Quick Reminder: As this is an investigation chapter, it will be from Reuben's POV.

I'm not sure whether the trial will end up beginning next chapter or this chapter, as I need to include some development around Reuben too, but let's just see what happens.

Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Reuben had paused the video on a shot of Mirai groggily coming out of her room wearing a panda onesie when he was called to dinner , and now , after making sure his school bag was ready , he decided to watch a little bit more.

It had been 5 days since he had first started watching the series, and he was now on the 6th video out of the 17 that were now on the site, juggling watching them with the demands of revising for the rapidly approaching AS exams and helping out at the Bird House. It seemed that the maker uploaded between 3-5 every few days. The video he had started watching that day had begun with Arisa leaving her room almost as soon as it was morning, only to trip over the dead body of Kevin Brown. Now, he opened the video and found the part he had stopped at.

Mirai rubbed her eyes and said

"What's going on?"

"Brown-kun died." Makoto told her, pointing to the body. Mirai ambled over. She looked curious, but not shocked, to Reuben's thinking.

Arisa was still sitting on the floor, silent and ashen. Kosuke approached her, and scrutinised her carefully.

"She's in shock." He eventually declared. "Somebody needs to get her away from his body. And get her spare clothes. Whose room is furthest away?"

"Mine is." Nanako offered reluctantly.

"Good." Nanako seemed about to protest at Kosuke's response, but then thought better of it.

"Come, Ishi." Nanako walked over to Arisa and extended a hand to help her up, careful not to touch the blood. Then, they walked away.

The others seemed clueless for a moment.

"So, what happens now?" Shika asked.

As if to answer her, a clanging noise made them all jump. Even Reuben startled. Then, Monobear's grating voice hurt his ears.

"Attention! Attention! A body has just been discovered! After a brief period of free time, a trial will commence!"

"What…are we supposed to do?" Chihiro asked.

"I believe we need to investigate. " Kyouko was already kneeling next to the body. "Kobayashi-kun, do you think I can get help from you?"

"My speciality is the living rather than the dead, but I will assist you. "

"Hey! Something has been added to our ElectroID's…Monobear files 1…"Akihito trailed off, holding up his ElectroID

Kyouko watched him with a look that Reuben interpreted as interest.

"What does it say?"

Akihito started to read it, but Eirik interrupted to continue the reading out. Probably the translator instincts taking over.

"There's basically his name, SDHSL talent, cause of death…blunt force trauma to the head, whatever that means. And time of death was 1 in the morning. Location of death was his room. That's it really. "

"That's useful information. " Dai said "it's helpful for those of us who don't know the ins and outs of investigative work. Perhaps the rest of us should split up and investigate elsewhere?"

"That would be good." Kyouko barely looked at Dai as she acknowledged him, so absorbed she was. It reminded Reuben of the scene he had watched of Suzu making an ice bell.

The scene changed to show Makoto and the others nearby him-Janus, Suzu, Akaya and Shika.

"That blood stain is going from his room, which would make sense if he died there." Naegi followed it with his finger, pointing at Kevin's door.

"I'll help you. "Akaya said.

"In which case we'll go elsewhere." Shika said. Almost as soon as the other three had left, the scene focused on Kevin's room. There were textbooks on the table, and the room looked very impersonal, almost the same way it had looked when the students had first arrived. Apart from one thing.

"Those stains on the bedside table…they were left by a glass of some sort…but I don't see anything that could have done that." Akaya said.

"Odd. I wonder what that's about." Makoto mused as he looked for anything that could be useful.

"Nothing seems out of order…" he murmured.

Reuben wasn't entirely sure how a murder investigation should go, but from watching American crime dramas with both his father and Megan, he was pretty sure it wasn't meant to be like this.

"Kiyomizu-san, what do you see?" Makoto asked suddenly.

"A spotless room, nothing out of .I see what you mean."

"Exactly. The room is spotless. Any trace of Brown-kun swept away. But why? It's normal for his hair and whatever to be in here. It is his room after all."

"But it wouldn't be normal for someone else's to be. " Akaya pointed out.

"Oh. Of course. "

Just then, a ping came from where Reuben had opened another tab for his Instant Messaging. He paused the video, and checked it.

lowercasecoolgirl: HI!

