Beta Read by Lupus Overkill
Ultimate Trial Resume
The discussion has been going at a rapid pace, but, with the latest revelation, everyone has taken the time to absorb things. Shizu decides to do a little mental recap as well, in case things go off of the rails quickly again. Takumi had died late at night, not early this morning like they had all thought. The culprit, whoever they were, had dressed up the dining hall to make it look as though he had been killed while eating breakfast. The cereal in the milk and the fresh blood proved that this wasn't set up over night. Instead, the killer set it up in the morning as well. Due to the time constraints, this meant that they must have been waiting in the dining all night in order to pull off this crime. That was the conclusion she had reached.
Still, there were still several pieces missing from the whole puzzle. Fumika is the one who brings one of them up. "We're all in agreement that someone was hiding in the dining hall until 8 AM this morning, right?" After looking around the room to see several nods, she continues. "In that case, I would like to go back to discussing the cause of death. We still haven't figured out what killed Takumi despite starting with that topic first. Now that we've narrowed down the culprit's movements, they might lead to some new revelations."
Kazuha agrees. "Yeah, I'm still lost on that one. We can't really get anywhere if we're missing such a crucial part of the crime…"
"They were stuck in one place all night…" Michio strokes his chin thoughtfully. "What did they do with the murder weapon?"
"If it was cleaned up, then we know that the culprit is responsible for that. Monokuma made it very clear that he would not mess with anything the culprit worked with," Tsubame reminds everyone.
"Well, they could have dropped it off in their room when they snuck out," Joshua offers. "I don't know if we'll be able to deduce much from the murder weapon."
"Especially because, again, we still don't know the method." Kazuha bites her lip.
Sawako stands up a bit straighter and announces, "Well, that is what this trial is for. We must discuss this in order to solve the mystery! Sitting around and moping will do us no good. There may still be some hidden truth that we have yet to find."
Pal makes a clicking sound with his tongue. "Then, our next… avenue of discussion… would be the status… of the dining hall… and connected areas?"
Giving her consent with a simple nod, Shizu says, "That sounds like a good idea to me. I'm sure we haven't talked about everything yet."
"Alright! Let's give it our all then!" Kaixi cheers. "We were all scurrying around that area. Chouki even found some literal trash, so we can't get stuck for that long!"
She wishes that she shared his enthusiasm, but they have already been talking about the cause of death for quite a while now. Could they really solve this problem so easily? The culprit seemed to have effortlessly hid it so far, after all. Her realism could probably be mistaken for pessimism at this point. Maybe she should just listen to what the others are saying for now.
Nonstop Debate Start
Sawako: There must be something relating to the dining hall areas that we have not discussed yet.
Joshua: But, like, what? We can't just pull things out of thin air.
Morgan: The same goes for the murderer. Everything they used must either be in the dining hall area or brought to the scene of the crime.
Kazuha: Are you saying they brought the murder weapon from outside?
Morgan: They may have also done the same with the object they struck him with.
Michio: That might be true, but, remember, we don't know what either of those were. And, by this point, they surely would have disposed of it.
Kaixi: If there was anything pointing to who they were, they could have tried to dispose of that evidence too. Like how they threw away the used blood bag…
Fumika: They were trapped in the dining hall all night. It might have been easier to just hide the evidence.
Tsubame: Wouldn't leaving anything at the crime scene be a huge risk? Unless they were certain it couldn't be found, I don't feel like they would have left anything lying around.
Chouki: So, this whole discussion was pointless then, huh?
Shizu: There's a lot of possibilities to chase here… I need to think about what I know is true for sure. The culprit was definitely in the dining hall last night. Anything that was left there must have come from them… Then, that would mean…
Red Towels
hide the evidence
BREAK
Shizu chooses to address Fumika directly. "I think you might be onto something… Do you remember what we were talking about earlier today? About that thing you found?"
Fumika drums her fingers on the podium for a few moments before facing her and nodding. "You mean the towels that I discovered at the back of the cleaning closet, correct?"
"That's right," she confirms. It's a little bit strange that Fumika didn't bring this up herself. She doesn't seem like the type to forget, at least not to Shizu. However, right now, that's unimportant.
Chouki clears his throat. "Would you two care to explain to the rest of us? Not all of us are privy to whatever little private conversations you had in the past."
"What's this about towels?" Hachi wonders.
After looking over at Shizu, Fumika decides to explain. "I was investigating the cleaning closet, and I found a few towels that were pretty wet. Someone had shoved them all the way in the back, so they were clearly trying to hide them. I thought that the culprit might have been the one to do that, but, now that we know they were in that area all night, it seems irrefutable."
"Well, it could have technically been Monokuma who left them there," Joshua offers up weakly. "If he needed to clean stuff up, then he might have used the towels. But, uh, that's probably not very likely, huh?"
"No way!" Monokuma shouts down. "If I was going to use those towels to clean anything up, I wouldn't have left them there. What kind of cheap service do you think I provide in this place?"
Shizu narrows her eyes. "Then there's no doubt that it was one of us."
"Oops." He shrugs but doesn't actually seem all that concerned.
"This seems like the point to bring up if one of you used those towels. Otherwise, we'll have to assume it was the culprit. Though, that was already pretty heavily implied." Nobody responds to Fumika's point. After a few seconds or so, she smirks. "Thought as much. Looks like the culprit was trying to hide something."
"It was towels… correct?" Pal asks.
Soraru sticks out xer tongue. "Yeah, that's kind of what we've been talking about this entire time. Did you stop paying attention for a few minutes there? Ooh, do you have some secret siren knowledge that would solve the case?"
Pal gives xem a look but responds coolly. "I was simply wondering… if they used the towels… as the actual murder weapon."
"How exactly are thinking that happened?" Samia questions him.
He scratches his chin with his sharp nails before answering. "I did not… want to think about this… but I cannot ignore… the possibility… Perhaps he was… strangled to death with them."
"H-he went out like that?" Kazuha flinches backwards.
"Wait, then why were they wet?" Soraru asks. "Did Takumi salivate all over them as he was being choked? From the sound of things, those towels were pretty damp."
Several people gag at the mention of that. Kogi manages to suppress that reaction and states, "I could be wrong, but I think that Takumi's head injury came up before he died. There's a chance that it was already bleeding. Maybe the culprit could have cleaned up the blood with the same tool they used to murder him."
Michio shakes his head. "That head injury was pretty severe, even if it wasn't the killing blow, so there would have been a lot of blood. Still, there's no way that Takumi was strangled to death. Strangulation leaves scarring around the throat, and he didn't have any injuries there. Like I said, the only injury he had was the one on the back of his head caused by the blunt object."
"Oh… I see." Pal bows his head deeply and apologizes. "I did not mean to… cause any misinformation."
"No way, it was something worth thinking about!" Hachi yells desperately.
Tsubame agrees as well. "We also know that he could not have been strangled by anything as well, so it was good that you brought that up."
"Then, did the culprit just use the towels to clean up the bloodstains?" Samia asks.
Looking a little miffed, Fumika shakes her head. "It's not out of the question, but that would make sense if it was just one or two towels that were wet. There were a few more, however. I can't imagine that the bloodstain was so big that it required that many towels to clean it up."
Soraru jumps up and down, waving xer hands wildly. "Ooh! Ooh! What if they washed a bunch of the other towels in the sink to throw us off and make us think that the towels were more important than they actually were? Double reverse psychology!"
"Why would they do that?" Morgan shakes her head. "If they wished to mislead us in this manner, then they would not have hidden the towels where we could have easily missed them. There is no way they would have made their efforts easier to trace while also attempting to hide all of their evidence."
"What else is there to clean up besides blood, though? Because, whatever it was, it sounds like there was a lot of it." Crossing his hands, Joshua frowns in confusion.
Chouki pouts. "At this point, maybe it's all a red-herring. Occam's razor and all that. We know that they had to clean up the bloodstains from when they first attacked him, so that's probably all it was. There's no telling how much effort it took, so they might have just been extra careful."
No. There's something more to this than at first glance. Shizu wracks her brain, but nothing is coming up. Her fists clench in fury, and she can feel herself start to scowl. She's not getting anywhere by just trying to will the answer into existence. She needs to look over everything she knows for certain again, throwing out all preconceptions.
Here are the facts that she's sure of. The crime took place in the middle of the night. Before killing Takumi, the culprit struck him on the back of the head with some sort of blunt object. It might have been something from the kitchen or something they brought with them, but the actual object doesn't matter. They would have had time to clean it or hide it by the time everyone started investigating. However, that strike must have been very hard, as Michio has stated. It would have caused severe bleeding. Then, the culprit killed him for real. At some point, they used the towels to clean up something, though she's not entirely sure what that was. They proceeded to stay the night in the dining hall area before finally setting up the crime scene for this morning.
As she thinks this over, something starts to bug her. Perhaps it was just Michio's confidence in his autopsy, but she only just realized now she had been operating under faulty logic. She had been aware that blunt force trauma was not the cause of death for a while now, but, to anyone looking at the crime scene, that seems ridiculous, as evidenced by the discussion. There were no other injuries, so of course that must be what killed him. From an outside perspective, Takumi went down in a single blow.
So, why would the killer think any differently?
She needs to test her hypothesis, she needs to prove to herself that she's not just overthinking things.
Nonstop Debate Start(?)
Kogi: Have you even been paying attention to what we've been saying?
Chouki: Not like there's anything else to do.
Michio: If that strike happened after he died, that would have been the first thing I mentioned. Why would I try to hide that fact?
Soraru: Because you're the killer!
Michio: Monokuma literally said that I'm not!
Hachi: It's kind of a waste of time to respond to stuff like that…
Kazuha: We're still no closer to finding anything about what the murder weapon was.
Kaixi: Come on everyone! We can't give up now!
Shizu: I don't have the time nor do I care what they're talking about. From the sounds of things, it's nothing of importance anyways.
Shut up!
everything
BREAK
Everyone turns to stare at her, varying expressions on all of their faces at her interruption. Joshua is the first to speak up. "…Um, what?"
"You weren't getting anywhere, and I had something important to say," Shizu explains.
"Well, it's just that you normally respond to something in the discussion before you tell us exactly why we're wrong and stuff." Joshua rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.
Samia crosses her arms. "This had better be important."
Shizu nods succinctly. "I wanted to check something with the rest of you. Say you had just bashed someone's head in with so much force that now they're bleeding out on the floor in front of you. You're about to be stuck with that body for the entire night."
"Are you seriously asking if one of us is the murderer?" Kogi rolls his eyes.
"No, of course not," she denies, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Just think about what you would do in that situation."
"It would depend on whether or not I had planned everything out, I imagine," Sawako muses. "However, I would like to think that I would probably panic over what I had just done. I cannot imagine that taking a life would ever be easy."
Michio furrows his brow, and it looks like his hands are trembling slightly. "But that's not exactly analogous to our current situation. Remember, that blow didn't kill Takumi."
"I'm aware of that… but only because you told me." She pauses to let her words sink in.
Morgan's eyes widen slightly, but she quickly calms her expression. "I originally thought that as well… You are implying that the killer believed that their attack killed Takumi."
"Huh? I don't get it," Soraru complains. "What kind of incompetent killer doesn't even know if they've done the job correctly?"
"I think that was what Shizu was directing us towards…" Tsubame rests her chin on her hand as she leans on her podium. "Michio believes that the wound would have bled a lot, and, if he was knocked unconscious, then he would appear dead…"
"I know I wouldn't want to go poking what I thought was a dead body, either. There's a lot of ways they might have overlooked it." Kaixi shivers.
"Even so, Takumi still died," Sawako reasons. "They must have realized he was still alive at some point, or else this situation might not have happened."
Shizu twirls her pen around her fingers. "I wouldn't be so quick to think that. For now, assume that they had no idea. Think about what they would do next. Do you think that they would want to go to sleep when there's a dead body sitting a few rooms away?"
Making a bit of a face, Hachi says, "No way! That'd be totally gross!"
"Even if they were okay at first, the smell of the body and the blood would be hard to ignore," Michio asserts. "I'd probably want to move the body somewhere, even if it was just a little further away. Plus, if they were panicking when they hit him, they'd feel even more uneasy."
Kogi continues this train of thought. "They would still have to clean up the blood that was left over from their attack. Moving the body to clean that up would also be practical."
"Where exactly would they move it to, though?" Joshua asks.
Adjusting her glasses, Shizu looks around the room once more as she says, "Well, it would most likely be a place where the smell wouldn't reach them. In addition, it would probably be a place where they wouldn't have to go until they needed to collect the body. After all, if they're hiding it to avoid looking at it, then they would want it in a hidden place. And there is a place like that in the area, which solves pretty much every question we've had."
It takes a few moments, but Fumika raises her head solemnly and declares, "They hid him in the freezer."
There's an outburst of noise from all around the room. "Huh? How'd you come to that conclusion?!" Hachi shrieks. "Why would they put him there?!"
"It fits everything that Shizu just described," Fumika says succinctly. "It's out of the way, it's cold so you wouldn't hang around in there, and you keep the door closed so you don't have to look in there."
Shizu nods. "It also would have a few byproducts that would explain several other mysteries that have been puzzling us for quite some time. Namely, the cause of death."
Kazuha pales dramatically. "N-no way… you mean that he… he froze to death?!"
"If Takumi was unconscious when the culprit threw him into the freezer," Morgan thinks out loud, "then he might have died before he woke up again. He would not even have had the chance to struggle or attempt to escape."
"That is…" Pal fails to find the proper words as he stares blankly in front of him in horror.
"It would also explain the wet towels," continues Fumika, ignoring the shocked looks of most of the people in the room. "If they stored him in the freezer, then he would have frozen a little bit, even if it was just over night. They would have had to fetch him in the morning, and that ice would have melted."
"So, they left him to defrost on the towels, and that's why they were wet this morning. It would explain why his clothes weren't all that wet either." Though Samia's words are calm, her expression is anything but.
