"If Mine was going to help Bankei kill Kimi, she'd need a reason to want to do so," Naoko reasoned. "Actually, that goes for Haru as well."

"Well, Haru makes sense to me," Eryu said. "Bankei and Mine have been friendly to each other for a while now, it seems. Considering what Haru did to Bankei, Mine would definitely be mad about that."

"I remember that she was after it happened, yeah," Naoko agreed. "Would that really be enough for her to justify murder? I'm not sure."

"That's not a good enough reason at all!" Ishi insisted. "Mine is too good of a person to use such a crappy excuse! Especially when she'd be getting revenge for what he did to, like, a creepy snake woman. Right, Mine?"

"I…" Mine began to speak, looking away from Ishi. "I didn't like what he did. B-but you're right. I didn't kill him over it."

"What about Kimi?" Yori asked.

"Kimi?" Mine looked as nervous as she had for some time. "Kimi…After what she's said, and what she's done, I mean…I-I can't say she's a very good person."

"Yeah, well, considering the company you've been keeping, I can't say I value your opinion," Kimi brushed her off.

"Wha-?!" Mine exclaimed, shocked and upset. "See?! She's always like this! She's just making people feel bad, and saying awful things! That's all she does! She called me handicapped, for god's sake!"

"What, and just like that, I'm a bad person?" Kimi asked, unconvinced.

"Kimi, it's obvious that Mine doesn't like you," Naoko pointed out. "What you've done and said to her plays a role in that."

"Well…yeah, okay, I can see that," Kimi conceded. "But that doesn't mean her opinion is fact. And it definitely doesn't mean she should feel justified in working with Bankei to have me fucking killed."

"What have you done to her thus far?" Mariko asked.

"Huh?" Kimi responded. "Not much. I mean, I freaked her out a bit by accident 'cause I didn't know she was claustrophobic. Then I tried apologizing to her, but apparently I'm not supposed to use the H-word. That's about it, I think."

"So, because of those two things, she was okay with the idea of killing you?" Takeshi surmised. "That doesn't sound right. Was there anything else you did to wrong her?"

Kimi shook her head. "Not in recent memory, no. We've barely been in the same room since that shit took place. And even before that…I mean, what the fuck have we even done thus far to associate with each other? I'm drawing a blank over here."

"I see," Yori said. "So, the two of you haven't spent much time together at all recently. That's what we should take away from this."

"And just from those two negative interactions, Mine was able to be convinced to commit murder?" Mareo contemplated. "Takeshi is correct. That hardly makes any sense at all. There had to have been something else."

"Like Mine said," Mariko replied, "Kimi has been really mean to a lot of us. Would that be enough to convince her? Especially since, um, well, Haru showed he could be a bit violent. Agreeing to a plan like that…it could've been more for our sakes than hers."

"Maybe," Naoko replied. "Seems a bit far-fetched, though. I hate to ask at this point, but…Bankei, do you have an opinion on this?"

"Don't ask her that, Naoko," Eryu advised him. "That's what she wants-"

"I suppose if it keeps this going, I don't mind answering," Bankei interrupted him. "Truth be told, if it were that simple, then Mine would certainly be a very overzealous friend. Killing Kimi and Haru, simply for the sake of keeping them from harming the rest of you. That sounds like quite the sacrifice…Or, should I say, that sounds like a very, very stupid sacrifice."

"So, it's wrong?" Naoko asked. "She wanted them dead for another reason?"

"Well, yes, but mostly she wanted Kimi dead," Bankei revealed. "That girl struck a nerve with her without even being in her immediate presence. I was there when it happened, in fact. That's when all of this started."

"Excuse me, what the fuck does that mean?" Kimi asked angrily. "Are you saying something I did fucked with her indirectly? That makes absolutely ZERO sense. I told you guys already that I barely did anything in relation to Mine to make her want to kill me."

"It sounds to me that you might have done so in a rather 'passive' manner, so to speak," Yori weighed in. "The question to take away from that, of course, is what that would entail."

Naoko gave that some thought. Considering everything that he knew about Kimi, and what she'd been doing within recent memory, he didn't really have much in mind that could theoretically lead Mine to wanting her dead. Perhaps, then, they were overlooking something? Just thinking about Kimi in general, there were some things they could consider. Just some basic things they could be sure about Kimi. She was taking out their trash, she had a tendency to swear heavily, and they'd even been shown quite a few of her works within the past few days.

…Her works. Those videos they'd received every night for the past few nights. He hadn't thought of them the whole trial, actually. They didn't seem relevant to anything that they'd found or discussed. But if Kimi was one of the intended victims, maybe they had something to do with it.