Reuben grinned. The person who had sent the message was his friend and former foster sister, Arielle Khan. He typed a message back.

RGOODRICH34: Right back at ya : )

He went back to the video and played it. The scene instantly changed to that of Kyouko and Kosuke investigating the body. It seemed they had established that Kevin's injuries were consistent with being whacked on the back of the head. Now they needed to know why the blood was all over his body, and why there was so much of it.

Arielle messaged him back.

lowercasecoolgirl: What are you doing?

RGOODRICH34: Watching a show where a teddy bear has kidnapped a bunch of genius kids to force them to all murder each other. You?

lowercasecoolgirl: Of course.

lowercasecoolgirl: …DON'T send me the link yet. I am drowning in ICT coursework.

Reuben smiled at that. He was about to type something, but then couldn't think of anything to say, so he went back to the video, which he had forgotten to pause. Luckily, the scene hadn't changed.

"Look." Kyouko had spotted something. "That isn't blood. There." Kousuke leaned into see what she was talking about. For a moment, the screen was zoomed in to the part of Kevin's face where Kyouko was pointing. There was indeed a red stain of a different quality, and a slightly different shade to blood. The blood seemed to have been painted over it, as if trying to hide it.

"Yet it is red." Kyouko pursed her lips in an expression Reuben was getting used to. It meant she was deep in thought. Then, she leaned in and sniffed at the unusual stain.

"Makeup."

Kosuke did a double take.

"You can tell?"

"Yes." She responded simply.

Kosuke looked amazed.

"But why would a guy wear makeup?"

"That is a good question…" Kyouko's voice trailed off, and the next change in scene was timed perfectly to occur at the end of her sentence.

It simply showed Mirai searching every nook and cranny in the corridor leading up to the storage room. Reuben wasn't sure, but it didn't seem like she was actually looking for anything. Instead it seemed she was just her usual poke-around-everywhere self. At least, until she actually entered the storage room.

Straight away, Reuben knew that something was up with the room. But he couldn't tell what that could be. Mirai, however, seemed to know.

"This isn't right." She muttered, before heading into the middle of the room.

All of a sudden, they were back to focusing on the body. Reuben blinked at the abrupt change in scene before focusing. Kyouko and Kosuke were no longer kneeling next to Kevin. Instead, Kosuke was conferring with Emi, who was drawing in her sketchbook. From the way Kosuke was pointing things out, it looked as if she was making sketches of the body to use later. Kyouko was talking to Makoto, who seemed to be finished with Kevin's room, while putting items into small clear plastic bags. Reuben recognised this tactic–clearly the small plastic bags were meant to be a stand in for proper evidence bags.

"Did you find anything in the room?" Emi asked Makoto.

"Not really-it was wiped clean apart from some stains on the bedside table. I'll get Kiyomizu-san to talk you through it .She's trying to find what we may have missed-she's more observant than I am."

"Coolio. " Emi left them.

Suzu approached them just as Emi entered Kevin's room. Arisa was a few steps behind her. She was cleaned up and wearing a white knee-length dress with matching pumps. Suzu had lent her cardigan, which Arisa was pulling tightly around herself. Reuben grinned. He didn't think Nanako was the type to lend her clothes out.

"What happened to Tamuro-san?" Makoto enquired.

Suzu pulled her little bell out of her bag and rang it. The others looked at her as she quickly wrote something and held it up.

She doesn't want to have to touch the body .Thinks it is gross. The subtitles really were helpful, Reuben thought as he watched the others roll their eyes. Suzu put away her notebook and bell, and then carefully approached Kevin's body.

"I don't think you-"Kosuke was cut off when all Suzu did was reach over to close Kevin's eyes, so that they were no longer staring into nothing. Once she did so, she stepped back and went back to Arisa.

"Thanks." Arisa said quietly. That's when Reuben remembered that Arisa was the only one who had actually talked to Kevin for extended amounts of time, as both were quite knowledgeable in maths. Any other conversation topic and Kevin floundered. Just as he wondered if anyone who would pick up on that, he got another message from Arielle.

lowercasecoolgirl: When are you working at the Bird House again?

RGOODRICH34: Saturday. Why?

lowercasecoolgirl: I might come by with Maddie. Dunno if we should get takeout or make a date out of it though. What do you think is best?