Michio snaps his fingers. "Plus, that wouldn't have messed up the time of death. Normally, freezing people would seriously mess things up because the body temperature would be off, but, if he was defrosted early enough, then the times would still match up about the same. That's kind of lucky."
"That sounds very unfortunate. They go through all the effort but sheer coincidence still places them at the time of the murder. Truly, the spirits must have placed a horrible curse upon their soul." Morgan covers her mouth, hiding her mysterious smile.
"What a horrible way to go." Kaixi still isn't over the revelation. "He'd be slowly dying as his body gives up on him, but he wouldn't be able to do anything about it."
"It's not… a quick process either. It might have taken… an hour or so… for him to completely pass on… to the afterlife." Pal shakes his head somberly. "Truly, that is a death… no one deserves."
Samia gulps. "If he was unconscious, he may not have felt anything. It's little comfort, but still… We can only hope."
"Like I said earlier, the killer probably wasn't even aware of what they had done. They might to give him a quick death but accidentally dragged it out. Until this point, they probably still didn't figure it out." Shizu clicks her tongue. "Well, it sounds like everyone agrees. If there are any objections, now's the time to say them."
"I don't want to believe it, but what other choice do we have?" Hachi wails, wiping away a few stray tears.
"It's terrible… To think that someone would…" Kazuha bites her tongue and is unable to continue.
Joshua answers uneasily. "It would also explain the murder weapon. You don't normally think of a room as something you can kill someone with. No real way of hiding that either. Ugh… still…"
Biting the inside of her cheek, Sawako reluctantly speaks up. "I'm almost hesitant to ask, but do you have any proof that this happened? It's not that I don't believe you, but, if we can make a stronger connection between the ideas, it will make it harder for the culprit to argue their way out of this later."
Glancing down at her notepad, Shizu doesn't think she has any direct proof that this was what occurred. Had there been evidence left behind, they would have almost certainly reached this conclusion much earlier. However, there is one thing that she and several others found odd that would be explained by the freezer being the murder weapon. Something that should have been there but was mysteriously missing…
Takumi's Bag
"I do not have any evidence that proves definitively that this is the case, but I do have an explanation that strengthens the argument," Shizu says. "Do you remember how the bag that Takumi always wore on his head was missing?"
"Where exactly are you going with this?" Chouki demands. "Don't tell me that they'd take the bag off of his head just because he was in the freezer."
Sawako shakes her head. "It would make some amount of sense, however. They could not leave it on him while he was in the freezer. The bag would have frozen too, and it is nearly impossible to get paper bags such as those fully dry. There would still be wrinkles left over, at the very least."
"Maybe they could have taken it off before they shoved him into the freezer and put it back on later," Kazuha points out.
Looking back and forth for a few moments, Kaixi eventually says, "B-but um… wouldn't the bag still have been a little soaked from the b-blood of the original h-hit? If they tried to p-put it back on later, it might have torn really b-badly! Um, not that your idea was bad or anything…"
"You do not need to apologize for offering up suggestions," Tsubame tells him calmly.
He gives her a smile that's almost too wide in response. "O-oh, of course, my bad! Thank you very much."
Shizu ignores this and continues with her explanation. "I hope that it is clear by now that, if the freezer was used, there is little they could have done to keep the bag around. Thus, they left Takumi without it in the end."
"Hachi tilts her head. Wait, then what happened to the bag now?"
"They could have easily hid it on their person and disposed of it once they were safely out of the dining hall. If it was hidden at the crime scene, we would have found it. I found the towels after all." Fumika crosses her arms after she finishes speaking.
"I see." Sawako holds up a fist. "That is a suitable explanation. Thank you, Shizu, and everyone else who contributed. I believe that this should be enough for us to proceed with everything."
"Proceed where though?" Soraru whines. "Yeah, we figured out the murder weapon and everything but that still doesn't tell us who did the murdering. The trail's still cold."
Kogi sighs. "Xe's correct, unfortunately. Any one of us could have snuck down to the dining hall last night. Knowing what happened is nice, but it doesn't get us anywhere. All that they would have needed to pull this crime off was knowledge of the rule loophole."
"Yay! I'm right!" Xe cheers happily. Then, xer face scrunches up. "Aw man, wait, this is the one time I didn't want to be right. Usually everyone yells at me for saying something stupid, so I thought that might have happened this time…"
"We're at a really bad place if Soraru is starting to sound agreeable…" Chouki laments.
Michio snaps his fingers. "Maybe we should think about who was able to pull this off. We can't say for certain that our accounts won't get us anywhere, so we should at least try to talk about it before giving up completely. Some sort of truth might be reached."
Pal frowns and says, "You say that… we should discuss what happened… but what exactly should we say? I am afraid that… most of us did not… do very much yesterday… to give a time frame."
"Well, some people were kind of absent for most of the day… Not that I think they're suspicious or anything just because of that." Kazuha quickly backpedals but the damage is already done.
Soraru has decided to speak up. "Yeah, those people are totally suspicious! Now it's time to question them until they confess, right?"
"That includes you too," Kogi deadpans.
Xe smirks and tap xer forehead. "Ah, but does it include me more than it includes you? I think not!"
"How would you even figure that out? We haven't even started talking about what everyone did yesterday?" Michio complains.
Chouki scoffs loudly. "Xe's making a fool of xemself as always. Don't even bother listening to xem."
"Could you not be saying that simply because you are also included among that group?" Sawako points out sternly. "Please do not dictate what we can and cannot talk about."
"I'll ignore whoever I want," he retorts sharply. "Especially when it's something as stupid as that."
Kaixi speaks up nervously from the background. "H-hey, there's no need to be rude."
"Hey, who are you calling stupid? I'll have you know that I'm actually very intelligent in the dumb things that I say!" Soraru shouts.
Morgan shakes her head softly. "Ah yes, but you forget that, when our lives are on the line, people get tense, Kaixi. This is especially true when someone is accused of something as awful as murder."
Groaning in annoyance, Samia remarks, "Look, it might not be a bad idea to just start with the people who split from the group yesterday. Even if we don't find anything, at least we should get that discussion over with quickly."
"That's kind of an oxymoron there…" Joshua mutters as he looks over at Soraru.
Kaixi quivers at Morgan's comment. "Oh right… sorry…"
Fumika crosses her arms. "Don't thrust this onto us just because you have no other starting point. You're all just as suspicious since we know that you were all running about yesterday. The rest of us were in our rooms."
Shizu pinches her forehead. "Everyone… would you just-" However, she's interrupted by an explosion of noise from all sides of the courtroom.
Chouki refuses to back down. "More like an actual moron."
"You don't need to apologize for suspecting people, you know." Tsubame doesn't seem all that confident in her own words despite her advice.
Samia slams her fists onto her podium and glares at Fumika. "Oh, now who's thrusting the blame? You can't even prove what you just said."
Pal replies to Chouki, a sad expression cast upon his face. "Your sharp words are… only making you… more suspicious, my friend."
"If you don't have anything to add other than meaningless worries about us suspecting each other, then stop whining and let everyone else talk," Kogi says bluntly.
Morgan's smile fades a little as she states, "What if we did have proof? The spirits are always with me, and you would be surprised at the things they have told me. Perhaps you merely need a little persuasion, no?"
No matter how much Shizu raises her voice, she is unable to stop the awful cacophony of everyone arguing with each other. Somehow, they've managed to immediately descend into several incoherent arguments. How she's even going to stop this, she has no idea. The best she can do is try to listen in before her temper gets the better of her.
Mass Panic Debate Start
(Chouki: Don't start treating me like I'm the killer just because I split off from the group.)
[Morgan: I was communing with the spirits all day, and they would be my witnesses if you were all able to hear their voices.]
{Samia: The most suspicious people are the ones who decided to splinter off from the main group. There's no way to track their movements.}
(Michio: That's not the only reason, you know. You've been pretty harshly putting people down this entire time.)
{Fumika: I never even left my room. Why would I take that risk when things were the tensest and I didn't feel safe?}
(Chouki: Because people keep suspecting me for trivial reasons! Don't tell me you didn't get mad when everyone was on your case.)
[Joshua: Yeah, that's kind of incredibly not an alibi. Just thought you should know.]
[Morgan: I am well aware of this fact.]
(Michio: That's… well…)
{Kazuha: But we know that Takumi left his room, and he was probably the most paranoid of us all…}
[Soraru: Hey, at least I can say that I was busy with baking and pranking all day. That's at least something physical.]
{Samia: We can't trust your word alone. You have every reason to suspect that you're lying about what you did yesterday.}
[Kaixi: I'm sure she's telling the truth though! I mean, if she wasn't, wouldn't she have said something more believable?]
[Tsubame: I agree as well, but, unfortunately, there is no way to prove this… I'm sorry, Morgan.]
{Sawako: This is true for last night as well, when the crime took place. Your alibis are the ones that hold up the least, as much as it pains me to admit it.}
(Pal: You should not… shift the blame like that… especially not to someone… we know for certain is innocent.)
[Morgan: There is no need for any sorrow. The culprit will soon reveal themselves regardless, and my innocence shall be shown then.]
{Fumika: Give me a break. This is more painful for me than it is for you.}
(Chouki: I'm not shifting any blame. But until you have a reason to suspect me, stop singling me out.)
Shizu: This is a nightmare and a half to try and listen to. I can barely tell who's responding to whom. There seem to be three separate lines of reasoning… With all of this chaos, there's bound to be some kind of mistake. Now, I have to find it before I stop being able to hear myself think.
Alibis
hold up the least
BREAK
"Hey, everyone shut up!" Shizu shouts but to no avail. Unlike before, there's too much chaos going on for her voice to be heard. Gritting her teeth, she tries again, raising her voice even louder. "I said shut up! Listen already!" Still, the others continue to argue. At this rate, she'll never be heard.
From out of nowhere, a high pitched screech fills the room, and everyone, Shizu included, instinctively covers their eyes. When she glances back up, the only person not hunched over is Pal. He makes a little coughing noise before saying in his normal tone, "I believe that… Shizu had something… important to tell all of us."
"Ugh…" Soraru wails incoherently. "Could you have not shattered our eardrums to tell us that?"
Tsubame rubs her ears slightly. "I didn't think human vocal chords could make such a horrible, high-pitched sound…"
"I think my ears are bleeding," Joshua complains, tugging his beanie further down his head.
Shizu coughs nervously as well. "Um… thank you Pal, but please don't do that again." She then addresses everyone else sternly. "That goes for the rest of you as well. Never do that again. I don't care how important you think whatever you're saying is. If there's complete chaos in the room, adding to it isn't going to help, no matter how groundbreaking it is."
"Don't tell me you just broke that up to lecture us," Chouki says scornfully.
Looking down at her podium in shame, Samia shakes her head. "No… Even if that was the only issue, we still shouldn't have let things get so far out of hand."
Sawako bows her head, her eyes full of remorse. "I am very sorry for contributing to the problem. I should have known better than to attempt to help in that way."
"You should also apologize to those who split from the group while you're at it," Shizu claims. Seeing Sawako's concerned look, she continues, "You claimed that their alibis were the weakest, but that's not the case. While it's true that many of them do not have alibis for the entire day, we aren't concerned with the entire day. We're concerned with that night until the dining hall closed. There are only two people who we know for certain did not head down there."
"T-that's right! Michio and I were talking all night!" Kaixi shouts out from the sidelines. "W-we stayed up until 1 AM talking! There's n-no way we could have done it!"
Michio fiddles with the brim of his hat as he says, "That's right. Though we already knew I was innocent from before… I suppose it doesn't hurt to back things up more."
Fumika scowls. "And what of everyone else? Do they have alibis?"
"I'm afraid not," Shizu denies. "Everyone else went to bed before midnight. We can only take them at their word. There's no way to verify their actions last night."
"So, then it's truly a waste of time to debate alibis for last night," she responds coolly, though there's a hint of frustration on her face.
"C'mon, seriously?" Michio groans. "We're giving up that easily?"
Crossing his arms, Pal digs his nails into his skin, making Shizu flinch. "But what more… can we do here? If nobody saw anyone else… after midnight… then we are all unable… to claim our own innocence, save for those… whose innocence has already… been proven."
"Hold on one second." Kogi holds out his hand, causing Pal to halt in his speech. "I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain that I heard that everyone who didn't split off ate dinner together, right?"
Tsubame nods slowly, curious as to where he's going with this. "It wasn't everyone, as Samia, Shizu, and Sawako were not present. However, that is mostly correct."
He narrows his eyes slightly. "I see… Then, you all went off together to go talk. Have I got that right as well."
"Pal left, but that's pretty much it." Joshua scratches the back of his neck. "You uh… got a point in here somewhere?"
"Don't you think it's all a little bit suspicious?" Kogi crosses his arms. "I mean, going together in a huge group like that right before the time that we know Takumi was killed would give you a better alibi than most of us."
If they had a way to guarantee that most people would leave before they went off to commit the crime, they would also be able to up the chances that they wouldn't run into anyone when they snuck down," Fumika adds, scratching her chin. "After all, they'd be fast asleep."
"Whoa, hang on!" Hachi yells, not even bothering to hide the panic in her voice. "W-what are you even accusing us of? You're saying that one of us is the c-culprit just because we wanted to t-talk?"
"It need not even be that," Sawako mutters. "Even if you yourselves did not commit the crime, you could have set something up so that another person could kill Takumi with minimal interference."
Kazuha's teeth are chattering but she manages to get out, "H-how w-would we even b-be able to d-do something like that? W-we were j-just t-talking."
"Yeah! Besides, wouldn't we have spoken up about it already if that was the case?" Michio fires back. "Do you think we're that dumb that we wouldn't be able to connect the dots?"
Chouki drums his fingers against his podium lazily. "If you really wanted to protect the person at the cost of your own life, then you'd keep silent."
"This is insane…" Tsubame mumbles as she stands hunched over with her head in her hands and both elbows leaning precariously on her podium.
Shizu agrees with that notion but doesn't voice her concerns just yet. While this definitely would be a sound strategy, claiming that something was done for certain doesn't sound quite right to her.
