CLASS TRIAL IN SESSION

"Ahem! Now then, let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial." Monokuma said. "During the class trial, you will present your arguments for who the culprit is and vote for 'whodunit'. Vote correctly, and only the blackened will be punished. But if you pick the wrong person, I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person will graduate from this academy! Also, refusing to vote will result in your death, so you better vote for someone! Now, let's get this crazy, awesome, crazy-awesome to the max trial underway!"

"I think we all can figure out what happened this time around." Kokichi began the discussion. "The victim, Miu, was hanging from a noose inside her research lab. She obviously committed suicide."

"It does seem to be an open and shut case, doesn't it?" Himiko noted.

"If Miu committed suicide, then that means the victim herself is the blackened. We would need to vote for her." Kiyo remarked.

"Is that right, Monokuma?" Kaito asked.

"That's right! Think about it… A suicide is murdering the most important existence of all: yourself!" Monokuma told us. "Of course, that would also mean there would be no blackened to punish but...I guess in a pinch I can always punish the Monokubs."

"Eeeh!? Why us!?" Monotaro yelled in terror.

"P-Please daddy, anything but that. I-It's already hard to watch punishments as it is, but being a part of one…" Monophanie began before covering her mouth as if she was going to vomit.

"...I-DON'T-WANT-ANYONE-TO-GET-HURT." Monodam spoke softly.

"Oh suck it up, you cowards! As if a punishment could stop us!" Monosuke shouted. "We could just get in the Exisals and beat the punishment to death! I bet we could even beat up father with 'em!"

"Oh, I guess you're right." Monotaro nodded.

"I suppose it's not as scary as it seems if that's the case." Monophanie gave a sigh of relief.

"..." Monodam just stood there, as if thinking about something important.

"So if Miu killed herself, she would have become the blackened, and we would have to vote for her." Tenko summarized.

"So all we need to do is vote for Miu and we get to go back?" Angie asked. "Nyahaha! How simply divine! Let's start the vote right now!"

"Hang on, I'm not sure that's wise." Rantaro spoke. "Are we really sure Miu killed herself?"

"Rantaro's right. It's far too soon to come to that conclusion, especially with the evidence at the scene." Maki added.

"You're just being killjoys! If the case is simple, then we shouldn't waste time with this!" Kokichi countered. Seems like a bunch of us think that Miu killed herself. It's not surprising given how the body was found. Still, I can't let us get off on the wrong foot with this case. We need to focus, and that means pinning down if this was a suicide or murder.

"Was Miu killed, or did she commit suicide?" Kiyo started the debate.

"She obviously killed herself. She was hanging from a noose when she was found." Himiko said.

"That's right. I was the first to see her body, so I can say suicide is definitely the case." Kokichi told us. "She got on top of that chair in her lab and tied the rope to the ceiling. She then made a noose and put it around her neck. And then…" Kokichi put his hand above his neck and jumped, creating a loud SLAM sound as his foot hit the ground. He then hung his head down as if his neck had just snapped. "She kicked the chair away and hung herself to death." Kokichi then started bawling uncontrollably. "Wahhhh! She died from a broken neck!"

"No, that's wrong!" I said calmly, but definitely. "Miu didn't die from her neck snapping. The Monokuma File tells us that she died from choking. She had a crushed windpipe."

"So she didn't die from the sudden weight being applied to her neck from hanging." Ryoma noted.

"Oooohhh, I see. I haven't checked the Monokuma File yet, so that's news to me." Kokichi laughed.

"Y-You lying, little brat! Telling lies is what turns you into a degenerate male!" Tenko shouted.

"But so what?" Angie asked. "Miu died from choking. Doesn't that still mean she hung herself?"

"That's not completely right." Shuichi responded. "Hanging, Asphyxiation, Strangulation...they're all very similar, but the way the victim is killed, how long it takes, and what injuries get left behind are different."

"Shuichi's right. From the injuries Miu had, the specific cause of death isn't from hanging. It's from strangulation." I clarified.

"The bruises Miu had match wounds found on people who were strangled by someone using just their bare hands." Maki added. "There were no signs of rope burn around her neck, and there were deep bruises in the middle area of her throat. Hanging is out of the question."

"Oooohhh, I see. I haven't checked the body yet, so that's news to me." Kokichi said once again.

