
. "What, you thought a single teenager could shake the world up as much as I did. I did have help after all. Whoops, guess you could consider that motive number six. Seems a pain to give it away when execution for trial five is still underw-Hey!"
. Naegi was lying on his side with the desk. The lower half was still on the conveyor belt so he was still being pulled along. It had jolted his head, but there was no time for him to be dazed. He had an obligation to fight towards the end.
. "Come on, almost there." The crusher was in Naegi's ears- and it stopped.
. "Alter Ego?" Naegi said in shock.
. "What? Wait, what?" Monokuma said, as the conveyor hadn't stopped..
. Naegi was headed downwards … the hard way.
. "I can't believe it!" Monokuma said, as he stamped his paw in frustration.
. "Oh well, I guess he'll die the slow way." Monokuma sighed.
. "Alter Ego!" Maizono said, in shock, as she attempted to scale the fence separating her from the execution.
. " Wait, Maizono, come on, it's time for us to go." Celeste said.
. "Celeste, we can't just leave him in the dumpster." Maizono argued.
. "And you have some way of retrieving him?" Celeste asked. "You don't even know how to get down there. And even if you did, how would you and he get back up? Either he's dead right now from the fall, or he'll last the night. We can't go rushing down there without a plan."
. "I'm in agreement with her." Genocider said. "It serves no purpose to get him back right now. Monokuma would just try to execute him AGAIN."
. "But..."
. "You're being hasty." Kirigiri said.
. Maizono scoffed as she left the trial room and heading for the elevator.
. "I suggest someone keep an eye on her." Togami said. "Without Naegi around, there's no telling what she'll do."
. "What do you mean?" Fujisaki said. "Maizono wouldn't try to do that."
. "Things have changed. Before, she could lose Naegi. Now there's no problem."
. "What?" Leon said.
. "Monokuma can't execute Naegi because Naegi is already in the dumpster and being executed as we speak." Togami said. "She'll try something. I'm sure of it."
. "Wow, you are just the crowning asshole among assholes." Leon said.
. "But if we solve her murder, she gets executed." Genocider said. "That's foolish."
. "In the same way as Naegi just did?" Leon said. "Well, I suppose that's one way to get into the dumpster."
. "She wouldn't do that, would she?" Kirigiri thought to herself as Togami strolled to the elevator.
Sometime later, Togami was in his room, reading.
. "So you've decided that Maizono takes center stage, is that right?" Monokuma said. "How appropriate."
. "Why not, it's not such a bad idea? She's the idol. Her natural position is front and center."
. "Leaves you in the background."
. "Leaves you to deal with a two-headed monster. If Kirigiri doesn't get you with her logic, then Maizono will get you with her rampages. And if both of those fail, well, then, I'm in prime position to beat you myself."
. "Are you purposing this in an attempt to try and shift attention away from yourself?"
. Maizono was sitting the cafeteria with dead eyes, silent at the events of the previous class trial when Kirigiri walked in.
. "Maizono. He didn't do it." Kirgiri showed her the Monokuma key. It didn't matter that Monokuma knew she had the key. He knew it. She knew it. But Maizono needed to know that Makoto Naegi was innocent. Or she might snap.
"What is that?" Maizono said.
. "The master key."
. "So that means you did it?" Maizono stared at her in quiet anger, ready to pounce.
. "No, I didn't do it either." Kirigiri replied.
. "If you didn't do it, and Naegi didn't do it. What's going on?"
. "I intend to find out. Will you help me?"
. "Ah, that's cute." Monokuma said as Kirigiri hastily grabbed the key. "Only your Oreki is sitting at the bottom of the dumpster."
. "What?"
. "Oh right, you haven't seen Hyouka. The last episode should be coming out any day now, but I'm a bit behind. Now give me the key, Kyoko Kirigiri."
. "No. I don't have to."
. "Why not?"
. "You said that there were no hindrances to how we explored. I broke no rules in order to acquire this key. Isn't that why you set up Trial 5?"
. Monokuma hastily shuffled off. "You know what, I have other people to torment."
. Maizono was silent.
. "Why should I trust you? You could have revealed this at the trial."