Nonstop Debate Start
Kogi: You all claimed that we were suspicious for not being part of the group, but, in reality, it could have been the other way around.
Fumika: By gathering everyone together in one place, you create a stronger alibi for yourself.
Kogi: You also could have done something to intentionally cause people to leave early for the night.
Tsubame: We were only talking that night. How could we have ensured anything?
Kaixi: I hope you're not saying that we're just really boring…
Samia: But you all ate dinner together, correct? It's possible that something happened then.
Kogi: You could have slipped something into the food to get the others to fall asleep.
Samia: Then, during the meeting last night, the drugs kicked in, and you all left, ensuring that the culprit would run into less people.
Pal: We did all… help prepare the meal… and I did feel… a little drained after the fact…
Kazuha: The reason I felt so tired was because of what someone else did?! That's…
Hachi: No way! That's n-not possible!
Kogi: When someone commits murder, you can't say anything like this is impossible.
Shizu: I thought something was funny with this line of reasoning… Now I see it. It does bring up something rather curious though. But, first, I should address this fact. One thing at a time, Shizu.
Sleeping Pill Details
during the meeting last night
BREAK
"You're trying to claim that, during dinner, someone slipped everyone some sleeping pills," Shizu states, even though she's technically not certain that this is the case.
Samia nods. "That seems pretty reasonable from what I've seen. Depending on what different people ate, they could have gotten a stronger dosage and been knocked out faster."
Tilting her head, Shizu replies, "That is a good point, but it's flawed from the beginning. Do you know when the meeting took place last night?"
"It was directly after dinner, if I remember correctly," Morgan answers.
"That's correct, but you've missed a very important detail in that explanation," Shizu asserts. "The meeting went on for several hours after dinner ended. These sleeping pills are strong enough for a single pill to knock you out for about four hours, if the label is to be believed."
"Four hours? But that's about the time that people starting leaving the lounge after we first left dinner," says Kaixi. "Wouldn't we have experienced the effects sooner than that?"
Kogi's eyes widen. "You mean you didn't eat dinner around the same time? I could have sworn you all had a late dinner."
"That is not the case… I am afraid," Pal intones. "Dinner ended… around 7 PM. I believe that Tsubame… stayed until 11:30 PM, if I… remember her words… from the investigation."
Michio confirms this. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Kaixi and I, as you all know, stayed even later. If any of us got drugged, it would have been you, Pal, since you left right away."
"Even if that were… the case… I do not think that… the culprit could have done much… with such a minimal result." Scratching his chin, Pal finishes by saying, "Perhaps we were… merely fooling ourselves… do to a lack of knowledge."
Kogi exhales softly. "Huh. Guess that's what I get for getting lost in my own world while investigating. My bad. This is a dead end."
"Man, you're really just giving up on these ideas, aren't you? Don't you have any kind of commitment?" Soraru challenges. Kaixi doesn't even bother to acknowledge xer comment.
"Hold on." Samia starts fiddling with her hijab, an uncertain expression on her face. "We've cleared up that the sleeping pills and the poison weren't used in this crime, but why were they moved then? If the culprit didn't use them, then why were they moved in the first place?"
Shizu taps her notepad with a hint of frustration. "I should have figured it out from the moment you mentioned that every single bottle of pills and poison had been moved back to the front. It makes little sense for the culprit to do that ever. It would have given away their methods immediately. So, I can only think of one person here who intentionally try to stir up confusion."
As a few sets of eyes start to converge on Soraru, xe shouts, "Hey! It's not me this time!"
"…Okay, two people," Shizu admits hastily.
Sawako grits her teeth. "Monokuma."
This time, everyone looks up towards the bear. He's relaxing with both feet on his desk and his arms supporting his head. "Aw man, looks like I got called out again. How embarrassing." He pauses for a minute before saying, "For you that is! Seriously, did you really think I would let you hide all of the best ways to kill people? I moved those suckers right back after your pathetic attempts to hide them. You're missing the whole spirit of the game by doing that!"
"You…" Samia cuts herself off before gripping her forehead tightly with one hand. "I can't believe I fell for your trap… I've wasted everyone's time by bringing up the poison and the sleeping pills at all… I can't apologize enough."
Kaixi frantically waves his hands in front of his face. "N-no, it's fine! You've got nothing to apologize for. I mean, we've sort of been mostly wrong this entire time, so we can't really blame you."
Choosing not to make a snarky comment about her own contributions, Shizu decides to say, "It was something you had to bring up. Had we overlooked it if it actually was important, we would have been in dire straits. But for now, we should move past this issue."
Samia doesn't seem entirely convinced. "I still can't believe… No, you're right. I can't waste time on self pity."
"There is still much that is uncertain about this crime. We have much to discuss, even at this point in the trial," Morgan agrees.
Kazuha bites her lip. "But… what else is there to talk about? We can't figure out anything from what happened last night, and we're sure that nothing went wrong during dinner… Where does that leave us?"
"It leaves us with nothing," Chouki grumbles, though there's a slight note of unease in his voice. "We've talked forever, but we're still no closer to knowing who did it. What a waste of time…"
"T-then, we're just s-supposed to give up a-and vote for someone at r-random?" Hachi squeaks.
"No," states Shizu firmly. "That's not it at all. While examining the activities of the previous night will not reveal anything to us at this time, there is another time that we should examine."
While most people look around in confusion, Morgan instead smiles and closes her eyes. "I believe that you are referring to this morning, correct? We have yet to examine what the culprit has done after they left the dining hall."
Shizu narrows her eyes and nods. "That's right."
"Huh? How will that help us?" Kazuha asks. "I thought you said that the culprit would have gotten rid of any evidence that pointed directly to them."
"They could have been in a hurry to escape and left something behind at the last minute," Tsubame guesses.
Kogi shakes his head. "No dice. We would have found something out of place by this point. Either that or we overlooked it, and it doesn't matter anymore."
Chouki grumbles. "Maybe they rushed it back to their room and stayed a while so they wouldn't appear suspicious."
"Or perhaps they were unable to return to their rooms and headed back to the scene of the crime on their own after they heard the announcement," Sawako adds.
Kaixi tilts his head. "So the culprit would be one of the people who arrived last or on their own?"
"We cannot say that for certain," Fumika asserts. "They very well could have slipped into a group with all of the chaos going on. We shouldn't suspect people who showed up later just because of their timing, especially not when we don't know the culprit's timing either."
"You're just saying that because you showed up on your own," Soraru teases.
She spits back, "You also showed up alone."
"Huh? Now, you're accusing me?" Xe flinches backwards.
Pal raises up a finger. "Hold on one second. You mentioned… timing, Fumika."
"…That's right. Do you know something about the timing of the situation?" she asks, her tone dripping with skepticism.
"Know… is a strong word… but I was wondering…" It takes a few moments for Pal to find the correct words, but he eventually gets there. "We have all been… assuming that the culprit… took off the instant… that the dining hall reopened, correct? Or have… I been misunderstanding… the arguments so far?"
"No, you have the basics down," Samia confirms. "Do you have a problem with that?"
He grimaces. "Yes… actually. If that was the case… I believe that… the culprit was acting very… recklessly, which does not… fit their previous… movements."
"Uh… how were they being reckless?" Joshua posits. "I mean, it'd be more reckless to hang around, right? That increases the chances that they'd be caught by someone."
"That is true… but they should have known… or at least thought… that someone was coming," Pal claims. "It would be foolish… to escape… only to run into the hands… of another person."
Kazuha tilts her head. "Huh? Someone? Who would that be?"
It's not that hard to realize what Pal is saying. Shizu's a little bit annoyed at herself for overlooking it. The answer is right there in front of her, and yet she was unable to pick up on how strange it would be for someone not to know. That person is…
Select Someone!
Shizu Saneyoshi
"If the culprit really was planning on making their escape the moment the dining hall opened up, they would have almost certainly risked running into me," Shizu says with confidence.
Michio slaps his forehead. "That's right! You and Takumi were always the first ones down here for breakfast! There's no way the culprit would have forgotten about that!"
"They also attempted to fool all of us into thinking Takumi was killed at breakfast," Sawako states. "They did that because they knew his eating habits. It would be strange for them to forget the other person who was always at breakfast first."
"Maybe they thought they could make a break for it before you showed up." Kaixi shrugs his shoulders and tilts his head.
Pursing her lip, Tsubame says, "They were careful enough to hide the time of death from us. I personally don't think that they would leave their plan to chance at this stage of things. For all they knew, Shizu could have been waiting outside of the dining hall before the morning announcement."
"It does seem odd that they would take such a risk…" Morgan mumbles. Then, clearing her throat, she speaks a little louder. "Perhaps there was a way for the culprit to know when Shizu was coming. If they heard her beforehand, they could time their escape better."
Kazuha scratches her chin. "How would they be able to do that? I mean, they could have listened for footsteps, but don't you think that sounds really risky?"
"I can think of a way." Chouki's assertion is bold though his tone is as bored as usual.
"Huh? Really? Don't leave us hanging, man," Joshua urges.
He snorts. "You all already forgot about it? We've already talked about it in the trial. Don't you remember what Shizu said she ran into this morning?"
"You're referring to the cake traps," Shizu states.
Nodding, he replies, "That's right. When you tripped the trap, that cake went falling down on your head. There was a metal platter there too. The hallways let sound echo for a bit. A collision with metal and tile would have definitely made a pretty loud sound. All the culprit would have had to do was wait for the noise and then leave once it sounded."
"Using sound as their alarm…" Michio taps his podium. "In that case, are you saying that the culprit-"
"Is Soraru," he finishes.
Soraru chokes a little. "Huh? Huh? Where did that come from? Are you just mad at me or something?"
"Unlike you, I actually have some modicum of proof when I make accusations," Chouki claims, eyes narrowing. "You've been all for randomly accusing people this entire trial, too. That only makes you more suspicious."
"I did think it was kind of convenient that the cakes were set up on the same day of Takumi's murder," Fumika says. "There wasn't any way to connect them to the crime until now. You're cleverer than you look."
"Thanks for the compliment, but you're totally wrong!" Soraru declares, starting to sweat a little.
Joshua chooses to back xem up on this. "Yeah, I really don't think Soraru's behind this one. I'm literally unable to wrap my head around that."
Playing with his hat awkwardly, Michio responds, "That uh… kind of just means you lack imagination."
"Soraru is a prankster but still…" Hachi moans indecisively. "Pranks and murder are on two totally different levels!"
Could Soraru really have been the one behind it all? This entire line of reasoning is based on those cake traps being used to alert the culprit. Something about that doesn't quite seem right to Shizu. As the discussion grows harsher, she searches for her opening.
Nonstop Debate Start
Chouki: Soraru is the one behind it all.
Soraru: Hey, you can't just say baseless things like that! So rude!
Sawako: There is evidence that suggests that you were involved with the crime. We know that the culprit was hiding in the dining hall this morning.
Tsubame: They couldn't leave immediately or else they would risk running into Shizu.
Chouki: They could have set something up ahead of time to alert them to her approach, however.
Michio: By using those cake traps, they were able to know the time when she tripped and fell.
Morgan: All they would have to do then is make their escape while Shizu was distracted, and they would be home free.
Chouki: Soraru set them up, so xe's our culprit. Case closed.
Joshua: This feels really hasty, guys… We can't just give up right here!
Shizu: If Soraru really is the culprit, then there's something off here. Thinking back to the circumstances behind the crime, something is definitely wrong. I just need to find that weak point.
Soraru's Account
set something up ahead of time
BREAK
"The culprit most certainly must have set up those traps in advance, but that's impossible considering what we know about the crime," Shizu interrupts.
Chouki pouts. "Clearly not. We already know that the cake traps were set up in the first place. There's nothing impossible about it."
"Chouki, please remind me when those traps were set up." Without actually waiting for him to say anything, she answers her own question. "Soraru told us earlier that xe began construction around 3 AM. However, we know that the culprit would have been trapped in the dining hall during that time. This is clearly a contradiction."
Kogi comes in to assist her. "I did laundry last night as well. Even around 11 PM, I didn't see any sign of a trap being set up. Those planks were fairly high on the wall. Someone as short as Soraru would have needed to bring ladders over. I didn't see anything of the sort, though."
"There's no way I'd risk being seen when coming up with my amazing apology prank," Soraru huffs. "I'm clearly innocent in all of this. No murder-accomplice cakes were involved whatsoever."
Shizu internally raises an eyebrow at that statement but finishes her thoughts regardless. "Due to the time when those traps were set up, there isn't any possibility that Soraru could have simultaneously been the culprit and the complete nuisance who pulled off the prank at the same time."
"You're dead wrong!"
"Yeah, tell her Michio! Tell her that I'm not a complete nuisance!" Soraru yells cheerfully.
Michio does a double take. "That's not exactly what I was objecting to. I was going to come up with more reasons not to trust your account."
"Oh." Xe deflates. "In that case, tell him, Shizu! Tell him to shut up!"
"…I was going to do that regardless of whether or not you asked," Shizu declares.
Snapping his fingers, Michio responds, "Hey, there's no need for that kind of doubt, you know. There's a pretty obvious reason that we can't assume anything about when that trap was set up. If you've forgotten, then let me remind you again."
Rebuttal Showdown Start
Michio: You do realize that Soraru was the one who told us when that trap was set up, right?
Michio: Why on Earth are we trusting anything about what xe's saying, then?
Michio: Xe could have set it up last night.
Michio: Kogi only confirmed that it wasn't there before 11 PM.
Michio: That still leaves an hour to get everything ready before hiding in the closed dining hall.
Michio: You can't trust the suspect to tell you the truth, especially not someone who twists things like Soraru does.
Advance
Shizu: Your timeframe doesn't make any sense.
Shizu: After killing Takumi, do you really think that Soraru would risk everything by running back outside to set everything up?
Shizu: What if xe had been spotted during that time?
Shizu: What if construction took too long and xe missed xer opportunity to get back to xer hiding spot?
Michio: You've got everything backwards there, Shizu.
Michio: That trap could have been set up before xe killed Takumi.
