Chapter 1.3 - Pieces of the Despair Puzzle
DING DONG DING DONG
"A body has been discovered. Get your detectives hats out, because we'll be holding a trial soon!"
Jaune stared in disbelief at the scene before, ignoring the message that had just been broadcasted through the monitor inside the cafeteria. It couldn't be real. It had to be a sick prank pulled by the monochrome bear.
Near the long table where the class usually had their meals was a chair, and Penny was sitting on it, limp and lifeless. Her head was bowing down like she was sleeping, and her right arm was hanging over the chair, stuck together to her body by only a couple of metallic cables. There was liquid on the ground near her, a small pool of shiny brown just below her nearly severed limb.
He took a few steps back, hitting the wall with his back. He struggled in vain to take his eyes off of the dreaded sight, hardly even able to register all that was laid out before his eyes, but his muscles failed to respond to his command.
Why is this happening? What... What did we do wrong? She was starting to open up, to get comfortable with being around others...
The boy did not notice the other students, slowly making their way to the cafeteria and too being assaulted by that most horrible of visions. He was frozen, shock isolating his body and mind from the rest of the world. He wanted to scream, but his throat was coarse and dry. He wanted to run away, but his legs were weak, barely keeping him standing.
At some point, he felt someone push him away from the site of the murder, and lead him outside, to the corridor. He followed them sheepishly, so out of it that he couldn't find the energy to perceive who it was. When he came to, he was in the white well-lit hall, and the door to his left was closed. He looked around and saw the others.
Ruby Rose was kneeling on the floor, crying in her sister's arms, who herself had a confused expression in her lilac eyes, as if she had yet to come to terms with what she had seen. Nora was sitting on the corner at the other side of the door, hugging her knees, which was definitely the most vulnerable anyone had seen her. Ren was standing close by, a darkness in his eyes accompanying his usual silent demeanor. Yatsu, Neo and Weiss were all also standing quietly, though isolated from each other. Velvet was grabbing Blake's arm, looking at her worriedly. The cat faunus had the strangest reaction of them all: instead of sad or frightened, she was angry - just as angry as the first time Jaune had seen her.
"Why... why are we out here?" He asked to no one in particular, and found that his voice was tired and hardly audible. Nevertheless, it was enough to get the attention he required. Ren looked up at him, but allowed someone else answer the question.
"Monokuma told us to gather out here." The boy jumped in surprise, hearing the sound come from right next to him. Apparently, Pyrrha had been right there and he hadn't even realized it. "I guess he has something to say."
She seemed shaken, but still firm. He guessed she was fighting with all her might to bear through it. That was the strength of an Ultimate, the power to keep moving forward. They didn't know the dead girl that well, but she was a part of the group, of their joined struggle to survive through the trails that academy threw at them. And that made her a loss beyond measure.
"Hey, guys! Whoa, did something happen?" Sun came out from his room, as energetic as he always was, but the sight of their sullen faces clued him in.
No one answered, no one wanted to say it out loud, to admit that they had lost one of them, that their faith, their hope had been defeated.
The monkey faunus became serious, maybe a part of him had already realized what had happened. "Where."
Jaune pointed at the closed cafeteria door, and watched him march there with determination. Just as he walked in, Emerald peered through the red hall and joined the rest of the class, and though she didn't question what was happening, she probably had an idea - after all, reading the mood of a room was an essential skill for any magician. Just a couple of seconds later, Sun burst out of the cafeteria, completely infuriated.
"What the fuck is that?"
No one answered, because no one understood what he meant.
"Because that right there..." He pointed at the door he had just come out of. "... that's not Penny! It has wires and cables, that thing is a machine!"
He recalled seeing it, seeing the inner metallic parts of the corpse, but amidst the shock of seeing the dead girl, it has simply slipped his mind. Now that he could think once more, he found that he had no answers for Sun's inquiry, although neither of them had to wait long.
"Upupupu. You all heard the corpse discovery announcement, did you not? It only plays when three or more people have found a body, which means someone really died." Monokuma walked casually in the middle of them, with a spring on his step as if he was delighted to be there.
"You're lying, Penny is not a machine!"
"Oh, but I can't make the big plot twist without everyone here! Where is she?" Like clockwork, Coco came out of her room, and, with all eyes on her, she walked up to the white corridor.
"Ah, finally everyone is here! Now we can proceed. The victim of this case is, indeed, Penny Polendina, that is most certainly her body you found inside. But why is it full of metal, you ask? That's simple: she was the Ultimate Android!"
