After the discovery of Lorenzo's body, everyone else ran inside the train as quickly as they could. We all looked at the corpse for a few seconds and then turned to Yuki. Before we could say anything, Monokuma burst into the room wearing the same facial expression as usual. "Upupupu, the first murder has taken place! Now, you all have to find the evidence that leads toward Lorenzo's killer! After a certain amount of time has passed, a class trial will begin!"

"A class trial?" asked Hikooki.

Monokuma nodded. "This is where the culprit, or as I like to call them, the blackened, will be determined by a group vote! If you guess correctly, the blackened will be executed! If you fail and guess the wrong person, everyone else will be executed instead! Also, attendance is mandatory for all surviving students."

My heart skipped a beat as Monokuma finished that sentence. What if... we were to guess wrong? I didn't want to be wrong about this.

"Also, if you check your E-Handbook, you will see that the Monokuma File section has been added!" Monokuma informed us. I quickly pulled my E-Handbook out of my bag and tapped the "Monokuma File" option. There, that's when I saw a full-body picture of Lorenzo, grayed out with the word "DEAD" plastered over it in pink, stenciled letters. The rest of the file read this:

Monokuma File #1:

*The victim was Lorenzo Ricci. The time of death is estimated to be around 8:45 p.m. The body was discovered in the television room on the Monokuma Express. The cause of death was a gunshot to the head, which killed him in seconds. No other external injuries were found, and no chemicals such as poison were detected. His face looks surprised as if he had caught off guard.

"Now, get to work with your investigation! I'll see you all later~!" He then dashed out of the room without a trace as the 23 of us just stood there in silence, trying to think of something. First, we all eyed Yuki.

"I-I..." Yuki stammered, her voice trembling and her arms shaking. "I didn't do it! I swear I didn't!" she cried.

Hideki scoffed. "That's what they all say," He replied.

I took a deep breath. I was sure that if I investigated this case thoroughly, I could figure it out.

"Everyone!" Masaki called out. "Look for evidence that leads toward Lorenzo's killer. Kanon, care to help me out?"

I jumped a bit as Masaki said my name, but I nodded. "Yeah, I'll help you out," I replied.

"I'll help out as well," Michiru offered. "I'm sure I can be of assistance."

Masaki nodded. "Sure. You're smart and reasonable, I'm sure you'll help us out as well."

Michiru pushed her glasses up and clung onto her book. "Alright. I say we begin by inspecting Lorenzo's body."

Masaki, Michiru, and I slowly approached Lorenzo's body. I plugged my nose as the overwhelming stench of rotting flesh and blood clogged my sinuses, but it seemed Masaki and Michiru were less fazed than I was.

"As you can see here, there's a bullet wound in his head," Masaki noted. "This means that the killer got him with a single shot,"

While guns were certainly much different from cameras, I knew that getting a good shot with a camera could take hours, and it was certainly a test of trial and error. Hitting someone with a fatal shot on their first try would be next to impossible.

"Look up here!" Michiru called out, bringing attention to the bloody bullet hole in the wall. "You know what this means? Lorenzo was standing up right as he was killed."

I snapped a photograph of the scene, just to keep it around as evidence should it come up again.

"Wait, look here!" I began, seeing a clean pocketknife in Lorenzo's hand. "He was wielding this as he was killed, I see."

"Excellent observation, Kanon!" Masaki called out. "But... why did he have a knife with him?"

I looked around in the corner to see a poster featuring a picture of a red-haired man on a snowboard, jumping through the air. "Hey, is this the poster Sen was talking about?" I asked. "Only Yuki would own a poster like this."

"Huh, you're right..." Michiru muttered to herself. "But how did it get here?"

"Maybe we just have to search for more clues," I suggested.

"Great idea!" Michiru replied. "I know the first place to look, too,"

Michiru lead us to a laundry room just below the science lab, where a large white washing machine and dryer were situated. A basket full of clothing sat upon the dryer - and it seemed that it was all full of Lorenzo's clothes.

"Oh, now I remember!" Masaki called out. "Yeah, only about 45 minutes before he died, Lorenzo offered to wash some clothes,"

"But..." I muttered, trying to wrap my head around the situation. "None of this makes sense. It should take almost two hours for a wash/dry cycle to be finished. 45 minutes is less than half of that," I pointed out.

