"We shouldn't listen to anything Maki says. She's just gonna throw out more lies." Kokichi told us.

"But we should listen to her testimony. If she's telling the truth, it will be crucial to the case." Kaede responded.

"I already told you that isn't the case!" Kokichi yelled. "I hate liars! Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

"You're one to talk…" Himiko sighed.

"Maki, just ignore that lying little degenerate! We'll listen to what you have to say!" Tenko said.

"It was around 10 a.m. when I went to talk to Miu." Maki began. "Rin had asked her to make a lock for my Research Lab, so I figured I might as well thank her for it. So, when I found her, I offered to give her the motive video I got, which happened to be hers."

"Motive video?" Gonta repeated.

"Why would you offer to give Miu her own motive video? Especially when we agreed to not swap them with each other?" Kiyo asked.

"It was the only thing I had that she might want. I only checked the start of the Kubs Pad I got today, and I was lucky to get her video." Maki answered. "When I told her I was willing to give it to her, Miu seemed hesitant, but in the end she agreed. I told her that she could just take the Kubs Pad from my room, since I was busy doing stuff in my lab. It was fine since I tend to keep my room unlocked, but she insisted I watch the video with her just in case there was something really bad in the video."

"Wow Maki, that's super careless, leaving your room unlocked all the time." Kokichi said in an innocent tone. "Aren't you scared of someone killing you in your sleep?" I really doubt Maki has to worry about that at all. Maki didn't respond to Kokichi's question, just brushing it aside with a shrug.

"Miu wanted to see her video, though?" Rantaro questioned. "I suppose I can't blame her for that. When given the chance, I watched mine, even when I didn't really care about what might be on it."

"And then what happened?" Gonta asked.

"Nothing. I waited outside my lab like we agreed and waited for her to come with the video. I didn't care about watching the video, but since I was doing this to thank her, I figured I might as well do as she asked. But she never came. I waited until nighttime, and then went back to my room.

"If Miu never came to the meeting you were supposed to have, then Miu must have been killed right after she got away from Gonta at 8 p.m!" Kaito shouted. "That means Rantaro and Maki can't be our only suspects anymore! This opens up other possibilities!"

"If that's true…" Kiyo stated.

"It's true…" Maki said, pulling one of her twintails with a puffy face.

"Then why did you wait until now to bring that up?" Keebo asked.

"I didn't say anything until now because I wasn't in the mood to be suspected." Maki replied in a tired tone.

"Suspected? What for?" Himiko asked.

"Miu and I were supposed to meet up together, but now she's dead. That's pretty fishy, right? I didn't want to be suspected that I did something to her when she arrived at the meeting, so I avoided mentioning it." Maki explained.

"Y-You weren't in the mood to be suspected…?" Kaede repeated.

"That's pretty selfish of you. We could have used that information to find the culprit much sooner." Ryoma rebuked with an angry expression.

"Well, whatever. Either way, let's just believe Maki." Kaito said.

"Yes, yes. Those who believe will be saved!" Angie cheered.

"No, we need to wait. There is still more to confirm-"

"There's no need for that! Maki is telling the truth!" Kaito exclaimed, cutting Keebo off.

"No, we can't be too sure of that yet." Kiyo stated. "For all we know, Maki could be lying. There's no proof that this meeting was ever supposed to happen, and even if it was supposed to happen, we can't say it was supposed to be at 8 p.m."

"Not only that, but Miu could have just easily forgotten about the meeting or was busy doing something else at the time. Her not showing up to the meeting doesn't mean she died at that time." Ryoma added

"But Gonta saw Miu wandering around academy at 8. Gonta not think Miu busy with anything." Gonta said.

"She might have been headed for Maki's room to grab the motive video at that time, before she noticed the killer and followed them." Shuichi noted.

"But that can't be proven, yes? We can't juat blindly believe Maki's words." Kiyo countered.

"...So you still suspect me?" Maki asked.

"I am only bringing up possibilities. Until there is proof to the contrary, we have no choice but to pick apart your testimony." Kiyo responded. "After all, we'll all die if we don't vote correctly."

