Hey, huh...It's been a while. Over a year. Life...happened, and I stopped writing for a long time.

But here I am again. This story never did stop bugging me until I finished it. And I still do hope to finish it. It will take some doing, though.

I don't know how many of you are still here, after such a long hiatus, but if you are, thank you for coming back with me on this road. The wait may have sucked, but I hope you still enjoy these haha

Chapter 3.3 - Mindless Despair

DING DONG DING DONG

"Gooood morning, everyone! It is now 8 am. Time to get up and face another day."

The bed was soft and comfortable, much unlike the world outside the bedroom door. She didn't want to leave it, and might've actually succumbed to that temptation were it not for the stinging pain in her mid-riff. Yang had always said breakfast was the most important meal of the day, although the very same girl insisted on refusing her cookies for that meal, so maybe it was all an elaborate ruse. Nevertheless, she bounced off the mattress, and proceeded to get ready.

It wasn't long before she was out the door, having a short body did have its advantages, namely how little time it took to wash it. Not that she was short, she was a decent height for her age. Growing up would certainly come with time, although after the last few weeks she hardly felt like her age anymore.

The cafeteria was quiet, not a lot of people inside it that morning. Weiss enjoyed a cup of tea on one end of the table, while, at the other, Nora did her best to entertain Velvet and eat abundantly at the same time. Ren was probably in the kitchen, the boy's incomprehensible dedication meant he barely ever left it.

She tried to take a seat somewhere around the middle, in an effort to bridge the two parties. However cold the singer insisted on being, she still had hope that it would eventually thaw. That and Nora was making a mess as usual, and it was best not to get caught too close to the blast radius.

"Hey, Ruby." The rabbit faunus, of all people, was the one to address her, with a wide smile that was unexpected from her, but certainly welcome. Velvet wasn't commonly open with her emotions, which was a shame, she looked quite cute right about now.

"Morning." She grabbed a piece of toast, spread some strawberry jam on it, and began gradually devouring it.

Despite the idle chat made by the students, there was a strange stillness in the air, like the calm before the storm. Monokuma had been quiet for much too long, and that could only spell disaster. But, of course, those back-of-mind thoughts that the short sniper felt as she ate her nutritious meal never evolved to more than that, as it was morning, the time where brains don't quite work like they should. Perhaps otherwise she might have seen coming what was obviously lurking around the proverbial corner.

One by one, their class assembled; first Emerald, who treated herself to a cup of deep black coffee; then Neo and finally Blake, neither of which seemed very interested in the food in front of them. Breakfast was more of a ritual than an actual meal, carrying with it the nervousness of finding who had gone missing. And this time someone was indeed missing.

It took her a minute to realize Jaune wasn't present. He had almost become furniture by now, reliable and always there, but today…he wasn't. Her mind immediately rushed to conclusions, how could it not, but she tried her best to keep them at bay. Jaune had to be okay. He had survived too much to fall prey now.

Excusing herself from the table, Ruby left her classmates behind and began her search. They, of course, knew what was happening, just arriving to the same realization themselves, but by nature she wasn't keen on waiting.

She began with his room, repeatedly slamming her slender fingers on the doorbell. Her heart pounded faster with each second that the door did not open. After a few seconds of excruciating impatience, she dashed away from there too. That feeling, that pit in her stomach, it had to be quelled as soon as possible, or she'd go insane.

Her mind raced even faster than her feet, struggling as she climbed up the stairs to come up with a place where the boy could be. The pool? No, he wouldn't go back there after what had happened with Pyrrha. The library or the physics lab? He had no reason to go to either of those.

The Rec Room!

Jaune liked video games, right? And there was an arcade there, it made sense! Yes, that was exactly where she'd find him, no doubt. Reinvigorated by that blatant denial, the Ultimate Sharpshooter ran as fast she could to the third floor, bursting through the door of the lounge.

"Jaune?"

What she found inside was not Jaune Arc. Or, at least, it did not look like him.