Michiru rummaged through the laundry pile, and then pulled out a black bra. It was one which would be much too big for myself, but definitely not big enough for, say, Tame. "A bra? Funny to find this here..." Michiru muttered to herself. "...And it's Yuki's!" She then turned the bra toward us, pulling a tag on its side which read "Yuki" in black marker.

Masaki scratched his chin. "Oh, right! Yuki was the one who said she needed her clothes washed! But then... why is only her bra present? That seems a little weird,"

Michiru shrugged. "Lorenzo was always kind of shady. Wouldn't surprise me if there was a pair of her panties in here too," She then dug through the clothing again, and then her eyes widened. "I... feel something in here," She announced, before pulling out a piece of paper. "What's this?"

Masaki, Michiru, and I all looked at the paper and read its contents. It had been written in blue ink that was starting to run, but if one looked at it carefully, they could read, "Someone will die tonight. I need to-". There was more to it, but the ink was smeared beyond comprehension.

"Who left this here?" asked Masaki. "And more importantly, who wrote it in the first place?"

I thought to myself for a little bit, not yet coming up with a real answer. I looked at the setting the dryer had been on, and I noticed it was on its highest setting. "That's strange," I noted. "It doesn't look like there was a full enough load to put on its highest setting,"

"Hey, why don't we go search for more clues?" Michiru suggested. Masaki and I both nodded as we made our way back to the television room, where I could see Hideki, Utamuro, Yuki, Guadalupe, Daquan, Kaemon, and Sen. Utamuro was in a chair, shaking, while Yuki was looking at the ground and Hideki, Sen, Daquan, and Guadalupe were standing. Kaemon was sitting in the corner, writing something down.

"Ah, you guys are back," Hideki noted to himself. "I interrogated Utamuro and Yuki, but I couldn't quite get any answers out of 'em," He told us.

"How many times do I have to tell you?!" Yuki shouted. "I'm innocent! I'm being framed!"

Hideki stomped on the ground. "I'll be the judge of that, thank you very much," He replied.

Michiru pulled her clipboard from under her shoulder again. "Hideki, if it helps you out, I made a list of everyone who was either in here to begin with, or came in here during the concert," she informed him, handing him the clipboard.

Hideki nodded. "Okay. Saeko, Toko, Lorenzo, Utamuro, Sen, Hikooki, Yuki..." He muttered to himself. "Alright, I guess I'll go interrogate Hikooki next," He then walked out of the room.

"Hey, Utamuro?" I called out, approaching him. The poor guy could barely even look my way; he was shaking too much.

"S-Sorry, I'm just having trouble taking this all in..." He muttered to himself. "One second, Lorenzo was with me, talking with me and hanging out as I was making that new dress for Amy-chan, and the next second, I find him dead in the room... I never even heard him leave," He muttered.

Masaki nodded. "Alright, so what you're saying is that you were with him some time before he died?" He asked.

Utamuro nodded. "Yeah. But I was so focused on Amy-chan's dress, I probably didn't even notice when he left. I also noticed that my knife was missing from the sleeve of my shirt, where I always put it..."

"Was it... this one?" asked Masaki, who handed Utamuro the knife Lorenzo was holding.

Utamuro gasped. "Yes, that's the one! Where did you find it?"

Masaki pointed at Lorenzo's body. "He had it in his hand when we found him dead."

Utamuro cringed a bit as he walked away. "I'm um... going to wash this off real well... I just... it doesn't, umm... feel right,"

"Masaki, I didn't even see you take the knife. How did you do it?" asked Michiru.

Masaki shrugged. "Ultimate Thief, remember?"

Michiru nodded. "Okay. Hey, why don't we ask Guadalupe if she knows anything?"

We all approached Guadalupe, who was standing near Yuki.

"Guadalupe, you know Yuki better than the rest of us. Do you think you can give us some insight on this case?" asked Masaki.

Guadalupe nodded. "Yeah, there's one big thing I've noticed," Guadalupe began. "Feel how hot it is in here? I looked at the heater, which turned on at around 8:00 p.m. This means that by the time Yuki got in here to retrieve her poster, the train was already heated up," she noted.

"What is the significance of that?" Michiru asked.

Guadalupe scratched her chin. "Yuki can't really handle the heat. She gets heat exhaustion really easily because she's so used to cold,"

Masaki nodded. "Alright... that makes sense. Thanks,"

"Now, why don't we ask Sen what's going on?" Michiru suggested. Masaki and I nodded as we approached Sen this time. He was inspecting Lorenzo's dead body, pressing down on the bullet hole on his head.

