I had trouble leaving the elevator. I wasn't sure why. Bepi noticed, and he hung back after everyone else left.

"Scared?" he asked, not without sympathy.

I shook my head. "No. Not exactly." I frowned at him. "Everyone's been treating me like a strong person. Like a leader or... like I'm important."

"Yeah. Because you are."

"I don't like it."

He shrugged. "Well. You did make the wrong choice to have us go to the Cricket. Of course it didn't say any of us were lying."

"Huh?" I raised an eyebrow at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

Well. Because we were all sitting."

"Oh christ almighty." I slapped him in the arm and headed out into the hallway. "Come on, you dumbass."

He grinned and followed.

TRIAL ROOM

Monokuma had apparently gotten the courtroom-updater to work again. Instead of the dingy hotel conference room we had last time, now there was a large, warmly lit room, filled ancient-looking relics and shards and pillars... kind of like a cross between a museum and an attic.

He also fixed the trial circle. There were now black-and-white pictures of Ashley (an ugly, dark rectangle painted over her mouth), Earl (tread-marks running across his face), and Nicole (one diagonal line slashed across her picture, and then another short line perpendicular to it, as if someone got distracted partway through drawing an X).

Barrett didn't have a picture. There was just a pile of black ash where his picture should have been.

Juliet snatched the Cricket notes from me as we walked to our places; I didn't find myself mustering much energy toward stopping her. Instead, I actually caught myself thinking, "Good, then she'll be able to help."

I didn't mean that she would help with figuring out who committed the murder. I didn't know what I meant at the time. I know now.

Monokuma stomped his little foot in irritation. "Hey, what's with all you gloomy kids?!" he barked. "This is the fifth truly great murder in a row! Sure, we already had a stabbing, but this time it was through the victim's eye! I always appreciate a murderer who keeps things fresh."

None of us said anything; we just looked up at him, dreary and cold and anxious.

"Gaugh!" He waved his paws around. "Come on, this is the best semester of students in years, and you're all mopey!" He sighed. "C'mon, Miss Edwards, say something offensive! Mr. Diaz, don't you want to say something hopeful and naive? Miss..."

"We're here for Barrett," Bepi interrupted, pointedly not looking at the bear. "He was hard to get along with, and he was dangerous. Saya and Rodrigo tell me he was trying to be a better person, and I believe them, but that doesn't matter. He was one of us. We had a duty to keep him alive, just like the rest of us, and we failed him. None of us can ever make that up." He looked straight at me for a moment, then kept looking around the rest of the circle. "We'll do the least we can do, and that's get justice by exposing his killer. Agreed?"

I found myself nodding, but a scoff to my left drew my attention. Jane was rolling her eyes. "Do you really believe that?"

Bepi stared back at her. "Unfortunately, yes. I do."

"Then you're an idiot."

Bepi nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. I am."

Jane grunted in annoyance. "Certainly I agree we must find his killer. But look at all of you. You're a mess."

"And you're not?" Rocky asked.

"Becoming less of a mess by the second, darling." Jane put a hand on her chin in a performative gesture of thoughtfulness. "I had been trying to force myself to care about his death, but that's foolish. I have dedicated myself to discovery and healing. Barrett dedicated himself to confusion and destruction. Perhaps..." She paused, then straightened herself up to full height. "Perhaps I am just a terrible person, but I aim to survive this place, and I refuse to be distracted with feigned sympathy for other terrible people."

Bepi looked back at her blankly. "Do what you want, I guess."

"I will." Jane looked around the circle, haughty and sexy. "If you're motivated by duty and guilt, wonderful. Just so long as you are motivated."

Monokuma gasped audibly. "Miss Edwards, are you emerging as a leader, pushing your classmates toward organized action?!"

"Go to hell," Jane said. That sounded like a 'yes' to me.

"I'm with Jane," Katy said hesitantly. "Maybe some of you have really noble reasons like justice or duty. But I just want to protect my friends and my... my girlfriend. That's my motivation."