"Did you really do anything during our investigation time?" Kaede asked him.

"So why Miu hanging from rope if not from hanging?" Gonta asked.

"That much is obvious. It was the culprit who hung Miu up to make it look like she killed herself." Shuichi answered.

"So that was just the culprit trying to confuse us." Kaito sighed while scratching his head.

"It makes sense. The first thing anyone would think is that Miu killed herself if they found her hanging in her lab like that." Rantaro nodded.

"A clever trick, but under scrutiny it easily falls apart. As long as we were aware of the differences in the bruising in those two different methods, it would never work." I mentioned. "Which is why the culprit set up another trick to further convince us."

"Another trick?" Keebo asked.

"You're talking about the heat, right?" Kaede asked.

"That's right." I nodded. "You all noticed that strange, unbearable heat from within Miu's research lab, right?"

"I was wondering about that. It felt like I was inside an oven!" Tenko exclaimed.

"I thought Miu was only in her underwear because of that crazy heat…" Himiko said. I felt sweat drip down my face after hearing that. If only it was for a simple reason.

"It was certainly strange. I had been in Miu's lab before, and it never was anywhere close to that hot." I told them. "So that begs the question: what was creating that heat?"

"That was the heater in the lab that me and Kaito found." Shuichi replied.

"That thing was making some crazy amount of heat. It practically burned me!" Kaito added with an exasperated pose.

"The heater was most likely an invention Miu made. It was turned on when we found it, and since Miu's lab is mainly metal, the heat became trapped in the room. This would have created a greenhouse effect, where the heat would have kept the room hot soon after it was turned on, and even long after it was turned off if that happened." Shuichi then explained.

"But why would the culprit make it so hot? Was it just that cold when they hung Miu up and they forgot to turn it off?" Angie asked.

"That's not it. The answer is actually a bit simple." I told her. "It obfuscated the time of death further."

"The time of death?" Keebo asked.

"When we were investigating the body, Miu's body was warm." Rantaro explained. "At face value, that might have meant she died shortly before she was found. But because the room was so hot, that can't be determined."

"And on the flip side, it would be possible for Miu to have died many hours prior to her body's discovery, yet still appear as though she had just died." I then said.

"It's a common practice in mystery stories to hide the time of death from it's readers." Shuichi further explained. "While it's not common knowledge, there are a lot of people who know that both high and low temperatures can drastically make it harder to determine when a victim has died."

"So if the heat was there to mess with our guesses of when Miu died, then what was the actual time of death?" Kokichi asked. Yes, that's the main question. That's the most important question we need to ask ourselves. Can we accurately state when Miu died? I don't think so, but we can at least get a window of time.

"I can't say for certain, but I believe Miu must have died some time before this morning. If I were to guess, it would have to have happened between 8 p.m. and sometime before dawn."

"Hmm, it makes sense that we should assume the victim wasn't killed this morning. There would be no point in trying to hide the time of death using heat if that were the case." Rantaro nodded.

"But why after 8 p.m?" Keebo asked.

"I get it. That's when Gonta saw Miu last." Tenko answered.

"Huh? Gonta?" Gonta repeated.

"Gonta was the last person to see Miu, and that was around 8 p.m." Kaede explained. "Rin, you also saw Miu around that time as well, right?"

"Yeah. It was about half an hour before then, so around 7:30 p.m. or such." I responded. "With this, I think it's safe to believe Miu must have died sometime after 8."

"I still don't really get it, though. Can we narrow down the time of death a bit more?" Kaito asked.

"Hmm…" Shuichi thought about the question for a while before shaking his head. "No. I don't think we have enough evidence to make assumptions on a smaller window of time right now."

"There is something we can do to try to narrow it down." I began. "If we figure out the exact details of how Miu died, then maybe we can narrow down the time of death more."

"Then we should begin with the basics." Ryoma stated. "Miu most likely died from being strangled by someone's hands, so there isn't a murder weapon, but the rope used to tie her up definitely came from the warehouse."

"Yep, yep! Himiko and I were gathering supplies together for the magic show, so we saw the warehouse had plenty of rope to take." Angie declared while posing with her hands above her head.

"But anyone could have grabbed the rope from the warehouse. I'm not sure that helps us." Keebo pointed out.

"Himiko, did you see anyone take rope from the warehouse?" Tenko asked the magician.

