New Hope University: Major in Murder (SYOC CLOSED) Chapter 19: History of Hellenistic Art II: Part F, a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

ELEVATOR

The elevator descent was quiet except for Katy's sniffling and Juliet wordlessly mumbling to herself. Jane's stripes had mutated to a grid; she looked like someone had pressed a giant waffle iron against her whole body. She faced the corner of the elevator for no explicable reason.

The doors finally opened and we somberly started walking out into the courtroom. But, Rocky grabbed my sleeve, holding me back. I looked at him, confused.

"Uh... there was one other thing I found in the studio," he said. "I really don't think it's a clue, but I'm dumb, maybe you know better." He hesitated, wincing. "So... on the bottom and side of the chair, next to Emily's hand, there were scratches. She could move her fingers around, and she scratched something. A message. It was messy, but..." He sighed. "Look, I really don't think it's a clue."

"Rocky. Emily was able to scratch out a secret message, and you don't think it was a clue?! What did it say?"

"Uh." He looked miserable and sallow, glancing away from me. "It was hard to read, but..."

I crossed my arms. "What did it say?" I asked firmly.

"It said, 'I love you, mum.'"

That almost broke me. All my emotional control was almost just rushed away by the horror and grief and pointlessness of this whole night. But I maintained. I breathed. "You're right, I don't think it's a clue," I said. "But thank you for telling me."

TRIAL ROOM

The trial room had somehow changed; instead of a giant library, it was a giant bar; shelves of old-timey liquors lining the walls, reaching up to the dizzyingly high ceiling. I took my place behind my lectern. Emily's space was filled by a portrait; there was an X over her face, but the ends of the lines were little stars; like the drawing of a constellation. I looked over at Therion's portrait, which had, splashed across it, REST: 00.

Despite myself, I respected the attention to detail.

"All right, you worthless babies!" Monokuma announced when we were all in our correct places. "It has come to my attention that some of you are a little bit incapacitated!" He slammed his paw down on the table to accent each word in the next sentence: "That doesn't change a thing! Justice is justice! If one of you is smart enough to strike when the rest of you are dulling your senses with alcohol, then more power to him or her!"

Earl gripped his lectern, glowering down at the floor. "I am ashamed to admit my contru.. cn..." He paused and took a deep breath. "My contributions to this trial will not be up to the standards I hold myself to. I trust Coelho to speak for me."

"Thank you," Ashley primly replied. "Those of us who are uninhibited will lead this trial to completion; you can trust that!"

"Wait, so hold up," Nicole interrupted. "What're you saying? Just because we're drunk, we shouldn't speak up? You can just railroad us all you want?"

"Of course you may speak up," Ashley said. "I merely request you allow us to direct the discussion. Research indicates that when intoxicated, people can hold 125% fewer facts in their head at a given time. We are more capable at leading the trial, but we welcome your input!"

"I got some input!" Nicole barked. "Barrett did it!"

Barrett glared at her. "What the hell? You were with me all night!"

"Yeah, but if no one got killed, you might have gotten your spine broken!" Nicole argued.

"Let's... not accuse just out of nowhere?" Bepi dazedly suggested.

"Well, it's kind of a good point, right?" Rocky said. "You five might more of a motive than the rest of us do."

"We all want to get out of here!" Barrett argued.

"Hey, everyone," I said, as tactfully as possible. "Let's... try to lay out all the evidence before making accusations, all right?" Nicole just rolled her eyes, but she did not verbally protest. Taking that as a good sign, I continued: "This murder is different from the last one because there's a direct eyewitness." Julit whimpered, hugging herself tightly. "Uh, but considering her state, let's just try to get a basic idea of the facts of this murder without asking Juliet to testify, all right? She's been through enough tonight."

"Agreed," Rodrigo said, nodding to me gratefully.

"I think I have a pretty good timeline for the night," I said. "Does anyone disagree with this?"

FACT 11: TIMING OF THE NIGHT (revised)
The party started around 10:30. Juliet says she and Emily left the dorm at around 11:00, and were attacked on their way through the quad. Rocky's drum machine was turned on around 10:45, and the video showed Emily being tortured around ten minutes later. JP turned off the lights for the party a little before 11:00. Juliet was found at around 12:10, and Emily was found at around 12:15. Jane's pony keg was knocked over sometime close to the end of the night.

JP frowned. "Why do you have me turning off the lights in there?"

Rodrigo glared at him. "That was a terrible turning point!" he snapped. "Before that happened, I could easily perform my duty as a sentry and protector! Afterwards, all was madness!"

FACT 18: PARTY EVENTS
Most of the party participants were dancing most of the night. Before JP turned the lights off, it was impossible for anyone to leave for long. But after the lights were out, it would be much easier for someone to sneak away, at least for a few minutes.

"Hold… hold up," Nicole said, waving her hand at me. "How do you know when everything happened in the studio, again?"

"The drum machine," I said. "It counts up every four beats, so just subtracted to figure out when it was turned on. It was about an hour and a half before we found Emily."

Nicole squinted at me blearily. "Is that how it works? Like… how do we know it didn't start in the middle or something?"

"It can't," Rocky insisted. "It just counts up as long as the beat's on."

"Why!" Earl burst out. There was a pause. "Would!"

We looked at him expectantly. "Um, yeah?" Rocky ventured. "Why would…"

"The killer turn on the drum machine?!" Earl finished sharply, looking proud of himself for finishing his thought.