"What?" The expression of astonishment that swept through the floor was shared by every single one of the students, even if not all of them voiced it.
"Oh, did she never tell you? Ms. Polendina was a robot, built in a high-tech laboratory. She must have not trusted you enough to say, which seems smart considering one of you killed her."
"You're full of shit, Monokuma. You killed her, and now you're trying to pin this on us." Yang roared with defiance, still holding her sister in her arms.
"You don't believe me? Well, I guess we'll see who's right at the Class Trial."
"The what now?" Emerald wondered out loud.
"The Class Trial, my favorite part! Well, except for the murder itself, of course. Basically, I will give you some time to investigate the crime, gather some clues and the like, and then when everything is ready, we'll hold a trial where you need to find who the killer is. If you guess correctly, they get executed in a spectacular fashion, but if you fail, I'll butcher everyone else and the blackened gets to graduate and go free. Upupupupu isn't this exciting?"
Exciting wasn't the word Jaune would choose. Terrifying, sadistic, disgusting - any of those words seemed to be far more fitting.
"That's preposterous, we're not detectives! How are we supposed to figure out who did it?"
"You didn't think it would be so easy, that you just had to kill someone, right? It was in the rules, after all."
"...provided they're not discovered by their classmates." Monokuma wasn't lying, it had been there all along, right beneath their noses. Still, it seemed rather unfair to have rules only be properly explained after the deed had been done, but since that change of plans benefited everyone but the killer, no one wanted to be the one to complain.
"Well, that's all I had to say. Have fun, kiddos!" Before anyone could stop him, the bear took off sprinting into the distance, disappearing not long after.
The students glanced between themselves, as if wordlessly asking one another what they should do next. Jaune was sure the mascot had done it, that it was just another one of his ploys, trying to get them to turn on each other. None of them would ever fall for such an empty promise as the motive he had given them, after all they were Ultimates, the best of the best, and people of talent as great would never fall so low, but he could already see the doubt in their eyes. They believed, or wanted to believe, that one amongst them was capable of taking a life, and that very same conclusion led them to think the others couldn't be trusted. It was absurd, and he stood firm in his belief that it was a lie, so in that moment of darkness, the blond boy decided to take the lead. Jaune Arc, the worthless, the talentless, the average boy who wouldn't have the skill necessary to kill someone even if he wanted to, would show them once again what it meant to be Ultimate.
"Okay, if we're going to figure this out, we need a plan of action. We probably don't have much time." He steeled his voice to hide away the hesitation and the shock he still felt from the revelations. Monokuma had killed Penny, and she needed to be avenged.
"Why bother? We already have a culprit." The ivory-haired singer looked directly at him while she spoke.
Blake's voice was heard next, rehashing the old conflict. "Let me guess, you mean me."
"Of course, I mean you!" She turned the class, preparing a speech. "Her talent is being a terrorist, a killer! Who else would commit such a heinous cr-"
"Weiss, shut up." Her ice-blue eyes flared indignant at him, already opening her mouth to lash out, but he gave her no opening. Strategy was much more important than his personal feelings at the moment, and that meant saying things he wish he hadn't. "First of all, we need someone to guard the… body."
Yang cracked her knuckles menacingly, and smirked. "Leave it to me, I'll guard it real good!"
"What if she's the killer? Wouldn't that leave her alone with the evidence?"
"Then I'll join too. Does that soothe your worries?" Yatsuhashi stepped forward, addressing Weiss' concerns, to which the girl nodded.
"Then that's settled... Next, we should make pairs for searching for clues, so no one has to wander around alone."
"I'd like to investigate the cafeteria. After all, it's where she is." Blake was the only one with a specific wish, so no one objected.
"Anyone want to go with Blake?"
Inspecting the corpse was far less than a desirable activity, so he understood the hesitation in the room. Luckily, Ruby raised her hand. "Great. Sun, can you check her room? Just in case there are any..."
"Locks, you got it. Neo, want to come along? Since you can reach difficult places?" The mute shrugged, which they took as a yes.
"Should we check the trash room too, in case someone tried to use it?"
"Smart thinking, Nora. Who wants to team up with her?"
"I don't mind." Velvet snapped a picture of the group before walking over to her new partner.
"Hmm okay. All that's left is checking the rest of this hall and the area near the gym."
Coco took the gym, and Ren followed suit, leaving the former to Weiss and Emerald.
"What about you and Pyrrha?"
"We have a bear to question."
