AN: Well, I'm posting this late, but anyways here's the second trial, yay! I appreciate all of you who are reading this and here's the actual story.
Day 19, 1205 Hours, Trial Room
The trial room had either been redecorated or they had been brought to a different room entirely, although that wouldn't have surprised John that much. Gone were all the movie themed things and they had been replaced with a great selection of things that pertained to piloting. A full size plane was dangling above the ring of podiums, John couldn't see anything holding up which was slightly disconcerting, and along the walls were various plane parts and pictures of different types of planes. There was also pictures of Wilbur, John assumed, piloting his plane but John didn't know enough to tell them apart, of if Wilbur was piloting all of them. He did see a plane that resembled the one hanging above them amongst the photos several times which led him to this assumption, but he truly hoped that it was not the exact same plane because surely a theft that massive would have been noticed and thoroughly investigated, right?
Then again, there had been sixteen of them held captive at the start for almost two weeks before Monokuma had needled them into killing each other with that motive.
The podiums were set up like before, Monokuma once again sitting in a throne at what could be called the head of the ring, except now Wilbur's and Adam's photo's had joined Amelia's, Wilbur also sporting the bloody 'X' that marred Amelia's picture but Adam's was defaced with two blood-red spotlights forming an 'X' with the blood colored beams, marking him out from the other two. The podiums were also different, resembling what might have supposed to be a control board.
"Okay, I hope you bastards remember the rules from last time but in case you don't; the purpose of this trial is to find out which of you is the culprit who has blackened their name with murder! If you correctly select the blackened student, they will be promptly punished, but if you pick anyone else, everyone but the blackened will be punished! The trial goes until you call a vote or until I say you're too damn boring!" Monokuma said before slumping back in his throne, swinging his gavel idly.
Alexander cleared his throat, quickly grabbing everyone's attention, "I believe a simple breakdown like last time is where to start, Citizen Wilbur was stabbed in the art room this morning, and was left to bleed to death. The murder occurred early so, a confirmation of whereabouts would be helpful, I was working in the lab with Chloe."
"I was checking out the bath house with Jane," Mary said, shifting her weight slightly while she scratched her hand.
"I was eating breakfast," Billy said, shrugging.
"I was in the first aid center," came Rowland's voice next, followed by Atsuko saying, "Ferris and I were investigating the grates."
"I was chilling in the music room," Barry said lazily.
"I was with him," Perdita stated, "most of the time, I wondered down to the weight room and passed Wilbur as he was going to the art room, I don't know what time though."
"We were together, me, Paris, and Louise, the entire morning," John said, "And we passed both Rowland and Billy, so they're telling the truth, although it seems every group but Alexander and Chloe split up at some time."
"So," Rowland said, shifting his weight to one foot, "Billy, John, Louise, Paris, and I are innocent. Any significant forensic evidence that would remove anyone else from suspicion, Louise?"
The girl shook her head, before saying, "The wounds could have been inflicted by anyone unlike Amelia's, where the angle was specific enough that I could tell. Beyond that all I really know is that he died about less than ten, fifteen minutes before we found him."
"How would you tell the angle of a stab wound?" Mary asked, suddenly.
"I inspect it thoroughly, like I did Amelia's head wounds, I calculate and form an idea of the most likely scenario that would result in those wounds," Louise paused for breath, twirling a piece of hair about her fingers, "We all are extremely well at what we do after all so I don't see what the problem is."
Mary opened her mouth as if about to argue but thought better of it and closed her mouth with a small clop, still scratching the back of her hand.
"Well, if that turned up zilch, what else have we got that's relevant?" Ferris said, leaning forward onto his podium.
"W-we found a-a n-note i-n W-Wilbur's r-r-room," Paris said, wincing at her own nervous stutter.
"Yes," Perdita said, crossing her arms, "a fairly vague and slightly threatening note it was, if that was what had him scared I can't help but be disappointed in him."
Paris glared at the singer, but refrained from yelling at her.
"If he was worried he should have just stayed in his room," Chloe said, "What's the worst that could have happened in there?"
"You could seal it off and flood it with gas," Rowland said, "It wouldn't be hard, Monokuma probably made them air tight when he sound proofed them."
Chloe pondered the thought for a second before nodding and lapsing back into quiet observation of the proceedings.
"So," John said, "Wilbur finds the note, panicking, he decides to arm himself. He suspects everyone so he avoids any areas with people and the store since he would have passed Shi-ru and he didn't trust him not to say something about him arming himself, or he may have even suspected him. He goes to the art room where the culprit has rigged it to look like someone else is in there but is distracted by trying to retrieve supplies. He goes to the whittling knives trying to grab a weapon but the culprit has beat him to it, stepping out of their hiding place and stab him in the back, knocking him forward into a table, stunning him. They leave while Wilbur tries to flip around onto his back, and for some reason draws an 'M' on his forehead."