"Nyeeeh...no. I was with Angie the entire time, and we didn't see anything." Himiko answered.

"Nyahaha, and in case you're wondering, we didn't take any rope with us for the magic show preparation." Angie said. "We only took some equipment to help move the water tanks into the gym and some material to make curtains."

"Can we really trust your testimony? You and Himiko could be working together in this case." Kiyo suggested with a suspicious glare.

"But that wouldn't make any sense, would it? Can't there only be one blackened in a Class Trial? Wouldn't that mean only the culprit could leave after the Class Trial?" Kaede asked.

"The rules don't say anything about it, do they?" Keebo mumbled.

"There's only one way to find out." I sighed. "Hey! Monokuma! Can there be accomplices in these cases? And if so, do they become 'blackened' as well?"

"So you ask, and so I shall answer!" Monokuma cheered. "Murderers are allowed to have accomplices, but only the person who deals the finishing blow will get the right to graduate!"

"So in other words, accomplices are allowed, but there isn't any point if only the person who does the killing gets to survive." Shuichi noted.

"Then Himiko and Angie not culprit then." Gonta happily said.

"Well, we only just found out about the rule now, so it's possible the two of them did commit the murder together." Rantaro suggested.

"H-Himiko would never help Angie with murder!" Tenko shouted.

"Way to defend Angie there, Tenko…" I gave a dry chuckle.

"But with how Angie has Himiko under her Atua spell, it does seem plausible, does it not?" Kiyo added.

"Wh-What?" Himiko shuttered nervously.

"My, my. Do you really feel that poorly of me? I already stated that I want all of us to stay in this academy, living wonderful lives! If Himiko had tried something, I would certainly have told you all." Angie said with a dark, serious look.

"Y-Yeah. Angie would never kill someone, and if she did grab the rope, I would have told you all by now. I don't want to die." Himiko said as she shivered.

"Hmm...then are there others who might have helped the culprit in this case?" Kokichi asked.

"Uggh, good grief! Enough already! You'll never get anywhere if you keep getting hung up on this! No, okay!? There are no accomplices in this case!" Monokuma shouted. "...Oops! Did I say that out loud…?"

"Way to take the fun out of it…" Kokichi groaned.

"Well, with that out of the way, we can continue our previous discussion." Kaede sighed.

"Himiko and Angie didn't take any rope when they were at the warehouse, and they didn't see anyone else. That doesn't give us much to work with." Kaito commented.

"But Kokichi went to the warehouse, didn't he?" Ryoma asked.

"Kokichi?" Maki questioned.

"During the Insect Meet and Greet, when Rin and I were about to go and bring someone to the Research Lab, Kokichi mentioned how he went to the warehouse and grabbed a few things for the screening party he was setting up. Isn't that right, Kokichi?" Ryoma questioned the evil leader with a curious gaze. "I don't actually think it's Kokichi, but it has to be asked."

"Weeeell, since you're asking so nicely…" Kokichi began. "Yes. I did go to the warehouse. I did grab some things, including that rope I used to tie Miu up."

"Huh?" Kaede gawked.

"Are you actually…" Keebo started to ask before Kokichi started laughing.

"Yep! You found me!" Kokichi admitted before putting on a deathly serious expression. "I'm the blackened of this case. I'm the one who strangled Miu."

"Whaaaaat!?" Tenko exclaimed.

"A confession!?" Kaito shouted in confusion.

"K-Kokichi kill Miu!?" Gonta shouted.

"That's right." Kokichi said as his stand moved to the middle of the circle. "I snuck into Miu's lab, took Miu by surprise, and-WAM!-strangled Miu to death. The culprit was me all along."

"What do you think you're doing? Is this just a joke to you?" Rantaro asked with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Nahhh, no joke! I thought that if I confessed, I could atone for my sins." Kokichi told us before giving us a super happy expression. "And it helped! I feel soooo much better! Pheeeww!"

"So Kokichi really did kill Miu?" Himiko asked.

"No...he must be lying...right?" Kaede hesitantly said.

"He's most certainly lying." I responded sternly, glaring at the little imp as I did.

"Non non! Definitely not a lie. I killed Miu." Kokichi said once again, a big stupid grin on his face. "Shouldn't you guys believe the culprit when they confess? I already confessed to you, but you didn't believe me. I was really disappointed, so I'm admitting it here to everyone."

