Chapter 1: Pulling the Trigger (Deadly Life)

We should have known that a murder was going to happen sooner or later. But someone like this person being the first one to die... It was shocking for both me and Joshen.

Brycon Zuta, the Super High School Level Therapist. Was dead, in Maizono's room.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Joshen screamed at the sight of the body. "D-dude! Someone pulled the trigger?!"

A dead body was right in front of our eyes. We didn't know what to do with it. Joshen then got up from the floor and spoke to me.

"Hold on, where's Maizono?" We looked around the room and saw the bathroom door, I slowly walked towards it, and opened up the bathroom door to see if she was inside.

I opened up the door, and inside was Maizono, bound and gagged on the floor.

"M-Maizono? What happened to you?" Joshen and I ran over to her and untied her.

"Naegi? Joshen? What happened?" Maizono asked as if she was a lost child who couldn't find her mother.

"We should be asking you the same thing! Naegi, we need to warn the others." Joshen said as he ran out of the bathroom, I helped Maizono up on her feet as she asked why, until she saw the body.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! W-what happened?" after Maizono shrieked, we then heard a familiar sound

"*ding* *dong* *bong* *bing*

"Well it's about time someone had the guts to do it! Anyway, everyone, head to the gym right this moment! We're gonna have ourselves a pep rally!" Monokuma said on the PA.

"Let's go, we need to find out what happens after a murder." I nodded to Joshen, replying to his statement, and Maizono, still shocked after seeing Zuta's dead body, followed us to the location.

The three of us arrived in the gym where everyone else was already waiting. Joshen started yelling accusations at them.

"Alright, who was the one who killed Brycon?!" Togami, who was unamused, responded very calmly to Joshen's anger.

"Would you calm down? Your grating voice is making my ears ring." The comedian then approached him and snapped

"Why should I calm down? Someone just died!"

Togami looked at him and continued "Because, if someone else had killed him, then wouldn't they have graduated?" We all looked around, all of us, except for Zuta, we were all here in the gym.

"I demand to know the identity of the one who killed classmate Zuta!" Ishimaru shouted to all of us.

Kuwata then scoffed at him and then crossed his arms "Dude, if they were willing to confess, then they wouldn't have committed a murder in the first place!"

"Then it was Monokuma who killed him!" Maizono said "He's the only one who would even think about do it."

"Oh come on! It was so obviously one of you!" Monokuma had appeared on the podium behind us. We then all approached cautiously; still on edge but curious about the bear's announcement. "Anyways, now I get to the good part, it involves what happens after a murder. Which is…The Class Trial!" He shouted with glee.

"After someone has been killed, you all get to investigate the crime! Then everyone gets put into a courtroom to fight it out verbally and reveal the killer! It's parliamentary based, so popular vote decides. If you vote correctly, then the blackened gets punished, but if you vote wrong…then everyone else gets punished and the blackened gets to graduate!"

Something he said about the word punished sent shivers down my spine.

"W-wait, when you say punishment what do you mean by that?" Fujisaki asked him, the robotic bear simply sighed and put his paws behind his back.

"Well if you must know, by punishment, I mean EXECUTION!" We all stared bug eyed at him as he continued with that damn cheerful voice. "Yep I'm serious about what I said, and I guess I should give you a lineup of what the executions would be like! We're talking electric chairs. Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Toxic gas! Gasp! Wheeze! Or maybe something like a paper plane caught in a hurricane!"

The next thing that happened would shock us all.

"You expect all of us to get killed just because we fucked up on who killed who? I don't think so." Enoshima announced, we all looked towards her and tried to stop her.

"Are you c-crazy? I-it says in the rules that you can't hurt the h-headmaster!" Fukawa responded to knock some sense into her. The fashionista just ignored her and continued.

"I mean, come on! This guy is just a normal bear; he can't do anything to us!" She said pointing at him. Monokuma simply looked down and looked bashfully at her.

"I guess you don't know the meaning of the word discipline. Well I guess it's time to show you what I mean." He then started to waddle over to Enoshima's position, where the fashionista promptly stomped on him with her heel.

"Hah, see! Not so tough are ya?" She cheered triumphantly.

Monokuma started to squirm under her boot.