"Th-Then...which is it? A lie? Or n-not lie?" Gonta asked.

"She's not lying! Can't you tell by looking at her!?" Kaito shouted.

"If it were that easy, we'd be done by now." Himiko said. "No, this is a world full of lies and betrayal."

"Himiko, it breaks my heart to hear you say such depressing things!" Tenko cried out.

"Maki's testimony is way too convenient for her. It's too suspicious." Ryoma pointed out.

"Indeed, it might seem convenient, but it doesn't sound like Maki is lying. If she was, she would have made a much better lie than this." Rantaro added.

"This is...difficult to determine." Keebo said with a confused face.

"Maki is lying! Like I said before, a liar like me knows their own kind!" Kokichi shouted.

"I'm not lying. Miu and I were supposed to meet up at around 8 p.m, but she never came." Maki repeated herself before giving us a downcasted expression. "...I'm telling the truth."

"..." I kept quiet as I thought about the testimony given. A lie...or truth. It has to be one of them. Whichever we decide will turn this case on its head. And I already made my decision before. I chose to believe in Rantaro and Maki's innocence! So now I just need to get us all to believe in that innocence. With Maki's testimony, we can open up a new possibility, one that leads to the truth. That true...must be that Miu died before being able to meet up with Maki, at 8:05 p.m.! I have to show everyone the right path to the truth, even if I have to lie to do it! Even with a lie, I'll still reveal the truth! I can't say anything that's too obvious of a lie, so I'll just make up a lie that helps strengthen Maki's testimony a bit!

"I was supposed to meet with Miu yesterday at around 8 p.m, but she never came." Maki stated as her podium moved to the center of our circle.

"That's far too suspicious. Why should we believe you?" Ryoma asked.

"Did anyone see Miu going to Maki's lab?" Tenko asked.

"I think if anyone did see Miu heading there, they would have said something already…" Kaede responded.

"If no one can prove that this meeting was even supposed to happen…" Kiyo began as he made a serious expression. "Then there is no reason to believe your testimony, I'm afraid."

"As expected, Maki is lying to us." Kokichi sighed. "If you can't prove your claim, then it's the same as an outright lie!"

"Hang on, guys." I cut in on the debate. "I can't prove that Maki and Miu were planning on meeting, but I think I can prove that Miu was going to meet up with someone."

"Oh…?" Kiyo hummed as he put his hand on his cheek. "Then by all means, please explain."

"Well, I saw Miu at around 7:30, right?" I began. "Well, the two of us talked for a bit. I tried to convince her to come to the Insect Meet and Greet, but she declined. When I asked why she didn't want to follow me, she mentioned something about meeting up with someone at 8."

"She was going to meet up with someone at 8?" Angie asked.

"Before, I had no idea who she could have met, but now that I've heard Maki's story, Miu must have planned to meet up with Maki." I told them.

"What?" Kokichi asked in confusion.

"Wait a minute! If Miu said she was going to meet up with someone at 8, and that someone was Maki…" Tenko began.

"Then we have no reason to doubt Maki's testimony. Miu was supposed to meet up with Maki at around 8 p.m., but never arrived." Shuichi finished.

"H-H-Hang on! Rin, why didn't you say this sooner?" Kaede asked me.

"Because before now, I didn't think it was important." I responded. "Miu could have met up with anyone at any time, so I didn't think it would help us. That's why I didn't mention it. I had no reason to."

"Now, now… We don't actually know Miu was really going to meet up with Maki though, right?" Angie asked.

"That is true. If I knew specifically who Miu was meeting up with and when, I would have brought it up sooner." I nodded. "But considering the circumstances, I can't imagine it being anyone other than Maki. Miu didn't plan to meet up with any of us yesterday, right? Then it must have been with Maki."

"Yeah! And nobody say they suddenly remember talking to Miu about a meeting! It's way too late for that!" Kaito shouted.