It didn't have golden hair, short and poorly kept. It didn't have hopeful but sad blue eyes. That thing wore his clothes, the black bunny sweater and the jeans, but otherwise how could it be him? It didn't have a head! Jaune clearly had a head last time she saw him.

The door behind her creaked open, and a pale white figure walked in. Upon seeing the corpse, Weiss made a sigh that sounded more disgusted than grief-stricken.

Weiss walked past her, and approached the body without looking away. She sighed once more, and proceeded to crouch next to those mangled remains.

"What are you doing?"

"The same we always do. Investigating."

The dryness of those words, that untamed honesty, sliced right through her denial. It was real. He was dead.

Ruby clenched her fists, feeling the nails dig into her skin. Tears came, but she forced them away. She couldn't. Not now. Jaune wouldn't have cried, and neither would she. Not yet at least.

Breathing in and out deeply, she calmed herself as best she could. Her voice still came out cracked nonetheless. "S-Shouldn't we tell the others?"

"They're not stupid. They know." The heiress grimaced, but continued to examine the body.

Right, the trial. We're going to have to do it again.

With a heavy heart, she nodded and moved back near the body of her friend. Her throat clamped at the sight, but she forced herself to continue. Now was not the time to be a child.

The most striking thing about the scene was, of course, the Headless Corpse. Where Jaune's friendly and goofy face had been, now there was nothing, the neck ending abruptly in a rough mess of shattered bone and torn flesh. By the looks of it, he hadn't been beheaded in one swift move, it had likely taken a repeated bashing to get it done. It was ghastly just to imagine, and the sharpshooter found herself breathing in and out deeply to maintain composure.

A quick glance over the shoulder revealed that Weiss wasn't inspecting by the body as well, but instead looking at her Scroll with a grave look on her face.

"New Monokuma File?" The other girl nodded. "What's it say?"

She proceeded to read aloud its contents.

Monokuma File N°3

The body was found at 9 AM in the Recreational Room.

Time of death was 12:15 AM of the same day.

Death was caused by a cut to the throat, which in turn led to bleeding and asphyxia.

Additionally, severe trauma was inflicted on the neck and head.

The silence that fell between them didn't last very long, as Ruby mentally cross-checked that information with what she'd seen so far. It didn't match. "Huh?"

"You have something."

"It says his throat was cut? But..." The girl turned again to the former Ultimate Lucky Student, feeling the smell and gore assault her senses once more.

Reluctantly, she stretched her finger towards it, letting no more than the tip touch the crushed neck. The flesh was tough and cold, nothing like what a human being should feel like. By then it had become completely rigid, making her task harder, but slightly more bearable. That thing wasn't her friend. She wasn't looking at Jaune, poking at his remains. He was warm, and that thing wasn't. As long as she kept telling herself that, maybe it would be possible to see that investigation through to the end.

"Wait... There's something here." Amidst the torn skin and bone was a slender line, too straight to masquerade with the mismatched destruction. A cut running from one side to the other. "Eww."

DING DONG DING DONG

"A body has been discovered. Get your detectives hats out, because we'll be holding a trial soon!"

"What the- No..."

Ruby was briefly disoriented by the influx of new sounds, turning her head to find Nora just by the door to the room. She was livid, the faint pink her cheeks usually displayed from excitement was washed away into a milky white of terror. Her hands were balled into fists, veins protruding from skin due to the strength she was putting into the gesture.

Behind her was Lie Ren, whose distress was subtler, yet present just the same, his thin mouth twisted into a strange grimace. For a second, all four of them stayed quiet, until the chef cleared his throat and spoke.

"We split up looking for you. Emerald and Neo are on the second floor, Velvet and Blake got the first, and we came up here." He ran them through any details they had missed, detached and business-like.

Nora nodded absent-mindedly, barely paying attention to what was being said.

"I should go warn the others..."

"Wait." Weiss interrupted the blacksmith's retreat with a decisive tone. "Tell them what we found, but ask them to stay where they are. If everyone's already spread out, that makes the investigation easier."