"Hm, that's a good question," Rocky replied. "Seems kinda dumb. I mean, unless they just wanted to dance while they committed murder. I relate."

"Maybe it's a distraction!" Ashley exclaimed. "Maybe she was killed elsewhere and left in the studio!"

"She wasn't," Juliet murmured.

"Naw, she was totally killed in the studio" Rocky spoke up. "We have... pretty direct evidence for it; I just don't want to think about it."

FACT 20: VIDEOS (revised).
Rocky found a USB stick in Emily's sock which contained two video files, which appear to have been recorded on a digital camera tonight. The first video appears to have been recorded by the killer, and it mostly consists of them torturing Emily. The second video shows nothing, but there is audio of Emily pleading for her life before, apparently, she is killed.

"She was killed in the studio, where we found her."

Ashley nodded. "Indeed. That appears inarguable. A video could be doctored, but I doubt anyone could do it in such a short amount of time."

"Ugh, oh god, seriously?" Nicole asked. "They took a video? Why? That's fucking psycho." She thought for a moment. "Also, it's fuckin' stupid."

Bepi was resting his head down on his lectern. "Killers sometimes want whassaword. Trophies."

"Whoop whoop!" yelped Jane very suddenly. Her enormous grin did not waver. The grid was gradually turning into outright plaid.

"Trophies?" JP muttered, wisely ignoring Jane. "That's sick."

"Yeah, but I don't think that's why the killer did it," I said. "The actual reason might be just as sick, though. Lucina, Rocky, and I found something in the studio which mentioned recording parts of this murder…"

FACT 4: OLD DOCUMENT.
At the scene of the murder, there was an old printout describing the process of committing a ritual murder. This ritual is associated with JP's fraternity: Chi Chi Chi.

Rodrigo was ashen pale. "An evil murder, hoping to harness demonic powers." He hung his head. "This is precisely the kind of wickedness I have been trained to battle…"

Earl shook his head, looking nauseated. "Don't blame yourself. We all lived among a vicious Menchenfresser without knowing it."

Rodrigo frowned, then nodded in understanding. "Ah, I see. Friend Morale reverts back to his native Japanese when intoxicated."

Katy raised a trembling hand. "Um. The email said… she had other wounds. "Could that have been because of this… ritual?"

"Yes," I said, nodding. "A lot of aspects of the murder matched the details in the ritual. Emily was the 'Scapegoat,' Juliet was the 'Witness,' and there was a mannequin we found which could have been the 'Simulacrum.'"

"Wait!" Barret screeched suddenly. "Chi chi chi! That's your fraternity!" He pointed at JP triumphantly. "You must have done it!"

JP gaped at him. "No! Dude, we're a fraternity, not some kind of… weirdo Satanic thing! We don't have rituals!"

"Dude, you got a creepy altar in your house," Nicole said.

"That's for BONDING."

She rolled her eyes. "Right. Bonding, like the secret papers from the fifties or whatever?"

"I don't know what those are!" JP insisted. "Seriously, guys, I've never heard of any crazy chi chi chi rituals."

"Let's think about this," I said. "Because… I wonder if this isn't the only piece of evidence implicating JP."

"What?!" JP waved his hands around in distress.

"You did turn the lights off in the party," Rodrigo said.

"And Juliet was found in your little apartment!" Ashley added. She blinked and looked over next to her; Lucina was holding out a piece of paper. Ashley took it, skimmed over it, and announced, "Lucina says she found something pretty concrete! In your bedroom, there were tools that were almost certainly used in the crime."

FACT 14: DUCT TAPE AND BANDAGES
A drawer in JP's frat house room contained a blood-spattered roll of duct tape and set of bandages.

JP's mouth hung open; he was pale and sweating. "I swear, I didn't put that there!" he said. "I don't know where any of that shit came from. And anyone could have put Juliet and that creepy mannequin in my apartment! We were all partying next door!"

"No more lies, Unherlichkeithund!" Earl barked.

"Oh my god, stop yelling," Bepi moaned, holding on tight to his lectern.

"Dudes, I swear…"

"If your fraternity's so innocent, how come we found that creepy document?" Rocky interrupted. "That's definitely been around a while; look at it. It's all… old-looking."

"JP did it!" Nicole yelled.

"Burn the fratboy!" Barrett agreed.

"Well!" Monokuma's voice drifted down on us. "Are you all done already? You've all made up your minds? Ready to vote?!"

"No!" I yipped hastily. "Everyone, let's… let's calm down, okay? Try to be rational?"

"Burn the fratboy!" Barrett yelled again.

"But hold on! He might not have done it!"

"I don't fucking care if he did it or not, I just want to burn him."

I glowered at Barrett then continued. "Look, that document we found is… kind of suspicious. Because sure, it looked old, but that doesn't mean it really was old. There was a really convenient way to make a document like that. Remember Nicole?"

Nicole looked at me blankly. "I don't remember what happened five minutes ago."

"Um. A couple of days ago. You were complaining about it."

"Ugg," she grunted. "It's like, super easy to do all this stupid filter crap, but I can't select anything." She clicked around on the set of options. "Ooo, look, I can make it all sepia-tone! Now it looks like a kid's crayon drawing! Now it looks all metallic!" She sighed. "If I wanted to make a coat out of crayon, I'd..." She trailed off, tapping her chin in thought. "Saya! Remind me that I totally want to make a crayon coat, okay?"