"I wanna make more music," Rocky spoke up. "I dunno if that's selfish or not, but it's what I got." He paused and took a deep breath. "...You with me, Roddy?" he asked, glancing shyly at the paladin.

Rodrigo just nodded. "Our fallen comrades deserve for us to finish our funeral dirge."

Juliet chortled. "I just want to prove I'm smarter than everyone else around me," she mused blithely, then she paused. "Oh wait. That's Saya."

I glared up at her and prepared to snap out a denial, but Katy's voice interrupted me. "Good!" She sounded snide and defiant. "Because she is the smartest. And you know it, and the mastermind knows it too, and she's on our side!"

"Uggghhh I'm sorry I ever encouraged this!" Monokuma groaned. "Stop this nauseating display of socialism! This is not about teamwork, this is about proving your dominance in the natural hierarchy I've created here! The victim is Barrett Wood: find his killer or die! Go!"

Luckily, Bepi took the reins, willing to lead things along. "Fine. We have a killer who's done the impossible: they somehow committed murder without being caught by the Cricket."

"But that's impossible!" Rocky bellowed.

"Ugh, don't be an idiot," Jane snapped, rolling her eyes. "It happened, so it's not impossible."

"Gah, that makes my head hurt!" Rocky grunted. "Impossible or not, whatever! The point is, we didn't get anything out of the Cricket, and we barely investigated anything else! How are we gonna do this?"

"I think we just have to shift the way we look at this case," I suggested. "The other murders... they were about deducing how the crime was committed. This is different. Here, we have to deduce how the killer got away with lying to the machine. If we can identify that, we can identify the culprit."

"I understand, but I do not know how we can accomplish such a thing!" Rodrigo said. "We know nothing about the murder itself!"

Lucina held up a note. That's not true. We know what killed him and when. Monokuma's email, remember?

The deceased is Barrett Wood, the Ultimate Demolitionist. Time of death: approximately 11:15pm. Cause of death: Impalement through the eye with a metal table leg.

"That's right!" Katy agreed. "And we know where he died, too! In the Secret Information cube, with the personality test."

"Whoa, hold on," Jane said, holding up a hand. "Just because we found him there, that doesn't mean he was killed there."

"Yes, it does," I replied. "Remember the state of the crime scene?"

Blood was all over this room and the next room, but I remembered there hadn't been anything outside.

"He bled all over the place, but only inside the cube. If he'd been killed somewhere else and taken to that cube, there wouldn't be so much blood inside, and we'd probably have found some outside."

"Ugh," Katy muttered, looking queasy. "Yeah. That makes sense. And the cube is pretty private, especially that secret room. And with the state Barrett was in, he'd be easy to lure away."

No other injuries are present on the body, but he had high levels of valium and oxycontin in his system at time of death.

"You're welcome," Juliet said.

"So... please, let me think through what we know of this vile deed," Rodrigo said, thankfully not letting Juliet derail us. "Barrett was killed inside the secret information module at 11:15. That means the killer had to be there, too!"

"Whoa, slow down," Bepi said. "There was something else at the crime scene too, remember?"

And Barrett… Barrett just sat against the wall, as if he was relaxing. Across from him was an odd, pieced-together contraption, like the one I'd seen outside, which had launched the pizza tray.

"A trap!"

"Oh, shit," Rocky replied, frowning. "So the killer didn't have to be there at all! They could have gotten in earlier, set up the trap, and later sent Barrett to his doom!"

"Well, actually, maybe they didn't!" Jane spoke up. "We all know Barrett liked to wander aimlessly. Perhaps the killer didn't mean to target him. Maybe it was for someone else."

It's not like it hadn't occurred to me before that, but I suddenly could feel that note I'd gotten on my floor burning in my memory. I didn't want to mention it, not yet (and not ever, if I could get away with it), but unfortunately, Juliet had other ideas.