"Then let me ask you, 'culprit'..." I began as I crossed my arms in an unamused pose. "Where did you kill Miu?"

"Huh?" Kokichi paused with a baffled look. "I-In her research lab, obviously. That's where I tied her up to make it look like she hung herself."

"No, that doesn't make sense." I stated calmly.

"What doesn't make sense? Didn't Miu have to die in her lab if her body was hung there?" Kaito asked me.

"Normally, yeah. That's what you would assume. But that's not the case here. I believe Miu was killed somewhere else." I responded.

"Huh? Somewhere else?" Shuichi questioned.

"Oooh! This sounds promising! Tell us, where did Miu actually die then?" Angie asked me. I took a deep breath. That's right. There's evidence that proves Miu wasn't actually killed in her research lab. We're lucky to have even found that evidence, so I just have to present it. Still, I can't help but wonder what it means for the case.

"The location where Miu was killed...was in one of the empty rooms on the fourth floor." I told them.

"One of the empty rooms?" Kiyo repeated.

"Wait, why? Those rooms are empty. There's nothing in them. Why would Miu be killed in one of those rooms?" Kaede asked.

"Well, Rantaro and I went to investigate those rooms, and under the floorboards, there was a ton of evidence to prove that's where she died." I answered.

"What you found?" Shuichi questioned.

"So there was something up there after all?" Keebo asked.

"Keebo and I found a device in Miu's lab that seemed to be picking up a signal of some kind, one that was coming from the fourth floor. Upon hearing that, Rin and Rantaro went to investigate it further." Kiyo explained.

"That's right. After searching in the labs, we went into the empty rooms and found where the signal was coming from." Rantaro said.

"That's right. The thing that was sending out that signal...was a little pin-like device." I told them. "It had a button, and once it was pressed, it would turn on and off, lights intermittently turning on and off while it's on. We can assume that this device was what was sending signals to Miu's lab."

"If that's the case, then the pin was probably one of Miu's inventions." Maki suggested.

"That's right. That's what we believed. In fact, we found blueprints that had a drawing that matched the pin in Miu's lab." Rantaro responded. "Miu named it her 'contingency plan'."

"Contingency plan? Was it supposed to be important?" Himiko asked.

"Probably. The blueprint mentioned how only an alpha version was made, but she was planning on making more and handing them out to us." Rantaro added.

"Really? Why?" Ryoma asked.

"Well, if you think about it, it'd make sense why she would want to give one of these to each of us." I sighed. "This pin was made to send out signals to Miu's lab when the button was pressed, showing her the location of that pin. What do you think she would have used it for in this situation?"

"...It was to protect us." Shuichi surmised. "If we each had one of these 'contingency plans' of Miu's, whenever we were in danger, we could press a button and Miu could alert everyone or come help us."

"Then...she was trying to prevent a murder from happening with this thing?" Kaede gasped.

"Most likely." I nodded sadly. "She only got to make one of these before she died. Since it was an alpha version, she probably had it on her person instead of giving it to one of us. She must have kept it on her, and when she was being strangled, she pressed the button on it, causing it to send its signal to her lab. Unfortunately, no one else knew about these pins or what they did, so that didn't save her from her fate."

"So if Miu was the one who had this, and was the one who pressed the button, then she must have been in that empty room before she died." Kiyo noted.

"And as I said before, there's more evidence that supports that claim." I said.

"Another piece of evidence?" Gonta gasped.

"There was a broken invention also present under the floor. It looked like a toy ray gun of some kind, but we can't figure out what it was for." Rantaro explained.

"I see. The only person who could make or would carry something like that is Miu." Himiko commented.

"No. Anyone could have been carrying that device. What makes you so sure that Miu was the one who brought that device to that room?" Kiyo asked.

"The reason why it had to be Miu who was holding that gun?" I repeated the question. "That's easy. It's because of this strange substance on the gun."

"Strange substance?" Shuichi asked.

"Yeah. It was around the barrel of the gun, as well as on Miu's hands." Rantaro nodded. "Now that I think about it, it's sort of like gun powder residue."

"If the gun you found shot out that substance, then it does make sense that it would get on the shooter's hands, like gun powder when firing a normal gun." Maki mentioned.