. "And let me get executed for a murder I didn't commit. No, thank you."
. Maizono stared at her. "And so the appropriate response was to let Naegi take the fall."
. "No, wait, I didn't mean that. I'm not very good with pathos. Look, come with me to the baths. And I'll get you to trust me."
. "This ought to be good," Maizono followed Kirigiri to the bath.
. Meanwhile, Fujisaki was in the library with a Mathematical textbook. He was looking at the trignometric theorems on the inside of the cover.
. "Well, at least this will take my mind off what just happened."
– cos^2(x)+sin^2(x) = 1
– tan^2(x) +1 = sec^2(x)
– 1 +cot^2(x) = csc^2(x)
– sin (u) + sin (v) = 2sin((u+v)/2)*cos((u-v)/2)
– sin (u) – sin (v) = 2cos((u+v)/2)*sin((u-v)/2)
. Trig identities were odd for Fujisaki, all were proven by the unit circle, and based off the idea that x^2+y^2=1.
. "Well, that's a strange way to react to an execution." Togami said, as he appeared over Fujisaki's shoulder and noted the book Fujisaki was pouring over. "Someone dies and your response is to learn trigonometry."
. "Review actually."
. "Uh huh. This isn't exactly the line of response most people would follow up with."
. "You know he was innocent." Fujisaki whispered.
. "Yeah." Togami sighed. "Why did he have to go and make things so complex? If it had been Kirigiri, that would have wrapped everything up neatly."
. "Are you surprised?"
. "Not really. He runs his mouth. Manages to be the center of attention despite being here on a fluke. "
. "Maybe that was the point of the Lucky Student. To keep the other students grounded in reality."
. "Perhaps. But has he been lucky or unlucky?"
. "What?"
. "The case could be made for either. On one hand, he was executed. That's unlucky. On the other hand, he survived his execution. That's lucky."
. "Where are you going with this?"
. "If each trial is a phase of this School Life of Mutual Killing, we're on Phase 6. Nothing is supposed to reach Phase 6 without something going wrong. There hasn't been an opening."
. "Are you so sure about that?" Celeste appeared.
. "Hey, guys!" Monokuma said. "How we all doing?"
. "You seem more invasive than usual." Celeste couldn't help but notice.
. "Well, someone has to pick up the sweet-ass one liners. Naegi's in the dumpster." Monokuma replied.
. "Is that all you're going to do?" Fujisaki replied. "You're going to get on of our nerves."
. "But...but... I thought you guys liked me."
. "Shut it, bearface."
. "I will not be disrespected like this."
. "Says the operator who is acting an internet troll in real life." Fujisaki countered.
. "Excuse me?"
. "You're hiding behind anonymity. You're insisting people should die. You bring shit up to bother people and agitate them. Let's face it, you're an internet troll come to life." Fujisaki pointed out, listing his reasons. "All you need is a funny hat."
. "Well, he's not wrong." Togami agreed.
. "Can't find any fault in that reasoning." Celeste concurred.
. "Screw you." Monokuma said. He sighed. "Maybe the focus group of Ultimate Despairs was right. A dog or cat might have been better."
. "We would have be taking you even less seriously." Celeste said.
. "ARGH." Monokuma said in anguish.
. "How about a platypus?" Fujisaki said. "A platypus would make things interesting."
. "Nah, everybody would expect me to be a secret agent."
. "What?"
. "You know what, I applaud your dedication to being the straight man." Monokuma said, saluting as he left.
. "Well, that was strange sequence." Togami said.
. "Maybe a direct comparison test is in order."
. "What?" Celeste said.
. "You know, a test to see whether a sequence or series converges or diverges."
. "I mean, isn't that an advanced mathematical concept?" Togami pointed out.
. "Yeah, I suppose. So what?"
. "Calculus?" Celeste said. "I don't recall coming across it during my statistic studies."
. "You studied statistics? Wait, stupid question." Togami pointed out.
. ""Yeah, it's a Calculus concept. I'm going to be honest with you. When I started a little while ago, I just breezed... through it." Fujisaki said. "Solved every problem I tried. Checked the back of the book to see if I was right and everything. It was like I had learned it before."
