After a few minutes, the elevator came to a stop. The 23 of us stepped out of the elevator and we entered a dark room with 24 different wooden podiums, each of them arranged in a circle. At one podium stood a sign with a grayed-out picture of Lorenzo's face on it, with a pink "X" drawn on it as if it were blood. Seeing the symbol of our dead friend was certainly unnerving, and I felt my heart pump faster as we approached our podiums.

"Everyone has an assigned podium!" Monokuma announced to us. "Behind each one is one of your names. Find yours, and that will be your podium for the trial!"

I gulped and approached the podiums. "Kaemon, Tame, Rai, Yuki, Hideki..." I muttered, reading off all the names until I found my own. "Kanon," I muttered, standing up at the podium. I sure hoped that I could figure out who the culprit in this case was...

Phase 1: Nonstop Discussion:

"So," began Michiru. "Let's acknowledge the elephant in the room. Yuki, why were you in the room with Lorenzo at the time he died?"

Yuki jumped a bit at Michiru's question. "What? There's no way it could have been me! I went in there way before he died!"

I scratched my chin at Yuki's statement. "No, that's not it!" I replied. Everyone turned to me as I pointed out the contradiction in Yuki's argument. "Yuki, you went in there at 8:30, and Lorenzo was found dead at 8:45. Not that much time."

Yuki gasped. Her hands started to shake as her eyes darted back-and-forth.

"Yes, Yuki..." Michiru noted. "Not to mention, it's quite suspicious that you were found holding the gun that killed Lorenzo," Michiru pointed out. Yuki gasped again, but then, I caught a contradiction in Michiru's argument.

"No, wait!" I called out again.

"Hmm?" Michiru asked, turning her head toward me.

For a split-second, I forgot exactly what I was saying. "Um, uh..."

"The gun Yuki was holding wasn't the one that killed Lorenzo," Masaki stated. "Toko, isn't that right?"

Toko's eyes lit up upon hearing Masaki's statement. "Oh, yeah, that's right! The gun Yuki was holding was too cold at the time to be the one that Lorenzo was shot with!" They pointed out. "Guns heat up at the muzzle after they're fired!"

Yuki gave a sigh of relief. "Whew, thanks, guys," Yuki exhaled, closing her eyes wiping sweat off her forehead.

"Of course," Michiru began, pushing her eyeglasses up. "Your name hasn't been totally cleared yet, Yuki,"

"What?!" Yuki cried out.

"But... didn't we just establish that the gun that killed Lorenzo wasn't the one in Yuki's hands?" asked Rai.

Michiru pulled the bra with Yuki's name on it out of her shirt. "Yuki, this was found near the crime scene. Care to explain?" she asked.

Yuki shivered as she looked at the bra in Michiru's hands, and then blushed. She looked down at the ground and gulped. "Umm..."

Michiru pushed her glasses up and gave a soft "Hmm.". "Seems you don't have much in the way of words," she began. "I'll ask again - why was this near the crime scene?"

"I don't know!" Yuki cried out. "I-It doesn't... belong to me..."

"Oh, really?" asked Michiru, showing everyone the tag. "It does say your name on it,"

Wait, this wasn't Yuki's bra? Or was it? If it wasn't, how did it get there?

"What if it's incorrectly labeled?" suggested Tame. "This could be a setup. I wouldn't doubt it if two girls here had the same boob size, you know,"

Saeko piped up. "Wait a minute! I'm an expert at spacial recognition!" She called out. "I've actually taken note of every single girl's chest size here! Yuki's is unique among us!"

Yuki gasped again, her face going a deeper red.

"Just as I thought," Michiru noted.

"It's approximately Yuki's size as well, give or take," Saeko informed us.

Yuki, the killer? No... that just didn't seem right. I knew there had to be evidence that cleared her name somewhere.

"That makes a little bit of sense," Hideki mused. "But let's focus on another mystery. Why was Yuki asleep when Lorenzo's body was found?"

I thought for a minute, but I remembered Guadalupe's account. "I've got it!" I replied. "Remember the heater that was on?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, it was really hot in there..." Kaemon mumbled.

"Yeah, I remember that!" Azizah replied. "It was turned on at 8:00 p.m.!"

