Location: Front of the Red Door Time: 7:20 pm

I stood there in the shadow of the Red door. It was eerie... sending chills up my spine. Should I go through? I thought. Do I have to be the one to point out whoever... killed Maizuno? Then, I felt a hand come onto my shoulder.

Turning quickly to see who it was, I saw it was Jade. Worry was the expression written on her face. "Ace, are you ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." I answered distractedly.

She frowned, walking a little forward to face me. She smirked, "You know, you're a terrible liar."

"I know... it's just this entire Class Trial. Someone was murdered... and one of us killed her..." I explained. Jade shivered at the sound of murdered. Feeling a little guilty about bringing the murder up again, I tried to change the subject. "Sorry... anyway, how did the investigation go for you?'' I asked.

She sighed, "I'm not a Sherlock Homes, but I did get some Truth Blades... What about you?"

"Same here. I did most of my investigating in the AV room." I replied.

She smiled, "That's good. I didn't get to go to the room to investigate though."

I think that's a good thing. You wouldn't have wanted to see her body again... Especially after how you reacted the first time. I thought.

"So, wanna head on in?" Jade suddenly asked.

"Yeah, let's get this over with..." I replied.

We both pushed open the doors to enter what appeared to be a waiting room. Everyone was already there looking at their Electro ID's. I looked around trying to spot Naegi and I found him to the side talking to Kirigiri.

Almost on cue, everyone's favorite bear appeared on the scene. Monokuma greeted, "Glad you could make it! This is going to be the best! Hope everyone can agree with me. Upupupu..."

Togami interrupted, "So, how does this work exactly?"

Monokuma grinned, "I'm glad you asked, Togami. I like how you're always straight to the point! Though, it must suck that you're not the protagonist in this story, huh?"

"Stop talking nonsense and give me the damn explanation!" Togami growled.

Monokuma did a little jig and disappeared. Suddenly the gates opened and they lead to an elevator.

Asahina whimpered, "Please don't tell me we have to go through there..."

"It's not like we have another choice..." Naegi sighed. Naegi entered the elevator first and went to the far back. He was followed by Asahina and the others, including Jade.

However, Kirigiri walked towards me. She asked, "Are you ready?"

"Not really, sort of wishing this is a dream still." I answered.

Kirigiri had no expression, "That's only natural, but you gotta know that this is no dream."

Those words pierced me like daggers. I know it's not a dream, but still... it's just so unreal...

"Hello!? You guys coming?" Asahina called.

Kirigiri breathed, "Shall we?"

I nodded as I was walking into the elevator. Kirigiri followed closely behind. As soon as we went through, the gates of the elevator closed and the elevator made its descent downward. I turned to face the gates trying to get my head straight. Someone here is a murderer? How can we be so sure what Monokuma said is true? What if he is the culprit? All of these questions went unanswered as the elevator came to an abrupt stop. The doors slowly opened to a room with a circle of what appeared to be stands. As soon as we entered the floor, our Electro ID's buzzed to life and a monitor appeared above the Trial Room showing everyone in the room in different angles. I took out mine and a pop up screen appeared:

Pretrial: Do you have your facts straight?

ElectroID/ Skills/ Finish Preparations

What the heck is this? Some kind of video game? I asked myself. I then clicked on the Electro ID tab and it opened to my normal screen. However, I found a new tab had opened:

Map/ Blades (new!)/ Presents/ Report Cards/ School Rules

Clicking on the tab Blades, a mini-screen popped up showing all of the evidence that the Truth Blades acquired from earlier:

Truth Blades:

Monokuma File 1

Maizuno's Right Arm

Maizuno's Limbs

Maizuno's Bruises

Maizuno's Stab Wound

Condition of the AV Room

Area Around Maizuno's Corpse

Bloody Trolley

Naegi's Testimony

Condition of the Storage Room

Missing Trolley

Bloody Trail

Practice Sword Blade

Practice Sword Case

I looked at the list of Truth Blades over and over again making sure I "had my facts straight". To be honest though... anyone could have done this. Well... maybe not Fujisaki. Asahina and Naegi have an alibi. I also have an alibi; I was with Fujisaki playing games the whole time. Then, I realized something bad. Crud! Even including the time I spent with Fujusaki, I still have 2 hours unaccounted for! That's going to make me look suspicious! I did my best to calm myself and tried to keep my cool. It's fine. You were sleeping from 2-4:30. All you have to do is prove you went to bed for the 2 hours. I thought to myself. I decided to turn off my Electro ID and take a look at my surroundings. I noticed there was a throne and above that had theater seats over the Trial Room.

Monokuma reappeared out of the bottom of the throne and sat in it like a king. Monokuma greeted, "Sup chumps. Ready for the Class Trial?!"

"Unfortunately..." I murmured.