"You didn't confirm who Miu was supposed to meet up with?" Ryoma asked me. "If Miu was going to have a private meeting with someone, wouldn't you think that's pretty suspicious? This is a killing game, after all."

"That's my fault. I should have asked her about it, but at the time, I didn't think it would be important. I was more focused on bringing someone to Gonta's lab." I replied.

"The point is that if Miu told Rin that she was going to meet up with someone yesterday, then Maki's testimony isn't a lie." Rantaro stated.

"Then Gonta will believe friends." Gonta declared.

"You're going to believe him, just like that?" Himiko asked.

"But Rin has no reason to lie." Tenko then said.

"Yes… If his lie leads us down the wrong path, he will join us in eternal sleep." Kiyo added.

"Yeah. That means we should be able to trust Rin. He doesn't want to die either." Kaede nodded.

"That's right. You can believe me." I told them with a confident smile, though behind the smile was a pile of nervousness that I was hiding quite well.

"Then it's settled! We believe in Maki and Rin!" Kaito declared.

"Belief shall set you free!" Angie added.

"I'd be so surprised if Rinny was a liar, especially after we believed in him for so long." Kokichi said. "We wouldn't be able to trust anyone anymore! Well, it's not like he's lying anyway…" Kokichi said that last part with an evil smirk as he looked at me. I kept my calm and composed face as I returned his gaze, unsure of whether he saw through my lie or not.

"Then it's decided. Miu must have died soon after Gonta saw her at 8 p.m. Most likely around 8:05 p.m." Shuichi said.

"That means Maki and I can't be the only suspects anymore, right?" Rantaro said.

"No, that can't be right. Can it? Even with this, these two have to be suspects. If these two aren't the culprit, then we would reach a point where no one can be even suspects." Kiyo said.

"So...what that mean? Rantaro and Maki still suspects?" Gonta asked. Shuichi thought for a moment before coming to an answer.

"We determined alibis because we said the crime must have at least taken 30 minutes, correct?" He asked.

"Yes. To strangle Miu, drag her body down from the fourth floor to her Research Lab, and then to tie a rope to the ceiling and make it so it looked like a suicide, it would have taken a lot of time." Keebo confirmed.

"If we're to believe the culprit isn't Rantaro or Maki, then perhaps we were wrong in assuming how the killer went about this." Shuichi then said.

"Wrong? In what way?" Himiko asked.

"Hmm...maybe the culprit didn't do everything at once? Is that what you're suggesting?" Kaede questioned.

"Not everything at once…?" I repeated. "Wait, that's it! The culprit must not have moved the body right after he killed Miu!"

"Strangling someone only takes around a few minutes. If the culprit only strangled Miu, and didn't immediately move the body, then we would have more room to doubt people's alibis." Rantaro said.

"But that doesn't make any sense. Why would the culprit wait to move the body after they had just killed Miu?" Himiko asked.

"If anyone were to even take a peek into the empty room, Miu would have been discovered immediately." Ryoma added. "They would need to immediately get rid of her body before it becomes even more of a problem."

"And Gonta, Rin, and Ryoma searching for friends to bring to Meet and Greet. We might have checked room for people. Too risky to leave Miu's body alone." Gonta nodded.

"But that's the only explanation we have. With this, we'll be able to suspect more people other than Maki and Rantaro." Kaede said.

"There isn't any need to do that. Rantaro and Maki are still suspects, aren't they? The culprit must still be one of them." Angie stated.

"Yep. Maki's testimony doesn't change anything, does it?" Kokichi smirked.

"H-Hang on, guys. We need to calm down and properly discuss this." I said. "If we could just-"

"Hold it!" Monokuma shouted. "Are you all split again? Then the Ultimate Academy is proud to present it's morphenomenal trial grounds!"

"Yippee! We've been waiting for this!" The Kubs cheered.

"What? So we're going to have to do that crazy thing again?" Kaito asked.

"Seems like it." I sighed. Still, we are split on this matter. We need to decide what actually happened. If we take another look at the evidence with this new lens, we should be able to see the truth. I have to make sure they see it too. Otherwise my lie would have been pointless.