The groups went their separate ways, leaving only him and the redhead behind. He slumped his shoulders, feeling the pressure exit his body, and sighed deeply. They were coordinated and working together, half the fight was already done. Now came the harder part.
"You did really well, Jaune. I'm impressed." Pyrrha squeezed his shoulder, offering some reassurance.
Jaune smiled at her, grateful for the support. He wasn't too happy about ordering the group around, but it was for a greater good: defeating that horrid game and surviving.
Turning to the closest security camera, he shouted at it. "Hey, Monokuma! Get over here!"
"Want something, luck man?" The voice came from behind them, startling the boy a bit. He turned and looked at the stuffed animal.
"Yes, you said you'd execute the killer if we guess correctly. Does that include you?"
"Of course, I may be a bad boy, but even I have my honor. Bear's promise. Just don't forget, if you guess wrong you're putting everyone's lives on the line. Upupupupu."
Jaune didn't allow himself to be threatened by its sick humor. If he succeeded in proving the headmaster was the one behind the murder, he could put an end to that farce and have them all go home. It wouldn't be easy, but he was sure it could be done, it was their best chance at not only victory, but justice for the fallen.
"Oh, I nearly forgot. I updated your scrolls with a little prize. You might wanna check it out, and tell the others as well." The bear was evidently delighted by that whole situation.
"You won't get away with this. We will stop you." Pyrrha had fire in her green eyes, staring down at the mascot with murderous intent.
"I'm not the one you should be after, there's a murderer on the loose. But sure, I'll go now. I know when I'm not wanted." The twisted plushy turned his back on them and took off very slowly, almost like he was teasing them with his slow-motion escape.
"When are you ever wanted?" The girl mumbled under her breath, but Jaune was still able to make out the words. He wondered where all that spite had come from, so unlike the amicable and apologetic person he had grown accustomed to seeing, but within a fraction of a second she returned to her regular self.
The boy took the tablet from his pocket, and saw a little blinking notification, which when pressed on displayed the words Monokuma File Nº1. He scrolled down and read its contents.
"The Victim was Penny Polendina, the Ultimate Android.
Her body was found inside the cafeteria around 8:03 am.
Cause of death seems to be malfunctioning circuitry.
Besides that, some damage was dealt to her right arm."
He looked at the screen mortified, and then glanced up to Pyrrha who had also just examined the same thing.
I can't believe she's really dead.
"We should go check on the others, see what they found." The redhead broke him out of his grief, with a reminder that they were on borrowed time.
Moving out of the white corridor, the two of them walked towards the cafeteria, and saw Sun and Neo leaving it with the deceased's Scroll to access her room. Inside, Yatsuhashi and Yang were standing by the door, both imposing muscled figures, whereas the other pair was investigating Penny up close
The Ultimate Lucky Student looked once more at the lifeless girl, trying to ignore the spike tearing through his heart. Despite kidnapping, imprisoning, and attempt to have them kill each other, this was the cruelest thing this place had done to them yet - robbing them of the chance to mourn.
His taller companion moved ahead, filling in for his broken hope, and approached Blake, who had one knee on the ground, and was lightly touching the arm that had been torn.
"Have you found out anything yet?" Blake moved her head in acknowledgment of their presence, but did not face away from the body.
"Well, Monokuma wasn't lying, she really was a robot."
"Android." On the other side, Ruby corrected her dryly. The youngster seemed to be faring much better now, sorrow replaced by focus. He looked at her, silently asking the difference, and she elaborated. "Robots are completely synthetic, Androids have some organic stuff too, to make them more... human."
"So, she really was made in a laboratory? Why didn't she say anything?"
"Maybe she was programmed not to be able to. We have no way of telling now, her circuitry is completely burnt up."
"That's the cause of death, right? The Monokuma File says the same thing." Both Blake and Ruby perked up their ears at that last sentence, reminding him that he hadn't yet told them about the autopsy report. He explained to them how to access it, and waited a minute before continuing. "What could have provoked that?"
"A really strong electrical current, an overheat of the systems, there are plenty of things that could've done it."
Jaune made a mental note of the Fried Circuits, and changed subject. "What about the arm?"
The Ripped Arm was missing a sleeve, and metallic cabling could be seen linking the shoulder to the rest of it. Blake filled him in.
"It looks like it was torn by being pulled on repeatedly, dislocating her shoulder and tearing through the skin."
"Could that be the way someone managed to overload her circuitry?" Pyrrha began putting the pieces of the puzzle together, see if they fit.