Togami smirked, "This should be interesting..."

Jade asked, "What are the stands for?"

Monokuma sighed, "Airhead, what do you think they're for?!"

Jade growled, "Don't make me go up there!"

Monokuma cowered into his throne, "S-sorry ma'am!"

Kirigiri cut in, "Are they where we are supposed to go for the Class Trial?"

Monokuma nodded, "Yep. Please go to the one where you guys name on it!"

We all made our way to the stands. It was odd though... two stands weren't being used... On top of that, Maizuno's stand had a little sign with her face on it with a giant red x.

"What's up with the Maizuno sign?" Leon asked.

Monokuma smiled, "Well, I always have believed in the power of friendship. So I believe that just because you're dead, doesn't mean you can't join the fun! Friendship always overcomes death! Upupupup!"

Fukawa stuttered, "W-what are t-the extras f-f-f-for?"

Monokuma was silent at the moment, appearing to be lifeless.

Celes taunted, "What happened? No half answer, no bear puns?"

Fujisaki questioned, "Did he overload or something?"

"Helloooo?! You there?!" Oowada tried to get its attention.

"The extra seats just mean that the class Trial Room can fit up to 16 classmates at a time, nothing really special." Monokuma responded.

Celes questioned, "So, what you're saying is that you just made extra seat by acci-?"

Monokuma interrupted, "Look, it's just a number. That's not important at the moment! Stop with the constant questions and let's get this baby started! COURT IS NOW IN SESSION!" Monokuma cleared his throat, "Ahem. Ok guys, here's how this thing works. I will not take part in the class trials because I already know who killed the victim, so no need to worry about cheating now!"

"So... that really means one of us..." Naegi started.

Monokuma finished his thought, "Yep! One of you guys is a murderer!"

Junko shook a little, "So uncool..."

Monokuma continued, "So, you guys will use the trial to find out who is the culprit. If you choose the correct culprit, then only the culprit will get punished... but if you choose wrong... then every single last one of you besides the culprit will be punished!"

Everyone went into uproar. They cried, complained, argued, but all I could do was stand there in silence. I know exactly what he means by "punished"... "So... what you mean... is that if we don't find the villain... we all... die!?" I asked shockingly.

Monokuma did a dance, "Yep yep! You know it!"

"But... what do we even do? How do we begin!?" Yamada squealed.

Kirigiri raised her hand, "Guys, calm down! Let's take this one step at a time..." Everyone turned to Kirigiri to see what she was talking about. "We can start by trying to find out what the murder weapon was and move on from there." Kirigiri finished.

"M-murder weapon?" Fukawa stammered.

Leon scratched his head, "But... there weren't any weapons on scene..."

"Perhaps we can look at the wounds of Maizuno and then we can decipher what killed her..." Sakura suggested.

So, the first thing we have to do is find out what wound that killed Maizuno. She had numerous wounds... but I think I know what to do! I thought of an idea. I looked into my Truth Blades evidence. Before I said anything, I listened to the debate of Maizuno's death careful. This way I had a taste of what the other's believed what happened.

Truth Blades:

(Maizuno's Stab Wound/ Monokuma File #1/ Condition of the AV Room)

Leon shook, "Maizuno had a lot of wounds man..."

"It's almost impossible to decide what killed her!" Junko yelled.

Naegi questioned, "Did Maizuno... even die in the AV Room?"

Celes looked at Naegi's direction, "Oh Naegi. Of course Maizuno was killed in the AV Room!"

Asahina agreed, "Yeah, Maizuno got those wounds fighting the culprit in the room!"

Togami smirked, "Naegi, stop asking things that aren't relevant!"

No, this isn't right. Maizuno wasn't killed in the AV Room. I have to show them my evidence! I thought to myself. "Allow me to cut through those words!" I yelled at Celes' claims. "You're wrong Celes; Maizuno was not killed in the AV Room! If you remember the condition of the room, it should tell you it's impossible." I countered.

Yamada looked confused, "Condition... of the room?"

"Yes, the Condition of the AV Room." I repeated.

"What does that have anything to do with Maizuno's death?" Asahina asked.

Celes looked at me with disbelief, "Why don't you explain to me how it is impossible for it to have happened in there?"

"The AV Room was completely clean! No blood or hair on the ground. With all the damage done to Maizuno, there had to have been a struggle for her to be in her current state." I explained.

Kirigiri backed me up, "I can consent to that, Maizuno was not killed in the AV Room."

Jade thought about it for a minute, "Wait... if she wasn't killed in the AV Room... then where Maizuno was killed?"

"I think Naegi can answer that question..." Kirigiri replied.

Naegi can answer it? How can Naegi answer that question? I asked myself. I turned to Naegi and he looked as if he was deep in thought.