"I... Okay, I will." Nora didn't object, clearly wanting to get out of there as soon as possible, and disappeared outside in a flash.

The black-haired boy, now companionless, took one last look at the body, and began walking away as well. "I'll check the rest of this floor, then."

Just the two of them once more, the heiress kickstarted the previous conversation. "You were saying?"

"There's a cut here, hidden between all that gross stuff." She pointed at the Neck Wounds.

"So, the killer smashed his head to prevent us from knowing cause of death? In that case Monokuma wouldn't spoil it like that, there has to be another reason."

Ruby pondered, but found no clear answer. By the pondering look on her partner, the girl hadn't had more luck.

"This doesn't make sense."

"Huh?"

"If his head was smashed to smithereens... Where's the blood? The room looks a little too spotless, doesn't it?" Despite her choice of words, it was clear she didn't expect an answer. It was more like she was talking at Ruby than to her.

The sharpshooter looked once again at the Clean Floor around them. It wasn't exactly sparkling, but it wasn't as full of blood and brain matter as would be expected. Most of the blood was, in fact, on the victim's clothes, splattered across his sweater and jeans, and not on the surrounding area. It appeared to be a normal room where a body had been dropped, and not so much like a crime scene.

"Then... did it happen somewhere else?"

"Seems like the most logical conclusion." The heiress nodded.

"But where?"

"That's what I expect the others to find out."

She looked again at her dead friend, deep in thought. There was definitely something up with that case, like there was a really obvious clue they were missing.

"Huh? What's that?" Her eyes caught on to something, a hint of purple just peeking beneath the right sleeve.

She crouched down and rolled the sweater up his arm. Just below the wrist was a large bruise, purple wrapping around the arm. She didn't have a lot of expertise in those matters, but the Bruise on the Wrist wasn't thin like the mark of handcuffs or a zip tie would be, but more like a human hand gripping it while the boy struggled in vain against it.

Additionally, now that she was looking at Jaune's hand up close, there was something else off about it. On two of his fingers, the index and middle one, there were little spots of a different, lighter color. "Is that some sort of... powder?"

"Did you say something?" Weiss stopped investigating the surrounding room and walked up beside her.

"Yeah, look at this." She pointed at the Powder Remains on his hand.

"Hmm. It looks like make up." The singer crouched down as well, bringing her face closer to the body's unmoving hand. "But why would he be wearing make up?"

There was nothing left of the face, at least not in the Recreational Room, so there was no way to check if he did have make up on, but Ruby agreed that it didn't sound like Jaune to care that much about his appearance. He was always wearing the same sweater after all, he was not the kind of person who'd bother with blush and eyeliner.

Since she offered no answer, the ivory girl moved on, specifically by moving her hand into the corpse's front pocket. In a quick moment, her slender fingers came back out carrying a rectangular object from inside.

"Those two won't be able to get inside his room without this. I suggest you bring it to them."

She grabbed the Scroll, her face frozen in bewilderment.

"What? It's just his pocket, it's not like I touched his underwear! Besides, he's dead."

If you say so. The sharpshooter stood back up, straightening her skirt. "Is it okay to leave you alone here?"

Their numbers were dwindling fast, while the area of available school only increased, so having guards posted near the crime scene was a luxury they could no longer afford. It wasn't like she suspected Weiss, but considering how adamant she'd been in previous cases on never leaving one person alone with the evidence, it was a strange request indeed.

"I can cover for you." Blake Belladonna spoke from the doorway to the rec room. Her lips were pursed in a scowl, and her golden eyes featured a somewhat annoyed expression.

"What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be on the first floor?" The heiress immediately switched to an accusing tone.

"Nora showed up to tell us about the body, she's down there with Velvet now." She spoke those words, but at the same time walked slowly to the deceased boy lying on the floor, no longer paying much attention.

Ruby felt immensely uncomfortable, caught between the glares of those two again. Leaving them by themselves felt like a recipe for disaster. "Is this... fine? Maybe I should stay."

