"B-Before we start the trial, I want to a-ask Monokuma something." Fujisaki declared nervously. "If these trial grounds were made for us specifically, how come there's 16 seats instead of 15?"

"Hmm…" Monokuma mumbled. "That's a good question." He thought for a second. "Let's just say… THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS! NO MORE QUESTIONS!"

Fujisaki jumped in fear and started crying. "S-sorry…"

"Aw, there's no need to apologise." Asahina said kindly. "The bear's just being a dickhead."

"A WHAT!?" Monokuma cried. "Jeez, you people and your petty insults." He sniffed.

"Enough of that." Kirigiri said firmly. "Let's start by going over what we know-"

"I already told you, didn't I?" Kuwata interrupted, an exasperated and exhausted expression on his face. "I killed him! I killed Makoto Naegi!"

"We don't know that for sure." Kirigiri replied.

Gasps filled the room.

"Huh? What? How? Why?" Kuwata spluttered, equally as confused as I was.

"In this environment, anything can happen. Anything is possible - to dismiss any possibility could spell certain death for all of us. So, that being said, I'm going to lay out the first possibility."

"I think what Miss Kirigiri is referring to is the possibility that you could be covering for someone." Togami finished, a sly grin on his face.

"Yes. Thank you, Togami." Kirigiri said coldly.

"I was thinking the same thing at the beginning of the investigation, which is why I wanted to ask Monokuma a question:"

"Oh? Do you now?" Monokuma said, a slow angry growl in his voice.

"Don't worry, Monokuma. It's related to the case." Togami laughed. "I was wondering about the circumstances of an accomplice. "

"Ohoho, my! Whatever do you mean, Togami?" Monokuma tilted his furry head.

"If Kuwata was to be an accomplice, would he also be considered the Blackened, and thus graduate if uncaught?"

"Hmm… let's see…" Monokuma pretended to think briefly. "Nope! WAHAAHAHAHAA!" He laughed evilly. "He would die like the rest of you pitiful souls!"

Kuwata gulped.

"Oh that's priceless! That topic wasn't supposed to come up for another two trials!" Monokuma giggled.

"I see." Togami adjusted his glasses. "So the possibility of there being an accomplice drops to almost zero."

"I-I keep telling you guys, but you never listen!" Kuwata shouted. "I killed Naegi! Just vote for me and end this goddamn farce!"

"No! I demand an explanation!" Asahina yelled. "Why the hell did you kill poor Naegi!?"

"I-I-I didn't mean to, I swear!"

"Oh what, you're gonna claim he just tripped and fell onto your fuckin' kitchen knife?" Owada growled.

"What? No!" Kuwata yelled, getting increasingly panicky. "It was self-defense!"

"SELF-DEFENSE!?" Enoshima screamed. "What, you're really going to expect us to believe he tried to attack you?"

"I see." Yamada chuckled. "It seems Mr. Naegi was on the side of evil all along…"

"What? No!" Kuwata yelled. "Naegi wasn't trying to hurt me!" He looked at me, staring daggers into my soul. "I was trying to defend myself against Maizono!"

Everyone looked at me in shock.

"You're kidding, right?" Enoshima said. "Sayaka tried to kill you?"

I felt my spirits fade and I stared down at the floor.

"It seems Kuwata's testimony is correct." Togami chuckled evilly. "How delightfully devilish of you, Maizono."

"Wha-?" Enoshima looked at me, a mixture of shock and betrayal on her pampered face. "T-That's not true, right?"

I dared not speak.

"Hmph. And to think I kept quiet for you all this time." Kuwata growled. "I gave you PLENTY of opportunities to speak for yourself but NOOOO! You just thought you could sweep it under the rug. Jesus fucking Christ."

"Stop it!" Ishimaru cried. "We should give Maizono a chance to present her rebuttal!"

"M-Maizono…" Fujisaki said quietly.

"S-Sayaka, please! Say something!" Enoshima cried desperately.

"No! Kuwata's lying!" Asahina cried. "There's just no way!"

"Huh!?" Kuwata was shocked. "Why would I lie!? I'm already a dead man for fuck's sake!"

"Trying to claim Maizono attacked you so you could shift the blame off yourself. Heh, what a shameful thing to do!"