His head started to sway back and forth as he was moving his hand along the desk of the stand. Then his eyes opened with a smile of triumph. "She was killed in the Storage Room, wasn't she?" Naegi asked.

Kirigiri nodded, "Correct, she was killed in the Storage Room..."

Togami shot, "You had better have some evidence to back up that claim."

The evidence that shows Maizuno was killed inside the Storage Room... that's easy enough! I smirked to myself. I had that evidence as well in my Truth Blades.

Truth Blades:

(Bloody Trolley/ Condition of the Storage Room/ Practice Sword Case)

"So, you claim Maizuno's death was in the Storage Room... am I correct?" Togami asked.

Kirigiri nodded, "That's correct, that is without any drought, that's what happened."

"Well... how do you know?" Fujusaki asked.

"Well, if-" Naegi started.

"It's a load of bull!" Oowada yelled.

"What?" Naegi asked shocked by the sudden outburst.

"I investigated the Storage Room myself and it was absolutely clean! Nothing out of the ordinary!" Leon argued.

"Wasting T-Togami's time is inexcusable!" Fukawa yelled.

"Ace, you heard the same thing to, right? The slip up on his part?" Kirigiri asked.

Kirigiri's right, he's obviously lying. I gotta show everyone that he his ly- I started to think, but Naegi jumped to it.

"No, you're wrong!" Naegi yelled. "Leon, if you investigated the Storage Room, then you would have seen the Condition of the Room! It's a complete mess! Not only there were signs of a struggle, but how the killer brought the body into the AV Room as well!" Naegi proclaimed.

"R-really? My bad, dude..." Leon apologized.

Sakura thought for a moment, "Ok... so we can be sure that Maizuno was killed in the Storage Room... but what was used to kill her if the stab wound was post-mortem?"

Kirigiri looked at my direction, "Ace, do you have an idea?"

There was something at the scene that was used as the murder weapon. What was it...?

Which one was it? I tried to recall what kind of weapon that could have been used against Maizuno. A practice sword, a knife, or a bat... I got it! "It was the Practice Sword! The one that has all the gold leaf on it!" I proclaimed.

Naegi looked stunned, "The Practice Sword!?"

I was confused at first. Why was Naegi acting nervous all of a sudden?"Yeah... why do you ask?"

Naegi gulped, "B... Because I gave her the sword to protect herself with..."

Togami glared at him, "When did you do this?"

Naegi looked up, "A couple of days ago, when Maizuno asked me to get her something for defense because she was scared..."

Fukawa screamed, "Then that settles it! Naegi is the culprit!"

"What!?" I asked appalled.

"Why me!?" Naegi asked.

Naegi, the culprit!? There was no way. I quickly looked through my other files and found what I was looking for.

Truth Blades

(Naegi's Testimony/ Maizuno's Limbs/ Bloody Trolley)

"How am I the killer?! I liked Maizuno!" Naegi yelled.

Togami shot, "That's the perfect cover up for if you would have killed her."

Fukawa exclaimed, "N-not to mention, all of your time is unaccounted for!"

"Hold on, that's not true!" Naegi pleaded.

Junko glared, "Admit it! You killed her!"

Monokuma yelped, "Crap! How did you figure it out!?"

"Wait, I didn't kill her!" Naegi cried.

This is bad! At this rate, Naegi's going to be chosen as the culprit, which is not true! I thought. I was waiting for Neagi to tell them what he told me earlier.

"Allow me to slash through those words!" I proclaimed. "Fukawa, your mistaken. Naegi actually does have his time accounted for. Aren't I right, Asahina?" I looked over to Asahina.

"Huh?" She looked confused.

"Well... wasn't Naegi with you the whole time?" I asked.

Asahina nodded, "Yeah, Naegi and I were looking for another way out of here in the Gym."

"Like I said, I Did NOT Kill Maizuno!" Naegi yelled.

"So... with the sword being the murder weapon and with Naegi and Asahina having an alibi... Who else has an alibi for the time of the murder?" Fujusaki asked.

"Oowada, Leon, Yamada, and I were all working out in the dorm building." Sakura said.

"Pork c-chops worked o-out?" Fukawa asked.

"Well... not really... I read my books..." Yamada admitted.

"I was in the cafeteria since 1:00..." Fujusaki said.

"And I joined her at 4:30..." I said slowly.

Togami looked at me, "4:30?"

"Yes..." I said keeping my reply simple.

Togami grinned, "Ok, Junko?"

Junko shrugged, "Well, I stayed in the dorm room."

"Jade?" Togami asked going around.

"I was staying in my room as well; sharpening my blade..." Jade answered.

Togami held up his hand, "I think it's pretty clear on who the suspects are...," He pointed at me, Jade, and Junko, "You three are the prime suspects!"