"Ohh yeah. Crayon coat. Thanks, Saya!"

"No… no. The computer lab. It had printers, and also the software let you use a bunch of filters. It'd be easy to make something that looked old even if it wasn't, right?"

Ashley put her hands on her hips. "That's not proof," she said. "With so many clues pointing to JP, we need more than speculation."

"Okay… there was something else weird I noticed about the ritual document. I remembered something JP said the other day…"

"Um, JP?"

"Aaugh!" He screeched, spun around, and threw his hand up into a salute. "Sir! Chi chi chi was first nationally sanctioned by President John Tyler in Princeton, New Jersey!"

Rodrigo blinked at me. "What's important about such a trivial moment?"

"Um, well, you might not know this if you're not American, but remember what the document said?"

Ritual 33FB is the second-oldest ceremony in Chi Chi Chi history: Its first recorded performance was only two years after the chapter had been certified, in 1865.

Nearly everyone in the room looked at me blankly (the only exception was Ashley, who nodded in understanding). "Okay," I said, "maybe you only know it if you're American and a total nerd. But, um, John Tyler wasn't president any time close to 1865. I'm pretty sure he was dead by then."

"Yeah!" JP agreed. "Trip-chi is way older than 1865!"

Ashley glowered. "He's still the source of this information. He could have been lying about President Tyler, the first president to reach the office without being elected, known by the epithet 'His Accidency.'"

"Dude, couldn't be wrong about that stuff if I wanted to!"

I frowned. "Yeah. I really just have a gut feeling there's more going on here. If only there was objective evidence…"

"Wait." Bepi spoke up. He had both hands on his lectern and was staring down at it. "Wait. Wait wait wait. Hold on. Wait."

There was a long pause. Eventually, Rodrigo tried to speak up. "Do you…"

"Wait." Bepi took a deep breath, then looked up, eye bleary. "Why are we talking about JP? He couldn't have done it. We already figured that out."

"What?" Ashley gaped at him. "We did no such thing!"

"Yeah, we did!" Bepi insisted. "With… with Saya's timeline. Right? Remember?"

"Yes," I said, pretending to come to a sudden realization. "Of course! The killer was on video in the music studio at about the same time JP was turning the lights off. He couldn't be in two places at once!"

"But why the document?" Rocky asked. "Why the tape in the drawer? And the creepy mannequin?"

"Because they're trying to fucking frame me!" JP burst out.

Rodrigo nodded. "Yes, it seems that must be the case."

"But that's so awful," Katy whimpered. "All that time, hurting Emily? Making Juliet watch? Taking those… horrible, horrible videos? Just to… to pretend to be doing a ritual that's made up anyway? All to frame JP?"

Ashley nodded. "It does seem… unnecessarily extravagant." She sighed. "But if we know JP must be innocent, then a frame-up is the only explanation. Leaving Juliet and the mannequin in his living area, planting the document in the studio and the tape in the bedroom… all designed to make us think he did it."

Earl frowned, drooping over his lectern. "If not JP, who could the killer be?"

"I'm afraid I know," Rodrigo said. "It's cruel and terrible, but I know who the killer must be."

"How?" I asked, although I knew what he was going to say.

"It's simple process of elimination. When Emily and Juliet were initially captured and subdued, nearly all of us were at the party, three chaperones monitoring all present, lights on to illuminate any wrongdoing. I'm certain no one vanished for long enough to arrange this crime."

I faltered, taking an uncertain step back. "Wait, you're not saying…"

"Yes. The only one who could possibly have been the killer is the other individual missing from the party!"

Earl pointed at Lucina with a rigid, stiff arm. "You! It must have been you!"

"Burn the fuckin' conductor!" Barrett yelled.

Lucina, for her part, shrunk on herself and shook her head frantically.

"Hey, no," I said. "Wait. It can't be Lucina. She can't talk, remember? But Rodrigo, when we found Juliet, she specifically told us the killer asked her which of them should be killed."

Juliet let out a quiet sob. She stared at nothing, her breathing fast.

"Aha!" Rocky exclaimed. "You're forgetting something, Saya. In the music studio!"

FACT 5: CRIME SCENE NOTE
There was a piece of paper in the trash can directing someone to choose which of two people will die.

"The killer asked her with a note, not by speaking!"

"Buuuurn the conduuuuctor!" Barrett screeched.

"Indeed!" Earl exclaimed. "Her guilt is inarguable!"

Katy put her hand on her chest and stared at Lucina with huge, tear-filled eyes. "Is it true? Did you do this to Emily? I thought you were her friend…"

Lucina just shook her head back and forth violently, then she looked right at me with pleading eyes. I decided enough was enough.

"Everyone… I don't want to believe Lucina could have done this," I said. "But I also think there's hard evidence she didn't."

"Gauuugh," Nicole moaned, rolling her eyes. "I'm sick of evidence!"

"But this is important!" I insisted. "Our lives depend on convicting the right person! Isn't it worth it to consider all the information we could find?"

Nicole started to argue, but Ashley cut her off. "Sober person vote! All in favor of more hard evidence, raise your hands!" Rocky, Rodrigo, Ashley, and I all raised our hands. "The sober motion passes! Please proceed."