"Oh?" She grinned like an ogre. "Hm! I seem to remember some evidence suggesting someone else might have been the target after all! Isn't that right, Chessmistress?"

Without even thinking about it, I tilted my head and gazed at her blankly. "What? I don't know what you're talking about."

For a split-second, I saw something I'd never seen before: Juliet looking surprised. She quickly recovered and laughed. "Silly me, silly me. Always making things up." Rocky, thankfully, did not seem to know what we were talking about.

"Ugh," Jane mumbled, squeezing the ridge between her eyes. "So, the killer might or might not have been targeting him, and might or might not have even been there when he died. Is this what we have?"

"Hey, and that's not even mentioning crazy stuff like the shitty trap outside, or the goddamn weird murder weapon! Why a table leg?"

"I think we just don't know enough," Bepi agreed, "But it's a good start. We know when, where, and how he died. I think that's enough to move on to the Cricket. Like Saya said, that's the heart of the mystery."

"But the Cricket didn't help!" Rocky argued. "We all said we didn't do it, like, outright! One after another! Remember?"

Saya: No.
Bepi: I did not kill Barrett.
Lucina: I didn't do it either
Katy: I didn't kill him.
Juliet: I killed Barrett. (lie)
Jane: I did not kill Barrett Wood.
Rodrigo: I did not and would not kill Friend Barrett.
Rocky: Me neither.

"That's as blatant as it gets!"

"There was something else," Bepi said. "We also all went around and denied something else. It's the only other time we all made the same statement, so we should specifically remember it, too."

Giuseppe: I've done improvised weapons before. Uh, let me say very clearly though: I did not have anything to do with Barrett dying.
Jane: Needless to say, I could make an excellent murder trap. But I did not make anything involved in this murder.
Juliet: I can make booby traps, but I didn't make the ones that were in the South Quad tonight.
Lucina: I've never made a trap or anything like those machines in the quad in my life.
Saya: Me too. I didn't make those traps, and I couldn't if I wanted to.
Rodrigo: I am trained in the art of building simple machinery, but I have never actually done so.
Rocky: I can't change a tire, much less make the machines I saw tonight.
Katy: I didn't make any traps, and I don't know how to.

"There has to be something somewhere in there," Bepi said.

Rocky pressed his palms against his head in distress. "I don't get it! This doesn't tell us who the killer is!"

"You're right," I replied. "But that actually helps us narrow things down. Jane said it before." I nodded to the scientist. "It happened, even though it seems impossible. So we have to figure out why."

"'Why' is stupid!" Rocky grunted. "The stupid machine didn't work!"

"Oh please, use what little brain you have," Jane sniped. "Of course the machine was generally working; you felt the pain it generated yourself. But, it is possible it wasn't working for the killer."

"But how?!" Rodrigo wailed.

Jane shrugged. " We're just listing logically consistent possibilities right now, darling."

"Maybe... the trap thing had something to do with it?" Katy said hesitantly. "Maybe if a trap killed Barrett, the killer could deny they did it themselves, and it wouldn't count as a lie?"

Lucina nodded, holding up a third option: The Cricket was sensitive to the way we worded things. The killer could have been sneaky somehow.

"And I guess... maybe we were all telling the truth?" Bepi ventured. "If Barrett killed himself, then of course we wouldn't get caught as lying."

"Yeah... yeah, those are the four general possibilities I can think of," I said. "1. The killer was somehow immune to the machine working on them. 2. There was something about the murder that allowed the killer to deny responsibility without lying. 3. There was something about the killer's wording that allowed them to appear to claim innocence without really doing so. Or 4. Everyone actually was telling the truth."

"Wait a moment," Rodrigo said, holding up his index finger. "We all denied being the mastermind earlier, and yet one of us must be! The machine must not work on whoever the foul traitor is, to keep them from being exposed!"

"Hey," Katy spoke up. "We don't know any of us is the mastermind..."