"Bankei, what do you mean you were there when it happened?" Naoko asked. "If you were there, that means it happened in the medical room. Did you invite her there for something?"

"Good to see the truth hasn't eluded you just yet," Bankei replied happily. "Yes, I did. It was some days ago, you see. I invited her there on a whim. To be quite honest, I hadn't expected anything strange to happen at the time. It was just going to be another opportunity for me to speak to her. Stay up to date on what was happening. That sort of thing."

"You…invited her?" Mareo asked warily. "Under what pretense?"

"I think I might know," Naoko weighed in. "If this has to do with Kimi, then you must've invited her to watch whatever piece of animation was going to be given to us through our phones. Am I right?"

"Indeed," Bankei replied.

"Huh?" Mariko responded. "I'm confused. You're saying Kimi's work made Mine want to…kill her?"

"I don't remember much about those, honestly," Eryu admitted. "Still, most of them seemed perfectly fine. There wasn't much to get enraged about in them. If Bankei convinced Mine to kill Kimi over one, then she'd have to utilize a ridiculous amount of spin doctoring just to do so."

"Yeah, I can see why you guys would be skeptical about this," Naoko said. "Even I think it's hard to believe. Still, it's something to consider."

"The idea that one of those animations managed to help Bankei convince Mine to aid her in her plan is an interesting one, certainly," Yori reasoned. "However, there's the question of whether any of them could be considered objectionable, at least for her. Whichever one it was, it would need to elicit at least a minorly negative reaction from Mine in order to play any sort of meaningful role."

"Well, which one was it?" Takeshi asked. "We've seen four of them thus far. It'd have to be one of the earlier ones, like the first or second, right?"

Naoko agreed with this logic, and kept it in mind while he considered the ones they'd seen. Between the four of them, one stood out clearly as a potential cause of Mine's displeasure. "I remember Mine not liking the second one."

"Not many people did, it seemed," Kimi added. "Granted, that was kind of a 'to be expected' sort of thing. It's not like I made it for anyone else to enjoy."

"Yeah, I didn't," Mine admitted cautiously. "It was just unpleasant, for most of it. Still, I-I don't know why I'd…hold it against Kimi, o-or whatever you're suggesting."

"There wasn't that much to be upset about, from what I remember," Ishi agreed. "I mean, what? A crabby Kimi goes to school and gets really mad at people?"

"It's Yoko, not Kimi," Kimi insisted. "She's a fictional character that I came up with. She's just…a little similar to me."

"As we determined the morning after viewing it, it's obvious enough that she's just a stand-in for you," Mareo pointed out. "Presumably you wanted to live vicariously through this character as she lashed out at those around her in anger and frustration."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Kimi sighed. "But seriously though, it's not like it was totally dedicated to Yoko being an asshole. I mean, what did she do? Trip someone? Knock over a toy robot? Big whoop!"

"You left out the third thing she did," Naoko pointed out. "I remember, she caused a girl to go flying into an open room, and the door slammed shut behind her."

"Ha!" Kimi laughed. "Yep, that too."

"Why is that funny to you?" Mariko questioned annoyedly. "That was the worst thing she did out of all of them."

"Jeez, lighten up, will you?" Kimi said, rolling her eyes. "It's funny to me because…" Suddenly, she began to trail off.

"Huh?" Naoko responded. "Why is it funny to you, Kimi?"

Kimi didn't respond right away, as it looked like something was bothering her too much to do so. "Well," she muttered, "now that I think about it…I can't place it. I mean, I thought it might've just been the slapstick-y feel it has, but even then, I mean…I've seen shit like that plenty of times in other works. Fuck. I feel like there's a reason, but I don't remember it right now."

Naoko was about as bothered as she was by this. That somewhat mean-spirited gag in her own work apparently had some value to her. She didn't seem to know why, though. Odd. If she didn't know why, then maybe there was a reason, but she forgot? If so, then why? Could it have had something to do with the blank in everyone's memories of the last couple of years or so? And if that was the case…

That was when Naoko suddenly remembered something. An idea that was brought up at least once before. If Kimi's lost memories had something to do with what she put in her work, and her work had somehow upset Mine so grievously…Oh, boy, he thought. He knew what was coming next was going to be tough to broach.

"I might know why," Naoko said. "We all have a gap in our memories to a certain extent, don't we?"

"Ah, yes," Bankei replied, clearly pleased. "Of course, it's not a totally blank gap. We remember what happened to us to a certain extent. It was around high school for all of us, wasn't it? We remember what we were taught, and much of what happened…but not much else. We don't remember names, and we don't remember faces. How that is possible still eludes me, but that is nonetheless the truth."

