"Okay, hang on," Ishi said. "Bankei's saying she isn't the killer still? That…Like, is that supposed to make sense?"

"Eh-heh. Oh, it's a surprise, for sure," Bankei replied happily. "But the kind that makes all the hard work up to this point worth it. Of course, I hope that those among us with some semblance of logical deduction can look through all that has preceded and followed the murder and understand the truth of the matter."

"The truth?" Ishi asked, still unconvinced. "You just said that you exposed the killer, or I guess that Naoko did? But, like, all he did was point out that Mine said something that sounds funny, but, I mean, that can't be it. Y'know, 'cause I know Mine, and I think it's obvious that…"

Ishi trailed off as soon as she actually bothered to look over at a very troubled-looking Mine, who seemed to deliberately avoid her gaze. That was all that was apparently enough for Ishi to get the hint that this wasn't some weak bluff, but an actual, full-on accusation.

"...Wait," she said, shaking her head. "Are you actually saying that it's her? Because, that's totally ridiculous. I mean, like, seriously, you're gonna pin it on her, of all people?"

"Why not? I'm simply stating the truth," Bankei replied. "I understand that there are many, many concepts that are simply out of your intellectual reach, but being in denial is a very poor coping mechanism."

"I'm not in denial!" Ishi insisted. "I'm just saying…like, c'mon. Mine's a good girl. She wouldn't hurt Haru, and she definitely wouldn't want to hurt Hoshi. Isn't that right, Mine?"

Mine stayed silent for an amount of time that seemed to make Ishi very uncomfortable. "...I, um, never got to properly apologize to him. F-for what happened in the storage room."

"And that's not your fault!" Ishi asserted. "See, everyone? Mine had no reason to want to kill Hoshi! And we can't say the same for Bankei, right? Y'know, 'cause Hoshi was blackmailed by her, and…all that bad stuff."

"I suppose I did have a reason for wanting Hoshi dead, in that case," Bankei admitted. "But that's not a deciding factor here, is it? A motive for murder doesn't have to be obvious. It can be vague or esoteric, or it might not even exist at all. But…well, talking about the motive now would be jumping ahead, and we can't have that, so perhaps you should be focusing on the more pressing matters."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Eryu interjected. "You think we're going to let you control the conversation like this?! After all the shit you've already pulled?!"

Bankei sighed. "Look, Eryu, I don't like you, and you don't like me, but I'm simply trying to help you right now. Don't you think that everything you claim that I've done could be accomplished just as well by a self-purported martial artist?"

"That's a bad argument and you know it!" Eryu snapped back. "You could've easily forced Hoshi into not fleeing because you obviously had a lot of power over him. Mine wouldn't be able to do that."

"Even if Hoshi didn't freeze up on his own, that hardly matters much at all," Bankei retorted. "I've seen the pace at which she can move. I have no doubt that she could easily catch up to a fleeing Hoshi if she wanted to. And wasn't it your trusted friend Naoko who suggested that any excess blood could have been removed from the crime scene if necessary?"

"I hate to say it, but we have yet to disprove the idea that blood was removed from the crime scene," Yori responded concernedly. "If Hoshi tried to run, and blood was spilled anywhere else other than that one centralized spot, it could very well have been removed."

"I guess," Naoko agreed, still not liking where things were going. "Still, Bankei, some of what you said seems a bit odd. 'She could easily catch up to a fleeing Hoshi if she wanted to'? Are you saying you don't know if that's what happened?"

"Eh-heh," Bankei chuckled. "An interesting question, Naoko. But let me answer your question with another question…What do you think?"

"Huh?" Naoko responded. "Well, if you claim to know that Mine is the killer, then I guess you would know what happened. But you'd probably only know about that if you were directly involved."

"Correct," Bankei said. "And if I were not the killer, yet were directly involved, then that would mean…"

"Are you attempting to lead us to the answer?" Mareo asked. "That's…significantly less efficient than if you just told us the truth of the matter."

"Where's the fun in that?" Bankei asked with a grin.

"I think it's clear what she's trying to say," Naoko replied. "She's saying she masterminded the whole thing."

Bankei's grin morphed into a wide smile. "See? Now you're getting it. It took you this long to simply bring up the idea."

"Why the hell would we have?" Eryu questioned. "It doesn't make any sense to do so. Someone's only considered the killer if they're the ones actually doing the killing. If anyone here were able to figure this out, it would be you."

"Why thank you," Bankei replied graciously. "But, well, there is the idea of having two murderers. I'm surprised that was never so much as brought up."

"What, are you saying two people could've teamed up to kill them?" Kimi asked. "Fuck, that better not be allowed."