"Rodrigo's theory makes sense, though," Bepi mused. He glanced up at Monokuma. "Hey, Bear! What about it? Is the mastermind able to lie in the Cricket, or what?"

"Mastermind?" Monokuma scratched the side of his head in confusion. "Why are you talking about the mastermind? This isn't the final exam! Listen, the mastermind doesn't have a darn thing to do with this case! You're barking up a forest full of wrong trees, if that's what you're thinking!"

"Hmm." Jane grunted, glowering. "...All right, let's accept what he's saying, for now. If it's not mastermind-immunity, then Saya's Option #1 can't be true, right?"

I glanced at Bepi. He'd mentioned in his notes that he'd observed someone getting away with a lie, and I could infer about when it happened based on where on the page he'd written it. But for some reason, he didn't want to speak up.

Rocky was in quad
traps

a lie.
no red lights.

Juliet's making everyone say they didn't make the traps—good

Was he doubting himself? Or maybe he was sitting on his suspicion to draw someone out? I couldn't figure it out... but then again, I was still convincing myself I didn't know who'd committed the murder.

"I'm not sure of that," I said. "I remember having the intuition that there was a lie, but it was just a feeling."

Rodrigo nodded. "I agree. It was nothing I could pinpoint."

Jane glowered suspiciously, but she tapped her chin in thought. "Hm. Do either of you know when you got these mysterious 'feelings?'"

"Uh." I giggled nervously. "Maybe... when we were talking about traps? But it was before Juliet made us all go back around and say we didn't make them."

"H-hold on, this doesn't make sense!" Katy spoke up. "How could someone just lie and get away with it? That's the whole point of the machine!"

I glanced at her, she was noticeably sweating and maybe even trembling some, too. I shrugged. "Yeah, maybe you're right. How could someone just magically become an exception to the Cricket?"

"Yeah!" Katy agreed, slapping a palm against her lectern. "It's ridiculous!"

"It's gotta be ridiculous," I said, shaking my head. "Because it's just too terrifying to think about. God, can you imagine? The killer knows they're going to have to be in a sci-fi, perfect lie detector. If they actually got some way to lie in the Cricket... it'd give them a huge advantage in the game. It'd be the perfect tool, for getting away with a murder, here."

Katy gaped at me and sputtered a bit, unsure if she should agree or argue. Luckily, Bepi picked up on what I was putting down. "Perfect tool..."

Jane nodded grimly. "Secret weapon."

"Oh, my," Juliet chirped, grinning. "Are you suggesting that the mysterious secret weapon wasn't an actual weapon, but instead a device that interferes with the Cricket?"

"Ay, that makes perfect sense!" Rodrigo agreed enthusiastically. "Do you recall, Friend Saya?"

The room was small and almost totally empty. There was a large sign on the wall saying HELP YOURSELF TO THIS SECRET WEAPON! and an arrow pointing to a table. The table contained nothing but a small device with a slot in it… like some kind of cradle or charger.

"The weapon was small and electronic in nature! It'd be easy to conceal while sitting in the Cricket, and a modern device is a perfect weapon against a modern device!"

Katy held up her hand. "Hey... hey, everyone, this is kind of far-fetched, isn't it? I mean... I mean, we're trying to be detectives, and doesn't that mean not jumping to a bunch of conclusions? We don't know anything about the secret weapon for sure!"

"Perhaps," Jane replied. "But now we know a possible, though perhaps outlandish, reason why someone could be able to lie. So, I wish to return to the previous point: Saya and Rodrigo believe a lie occurred. When was it?"

"Uh, sometime when we were talking about traps," I said, glancing again at Bepi, who didn't look back.

"Ah, yes." Jane nodded. "Then, let's recall as clearly as possible that period of the conversation and see if a lie reveals itself."

"Oh shit, booby traps!" Rocky yelped. "Booby traps, booby traps!"

"Ugh, stop saying 'booby,'" Jane muttered. "Someone less annoying: what on earth is he talking about?"