"I have the distinct feeling that that is important in some way," Yori weighed in. "We may have all gone to the same school. In which case, whatever led us to being trapped here is shared between us all."

"I don't think there's much in the way of evidence to disprove that idea," Naoko agreed. "All that being said, I gotta ask Kimi something. Kimi, was what Yoko did in the animation you made…based on anything you did at the time?"

"I'd assume so," Kimi figured. "My recollection of that time is iffy in places, but I remember getting into trouble. I wasn't interested in putting up with people's bullshit, as always, and I may have gotten into some trouble with a friend of mine here and there."

Naoko looked over at Mine briefly to gauge her reaction. She seemed to be focused on Kimi and what she was saying, her emotional state somewhere between angry and terrified. And that was just from her facial expression. Her body language also suggested that she was becoming increasingly tense, and it looked like she might've also been…sweating? Naoko didn't like seeing her like that, that was for certain, yet at the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that he really was onto something.

"Who was this friend of yours?" he asked.

"I dunno. Some dude that got my humor," Kimi shrugged.

"Okay," Naoko replied. He remembered something else he'd heard that connected nicely to that statement. It was just a one-off comment, but it certainly left an impression on him. "I remember someone saying they actually liked that animation. Or, at least, they thought it was alright."

Kimi's curiosity was piqued. "Seriously? I didn't know someone here actually was cool with it. Who are you talking about?"

"Well…" Naoko wasn't sure what reaction his next statement was going to get, but he had an idea. "It was Haru."

"Fucking what?!" Kimi exclaimed. It wasn't exactly what Naoko expected, but it was still pretty damn close. "Hold on a fucking second! You're saying that bumbling piece of shit might've been my high school bestie?!"

"It seems to me like he could've been, at least," Naoko replied. "Do you remember anything about him? Was he particularly tall, or strong, or anything?"

"Well…" The word came out a bit forcefully, but it seemed like Kimi didn't know what to say afterwards. Instead, she took a moment to think. "...Alright, so I guess he was quite a bit taller than me. But that's not that weird, is it? People in school were almost always taller than me. And sure, he was pretty strong. Stronger than me, certainly."

"That still could've been someone else," Takeshi replied. "Besides, the two of you didn't like each other during the time we've spent in this place."

"That's certainly true," Naoko agreed. "Then again, they might have just gotten off on the wrong foot. For all we know, they could've actually hit it off when they were in high school. And if the two of them were together, getting into trouble…"

Naoko really didn't like what he was thinking at the moment. There was yet another thing he remembered from some time ago. It was quite farther back than most of the stuff they'd talked about already, and was also…very personal. He didn't want to bring it up without being absolutely sure about it, so he looked over at Mine again. He was right in his observation earlier. Sweat was trickling down her skin, and since she wasn't too far away from where he was sitting, he could tell that her breathing was becoming, in simplest terms, irregular. He'd seen her like that before. If he was right, then that would mean she must've figured something out herself at some point. That, or maybe Bankei had tricked her into thinking something that wasn't true, or maybe even something Bankei hadn't realized at the time was true. It was hard to say for certain one way or another, but he felt surprisingly confident in his theory.

"Mine, this is kind of hard to ask for me," he said. "You once mentioned something happened to you in high school. A memory that you still had. Was it…anything like what happened to that girl in the animation? Were you…trapped somewhere?"

"N-Naoko!" Mine gasped. "I-I told you that in c-confidence! Why…?"

"After this trial is over, I would be more than happy to tell the full story behind what transpired between us that night," Bankei interjected, seemingly unaffected by the tension between the two of them. "For now, however, I think it's clear enough that Naoko is correct. She said herself that night that she tried to tell you, but loathed to consider the memory for more than a passing moment. A claustrophobic young girl, trapped inside a cramped janitor's closet for over half an hour. What are the odds?"

"Bankei, you too?!" Mine gasped once more, shocked by the betrayal. "Why?! I thought…I thought I could trust the two of you…I-I…I didn't-"

"Mine," Ishi interrupted, speaking in an oddly tender voice. "It's okay, girl. Don't forget, I'm here too. I'm not gonna turn my back on you like they have. I don't care if Bankei knows how to spin a story out of total crap. I still know for a fact that there's no way you would willingly help Bankei with any sort of evil scheme."

"Evil?" Bankei asked. "Is that the term you're using to describe me now?"

"Well, I hate to pay too much lip service to such a harsh, philosophical concept," Mareo responded, "but as they say, 'if the shoe fits'."

"Ha!" Kimi laughed. "Okay, that was actually pretty good."

"It was?" Mareo responded confusedly.