Michio: I know Soraru pretty damn fast, so don't tell me xe couldn't have done that.
Michio: Once everything was ready, xe went back into the dining hall and waited for Takumi.
Michio: The strike was on the back of his head, so he must have been taken by surprise…
Michio: Setting up the traps and lying in wait, xe had the perfect opportunity!
Shizu: These arguments are being made on the fly, so there's bound to be holes in them. Now that I've gotten Michio talking enough, I'm starting to see the cracks. Adding more details only opens more opportunities. Let's finish this.
Broken Transparent Wire
before xe killed Takumi
BREAK
"If the order of events was what you claim it was," Shizu begins, "then Soraru would have made an unbelievable oversight in xer plans, especially considering xe apparently set up the cake traps as an alarm."
"What exactly are you talking about?" Michio wonders out loud.
"Think about it for more than one minute, and I'm sure you'll realize the problem." Shaking her head, she explains her line of reasoning. "You claim that everything was set up so that I would trip this morning, but that doesn't line up with what you say happened. If Takumi came down after the traps were set up, then he should have been the one to set off the trap. But the wire holding the elevator trap in place was broken this morning when I tripped over it. Therefore, when Takumi went to the dining hall, that trap was not in place."
"Takumi still could have stepped over it," Michio reasons.
Samia denies this claim. "If that was the case, then why would Soraru have used it to track Shizu in the first place? If someone could just easily step over it, then it's a terrible alarm system."
"I don't think that Soraru would have made a mistake like allowing the chance for Takumi to trip in the first place," Kaixi adds. "Xe's way smarter than that."
Soraru fakes a sniff. "Aw… You all think I'm smart. You're the best friends I've ever had!"
"…Yeah, not even going there." Chouki turns to look at anyone but xem.
Michio looks a little downcast. "I see… Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Ugh, sorry about getting everything off track again. I don't really think that we have any reason to doubt Soraru anymore, at least on this topic."
"Eh, that's close enough to a good apology. I'll accept it." Soraru shrugs and gives a little wink.
He raises an eyebrow "…Thanks?"
Sawako chooses to cut this moment short. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we still have a huge problem. Or, rather, we have exactly the same problem we had before. Soraru isn't the responsible for Takumi's murder, but xe was the only one who had a way to know when Shizu would first approach. How did the culprit know when to leave?"
"That is true… Nobody else… would have known about the prank… and thus… could not take advantage of it," Pal says despondently.
Fumika pauses for a moment. "…That's not entire true," she finally claims. "There is one other person here who would have had a pretty good idea of the prank."
"E-eh?" Hachi squeaks. "But I thought Soraru set it all up alone. That's why xe worked so late at night. Plus, even if someone did pitch in and I just forgot, wouldn't they still be unable to get out of the dining hall? Or into the dining hall?"
Pal points out another issue. "I believe that… Soraru would have… mentioned an assistant by this point."
"They may not have explicitly put things into place, but Soraru has already told us that someone lent a hand," Fumika states. "Have you all forgotten already?"
Shizu hasn't. Even if she hadn't heard, it wouldn't be that hard to guess anyways. There's only one answer to this question, but she's not sure she likes the implications of what Fumika means by calling them out.
Select Someone!
Joshua Miller
She takes a deep breath before turning towards her target. "Joshua. Earlier, you claimed that you assisted Soraru by going to get the cakes for the trap, correct?"
He seems a little surprised when the focus shifts to him. "Uh… yeah, that's right. I also did the thing with the sheets, but that was kind of its own thing. Sorry, are you still mad about that?"
"…Partially, yes," she admits, feeling a little sheepish. "However, that wasn't exactly the point I was getting at. Technically, Fumika is correct in that you would have some idea of what the prank was."
"Well… uh… I guess kind of," He stumbles a bit on his words, a bit of sweat starting to trickle down his face. "But, wait-"
"You could have also taken advantage of the sound the platter made when it fell," Fumika accuses harshly, cutting off whatever he was about to say.
"W-wait, that's a little-", he attempts to say, but he gets pushed aside once again.
Samia holds out her hand to stop him. "Hold on one second. You went to go get the cakes for the plan? Around what time would that have been?"
It's Kaixi that answers. "Um… I think that he left around 10:30 PM to go talk to Soraru, so probably sometime after that? Maybe a little before 11 PM?"
"That would put him at the scene of the crime right around the time of the murder," Kogi says calmly, although his eyes are full of fire.
Raising a finger nervously, Joshua states, "I don't think I like where this is going…"
Sawako ignores him. "He would have had to go to the freezer to fetch those cakes as well. We believe that the body was stored there, yet he never mentioned seeing it last night. Either the culprit had not struck by that point or…"
"He didn't even come out during the investigation at all either. I mean, I thought it was kind of suspicious before, but I put it aside, because, you know, no leaping to conclusions or anything," Michio asserts. "But, if we're bringing stuff that's kind of off, then I don't think we can ignore that."
Soraru lets out a little laugh. "Aw, c'mon, you're not actually accusing Joshua of being the killer, right? Sure everything that you mentioned makes him totally suspicious in almost every conceivable way, but there's no way he's the one who did it."
"Y-yeah, that!" Joshua points dramatically only to lower his finger a few moments later. "Err… that but with less me being suspicious. Because I'm not."
"I mean, I agree, but you're not really putting your best foot forwards here…" Hachi mumbles, clutching her forearm in a tight, nervous grip.
He grips his beanie tightly as well. "What do you want me to say? It's literally all just a bunch of extremely unfortunate coincidences! Sure, I helped out with the prank, but I didn't kill anyone!"
Tsubame somehow looks even more uncomfortable than he does. "But you're the only other person who could have contextualized the sound of Shizu tripping the prank. I'm sorry to say, but, right now, we have no other suspects."
"Y-you haven't really been helping us out much with this trial either…" Kazuha nearly whispers, her eyes starting to tear up a little.
Chouki glares harshly. "Was that your plan? Try to distract us all with a bunch of random non-sequiturs until we lose track of what we were talking about?"
"N-no! You guys are seriously barking up the wrong tree over here!" Joshua shouts back. "What happened to not accusing people out of nowhere?"
"We've solved most of the details of the crime," Michio replies grimly. "We're right on the cusp of finally pinning down the killer, and you're looking like our best bet."
As Joshua hunching over and sweating buckets, Shizu pauses in her thoughts. Right now, a lot of the evidence is lining up to make him look incredibly suspicious. So why does something still not feel right? Can she just not imagine him as being a killer? If so, she needs to abandon that line of thinking immediately. But, there is a chance that something just isn't right here… Which one is it?
Nonstop Debate Start
Joshua: I'm telling you all that I'm not the killer!
Fumika: You've given us no actual reasons to trust you aside from appeal to your character.
Soraru: C'mon, it's not like you have much on him anyways. You don't have to super interrogate him like everyone else. He's kind of a delicate snowflake.
Kogi: He admitted to helping you with your prank by getting cakes. He was at the crime scene at the time of death.
Sawako: In addition to this, he claims he did not see the body either.
Joshua: Maybe he got killed later? How is any of this my fault?
Kazuha: Since he helped out with the prank, he could have used the details he knew to his advantage.
Joshua: Look, anyone could have heard that sound and then scattered whether they knew what it was or not!
Samia: They wouldn't have the context for what that sound was.
Chouki: If they didn't know, they wouldn't risk leaving to find out and be found out.
Michio: They wouldn't have been able to plan for the sound happening either.
Fumika: There's nobody else here who fits the criteria we need.
Joshua: Ugh… This is incredibly not good!
Shizu: Everything seems to be holding up well… But there is one point in here that sticks out. Joshua is smarter than he gives himself credit for, so this plan is almost within his ability to pull off. But, no matter how smart you are, some things are just impossible…
Soraru's Account
could have used the details he knew
BREAK
Snapping her fingers, Shizu calls for the discussion to halt. By this point, people have thankfully gotten used to her having something smart to say, at least if she's interpreting everyone's gazes correctly. "You're all seemingly under the impression that Joshua knows more than he actually does."
"Wow, that's the first time I've ever heard that one," Joshua deadpans, though his humor seems to be coming from his anxiousness. Sweat is still pouring down his forehead.
Soraru backs Shizu up with an actual point. "Yeah! You all keep saying that he knew all about my prank, but that's not true at all. All I asked him to do was bring me some cakes because I was hungry!"
"But… was that not a lie?" Pal asks. "…Wait… more importantly… was Joshua not able… to piece together the prank… on his own? After all… he claimed to add on to… the prank… with his laundry stunt."
"Yeah, but that's all, just like, speculation and stuff," Soraru claims. "He couldn't have magically divined everything just by having some idea of what happened."
Morgan clears her throat. "Indeed. I believe that I am the only one here with that ability."
"He knew enough to know you were going to drop a cake on someone," Michio points out. "That's pretty much all that he needs to pull this off."
"No," Shizu denies. "There is still an important part that he was not aware of."
Which part of the cake prank was Joshua ignorant of that would affect his ability to take advantage of it?
A. Who the target was
B. When the trap would be triggered
C. Where the trap would be placed
"We know that Soraru set up the prank around 3 AM. If Joshua really was the culprit, he would not have been able to watch xer actually put it together, correct?" When she receives several nods, she continues. "In that case, he would not have seen where xe set everything up. He would have had no idea that the cakes would be placed on the second floor, let alone in the elevator lobby."
"Oh!" Kaixi stands up straighter. "I get it! There was a chance that the sound of falling cake would be too far away for him to hear!"
"I don't think there'd be any reason for him to figure that part out," Hachi asserts. "Yeah! He's gotta be innocent."
"But he would have known that everyone came down to breakfast, right?" Samia reasons. "The place that would catch the most people would have been on the second floor elevator lobby. It's not that hard to figure out."
Morgan shakes her head. "Actually, setting it up inside the dining hall or kitchen would have gotten a wider range of targets."
Chouki fires back with his own retort. "But the dining hall's off limits at night. If he was the culprit, he would have known that Soraru never showed up."
"How would I have known that before I killed Takumi?' asks Joshua, who looks pretty exasperated by all of the arguments. "If the culprit thought Soraru was going to be there, then they never would have gone through with their plan in the first place."
"Whatever the case, Joshua would either not have known what the sound was or would not have been able to anticipate it. There is no way that he could have made sure he was safe when he theoretically left the dining hall." Shizu slams her fist onto her podium decisively.
He nods rapidly. "Yeah, see? I told you I was innocent!"
"I also told them," Soraru pipes up cheerfully.
Snapping his fingers, Kogi speaks over them. "We haven't decided that yet. There's still a lot about what you've done that's suspicious."
"Ugh, really?" Joshua slouches over, eyes unfocused.
"You were the only person not present for the investigation. That is highly suspicious," Kogi claims.
He tilts his head and plays with his beanie. "Wait, what's wrong with that? I didn't hear any announcements until the one yelling at me to join the trial. Of course I didn't show up."
Ignoring him, Kogi explains, "If the culprit was not able to be sure of Shizu's approach, we can only assume that they continued to hide inside the dining hall until the coast was clear. However, because three people discovered the body, the announcement played, and they were forced to continue hiding. Joshua is the only person who fits that description."
"H-hold on a sec. We turned the building upside down looking for evidence, especially the areas right around the crime scene. How would he have remained hidden? We would have found him right away!" Kaixi yells.
"Y-yeah, what he said," Joshua says lamely.
Shizu bites her lip. "That's… not entirely true. There is one place that I believe that nobody thoroughly investigated. He could have technically hid there…"
He bemoans his misfortune. "Not you too, Shizu…"
Freezer Container
"I know that, personally, I was unable to investigate what was inside of the container at the back of the freezer. Theoretically, he could have hidden there without being detected, so long as nobody else checked that location." She's still not convinced, but there's no sense in hiding possibilities.
Fumika looks annoyed with herself. "I spent most of my time checking out the pantry. I never had the chance to look there."
"Hachi and I were in the kitchen the whole time. We didn't look there either," Kazuha says.
Likewise, Pal sighs and explains his actions. "Tsubame, Kogi, and I… were all in the elevator lobby… looking over the mess that had… been made by the cakes."
"I just rang Joshua's doorbell until the time limit ran out," Soraru claims.
"So, none of us were guided towards the freezer except for Shizu." Morgan contemplates this fact. "That is most unfortunate. We cannot guarantee that Joshua was not hiding in there. The container is certainly large enough and filled with enough desserts to hide someone from view."
"I don't know if he'd be alright after hiding in there for so long," Michio replies. "Body temperature dropping is a serious problem. Takumi's cause of death speaks for itself."
Shaking her head, Samia claims, "However, when Joshua first appeared, he was wet. If he really hid in the freezer, he would have had a little bit of ice on his body. Due to Monokuma's announcement, he wouldn't have had time to dry himself off before coming."
"So the ice defrosted on his body… It makes an unfortunate amount of sense." Still, Tsubame tugs on her braid as nervousness sets in.
Gaping openly, Joshua shouts, "C-come on! This is seriously all a series of awful coincidences, y'know? I'm a criminal because I overslept and took a cold shower?"
"This isn't exactly a court of law," Chouki spits out. "We don't even have a defendant. Circumstantial evidence or not, it's the only thing that fits."
"Yeah, that's not making me feel any better," he complains.
Sawako puts forth another option. "Perhaps confessing your crime would help with your conscience."
"Hey, you all get on my case about lying, so don't tell him to lie! You're really hurting my feelings here." Soraru shakes xer fist in mock fury.
As Kogi turns towards xem, he says, "If you actually want to help him, you should keep quiet. We can't trust much of what you say."
Xe glares back. "That sounds like a you problem."
"And it's turning into a me and soon to be everyone else problem…" Joshua groans.
At the rate this discussion is going, Joshua is going to be voted as guilty within a matter of moments. He's looking more and more suspicious by the second. She needs to keep an open mind about this still. He's at the point where he'll either slip up or something else will come up.