"Why?" Barry said, looking in John's general direction.
"Obviously to point out his murderer," Perdita said in an exasperated voice.
"Well, if we use names then it would point to Mary, but Barry if we use titles," Atsuko said, looking pensively at her podium, after a moment she added, "it could also be a jab at Monokuma but I doubt it."
Mary spluttered while Barry shrugged and said, "I didn't do it."
"They are suspicious," Alexander said, "Citizen Barry was left alone by Citizen Perdita and Citizen Mary did leave Citizen Jane."
Barry suddenly spoke out, "Yeah, shouldn't that be enough? I would've had to depend on Perdita leaving right?"
"If you two were actually together the majority of the time as you are supposed to be, yes," Alexander said, narrowing his eyes at the musician.
Barry sat for a moment before saying, "I suppose that's my fault."
He fell silent after that.
"Do either of you have anything substantial to offer in your defense?" Alexander said tiredly.
Before either of them could speak Ferris said, "How was the rig made?"
Alexander paused and then spoke up.
"It was made using string and a few motors that I saw in the school store, the motors had been smashed though, I didn't get a good look at it to be more specific than that."
Ferris nodded, before turning to Shi-ru.
As he was about to ask the penguin, the automaton spoke out.
"Can't help you, new rule and all that, if you want my help you'll have to ask before the trial starts."
"Don't complain!" Monokuma said suddenly, "you bastards should have gotten all the information from him during the investigation! You can only ask me for information during trials now!"
Ferris grimaced at the new information, sighing while also muttering, "And there goes that line of thought."
"Nevertheless, does anyone else have evidence, or are we forced to take a stab in the dark?" Alexander said.
"The shoes," Mary said, grimacing slightly, "the ones used in the rig, they matched mine."
After a second she brightened up and added, "So that means they could have been trying to frame me!"
There was a pause while everyone digested this information, Mary with a triumphant smile but continuing to scratch at her hand.
"Very well, then who did it?" Perdita said, looking pointedly at Mary.
Mary blustered for a second before saying, "Not me!"
"Tch, that's not proven," Perdita said, inspecting her hand.
Mary blustered again as Ferris spoke up.
"She's right, without more conclusive evidence than that we can't clear you're name."
Mary fell silent, her nails digging into the back of her hand. John saw red starting to well up. Taking a moment to think he realized something.
"Wilbur would only see the rig as Mary when he was walking by; when he was on the floor he would've been able to see the shoes were empty."
"So he would have no reason to suspect Mary," Rowland said, finishing the thought, "although there was a pair of socks in the incinerator as well, they were on fire and couldn't be saved though, they were wrapped around something maybe to simulate legs I believe."
"Unless Mary took her time cleaning up and he saw her and Mary purposely set it up so she would be able to say someone was trying to frame her, then she did do it" Ferris said, "but off the assumption that she didn't rig it, then it's probably Barry who did it then."
"Wasn't me," repeated the musician.
"Then prove it," said Mary, who had realized she was tearing skin off her knuckles and had stopped scratching, leaving her hands trembling.
"I'm not nervous," Barry said.
"And the murderer had no real qualms about murdering Wilbur," Billy said, "So that is not in your favor."
"But what do you think of if you're dying, someone's title or their name?" Barry countered.
Billy paused, nodding after a second and looking back towards Mary and saying, "Ferris's scenario holds water."
"She couldn't have done it."
Heads turned to focus in on Jane. The girl shifted uncomfortably but continued.
"It would have taken her too long because she was in the changing room when I came out a few minutes after she let because of the announcement."
"So, Mary, Jane, Rowland, Billy, Louise, John, Alexander, Chloe, and Paris are innocent?" said Ferris.
The group collapsed into silence as they tried to find some other bit of evidence to move the case forward. The silence began stretching, turning into minutes prompting Monokuma to sit up straighter and lean forward slightly, as though he was getting ready to declare the trial over at any second just to make things interesting. Knowing they didn't have much time, John began going back through what was known to find something to point out a culprit.
Perdita, Ferris, Atsuko, and Barry were still under suspicion. Barry probably didn't do it because it seemed a bit more complicated then what the musician would try. Ferris was probably wedged in the grate at that time and Atsuko couldn't have been gone that long to get a drink of water. That left Barry and Perdita but that was still a fifty-fifty chance that John would rather not take.
