As Maki's words leave her mouth, everyone except Niles seemed to be affected by them. The room was silent with shock, horror and despair. Rantaro thought he would get used to the idea of people killing each other, but he supposed that he wouldn't unless he killed someone himself. He was better off than the others but he was still taken aback. He looks at Niles and sees that the man was the same as he was before Maki's news.
"Bring us there. Certainly that bastard bear wants us all there to further explain things," Niles says. Maki nods and she turns on her heels, leading the way to where she found Ryoma's body. Niles and Rantaro were the first to follow, the others eventually snapping out of their stupor and following. Shuichi catches up to be side by side Maki, knowing that if everyone else was going to get through this, he would have to put his skills to use. The group only paused when the TV crackled to life, displaying Monokuma.
"A body has been discovered! Everyone please gather in the cafeteria so an explanation can be provided!" Monokuma announces before the TV crackles off. Everyone changes course just a smidge and goes into the cafeteria like Monokuma had asked. As people gathered in the cafeteria, no one was in a clump bigger than three as everyone looked at one another suspiciously. Niles had a wicked and sadistic smirk on his lips as he watches everyone, making everyone, minus Rantaro and Kokichi of course, squirm under his gaze. It was rather satisfying to see everyone so uncomfortable! Might make everyone more bearable to deal with afterwards! Just as Tenko was about to yell at Niles, Monokuma and the MonoKubs appeared.
"Oh good! Everyone is here! Daddy! You can explain the rules more!" Monophanie says happily.
"Upupu~ Looks like one of you finally did it! What a shame that perk wasn't used, but I guess the possible threat of death is a good enough motivator!" Monokuma starts out.
"Would you really have let the murderer go scot-free? Or was that a lie?" Kokichi asks, tilting his head.
"Father doesn't lie! The murderer would have most definitely been let go without having to do a trial!" Monotaro answers.
"How interesting. So we can safely assume that Monokuma here cannot lie to us and neither can the MonoKubs," Niles says.
"Yup! We also don't have to answer questions if we deem them unimportant!" Monokuma says. "Now, onto the fun part! Since a murder has occurred, you fuckers have to debate about whodunit like I mentioned a few days ago! As a reminder, if you guess correctly, only the blackened gets punished. Guess wrong however... The blackened goes free and the rest of you are punished! Gaaaahahahahaha!"
"And punishment is death... Right..?" Kaede asks, fidgeting a bit.
"HELL YEAH IT IS!" Monokid shouts.
"Anyways! You all have a short period time to investigate the murder so that you have clues and evidence to use during the debate. Use it wisely cause once I get bored, you all will report to the Shrine of Judgement~! Oh, and since none of you know how to perform an autopsy, I have so generously given you a Monokuma File! These Files tell you who the victim is, their height and weight, the cause and time of death and if there is something in their system that shouldn't be there! Now, off you go! The clock is a-ticking!" Monokuma says before disappearing.
"Well, we might as well read over the File.." Shuichi says, pulling out his MonoPad. Everyone else does as well so that they could all see what caused Ryoma's death. "So the cause of death was bleeding out due to a slit to both common carotid arteries with the time of death being around 3:07PM."
"How morbid. So that was fifteen minutes after the music went off then," Niles comments.
"Very fresh then. But we need to do a thorough investigation. Let's go to where Ryoma is," Rantaro says, looking to Maki. Maki sighs and leads the way to where Ryoma's body was - the storage room. Everyone fanned out as they entered, a few horrified gasps as they see how Ryoma's body was strung up a few feet above the ground between two of the support beams in front of the pole vault poles. His feet were about two feet off the ground. Ropes were used to string up Ryoma by his wrists and his head was slumped forward. There were two streaks of still wet blood down his body as well as a wet pool of blood beneath his feet, all pink of course since that's the color of blood!
"Well, this body isn't going to inspect itself, now is it?" Niles says after a moment and wondering why the blood was pink and not red. This seems to snap everyone out of it. Tenko then turns on Niles, ready to rip into him as she had been planning to do so before.
"YOU! You degenerate male! You're to blame for this, being an Outlaw and all! You're sketchy, suspicious and sadistic! Not to mention taking this way too easily!" Tenko accuses, pointing to the Outlaw.
"I can safely say it was not me. I have an alibi - I was with Rantaro the entire day and then a little before the time of death, Kaede and Shuichi joined us," Niles says calmly.
"Wait, really?" Tenko asks, blinking.