Nonstop Debate
Samia: Even if Joshua didn't respond to Shizu tripping, that doesn't prove that he wasn't the culprit.
Morgan: If the culprit did not use the sound as an alarm, they would not have been confident enough to leave.
Samia: In that case, he stayed in the dining hall for the entire investigation.
Michio: Joshua never showed up at all, so I can't deny that possibility.
Fumika: None of us checked the freezer as well, so he could have been hiding in the container the entire time.
Joshua: C'mon, that sounds too risky on multiple fronts! Isn't it more likely that I was just in my room?
Pal: But you did not… respond to any of the announcements… which implies you had a reason… for not emerging from your den.
Chouki: Once everyone got called to the elevator lobby, you finally came out of hiding.
Kogi: The dripping water on his body indicates that he was defrosting as well.
Kazuha: I'm sorry, but it's too much to be a coincidence at this point…
Joshua: No it's not! I'm being framed by nature itself, I tell you!
Shizu: The crux of the argument is that Joshua never came out from hiding in the freezer container after the body was discovered. If I think about it that way, then there's definitely something strange.
Sheets in the Washing Machine
finally came out of hiding
BREAK
Shizu shouts over Joshua's horrible defense. "You're all overlooking the fact that we have evidence that Joshua left the dining hall."
Kogi crosses his arms. "Nobody saw him though. Or are you going to say that you did see him and only remembered now?"
"Isn't it a little late to pull that card?" inquires Fumika.
"Yes, it would, which is why I'm not doing that." Do they really think so little of her that they expect her to lie? "I'm talking about how we know that Joshua went to the laundry room earlier in the morning."
Morgan assists her. "Indeed. We found his sheets inside the washing machines during our investigation. According to Shizu, the timer was around twenty minutes when she heard the body discovery announcement. If that was the case, then he must have left them there."
Standing up to his full height, Joshua announces, "Y-yeah, that's right! I put those sheets in there around 6:40 AM. That's way earlier than the when the dining hall opens!"
Kaixi snaps his fingers. "In that case, there's no way he could have been in hiding!"
"Why did you not… mention this sooner?" Pal asks, looking a little annoyed.
Puffing out xer cheeks, Soraru complains, "He did. Who do you think told us about the sheets in the first place? It's like you're all purposefully not paying attention or something."
"Nobody else said anything about the sheets either, so we can take his word about this. I'm pretty sure about that, at least," says Michio.
Hachi cheers, raising her hands in the air. "Yay! Joshua totally couldn't have been in the dining hall after all."
"So, am I finally off the hook then?" Joshua is starting to look a little bit hopeful.
"It's not that simple!"
"Why?!" He yells to the ceiling in agony as Samia makes her declaration.
She glares at him. "I didn't buy the fact that you couldn't piece together enough of the prank before, and I'm still certain you were able to sneak those towels into the washing machines."
The amount of interruptions is starting to raise Shizu's anger again. "Okay, I'll bite. How would he have accomplished such a thing, and, if he could, why would he even do something like that?"
"Don't worry. I plan on doing exactly that." She takes a deep breath. "As long as the possibility is there, I can't ignore it. I'm sure you feel the same way, right?"
"So long as that possibility makes sense, that is. The impossible is just that," Shizu retorts.
Samia gazes right back. "Then, I'll just have to show you why it makes sense."
"You have the floor." Shizu adjusts her glasses, the light reflecting back harshly. "Let's do this."
Rebuttal Showdown Start
Samia: You claim that Joshua could not have put those sheets in the washing machines due to the time on the display.
Samia: However, surely you must have noticed the different settings on them.
Samia: He claims he put them in at 6:40 AM and set it for two hours.
Samia: But he could have just as easily put them in around 8:10 AM after he left the dining hall.
Samia: The thirty minute cycle would line up exactly right for this to happen.
Samia: I don't buy that he couldn't have figured out the prank, so, if that's your only problem, I won't back down.
Advance
Shizu: Your explanation leaves a huge discrepancy in Joshua's actions.
Shizu: We just claimed that he was inside the dining hall because he did not hear the sound of the cake falling.
Shizu: Yet you are now claiming that he left the crime scene, put his sheets in away, and still refused to join in the investigation.
Shizu: This would only make him more suspicious.
Samia: That's only true unless you consider the fact that he could have gone back into his freezer hiding spot after going to the laundry room.
Samia: We only assumed that he used the trap to escape, but he could have easily used it to hide his true actions.
Samia: Perhaps he didn't feel confident in his ability to feign his innocence, so he remained where he was.
Samia: He surely would have come out if he was in his room due to Soraru's constant ringing.
Samia: It also gave him an extra chance to dispose of extra evidence, like Takumi's bag.
Samia: Joshua could have planned all of this ahead of time!
Shizu: This set of actions is incredibly complex. Occam's razor should definitely apply here. But, when Joshua is the only suspect we have, then I guess people get desperate. With such flimsy reasoning, there's certainly a problem.
Red Towels
dispose of extra evidence
BREAK
"Hold on. You're claiming Joshua could have disposed of evidence but chose not to take care of the towels when he went directly to the laundry room?" Shizu's tone may sound confused at this line of reasoning, but it only strengths her resolve that it's absurd. "Why would he have missed such a golden opportunity?"
"Those towels wiped up some of the blood, correct?" Samia's question is rhetorical as she moves past it quickly. "He might have been worried that they wouldn't have been totally finished washing in the short cycle."
"If that was the case, then why would he not have just chosen a longer cycle? Not only would it wash them better, but it might have lasted long enough for us to not be able to check what was inside." Shizu taps her pen furiously against the page. "This argument makes no sense."
Fumika responds with equal frustration. "Longer cycles would have given away the exact time he put the sheets in. He already went through the trouble of hiding the towels as well. He could have simply not wanted to risk drawing attention to that area."
Hachi timidly speaks up. "B-but he should have been aware of what to do since it w-was his plan. I really don't think he'd forget about w-what to do with the t-towels…"
"Also, wouldn't he have put the plastic bag in a safer place than the trash if he was going to dispose of evidence?" Kaixi asks. "Erm… not to say that your idea was bad or anything…"
Chouki scoffs. "He's not the brightest guy out there. He could have totally just forgotten."
"Hey, he would have had to set it all up in the morning. How little of an attention span do you think he has?"Soraru chides.
"Early mornings and Joshua have not historically worked well together," Sawako replies.
Kogi agrees. "Some people have issues functioning when they first wake up. That may be doubly true if they just committed a murder."
"However, the amount of mistakes appears to be too great for us to simply hand wave them. We cannot simultaneously treat Joshua as someone who can predict Soraru's every action while also being unable to clean up the crime he prepared." Morgan's declaration rings throughout the courtroom.
Shaking his fist, Joshua shouts, "Yeah, don't pull that doublethink stuff on me!"
"But you forgetting things would unfortunately explain your absence in the investigation," Tsubame reluctantly mumbles.
Kazuha nods sadly. "Yeah. You could have been planning on leaving but realized you forgot to hide something after you left."
"Then, in a rush, you would have hurried back to the crime scene to fix your mistake. Only it would be your undoing when Sawako, Michio, and Hachi showed up sooner than you expected." Samia's hands are clenched into fists.
"We totally would've seen him though!" Hachi yells back.
Sawako gives her a disappointed look. "Not if he ducked back into the freezer and hid in the container. We already talked about this, remember?"
"I know but…" She trails off pitifully.
Michio steps up to bat, looking incredibly unsure of himself. "I mean, it's true that he could have done that. But it's in my professional opinion that he would have risked seriously hurting himself if he hid in the freezer for the entire investigation. It seems very unlikely."
"Ooh, sorry Sawako, but you've been outvoted," Soraru cheers. "Two to one, the body discoverers have decided. Joshua's definitely innocent!"
"That is not even close… to how this works," Pal explains
Chouki also replies, "Michio didn't even think of the freezer during his autopsy. Why should we trust his opinion on it at this juncture?"
"My autopsy has literally survived all of the scrutiny this entire trial," Michio yells back. "You've all looked at it under a microscope, and you still couldn't find anything wrong with it. Don't you dare start that back up again!"
"But if he wasn't in the freezer, where else could he have been?" Kazuha asks.
Joshua looks exasperated. "Uh… how about my room? You know, the place I've literally been saying this entire time?"
"You slept through doorbell assault and several announcements from Monokuma?" Fumika doesn't look impressed by this.
"I'm a deep sleeper!" he shouts back desperately.
Shizu taps her notepad thoughtfully. "There is definitely a precedent for something like this."
Character Profiles (Joshua)
"If you all recall correctly, he has had a history of sleeping through important events. He missed the first morning meeting and was late to almost every subsequent one. He even was late to the meeting where Monokuma explained the rules of the game to us. I'm inclined to believe in him, especially given that he would have stayed up late to add to Soraru's prank."
"That means nothing," Fumika says, sharpening her glare. "He could have simply taken advantage of our pattern recognition and pretended to be asleep."
Chouki goes one step further than that. "Or he could have been planning this all along and faked his sleep problems to begin with."
"Before he was even aware of what the rules were?" Morgan raises an eyebrow
Kaixi calls out in agreement. "This is a huge stretch!"
"But… when we have no other culprit… what would you have us do?" Pal questions him. "We have thoroughly… examined many of our number… but they have all been cleared. We cannot… run away from accusing someone… forever, lest we… lose our own lives."
"There's a lot of stuff that's suspicious about Joshua. It can't all be up to sheer coincidences." Kogi lists off several points. "He's the only one who never showed up, he was in the dining hall around the time Takumi was killed, and he had the knowledge to pull it off."
"You keep shifting around your arguments to fit this accusation," Shizu criticizes. "Each may be true individually, but, whenever we attempt to pull them all together, several holes appear."
"Then maybe we just need to find the right combination," Chouki deadpans.
Soraru has another option. "Or maybe there's no right combination, and you're all stupid!"
"Or maybe your friendship with him is blinding you to the truth." Immediately after she says this, Sawako clamps her hands over her mouth and looks extremely apologetic.
"But it's like you've all already decided that he's definitely guilty." Pressing her fingers together, Hachi looks at the floor. "We've been trying to counter your stuff, but you're not listening at all."
Fidgeting in place, Tsubame whispers, "Being unsatisfied with an explanation isn't the same thing as refusing to listen, I'm afraid."
"Besides, by that logic… you have all done the same… as us… but in reverse. Instead of guilty… you cannot picture Joshua… as anything but innocent… no matter what people say." Pal digs his nails into his podium as he clutches it tightly.
Fumika groans. "This is pointless. We're not getting anywhere at all. It's like you both said. We've already picked our sides. We're all too stubborn to change our minds."
"Should… should we just vote then?" Kazuha meekly asks.
"No way! We don't have enough information yet!" Kaixi shrieks.
"The other group doesn't have a target yet," Sawako asserts. "If we were to vote now, then Joshua would be found guilty because they are unified around someone they suspect is innocent. It would not be fair."
Joshua reluctantly raises his voice. "So, what should we do then? We're locked at a standstill."
"We need to discuss more." The answer is obvious to Shizu, and it leaves her mouth instantly.
"Huh? B-but we just said none of us were gonna change our minds…" Hachi shivers in place.
Shizu shakes her head. "It's true we've gotten nowhere with traditional discussion. However, if we change things up, we might be able to finally reach a conclusion."
Kogi actually looks a little interested. "Change things up? How so?"
"Everyone here has a firm opinion on whether or not Joshua is the culprit. You all have arguments in mind, but, so far, we've been reduced to shouting back and forth with little coherency. If we can structure this as a formal debate, with arguments and rebuttals, we may very well convince each other of our cases." She adjusts her glasses as she finishes speaking.
"I see…" Sawako scratches her cheek. "I believe that your suggestion is worth a shot."
Chouki traces the tattoos of his veins and refuses to look at anyone. "It's not like we'd be better off doing nothing at all. Why the hell not?"
Morgan smiles. "It appears that our conflict is fated to occur. Let us follow through with this course of action."
"I'm all for it, but, uh… how exactly are we going to do this? It might be a little hard when we're all mixed up like this…" Kaixi rubs the back of his head awkwardly.
"You can leave that to me!"
Momokuma's voice startles everyone. He had been pretty quiet for most of the proceedings, and, in their haste, they had almost forgotten he was there. He grins down at them and elaborates. "I had a feeling something like this might happen, so I took to liberty of modifying these podiums a little."
"What do you mean by modifying?" Samia narrows her eyes.
"Oh, don't worry about that." He laughs her off. "Just keep your footing and you should all be fine."
Joshua gulps. "That's uh… that's not exactly all that encouraging."
His words are cut off as a rumbling sound echoes throughout the courtroom. One by one, their podiums begin to rise off of the floor. Shizu stumbles a little as the movement catches her off guard. Luckily, they're only hovering a few inches above the ground. They begin to align themselves into two lines, and she comes face to face with the opposing team. She steels her nerves and prepares to argue.
Is Joshua the culprit?
He's the culprit: Kogi, Fumika, Samia, Tsubame, Kazuha, Sawako, Pal, Chouki
He's not the culprit: Shizu, Joshua, Soraru, Hachi, Morgan, Kaixi, Michio
Scrum Debate Start
Kogi: Joshua was at the scene of the crime last night. He's the only person we know who was there.
Shizu: He only went to the scene of the crime because Soraru asked. He never planned on being there.
Samia: We don't know that for certain. He could have incorporated Soraru's prank into his plans once he learned about it.
Soraru: I didn't even tell him about my prank! He'd have no way of knowing what was going on.
Pal: Joshua is smarter… than he claims to be. He successfully used the washing machines… to exploit our sense of time.
Kaixi: But, if he used the washing machines, he wouldn't have been able to hide in the dining hall.
Sawako: Due to the settings on those washing machines, he obscured everything we knew about the situation. We can't trust the words of a suspect.
Morgan: If Joshua truly tried to have obscured everything, then why would he have told us that he placed those sheets there? We would have been lost without it.
Kazuha: But he doesn't have an alibi for that time, right? S-so he must have been hiding there.