I started to speak, but Bepi raised his hand. We all looked at him expectantly, but he just stared back. "Oh, um, I'm voting for… uh." He lowered his hand. "Never mind."

"Um, okay." I gave as reassuring a look to Lucina as I could. "We found a costume in the frat house. Juliet said the killer wore it."

Juliet nodded whimperingly.

FACT 12: GREMLIN COSTUME
Someone duct-taped a Halloween gremlin mask to a rain poncho to make a billowing, full-body costume. The outside of the costume was spattered with blood, but the inside was clean.

"God, that's so creepy," Nicole muttered. "Where'd they even find something like that?"

"I think they must have made it," I answered. "They bought the duct tape and the poncho at the student stores, and as for the mask…"

Nicole chatted pleasantly as we walked; Barrett said nothing. When we arrived at the theater, we followed Nicole backstage and into a side room. It was completely filled with costumes: clothes, wigs, and even masks.

"…I think they must have found it right there at the arts center, in the costume shop."

"Well, that's psycho nightmare shit, but who cares, huh?" Barrett asked. "Made a creepy costume, so what?"

"So, this particular costume couldn't have been worn by Lucina," I insisted. "Because she held it in the frat house, and I noticed something."

In distaste, he thrust the poncho out to Lucina, who, after a moment of confusion, took it. She held it at arms' length by the shoulders, so it draped down. It was wide and billowy, reaching down to Lucina's knees; she was the tallest of my classmates, so it would easily cover most other people completely.

"She's the tallest of everyone, and it wouldn't have covered her whole body. I think Earl is second-tallest, and she's still got three inches on him, at least."

"Why's that even important?" JP asked.

I sighed. "Emily's death… she had a lot of cuts on her, and there was a lot of blood. And the killer had to be close by, inflicting the cuts and even bandaging some of the wounds."

FACT 2: EMILY'S WOUNDS.
Emily's body is covered with wounds of various sizes which all look to have been made with a blade of some kind. Some of the larger wounds were carefully bandaged.

"It's really, really unlikely Lucina could have done that without getting blood on her jeans. But she's clean."

FACT 8: LUCINA'S TESTIMONY
Lucina says she was in the theater all night and didn't hear or see anyone. There are no bloodstains on her body or clothes.

Ashley scowled at me. "As you said, our lives are at risk. I hope you have more than 'really unlikely.'"

I nodded. "In fact, I do. There's v…"

Jane suddenly made a loud, protracted raspberry sound with her mouth. When she was done, she just grinned into think air. We all stared at her.

I tried to recover my poise as best I could. "…Anyway, there's video evidence."

The camera slowly panned around and came to rest on Emily, duct-taped to the chair and alive, staring up in terror. The camera was placed down on the floor, showing Emily's legs and the bottom of the chair she was sitting in.

"Please," she whimpered. "I don't... understand, but please don't..."

The bottom of the black poncho, obscuring even the slightest glimpse of the wearer's feet, walked into the camera range, standing in front of her. The ceremonial dagger dangled down from the top of the screen, flashing in the light.

"The poncho fit whoever was in the video," I said. "So it couldn't have been Lucina."

"Oh thank god," Katy exclaimed. "It couldn't have been Lucina. Oh god." She took a long breath. "I'm so relieved."

I put my hands on my hips and scrunched up my face in confusion. "But that's where I'm stuck," I said, scratching my head, which perhaps was a step too far. "Because if it couldn't have been Lucina, and it couldn't have been anyone at the party, that eliminates everyone. Who could have captured Emily?"

There was a long pause, as we looked around at one another in confusion.

Finally, Ashley crossed her arms. "Ah." She nodded. "We have not quite eliminated every suspect." Her face fell into a glare, and she looked across the circle at the cowering, blood-covered, sniffling ultimate girlfriend. "There's still one possibility, isn't there?"

Juliet blinked up at her, confusion streaked across her face. "…What?"

"Juliet was on the scene. She was covered with the blood of the deceased…."

"No!" Juliet whimpered, beginning to sob. "No no, I'm the victim!"

But Ashley kept going. "…She was found near a place where false evidence was planted, she went out of her way to be alone with the victim at the time the murder took place…"

"No no no!" Juliet begged. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm terrible and awful and evil but I didn't!" She threw her arms over her head and wailed. "I didn't, I didn't!"

"Coelho!" Earl reprimanded. "You must not accost a trauma lady!" (I assume he meant to say "traumatized.")

Ashley grimaced. "Is she trauma? Or is she just a good actor?" She scowled at Juliet in disdain. "She's our only suspect."

"She has suffered enough!" Earl insisted. "Remember the videos Wild described? She appeared in those, so she cannot be the killer."

I put a finger in the air. "Actually… that isn't true. We hear Juliet, but we never actually see her."

"Stop it!" Juliet's voice rang out, clear and horrified. "Let us go, let us go!"

Emily didn't yell anything as the dagger was raised out of the frame. But she did screech a second later. A spurt of blood landed on the floor next to her.

The video went on for five more minutes. I watched it all. Juliet kept yelling, "Let us go!" and Emily kept yelping in pain.

Earl frowned. "Still! I.."

"Vote for me!"

Everyone froze and looked at Juliet, whose scream had been maybe the most heartbroken, despairing sound I'd ever heard. She pressed her hands against her temples as if trying to crush her own head. "Vote for me, vote for me!"