"With all this evidence, then there isn't any doubt that Miu must have gone to the empty room. The culprit must have hidden the evidence under the floor in order to hide them from discovery." Keebo said. "And since Kokichi said he killed Miu in her lab…"

"Kokichi's confession was…" Gonta began.

"Seriously!? Another lie!?" Kaito shouted.

"Kokichi, is that really the case?" Kaede asked the small dictator, who only hung his head down sadly.

"Aw maaaan, you guys got me…" Kokichi whined. "Okaaay, I'm not the culprit."

"You're telling the truth this time, right?" Rantaro asked with a serious expression.

"I wanna say I'm lying, but I'm not." Kokichi nodded.

"Why did you say you were the culprit?" Maki asked.

"...I wanted to lure the culprit out." He answered simply. "If I claimed to be the culprit, then the real culprit would agree as well, ya get me? And if they pressured me to confess, then that would've looked mighty suspicious." Kokichi sighed again as he gave us all a bored look. "Sheesh! Darn it! It didn't go my way because Rinny butted in on my plan…"

"Sorry I proved your innocence for now." I muttered in an annoyed tone. "Geez, people are so ungrateful nowadays. How many times have I dealt with people who hated receiving my help? What a pain…" I then sighed loudly at recalling all the annoyances I've had to deal with on the job. Wait...what?

"But even if Miu was in the empty room when she died, why would she even go there? There's nothing in those rooms, after all." Angie pointed out. I shook my head out of the strange thoughts as I thought about Angie's question.

"Why did Miu go to the empty room…" I muttered. It's definitely tricky. Those rooms had nothing in them, so why would Miu go there. If I think about it logically, and if I add in Miu making the contingency plans, then I can probably come up with a suitable answer.

Reasoning Research

Let's do this one step at a time. Firstly, what was Miu trying to do prior to her death?

A. She was making inventions to help us and prevent murder

B. She was planning a murder

She was trying to help us, obviously. She agreed to make those Electro stuff, my invention requests, and also this pin to help us. Secondly, if she was trying to prevent murder, what about the other thing that was found in the empty room? The hook. Who brought it there?

A. Miu

B. Someone else

If Miu was trying to prevent a murder, then it couldn't have been her. The hook looks more suited for causing harm than preventing it. The hook must have been brought there by someone there. Then, lastly, if someone else brought a hook to the empty room, they must have taken it from the warehouse. What might have happened then for Miu to end up in the empty room?

A. Miu was threatened by the culprit.

B. It was random chance.

C. Miu saw the culprit carrying the hook.

"Got it!" I shouted while snapping my fingers. "It was because she saw someone preparing a murder and wanted to stop them."

"Eeeh!? A murder!" Tenko exclaimed.

"Why are you so surprised? We're in the middle of a murder case right now." Maki sighed.

"There was a hook under the floor of the empty room too. Miu might have seen someone grab a hook from the warehouse and followed them to make sure they weren't planning something." I explained.

"It would be pretty strange to see someone taking a hook." Kaito nodded. "What were they going to use it for?"

"They probably were going to use it as a murder weapon of some kind. The hook was pretty sharp, so it would have made for a good weapon." Rantaro noted. "The culprit probably grabbed the hook from the warehouse and then went to the empty room to see if it was a suitable place to kill someone. Killing someone there wouldn't really give us a lot to go on since it's...well, empty."

"Yeah. If that's the case, then-"

"The fog is lifted!" Before I could finish, Ryoma cut me off with a shout, throwing me off my train of thought as he sighed. "Hmph… You still got a ways to go."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Miu followed someone into the empty room because they had a hook right? One that was supposed to be used as a weapon? And then she was killed by that person? If that's the case, then there's a flaw in your logic." Ryoma told me as he took out the candy cig from his mouth and gave me a fierce look. "You won't be able to prove anything with weak reasoning like that." And so, our podiums lit up as our logical showdown began. It threw me off, suddenly being interrupted like that, and then having a contradiction pointed out, but I suppose that's how a class trial goes. Either way, I just need to clear up my reasoning before anything else can be discussed.

"So Miu saw someone grab a hook from the warehouse. And then she proceeded to follow them to one of the empty rooms on the fourth floor? Then are you saying this person is the culprit? If this person is the culprit, then that creates a problem for this theory of yours. It would make no sense for them to kill Miu in the way that they did." Ryoma told me.