"I-I-I'm telling you it's the fucking truth!" Kuwata yelled.

"Can we actually go over Naegi's case first?" Ogami asked. "I think we'd be able to understand everything more clearly if we look at it piece by piece."

"Ogami's right." Kirigiri said. "Going around pointing the finger, no matter how accurate it is, will get us nowhere. I shall start:" She cleared her throat. "The Monokuma file gave us some important information, if we refer to that, we can see that Naegi's cause of death was a stab wound from a kitchen knife in the stomach. Death would have happened in mere minutes. His time of death was some time after midnight. There was also a bruise on the side of his head, right next to his left eye."

"A bruise, you say?" Ogami raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps Kuwata's claim of self-defense may not be so false after all."

"W-what? What are you saying?" Asahina said. "T-there's just no way…"

"It's more than likely Naegi was trying to protect someone. After all, it wasn't the first time he got himself injured trying to break up a fight." Kirigiri explained.

Owada looked sheepish. Ishimaru huffed.

"After investigating the body, I also found gold paint on his head where he was struck. Similarly, there were also streaks of gold paint on the floor and the walls in his bedroom. There was clear evidence of a struggle."

"But the thing that killed him was a kitchen knife, right?" Enoshima asked. "So where did all the paint come from?"

"Most likely, the golden replica sword he had on a stand in his bedroom." Kirigiri explained. "Why he had that, I do not know."

"Oh! Wait!" Enoshima gasped. "I remember now! I saw Naegi carrying it back from the gym with-" Her voice caught in her throat.

"With whom?" Togami asked.

"S-Sayaka." She said slowly, looking at me dejectedly.

"Hmm…" Yamada stroked his chin. "Yes… it's all coming together!"

"W-wait, slow down! I'm lost." Hagakure exclaimed. "How does the sword play into all of this? It's already established that the kitchen knife was what killed him, right?"

"Th-The sword m-must have b-been the other w-weapon used during the st-struggle…" Fukawa explained. "You would know that, i-if you were p-paying attention…"

"Jeez, lay off, okay?" Hagakure said.

"It is exactly as Fukawa explained." Togami said.

"H-huh?" Fukawa looked shocked. She hugged herself and started moaning. "H-He… acknowledged me!"

"Jesus, get a grip girl." Enoshima shuddered.

"Moving on, the fight consisted of two parties, one wielding the replica sword and the other wielding the kitchen knife." Togami said. "All we have to do now is work out who had what."

"Oh! I get it!" Hagakure snapped his fingers. "So: Kuwata and Naegi met in Naegi's room, where Naegi attacked Kuwata with a sword-based sneak attack!" He laughed. "But Kuwata had anticipated it, so he defended himself with the knife he brought from the kitchen!"

"There are so many things wrong with that statement, I don't know where to begin." Kuwata frowned and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Let me lay it all out one by one:" Kirigiri said. "Firstly, the sheath of the sword had also been damaged, thus we can concur that the sword was not the weapon that instigated the fight. The knife struck first, and the sword was used to defend against it. Afterwards, they unsheathed the sword and continued fighting. At some point, Naegi stepped in to break up the fight, and received a blow to the head with the hilt of the sword, just above his temple."

"Then, somehow, he ended up with a kitchen knife in his chest." Asahina finished.

"N-Not before whoever w-was fighting completely d-destroyed Naegi's b-bedroom…" Fukawa said.

"Maizono. Please. They won't listen to me." Kuwata pleaded. "Please tell them what happened."

My eyes remained on the floor.

"Well, if Maizono won't speak, perhaps I shall speak for her." Kirigiri said.

"W-what!?" I cried, finally snapping to attention.

"I knew all along that Maizono was the one to instigate the fight. I wanted to lay out the other details before exposing her."

"E-exposing her? What do you mean exposing her?" Enoshima cried. "Sayaka wouldn't do something like that!"

"Not according to the notepad I found in Naegi's room." Kirigiri said. She held up a piece of paper with pencil shading scribbled all over it. "It's an old technique: Shading over a notepad and using the indentations to find the message that was last written."

"Oh!" Asahina said excitedly. "I've seen that in old detective movies!"