"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! It's against regulations to hurt the headmaster!" He then squirmed even more and even faster. "I guess you leave me no choice. Magic spell activate! Come save me Gungnir Spears!"

As soon as he said that, multiple rods with sharp edges, exactly like spears, shot up from the ground and impaled Enoshima. Blood gushed from the wounds caused by her impalement, and the beautiful high school girl fell with a look of horror staining her face. Her body twitched rapidly from where it was held down by the spears.

"O-oh god. Why?" The spears then shot back into the ground and left her form bloody on the gym floor. Joshen and Kirigiri then dashed over to her to see if she was okay. However, the spears had missed all of her vital organs according to Monokuma.

"Keep this in mind everyone, I won't miss next time." He said gleefully. Joshen then picked her up and dashed out of the gym. Presumably to put her in the infirmary. "Anyways, I hope you all like autopsy reports, and I know you do, because it's…the Monokuma File!" She shouted before hiding behind the podium again.

The e-handbook in our pockets buzzed, we all opened it up to see what it is. It was a fully detailed description of the victim. With Monokuma gone we all decided that there was nothing left to do other than take a look at this 'Monokuma File'; written on the digital screen was:

Victim: Brycon Zuta

Time of Death: 1:30 AM

The victim was found in Sayaka Maizono's room. It was found on the floor under the resident's bedsheet. Noticeable injuries include, various damage to the arm bones and ribs, and one stab wound to the chest, which is the cause of death.

"I've found something interesting about the Monokuma File." Celeste spoke up. "It says that Zuta was found in Maizono's room." After hearing what Celeste said, everyone started to stare at her.

"I-it wasn't me! I swear!" She pleaded but most of the people looked at her with a look of shame.

"Y-yeah right! L-like we w-would be gullible enough to agree w-with that!" Fukawa stuttered nervously and pointing her finger to the girl standing next to me. Everyone started turning away from us as they discussed how to assess this crime scene. I simply put my hand on Maizono's back and started to rub it up and down.

"Don't worry Maizono, I believe you, and Joshen believes you as well!" I said trying to cheer her up. After a few moments, the students gathered to divvy up investigation jobs.

Oowada and Oogami were going to be in charge of guarding the crime scene, Fujisaki said that she'd stay with Enoshima, in case she gets better, and the rest of us were on investigation duty. After most of them left the gym, Joshen came back to greet us.

"Hey guys, I put Enoshima in the infirmary; turns out there was a whole kit for proper blood transfusing. That bear really thinks of everything! Anyway, what did I miss?" Everyone looked back at him, then Togami replied to his question.

"It appears, Sayaka Maizono is the prime suspect." I turned to him in anger and yelled.

"No she isn't! And I have pro-" Just before I got angry at them, a familiar monotone voice cut me off.

"Naegi wait. You should save that information for the class trial. Don't go using all of your ammo before you even get to the battlefield." Kirigiri said, cutting me off mid rant. Forcing myself to cool off, I stormed off with Maizono following behind me.

Before Maizono and I entered the room I got a look at her wrist; there was a clear burn mark on it, probably from the rope when she was tied up.

"Maizono! Your wrist!" I shouted, she looked down at her hand and then looked back at me.

"Oh, it's nothing." She responded calmly smiling, "Anyway, let's solve this mystery." She then opened the door to her dorm room, but I could not shake my worry and decided to make a mental note of that for later.

Inside we saw Joshen and Kirigiri examining around the room, while Oowada and Oogami were guarding it. We also saw Cal sketching something in her sketchbook. I looked over to see what it was; but she hid it from sight.

"Great timing! We decided to give you the work of checking out the body!" Joshen called to me and pointing his thumb at the body of Zuta. I slowly walked over to it, and crouched down for a closer look while Maizono hovered over me.

The weapon in Zuta's chest had a single edged, short blade; and had a black, curved handle that was in the shape of a hand's grooves. Very reminiscent of a kitchen knife. I decided to make note of that to check the kitchen. I could also see damage to the arms and sides of the body, noted by the bruises on the arms, and the blood that was seeping through his shirt where his ribs should be located.