And so, Monokuma took out a key and stuck it into a slot on his throne, causing our podiums to move high into the air like before. Once we were high enough, our podiums moved to the side of the argument we were backing up. The question this time was 'When was the body moved'? On the left were the people who believed the body was moved right after the crime occurred, with Kokichi, Gonta, Kiyo, Angie, Himiko, Ryoma, and Keebo. On the right side were the people who believed the body must have been moved later, with me, Shuichi, Kaito, Maki, Kaede, Tenko, and Rantaro. "Scrum debate...START!" Monokuma shouted, kicking off the debate with a bang.

"Wasn't the body moved right after the culprit killed Miu?" Himiko started with her question, which was then countered by Kaede.

"The body could have easily been moved during nighttime, not just during the day." She said.

"Wouldn't it have been too risky for the culprit to not move the body right away?" Kiyo asked.

"It would have been just as risky to carry the body down when people were awake and moving around the academy." Maki said.

"Leaving body in empty room would be bad for culprit. Body might be found early." Gonta argued, but Rantaro shook his head.

"It wouldn't be bad if they hid the body somewhere in the empty room." He responded.

"But where would the culprit even hide the body? That room was empty." Angie asked.

"They must have hid the body where they hid the other pieces of evidence: under the floorboards!" I then said as I thought up that answer.

"The culprit could have just moved the body in a different way that was faster and safer, couldn't they?." Kokichi suggested.

"If that's the case, we would have found evidence of this different way the culprit moved the body." Shuichi countered.

"But can we believe Maki's testimony in the first place? Should we really believe neither Rantaro or Maki aren't the culprit?" Ryoma questioned, which prompted Kaito to smile and give a thumbs up in response.

"It's totally okay! We have Rin's testimony to back it up, after all! We should believe in those two!" He exclaimed. With that final statement, the other side didn't have any other arguments, and all of our podiums went back down to their normal positions. With us finally reaching a conclusive answer I took a deep breath before speaking.

"This has to be the truth. The culprit must have hidden Miu's body under the floorboards along with the other evidence they left behind. They then came back during nighttime and moved the body to the Research Lab."

"It's the only way this crime could have been committed. If the culprit hid the body and moved it later, that would have given them time to gain an alibi so we wouldn't suspect them." Shuichi nodded.

"Hiding the body would explain something else about the evidence." Rantaro stated. "We found Miu's contingency plan pin under the floorboards. I doubt the culprit would have noticed something this small in Miu's hands."

"So the reason that thing was under the floorboards was because they dumped Miu's body under there, and the pin got loose from Miu's hand." Kaito nodded.

"I see. There are no gaps in those rooms, so that's probably what happened." Ryoma admitted.

"So the culprit killed Miu and hid her body, only to go back to it and move it during nighttime." Himiko summarized.

"The only reason the culprit would do this is to give themselves an alibi for when we thought the crime might have occurred. After all, before we knew when Miu specifically died, we were searching for someone who didn't have an alibi that lasted the entire length of the whole crime." Kaede said.

"It would have taken at least 30 minutes all together, but if it's just the strangulation and hiding the body under the floors, it would have only taken a few minutes." Keebo nodded.

"Then, all we have to do to find the culprit is find out who doesn't have an alibi during the time around 8:05 p.m, even if it's only for a few minutes." Tenko said.

"Hmm...this culprit is really something else. To think they did all of this on the spot. Even someone with my magic would have trouble with that." Himiko said.

"You have a point. This culprit didn't plan to kill Miu like this. It must have been on the spur of the moment. With that said, I think it's safe to say our culprit is quite ingenuitive." I nodded.

"They were frighteningly thorough in turning this mistake into an advantage." Shuichi nodded.

"If Maki hadn't planned to meet up with Miu at around 8 p.m, it might've been the end for us." Kokichi said. "Well, I still don't know if Maki is telling the truth or not…"

"...Shut up." Maki shot back.

"I have to admit as well, I sort of admire the culprit's skill for doing this on such short notice. It would be impressive if it wasn't murder. They must truly be something." Rantaro noted.