"Not just that," I replied. "According to Guadalupe, Yuki gets really bad heat exhaustion. Remember yesterday? She was on the verge of fainting, and Guadalupe had to carry her back into the train!"

Yuki huffed, her cheeks puffing out as she looked down. Her face was starting to get even redder.

"Hold on!" called out Kenji all of a sudden.

Phase 2: Rebuttal Showdown:

I jumped at Kenji's sudden dismissal. "Y-yes, Kenji?"

"I highly doubt Yuki fell asleep immediately," Kenji stated. "It's more likely she shot him, and then passed out moments after,"

While he made a good point, I couldn't help but feel there was something he was glossing over.

"But Yuki would have been struggling to stand during all that!" I replied.

"Adrenaline can push one's body far beyond its usual limits," Kenji pointed out. "If Yuki really wanted to kill him enough, her body would have allowed her to for only a moment or so,"

I took in a deep breath, and tried to come up with something - anything - which would clear Yuki's name. Then, I suddenly remembered the Shaun White poster in the corner - the reason she went back into the train in the first place.

"The Shaun White poster!" I replied. "She would have made a move toward that before killing Lorenzo!"

Kenji gave me a quiet "Hmph.". "Perhaps she was so consumed with rage, she targeted Lorenzo first? Sun Tzu has taught me that humans will go to war for the pettiest of reasons,"

I gulped again. Oops, looks like that didn't quite clear her name. I just knew it wasn't Yuki though!

"All she would need to do is run into Toko's room, pick out a gun of her choice, and fire away," Kenji explained to me.

"Wait!" I called out. "Saeko never saw Yuki during her time in the game room! If Yuki had gone past the game room to grab a gun, then she would have mentioned so!"

Phase 3: Nonstop Debate:

Everyone sat in silence for a few seconds as Yuki took a deep breath. "I told you I didn't do it..."

"What about the bra, Yuki?" asked Michiru. "Why was that there?"

Yuki blushed with a beet-red and took in a big gulp. "I... don't wear a bra..." she murmured.

Kaemon gasped at that statement. "What?! No fuckin' way!"

Yuki nodded, her face still flushed and looking down. "They get too hot..."

"That raises a question," Hikooki began. "If it wasn't Yuki's, then whose was it?"

"That is an interesting question," Masaki replied. "Kanon, do you remember when we were in the laundry room?"

My eyes widened as I remembered what Masaki was talking about. We found the bra inside of the clothing pile atop the washing machine. I remembered the note, but I didn't think that was relevant to what Masaki was saying. No, what I remembered was the "High" setting on the dryer.

"The dryer!" I called out. "It was placed on 'High'!"

Masaki nodded. "That's correct. Anyone want to take a guess as to what happens when the dryer is on too high of a setting? I bet Utamuro knows the answer to this one."

"The clothes shrink!" Utamuro replied. "That means the bra wasn't in Yuki's size!"

Michiru clicked her tongue and pushed her glasses up. "Okay then. I guess this means that Yuki's name has been cleared..."

"Alright, we've established who it's not," Daquan began. "Now, why don't we figure out who it was?"

"I like where you're going with this," Masaki replied. "First, why don't we discuss where the killer was when Lorenzo was killed?"

Aiko gave a wide grin. "I know~! The killer must have been in the TV room with Lorenzo, and ran away as fast as they could!"

I instantly spotted a contradiction in Aiko's claim. I remembered Sen's autopsy. "No, wait!" I replied. "Sen, didn't you say that the bullet hit him from a big distance?"

Sen piped up immediately. "Why, yes I did!" He replied. "The bullet wound and the hole in the wall were too small for him to have been shot from the TV room,"

"Maybe someone moved the body?" suggested Tame.

"No, that couldn't have happened," Masaki replied. "There was a blood splatter on the wall as well."

"Ohhh, none of this makes any sense!" Amy-chan wined. "There's no way you can shoot someone in the train from a distance!"

Kaemon cleared his throat. "Uh, no. Sweetie, let me handle this. If it's too much for you to figure out, the train has these things called doors. If Lorenzo and the killer were both in the doorways, they could have fired from all the way on the other side,"

I wasn't exactly a fan of Kaemon's condescending tone, but he was correct. It wasn't a stretch to say that someone killed him from a room or two over.