"Hey." Oowada called to us. I then looked back from the body to Oowada. "If you two are thinking of destroying evidence, then forget it. I'll whoop your sorry ass so hard you'll regret everything you've done in your life!" He shouted angrily to me, but then he paused and looked at Maizono. "Well, maybe I'll just give you a stern talking to, because I follow the man code. Which states that you must not allow any harm to come to a woman, or anyone weaker than you!"

Though Oowada was big and gruff, he seemed to have a good heart. I assured him that we weren't going to destroy evidence. He was somewhat relieved at that fact, but I could tell he wasn't going to stop guarding the body.

I then looked to Kirigiri who was checking the floor, I walked over to her and asked "Um… what are you doing?" A few seconds after I asked my question, she looked back at me to respond.

"I'm searching for clues; what else would I be doing." She replied, she then stood up and looked towards me and Maizono. "Maizono, I have a question for you; are you a clean freak?"

She was shocked at what Kirigiri said, probably because of what she was asking. But Maizono decided to answer her question. "Not really, I'm kind of a slob when it comes to keeping my room clean."

She put her glove-covered hand on her chin and replied to Maizono's response "hmmm, interesting. Then it wouldn't make sense for your room floor to be missing something." I was curious to know what was missing, so I asked her.

"What do you mean by 'her room is missing something'?"

Kirigiri just simply looked at me with her emotionless face.

"I told you before to save your evidence until the class trial." She said as she continued investigating somewhere else in the room. I then looked over to Joshen who was looking in Maizono's bathroom, he was rummaging around in there looking for something.

"Hey guys look what I found!" He shouted back to us. He was holding a rope that was fayed on one side of it and a piece of cloth.

"H-hey isn't that the stuff that was used to tie me up?" Maizono asked the comedian. He simply nodded to her and started to mess with the rope.

"Yep! As you can see, one part of the rope is frayed, which is presumably the end used to tie up Sayaka." While I put my hand on my chin examining the rope Joshen was playing with, Kirigiri walked over to take a look at the cloth.

"Naegi, try looking for where the killer would've gotten these items." She told me as she gave me the cloth and took the rope away from Joshen. She then went back to examining the room. I nodded and called Maizono over to me as we left the room.

We decided to check the rest of the dorms, to see what we could find. But the only place of interest, was the garbage disposal unit. We looked inside to see that the incinerator was open, the flames spewing out like an angered dragon. We also saw a piece of a burnt shirt, along with an autographed baseball next to the button. Maizono and I assumed that this was the way the killer disposed of the evidence. But seeing as we found nothing there that led to us finding clues where the killer got the rope and cloth, we decided to leave.

As we were searching the first floor hallway, outside of the 'Despair Hotel' as Monokuma calls it. We ran into Fukawa outside of one of the classrooms.

"Huh, Fukawa? You're not investigating the crime scene?" Maizono asked her, she looked to us shyly and answered the idol's question.

"W-well, I usually faint when I'm around blood. So there's that." I looked at Maizono, then back at the author.

"Well can you answer some questions for me? About last night?" I asked her. She then nervously nodded as I asked my question. "Were you in the kitchen last night?" She then nodded again, signaling me to continue. "What did you see their last night?" She then bit her thumb and told me what happened.

"W-well, because I was scared from what I saw on those videos. I decided that I-I should get some tea t-to help calm my n-nerves." I saw Maizono write something down on a notepad she found.

"We found that an object that resembled a kitchen knife inside Zuta's chest. Do you know when someone could've taken the knife?" She then backed away from us in shock.

"I-it obviously wasn't me! I swear! I'd never kill anyone!" Maizono then told her that she believes her. This calmed her down and she continued. "W-well, after I finished my tea and was walking out of the kitchen, I noticed that one of the knives were missing. But I didn't see who took it though." I nodded, and then Maizono and I made our leave to search for where the killer could've gotten the rope and cloth.

-Joshen

"How's it going Cal?" I asked my friend. She then looked up back at me from her sketchbook.

"It's all done! But you can't see it until the class trial." She said as she closed up her sketchbook and made her leave.

"Hey Kyoko, what's your talent?" I asked her, she just continued what she was doing as she answered my question.

"I really don't remember what it was." I looked at her curiously and then replied to her statement.