"What are you, stupid? Don't admire the culprit!" Kaito told him.

"No, respecting the culprit's skills and intellect is important in solving all this." I muttered as I put my finger on my chin. We have all these pieces of the puzzle, and it feels like we're so close. We just need the last piece. One more thing…

"Now then, let's hurry up and figure out who the culprit is!" Kokichi shouted.

"Even with all of this figured out, it's still hard to say who it is." Ryoma sighed.

"But we're so close! I know it!" Kaede said with a confident tone I hadn't heard in a while.

"So, who is it?" Tenko asked.

"Hmph. Looks like it's time for me to start the main event…" Kaito said with a smile. "But my sidekicks, Shuichi, Kaede, Rin, and Maki are all on a roll right now! So I'll let them keep it going!"

"Hm? Ah, okay." Shuichi nodded hesitantly.

"R-Right, Kaito." Kaede gave a nervous laugh at Kaito's statement.

"You're just pushing everything onto us because you don't know yourself." Maki responded as she crossed her arms.

"So? Do any of you already know who the culprit is?" Angie asked with a serious expression. I couldn't help but bite my thumb at the question. Do I already know? No, I...Well, maybe. I have a thought, but...should I really pursue it? It's more of a guess. There's barely anything sustaining it at all. I only have one piece of evidence that might be pointing to someone if my reasoning is on point. Should I really press the matter, or should I try thinking more about it? The last time I bet everything on a stupid hunch, Kirumi lost her life, and Tsumugi was executed for it. I...I...I can't screw up again. I don't want to be the reason anyone else dies. Not again. If I'm wrong with this hunch, then everyone will... I don't-

"Hey, Rin. Are you doubting yourself again?" Kaito turned to me.

"Huh?"

"C'mon, man. There's no need for that. Like I said, you, Shuichi, Maki, and Kaede… You're all my sidekicks." Kaito told me. "I take responsibility for any mistakes my sidekicks make, and I'll always be there to back them up and be a shoulder to lean on. So use those skills of yours I believe in...to shove the truth down their throats!"

"You...actually believe I can do this?" I asked him. "B-But...what if it ends up like before and I-"

"Stop that nonsense! I said it before I! I believe in you! I'm gonna leave it all to you guys!" Kaito cut me off with his huge grin. I felt blown back by how much faith he had in me. But…

"Rin. If you have a theory about who it is, then please, tell us." Kaede told me. "Kaito isn't the only one who believes in you. I do too. We all do." Kaede then brought her arms up and gave me a smile, one I hadn't seen since the first few days of the killing game. "So rely on us too. Believe that together we can find the truth."

"Kaede's right. We'll back you up, all the way. We'll face whatever truth we find together, no matter how ugly it is." Shuichi told me as he gave me a confident look of his own. I felt the breath I had been holding suddenly leave me, as I felt my body relax. They're...right. As usual, they're right. I can't doubt myself now. I...need to trust myself, at least a little. I might not know who I am, what I am, or why I'm here, but I've already promised myself I'd do everything I can to protect them. And...I'm confident I can do it. I took a deep breath as I raised both my hands up, and then-

SMACK!

I slapped both hands into my cheeks as fast as I could. To say it stung would be an understatement, but I needed that. I guess I shocked my classmates with that display, but I wasn't bothered by their looks of confusion and shock as I brought my head up determinedly as I looked around at everyone in the courtroom with knowing eyes. Miu was killed a little after 8 p.m when Gonta saw her, which would most likely be 8:05 p.m. If the culprit just strangled her and hid her body under the empty room's floors, then they would lack only a very small window in their alibi, since they would have been able to gained a larger alibi afterwards. That narrows down the list of suspects by quite a bit. And take that with that single piece of evidence I have, I think I can accurately guess who they are. So, taking another breath, I raise my finger and point it at them.

"There's one more thing I still have to confirm, but…" I said confidently as I pointed to the anthropologist. "Kiyo, was it you?"