"YOUR SENTIMENT IN THIS REGARD IS PERFECTLY UNDERSTANDABLE. I MYSELF WOULD RATHER NOT ALLOW FOR WANTON SLAUGHTER."

"Hang on a second," Naoko said. "I actually remember something IMONO said in the first trial. Something about how there can only be one killer. I'm not sure what that means, exactly, but I do remember that."

"OH? WELL, YES, I BELIEVE I DID. VERY OBSERVANT, NAOKO. SO, YES, I SUPPOSE I SHOULD SAY HERE AND NOW THAT THAT STILL HOLDS TRUE IN THIS CASE, AT LEAST TO A CERTAIN EXTENT. THUS, THERE IS EITHER ONE MURDERER, OR A MUTUAL KILL. EITHER WAY, THERE CAN ONLY BE UP TO ONE EXECUTION. APOLOGIES IF THIS IS TOO CANDID."

"I can't say I mind such candidness," Yori replied. "Besides that, the idea that we'd buy the idea of Mine and Bankei both killing one of them seemed dubious at best anyways."

"Why do you say that?" Mariko asked.

"It can be ascertained that Bankei never intended for this case to go unsolved by us," Yori replied. "The way she's speaking about the case gives much credence to the idea."

"Well, yes, of course," Bankei affirmed. "It's not as though I want to die with the rest of you. That would be insanity. I merely wanted everyone to play their part until the proper conclusion could be reached."

"But Mine didn't do that!" Ishi argued. "She's the one who pointed out that you asked her to get Hoshi to visit you! So you could blackmail him and all that!"

"That was merely an example of her playing her part," Bankei corrected her. "That's also why she brought up the idea of something in this facility having the potential to leave Haru in a weakened state. That was a particularly ambiguous part of the case, and I needed to make sure Naoko picked up on the idea. In fact, the example you brought up, Ishi, was particularly important for the case as a whole. The final necessary component needed to bring the case to its climax. I even made sure she knew when to speak up with a signal I'd prepared."

"What signal?" Takeshi asked worriedly. "You mean…what you said? Wouldn't she just know based on what was said the other times she helped us figure this out? How was that one different?"

"Why, it was a nonverbal signal, of course," Bankei answered. "I began to speak, but she knew to interrupt me and bring up the subject once she saw my signal."

"Your signal, huh?" Naoko began to ponder. "Are you talking about when you started to fiddle with your hair?"

"Precisely," Bankei replied. "And of course, that signal had a lot more meaning than it may initially seem. You remember it, don't you?"

"I…can't say I understand what you're trying to say," Naoko admitted.

"Eh-heh," Bankei chuckled. "That's alright. Here. Let me do so again."

Bankei repeated what she had done before, using her right hand to fiddle with some loose strands of hair. He'd seen it already from interactions with her, but looking at it with more attentiveness, it was definitely off, simply due to the way she was doing it. It looked very…clumsy, to put it in simple terms.

"Hang on a minute," Naoko said. "Are you trying to tell us that you're…left-handed?"

Bankei gave him an amused look. "It's a bit embarrassing, isn't it? Normally I prefer my movements to have some semblance of grace. Using this hand just isn't my strong suit, however. A shame recent events have forced me to use this one for just about everything."

"We're just ticking off all the cliches, aren't we?" Kimi remarked. "So what is that supposed to prove, exactly?"

"That's simple," Bankei replied. "Compare your dominant and non-dominant hand. Which do you think would be easier to use to perform precise tasks? Such as, say, delivering a swift stab to the jugular? I don't believe Mine has any issue with either hand, and I know for a fact that she is right-handed."

"Well, what does that matter?" Ishi questioned. "Just because you can flop your arm around doesn't mean you can't stab someone with a knife. In fact, I bet you're just as good with your right hand as you are your left!"

"Eh-heheh," Bankei laughed. "So, you're still doubting my claims, eh? Understandable. But, well, I can assure you that this is not an act."

"Liar!" Ishi snapped back. "You're totally just pulling that one out of your ass!"

"Actually, I don't think she is," Naoko weighed in. "In fact, we have reason to believe that she's telling the truth here."

"Huh?" Ishi responded, practically whipping back with surprise. "Naoko! Buddy! You're all about calling Bankei out when she's lying, aren't you? Do that!"

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Naoko on this occasion," Yori said. "Don't you remember? The note that was found on Hoshi's body. It was ostensibly written by Bankei, regardless of whether she herself is the killer, and the handwriting is noticeably poor. Naoko said so himself when he brought it out."

"For a while, I thought the killer might've been trying to disguise their handwriting," Naoko continued. "But maybe…maybe the killer just had trouble writing it."