"Hmm... if my old suspicion was wrong, then I have a new one," Michiru began. "Toko. It's pretty tough to hit a target from that kind of distance, correct? Ultimate Gunslinger?"

Toko nodded. "Yeah, I reckon it'd be pretty tough for someone to hit from that distance," They replied. "I mean, unless it was me."

Michiru chuckled and pushed her glasses up again. "Just as I thought. Not even trying to cover up your shame,"

Toko chuckled again. "Hey, I never said it was me. Just ask Saeko, I was in the bathroom the whole time,"

Saeko piped up. "Yes, I was! They were in there the whole time!"

Michiru nodded. "Okay, okay..."

Masaki scratched his chin for a minute. "Hey, Michiru. Didn't you have a list of all the people who were in the train, or who came onto the train before Lorenzo died?"

Michiru's eyes perked up. "Yes, I did! Here you go!" She handed the clipboard to Masaki, who reviewed the list for a few seconds.

"Alright. Hideki, Sen, Saeko, Toko, Lorenzo, Utamuro, Hikooki, Yuki..." Masaki muttered to himself. "Well, we can rule out Lorenzo, obviously. Hideki and Sen went outside and were out there during the murder. Toko has an alibi, and we've cleared Yuki's name... this leaves Saeko, Utamuro, and Hikooki,"

"Wait, me?!" Saeko asked. "B-But... I was waiting for Toko the whole time!"

Masaki chuckled at Saeko's statement. "Yeah, but Toko was in the bathroom. According to Kaemon's map, you were alone at the time of the murder."

Saeko quivered as Masaki kept pressing on. "Th-there's no way it was me! I swear!"

Was it really Saeko? I honestly didn't think it was.

"We'll get back to her," I replied to that. "In the meantime, we still have Utamuro and Hikooki,"

"Ah, yes, Utamuro," Michiru began. "If I recall correctly, you were with Lorenzo not too long before his death, correct?" she asked him.

"W-well, I suppose that's true," Utamuro muttered. "But he was my friend! There's no way I'd ever kill him!"

Asa then spoke up all of a sudden. "Hold on! Utamuro was supposed to be making a new dress for Amy-chan! Utamuro, did you have it with you?"

Utamuro's eyes lit up at that question. "Yes, I did!" He fumbled around his shirt and pants, but made a horrified expression. "I... can't find it..."

"Well, you're in luck!" Monokuma remarked, pulling a white, frilly dress with sparkles and glitter adorning the lower section. "It looks like you spent a long time on this, Utamuro!"

"Sooooo kawaii!" Amy-chan gushed. "Utamuro, you made that for me?"

Tomoe lowered her sunglasses for a second. "Whoa, that's really awesome, even by your standards!" She complimented him.

Utamuro nodded. "Yeah... I wanted to make it extra special for you,"

"Wait, I just remembered something," Ryo began. "Utamuro, you carry a knife with you, correct?" he asked. "I remember seeing a knife in Lorenzo's hand at the time of his death.

Utamuro nodded. "Yeah! Now that I think about it... I hung my shirt up so that my sleeves wouldn't get ruined. And I didn't even hear Lorenzo leave..."

"I've got it!" Ryo called out. "The killer must have taken the knife, and placed it at the scene for a red herring!"

Wait, that didn't seem exactly right. "Wait!" I called out. "He..."

"He...?" asked Hideki. "Come on, Kanon, spill the beans!"

Phase 4: Hangman's Gambit:

I thought long and hard about why Lorenzo was holding onto Utamuro's knife. He definitely had a reason to have it with him, and it seemed like an awful lot of trouble to give it to Lorenzo in order to create red herring.

Then, I remembered when Masaki, Michiru, and I went into the laundry room. Michiru had found something in the laundry besides the bra.

L-O-R-E-N-Z-O'-S N-O-T-E-

Phase 5: Nonstop Debate:

"I've got it!" I called out. "Inside of Lorenzo's laundry was a note saying that someone would die at 8:45!"

"Why would Lorenzo write down his plans at all?" asked Asa. "It seems like it would leave behind a lot of evidence,"

"He was trying to be a better event planner," Utamuro replied. "It's likely that he wrote it down so that he wouldn't forget, and he tried to destroy the note when he put it in the washing machine!" He sighed and looked down. "Man... it upsets me that he tried to commit murder then..."