"Damn, if only I was a bit earlier... I could have saved him..." Sen muttered to himself.

"Hey dumbass, pretty sure he died instantly. Gunshots to the head would do that," Kaemon remarked.

Sen turned to us, ignoring Kaemon's comment. "As you can see here, the bullet wound is small. When someone is shot with a gun at a close range, the entrance wound is bigger and wider. This wound is small, which tells me it had to have been done at a long range," He informed us.

"Speaking of which," Daquan piped up. "From a range like that, it would take either ridiculous skill or luck to hit from a distance like that," He muttered to himself. "Even more so if the murder weapon was that pistol Yuki was using. Pistols are for close-range,"

Michiru's eyes lit up. "I have a new suspicion here..." she muttered to herself. "Kanon, Masaki, can you two go investigate Saeko and Toko? Those two are making me suspicious at the moment..."

"On it!" I replied, as Masaki and I walked toward the game room, where we saw Toko and Saeko sitting near the pachinko machine.

"Alright, what do y'all want?" Toko asked the two of us.

"We just have a few questions," Masaki asked. "Where were you two during the time of the murder?"

Toko shrugged. "I was in the bathroom the whole time," They testified.

"I can confirm this!" Saeko responded. "I kept watch on them. They must have eaten something that didn't agree with them."

"So Toko was in the bathroom the whole time..." I muttered to myself. "Saeko, did you see anyone pass by beforehand?"

Saeko scratched her chin. "Let's see... First, I saw Michiru and Lorenzo pass through here at around 7:45, and they just took our attendance to make sure we were both here. Shortly after, Utamuro passed through here, and we didn't see him come back through until the body discovery. Then I saw them both pass through again at 7:52. Michiru came back through here at 8:03, and then went back at 8:30. Only five minutes later, Hikooki came in here and went downstairs," she explained to us. "And then at 8:45, that's when I heard the gunshot,"

"Thanks," I replied, jotting everything down in my journal. "Masaki, do we have any other questions?"

"I've got one," Masaki began. "Toko, do you think this pistol was the one used to kill Lorenzo?" he asked.

Toko scratched their chin for a second, taking the gun from Masaki and feeling around the muzzle. "Definitely not," They replied. "The muzzle is cold, but the handle's warm. Whoever had it was just holding it, and there's no way it coulda been fired anytime in the past few minutes," They informed us.

"Thank you, Toko and Saeko," I thanked them. "Who else should we talk to?" I asked Masaki.

"Let's go meet up with the others," Masaki suggested.

"Good idea," I replied. Masaki, Saeko, Toko, and I met up with everyone else, now present in the living room.

"Masaki, Kanon, you're back!" Michiru called out. "Here, while you were talking with Saeko and Toko, Kaemon showed me this," She then handed us a sheet of paper with a rough map of everyone's positions at the time of Lorenzo's death. It showed all of us except for Toko, Saeko, Utamuro, Michiru, Hikooki, Yuki, and Lorenzo outside, with Toko in the bathroom and Saeko near them. Utamuro was in his room, while Michiru and Hikooki were in the middle room with their exact positions unknown. Yuki and Lorenzo were in the TV room. Notably, Lorenzo was positioned directly in the doorways.

"Oh, this is really helpful!" I replied. "I hate to admit it, but Kaemon really came through and helped us out here."

Kaemon shrugged. "Hey, when you game all the time, you gotta make maps. Not that a casual like you would understand,"

"Anyway," Michiru began, pushing her glasses up. "I've cracked this case already. I'm ready for the trial,"

Masaki chuckled to himself. "Nice, I've already cracked this case myself," He responded. How did these two figure it out so quickly? I was still rather stumped myself.

Suddenly, the monitor turned on again, showing Monokuma sitting in his chair again. "Time is up! Meet me in the main room of the train, and then we will begin the Class Trial!"

I gulped as all of us walked into the main room of the train to see Monokuma standing before us.

"I'm still confused after all that," Rai muttered to himself. "What if we don't guess correctly?"

"I don't think that'll be an issue," Masaki replied.

Before anyone else could ay anything, four walls shot up from underneath us, enclosing us in an elevator-like space.

"Oooh, this is just like the elevators at all those conventions I go to!" Amy-chan mused. How could she possibly be so childlike at a time like this?

I stood next to Masaki, my heart pounding harder every time. What if we couldn't do it? I kept asking myself. I sure hoped we could figure this one out.