Rodrigo leaned forward. "Friend Mountebank, are you confessing?"

"It's my fault!" Juliet insisted. "It's all my fault, it's all my fault!" She desperately looked around the circle at us all. "Please! I can't… I can't bear this. I can't! I'm the one who said to kill Emily! She had to hear me say it! I deserve to be executed, I should be executed! She was so wonderful, and she'd be alive if I was just stronger…"

Even despite everything, I felt tears in my eyes watching her. "Juliet… you're saying you didn't kill her?"

"I did!" Juliet screeched. "It's my fault. It doesn't matter how she died; I'm the reason she's dead." She stared up at Monokuma with imploring eyes. "That has to be enough, right? It's my fault!"

"Nope!" Monokuma said simply.

"But… but no!" Juliet wailed. "It's my fault!"

"The murderer is the one who dealt the killing blow," Monokuma intoned. "I'm surprised at you; you're a better student than that. I thought you paid attention in class."

Juliet's mouth fell open. "But… but no! I…"

"Juliet." I kept my voice as stern as I could. "Stop."

She flinched as if someone hit her. "I… Saya…"

I decided it was best to ignore her. "Did anyone else notice that Juliet started trying to change the subject when we were discussing the first video?"

Her voice was a weak, pathetic moan, and it almost, almost broke my resolve. "Saya, please…"

"I think I know why Juliet did that. It's because that video is inescapable evidence against her."

Katy looked despondent. "How?"

"Because it doesn't match up with the story she gave us. She specifically mentioned being gagged."

"The thing in your mouth," I said, holding up the wires from the studio. "Was it this?"

Juliet gasped and buried her face back in Rodrigo's neck. "Yes! Yes yes, oh god. It was wrapped around behind me, I couldn't..." She sobbed again. "They only took it off to ask me who should die. Then they put it back in. Oh god..."

"But then, in the video…"

"Stop it!" Juliet's voice rang out, clear and horrified. "Let us go, let us go!"

"She spoke. She couldn't have been gagged."

"It wasn't a real gag!" Juliet wailed. "It was just some wires! I could still talk, I just…"

"You would have been able to make sounds," I interrupted. "But with thick wire in your mouth, biting down on it with your molars? You definitely would not have been able to make an L sound."

She faltered, then looked around the circle at everyone else. "This isn't true! I just… I just was confused when I was saying it! I didn't have the gag all the time."

Rodrigo pressed a hand against his head; he looked completely baffled. "I… I feel overwhelmed. How could this be?"

"This also clears up another aspect of the case I was confused about," I said. "How did the killer move both Juliet and the mannequin to the frat house without taking two trips, which would be twice as risky? But if the killer is Juliet herself, she could have just carried the mannequin."

"Aha!" JP suddenly exclaimed, pointing at me. "That doesn't make sense!" He grinned proudly. "Because of the costume!"

Everyone looked at him blankly, except Juliet who looked at him as if he was literally Jesus Christ. "What about the costume?" Nicole asked.

"Psht, think about it!" JP asserted. "It'd be really stupid to wander around the quad without it, right? So the killer would definitely wear it to carry the mannequin to the frat house. Right?"

I looked at him skeptically. "Right…?"

"Well, but both Juliet and the costume were all covered in blood! Remember?"

"The inside was clean!" He smacked his fist into his palm with certainty. "Get it? If Juliet had worn the costume, she'd have gotten blood all over the inside!" He thrust a finger in the air suddenly. "Oh! And the mannequin! Whether or not she'd been wearing the costume, she'd have gotten blood on the mannequin, if she was carrying it. But it wasn't bloody!"

Juliet looked to him desperately. "I don't understand… but if this proves I didn't do it, thank you, JP! Thank you so much!"

I shook my head. "I have a theory about this," I said. "I don't have proof, but it makes sense. It's witness testimony,"

Bepi gaped. "How is witness tistima… toostaym… yes. How is that not proof?"

I shrugged. "Well, because the witness in question is, um. Not at her best." I looked at Jane, who was drooling.

"Oh, c'mon," JP argued. "We can't listen to Jane, she's on shrooms or something."

"I wouldn't trust everything she's said," I replied. "But she saw something outside not long before Rodrigo and I found Juliet. It's possible she really saw the killer out the window."

"Ghost!" She looked delighted. "It was outside. Had a white face, white, like the moon. It had something big in its arms, like a body. It was alone. Ghosts are scary."

"I think she saw Juliet carrying the mannequin."

"Gggggghost," Jane agreed.

"Oh, whatever," JP said. "She also said this ghost had a big white face like the moon. Juliet isn't that pale, and the costume's mask is green, not white."

I tilted my head at him. "Is it? The whole mask?"

"Um, duh!" JP shook his head at me, frustrated, but Lucina's look told me she understood what I meant.

"You're wrong." I looked at JP blankly. "The entire mask wasn't green. Part of it was white."

I looked closer at the costume. It was a large, flowing, black poncho duct-taped to a green, floppy, full-head gremlin mask to create ghoulish kind of cloak. The inside of the mask was white, so the empty eye holes looked like horrible, iris-less eyeballs staring at me.

Nicole pointed at me with bleary understanding. "Oh shit," she said. "Oh shit! She wore it inside-out!"