"There was a trap out in the South Quad tonight," I answered. "Rocky set off a trip wire, and then some kind of weird, amateur-looking machine launched off a pizza tray, which… I guess could have been intended as a weapon?"

"It was a very shitty booby trap, if it was a booby trap," Juliet piped up.

"Yeah, but maybe the killer made a good one!" Rocky said. "That coulda worked, right? Barrett walks in and sets off the trap, and kapow, table leg through the eyeball!"

"It'd be a very lucky shot, but I guess that's possible," I replied. "Who could make something like that?"

"I probably could," Bepi said. "I've done improvised weapons before. Uh, let me say very clearly though: I did not have anything to do with Barrett dying."

"I'd like to think anyone could construct a simple machine," Jane remarked, "but I suspect most of you could not. Needless to say, I could make an excellent murder trap. But I did not make anything involved in this murder."

Lucina tore off a message and held it up, I don't know anything at all about traps. But why would the killer have a bad one and then one that works so well?

"Misdirection?" Katy suggested. "Or maybe the one outside was supposed to just make a loud noise to be a warning."

"Wait," Juliet said, glaring starkly at Lucina. "Someone made those traps, and we shouldn't just move on past figuring out who. Giuseppe and Jane already answered, so let's keep that going." She primly placed her hands behind her back. "I can make booby traps, but I didn't make the ones that were in the South Quad tonight." She looked at Lucina expectantly.

I didn't notice a lie. Well, I did, but I didn't. I started to speak, but my voice died in my throat, and I just stood.

Bepi finally, finally took pity on me. "I think I know what Rodrigo and Saya noticed."

Katy shook her head. "What? No way! No one even said anything that was, like, a fact..." She trailed off and then looked back up. "...Except Bepi and Jane. When they denied making the traps."

Jane regarded her coolly. "Are you making an accusation, darling?"

"N...no! I'm just saying, unless Bepi's solved the case, or he did it himself, then there's no way he really caught a lie. He must be wrong."

Bepi stared at her, then he sighed. "Let's take a step back, all right? Let's think about the machine. How does the machine work? It shines a red light whenever someone lies, but let's all remember what that means."

Rocky scratched the side of his head. "Uh... it only counts as a lie when you say something that you know isn't true, right?"

"I'm still not convinced anyone's in the clear," Jane said. "There's probably stupid word games you can play. Let's try to figure out the actual rules of this machine. She glanced at Rocky. "DJ, will you do me a favor, darling? Please say, out loud, that the capital of Ghana is Monrovia."

"Uh, ok. The capital of Ghana is Monrovia." His lights stayed blue.

"Ah." Jane nodded smartly. "The capital of Ghana is Monrovia." Red light.

"Uh... what happened?" Rocky asked.

"I demonstrated an important feature of this apparatus," she explained. "It doesn't just turn red when we say something that isn't factually true. It turns red when we say something that we know isn't factually true. Rocky K didn't know the capital of Ghana, because of course he didn't, and so it wasn't a lie when he got it wrong."

"Indeed," Jane agreed. "The machine is quite annoying about it, too. Remember when Saya got a red light, earlier tonight?"

"I attempted to retrieve the foul weapon earlier," Rodrigo added. "Sadly, I failed."

"I can confirm that," I said. "I heard him yelling about it across the quad." I got a red light, and I cringed. "Okay, it wasn't across the quad. I was closer than that. But that pain did make him yell pretty loudly."

Jane shook her head in annoyance. "There is nothing worse than pedantic technology. Why, it counted sarcasm and figures of speech as..." She trailed off, then grinned up at Bepi. "Oh. Oh yes, darling, I see what you meant, now. There was a lie, wasn't there?"

"What?!" Katy bellowed. "Come on, this is..."

"Katy," Juliet interrupted, quietly but so icily Katy did indeed stop. "Give it up. We caught her."