"Oh, come on! Everyone's got a talent; if not, then why are you even here?" I said to her, but she just ignored me and when back to investigating. She's definitely a weird one.

Still wondering what her talent was. I took a glance at the trash can, and found something unusual. A CD with Sayaka's name on it;, her motive. Because I was curious to see what was on it, I decided to sneak it with me out of her room, and made my way to the A/V room.

I ran into Makoto and Sayaka on the way over. Hiding the DVD, I said my hellos. "Oh hey guys, did you find anything out about where the killer got that stuff?" Makoto then put his hand to his chin and then replied to me.

"Well, we did find out that the killer took the knife from the kitchen, and that they used the garbage disposal to remove evidence. But we haven't found anything about the rope and cloth." Sayaka then sighed in disappointment.

"Just keep searching, that rope and cloth couldn't've come out of nowhere! Listen, I've gotta check in with something, so I'll be right back." I said rushing past them and into the A/V room.

Inside the A/V room, I went to one of the front stations, put in Sayaka's CD, put on the headphones, and listened.

I was greeted to a video of Sayaka performing on stage, when Monokuma's voice appeared. "Sayaka Maizono, one of the most famous pop idols in all of Japan. She has got fame, fortune, and everything else!" As I was groaning at the lame Queen reference, the screen went dark. And something appeared on the screen that even I wasn't prepared for.

It showed all of Sayaka's band mates on the ground, motionless, and as I was trying to process what I was seeing; Monokuma's voice continued. "But now that she's in Hope's Peak Academy, her band just simply fell apart. So I ask this question, 'What in the world could've brought this idol group crashing down?'"

The screen went black again, and then words on the screen said. 'Look for your answer after graduation!' appeared in a bright colorful font, just like mine. I could now tell why Sayaka was shivering at that what she saw, even I could've barely handled it. I then kicked the wall in rage, then a thought came to my mind. 'I swear to god; this bear is going down.'

In that moment, I heard the school's PA bell ring with the bear's voice coming after it. "Alright, listen, I'm getting bored of you all just looking aimlessly for clues, so times up! Go to the red doors in the first floor of the building." I left the A/V room and walked to where he said to meet up.

-Naegi

Maizono and I heard the announcement and walked out of the kitchen. We had just found out that one of the kitchen knives was missing. Just as we suspected.

Standing in front of the red doors, I looked at Maizono before asking if she was ready. She looked depressed, I then asked her what was on her mind.

"Well, what if they don't believe me? What if they still say I did it." I then rubbed her back to try and calm her down.

"Don't worry, it seems like Kirigiri, Joshen, and Cal believe you're innocent. And they seem to know what they're doing. So you're gonna be fine."

After calming Maizono down, I then opened up the crimson doors. To see everyone, except for Enoshima and Zuta, inside the room. Ishimaru started by shouting in my face. "Classmate Naegi! Classmate Maizono! Why are you two late?"

Fukawa then looked directly at us and said. "They might've been destroying evidence, because they know she's the killer." Her venom was the most vicious thing in the world. I could feel Maizono becoming even more depressed as the insults piled on.

The hall monitor looked at Fukawa in anger, then responded to her. "Don't be ridiculous! She is allowed the right to a fair and just trial!"

"Oh come on! It's so obviously her, I mean just look at her, she's shivering." Kuwata said, just to spite her. We all heard a bell ring and in front of us, was an elevator. Everyone stepped into the elevator, except for myself, Maizono, Kirigiri, Joshen, and Cal.

"Are you scared?" I heard Kirigiri say to us. "You shouldn't hesitate in this kind of scenario. You have people on your side, you aren't the only ones looking for the truth." She then walked into the elevator; Joshen and Cal right behind her. I looked at Maizono, and nodded reassuringly. Signifying that I was ready, she nodded back at me in agreement and we stepped into the elevator.

The doors closed behind all of us, and the elevator shot down. We fell a couple stories and as we descended, my thoughts began to race.

'This is it; this is the trial that all of us were depending on.'

'This is where all the evidence comes into play.'

'Either we bring the killer into the light, or he stays in the shadows as the rest of us die.'

The elevator stopped at a pair of doors under the ground. And then they opened up revealing the trial ground.

'Time for the first class trial!'