. "I see." Togami said. "Maybe you're just good at math."
. "I'm not that good." Fujisaki said.
. "Eh, it's not exactly the strangest thing to happen in this school." Celeste said as Togami got up to leave and go to bed.
. "Well, that's certainly true." Fujisaki agreed. "
. "Although I'm curious to see what his new limits are." Celeste said.
. "Well, if you do that, let me know so I can do a limit comparison test on Monokuma." Fujisaki snarked.
. "Are you making math puns?" Celeste said.
. "When did you first start seeing the 'sines'?" Fujisaki said.
. "Picking up Naegi's slack." Celeste sighed as she, too left the library.
. Fujisaki just sat in the library. Everything he did, everything he said, it was all on display for the world to see. The whole world had seen who he had started out as, and who he was now. If he had known from the beginning, would he still have had the courage to go through with what he did? Maybe, or maybe not. It didn't matter now. His father was watching. His mother was presumably watching too. So what would be his next move?
. He flipped to another page of the textbook. It was a chart for the list of Sequence and Series Tests. For instance, the nth Term test could only prove divergence, never convergence. It was the only test out of the ten that was divergence-based. Leon walked in.
. "Hey, Fujisaki. Seriously? You're doing math at a time like this."
. "Why not? I need a mental distraction."
. "Uh huh. Well, that's one hell of a mental distraction."
. "Speaking of one, both of the ratio and root tests are inconclusive if the results come out as one."
. "What?"
. "Don't worry about it. Just thinking about something."
. He stared at the wall.
. "Why can't every trial be as straightforward as the p-series test?"
. "The what now?"
. "You know the p-series test for series? The summation of one over n raised to an exponent. If p is greater than one, the series converges, if it's in between 0 and less than or equal to one, it diverges."
. "Wait, what if the exponent is negative?"
. "Then that actually falls under the Geometric Series test, but a negative exponent causes the term to switch sides of a fraction. In that case, for any series of 'a' times 'r' raised to the nth power, the rules for convergence are actually rather straightforward. If the absolute value of r falls between zero and one, it functions converges. If the absolute value of r is greater than one, then it diverges. Something else to note is that the sum is 'a' over all of one minus r."
. "I'll take your word for it. I'm not much a math guy"
. "But I thought you were a baseball guy!"
. "So what? In what world does baseball equate to math?"
. "Baseball has hell of a lot of statistics. So I thought..."
. "You thought wrong." Leon gritted his teeth. "Sorry, I guess I'm still on edge from the last trial." Leon excused himself.
. Fujisaki turned back to the chart.
. Maizono was sitting in the cafeteria still in shock over what happened.
. "Come on, Maizono. Eat your tomatoes. It doesn't matter if you love them or hate them." Monokuma said, placing a plate of diced tomatoes in front of her.. Maizono gave him the finger.
. "Would you have eaten them if I were a cat? But seriously, what do your fans think of such vulgarity?"
. "My boyfriend is in a garbage chute. I think I'm entitled to give you the middle finger."
. "Uh-huh. Well, maybe you should have taken better care of him."
. "Monokuma?"
. "Yes?"
. "You're a prick. And I don't need to take care of him. Naegi is perfectly capable of taking care of himself."
. "Uh huh. If he were able to do that, he wouldn't have ended up in a garbage chute."
. "Monokuma?"
. "Yes?"
. "Does it look like I give a fuck?"
. "I've never seen your "give a fuck" face in the first place, so how am I suppose to know?"
. "Now go away, Monokuma, or I shall taunt you a second time."
. Maizono looked at the clock. It was 10 PM. She went to bed.
. Kirigiri woke up early the next morning. The stress of yesterday had still not subsided. On the way to the cafeteria, she ran into Leon.
. "Hell of day yesterday. So I have to ask. Did you murder Mukuro Ikusaba?"
. "No."
. "Alright. I have no choice but to take your word. Still we're missing our lynchpin."
. "Indeed, Naegi was the biggest thorn in Monokuma' side." Kirigiri mused.
. "We'll have to do this as a team." Fujisaki responded.
. "So without our star, we'll have to platoon it."
. "What?"