Lucina tore off a message and held it up, I don't know anything at all about traps. But why would the killer have a bad one and then one that works so well?

"Live by hyperbole, die by hyperbole," Jane commented. "It simply beggars belief, darling, that even someone with as paltry an education as you knows nothing at all about traps."

"If you knew nothing about them, you wouldn't even be able to use the word 'traps' in a sentence," Bepi added.

Lucina didn't reply. She stared back, no expression on her face.

"No!" Katy yelped. "It... it was just because she wasn't talking! That's all. She was just writing!"

"Ugh," Jane grunted. "Please try harder, darling. We all saw how that doesn't matter."

Hesitantly, Lucina nodded. She glanced down, her sharpie whirring over her note card, and before she was even done writing, her lights turned red. She held up her message, I am afraid of Juliet.

"No!" Katy argued. "Come on... Saya?" She looked at me imploringly. "Saya, please, you don't think Lucina did it, do you?"

Before I could answer, Rodrigo spoke up. "I hate to imagine Friend Lucina as deceiving us, but there is another element that points to her guilt. Please remember that whoever obtained the secret weapon did so when Friend Saya and I were nearby."

Bepi squinted at him. "Yeah? So what?"

"Please recall what was necessary to obtain that access," Rodrigo answered. "I know it well, myself. One had to withstand great agony."

Juliet smirked. "Ah. Lucina would be quite used to that, wouldn't she? From all the... things she's gone through."

Lucina glared, but Rodrigo held up a hand. "Ah, that is not what I meant."

"Ay," Rodrigo said seriously. "Twas terrible agony; even one trained to withstand torture could not help shouting to the heavens! But I was hopeful I could withstand it."

"Perhaps a number of us here would be able to bear the pain. But only one of us would have been able to bear the pain... silently."

Katy struggled to reply, but Lucina was just coolly wrote out a response and held it up. You've all just made up your minds? There's no real proof.

"That's because you haven't given it to us, yet," Juliet replied, grinning. "I noticed there was something different about you, tonight. Now I think I know why."

Lucina and Katy huddled together, and I found myself just grateful they each had someone to comfort them. Lucina's hair wasn't in her usual ponytail; it draped over her shoulders, held in place with a headband, and I allowed myself just a moment to appreciate her loveliness.

"If you would, please remove your headband and show us the device it's holding in place." Juliet was clearly delighted to put Lucina on the spot like this. "That'll be sufficient proof, won't it?"

Lucina glowered. Katy started to argue again, but Lucina cut her off with some signing that was so sharp, I could almost hear it.

Staring firmly at Juliet, Lucina reached up and pulled her headband off, and with her other hand, she pulled a small device out of her hair. It was blinking and very modern-looking.

"Is that... the secret weapon?" Rocky asked. Lucina gave a single nod, then she carefully replaced the hairband and tossed the small device to the floor.

"It... it doesn't matter!" Katy argued. "She didn't do it! Because... because remember? She has an alibi! Even if she could lie, I couldn't, and we both confirmed it!"

"False," Jane snapped. "I recall the exchange, and you were careful about your wording, weren't you?"

I heard a tapping noise, and I looked over to see Lucina trying to get everyone's attention (and probably avoid a distracting tangent). She wrote something out quickly and then held up: He died around 11:15. Katy and I were together then. We have alibis.

"Oh, really?" Jane asked, looking back and forth between them suspiciously. "Where were you?" Lucina started writing, but Jane cut her off, "No! I'm asking Katy. Where were you?"

Katy was staring at Lucina, but she quickly blinked herself back to the present. "Uh…" she stuttered. "My room. In my room."

"Mmm-hmm," Jane grunted. "Is that true, Lucina?"

Lucina held up a message, Yes. We were in her room, together.

"Lucina explicitly said you were BOTH in your room," Jane continued. "But you just said 'in my room.' You were just referring to yourself alone."

Rocky stared back and forth between Katy and Lucina. "I don't... I don't know if I get it. But I guess it's possible they could have worked out a plan."