"Yes, if Miu followed someone to the empty room, that can only mean whoever she followed must be the culprit. But what do you mean by 'kill Miu the way they did'?" I asked.

"Miu died from strangulation. That's been confirmed by the Monokuma file, as well as her injuries. But if the culprit had a hook, why would they bother killing her in such a slow way? Why wouldn't they have used the hook to kill Miu quickly? A single precise slash is all it would take. If you can't explain that, your argument won't make sense." Ryoma told me with a serious expression. I thought for a moment before an idea came to mind. I felt a smile creep onto my face as I snapped my fingers and pointed at Ryoma.

"Allow me to slice through your logic!" I shouted as I brought my finger to my forehead in a confident pose. "The culprit did indeed have a hook on them, but they were unable to use it for murder."

"What? Why not?" Ryoma asked.

"Remember that ray gun device Rantaro brought up? Around the barrel, there was a strange substance. It was reminiscent of glitter, or some other sparkling substance."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Maki asked.

"It's because the hook was completely covered in the same substance." I responded.

"It was covered in it?" Shuichi asked.

"Rin's right. We found the substance around the barrel of the gun, and also on Miu's hands." Rantaro added. "Those were small amounts, but the amount of the stuff on the hook was much greater. It was drenched in it."

"If the gun Miu had shot something that relates to this substance, and she hit the hook with it, then there's a high chance that the culprit wasn't able to use the hook for the murder."

"And without a weapon, the culprit had to rely on their bare hands to kill Miu." Maki then said.

"But do you have any proof of that? You talk about this substance like you don't know what it is." Kiyo said.

"U-Umm…" I muttered as I felt sweat form on my forehead. "W-Well, I suppose I don't have anything concrete to prove that's what happened, but think about it. That strange substance must have been fired from the gun if it was around the barrel, right? It's one of Miu's inventions, and she brought it with her when she saw someone with a weapon, so it must have done something right? Isn't that the logical thought process?" I'm sorta...kind of...bluffing, but the reasoning works, right?

"It does make sense to an extent…" Keebo slowly agreed.

"Hmm, I see." Ryoma said as he sighed and pulled his hat down. "I guess the one who still has a ways to go...is me."

"Don't worry about it. You helped clarify something that might have confused others later." I told him.

"But I'm curious. What is that stuff Miu shot at the hook?" Tenko asked.

"It might be a magical energy. It reminds me of what I've seen grand mages use to fuel their magecraft." Himiko mentioned.

"I doubt it has anything to do with magic." Keebo deadpanned.

"That strange substance, you said it was around the barrel of the gun, right?" Shuichi asked.

"Yeah. Miu's hands also had some of it on them." Rantaro told the detective.

"Then I think I might have an idea of what that is."

"Really?" Gonta asked.

"There were a lot of blueprints and details about many of Miu's inventions inside her lab. One of them was about a 'Spatial Pauser'."

"We saw that too. So you found notes that described what it does? What exactly is it?" I asked Shuichi.

"From what Miu's notes stated, it's a device that shoots a bunch of special particles that freeze an object in the space there in for a small period of time."

"It freezes them in space?" Kaede repeated.

"That would mean that if you shot a falling coin, the coin would have stopped failing and stayed where it was." Rantaro explained.

"Wow! That sounds so cool!" Kokichi exclaimed. "That sounds like something right out of a sci-fi movie, just like Keeboy! Oh wait, this thing actually is pretty advanced science, while Keeboy is more of a disappointment."

"I am much more advanced than such a simple device! I bet my energy reserves could last years longer than whatever energy source powers that gun!" Keebo declared.

"That's not helping your argument…" Kaede sighed.

"So that device stops an object in space, right? How can you tell that's what the broken device Rin and Rantaro found is?" Maki asked.

"That substance is supposedly residue from the particles the device uses." Shuichi clarified. "The notes state that the substance will remain on the objects for about a day before disappearing naturally."

"Seriously, how can Miu be capable of making stuff like this, yet she focused her time on making things like the Hookup Counter?" I sighed loudly.

"Hookup Counter?" Kaito asked.

"You don't want to know." I told him.

"Whatever the case, the fact remains that Miu did make a device like this, and she used it on the hook." Kiyo said.

"But why didn't she just shoot the culprit then? That would have frozen them." Angie asked.