This meant that whoever killed Lorenzo was aware of his plan. But who could it have been?

"If I recall correctly, Hikooki was talking about how suspicious Lorenzo was," Hideki stated. "It makes sense that he would have found the note and killed him,"

Hikooki gasped. "What?! No, there's no way it could have been me! I was keeping guard!" He defended himself. "There's a rule against carrying guns, remember?"

While that was a good point, it simply wasn't correct. "No, that's not it!" I replied. "The rule is against carrying ammunition. There's no rule against carrying a loaded gun!"

"What?" asked Hikooki. "That... makes zero sense."

Monokuma shrugged. "She's right, y'know!"

Hikooki gulped again. "N-No! I'm not the killer, I swear!"

"You don't exactly have an alibi, though," Tame replied. "The map says your position was unclear,"

"Yeah, now that you mention it," Asa replied. "I do remember dear Hikooki saying Lorenzo was suspicious,"

Hideki nodded. "Yeah... You probably saw the note and killed him!"

"No I didn't!" Hikooki shouted out.

Shiro scratched the back of their head. "Tell us, where were you then?" They asked.

Hikooki sighed. "I was downstairs, in the scenic room," He replied.

I remembered - Saeko could confirm this! "I agree with that!" I called out. "Saeko, didn't you say that Hikooki went downstairs only minutes before Lorenzo was shot?"

Saeko's eyes lit up. "Yes, I did!" she confirmed. "He went downstairs at exactly 8:45!"

Hikooki breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally..."

"Wait!" called out Tomoe. "This means... we've got no one else! There's no one else it could have been! Is this killer a secret teleporter like in a movie?" she asked.

Masaki chuckled. "Actually... I'm not entirely sure that's true," He mused. Everyone took a second to look at him as he grinned. "Like I said, I had this one figured out from the very beginning. Kanon... think back to all the evidence. There's only one person here it could have been,"

My eyes widened as I figured it out. I gasped - I didn't want this to be true. No! It couldn't have been!

"But Masaki," Azizah began. "We cleared up everyone who was on that clipboard,"

"They..." I replied, stuttering over my words. "Weren't on that list..."

"Go on, Kanon," Masaki encouraged me. "If you don't... we may very well die here,"

I took a deep breath and looked in the direction of the killer, now that I had finally figured it out.

"Michiru Rakuyama."

Michiru gasped, jolting as she tried to hold onto the book under her arm. "Wh-what?! Me?! Th-that's preposterous! I would never do such a vile, heinous thing!" She defended herself.

"The evidence lines up, Michiru," Masaki pointed out. "You and Utamuro were the only ones who went into the living spaces. But Utamuro was working on the dress. As such, you're the only one who could have grabbed a gun and been in a position to shoot Lorenzo,"

Michiru huffed. "That's ridiculous! There's no way I would ever do such a thing!"

"Unless, of course, you saw that note," Daquan pointed out.

"I didn't even see the note!" Michiru pointed out.

"Wait a minute..." I thought for a second. I decided to remember what Michiru was saying here. "Saeko, what's Michiru's breast size?" I asked her.

Saeko's eyes lit up. "Oh! Her bust is 89 centimeters! That's only one size above Yuki's!"

"What? How do you know that?" Michiru asked her. "There's no way that isn't just a lucky guess!"

I was putting more pieces together in this case. "Michiru, this means that you could have purposely shrunken your bra in the washing machine and written Yuki's name on it! And if you did that... that means you had to have seen Lorenzo's note in the washing machine!"

Michiru gulped. "N-No... that's simply not at all true!"

"Yeah..." Masaki began, scratching his chin. "And the times Saeko saw you, as well as the times on the heater and on the washing machine, all line up as well. It's why the washing machine and dryer were stopped early. And if you had access to Toko's room, you also had access to Yuki's room. Allowing you to set Yuki up perfectly,"

Michiru huffed again. "I swear, I'm not the killer!"

Phase 5: Panic Talk Action

Michiru turned my way and instantly screamed at me.

"This is preposterous! Preposterous, I say! I would never kill another student! Not after I had spent so long saying I'd protect everyone!" Michiru shouted out.