"Indeed," Jane agreed. "I'm sure they planned for this exact contingency."

"Um... I don't think so," I said. "I don't have evidence about this, but I don't think Katy knew. Remember? As soon as Lucina said they had alibis, Katy got weird. And in her notes, she stopped writing really early, right when Lucina brought it up." I stared down at her, trying to be intimidating. "You didn't know, did you?"

"I... didn't..." Katy said, trailing off. Lucina caught her gaze and signed something something, a tender smile on her face. I was grateful to not be feeling anything right at that moment.

Lucina held up a note. Katy didn't know.

Jane crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. "So. You're admitting to killing him alone, then?"

Lucina gaped at her in horror, then held up a new message, No! She quickly scribbled out another one. I used the weapon to protect me and Katy. Juliet could have twisted our words all around, and I refuse to be at her mercy.

Juliet emitted a short, offended laugh, but I spoke up. "Um, whether she used the weapon or not, I know Lucina didn't do it."

Everyone stared at me, which somehow caused my cheeks to redden even though I didn't actually feel any embarrassment. Jane clucked at me. "Oh, please, Saya. You're hardly objective on this matter."

"Um... maybe. But I have evidence." I tried not to look at Lucina or Katy as I continued. "I asked Jane to check something for me on the way to the trial. Jane, could you report what you found?"

She blinked in surprise. "Well. Yes. She asked me to press a personality test against Barrett's palm and then insert it into the slot."

"I did your stupid thing," she grunted. "Monk-man came with me. I put the thing in the slot like you asked. Dare I even ask what the point was?"

"Uh. What did the computer say? After you put the test in the slot?"

"Oh, the same thing it says every time," she answered. "Incorrect personality."

Rocky scratched the back of his head. "Uh. So what?"

"You only got one chance to get through the door, remember?" I nodded smartly to him. "If you tried a second time, you got a message that said 'familiar fingerprint detected.'"

"Oh," Bepi said gruffly. "I understand now. So this establishes that Barrett's personality test was not the one that opened the door. And since it wasn't his, it almost certainly was the killer."

"Yeah!" I agreed. "And I know Lucina wasn't the one who got through the door, either. Because I saw her fail."

But, familiarly, the screen just displayed INCORRECT PERSONALITY. Lucina just shrugged and held up a note that said Rats.

"Yes!" Katy declared, stomping her foot. "See? I told you it couldn't be her!"

Lucina held up a note. I'm escaping this place, but not alone. I won't leave without Katy. OR my friends.

"That's right," Katy agreed, nodding. "It'd be really sweet and romantic for one of us to sacrifice our life for the other, but not from committing murder!"

I wasn't able to say anything for a moment after she said that, but luckily, Bepi picked up the momentum. "So, are we right back where we started? Because there's another thing I want to focus on." He gazed coolly at the paladin standing across from him. "Rodrigo, I'm not accusing you of anything but you got buzzed by the machine at the end there, and we have to know more."

Pale, Rodrigo held up both hands. "But I know not what happened! I merely said that I saw Friend Barrett alive this morning!"

"Hm." I rubbed my chin in concentration. "Just that? You're sure? You just said that you saw him alive this morning?"

Rodrigo nodded. "Indeed. I am helpless as to how that could be a lie!"

"Um, actually, it's totally not a lie," Rocky said. "I was there."

Bepi raised the eyebrow over his dead eye. "This is all pretty sketchy, dudes."

Something suddenly occurred to me. "Hey, Rodrigo," I said. "I'm gonna ask you something, and you gotta promise to tell the truth, okay?"

He blinked at me, confused. But, "I promise."

"Do you really believe, deep down, that we're definitely going to get out of this trial alive? Do you think it's impossible that we don't find the killer?"

"Guh!" He stepped back, almost acting like he'd been hit. "Of... of course I have trust in God and in my fellow students!"