"Yes. Now, don't go randomly accusing people Tenko. That's how you'll get everyone here killed. And as for why I'm so calm is because I have killed people in the past, defending myself," Niles snaps, his eye cold and harsh.
"Uh if I may... We have limited time.. So uh maybe we should split the group up to look for clues in various places?" Shuichi says, wanting to prevent a fight.
"That sounds like a splendid idea Shuichi. Perhaps we have two people guard the crime scene?" Tojo suggests. "I will watch over the scene."
"Gonta no good at investigating unless bugs, but Gonta can keep watch over scene!" Gonta says.
"Then it's settled! Let's get to the bottom of this and figure out who murdered Ryoma!" Kaito says, invigorated and determined to bring justice. People split off to conduct their investigations. Shuichi and Kaede go around and ask the others where the others were from 3:00PM to 3:14PM, finding that the only people without an alibi were Maki, Tojo, Gonta, Korekiyo and Angie. Niles carefully makes his way over to Ryoma's body to look it over. His hands pause on top of the midget's head as his fingers feel a little wet. Removing the beanie, the Outlaw finds an indentation on the back of Ryoma's head and it was a little wet with blood.
"Odd..." Niles mutters. He puts the hat back on and then carefully steps away, his blue eye looking for something that might have caused the indentation. Rantaro comes over to Niles, Kaede's shot put still in his hands.
"Find something?" the green haired male asks. Niles spots the shot put in Rantaro's hands and his eye widens.
"Yeah, let me see that shot put," Niles says, holding his hand out. Rantaro blinks but hands it over before watching Niles approach the body again and remove the beanie. The white haired male compares the shot put to the indentation. "Kaede! Are you still in here?" he calls out, glancing around for the blonde.
"She is not in here Niles. I believe she and Shuichi went to the cafeteria and kitchen," Tojo answers.
"Thank you Tojo. Pretty boy! Can you bring Kaede here? I have a question for her," Niles says.
"Yeah, sure thing Niles," Rantaro answers, chuckling softly. He then leaves to go get Kaede. Niles first counts the shot puts, counting out six shot puts in the crate, seven if he counts Kaede's. He then starts to scour the rest of the room looking for anything else that might be out of place. He goes deeper into the room and spots it out of the corner of his eye - a small bottle. He walks over and picks it up and opens it up, seeing pink liquid and sniffs it.
"That's blood alright. And something else," Niles mutters to himself. The doors to the storage room open, revealing Kaede and Rantaro. He sets the bottle down and walks over to the two.
"You wanted to see me Niles?" Kaede asks.
"I did. How many shot puts were in that crate when you took one?" Niles asks. Kaede blinks at the question but pauses to think.
"There were eight. Why do you ask?" Kaede answers, her brow furrowing.
"Just as I suspected. Someone had a similar idea to you Kaede. There are seven counting yours," Niles hums out.
"So the murder weapon and a shot put are missing," Rantaro says, frowning.
"It would appear so," Niles says. He goes to do more investigating but the TV crackled to life, Monokuma yelling at all of them to get to the Shrine of Judgement so that the trial could begin. The 16 remaining Ultimates all make their way to the Shrine of Judgement, finally able to enter the looming and ominous tower. The inside of the tower was so... empty. Just stone benches like a coliseum around the edges but a fountain with two very bizarre Monokuma statues standing in the middle. A low rumble had Niles instinctively reach for his bow, ready to fight the statues but relaxes when realizing it was just the statues moving to reveal the way forward.
"Ah, an elevator. I guess we're going underground," Rantaro says, moving forward. Niles had no idea what an elevator was but he follows. He looks at everyone and notices how on edge they all were. The elevator starts to move, causing Niles to stumble into Rantaro who steadies him. "Not used to elevators?" he asks, teasing Niles.
"Shush you," Niles huffs indignantly, causing Rantaro to laugh lightly a his predicament. The elevator ride down was quick and when it reaches the bottom, the remaining 16 were allowed to step into the debate room. In the center of the room were 17 podiums, with all of their portraits behind them. Ryoma's portrait had a big pink X on it. On the opposite side of the room was a big throne with Monokuma sitting upon it. In front of him were the MonoKubs.
"Welcome! Welcome! Please find your podiums and get ready! It's time to figure out who killed Ryoma Hoshi - The Ultimate Tennis Pro!" Monokuma says. Everyone easily finds their podium, thanks to the big portraits that were provided. The air in the room was tense as it had finally sunk in for everyone that the Killing Game had actually really begun and that one of their so called friends had committed murder. And now, it was time to debate for their lives.