Hachi: His alibi was that he was in his room. We would have totally found him if he was anywhere else!
Fumika: He could have hid away in the freezer, and that's why he wasn't around for the investigation.
Michio: If he hid in the freezer, he could have caught hypothermia or even been frozen to death. Y'know, like what with happened to Takumi?
Tsubame: Joshua was dripping wet when we found him… There are too many coincidences for us to ignore.
Joshua: Even with all of these coincidences lining up perfectly, all of your arguments still have a ton of holes. So enough already!
Chouki: So what? He's the only option we have for a culprit. Why do you all keep arguing?
Shizu: No, there's another culprit in this case. This line of thinking has only trapped us into faulty conclusions.
Full Counter!
Joshua is not the culprit!
With Shizu's final declaration, the podiums begin to shift back to their original positions. Most of the people who were arguing to vote for Joshua are starting to look slightly more unsure of themselves. Tsubame in particular looks horrified. "When I hear everything back to back like that… the coincidences start to melt into their true forms… We were so caught up in wanting to have this trial over with that we convinced ourselves of the truth."
"That's what we've been saying this whole time!" Hachi shouts.
Kaixi presses his thumbs together nervously. "S-so, does that mean that you're all going to stop accusing Joshua?"
Sawako lets out a deep sigh. "You seemed pretty convinced that you had a culprit, Shizu. If there's someone here that's more suspicious than Joshua, then I'm finally ready to listen."
"Hold on. If you think you know who it is, then why didn't you say something sooner?" Chouki asks.
Shizu adjusts her glasses. "I'm on the verge of figuring it out, but I need a little more time."
"What the hell?!" he yells back. "Then why did you say that in the first place if you're going to give up that easily?"
"You misunderstand me." Shaking her head, she explains, "Did you all notice how you all continued to suspect Joshua even after we cleared up that he couldn't have known where Soraru's trap was? Even afterwards, you brushed that aside and found another reason to blame him. Then, when that reason failed, you transitioned seamlessly back to thinking he knew about the prank."
"It was a little like being on the receiving end of a conspiracy theory," Joshua mumbles, gripping onto his beanie with one hand. "You supported your theory with theories, and, when one got dismissed, you replaced it with another theory… It's kind of alarming."
"Then what actually happened?" Samia inquires. "Joshua was the only person who didn't show up for the investigation, and he was the only one who knew about the prank. Where does that leave us?"
Shizu looks at the floor and closes her eyes. "I believe you were all right about one thing. The culprit was definitely waiting for me to arrive."
Michio clicks his tongue. "Hang on. If that's the case, then how would they know when you got there? They couldn't have used the sound from the hallway since they had no context for it. Did they just wait for you to waltz in there or something?"
"That was what I was thinking, yes." Seeing his befuddled expression, she elaborates. "They waited for me to come into the dining hall and see Takumi's body. In the panic, it's almost certain that, after a brief moment of hesitation, I would have run out to fetch everyone else. Once I left running, they would have had the opportunity to sneak out."
Pal looks confused. "But that did not happen. You were… delayed by the cake trap. They could not have… gotten away… if they waited for you."
Fumika appears to have picked up on what Shizu is implying, judging by the way her eyes are lighting up. "…No way. You're not suggesting that that actually happened, right?"
"I am indeed suggesting that," Shizu says with conviction.
Joshua raises a hand. "Uh, hi, I'm lost again now that I'm no longer the subject of attention."
"The culprit never left the dining hall at all until after the body was discovered." Fumika pinches her forehead. "Because Shizu never showed up, they were waiting there in vain. They couldn't risk running out when she could pop up at any moment. Hell, she could have even been waiting outside the doors for whatever reason, and they would have been caught if they tried to flee."
Soraru blows a raspberry. "No way! Cause, if that was the case, then they would've been missing when Monokuma showed up. But, when I got there, pretty much everyone was there already, and I saw the stragglers run in afterwards."
"In that case, we only need to ask the question of when they left their hiding spot." Morgan chooses to answer this. "I'm certain that there was a lot of panic going around when everyone first saw Takumi's corpse. It was a bloody spectacle. During that chaos, it might have been possible…"
Gritting her teeth, Sawako slams her fist into the podium with a loud crash. "They used our concern as a smokescreen to rejoin the group!"
"Y-you can't be serious!" Kazuha yells, flinching back.
Chouki crosses his arms. "Even if you were serious, so what? There's no way that anyone would have remembered seeing someone coming out of the kitchen. They would have brought it up by now. We've got no clues on who could have done that."
…No, that's not actually true. As Shizu desperately thinks, several things stand out to her. The culprit would have had to come to the dining hall alone. If they had been in a group, then they would have already been outside of the dining hall to begin with. They would have also been trapped in there overnight, meaning they would have no knowledge of things that had happened that morning. She's also been ignoring the fact that they would have had to have known Takumi's eating habits to pull off their crime. If they didn't know he ate late at night, then they couldn't have been waiting for him.
Slowly, but surely, the picture paints itself. The suspects begin thinning out as she looks over her notes. Words that seemed innocuous at the time come rushing back to her like a tidal wave. She recalls standing over Takumi's body, unable to think anything other than primal thoughts of denial. In that instant, she raises her head, and the answer comes to her. Could her mind possibly be fooling itself?
No, now isn't the time for indecisiveness. Not now that she's considered everything. The light reflects off her glasses intensely. Her words fill the void in the room, and everyone is silent. "There is one person. I don't know if they're the culprit, but they're definitely suspicious."
Hachi looks on in awe. "S-seriously? So soon?"
"Hurry up and tell us then," Michio implores. "You're leaving us all in suspense here."
If she speaks up, she may as well be condemning them to death. But there's no turning back now. She takes one last deep breath before addressing her suspect.
Select Someone
Kazuha Kimura
"Kazuha."
At the sound of her name, she tenses up and sharply inhales. "H-huh? W-what is it, Shizu?"
"You're the person that I find the most suspicious," Shizu says as quickly as possible.
Hachi grips her cheeks and screams, "What?!"
Likewise, Kazuha shouts, "W-what are you talking about?! I don't understand at all!"
"How is Kazuha the culprit? You're just joking, right?" Kaixi calls out, looking incredibly nervous.
Shizu pushes her glasses up on her nose. "Do you think I'm the type of person who jokes around? No, I'm completely serious. Kazuha is my number one suspect."
"Shizu, please explain why that is," Samia demands. "There have been many suspicious people here, but I would not have counted Kazuha as one of them. What exactly makes you think that she killed Takumi?"
"She knew exactly when Takumi would eat dinner," she begins. "Don't try to deny it either. I took notes on this. He yelled at both you and Hachi a few nights ago. I'm certain you would remember the contents of that rant and would be able to exploit that for your crime."
"That's the only reason? Plenty of people could have figured that out," Kazuha argues, sweat starting to drip down her forehead.
She shakes her head. "There's more. Out of everyone here, there are only a few could have successfully sneaked into the dining hall from the kitchen. Those are the people who arrived by themselves. Everyone one would have had an alibi, as they were seen outside to begin with."
"Hold on. Kazuha was not the only person who arrived alone. If I remember correctly, Kogi, Soraru, Morgan, and Fumika all came alone as well. Why are you singling her out?" Tsubame fidgets in place as she speaks.
"Because I saw her."
"What do you mean by that?" Fumika glares.
Shizu elaborates. "I've only just remembered this now, but it's a vital clue. When I was looking at Takumi's body while most people were screaming, I heard a set of doors open. When I looked up, I saw Kazuha running towards me. However, I was facing towards the kitchen, blocking the body from everyone else's view. There's only one explanation there."
Michio nods grimly. "She must have come running out of the kitchen. It's the only other door."
"Wait though!" Kaixi yells. "What if you're just misremembering things?! You said it yourself. You just remembered that now."
"Y-yeah!" Kazuha agrees quickly. "I swear I ran in through the dining hall entrance. You've gotta be mixing things up!"
"Oh really? Then why didn't you remember seeing the results of the cake traps?" Shizu points towards her in accusation.
"I love my cakes as much as the next person, but why would she have known anything about them?" Soraru asks, tilting xer head. "I mean, I thought the reason you jerks all yelled at Joshua was because he was the only one who knew about them or something like that."
"That isn't what I mean," she denies. "Think back to this morning. I was the first person on the second floor, so that's why I tripped the wire. However, everyone after that should have been aware of the mess in the elevator lobby. There's no way for anyone to avoid it, especially not if they have to, say, take the elevator down from the fourth floor."
Kogi suddenly looks very serious. "So, that's what you're getting at. When Kazuha walked into the elevator lobby after the investigation was over, she seemed really confused about the cakes scattered everywhere."
"I remember her shouting too," Chouki claims as he turns to scrutinize her. "She asked what the mess was, like she had never seen it before in her life."
"And she should have… already known it was there…" Pal muses darkly.
Kazuha waves her hands out in front of her. "Please wait! You're making a huge mistake. N-none of this is proof that I did it! You can't just use your memories to force me to be g-guilty! What if you're not remembering things right?"
"Do you really think this many of us are getting things wrong? We all heard what you said. You should have been aware of the mess beforehand." Kogi crosses his arms.
Hachi counters this. "B-but Shizu is the only one who saw the most decisive evidence. It just d-doesn't feel right to convict poor Kazuha with that…"
Joshua agrees. "Uh, yeah. Speaking as someone who was recently yelled at a bunch, being suspected is not fun. We should at least give her a chance to argue her case, right?"
"Argue what though?" Kazuha wails.
Michio leans on his podium. "So far, we know that you knew when Takumi would be at dinner and that you said something that insinuated you didn't know about the mess on the second floor. We just need you to explain why those aren't an issue and why you couldn't have done it."
"I apologize for having the spotlight on you, but we would appreciate hearing your side of the story on this one. Shizu claims that she saw you walking out of the kitchen. This is your opportunity to clear up all doubts," Morgan tells her with a calm tone.
Kazuha gulps, opens her mouth, and then gulps again. "Al-alright… I'll try. You'll all s-see that you're j-just imagining things!"
Holding her notepad up a little higher, Shizu vehemently disagrees. It took some time, but she's sure of what she remembers. Even if this isn't an actual court, she supposes that her memory alone isn't going to be enough of a conviction point. Kazuha has a lot of room to argue. All Shizu needs to do now is catch a single-slip up and pounce on it.
Nonstop Debate
Kazuha: There's n-no way I'm the killer!
Sawako: However, Shizu has laid out a decent foundation and believes that her memory is decisive evidence.
Kogi: You've also slipped up once before by revealing you never saw the mess left by Soraru's cakes.
Kazuha: You're wrong about that! I meant s-something completely different.
Joshua: Uh… What was that exactly?
Kazuha: I w-was talking about the c-cause of the mess, of course! Y-you're just misinterpreting my w-words!
Kaixi: There's no way she would have known about that! I don't think she's lying!
Chouki: Then what about your knowledge of Takumi? You knew where he'd be and when he'd be there!
Kazuha: Y-yeah, but that d-doesn't mean I had the opportunity to do anything like that!
Tsubame: There may have been others who knew of Takumi's habits as well, whom Shizu was not aware of.
Morgan: Though I find her suspicious, I must admit that I have not seen any decisive clue out of this testimony.
Kazuha: Then you all think I'm innocent, right?!
Shizu: It's true that, from everyone else's point of view, my accusation appears to be a bit lacking. However, so is Kazuha's defense. I can feel the end of this trial approaching. I know that I can end this.
Alibis
had the opportunity
BREAK
After double checking to make sure she's correct on this, Shizu's voice breaks through the discussion once more. "You claim that you never had an opportunity to kill Takumi, but that's not true at all. By your own word, you had the perfect time to do so?"
"Are you talking about what she did yesterday?" Michio asks.
"I thought that Kazuha was in that little meetup of yours last night," Fumika states bluntly.
Michio snaps his fingers suddenly. "Oh, that's right. She left just a little bit before midnight. That's right before the dining hall closes!"
Nodding slowly, Pal says, "A little before midnight… may have given her… enough time to reach the dining hall… before it closed. Then, she could have… caught Takumi unaware… by her sudden appearance."
"It could explain why she stayed so late, right?" Joshua scratches his forehead. "If she left that late at night, then most people would just assume she wouldn't have gone there. They might have even forgot and just assumed she left directly at midnight."
"I'm sure she just wanted to talk with us until she got sleepy!" Kaixi pleads desperately.
Samia drums her fingers on her podium. "But this does show that she had the opportunity to kill Takumi. I can't deny that."
"No, that's completely wrong!" Kazuha declares suddenly, pointing a shaking finger towards Shizu. "Y-you're lying!"
"Oh? How so?" she responds coolly.
"You know when Takumi ate as well, right? It wasn't midnight at all! He ate around 11-ish at night or so," she explains.
Fumika clenches her fist. "So, you did know that after all."
Kazuha shakes her head rapidly. "N-no, that's not the point at all! If I left around midnight, I would have totally missed him. That's not an opportunity at all!"
"He was really paranoid you know," Chouki points out. "He might've skirted closer to the dining hall closing time to miss everyone."
Tsubame looks troubled at this."But she would have been taking a huge risk if she really did wait that long. She could have missed him completely and have been trapped in the dining hall for no good reason. That would also ruin her future plans."
"Exactly! That's exactly it!" Kazuha declares. "So, I never had the chance to kill him then!"
"I find it hard to believe that someone as paranoid as Takumi would risk breaking the nighttime rule by eating so close to midnight," Sawako adds. "I know there is a loophole and all, but I cannot picture him as someone who would attempt to test that boundary."
Joshua tugs on his beanie. "But nobody saw him yesterday, right? So his schedule could've been anything. Maybe he did become that reckless."
"That makes literally no sense," Chouki deadpans.
Soraru gives a weak chuckle. "N-nah, I understood it completely well. You're just underestimating the amount of thinking you need to do."