"From what the blueprints said, it doesn't work on living things and a few other things, like clothing or gases, so it wouldn't have worked like that." Shuichi explained. "If Miu had tried to shoot her attacker directly, it wouldn't have stopped them at all."

"I suppose that makes sense. This is supposed to work because of a special particle, right? I suppose the human body and other material might not mesh well with it." I commented.

"Then that's why Miu had to shoot at the hook." Kaede said.

"That sounds pretty pointless though. If she wanted to protect herself from a would-be murder, why would she bring something that wouldn't stop her attacker directly?"

"She might not have wanted to risk hurting them. If she messed up and killed them, then she would become the blackened. Since she was trying to help us, then she would have wanted to avoid hurting the culprit." Shuichi suggested.

"I doubt she expected the culprit to start attacking her directly after losing their weapon too. Most people would have given up at that point. The culprit's relentless assault must have caught her off guard." Maki added.

"Hmm, so to reiterate, Miu saw the culprit bring a hook, to the fourth floor and confronted them about it." Kokichi began. "When she did, the culprit tried to attack her, so she shot their hook, freezing it in space. Without any other choice, the culprit then attacked Miu and strangled her with their bare hands. Is that right so far?"

"Yeah. And then after they killed her, they moved her body to the Ultimate Inventor's Research Lab and hung up her body to make it look like a suicide." Tenko finished the explanation. "What a despicable culprit! To go to such lengths!"

"That pretty much sums up how Miu died." Rantaro said as he placed his fingers on his chin. "The culprit also tried to hide evidence as well. The hook and the broken Spatial Pauser were thrown under the empty room's floor boards in the crawl space. And they probably didn't see the tiny pin device, what with it being so small, so they left it there as well."

"So we know exactly how Miu died then, right? But how does that help us exactly?" Ryoma asked.

"Well, with all this information, we can determine one thing." Kaede said. "This wasn't something the culprit could do in a short period of time."

"Strangling the victim, hiding and destroying evidence, moving her body from the fourth floor to her lab, hanging up the body to make it look like a suicide, there were a lot of things the culprit had to do to set everything up." Shuichi nodded.

"Yes. And I doubt the culprit was prepared for this crime of theirs." I added. "Miu followed them, after all. They probably felt pressured to kill her after she discovered what they were doing. It was most likely an on-the-spot kill and plan."

"If that's the case, then we might be able to make one more assumption about the crime." Rantaro said. "If Miu followed the culprit to the empty room, I think we can rule out the crime happening after nighttime."

"Huh? Why?" Himiko asked.

"If the culprit had gone there at nighttime, I doubt anyone would have seen them. I don't know about you all, but I tend to go to sleep soon after the announcement." Rantaro said.

"Rantaro has a point. All of us who had just escaped from the Insect Meet and Greet went straight to our rooms after that. We were all utterly exhausted from the day's events." Kaede said.

"Gonta sorry again." Gonta apologized.

"Hmm...it is unlikely our culprit would have tried to kill someone intentionally during the day. They would have instead tried their hand in the dead of night." Kiyo stated.

"They probably just grabbed the hook to prepare ahead of time, and then they went to the empty room to examine if it would work for their plan then." Tenko guessed.

"That sounds plausible." I nodded. "However, instead of simply examining the room, they found themselves interrupted by Miu, forcing them to take action immediately so Miu couldn't alert any of us of their possible murder scheme."

"Hmm...All of this probably would have taken about 30 minutes to do. At least according to my calculations." Keebo speculated.

"Then all we have to do is figure out who doesn't have an alibi after 8 p.m. and before nighttime that covers that length of time." Kokichi said. "If we do that, we're sure to find our culprit."

"That should be simple enough. After all, most of us have ample alibis, since we were detained by Gonta inside his lab." Kiyo said.

"Yes. Once we pin down everyone's alibis, then we can focus on whoever doesn't have an alibi." Angie cheered with a happy expression. "Nyahaha! We are getting closer to the truth! How divine!" So we've figured out how Miu died, and are now ready to try to figure out who could have killed her. There aren't a lot of people without alibis, but we'll have to scrutinize them thoroughly to make sure we've found our target. And if we're able to find them, then I'll do everything I can to prove that they were the one who killed Miu. And so, the class trial continued, along with our search for our culprit.