I nodded. "She hurts Emily with the knife, getting blood on the outside of the costume. Then she turned the costume inside out like a tube sock and wore it that way when carrying the mannequin, getting blood on herself, but not on the mannequin. Then she turned it back and planted it in the frathouse." I nodded smarty at JP. "So, it's totally possible for Juliet to have worn the costume."

JP started to say something, but there was a sudden hissing, rasping, grating sound. It was strange and eerie, like a distant, angry cat or a squeaking door. I noticed several of us looking around the room, trying to find the source of the sound. "What is that?" Nicole muttered. "Where… oh fuck."

She had found the source of the noise. She was staring in terror right at Juliet.

Juliet had changed. She had both her hands on her lectern, squeezing it so hard, her hands were eggshell white. She was looking straight at me, an expression on her face like a starving wolf. She was growling in the back of her throat. I don't think anyone knew what to say.

The growl ended with a harsh, coughing bark. Blood and tear streaks coated her face like war paint, and she just stared. "It was supposed to be you," she said.

I took a step back. I realized the look on her face was the look of someone who wanted to kill me.

"It was supposed to be you, Saya," she continued. "I would have loved… it would have meant more. And I almost had you." She blinked and suddenly was bimbo again. "Oh, Saya, are you suuuuure you don't want to drink at the party?! Wouldn't it be so much fun to get dressed up? I think I've seen Katy checking you out…!" She blinked again; monster. "You disgusting, deviant bitch. I almost had you."

Katy whimpered, like she was in physical pain. "Juliet…?"

Slowly, Juliet turned her head to look at Katy. No other part of her body moved. "I still… got something out of Emily, though," she said, eyes oddly blank. "She was a useless nobody. No one loved her. She lived in no one's heart. Useless, pointless girl."

"Oh my god," Bepi muttered.

"And it's… it's poetic." Juliet swung her head around like a puppet on strings to look back at me. "Someone couldn't walk because of her. How… how sweet that she be sacrificed so these fine, strong men wouldn't be crippled, too."

"…What?" Rodrigo stuttered, baffled. "You did this to save us from being unable to walk?!"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Ashley snapped. "If you had escaped, they'd all have been executed!"

"Yes, but they wouldn't be crippled," Juliet explained. "Better for a man to die strong and able and tall than wither like a… like a rotting vegetable."

She smiled; it looked like someone who had seen smiling described but never done it before. "I've needed to leave here since the start. I've needed, needed to be with my sweetheart. But I couldn't do it until it'd be helping everyone. See? I could never be evil. I only act for love."

Katy suddenly slammed a fist into her lectern, surprising us all. "Love?! You act for… how can you say that?! You don't know what love is, if you could hurt Emily like that!"

Juliet looked at her, bloody froth at the corner of her mouth. "I learned about love tonight. Emily taught me. I told her I would let her go if she kissed me." I genuinely thought I couldn't be hurt any more, but I suddenly couldn't breathe after hearing Juliet say that.

"What was that quote from that romantic book I read once?" Juliet continued, swooning. "'You learn so much about love from a girl's first, pure kiss. You learn the path of her heart, the cinnamon-sweet promise of her innocence.'" She leered at Katy. "Have you read that book? I can't quite remember who wrote it. Such a beautiful, beautiful line."

Juliet suddenly opened her blue eyes widely, affecting a terrified, meek expression. "I'll do more, if you want," she bleated with a perfect English accent. "I'll do anything. I'll let you…"

"Enough!" Earl suddenly barked, face pale as chalk. "Enough, Teufel!"

"Burn her up!" Barrett exclaimed, not nearly as loudly as before. "Seriously, fucking burn her now!"

Juliet just laughed; it was exactly the same as her usual laugh, trippingly light and cheerful. I felt dizzy.

"What the hell are you laughing about?" JP yelled at her. "You're going to get executed!"

She shook her head. "No, I won't. I trust the people here. They believe in love. They wouldn't let me be apart from my sweetheart. I trust you all." She smiled up at Monokuma. "May we vote?"

"Why, absolutely!" Monokuma yipped with glee. "If you're all ready, then we'll vote right now!" I wanted to reach out, to yell, to stop this whole horrible night, but I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything but gape. "Just press the button on…"

A horrible, hacking sound interrupted him. Jane was gagging, and her entire upper body, hair, eyes, and skin, was a shifting array of lines and patterns. She spasmed for a moment, then suddenly collapsed onto her knees. She retched, and an enormous amount of light blue liquid spilled out of her mouth onto the floor.

"Agg, what the hell!" Bepi yelled.

The patterns on Jane's body drained from her body like she was vomiting them out. After a surprisingly long time, the liquid stopped coming out. She perched on her hands and knees, breathing deeply, looking as normal as she ever looked. Thankfully, the blue liquid appeared to have no odor.

"What the hell is that stuff?!" JP asked, looking terrified of it.

"It's hydrogen peroxide," Jane answered shakily. "And water. It's what my body makes when… ugh." She rocked back onto her knees and put a hand to her forehead. "Who," she grunted, "the fuck gave me alcohol? Why did…" She looked around, realizing where we were. "…What? What happened? Did…"

And then her eyes fell upon Emily's portrait, that X constellation over her softly smiling face. She just stared in shock.

Rodrigo looked so sad. "Friend Edwards…"

"Who." Jane's voice was quiet, but it filled the whole room. She struggled up to her feet. "Who! Who who who who?!"