However, there's something in Joshua's words that resonates with Shizu. It's true. Nobody did see Takumi yesterday at all. She hadn't even seen him at breakfast even though she got there only a few minutes after the morning announcement. She had chalked it all up to Takumi people scared and not wanting to interact with anyone. But now, she can't focus on anything else.
She's startled from her thoughts when Sawako nudges her. "Pardon me, but you looked like you were lost in thought. I hope I didn't make you lose what you were thinking of, but I was starting to worry. Did you think of something else?"
Looking directly into her eyes, Shizu speaks carefully, "Nobody saw Takumi at all yesterday."
Sawako blinks. "I… yes, that is true. I believe that Joshua just mentioned that a few moments ago."
In spite of this, Shizu continues, "Takumi was killed in the freezer. He froze to death, and that's how we knew that he died last night because the time of death miraculously lined up perfectly."
Understanding begins to swirl in Sawako's eyes. For a brief moment, there's some kind of mental connection between them, and Shizu nods. Having been given a signal, Sawako whistles sharply to get everyone's attention.
Soraru whines, "Aw, come on! I thought we agreed not to make high pitched sounds anymore!"
"Once again… I am… very sorry for doing that…" Pal apologizes again for his past actions.
Sawako clears her throat. "Shizu has reason to believe that Takumi's death still hides many other mysteries. If she is correct, then Kazuha becomes even more suspicious."
"W-what now?" Kazuha cries. "Why are you so intent on suspecting me?!"
"Because," Shizu begins, "I refuse to distrust my own reasoning. I know that I'm right. And I have a theory that puts everything into perspective."
"That's a very tall order," Tsubame comments, tugging harshly on her braid.
She starts to explain. "Joshua was correct when he stated that nobody saw Takumi yesterday whatsoever. However, is that not slightly strange? I reached the dining hall right after the morning announcement yesterday, but Takumi was nowhere to be seen. Kogi was also running around last night doing laundry, and he did not mention seeing Takumi going to or leaving the dining hall either."
"That's not that weird though, right?" Kaixi asks. "I mean, he's super paranoid, so of course he would be cautiously and flighty and stuff. Err, not that that's a bad thing."
Fumika looks directly into her eyes. "No, it is a little strange. I would have thought somebody would have at least seen or heard something from him, but nobody did. Not even when he supposedly would have left for dinner last night."
Briefly, Shizu remembers Fumika's nighttime habit. Spurred on, she makes her argument. "Michio's autopsy report was very enlightening, but I believe he got one thing wrong. How do we know it was last night that Takumi was killed?"
The courtroom explodes into shouting instantly. Kazuha is the first clear voice out there. "What are you saying?! I thought y-you were the one who trusted Michio's work the most!"
Michio grits his teeth. "If Takumi was frozen to death, though, then we already know that we can't trust the time of death. That's just basic coroner stuff!"
"It would also make everything make sense," Samia responds. "I thought it was a little strange that the culprit would hide the time of death by freezing Takumi's body while simultaneously revealing exactly when they killed him. It negates a lot of their work. But, if he was killed later, then things start to line up."
Hachi looks very conflicted. "This is seriously crazy!"
Shizu ignores this outburst. "I would like to posit that Takumi was not killed last night. He was killed at a completely different time." It's not that hard to figure out when that would have been. It would also have explained what she had seen Kazuha doing at that time.
When was Takumi actually killed?
A. Two mornings ago
B. Two nights ago
C. Yesterday morning
D. This morning
"Takumi was killed when he went to dinner but not when we first thought. He was killed two nights ago." Shizu adjusts her glasses as this revelation sinks in.
"Nighttime would be the most efficient time to hide one's crime," Morgan muses calmly. "I can very well see that being the case."
Shizu says, "That's not the only reason I suspect that time, however. Two nights ago, I saw Kazuha doing some laundry right around the time when Takumi would normally be eating."
Inhaling sharply, Tsubame eventually says, "Then… she could have been washing her clothes if they had gotten stained with blood or hiding more evidence like the towels she used to wipe up the blood."
"Hey, that's what you all accused me of doing!" Joshua shouts. "Except this time maybe it actually happened? So maybe those ideas weren't all that off the mark to begin with."
"Huh? Do you want us to yell at you more so we get good ideas again?" Soraru asks him cheerfully.
Joshua sweats a little. "Uh… no thank you, please."
Ignoring this little aside, Kogi says, "Well, I definitely trust Shizu's memory on this one. Not that I really doubted it to begin with, but I'm definitely sure that Kazuha was doing laundry a few nights ago. If it lines up with when Takumi might have died, then it becomes all the more suspicious."
Hachi shudders. "It would also explain why… why the blood bad was hidden in the fridge… She could have put it there that night. She wouldn't have wanted to have been caught carrying around a blood bag on the night of the supposed murder, right? Then, keeping it hidden makes more sense…"
"Everything is beginning… to fit together." Pal sighs. "Things that once seemed… strange are now beginning to… come together. Is this fate… showing us the way?"
"I won't let you dog pile on me!"
It was only a matter of time before Kazuha interjected again. Panting slightly and with tears welling up in her eyes, she shouts, "H-hold on! You can't just decide stuff like that all of the sudden. You can't change your argument so easily and expect everything to hold true!"
"What exactly do you think doesn't hold true?" Shizu twirls her pen around her fingers, wincing when she realizes that the tip is still out. "All that changes is that you would have only had to sneak into the dining hall last night instead of also killing Takumi then. It makes your actions more suspicious, but that is all I can think of."
"Th-then… you need to think some more!" Kazuha accuses as her entire body trembles.
There's a harsh glint in Shizu's eyes at this challenge. "Very well then. Try and prove me wrong."
Nervously, Kazuha swallows. "F-fine! Y-you'll see, and then y-you'll have to apologize!"
Rebuttal Showdown Start
Kazuha: You can't just change the time of the crime like that all willy nilly!
Kazuha: The entire argument so far is based on the fact that Takumi was killed tonight, not two nights ago!
Kazuha: You went through all that trouble to prove that Michio was right only to walk back so easily?
Kazuha: Surely, someone would have noticed if that was the case, because people aren't that blind to reality.
Kazuha: Just because I was in the laundry room that night doesn't mean that Takumi had to have died then!
Advance
Shizu: You already heard what everyone else thought.
Shizu: They all assumed that Takumi was paranoid enough to literally never come out.
Shizu: Michio's autopsy wouldn't have picked up on this distinction either, which he has literally told us.
Shizu: It is completely possible to hide that Takumi died two nights ago.
Kazuha: I'm not talking about any of that stuff though!
Kazuha: What about Takumi's body?
Kazuha: There's no way that people wouldn't have noticed something like that!
Kazuha: There's nowhere to put it!
Kazuha: If the culprit really did kill him when you said they did, then they'd have been found out right away!
Shizu: Kazuha must really be on her last legs if that's her best defense. There's no sense in wasting any more time dragging this out. It would be cruel to do otherwise.
Freezer Container
nowhere to put it
BREAK
"You know that that's obviously not true." Shizu's words cut deep into Kazuha, as it looks like her legs almost gave out for a second.
"N-no! You have to be lying!"she yells, desperately trying to steady herself.
Fumika breaks the bad news to her. "Even if you're not the culprit, you'd still be wrong. We already talked about this earlier when we were yelling at Joshua. The freezer has a container in it."
Joshua pounds his hand with his fist. "Yeah, that's right! Don't lie to us like that, especially not when you put me under the wringer for trying that one out."
"Hypothermia and frostbite may have been concerns for Joshua, but Takumi would have already been dead," Samia asserts. "If you thawed him out, then all traces that he spent all that time in there would not have shown up."
"As we already said, there's enough room to fit a body in there, even someone as tall as Takumi," Chouki adds.
Michio scratches his chin. "Plus, if you positioned him just right inside the freezer, his body might have been locked into enough of a sitting position that he could have been taken out and put at the dining table with minimal problems."
"That's… you can't-"Kazuha blabbers.
Shizu snaps her fingers. "Kazuha, need I remind you of the consequences of this trial? If we vote for the wrong culprit, then every single innocent person dies. If you are truly innocent, then you need to argue harder."
At this comment, Kazuha's eyes go completely blank. For a few moments, she mouths a few words, but Shizu can't make them out. Then, almost as suddenly, tears begin to form, and she bows her head.
"K-Kazuha?" Hachi asks, quietly. She leans over, trying to get a good look at her eyes but to no avail.
In a nearly silent voice, Kazuha says, "Okay."
Pal tilts his head. "Okay… what?"
"You're… you're right," she mumbles.
Morgan smile at her. "Then, you have an argument. Please, let us hear it."
"It was me."
Michio chokes. "Ex-excuse me?"
"Kazuha?!" Kaixi shouts.
"You're admitting to it? What's your game here?" Fumika grasps her podium tightly, confusion dancing in her eyes.
Slowly, Kazuha lifts her head up again. Just as before, her eyes are completely empty. "I'm the culprit. I killed Takumi."
"Please hold on." Tsubame clutches at her chest. "I know we were suspecting you, but please… you cannot just drop that on us so suddenly,"
Kaixi grabs at his head with both of his hands and shuts his eyes tightly. "Y-you're lying, right? You have to be lying!"
Biting her inner cheek, Sawako mutters, "But why would anyone lie about something like this?"
Somehow, Kazuha looks even emptier upon hearing everyone's confusion, and Shizu's heart begins to tug. It feels as though this wasn't intentional. Kazuha must have meant to clear things up, given how she gave up once reminded of the stakes. But, unfortunately, now more people are worried and shouting. There's only one way she can think to salvage this.
Shizu raises her voice. "If you're having trouble understanding, then perhaps it would help to hear a summary of the crime one last time. If you all have any more doubts, even after that confession, then this should hopefully clear them up."
"That may… be of some use," Pal admits.
Kaixi shudders. "If… if you think that will help…"
Seeing how nobody is objecting, she begins. "In that case, this is exactly what happened.
Closing Argument
"The crime took place two days ago. After receiving the motive from Monokuma and watching the group's structure fall apart thanks to Soraru's prank, the culprit chose to make their move. They knew of Takumi's eating habits, so they realized they would find him alone that night. They waited in hiding for him to arrive. Then, they took him by surprise and hit him in the back of the head with a blunt object, most likely obtained from the kitchen. With one strike, he was rendered unconscious.
"Takumi was not actually dead, however. The culprit was not aware of this and began the second phase of their plan. After cleaning up the bloodstains from their attack and removing his bag, they carried Takumi into the freezer and hid him in the container of ice cream. By doing this, they both obscured the time of death and made sure nobody would find his body. Once this was done, they quickly gather the towels they used to clean up the blood and hurried to the laundry room to wash them. They would also be able to dispose of Takumi's bag along the way.
Next, they waited a full day before moving on with their plan. They waiting until it was almost midnight before they left the late night meeting at the lounge. Due to a loophole in the rules, they were able to spend the night in the dining hall to prepare for the next morning. This would help make us think that the crime had taken place earlier.
"They woke up before the morning announcement played in order to set up the crime scene. They made sure to dry off Takumi's body before sitting him up at the table. Then, they hid those towels in the back of the cleaning closet so that we would be less likely to find them. To make it look like he was eating breakfast, they poured him a bowl of cereal. Unfortunately for them, they chose an already-opened box, which proves Takumi never ate that morning. Finally, they took the blood bag they had hidden in the fridge and applied a fresh coat over his head.
"Everything had gone according to plan so far. All they needed to do now was wait for me to arrive, so they could escape after I left to get help. However, I was delayed thanks to Soraru's cake prank. Therefore, they were stuck waiting until Michio, Sawako, and Hachi all discovered the body. They needed to change the plan on the fly, so they snuck out of hiding when they heard everyone screaming. However, they were spotted by me as they left, and their lack of knowledge of the cake traps proved for certain that they did not come to the dining hall from their room.
"Kazuha Kimura… These are the details of your crime!"
BREAK
The only sound in the room after Shizu's explanation is the quiet sobs coming from Kazuha. Nobody looks confident enough to speak up after everything that had been said. Even Kaixi and Hachi, the most ardent of defenders, look at a loss for words.
Leave it for Monokuma to ruin the moment. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but that sounded conclusive enough to me! I was starting to get a little bored anyways. Discussion time's over. Now, it's time to vote!"
"So soon?" Tsubame flinches at the thought.
He dismisses her nonchalantly. "Hey, you got all the time you needed. All you need to do is make a selection on the screen in front of you. It's not that hard. So no complaining!"
Pal gazes at his podium as a screen suddenly light up. "I suppose… we have no choice."
"Nah, not really. Plus, if you don't vote, then I'm gonna kill you, so you'd better vote for someone." Monokuma cackles at the thought, making several people squirm uneasily.
Shizu stares at the screen for a few seconds before shaking herself out of her chance and making her selection. Given her line of reasoning, she's certain she's not making a mistake. Theoretically, this should be an easy choice, but it feels like her hand doesn't want to move at all. But there's no turning back now.
Make Your Vote
Shizu Saneyoshi
Tsubame Watari
Michio Kokkaku
Kazuha Kimura
Sawako Kido
Fumika Amari
Hachi Hachimitsu
Soraru Kishinuma
Takumi Haruko
Kogi Bodo
Chouki Awadachi
Morgan Feysonn
Kaixi Cheng
Palaemon Katsaros
Samia Bahouri
Joshua Miller
Tallying Votes…
Kazuha Kimura – 15
CORRECT
Ultimate Trial End
"Wow, a completely unanimous vote! I can't say that I expected that for our first trial ever." Monokuma climbs onto his desk, looks over everyone, and laughs. "But you're exactly correct! The one who killed Takumi Haruko was indeed our very own Kazuha Kimura!"
Kaixi makes a choking sound. "N-no way… I still can't believe it…"
"Then why did you vote for her?" Chouki scoffs. "You can't try to please everyone, especially not in a situation like this. Face the facts: she's a murderer."
There are fat tears rolling down Kazuha's face, and she's completely collapsed to the floor. It seems like she's unable to move from her position. From the sound of things, she can't even get out any complete sentences.