"Ishi," Naoko interjected, "are you really going to try and disprove the evidence against Mine?"

"Evidence?" Ishi questioned. "You mean a bunch of dumb theories and things people said that've been blown WAY out of proportion?"

"Nothing's been blown out of proportion," Naoko argued. "We can be sure Mine gave important information to Bankei, and Mine just confirmed that she told Bankei something very sensitive about herself which almost certainly establishes a motive."

"She could've told her that stuff at any time, for any reason!" Ishi argued back. "Besides, Bankei already had Hoshi to do stuff for her. That'd be all the help she'd ever need!"

"Are you saying I had him do everything?" Bankei asked.

"Yes!" Ishi exclaimed. "You had him tell you important stuff that Mine wouldn't tell you! You made him do all that weird stuff with the book and everything! You told him to go to the PA room just so you could kill him!"

"You're saying I had him steal a key for me?" Bankei asked. "And check for a book in the library late at night? You must think he was much dumber than he actually was."

"Well, it doesn't matter, because you were blackmailing him!" Ishi countered. "There's nothing saying Mine did those things, is there?!"

She was still trying to defend Mine. Naoko couldn't fault her for it, but what she was saying seemed wrong. Hoshi followed every command given to him to the letter? He might've been blackmailed, but he wasn't brainwashed. He still could've picked up on enough signs and realized the danger that was looming over them. Mine had to do some of those things. The question was how to prove it. He felt like there had to be something, but…

"Mine never stepped foot in the holding cell room!" Ishi claimed.

Naoko knew she was technically wrong on that point, but in regards to what she was referring to…he realized it, then and there. "The pot of red flowers!" he got out. "Of course! With all the flower pots strewn around the facility, I barely considered it."

"Huh? Red flowers?" Ishi asked frustratedly. "What red flowers?"

"I remember going into the holding cell room for the first time this morning. On the desk, where the box with the keys. There was a pot of red flowers. I remember on the third floor, while you were just getting started, Mine walked out of the flower nursery with a pot of red flowers. Those flowers…they were the same ones."

"What did they look like?" Yori asked, grabbing the folder and beginning to look through its contents.

"I remember them a little," Naoko replied. "They were a bit…funnel shaped? They had five petals, and looked a bit like a star."

"That's a tad nonspecific," Yori said. "Though based on that description, they might have been petunias. Regardless, if you think that the flowers Mine had with her were the same ones found in the holding cell room, I can imagine that they could potentially be."

"That means that Mine would have had to go into the holding cell room to place them there," Naoko reasoned. "Thus, she had the perfect opportunity to enter the room without causing suspicion, and take the key."

"During our flower decorating thing?" Ishi responded in disbelief. "But that was just between us, as a cute little bonding thing, y'know?!"

"How can you be sure of that?" Bankei questioned. "Are you sure there wasn't another reason why she suggested it?"

"Shut up, Bankei!" Ishi snapped. "There's no way! There's no way that that was just something she came up with as part of some stupid plan! If it was, then…then!"

"Then…what?" Mareo asked.

"Then…" Ishi began to look like she was quickly losing confidence in what she was saying. Nonetheless, she wasn't yet throwing in the towel. "Then that would've been a lie. She would've lied to me, her friend. Mine, you wouldn't do that, right?"

Mine wasn't looking at her.

"...Mine?"

"I'm really sorry, Ishi," Naoko spoke up. "I think I understand what happened, at least in broad strokes. It's a lot, and I know you don't want to hear it. I don't want to believe it, honestly."

"Whatever you're thinking, you're…you're wrong," Ishi maintained. "You were tricked, and you're gonna get us killed."

"No need to rush to such conclusions before Naoko has explained his thoughts on what truly happened," Bankei said. "Speaking of, why don't we get to that? It might prove useful to us all, one way or another. additionally, it seems like a good send off."

Naoko looked angrily at Bankei, who looked as content as she'd been for some time. Not only did she know what she was going to do, she was prompting him to do so. The fact that she was doing so kinda made him not want to do it, but…well, it'd worked wonders for them in the past. He figured he may as well do so regardless.

"Okay, here's how I see this," Naoko began. "Bankei had a motive, but wasn't in a good state to commit murder herself. She probably figured she wouldn't be able to get away with it, even if she covered her tracks well. Considering what's happened up to this point, I think that assumption would have to be correct. But she got someone else to help her. She saw an opportunity to make her accomplice, the true killer, hate both Haru and Kimi. She had her accomplice tell her everything she'd need to know to plan the murder, as well as do a choice few other things, including steal the key to Haru's cell.