"Maybe?" Neither of the investigating girls seemed too sure of that answer. Ruby pointed to the Glass Cup lying on the floor next to Penny's left arm. "It looks like she threw water inside the wound, maybe that could mess with the machinery."
"But she couldn't have ripped her arm out like that by herself, she would've needed help."
"Wait, are you saying she killed herself?"
"I mean, she was locked in here, right? The door to the cafeteria is shut down during nighttime, so no one else could be inside… Something doesn't add up, though, and I don't know what we're missing."
He made another note of the new information, as well as the Puddle of Oil Mixed with Water on the ground. "Anything else?"
"Her hair looks strange." The redhead was the one to point out, the dead girl seemed to have a somewhat Disheveled Hair. Her pink bow was in place, but her usual hairdo seemed sloppier, like it had been done in a rush, which was an uncommon occurrence. Time was the most abundant resource inside that academy. None of the four made a comment, the meaning of it all still eluding them.
Jaune prepared to leave, thinking the dealings with the body were done for, when Blake called out for him.
"One last thing." She lowered Penny's right sock until her ankle, revealing a Cut on the Leg, located a little further below the knee. The skin was slightly parted above the cut, showing a few millimeters of machinery inside. "It's a straight incision, consistent with a knife blade."
He felt impressed by her expertise, wondering where she had learned to discern all of that, but then he remembered her talent. A terrorist was probably familiar with all sorts of bruises and blemishes.
"Okay, thanks. If you find anything else let us know." The two girls nodded, and the boy turned around, but Pyrrha's voice interrupted him.
"Are you okay?"
Ruby nodded, her silver eyes filled with regret once again, but her partner barely reacted. "We'll find who did this, that's all that matters."
The two of them were leaving the room, but just as he reached for the door, he heard a voice calling out from behind.
"Hey, what's that?"
Jaune looked back confused, watching the short-haired girl approach. She gently pushed him out of the way and crouched down near the door, picking up a rectangle of wood, twice the size of her hand, from the floor.
"It kinda looks like a Piece of a Chair, doesn't it?" She ran up to the closest seat and compared it, gesturing affirmatively.
"Could she have used that to damage her arm?"
Ruby looked up at him with a sorrowful look. "I mean, yeah but… why would she?"
To that he had no answer.
Finished with the cafeteria, they moved on back to the hall, upon which they heard a discussion coming from the baths. Following the sounds, they pushed the curtain open and walked in. There a huge Mess in the Dressing Room, one of the locker cabinets was fallen over face down on top of the bench, and large, indistinct pile of clothes had poured out of the little open doors. There were swimsuits of various colors and shapes, among other articles, and Emerald was squatting down near them.
"I was just taking my stuff!"
"That's evidence, you can't just steal it when it pleases you!" Weiss was standing next to the base of the cabinet, noticing straight away when they entered. "Tell her, Pyrrha!"
Pyrrha took to easing the tensions inside the room, ensuring the clues weren't tampered with, and in the process leaving him free to peek around.
He circled past the others and looked at the fallen furniture. Besides its position, there was something else odd about it: its location. Instead of standing by the other one on the right-side wall, it was on the opposite side, it's feet right next to the sauna door, and facing away from it. Crouching down to see more clearly, Scratches on the Floor became apparent, tracking the movement it had taken from its original position. He had no way of telling when it had been done, but if his memory was to be trusted, it had been very recently.
So, someone moved the cabinet from one side of the room to the other, and then pushed it down? I wonder if this is related to the murder at all...
A poke on his shoulder brought him back to the world around him, and he saw Emerald standing next to him. "You're wondering too, right? Why the lockets are where they are?"
He nodded. "And why is everything on the floor? I thought they were supposed to be, you know, locked."
"If the cabinet was pushed down, maybe the impact slammed the doors open. Those locks are weak, they wouldn't be hard to break."
He lifted his gaze towards the sauna door. Everything seemed to point to the cabinet being relocated right in front of it, blocking it from access. The green-haired girl followed his line of sight.
"Hey, is that..." She ran up to the aforementioned entrance, and brought her hand to the doorknob. "It's broken."
Jaune followed her inside the sauna room, and they tested the Broken Doorknob on the other side. It seemed the locking mechanism had been smashed off its hinges, and the door could no long be held shut.
"Someone really wanted to get in, huh?"
"Or out."
The Lucky Student entered the sauna, and inspected the space around, but failed to find any clues inside. Emerald, however, was more attentive.
"Look at this." He followed the direction of her finger, and saw a white Strip of Cloth stuck underneath the door. She retrieved it, and brought it close to her face. "Looks like one of the towels."