"I would have given it basic, nondescript handwriting if I were able to," Bankei explained. "But, unfortunately, that was easier said than done. I opted for simply writing as well as I felt was necessary to be legible. I'm not entirely sure what Haru's handwriting looked like, but I'm sure given his general disposition, it looked something like that, so I'd say it worked out well enough."

"So what?" Kimi asked, unconvinced. "You couldn't write very well? That doesn't mean you couldn't've killed either of them if you really wanted to."

"See? Kimi gets it!" Ishi said. "What you just said doesn't prove anything!"

"It may not prove anything," Bankei admitted. "However, I never said I wanted to use that as proof. That's merely evidence that runs counter to the idea of me being the one to kill the both of them. If you want more evidence…well, Mine is sitting right there."

"Huh?" Mine responded. She'd stayed silent for quite some time, and being put on the spot obviously rattled her. "I'm sorry, I just…I don't know what to tell you guys. I-I didn't do anything!"

"You don't?" Naoko asked carefully. He wasn't going to flat-out accuse her just yet, but he was going to try to get something useful out of her if he could. Perhaps there was some sort of insight that she could provide, or something she'd neglected to share up until that point. "Well, if Bankei was expecting you to help her guide the trial to its 'proper conclusion', then y-"

"Leave her alone!" Ishi cut in suddenly. "Naoko, what do you think you're doing, huh?!"

"What am I doing?" Naoko asked warily. "I'm trying to talk to her about this."

"Talk to her?!" Ishi responded. "I heard what you said! You're just humoring Bankei! That's not the kind of thing I'd expect from my second favorite boy!"

"Your what?" Mariko asked.

"Look," Ishi continued, ignoring Mariko, "I've been paying attention to this trial. Y'know, mostly. If we're gonna shift gears from the crazy girl to Mine, of all people, the least we can do is remember stuff correctly!"

Naoko couldn't entirely argue with that. All throughout the trial, they'd been bringing up some interesting points, many of which had already come up again in some form or another. If there was something they'd brought up earlier that seemed to be contradicting things, there was probably something else that he could point to to explain it.

"Don't you remember what you said earlier?" Ishi asked. "Mine's claustrophobic! But if the killer was going to see and hear what was happening and stuff, they'd hide in a locker! Mine couldn't do that! That's what you used to defend her earlier, remember?"

"That was before the idea of them working together was brought up," Naoko argued. "Now that we have that on the table, I think we should at least reconsider things. If the two were working together, Bankei could've worked with her, so Mine was able to attack at the most opportune moment."

"But even if Bankei climbed into that locker herself," Ishi argued back, "that would mean she'd be the one that'd know when to strike! It's not like she could just yell for Mine to attack them. They'd be able to see Mine coming if she did! There's no way she'd be able to tell her without blowing her cover!"

"Allow me to prove you wrong," Naoko said defiantly. "They could communicate with each other, even from a distance. After all, like we've established, they both had transceivers on them."

"Of course. The transceivers," Yori responded. "There's no doubt Bankei knew which frequency Mine was on. With that, she could easily alert Mine, even from within a metal locker."

"W-wait," Mine interjected in an oddly weak fashion, "I don't understand. If Bankei talked through the transceiver, then…they'd still hear it, right? H-Hoshi and Haru, I mean."

"Well…yeah, I can't argue with that," Naoko supposed. "Then again, I didn't say that she'd necessarily need to speak through the transceiver to alert you."

"...Huh? I…I don't…" Mine looked like she was really struggling to seem like she wasn't terrified.

"Basically," Naoko began to explain, "I've noticed that when someone uses a transceiver to speak with someone else, there's a bit of a clicking noise heard through the transceiver of the recipient. Couldn't that be used as a signal of some sort?"

"I'd imagine so," Eryu said. "There's a bit of a problem with that, though. If Bankei was in the locker, but wasn't the killer, then where would Mine be?"

"Well, considering what we know about the murder thus far," Naoko replied, "she'd have to have been waiting inside the library."

"The library?" Kimi asked. "Why'd she be there?"

"It makes the most sense based on what we know about the third floor," Naoko explained. "The library has a door on the northwest corner that leads to a hallway. Directly across, on the other side of the hallway is the door on the northeast corner of the PA room."

"That makes sense," Yori agreed. "That door to the PA room is closest to the holding cell room. Going off of that knowledge, it's relatively safe to assume Haru would most likely have gone through there, and thus would likely have been facing away from the door he entered from to face Hoshi, who entered from the opposite door. Thus, the killer would be able to take Haru by surprise."

