AN: Next chapter here.
Day 32, 0630 Hours, Trial Room
Once again, the large room had been redone, or they were in a different version of it but that was unimportant. It was now designed like a large red desert, dirt and sparse plants going off into what was probably a stimulated horizon. The podiums were shaped like grey stunted trees with the screens held in place by the branches. Chloe's and Barry's portraits had joined the others, a pair of red drumsticks made up the x on the former musician's.
John walked up to his podium looking at the ceiling, which was obviously painted and still had some ducks extending from the wall they had come from. Looking back down John saw that the others had taken their places and that Monokuma had started the trial while he had been inspecting the ceiling.
Alexander had been speaking and John caught the last of what he had been saying. "-found by Suspect John, who as we all know was acting suspiciously and admits to dealing with Monokuma."
John gritted his teeth as the blatant accusation reached his ears, knowing that despite the evidence he had seen Alexander still suspected him.
"But John was in the Archive Room during the entire time the murder occurred," Paris said, "Monokuma confirmed that when we asked him."
"Yes, it's true, I was with him the entire time as it was," the monochromatic bear said, before falling silent to observe the proceedings.
Alexander opened his mouth as if to dispute the bear's testimony but fell silent and turned away. John saw this as a time to begin presenting the evidence he had gathered, but was still feeling fuzzy from the early blows that he failed to speak up in time.
"Alright, so if our dealer is innocent then," Ferris paused letting his pale eyes sweep the room, "who doesn't have an alibi?"
"I was with Paris and Jane," Atsuko said, Paris and Jane confirmed this statement with nods of their heads.
"I was with Alexander," Mary said fidgeting with her ID.
Ferris was silent as he absorbed his aloneness in lacking an alibi, giving John the chance to speak.
"The grate above Chloe was loose," John said, his head starting to clear as he laid his thoughts to the air, "and her notable injuries were to the top of her head specifically, meaning that it most likely fell on her from the grate, or was dropped."
Atsuko opened her mouth to try to interrupt, but was stopped by Ferris.
"Now only two people can fit in the ducts assuming it wasn't a trap, which is disproved anyways by the lack of any form of activation," John continued his head finally recovering from his previous bludgeoning, "and one of them has a solid alibi, also, the weapon itself points towards the culprit especially since we all recently received a gift of a weapon themed towards our talent."
Ferris continued to look John in the eye as the evidence against himself mounted, still not speaking a word in his own defense.
"It's not a far leap to guess that Ferris's weapon was acid," John continued, finding the chemist's flat gaze and shrinking smile disconcerting, unsure if that was because of worry of being found out or the fear of being accused wrongly, "so there only really seems to be one choice in the matter."
John finished lamely as his head once again clouded and Ferris's smile disappeared. He slumped forward onto his podium as silence dominated the room. There was no sound as all but John focused their gaze on the small student who eventually spoke.
"I didn't do it."
The phrase was followed by another silence, that stretched just as long as the other one.
"Is that all you have?" Alexander said, letting each word fall with the certainty of one who felt betrayed.
"Yes," Ferris said, looking over the assembled students, his pale eyes showing distress.
John felt his head had been stuffed with cotton, and their words sounded far away, muffled, yet so very clear as well.
"You have no defense? Or all you hoping that the convoluted logic you enjoy will suffice to protect you? That, we should not expect you because it is too obviously you for it to have been you?" Alexander pressed, the other students remaining silent.
"Don't you guys trust me?" Ferris asked.
"We also trusted Citizen John yet we hunted for him like an animal at the very onset of his strange behavior," countered Alexander, causing a few of the others to wince.
Ferris remained silent, and opened his mouth to try and defend himself again, when Monokuma spoke up.
"It seems you've all picked a culprit, so let's begin voting!" the bear said, bringing his gavel down.
"But I haven't-," Ferris attempted to speak only for Monokuma to silence him.
"You have tried to defend yourself," Monokuma said, "by appealing to their 'trust' in you, yet I doubt you truly trust them either, right? I'm sure John can back me up on this."
John wanted to say he wasn't going to back the bear but it was hard to keep focus now that his moment of lucidity had passed. The others seemed to take his silence as a confirmation as some turned to the scientist with hard eyes.
The screens had lit up and people were casting their votes, John looking down at the screen and doing his best to decipher the faces. He was curious as to why there were all the faces of the deceased when only the most recent could really have killed, it wasn't like they could put a slow poison in someone's drink, John didn't think there were any poisons like that. John felt a pang of fear as he realized his mind was drifting from the voting and that Monokuma might execute him in contempt if he took too long. He needed to decide who he was voting to send to the chopping block.
Ferris.
No, that wasn't right. He still didn't have all the pieces and something felt off. The trial had moved to fast, or was that just his head hurting from al the blows? No, he couldn't believe the chemist would actually kill someone, or at least, not that impersonally. Then again maybe he was. Did John trust him?