Kirigiri nodded. "Exactly. And, if you look closely…"

"There's a message!?" Yamada squealed.

"Well? What does it say? I can't read it from here." Hagakure said, squinting.

"If y-you can even read at all…" Fukawa jeered.

"I'm gonna start ignoring you from now on." Hagakure scowled.

Kirigiri cleared her throat and read out the message. "There's something I have to tell you. Please come to my room as soon as possible. Make sure you check the nameplates so you get the right room. Sayaka Maizono."

Kuwata rubbed his head. "Oh yeah. I got so wrapped up in the actual death I forgot about that one detail."

"What one detail!?" Ishimaru said. "Explain!"

"That Maizono and Naegi had switched rooms."

"Sw… Switched rooms!?" Ishimaru cried. "But that's absurd!"

"I ran into Naegi out in the hallway on my way to see Maizono." Kuwata explained.

"Oh. Hey Kuwata. What's up?"

"Oh, hey bro. Maizono just wanted to see me."

"Maizono wanted to see you?" Naegi looked confused. "That doesn't make any sense."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was just going to check on her, cause she was really scared before. I suggested we swapped rooms, but I wanted to check and see how she was doing."

"Huh. Okay. I suppose I'll just come with you."

"Yeah." Naegi smiled. "Wait, hold on, why are the nameplates switched?"

"The nameplates had been switched?" Celeste asked, narrowing her eyes. "How very peculiar."

"Positive. Naegi even checked the map on his e-handbook." Kuwata said.

"So, Maizono's plan was to lure Kuwata to the room she was staying in, Naegi's room, kill Kuwata, and then pin the crime on Naegi, enabling us to come to the wrong conclusion in the trial and get us all killed." Celeste said. "How very devious, even for someone as high-stakes as myself."

"N-not to mention cruel…" Fujisaki looked away.

"Taking advantage of the boy who trusted in you the most." Togami chuckled. "My my, Maizono. There's a little devil inside all of us, isn't there?"

"Stop!" Asahina shouted. "I still refuse to believe Maizono is capable of such evil! Kuwata is manipulating us, plain and simple!"

Ogami frowned and made a contemplative noise.

"S-Sakura?"

"I'm sorry, Hina. But there's one piece of evidence that only both of us know that undeniably paints Maizono as the instigator of the fight between her and Kuwata."

"How can you be so sure?" Asahina said, tears streaming down her face.

Ogami exhaled deeply. "In between watching the motive video and the nighttime announcement, the only person who entered the kitchen during that time was Maizono herself." She explained. "She stated at the time that she just needed a drink of water, but I understand now that was her opportunity to grab the kitchen knife to use against Kuwata." She turned to Asahina. "We were both in the dining hall together, so we saw her plain as day."

"Ogami, that was vital information, thank you." Kirigiri said.

"Well, Maizono? Have you naught anything to say?" Togami said.

I gripped the podium I was standing on tightly, feeling my arms and legs start to tremble. I sobbed. "I'm so sorry." I said quietly.

Asahina gasped. Enoshima looked away angrily.

"I betrayed all of you." I said. "I betrayed Makoto. I betrayed Kuwata." I looked up at Enoshima. "I betrayed you, Junko. There's nothing I could possibly say to make any of you forgive me." I burst into tears. "And worst of all, my best friend is DEAD because of me!"

Silence filled the courtroom.

"Kill me instead! It's my fault he's dead! Makoto died saving my life. It's not fair Kuwata has to die too. Kill me instead!" I dropped onto the floor. "It's not fair it's not fair it's not fair it's not faaaaiiirrrr!"

Nobody dared move or speak for several minutes. Finally, a clear voice spoke out among everyone else.

"Get a hold of yourself." Junko said.

I looked up. "Huh?"

"We all have secrets. We all make mistakes. We all, sometimes, hurt the people we love. That's just how life is." She looked down at me. "But if you're just gonna sit there feeling sorry for yourself, throw your life away on a goddamn hopeless whim, then you're never gonna move on. You're never gonna learn. So get up and face this trial!"

"Junko…" I said softly. I slowly rose to my feet.

"Enoshima is right." Kirigiri said. "While I am not in any way excusing your actions, I wholly understand the nature of the situation we're in. After all, we all saw how you reacted after your motive video. Those videos would have been enough to drive anyone over the edge."