"Juliet!" JP squeaked.

Jane's gaze whipped to Juliet, who smiled primly back to her. "How?"

"She stabbed her," Rocky said. "In the hea…"

"No!" Jane's head whipped around to him, then swept the whole room. "How do you know? How did you figure it out?!"

"We were just about to vote," Juliet began, but Jane pointed a finger at her like a gunshot.

"You shut up! How can I be sure it was her?"

"Um, we caught her in a lie," JP answered, looking as if he didn't know which person in the circle to be most terrified of. "She said she was captured and gagged the whole time, but she took a video, and on the video she talked. So she had to be lying about being gagged!"

Jane stared at him. JP blanched. "Um. Because you can't talk then you're gagged?"

"I know that, fuckboy," Jane growled. She glared at Juliet, sizing her up like she was prey. "You're saying this bitch captured Emily and k…killed her. And you know because she lied about being gagged? She specifically fucking said she was gagged the whole time?"

I still felt stunned by Juliet, but Jane's rage began to give me energy. "Yes," I croaked. "That was the evidence."

Jane shook her head, chuckling darkly. "You fucking idiots," she muttered. "What is wrong with you all?!" She pointed at Juliet, who, I realized, had literally not moved for at least a full minute. "Emily was smart. You hear me? She was a fucking genius! And you're saying this bimbo was smart enough to get her but dumb enough to make a mistake like that?!"

Juliet laughed. "I didn't have to be smart. I…"

"Fuck you!" Jane screeched. She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "Are you people fucking kidding me? She goes out of her way to say she was gagged the whole time, but she took a video of herself talking and just left it lying around?!"

"Wait," Earl said, putting a hand up. "Please, Edwards, be slower. Are you suggesting Mountebank is deliberately criminaling herself?"

"You won't vote for me," Juliet spoke up.

"Shut up!"

"Love is bigger than you!" Juliet yelled back, mania tinging her voice. "I tortured your little bitch sidekick for love, and I'd do it again! I cut her over and over, I heard her call out for help from God, from her mother, from Rodrigo. But I never heard her say your name." She grinned at Jane. "When you were gone, she just forgot about you; she didn't even die wishing you'd save her, because she didn't think about you at all."

Jane's mouth fell open, but I decided to seize the opportunity. "She's still doing it!" I yelped. "Listen, everyone. Her behavior in this trial hasn't made sense, if she was guilty. It's as if she's trying to make us vote for her. She'll say whatever horrible things she has to say in order to make us so furious, we stop thinking about this case."

I glared at her, but I kept talking without giving her a chance to jump in. "I'm sure she'll say something awful to me in a second. But that's why you took the videos, right? That's why you made up such a horrible, fake ritual. You were vicious and cruel to someone innocent and good, and you made sure we knew everything you did. You were trying to make us vote for you."

In a blindingly flash motion, Juliet leaped forward across the circle to perch atop my lectern. All I heard was a snarl and a whoosh; before I knew what was happening, she was clawing at my eyes, hissing like an animal.

"Waaugh, holy shit!" Monokuma's voice rang out, and chains quickly descended from the ceiling, hooked around her arms, and pulled her away. She hung there in the middle of the circle, staring at me, expression suddenly blank.

"None of that!" Monokuma yelled sternly. "Miss Mountebank, I'm surprised at you! You're usually such a model student."

"This is all completely nuts," Nicole muttered. "Why would Juliet want us to vote for her, if she wasn't the killer? If we do, someone else goes free and she dies, right? Even if she helped?"

"Correct!" Monokuma confirmed, shaking his paw at Juliet. "A fact you all should know!"

"But who would do that?!" Nicole asked. "No one would just, 'Oh here, you murder this chick and I'll just be over here getting executed.'"

"The Ultimate Girlfriend would," Ashley said. There was a pause as she looked suspiciously around the room. "For her sweetheart."

We looked around at each other; a chill going through the room. "Could one of us have been her sweetheart all along?" Katy asked.

Earl stamped his foot. "Please, colleagues. For the sake of we who… who are struggling to stay on top of things. What are you saying?"

Rodrigo raised his hand. "I believe… I believe the idea is that Juliet captured Friend Voss, tortured her, and acting self-incriminatingly during this trial, but someone else actually acted to cause her death."

"Mountebank arranged the murder, but did not commit it?" Earl frowned. "How can we be certain? Is there Beweis?"

"There is a lot of circumstantial evidence," I replied. "This explains a whole lot of confusing things about this murder. There were strange aspects that seemed to be deliberately providing us information."

FACT 6: DRUM MACHINE
The drum machine in Rocky's studio has been on for about an hour and a half. He insists it was off when he left before the party.

"Like, why was the drum machine on? Why turn something on that not only tells us when the killer got to the studio, but also times everything that happened?"

But, as the image panned over away from the mask to show Emily, I noticed something. As it turned, it moved across Rocky's control panel, and, although it took me a couple of tries, I paused it at the right moment. There was a clear image of the bar counter. It read 344. Doing some quick math, that was about 10 minutes.

"It's an incredibly stupid mistake, if it's an accident," I said. "But what if it was on purpose? What if the point was to give the real killer an alibi? While Juliet was filming that first video, we were all at the party."

"Yo, maybe we're giving her too much credit?" Nicole offered. "She's psycho, apparently, but that doesn't mean she's not dumb."