. "It's a baseball term." Leon explained. "The term was coined in the 1940s, but it goes back much further than that. Platooning is when you make up for a lack of star power at a position by substituting in different players at different times depending on the situation. Casey Stengel used it to great effect."
. "Huh." Kirigiri said. "And did it work?"
. "He went seven for ten in World Series over a span of eleven years. He won 5 World Series from 1949 to 1953, and another two in 1956 and 1958. And he won another three American Pennants in 1955, 1957, and 1960. You tell me?" Leon stated, bemusedly.
. "Most of my team at my old school were members of platoons." Leon admitted. "That's why I know it so well. And that's also why the managers recruited me so heavily. You can platoon at a lot of positions, but you can't platoon at every position at once."
. "A team can only have so many players." Kirigiri said.
. "Roster limits. And just straight old team chemistry. It was part of the reason Hope's Peak chose me as the baseball star. Because I performed well no matter what teammates my managers put around me."
. "Huh. How about that?" Fujisaki said.
. "Hey!" Monokuma was up. "Platooning. That's an interesting approach. It never crossed my mind that the sport of baseball might lead you to your next moves."
. "If you're looking to get us killed via trial, you've pulled a Platinum Sombrero."
. "A what?"
. "You've struck out at getting us five times."
. "Is this part of a new gimmick?" Monokuma said., putting his paw up to his ear in mock imitation of taking a call. "Hold on. What's that? And a golden sombrero is when you strike out four times in a single game. M1, could you see if there is a term for six? Or does N2 know it off the top of his head?
. "Huh. What's going on?" Togami said, unimpressive.
. "He's pulling a Bob Newhart." Genocider said, bouncing off the walls.
. "How do you keep following me?" Togami said.
. "The doors to the dorm rooms may be soundproof, but they aren't smell proof!" Genocider said. "I smelled you."
. "Huh."
. "Okay, I'm getting three terms for striking out six times in a game. The first two are straightforward: is a double platinum sombrero, and a titanium sombrero make sense. But why in the hell is it also referred to as a 'Horn'?"
. There was an uneasy pause.
. "Oh, because of the former Baltimore Orioles' Designated Hitter Sam Horn after a 1991 performance? And that one was coined like seven years later. Alright." Monokuma turned around.
. "What the hell are we doing, talking about sombreros?" Celeste said.
. "You know strikeouts in baseball?"
. "Yeah."
. "Well, it refers to striking out four or more times in a game."
. "Why 'sombrero'?"
. "Because it's a large hat. And it needed to be a bigger hat than the hat referred to in 'hat trick'." Leon explained.
. "Alright." Celeste said, arms folded on the table. "I... guess that makes sense. But whiy is it called a hat trick?"
. "Well, please." Monokuma said. "What was this, baseball term day? Are you guys going to continue to make references?"
. "Well, it's more likely to than a left-handed shortstop."
. "Excuse me?" Maizono said.
. "Yeah, left-handed people don't play second, shortstop, third, or catcher. Or let me rephrase it, those positions don't field left-handed. Players may bat left-handed."
. "Seriously, and why is that?." Kirigiri said
. "Yeah, it's due to the extra half-second that comes from throwing it." Leon said.
. "Speaking of half-seconds, I nearly got him." Monokuma said, lamented as he left the cafeteria. "I hate it when an execution doesn't go as planned."
. And the atmospheric edge was back. There were in a deadly School. That was an ugly truth. And they had just completed a class trial.
. "Wait a minute, we just completed a class trial." Leon said. "So does that mean new facilities open up?"
. "What even is there to left?" Maizono said, entering. "We hit the top floor."
. "It's still possible." Celeste said. "Unless, of course, Monokuma didn't expect us to reach Trial 5."
. "However, shall we explore?" Kirigiri said. "After we've checked, reconvene here, there's something I want to show you guys."

4/23/2017: It's the end of the school semester. Which means I have classes to think about it. I regret to inform my readers that the story is most likely on hiatus until V3 comes out in North America and I have finished playing it. Also, story-wise, this looks like a good place to stop. It is absolutely crucial that these next few chapters are written together before I publish them. But for those of you upset by this news, cheer up. I have plans for a sequel.