A fair shade more than Monokuma, who seemed to be sticking his nose into this trial far more than he should.
John voted, tapping the grey picture of Chloe.
John did his best to stay in reality as the wheel appeared. The ball was sent spinning and slowly came to stop in front…
Of Ferris.
"Congratulations! You bastards guessed correctly Ferris Dalton was the one to murder Chloe Johnson," Monokuma declared happily, opening his mouth to continue when he was interrupted.
"BULL-shit," Ferris said, gritting his teeth, "You're a fucking liar!"
"Excuse me?" Monokuma asked, his red eye flashing dangerously.
"You heard me, you lying rat's ass," the chemist said, leaning forward, "I, didn't, kill, her."
The bear cocked its head to the side, "But you did."
"Nope, I did not," Ferris said, crossing his arms, "You messed with the trial and I want a do over."
"Too bad! Because I have an extra special execution for you," the bear said, leering at the chemist as he brought the gavel down on the large button by his throne.
The animation played declaring Ferris's guilt, and the chain shot out and grabbed Ferris by the throat, but the chemist had grabbed onto his podium and was holding out against the chain. After a second, he even slowly pulled himself towards Monokuma, prompting the bear to snort and hit the button again. More chains flew out and attached themselves to the scientist, the combined weight easily ripping him from the stand to be dragged backwards through the halls behind him to his execution room.
Acid Bath
Ferris was shrouded in darkness until a dim light came on, illuminating his surroundings. He was on a large conveyor belt, chained to a weight that was situated amongst a variety of metal things, pointed towards a large clear vat that sat empty. A screen lit up on the far wall displaying Monokuma in a classroom in front of a chalkboard, and the bear began to write up chemical formulas.
Ferris seemed to recognize the for formulas because he began shifting through the metal with urgency as a group of Shi-ru drones appeared. They began tipping large containers filled with liquids unidentifiable into the vat, one also moving towards a board which controlled the conveyor belt, turning it on and moving Ferris towards his imminent death.
The chemist, ignored all of this, finally stopping his mad search as he came up, grinning wildly as he held an old hacksaw. He turned to his chains and began to work at them, keeping an eye on the approaching vat, which was filling up.
The metal that had fallen in was slowly dissolving, although the rate seemed to speed up as more of the containers were mixed in, the Shi-rus pulling them from seemingly nowhere. One chain fell away, prompting the chemist to move onto the next. The Shi-rus didn't seem to care that he was escaping, continuing to monitor the belt controls or add more liquid to the mix.
Ferris had noticed this as well, his eyes were moving back and forth between the chains and the robots, but he did not lose focus, moving on to the next chain as the second fell to the belt. The weight was nearing the edge and the chemist abandoned trying to saw the chains for a moment to try and push the weight back, giving up after a second when it moved back only a few inches.
The metal that fell into the acid was dissolving faster still, the acid becoming more potent as the weigh and chemist moved closer.
The third chain fell away at this time and Ferris shifted the saw to the chain, paused and placed it on his arm instead, seeming to debate over which would be faster. He made his choice quickly and picked the chain, sawing away at the last bond to the weight that would drag him into the tank.
Everyone was watching from the viewing area with bated breath as the chemist sawed through most of the chain before he cussed and stood up, tossing the saw to a side before bracing himself. The weight fell off the belt a second later, jerking the chemist off his feet, but snapping the chain. Ferris scrambled to his feet and began to move to escape, clearing the area of the conveyor belt that was covered with metal before stopping.
No one spoke as Ferris looked at his surroundings. He was still trapped. He could get off the conveyor belt but then he would be stuck in the execution chamber, not to mention that the Shi-ru drones were still present. He wasn't the only one to notice this, as everyone, who had remained silent as to not break the other student's focus lost hope as his escape became pointless.
The screen flickered, changing from Monokuma to Shi-ru, before flickering back, and then changing to settle on the image of the penguin. Silence continued as the digital Shi-ru held up a sign that said, STAY OF EXECUTION. Then the Shi-ru drones went haywire. The one at the conveyor belt controls began mashing buttons, while the others began running around randomly, one tumbling into the vat of acid.
Ferris was knocked off his feet as the conveyor belt began revving back and forth, before pulling him all the way to the wall. One of the floor Shi-ru's had reached a ventilation shaft and had grabbed the grate, ripping it from the wall before falling into the vat of acid, the grate still in its flippers. The conveyor belt then reeved to full speed, launching Ferris out over the vat, into the vent, and the wall coming from the loud banging and swearing that followed as the chemist fell down into the bowels of the school.
No one spoke. Monokuma didn't show up to say anything so the students left the now empty execution room to head back to the elevator, ending the day there to process what had happened.