"But where's the rest?" She shrugged, and moved on.
Back in the dressing room they found Weiss and Velvet, the latter taking photos of the assorted pile of clothes on the floor.
"What are you doing?"
"I thought this might be a big clue, so we asked Velvet to photograph it, so we can have a reference later."
"You think this is related to the murder?" He was surprised to be spoken to directly by the Ultimate Singer. Maybe she was finally coming around.
"Better safe than sorry."
"And where did Pyrrha go?" Emerald asked the very same thing he was wondering.
"She's with Nora, we didn't want to leave anyone alone. Want to go there now? I'm pretty much done here." Velvet put the camera down, and guided the boy back to the hall, but to his surprise they moved to the laundry room.
"You didn't find anything in the Trash Room?"
"No. The incinerator had been used recently, but we couldn't tell anything else, not even if it has anything to do with the case."
Inside the Laundry they were met by Nora and Pyrrha giggling with one another. As soon as they entered, the two girls abruptly stopped laughing, almost suspiciously like they were talking about him, but he paid it no mind. He knew he wasn't relevant enough to warrant gossip.
"So, what do you have?"
"That." Nora pointed at a large Bundle of Towels, all randomly tangled together. The white blob looked spotless, but still not completely dry.
He raised his brow inquisitively.
"One of the washing machines was full, and that was inside." Pyrrha filled him in, since she had already gotten the information from the lively ginger.
"Is that… supposed to be a clue?" He was confused as to what they meant.
"Well, if they were washed so recently, they must've been put there during the night, right? That means whoever did it was awake when Penny died."
"Sure, but if Penny was locked inside the cafeteria, is there any relation between the two events?"
"Dunno, but look!" Nora interrupted, pushing a towel in front of his face. "One of them is missing a bit."
His eyes widened. "We found a piece of towel in the sauna. That must be the rest of it."
"See, we weren't useless after all!"
He wasn't sure how it all fit together, but he knew that somehow it was important. Thanking them, he and his companion moved on. Next would be Sun and Neo, left in charge of investigating Penny's room. He pressed the button near the entrance, receiving a satisfying buzzing sound in return, and a few seconds later Sun showed up from inside.
"What's up?"
"Just checking if you found anything useful."
"Oh, alright. Come in." The monkey faunus acted like he was in his own domain, opening the door so they could enter.
Penny's room looked just like his own, the blue and pink jarring colors, the very same furniture he had. There wasn't a large charging station full of futuristic gadgets and blinking lights, just a plain old bed. There weren't any metallic or electronic interfaces, nothing that would signal she was different from the rest of them. It simply looked like any other room, a room a human would have.
Jaune ignored the pain inside his chest, and focused in business instead. "Ok, what did you find?"
Neo lifted a paper that read. "Not much."
"Oh, you got a writing pad. That should make communication easier." She flipped a page, and scribbled quickly.
"It wouldn't be hard if any of you assholes knew ASL." He felt her annoyed eyes burn into his soul, judging him.
"Penny gave us the idea." Sun interrupted their conversation, which was fortunate because he was desperate for a way out of it. "She used her writing pad quite a bit. It's almost kinda like a Journal."
The monkey faunus pointed to a pile of papers on top of the bedside table, and Pyrrha picked it up so they could read it together. It wasn't so much a notepad, as a group of notepad pages stacked together, which was strange considering the rest of the notepad was still on the table, waiting to be written on.
"Today I woke up in a strange school. I'm scared, this is so different from papa's laboratory. I miss him so much.
There's a stuffed bear here, but he's not cute at all. He said he wanted us to kill each other. I don't know the other students, but I met a redheaded girl and a blond boy, and they were nice to me. I hope nothing happens to them."
They traded glances, knowing they were the ones mentioned in the journal entry, but continued forward.
"I was going to stay in my room today, but Jaune and Pyrrha because they were worried. I didn't want to worry them, so I went. The other students seem friendly, but I've never been around so many people before. It used to be just me and papa. He protected me from the bad man. I miss him."
"This time I went to breakfast by myself, and Pyrrha seemed happy about it. The girls tried to get me to go the sauna with them, but I refused. I'm afraid it might not be safe, and by myself I don't have anyone to do repairs."
"Ren asked me why I never eat with them. I think he's hurt than I still haven't tried his food. I wish I could tell them what I am, but it goes against my basic programming. Maybe I could try drinking some of his green juice, it's just a liquid after all, and I can handle water. Perhaps that would make him happy."