I stood there, ignoring Michiru's baseless claims and waiting for her to say something which I could actually refute.

"I can't believe you'd accuse me of such a vile act! Such a heinous, disturbing, immoral act such as murder!"

I continued just listening to all the things she was saying. Eventually, she would have to crack.

"Y-You're just- you-" Michiru was red in the face and sweating bullets, but she it seemed she was all out of things to say. She took a deep breath and leaned back... and then, she leaned forward again. "If I really had a gun to kill Lorenzo with, where did I put it, hmm?"

I remembered - the gun was nowhere to be found. The most logical answer was back in Toko's room, but Michiru never went back in there during the investigation. Then, I looked at the book underneath her shoulder.

IN - THE - BOOK'S - PAGES

"I've got it!" I called out. "Michiru... can we see your book?"

Michiru gasped. "M-My book? Why?"

Masaki shrugged. "Y'know, if you really didn't do it, then you would have no reason not to show it to us,"

Michiru sighed and opened up the book under her arm, and a large square had been cut out of the book's pages. Inside the empty square was none other than a pistol.

Phase 6: Climax Reasoning:

"Alright, I've cracked this case!" I began. I thought about every single detail of this murder, and how it happened in order. "This case begins before 8:00 p.m. Lorenzo snapped and put in effect a plan for murder - who he was going to murder was unclear, but he wrote his plans down so that he would not forget. During Amy-chan's concert, he and someone else went back inside the train to check on everyone who was not present.

"Then, to destroy his evidence, Lorenzo offered to clean some dirty laundry, with his plan inside. By chance, someone walked into the laundry room, opened up the washing machine, and found the only partially-destroyed note inside. That's when their plan begins. They put their bra into the dryer on its highest setting, to shrink it down.

"Lorenzo went into Utamuro's room to hang out with him while he worked on Amy-chan's dress. Taking advantage of Utamuro's occupancy, Lorenzo grabbed the knife from his shirt and walked out, looking for an unsuspecting victim.

"Knowing that they had little time to end Utamuro's plan, the killer turned on the heater and placed Yuki's Shaun White poster and a gun inside the TV room, setting a trap. Sen stumbled upon the poster and ran outside to inform Yuki, who went inside to retrieve said poster. Inside the boiling heat, Yuki passed out, giving Lorenzo an opening.

"Of course, this was all part of the murderer's plan. Two rooms across, the killer had a gun with them. Just as Lorenzo was about to make his move, the killer fired their gun, killing Lorenzo instantly. Then they put the gun away into their book, hiding it from the rest of us. Isn't that right... Michiru Rakuyama?"

Trial End:

Michiru sighed. "Yes... you figured it all out," She muttered to us.

Monokuma jumped down from his chair. "The trial is over! Let the voting begin!" He called out. Suddenly, a keyboard with everyone's face appeared in front of us. "Just press the face of the person you think is the killer!"

Without any sort of hesitation, I pressed the button of Michiru's face. It seemed that everyone else did too.

"I suppose it was inevitable," Michiru muttered to herself. "All I wanted... was to protect all of you."

Yuki scowled. "Your plan involved putting me directly in danger! If you were a little slower, I could be dead right now!"

Michiru sighed again. "I know... but I did what I had to do,"

"If you were just trying to protect us, then why did you defend yourself so much? If you'd convinced us you weren't the killer, you'd go home free while the rest of us would die!" Hideki asked her.

"Monokuma didn't tell us that until Lorenzo was dead," Michiru replied. "And also... I just know more trials like this are going to happen in the future. People a lot more convincing than myself. I simply wanted to test you all to make sure you could figure it out," She pushed her glasses up and sighed.

"Oh man, talk about a plot twist!" Tomoe called out. "That was... something I wasn't expecting."

"Just one last question," asked Masaki. "I know you're the Ultimate Scholar, and as such, you're really good at everything, but how did you get the aim to take down Lorenzo in just one shot?" He asked her.

Michiru sighed again. "You see... when I was 13 years old, an intelligence agency took interest in my IQ and my talents. They trained me to be good at everything - math, science, physical education, self-defense, you name it. One of those things they taught me... was gun handling."

Toko gasped. "Yer a gunslinger too?!"