Hachi is in a similar state. "W-why? Why did y-you do it?" she cries out between sobs.
"B-because I'm a t-terrible p-person!" Kazuha wails out, though it's nearly incoherent.
Fumika gives her a pitying look. "Don't give us that. I won't accept an answer like that, especially not from someone who can't even stand up straight."
"Did you perhaps fall prey to the motive?" Sawako asks.
Kazuha nods weakly in response. Having heard that, Shizu exhales sharply and pinches her forehead. Even a motive like that one had gotten a response from Kazuha of all people…
"You were worried about your family enough to kill one of us then." Kogi's statement is accusatory but his tone takes a lot of the punch out of it. Perhaps he's also having trouble being completely mad at her.
After a few loud sniffles, Kazuha begins to compose herself a little. "Of course I was… Everyone told me that it was all going to be alright and that we shouldn't trust the motive, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't stop thinking about my family slowly being poisoned to death, and then that spread to everyone who lived near them as well. And then I couldn't stop thinking about everyone else's families suffering the same fate. And… and…" At this point, she breaks down into tears again.
"You were afraid not only for yourself but also for everyone else as well…" Samia says. Her expression is a mixture of horror and anger, and Shizu can't tell which one is the dominant emotion.
"It's not just that either," Kazuha eventually continues. "People aren't the only ones who would be hurt by poisoned drinking water! Animals drink it as well, and several species live in it. If poison got into the water systems of all of our hometowns, it would have been an ecological disaster, a possible extinction level event!"
Chouki winces. "…Yeah, that definitely would have been a complete disaster. I guess I can't deny worrying about that either."
Pal nods solemnly. "With that many lives… both human and animal… at risk, it is… no wonder that your thoughts… became clouded with fear. I cannot… condone your actions… but I can empathize with your feelings."
"So, you killed one person in order to save the lives of countless others. Can't exactly say that's a selfish motive." Michio pulls his hat over his eyes with a trembling hand, refusing to look at anyone.
"But we didn't have any guarantee that the motive was real!" Soraru claims. "I mean, yeah, it's nice and all that you thought about it, but didn't you kind of fall into Monokuma's trap?"
"Hey! How dare you question my power?" Monokuma leers over xem with a sharpened paw at the ready. "I'll have you know that my motive was 100% legitimate. If I say that I'm going to poison thousands of people, then I'm poisoning thousands of people! If I tried to threaten you guys with false motives, then you'd never have started killing."
"Y-you weren't messing around at all, huh?" Suppressing a gulp midway, Joshua stares at the floor intensely, as if his eyes are going to fall out of his head.
Morgan sighs. "I had inkling that your power was true. There were many bad omens… Still, to hear it confirmed once again is chilling to the bone."
"S-so, you r-really did save everyone then," Kaixi stutters as he turns back to face Kazuha, perhaps in an attempt to cheer her up.
However, she only starts crying harder. "N-no, I didn't! If I actually wanted t-to save you all, I w-would've just t-taken the blame immediately instead of h-hiding like a c-coward. Y-you all nearly d-died because of me!"
"I believe that was the purpose of Monokuma withholding information about the rules," Tsubame responds sadly. "He didn't introduce the concept of anyone else dying until after the murder happened. That was, the initial fear of dying would outweigh the concern over killing everyone else."
Samia grasps her headscarf tightly and sighs. "In the end, you did come clean. It took a while, but still… For what you were attempting to accomplish and for what we have all undergone, I can't force myself to hate you."
"Murder is still murder," Kogi points out. "And she was going to escape and leave the rest of us here to die. Please forgive me if I'm still a little annoyed about almost being killed as well."
"I didn't even want to leave this place at first…" Kazuha sobs gently.
Shizu blinks rapidly. "Hmm? Could you please explain a little further? I'm afraid I don't understand."
Kazuha nods. "I d-didn't think I deserved to escape after what I had done… I wasn't even planning on revealing Takumi's body in the first place. I was going to hide it forever in the freezer container. Monokuma restocks the place every night, so I didn't think anyone would ever find him…"
"That seems a little unsustainable. Surely someone would have noticed at some point," Sawako asserts. "He may have been elusive, but we would get worried eventually."
Pal scratches his temple with a single finger."Also, if that was… your plan, then why… would you reveal him at all?"
"Because of what Monokuma said the next day," Kazuha explains.
Shizu's eyes light up. "If I remember correctly, he claimed that he would release the poison the next day if a corpse did not appear soon… I had assumed he was talking about someone committing murder, but…"
"He was calling me out," she finishes, wiping away some of her tears. "He knew what I had done, and he wouldn't let me hide my crime from the rest of you. So, I brought him out last night, and I almost killed the rest of you in this stupid trial."
"I see. May I ask you one more question?" Shizu taps her pen thoughtfully. Seeing Kazuha nod slowly, she then says, "I could be completely wrong, but you did not seem as though you were ready to commit murder when I talked with you that day. Yet you still went through with your plan. Did the split affect you that greatly, or did I completely misread you?"
Kazuha chokes on around sob. "I…" She trails off quickly.
"Kazuha, please!" Hachi cries. "I… I also wanna know."
Composing herself again, she looks Shizu directly in the eyes. "I don't want you to blame yourself, but our talk… You told me that, as long as we were still together, then everything would turn out okay. But, not even a few hours later, everything fell to pieces. It was like my last hope had been destroyed along with the group. That's… that's why I did it. Because I'm weak and a terrible person."
Biting her lip, Shizu averts her eyes. She should have known just by looking back at her notes. She never had been the best at comforting people, and now it had come to this. Damn it. She's vaguely aware of the fact that she's crushing her notepad in a vice grip.
Monokuma yawns. "Well, that was a little entertaining, but I'm bored now. It's time to move along to the main event!"
Joshua does a double take. "Main event? Wasn't that just the trial?"
"Have you forgotten already?" He cackles. "You all correctly guess who the culprit was. That means that they have an extra special punishment waiting for them!"
Hachi shrieks. "N-no!"
"The… the execution…" Chouki whispers, his composure fading as he speaks.
"You can't! You can't just kill her like that! W-we all forgive her, right?!" Kaixi looks around desperately at the others, as if trying to rally all of them.
"I don't care if you forgive her or not. The rules are the rules!" Monokuma declares.
He looks devastated. "B-but-"
"N-no… It's alright." Kazuha finally stands back up and wipes the last of her tears from her eyes. "I killed Takumi. He was completely innocent, and I took advantage of his paranoia, and I killed him in the most horrible way possible. I… I deserve this."
"Nobody deserves such a fate." Sawako rushes forwards and grips her by her shoulders. "The death penalty is something that I cannot accept!"
Morgan looks on with a stern expression. "The spirits are getting restless. If you go through with executing her, there will be no recourse for you in the afterlife."
Monokuma barely even bats an eyelash. "I think I'll take my chances. Now then, enough chatter! I've prepared a very special punishment for Kazuha Kimura, the Ultimate Zoologist!"
Kazuha struggles her way out of Sawako's grip. "It's… it's going to be alright. I'll be fine."
"You're literally going to die." Soraru attempts to say this in a deadpan tone but fails miserably.
"I… I just want the rest of you to never succumb the same pressure that I did. I believe in all of you! I'll face my death h-head on." Despite her stuttering, she straightens her cap and blinks away her tears. It would almost be empowering if Shizu didn't know the context.
"Let's give it everything we've got! It's punishment time!"
It's a Jungle out There
Somehow, Kazuha has found herself in some kind of jungle-like setting, lying face down on the grassy ground. As she pulls herself up, she appears to begin to take in her surroundings. She barely has any time to process her new location when a loud growl emanates from behind her. Slowly, she turns her head to see a pair of hungry eyes staring her down.
There's no more time for hesitation. She immediately bolts before whatever it was can pounce on her. She rushes past the dense foliage, branches thwacking against her face as she desperately attempts to escape. She glances back to confirm that her pursuer is a tiger. Her head swivels back around just in time for her to get hit with the oncoming branch on her forehead.
Dazed, she picks herself off the ground and narrows rolls out of the tiger's second lunge. She can feel blood dripping down her face, but there's no time for her to dwell on that. She needs to run, she needs to escape.
Suddenly, Kazuha skids to a halt, nearly falling into a rushing river. She can make out piranhas darting to and fro in the rapids, but she dismisses them. Piranhas aren't the problem here. Tigers can swim, and she'd be dead for sure if she tries to cross. Shaking her head, she rushes to the side to find another avenue of escape.
The thickets and thorns are tearing into her skin, but she refuses to stop. Then, her eyes widen. There's a snake coiled up directly in front of her. In only a few seconds, she identifies the species, how venomous it is, and what it looks like when it's going to strike. Just in the nick of time, she dodges once again but goes tumbling down a cliff in the process.
Bleeding from all angles, bruised all over, and panting heavily, she coughs as she hits the ground once more. Everything is quiet, too quiet. The sounds around her have stopped. She looks up and sees another set of eyes glaring at her. A series of red eyes.
She scrambles backwards but hits the edge of the cliff. She whimpers as a nearly endless series of Monokumas walk slowly out of the jungle, converging on her position. She wracks her brain but there's no escape.
Her screams echo throughout the room as they tear into her. Soon, she's obscured from view, but the screams continue to echo. Until they slowly lose their power and fade out forever.
It takes several moments for Shizu to fully process what she had just witnessed. Monokuma had dragged all of them into another room and up to safe area to view Kazuha's horrifying demise. Every single visceral detail was right in their view. Even if they looked away from the thick, glass window, there were several monitors tracking every action. Even if they closed their eyes, the sounds would still reach them.
Hachi's wails are the loudest, and her face is filled with an indescribable emotion. Chouki is still glaring at where the animals were, his fists clenched. Michio's hands are shaking so intensely that he's having trouble moving his arms at all. He has a thousand yard stare as he continues to stand in place. It's a miracle that Kaixi hasn't thrown up, given his face. Sawako looks like she's about to strangle Monokuma. All of the laughter and cheer has fled Soraru's entire body, leaving a cold husk in its wake.
"Woohoo! Extreme!" Monokuma shouts, adding insult to injury. "Talk about a great execution!"
"Great? Great?!" Fury unlike any she's ever heard erupts from Pal's lips. Her eyes immediately dart to his sharp fingernails and, for once, she feels a little uneasy.
"Yeah, it really gets your blood pumping, doesn't it?" he replies without a care in the world. "That's the mark of a great execution. Well, that and some dramatic irony, but you know how it goes."
"Why…?" Kaixi manages to say.
Morgan is holding onto her bracelets as if they're able to repel evil. "Even by death penalty standards, that was much too cruel."
"This is all a game to him…" Fumika growls. "He thinks this is funny. There's no use trying to get someone like him to feel bad or explain themselves."
Monokuma nods. "Glad to see we've reached an understanding." He does a few stretches before blinking at them. "Well, what are you all still standing around here for? If you don't want to dwell on this, then maybe you should just leave. The elevator's right where you left it."
Joshua hesitates. "After all that, we're just supposed to leave and pretend like nothing ever happened?"
He crosses his paws. "Well, technically only one of those things. I can't have you hanging around here all night, you know. I've got things to prepare for! So get out of here already!" With that, he runs off and vanishes quickly.
Nobody is quite sure if they should follow his orders. However, eventually, Michio takes the first step and starts leaving the room. Chouki storms out after him, with Pal right at his heels. Fairly soon, everyone else is filing out of the room, back to the courtroom, and into the elevator. None of them feel comfortable enough to talk, not even to give each other words of encouragement.
Shizu has no idea what time it is or how long they spent in that trial. There are a lot of things that she needs to process right now. As the elevator slowly ascends, she loses herself in thought, and her eyes start to close a little. Shaking herself awake, she promises to at least make it back to her room.
When the elevator dings on the second floor, the doors open, and she sees that, somehow, the mess made by Soraru's pranks has been cleaned up. Was that what Monokuma was doing during the trial? It would explain why he was so silent for a while there.
Joshua snaps her out of her thoughts. Vaguely, she's aware that the other second floor residents have already walked away. "Um… this is kind of awkward, and I don't know how to say it good, so here goes nothing. Thank you for helping defend me back there. It really meant a lot to me."
"No problem," she replies listlessly.
He tugs on his beanie. "Um… well then, later, I guess." Then, he files out of the elevator as well, and the doors shut once again.
Her feet start moving the instant the elevator hits the fourth floor. She's in no mood for condolences or conversations at this point, not that she expects that anyone else is either. Her brisk pace is uninterrupted, thankfully, so she gets to her room without any troubles.
Instantly, Shizu flops down onto her bed, letting herself sink into the comfortable sheets and mattress. Her brain has been buzzing with the thoughts of Takumi and Kazuha. Their faces are already starting to become fuzzy to her. She picks up a pillow as if to scream into it, but the sound refuses to leave her mouth.
She never got to know either of them at all. Takumi kept to himself, and his entire past and way of thinking and reasons for being who he was will all forever be lost to her. She never even predicted that Kazuha would be someone who would resort to murder, but, likewise, she never got to know her at all either. Shizu thinks about Takumi's bag and wonders if that would be a bit too literal of a metaphor for this situation.
They were people too. Her notes only covered what she thought she needed to know in order to keep everyone safe, but she's completely failed in that regard. She knows it's not entirely her fault, but she should have realized sooner. She had gotten too comfortable here.
And now two people are gone forever.
Chapter 1: A Different Kind of Prison
End
14 Ultimates Remain
A/N: That concludes the first chapter of Society of Talent! Hopefully it was worth the wait. I feel like I was sort of rushing to get done with this trial because, as it turns out, I am very bad at mysteries and also foreshadowing things. Oops. I hope that the culprit at least feels believable. Also, sorry about the length of this chapter. I hope that I never churn out one as long and tedious as this one again, so also apologies there. College is starting to ramp up in difficulty so chapters will probably start coming a little slower from now on. Whatever the case, thank you for everyone who reviewed, Lupus Overkill for beta reading, and anyone reading this at all. I hope you have a fantastic day!