"Y-yeah!" Fujisaki looked confident. "We can't blame you for being desperate."

I sniffed. "Thank you…" I turned to Kuwata. "Thank you, Kuwata. For sticking by my side. I'm sorry I tried to hurt you. I'm so sorry I've doomed you to your fate. Please, don't die hating me." I smiled. "Maybe, in another life, I'll help you kickstart your music career."

Kuwata's eyes welled up with tears. "Yeah. I'm sorry too. I was an idiot. A stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid idiot. We both were." He turned back to face everyone else. "Okay, everyone. Let's start the vote."

Everyone nodded.

"Wait, who are we voting for? Maizono or Baseball dude?" Hagakure asked.

Asahina sighed. "Way to ruin the moment, man."

"Never mind. I'll figure it out." He chuckled. "To Naegi."

"To Naegi." I smiled.

"Has everyone forgotten this is a class trial or something? Jeez you all make me so sick!" Monokuma cried. "Well, at least you are all ready to vote, it seems. Alright. Without further ado, it's VOTING TIME!" He laughed. "Please pull the lever in front of you to make your choice."

I looked down the right hand side of my podium. Sure enough, there was a large lever that I assume was connected to the little screen on the top of the podium. I used the lever to scroll towards Kuwata's name on the screen. Sucking air through my teeth, I selected his name.

After everyone finished, Monokuma called out to us: "Alright! The voting has been finished! Who will be chosen as the Blackened? Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one?" He laughed maniacally. He paused for what felt like an eternity, allowing us to ruminate in our painful decision. "Puhuhu! Correctamundo! The blackened for this case is none other than Leon Kuwata!"

Kuwata grimaced and clenched his fist.

"This is too cruel…" Fujisaki sobbed.

"It's so not fair." Asahina said sadly.

"But… there's still one thing I don't understand." Hagakure asked. "How did Naegi die? Like I understand now that you two were fighting but how did Naegi die?"

"He…" Kuwata couldn't finish.

"He saved my life." I sniffed. "Kuwata was ready to kill me, but Naegi stepped in front."

"W-Why?" Fukawa asked. "Why w-would h-he do that? Y-you t-tried to f-frame him!" She pointed at me accusingly.

"Cause he made a promise." Owada said solemnly. "And like a man, he kept that promise. Even at the cost of his own life." He cursed. "He was truly braver than all of us." He looked straight at me. "So that's why you gotta live. You gotta survive this fucking killing game so he can keep that goddamn promise!"

"That's right!" Ishimaru cried. "Live your life to the fullest, and survive with everyone else!"

I nodded with newfound determination. Everyone had my back, and I had theirs. We were all going to get out of the Hope's Peak prison together.

"Ugh, for the love of all that is good on this godforsaken Earth!" Monokuma cried. "Enough with the stupid 'lol hope' speeches! You already killed off the guy who does those!" He held out a paw with claws extended threateningly. "I very much regret not impaling Miss Photoshop over here with half a dozen spears now that all you guys are so freaking hopeful. It pisses me off!"

Junko shuddered.

"Then again… the despair… hoo hoo hoo… It's still yet to come!" He laughed. "Now then, I've prepared a very special punishment for the Ultimate Baseball Star!"

Kuwata tensed up. "Christ. This is it."

"Let's give it everything we've got! IIIIIITTT'S PUNISHMENT TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!" Monokuma's laugh echoed around the trial room as he pressed a large red button in front of him...

And that's when it happened.

We all watched in horror as a contraption came out of nowhere and hooked around Kuwata's neck, pulling him off his feet and dragging along the floor. He tried to reach out for me but it was too late. Monokuma pushed us along, forcing us to follow Kuwata. We arrived at a baseball training net and found him chained to a pole with a scoreboard fixed morbidly above him. Suddenly, a turret-like machine loaded with a numerous amount of baseballs appeared and started firing hundreds upon hundreds of baseballs at his body. His face, his groin, his stomach, everywhere. His body was constantly bombarded by baseballs while we helplessly watched. Gradually, blood started spurting out from his body and onto the metal grating that separated us from him.

After what felt like forever, the machine stopped, and Leon Kuwata's body stopped moving.