"One good turn deserves another," Perdita said in Ferris's voice.
Eureka.
"I know why Wilbur thought Mary killed him," John said.
Mary opened her mouth to yell at John but was silenced by a glare from Chloe who had adopted a more menacing stance as the minutes had passed and Monokuma had prepared to close the trial.
"Don't raise noise just to raise noise, let him speak," she said, glaring the artist down.
Mary shut her mouth so fast she may have bitten her tongue by accident, and returned to scratching her hand.
"It wasn't enough to fool Wilbur just to have the decoy clunking around, he would've tried to talk to it or perhaps he would have expected some sort of reaction. If a voice started talking to him and told him that he was the only other one there, he might have felt safe enough to go for the knives knowing that accomplices can't escape," John said.
"But-," Mary started but was silenced by Chloe snapping a glare at her.
"But since Mary couldn't have done it according to Jane the only other person who could speak with her voice would be Perdita."
Eyes turned to the singer, who shook her head and said, "How can we be sure Jane has her timetable right, I seriously doubt she was keeping track of time that well."
"Flimsy at best," Ferris stated, "try again."
Rolling her eyes Perdita said, "Mary still could have done the set up and pinned it on me."
"Doubt it," Barry said nonchalantly.
Sighing, Perdita shifted her weight to one side and said, "Well, if you all wish to die I will not stop you, Monokuma? I believe we will vote now."
There was a clamor of discord as the bear snapped back up from his slouch that he had slipped back into while John was implying Perdita, slamming the gavel down and yelling, "No backsies! Vote by just tapping the picture of who you think did it."
The screen in the podium lit up, the pictures of Wilbur, Amelia, and Adam sporting the 'X's that had been splashed across the pictures surrounding the court. John didn't hesitate this time, tapping Perdita's face. Some of the other's weren't a quick as him but eventually the roulette wheel rose out of the floor and the ball with Monokuma's face was sent spinning around the circle before coming to a stop with much fanfare in front of Perdita.
"Congratulations! You bastards got it right! Perdita Rutherford, the Ultimate Vocalist, did kill Wilbur Hughes. Unlike last time though, it wasn't unanimous," Monokuma said, giggling.
Perdita sighed, making a tsking sound, before saying something in German that Ferris responded to angrily. They had a heated argument until Monokuma cut them off.
"Not that this isn't interesting, I believe the next part is the best part, Punishment Time!"
Perdita said something else in German, Monokuma responding in German also, Perdita becoming distressed at his words, switching to English to say, "What! You can't do that! The motive st-."
She didn't get the chance to finish.
The gavel came down on the button, triggering the animation of Monokuma dragging Perdita away, the words Perdita Rutherford has been found Guilty, Punishment commencing…scrolled across as the chain dragged the vocalist away. Following her they found her chained to a stage in a massive Opera House like room, access cut off by a glass wall.
Phantom of the Opera
Perdita began singing, a crowd of Monokumas and Shi-rus sitting in the audience. Above a great glass chandelier blazed with thousands of candles hanging precariously from a single rope. As her performance went on, a Monokuma dress like the Phantom appeared near the rope, and began sawing away at it, until the chandelier fell to the ground with a crash, flattening some of the audience. The Shi-rus began trying to escape the blaze that had started, but the Monokumas grabbed the fleeing birds and tossed them into the blaze, adding fuel so that it expanded towards the stage where Perdita continued to sing. She sang even as the blaze swallowed her up, her gothic dress catching fire, undoubtedly charring her skin. The only thing causing her to stop was the air running out of oxygen her expression changing to one of surprise as for once in her life her voice failed her. It didn't last long, as she collapsed soon after, the fire finally claiming her to feed its continuing blaze, her body blackening before the other students' eyes. A heavy curtain dropped between them and the sight, leaving the smell of smoke and charred flesh.
There was no sound beyond Monokuma's cheering, many turning and leaving before the bear really had a chance to gloat. John was one of them, Paris following him out into the elevator. There was a quiet wait as they waited for the few who had remained long enough for the bear to taunt at them, Ferris, Rowland, Atsuko, Alexander, and Chloe.
When they arrived, the elevator began rising the crank turning itself. John realized that the elevator ride would be a good time to ask Shi-ru questions. He kept the observation to himself though, not wanting to disrupt the silence, which was sitting comfortably in the elevator. The walk back to the dorms was also silent, no one caring that it wasn't yet night. Ferris stopped in the cafeteria a few others joining him. John opted to head directly to the dorms instead and going to sleep, after turning on the laptop to type a short summary of what happened.