"Right, and if Mine was in the hallway, Haru would have seen her on his way," Naoko reasoned. "That means Mine would have to hide in the library, at least until he entered the PA room."

"Indeed," Yori replied. "They could have even planned it so that Bankei could alert Mine that it was safe to enter the hallway. The alert would likely be the same method as the one used to instruct her to enter the PA room and attack."

"Wait!" Ishi shouted. "Hold your horses! You're saying Bankei planned all that?! How would she figure all this out if she was cooped up in a single room for most of the last few days?!"

"She wasn't 'cooped up'," Eryu pointed out. "She just stayed there most of the time. She could move around if she really wanted to, remember?"

"A fair point, but not exactly what I was thinking," Bankei replied. "Mine and I were working together to make this murder plot a success. Isn't it obvious that she could simply have told me the layout of the third floor?"

"So what?!" Ishi asked. "That could be it if you were telling the truth, but we know you're all about not telling the truth! You can't just say you had her do this and that all willy-nilly and have us believe you!"

"It's not as though I wanted to do everything myself, you know," Bankei said. "Given my condition, that would be very uncomfortable. And besides, it's not as though I could rely on Hoshi for everything. Certainly, if he was personally involved in every aspect of my plan, he would certainly begin to catch on to my plan, and would therefore begin to have second thoughts. That's why he was only involved in a few choice parts of the plan."

"Excuse me?" Eryu responded in bafflement. "Are you seriously admitting that you blackmailed Hoshi into helping you?"

"Is it not obvious at this point that that was the case?" Bankei asked rhetorically. "Really, I would hope you'd be appreciative of my transparency after all of my prior deception."

"I don't appreciate any of what you've said!" Eryu shouted. "So what, does that mean that what we said about Hoshi and that book was right?!"

"Well, yes, you were indeed correct about that," Bankei said. "Of course, it wasn't entirely him. Mine helped with that as well."

"What do you mean?" Yori asked.

"Well, it was more of a pleasant coincidence than anything, I suppose," Bankei explained. "You see, I told Mine to keep an ear out for any information that would be useful to our plan. A couple of days ago, she overheard something interesting while on the third floor. Naoko mentioned something about Haru's book preferences. He liked books in the…fantasy genre? A rather broad term, but it still helped quite a bit. I was worried that perhaps having Hoshi recommend a specific book for Takeshi to give to Haru might fail, given the fact that we needed to choose said book, and it's not as though Haru would appreciate just any old book. But, after she heard that, she took the first opportunity she could to tell me about it. From there, we knew what sort of book to use as part of our plan."

"That's…" Ishi began to say. She must've had trouble following Bankei's explanation. "...Huh? Okay, that was a lot. But still, I can bet you that it's totally wrong."

"What do you mean, Ishi?" Naoko asked. "You were there for what Bankei was talking about. We were on the third floor, and I was talking to you, Mine, and Takeshi. What she's saying is that she repeated what I said to Takeshi back to Bankei, so they'd know what book they'd need Hoshi to recommend to Takeshi."

"I hate to say it," Takeshi responded with a frown, "but that seems like it's true. If Bankei knew about what you said, then that would have to mean she was told by someone. I didn't tell her, I doubt you or Ishi did. I don't think Hoshi was there, and I doubt Bankei would've been able to hide herself on the third floor just to eavesdrop. So…Mine must've told her."

"Takeshi!" Ishi exclaimed. "Are you seriously in on this, too?!"

"I'm really sorry, Ishi," Takeshi apologized. "I'm just trying to help this along. I tried to think of another way it could've happened, but I just don't think there's any way Bankei would know about what she said if she wasn't told."

"Even if that was Mine, that doesn't mean she did it to help with her murder plot!" Ishi argued. "She could've just brought it up casually!"

"So you're saying she could have helped me unknowingly," Bankei said. "That's what you're saying."

"Exactly!" Ishi replied. "There's no way she'd knowingly help you kill Haru and Hoshi!"

"Hmm…I suppose she wouldn't necessarily want Hoshi dead," Bankei admitted.

"Wait a second. What do you mean" Naoko asked. "Are you saying she'd be fine with Haru being killed?"

"Eh-heheh," Bankei chuckled morbidly. "I suppose that's what that statement would imply. Oh, well, I didn't really want to get into this topic at this point, but I suppose it's unavoidable now."

"What topic?" Yori asked.

"Motive, of course," Bankei replied. "If we're talking about Mine murdering both Haru and Hoshi, we'll have to discuss why she would do such a thing in the first place."

"Don't act like you don't have a motive," Eryu interjected angrily. "We've been through this already. You hated Haru for what he did to you, and Hoshi needed to die because you were using him for your own ends and didn't want him to talk."