"No, go. We need to know what's in his room."

"I can take care of things over here."

She was quickly swept away, almost kicked out of the room. Anyone who didn't know those two might have thought they were planning something together, but to her that was beyond absurd. She just hoped nothing would happen.

Reluctantly, Ruby made her way down to the red hall where the rooms were, and knowingly walked up to Jaune Arc's former bedroom. Swiping his Scroll by the electronic lock, she then twisted the doorknob and walked in.

Jaune's room was unremarkable. Nothing set it apart from the other rooms, no posters or furniture that alluded to his interests, nothing that marked his existence as the Ultimate Lucky Student. That was something that the boy himself had probably never considered himself, but to any other Ultimate it would be evident, as it contrasted to their own personalized rooms.

Ruby had been there before, not that she felt any need to share that fact with the others, but to her it felt different, unlike any other room she had been inside. Not because it belonged to Jaune, her friend, but rather because it no longer belonged to him. She hadn't been to Yang's room since she'd been...taken, and neither had she visited the bedrooms of the other victim - so far that duty had always fallen to someone else, yet there was no one else this time. The class was becoming smaller and smaller, and everyone had to pull their own weight, no matter how much it hurt.

Her trained eyes scanned the entire space in just a few seconds, seeking any outstanding objects lying around. The result of said exercise were two strips of paper sitting atop the boy's nightstand. Picking them up to inspect further, she recognized them as Written Notes seemingly directed at the resident of the room. The calligraphy was very similar, meaning they probably had been penned by the same person, although it was impossible to tell without a signature.

The first of the notes was an invitation to the recreational room one hour after nighttime, with the bait of a supposed way out to be found there. Ruby bit her lip, trying to suppress the whirlwind of conflicting emotions. That note ruled out an accident blowing out of proportion, it had been a calculated killing.

The second note was also an invitation, but this one... to the second-floor bathroom? Weird, why would someone want a private meeting inside a bathroom? Confused, she slid the slips of paper into her pocket, with the intent to ask about it later.

Afterwards, she hurriedly searched through the room's belongings, which mostly consisted of poorly arranged piles of clothes. There was nothing else to be found, although maybe there was something inside the underwear drawer, but that one she decided to skip. It would seem the crime had been planned and carried out elsewhere entirely. The young sniper took off from the room feeling dejected. Clues really appeared to be in short supply.

With no clear direction, since she'd expected to find one by now, Ruby climbed back up to the third floor. Ren was the only one investigating without a partner, so at least she could check on his progress.

The stoic chef was sitting on one of the stools at the Art Room, wearing a very uncharacteristic frown on his face. He too had spent a considerable amount of time with the luckster, rivaled only by herself, so perhaps he too was struggling with the loss. Every death was hard on the students, but it was undoubtedly harder to lose someone they truly cared for. Maybe that was the lesson to be learned at the dreadful academy, to toss away any connections and feelings of companionship.

"Hey, Ren. Found anything?"

"I have." The man looked at her, before getting up and walking away, into the art storage room in the back.

She sped up to match his pace, catching up to him just by the small furnace. The contraption wasn't lit, but inside it was a mass of Molten Metal, with no discernible shape or purpose.

"Oh, Nora is not gonna like that!"

He nodded.

"You think the killer did that?"

"It's possible. Disposing of evidence is always useful when you're trying to get away with murder."

Ruby tried to inspect it up close, discern anymore from it or something of the sort, but there was really nothing else to be said. To anyone untrained in the field of metals, it was nothing more than a shiny solidified blob.

She also tried the rest of the room, but it came up just as empty. There were no signs of forced entry, no out of place materials as far as she could tell. It definitely looked like a dead end, perhaps not even related to the case at all. Conclusions couldn't be reached until they spoke with Nora.

With that thought in mind, the two of them split up after leaving the Art Room. Ren decided to head back to the scene of the crime, and catch up on what they'd found, while she headed downstairs to find the blacksmith.