"Jaune smiled at me when I got to breakfast today. Oh, and Velvet too. She seems nice as well. Maybe I don't have to be scared, everyone has been so friendly so far. I wish papa was here."
And that was the last entry they had. He felt speechless, the loss they had suffered only deepened now that they had a closer look at how she had been feeling since waking up inside the school with the rest of them. Penny was a scared girl let loose in a world she knew little about. She did not deserve what had happened to her. She deserved better.
He felt anger building within him. Monokuma had done this to them, he had killer her. The damned bear was going to pay.
Pyrrha placed the pieces of paper back down, and squeezed his arm. He knew she was thinking the same thing, and took comfort in having her support. Whatever destiny was behind the fateful meeting between them on the first day, he was certain he did not deserve it.
"D…" He tried to speak, but his throat clenched itself. The redhead covered for him.
"Did you find anything else?"
"Well, there's the trash can…" Sun showed them the inside of the trashcan, which was nearly empty save for a couple of Bits of Torn Paper.
As soon as they grabbed a handful, it became clear that the pieces were the destroyed remainders of the letter she had gotten from Monokuma two nights prior, as evidenced by the large Monokuma picture and the red bloodied letters at the bottom. Laying down the scraps on the table, they proceeded to put the puzzle together.
"To: Prototype P.E. .
General Ironwood would like to offer his congratulations in being enrolled into Beacon. We have the utmost faith in your capabilities, and expect you to excel at all the trials in the future. Remember that any failure will be-"
"Somehow, I don't think that's from her father." He had to agree with her, it was so cold and impersonal, almost threatening towards the deceased girl. What kind of people had she been involved with?
Heavy in thought, the boy turned away from the letter and moved in the direction of the door, but something stopped him dead in his tracks.
"AH, NEO, WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?"
The mute was casually playing with a knife, twisting and turning it on her slender fingers. Upon being questioned, she gestured towards the wardrobe.
"Penny had a knife in her closet? Why?"
"You think she was planning something?" Sun's question was met with nothing but a disapproving glare. The Ultimate Android was a victim. She had been a sweet girl, one who would've never wished harm upon others. The knife was there for some other reason, that much he knew for sure.
The room finished with, Ren and Coco were the only pair left, so Jaune and Pyrrha took off in the direction of the gymnasium. However, after crossing the long corridors, they ended up finding them inside the AV Room.
"Hey Ren, was the gym clear?" The cook nodded. It quickly became clear that they had found nothing tangible.
Grabbing the other boy's arm, he took him outside and asked in a low voice. "Remember when we were in the sauna yesterday? Where were the cabinets at?"
"They were standing against the wall across from the doors, why?"
"Just checking if I wasn't remembering wrong. That means whatever happened there was after we left. Oh, and by the way, at what time did you leave the cafeteria?"
"It was around 9pm, I think. Why, am I suspicious?"
"No, no, don't worry. Just trying to make a timeline of when this whole thing went down." He took mental note of Ren's Testimony, but before he could further address the chef's inquiries, a familiar sound was heard from the nearest monitor.
DING DONG DING DONG
"Time's up. All students are to gather near the red door on the first floor immediately. And make it quick, I'm getting bored here."
Reluctantly, they took off with the two girls that were inside the AV Room, quickly reaching the red door. It seemed to be staring menacingly at him, threatening to swallow him whole, so he tried his best to avoid looking at it, instead counting the students that were gradually arriving.
When the fourteen of them were gathered there, no one speaking a word, the door opened by itself, revealing a small square room with a metallic gate on the other side. The class walked inside, and the red door closed behind them, giving way to the gate like a decompression room underneath the sea.
The gate clanked open, and behind it they saw an elevator waiting for them. One by one, all the pupils moved to that new contraption, and it took off, descending deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth.
They were still silent, both scared and deep in thought about all the information they had gathered. Jaune was certain the answers lied somewhere among the clues, but he couldn't quite piece it all together yet. He knew there would be no margin for error, but together with all the amazing talented people standing beside him, they would uncover the truth and prevail over the headmaster's schemes.
And so, the door opened to the first Class Trial.
TO BE CONTINUED
Students Alive - 14
I made a handy map of the room area of the school with the placement of the clues, but this site doesn't let me add links. The address is below, just replace all - with periods.
i-imgur-com/i5CbRK7-png
The trial chapter is already pretty much complete, I couldn't upload this one until I was sure the case was solid, but I think I'll still wait a few days for dramatic effect. This way you can also have some time to figure it out for yourselves. As always, please review with feedback so that I can improve on further cases.