"Now, now, let's not go too off-topic here," Bankei said. "But, well, now that you brought it up, I suppose I must dispute it. Hoshi didn't 'need' to die. I was fully prepared and willing to order him to keep quiet on what he knew about my plan until the opportune moment. Not unlike what I've instructed Mine to do."

"And yet he was still killed!" Eryu argued. "Why the hell would you need to be prepared to do that if you were just gonna kill him off?!"

Bankei grinned widely. "Good question. Of course, I must point out that I shouldn't need to tell you. The answer was right there, at the scene of the crime."

"It was?" Naoko asked.

Bankei was being cryptic again. She said that she was prepared to tell Hoshi to keep quiet, but he ended up dead. What was that about? She was saying it had to do with the scene of the crime. That must've referred to something they noticed or found there. In order to figure out what that was, Naoko needed to figure out what she was trying to imply with her words. And, well, taking into account they were talking about Hoshi, and the crime scene, that would mean…

"The note," he said. "Hang on a minute. I need to see the note again so I can check something."

Naoko got a hold of the note again and began to read it once more. It sounded like there was something about it that they'd not thought of up until that point. Probably because they were assuming it was just something that was used to lure Hoshi to his death, or a piece of fake evidence used to throw them off. Lo and behold, however, there was one sentence that stuck out.

"'I know that's later than we're supposed to be walking around, but you're not really worried about that, are you?'," he read aloud. "That's the last sentence before the signature. Seems a bit strange."

"That's referring to 10:45, I recall," Mareo said. "That is indeed after the time we're supposed to be in our rooms."

"True, but that 10:30 deadline is not a hard rule, per say," Yori pointed out. "That's simply something Eryu came up with."

"So, did Hoshi really not agree with me on that?" Eryu asked. "Or is that trying to say that because I came up with it, he didn't feel the need to respect it?"

"I don't know," Naoko said. "I don't think he particularly disliked you. I don't think he ever said anything about wanting to walk around after 10:30, either."

"So what does that mean?" Mariko asked. "Why was that sentence included in that note if it didn't apply to Hoshi?"

"Well, it'd mean that it wasn't referring to Hoshi," Naoko reasoned. "If that's the case, then I guess that means he wasn't the one that was supposed to receive it."

"If that's the case, then why did we find it on his body?" Mareo asked. "If Bankei wrote it, then she would have had difficulty slipping it into anyone else's person."

"Hoshi was one of Bankei's caretakers, and was being blackmailed into aiding her with her scheme," Yori said. "Given this information, I think it's possible that she told him to give it to someone else on her behalf. It seems he didn't do that, however, and went in the intended recipient's stead."

"So, who was Hoshi supposed to give it to, then?" Mariko asked worriedly.

Naoko gave this some thought, looking over the note again just to be safe. Based on what was said within, the recipient was supposed to be lured into the PA room by supposedly wanting to discuss a plan to 'get rid' of Bankei. That sounded like something that would be geared towards someone who would be enticed by that prospect. Also given what they'd just figured out, the intended recipient also probably didn't care about the unofficial 10:30 curfew. And since Eryu came up with it, their feelings in relation to him probably played a factor in that. Combining those two factors…there was one candidate in Naoko's mind.

"Kimi, what do you think about the 10:30 rule that Eryu came up with?" Naoko asked.

"What do I think about it?" Kimi repeated back. "I dunno. It's not the dumbest thing he's come up with, but I wouldn't say it's done us any favors."

"Hm," Eryu humphed. "Knowing you, I'm not surprised you'd say that."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Kimi replied, rolling her eyes. It was only after a few seconds of thought that she actually seemed to realize what Naoko was implying. "...Wait. Wait! Naoko, you're saying…Oh, for fuck's sake!"

"It seems that way to me," Naoko replied, sure she was on the same page as him. "Given the language used in the note, it seems like it could be referring to you. And besides that, you and Bankei don't get along, so…"

"So she tried to kill me?!" Kimi exclaimed, turning to Bankei. "You did, didn't you?! How the fuck didn't I see this shit coming?! For the love of fuck!"

"Is this really worth such a redundant string of expletives?" Bankei asked, seemingly unphased.

"Yes!" Kimi shouted. "You tried to kill me, you bitch-ass motherfucker!"

"I tried to have you killed," Bankei corrected her. "My 'partner in crime' is the one that would have killed you, had Hoshi done his job properly."

"What? You mean Mine?" Mariko asked. "Does that mean she agreed to kill Haru and Kimi? Why would she do that, then?"

Bankei simply smiled. "'Why?' indeed."

INTERMISSION