Just as she was about to reach the stairwell to the second floor, however, she was interrupted by the sound of a loud, irate voice coming from one of the nearby classrooms. Curious, she scooted over to the doors to get a clearer idea of what was going on.

"Cut the crap, Monokuma! Where is it?" The first voice belonged to Blake Belladonna, and much to her surprise, there was a second.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. It's not my job to do the investigation for you." The headmaster wasn't yelling. He didn't seem fazed at all.

"You... Arrrrgh!"

The sniper moved away from the door as she heard someone quickly approaching. Just a few seconds later Blake stormed out of it, stopping dead in her tracks as soon as her eyes met Ruby's.

"Blake, what's going on? Something wrong?"

The Ultimate Terrorist stood still for a moment, as if carefully strategizing her next move. Then, her face, previously mad with rage, returned to a more composed state, and she answered the question.

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing."

"That didn't sound l-" But her retort was cut off by the ever-opportune ringing of the speakers.

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."

"Dammit!" The faunus girl perked her fuzzy ears up at the sound, and quickly dashed away to the downstairs.

She took off likewise, her nimble legs allowing her to keep up with Blake. They descended, more simultaneously than together, back to the first floor, yet the other woman suddenly took a turn away from the red velvet door that led to the trial grounds.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"I need to check something. I'll be right back." The tone in which those words were delivered was rushed and dismissive, as if she was trying to get rid of the young sharpshooter at all costs. Still, Ruby didn't run after her, but instead walked to the designated door, all the while deeply breathing in and out.

Much like the other trials, she didn't have a lot of clues, yet this time it felt different, like a lot more was riding on her back. If there was nothing else to be found, then she'd have to piece it all together with the little she had and any potential discoveries by her classmates. It was sure to be a challenge unlike any other.

The others arrived soon after. Emerald and Neo were the first ones to arrive, and by the looks on their faces they hadn't found anything, although who truly knew what went inside those heads of theirs? Weiss appeared next, still a little pale from being left to guard the body, but otherwise just as firm as always. Ren, Nora and Velvet came just after her. The chef had likely just found them too, as he was still explaining the metal thing they'd found in the art storage room. And finally, when everyone else was gathered, Blake crossed the corner in a hurry, and just as she joined the group, the door opened ceremoniously.

One by one, the students crossed it to the inside and awaited entry to the elevator, barely looking at one another. The tension was running high, fed by lack of clues they had managed to find. When their numbers reached eight, the metallic gate clanked and opened, inviting them to descend to that least inviting of places.

As the others stepped forward, Ruby motioned to do the same, but was promptly stopped by a hand wrapped around her wrist. Turning back towards the its source, she found herself staring into the cat faunus's guilt-filled eyes.

"Blake?"

"Do you... Do you trust me?" The words took visible effort to come out, an uncharacteristic display of weakness from the terrorist's part.

She forced the best smile she could on her lips. "Of course? Yang trusted you, and so did Jaune. Why wouldn't I?"

"I see..." With no further explanation, Blake Belladonna let her go and walked ahead of her into the elevator, clearly avoiding eye contact. When she was already within, she let out a couple of words just barely whispered, that Ruby narrowly managed to catch. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about this."

What did that mean? What could she possibly be sorry for? There was no way she was the killer, that much the sniper knew for certain.

But as much as she wished to ponder and find out, duty beckoned, and she took off to catch up with everyone else. There would be answers soon enough, even if one didn't like what they discovered. Such was the way of the courtroom they descended into, the rule of the twisted killing game they were made to participate.

And thus, for the third time, the doors opened at the bottom of the pit, announcing the beginning of another Class Trial.

TO BE CONTINUED

Students Alive - 8

I want to take this moment to thank my amazing girlfriend, who is beta-ing these for me. I really couldn't have done it without her support and insightful input. She truly is the best.

And thank you for reading. As always, please drop a review if you enjoyed it, it helps keep me going.