"Hmm." Jane gave him a side-eye. I don't think she knew what I was up to, but she was willing to go along. "That wasn't what she asked, darling."

"I..." Rodrigo hung his head. "There is doubt in my heart. I cannot deny it. The killer seems to be immune to the very facts of logic! How could I not doubt?"

"Aha." I nodded to Bepi. "Well, there you go. There's your lie."

Bepi squinted. "Uh. Spell it out for us, wouldja?"

"Sure." I gestured to everyone. "I noticed something the first time we were in the Cricket... something I remembered this time."

I realized I was nervously holding my breath every time Lucina wrote out anything, and I closed my eyes to refocus. I remembered how she had written that lie, I am afraid of Juliet. It had surprised me how the machine had turned red when she was done writing, before she'd even shown us the note.

"When Lucina wrote a lie, the machine flagged her as lying just from the act of writing it down. It buzzes you when you make a lie, not when you communicate that lie to other people."

Juliet nodded. "Of course. And our friend Rodrigo, in his notes, finished by writing down a lie."

follow heart. trust. God gave us reason. I am confident we will find the killer

"The machine buzzed him when he wrote down he was confident we would find the killer, not when he said he saw Barrett this morning. They just happened at about the same time."

"Goddamn it," Bepi grunted. "Everything just leads nowhere."

"Oh, don't be so pessimistic," Juliet chided him. "If everything led nowhere, then how could Saya have figured out who the killer was?"

Everyone kinda froze. I found myself staring at Juliet. "...what? I don't know who the killer is!"

She looked back at me for a beat and then sighed. "Really? You're really doing this? You're going to pull this same trick over and over?"

"I'm not playing a trick!" I argued.

"Every time you get in trouble, you use the same way out," she snapped. "'I don't know.' That's what you always say. 'I don't know anything. I'm harmless and weak.' Ignorance is the costume you always wear, and it is getting kind of ratty by this point."

"I really don't know!" I yelled, feeling myself become oddly upset. "It's staring me right in the face, but I don't see it! I can't!"

Rocky held up his hand. "Uh, whoa, what? What's staring you in the face, Saya?"

"N...nothing!" I snapped. "Juliet's just... she's evil! Don't listen to her!"

"Yes," Juliet said. She stared at me pointedly. Then she looked around the circle at everyone. "Yes," she repeated.

"Ugh, this certainly does have the familiar cadence of a Juliet mind game," Jane remarked. "Should we..."

"Saya," Juliet interrupted. She stared at me with her empty doll eyes. "Are you really not going to do it? Am I going to have to?"

I glared, feeling livid for some reason.

Juliet shook her head, contempt across her face. "Fine." She shrugged at everyone. "I'll tell you all who did it. You may choose not to listen to me, but hear my evidence first."

Rodrigo put his hands on his hips like a sentry. "It would be foolish to expose ourselves to a clever liar's words!"

"Oh, give yourselves some credit," Juliet said breezily. "Remember what Lucina wrote at the last trial? Saya can expose any lies I tell."

I felt something piercing my heart when she said that, but I wasn't sure what.

"I want to hear it," Bepi said. "Something is better than nothing. We're kinda stuck unless she speaks up."

Rodrigo clearly didn't agree, but he nodded. Jane and Rocky nodded too; I didn't look at the other two.

"Wonderful." Juliet said, grinning. "I don't blame any of you for being confused. The killer's lies didn't follow a single pattern. In fact, their two lies couldn't be any more different."

She seemed absolutely delighted with herself, but when she swept her gaze across me, she looked disappointed again, just for a split second. "On one hand," she continued, "the killer exploited clever tricks, a nuanced understanding of the rules of the machine, and subversion of our expectations. "On the other hand..." She shrugged. "...they did the dumbest thing I've ever seen, and it worked."

She paused for a moment. "Do you still, ahem, 'not know,' Saya?"

I stared back at her. "I don't know," I answered. I couldn't think of anything else to say.