Michiru nodded. "Perhaps not the sharpest shooter in town, but my assets made me invaluable to the agency. I've assassinated several political figures in my life, all at the request of the agency,"

All of us stood there in silence. Michiru, an agent and an assassin? Who would have ever thought? She just seemed like a regular, overachiever schoolgirl.

"And I do it... all because I want to protect others. Not everyone can be me. I'm me... so that everyone else can be them. And if someone like Lorenzo were to pose a threat to all of us, then it would be up to me to deal with him," Michiru admitted.

Yuki growled at her. "I'm still not gonna forgive you for using me as a pawn in your little plan,"

Michiru sighed. "Okay. I'll just take solace in knowing that at least I did my job,"

"Does she have to die?!" I cried out. I could feel the tears dripping down my face as I realized that Michiru was now set to be executed. "She just wanted to protect us..."

Monokuma jumped up again. "Now, the votes have been decided!" A large roulette wheel lowered from the ceiling behind all of us, with pixilated versions of all of our faces on the screen. A ball rolled around it for a few seconds before it landed on Michiru's face. That's when the roulette wheel disappeared, and a black screen appeared in its place. Red pixels appeared onscreen, depicting Monokuma and Michiru. Red text was displayed above, reading,

"Michiru Rakuyama has been found guilty."

"I've prepared a special execution for Michiru Rakuyama, the Ultimate Scholar!" Monokuma cheered. What happened next... was something none of us would ever forget.

Execution:

Shred of Knowledge:

Michiru's eyes darted back-and-forth as a large crane claw-machine burst from a door behind Michiru, and instantly gasped around her neck. It pulled her behind the door, and suddenly the walls dropped down, leaving only a transparent window between us and her. Michiru was being suspended above a school desk, and she was wriggling her legs and pushing at the crane to get free. Then, a wave of cold air enveloped the room as a layer of frost developed around her body.

With her eyes still darting side-to-side, Michiru's body couldn't even move. Suddenly, two large, metallic walls closed in on Michiru, seeming to encase her completely... then the pulled back, to show that she was inside the frame of a book. I gasped - my heart pounded from the anticipation of what was going to happen. How was she going to be killed?!

Then, the floor seemed to open up. Two metallic, cylindrical objects rose upward, with protruding spikes spinning around rapidly. I gasped, trying to look away as they closed in on Michiru, shredding through the book, and... through her. Blood and paper was sent flying everywhere as the disgusting whirr! sound rang throughout. After a few seconds, the shredders dropped down. All that remained were the shreds of paper and bloody mess around the area, with no recognizable part of Michiru to speak of.

I would never forget the horrors which I witnessed that day.

Post-Trial:

"Wow..." Rai muttered to himself. "I... I don't know what to say to that..."

"Yeah..." Tame replied, scratching her head. "That was... brutal."

We didn't really have much else to say as we took the elevator back up to the train, with everyone seeming a little bit more depressed than usual. No one said a thing until we all walked back to our rooms, at which point Masaki stopped me.

"Hey, Kanon?" Masaki began.

"What is it?" I replied, not really being in much of a talking mood.

Masaki shrugged. "I just wanted to say, you... you didn't do anything wrong, okay?"

I could feel a tear running down my eye as Masaki said that. "I just... I could have stopped her..."

Masaki took me in an embrace and patted my back. I went speechless as I felt his warm arms, his soft hands. "It's okay. There wasn't anything you could do. If you hadn't exposed her, then... we'd all be dead. Don't listen to the bad thoughts, because they'll just keep you in despair. You need to have hope. Please, Kanon. Have hope. Even when it looks like there's no hope left."

I wiped a tear off my face as Masaki told me all this. "O-Okay," I replied. "Th-thank you, Masaki."

He let go of me as he headed to his room. "We'll talk later," He told me. "Tonight, we should both get some sleep,"

I nodded, hoping I wasn't blushing too much. I went back into my room, and even though I was mentally exhausted, I couldn't really sleep too well. What I had seen was just far too hard for me to sleep with right now. The image of Lorenzo's dead body and Michiru's unrecognizable remains were burned into my mind. There was no way I could let this happen again.

CHAPTER 1 END

SURVIVING STUDENTS: 22