Lucina waved her hands around. When she caught everyone's attention, she made an X motion across her torso.

"That's not quite right, Friend Sorenson," Rodrigo said. "You're supposed to start at your forehead and go vertically. Keep practicing; you'll get it!"

"Uh, no," Rocky ventured. "She means Emily. She had an X on her shirt in duct tape. Like, right over her heart, where the knife was."

FACT 3: STAB WOUND
Emily was killed by the dagger from the Tomb in the frat house. There was an X pattern in duct tape on the front of her blouse, and she was stabbed right in the center of it.

He paused for a moment, then gasped. "Oh! Maybe… if Juliet arranged everything, she put that X there so the real killer would have a target!"

I nodded. "The ritual document she made said the victim had to be stabbed in the heart, so she had to be sure that's what happened."

Ashley glowered. "That was the bandages too, wasn't it?"

FACT 2: EMILY'S WOUNDS.
Emily's body is covered with wounds of various sizes which all look to have been made with a blade of some kind. Some of the larger wounds were carefully bandaged.

"You couldn't risk her bleeding to death too soon." Ashley put a hand on her chest and sighed. "I knew you were too well-nourished to be trusted."

"So many stories," Juliet mused, spinning idly on her chains. "Keep telling your stories, little children."

"This isn't just a story," I insisted. "There's evidence. Hard evidence that more than one person was directly involved in this murder."

"What?!" Nicole bellowed. "What evidence?"

I sighed. "It involves something only Rocky and I have seen. The second video Juliet took. It's… horrific. I didn't want to bring it up if I didn't have to, but…"

The video opened up showing a corner of the studio where nothing was happening; the camera was on the floor and pointed away from Emily. But I could hear her, crying. Juliet blubbered and moaned wordlessly.

I heard a footstep, and Emily's voice hitched. "P-please..." she stammered. "I-I don't ex-ex-exactly understand w-what you want, but please..." She sniffled and bawled. "I-I'm ex-ex-extremely afraid, please. Please d-don't. P-please." There was a pause. "I promise... I-I promise I w-won't ex-ex-expose y-you. I promise! Just please d-don't. D..." And then there was the sudden sound of running footsteps, a wet crunch, and a very short shriek. A moment later, Juliet's voice screamed, fading out into a moan. More footsteps, and the video abruptly ended.

Jane's mouth was a straight line across her face; she just stared at Juliet. Juliet's eyes were on me, blankly, like a mannequin.

"What does that prove?" Ashley asked.

"Nothing, on its own." I glanced up at Juliet. "But along with something Rocky mentioned a minute ago, it proves a lot."

FACT 3: STAB WOUND (revised).
Emily was killed by the dagger from the Tomb in the frat house. There was an X pattern in duct tape on the front of her blouse, and she was stabbed right in the center of it. The blouse was bunched up in the back, indicating someone was grabbing it and pulling it tight when she was stabbed.

"To line the X up with Emily's heart, someone had to be holding on to her blouse and pulling back. But in the video…"

"The killer got a running start," Ashley interrupted, pale. "We heard it."

I nodded. "The only way it could go is if one person was behind Emily pulling back on her blouse, and the other person was in front, with the dagger."

There was a silence.

"Who?" JP asked.

"It could have been anyone," Ashley said in a trembling voice. "Anyone could have left the party long enough to kill her, if Juliet did everything else."

"Psst!" Nicole hissed to Barrett. "You have any idea what the fuck is going on?"

"Gonna burn the girlfriend, I think," Barrett stage-whispered back.

"No, we're not," Katy snapped. She was crying again; I wondered how she possibly could keep feeling so much after a night like tonight. "We're gonna kill someone else." She sniffled and looked up at us all hopelessly. "Emily's dead and someone killed her, and Juliet just…" She watched the ultimate girlfriend just swing from her chains, humming tunelessly. "…if this is who she really is, then she doesn't even know. She's just crazy, and she doesn't even know what she did wrong, and someone else is gonna die and Juliet will stay alive it's all just stupid and pointless."

She suddenly collapsed to her knees, holding on to her lectern to keep from falling all the way onto the floor. "Someone… whoever figured it out, just tell us who. Just end this, please, I just want to sleep. I can't do this anymore."

We all looked around at one another. I noticed Bepi, Lucina, and (hm) Ashley looking especially at me, but I was helpless. I didn't know. This was as far as I'd gotten.

I realized Juliet wasn't humming tunelessly; she was humming "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

We all just looked around at one another, drooping and drunk and baffled. I had no idea what to do.

"Borrrriinnnnnng," Monokuma warbled. "If you're done discussing things, it's time to vote!"

"Wait, madman!" Rodrigo protested. "We don't know who to vote for yet!"

"You look pretty stuck to me," Monokuma remarked. "Looks like you'll have to just do your best! Ready?"

I don't know why, but as he laughed, I found myself looking at Emily's portrait, at her adorable smile and intelligent eyes. That horrible constellation was splashed across her face, but SHE was still visible, looking just like she did when she was alive.

My mouth fell open.

"All right, kiddos, time to…"

"Wait!" I exclaimed. "I know who did it!"

Everyone turned to me in shock, Juliet included. "How?!" Earl bellowed.

"Because she told us." My voice was tinged with something like awe. "Because Emily told us."