"The key to his cell was given to him inside of a book, along with a note with specific instructions. This book was given to him by an unwitting Takeshi, who'd been influenced by a blackmailed Hoshi. The day after, things were going as planned. Hoshi was that night's cook, and was visited by Bankei while he worked. Bankei then took the opportunity to poison Haru's food with the finely crushed seeds of one of the more poisonous flowers in our possession. Additionally, Hoshi was at some point given a note, and was expected to deliver it to Kimi. However, Hoshi didn't do so. Instead, he decided to disobey Bankei, and went there himself.

"Hoshi met Haru in the PA room at the designated time. They presumably talked for a little bit before the full symptoms of the poisonous seeds took effect, and Haru began to feel very weak. Unbeknownst to them, Bankei was watching them from inside one of the lockers, and when she sensed the opportunity, sent a quick, nonverbal signal to her accomplice via their transceivers. The accomplice went inside the room, stabbed Haru in the chest multiple times from behind, and then stabbed Hoshi when he attempted to flee. From there, the two of them had all the time they needed to rearrange the crime scene however they needed to, moving the bodies to look like they had killed each other while removing any unwanted blood.

"The accomplice knew what they needed to say and do for the trial. Unfortunately, they must have been misled. That's the only way I can see how all this has led to this point. Considering everything we know, that accomplice…is Mine Yamashiro. It has to be."

There was a pregnant pause. Naoko looked at Ishi apologetically, seeing how even at the point they were at, she still wasn't accepting it. "That's a lot, alright," she said. "But…Just because Mine helped Bankei doesn't mean she was the killer! Maybe she did the stuff you said, except for the actual murdering part! She still could've been manipulated into doing all sorts of stuff, but murder? That just isn't-"

"Ishi," Mine interrupted her. Only now was she looking straight at Ishi. "Ishi, please."

"Huh? Mine?" Ishi responded. "I'm just trying to help you, girl."

"Well, you shouldn't," Mine replied defeatedly. "You shouldn't have to defend me. I don't deserve it."

"You're my best friend!" Ishi said. "Even if you don't 'deserve' it, I'm still gonna help you."

"I told you you shouldn't," Mine replied firmly. "Especially since…they're right. I did it."

"Mine!" Ishi exclaimed. "Don't let them force you into saying things that aren't true!"

"They're not forcing me," Mine countered. "Bankei, she…she tricked me. She told me that she had a plan for this trial. A loophole she'd noticed, or…something. She told me to play my part to have the blame pinned on her. When they got the answer wrong, she'd point out some hypocrisy on IMONO's part, and…we'd all be okay. So, once we get back to civilization, Haru and Kimi won't be able to hurt anyone ever again."

"And that was before the murder itself happened," Naoko reasoned.

"Yes," Mine replied. "I didn't know that Hoshi was gonna be there when I was waiting outside the room. I thought Kimi would be there. When I went in, and Hoshi was there instead, I couldn't just stop to think about it. Some part of me was telling me I had to do it. It didn't matter that one of them was the wrong one. I…I still had to do it." She stopped to wipe away forming tears.

"But you had nothing against Hoshi," Eryu pointed out. "We don't have any reason thus far to think you'd be okay with killing him."

"I know that," Mine replied guiltily. "But still, I knew I couldn't back out of it. We'd already gotten up to that point, and…if I didn't, I wouldn't get my chance to kill Haru. I…I hated him. I hated him so much. I didn't even realize I could hate him as much as I did."

Eryu looked baffled, and quickly turned his head to glare angrily at Bankei. "Bankei, what the hell did you do to her?!"

Bankei, for her part, was unfazed. "I'll tell you if you so desire. But first, perhaps we should wrap this up."

"INDEED. PLEASE, EVERYONE, HEAD TO THE GYMNASIUM. THIS TRIAL HAS GONE ON FAR TOO LONG AND WE HAVE OBTAINED A CLEAR CONFESSION. LET US END THIS.

It was the same affair as last time. They all walked to the gymnasium, a sense of unease shared between most of them. The keyword was "most", of course. Bankei didn't seem to mind. Because of course she didn't. Naoko wasn't expecting anything else from her, really.

Once at their destination, that massive screen came down from the ceiling, and they were prompted to vote. Interestingly enough, at the top of the list of names to choose from, there was a new option titled "Mutual Kill". It must've been prepared some time before the trial. Of course, it went unused, at least by Naoko. Instead, he voted for what he knew was the truth. He hoped the others would do the same.

Once they were done, the screen showed the results of the vote. Apparently, it wasn't unanimous. There was one vote for Bankei. Aside from that, though, everyone had voted for Mine.

"CONGRATULATIONS ONCE AGAIN. YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY OUSTED YET ANOTHER MURDERER."