RGOODRICH34: How would I know?

RGOODRICH34: Anyway, I'm working the takeout counter. As always.

lowercasecoolgirl: Take out it is! Anyways, gotta go. C U L8R! Don't stay up all night.

RGOODRICH34: =P, whatever. Bye.

Arielle went offline, and Reuben closed the tab. luckily he had only missed a minute or two of the video, and nothing of real significance had happened. There were a few clips of video set to soundtrack- Dai in the garbage room, picking up a key and inspecting it, Mirai coming out of the storage room, Akihito poking around in the kitchen, Marvin harassing Eirik mercilessly while Chihiro watched wide eyed and Shika looking as if she was following a scent. Then, another announcement from Monobear coincided with a scene change back to Kyouko, who was arriving back to the scene of the crime. From where, Reuben didn't have a clue.

"Erm, so I am getting so bored! Surely you bastards have found something. Anyway, free time is over!Please make your way to the basement elevator!I hope you are all excited. Upupu!"

"What…was that?" Arisa asked. "What is he even talking about…basement elevator?"

"I saw the place. It was locked though, so I thought it was just a simple basement. "Kyouko said. "I'll lead the way." And she did. Eventually, they were all making their way to the elevator.

"Woah." Emi summed up everyone's thoughts with just that one word.

As soon as the last of them were in, the elevator doors closed, and with a ping, it started going down.

Everyone remained in terrified silence until it got to its destination. The doors slid open smoothly, and they all stepped out into one of the strangest rooms they had ever seen.

The room was round in shape, with 18 stands and a throne arranged in a circle in the centre of the room. Monobear was sitting on the throne.

"Upupupu! Do you like the new wallpaper? I put it in especially for you bastards." The wallpaper was bright blue and very tacky. There wasn't much more that needed to be said regarding that.

"Shut up, bear." Eirik said.

"Ooh, fine. Anyway, please take a seat-or should I say a stand?"

That was bad, even by my standards. Reuben mentally groaned at Monobear's attempt at a joke. Everyone save for Kyouko went to one of the stands.

"What is the meaning of that?" Kyouko pointed to one of the stands, which didn't have a space for a person. Instead, it had a large picture of Kevin attached to a long pole. Red paint was splashed in the shape of a cross over his face.

"Well, it isn't fair to leave him out because he's dead! "

"That makes no sense. " Arisa said bluntly. Kyouko went to take the last empty stand, which was next to Makoto.

"So, Monobear. What is this about?" Kyouko demanded.

"Ooh, you've not figured it out yet?"

"Figured what out? You make no sense!" Akihito said in annoyance.

"Upupupu, I'm so disappointed. The short version is, one of you guys killed Mr social awkwardness over there, and now you need to figure out which one of you it was. Hopefully you used your free time wisely to help with that. "

"What's the catch?" Emi asked.

"Catch?" Monobear put on a face of innocence-not that Reuben could see how that would even be possible.

Emi narrowed her eyes. "There's always a catch. " Exactly what I was thinking.

"Well , since you asked nicely…..basically , if you figure out who the correct culprit is , only that person will be punished , and if you get it wrong , the correct culprit will be the only one to escape punishment , and thereby escape the school!"

"And by 'punishment' you mean…"

"Execution, of course!Lovely, isn't it?"

Kyouko gritted her teeth as everyone else angrily protested.

"Wait…we're gonna die if we don't figure out what doofus did this?" Nanako demanded angrily.

"Oh no, how terrible! Hey, we'll be able to get out, right?" Marvin batted her eyelashes at Makoto-at least, that is what it seemed like. It could have been any of the boys, knowing what Marvin was like.

"I'm sure if we put our heads together, we won't end up dying. " Dai said. "Or at least, we won't all end up dying. Am I right, Monobear?"

"You are a smart one, aren't you, Yoshida-kun? Upupupu, that's right. If you bastards guess correctly, only one person will be dying, and you'll be safe…at least, until the next murder happens. So what are you waiting for? Let's begin!"

Almost as soon as Monobear's little speech ended, a black background filled the screen, and then white characters appeared abruptly on screen, along with sound effects that made it seem as if the characters were being forcibly stamped onto the background. The subtitles at the bottom showed that the characters read 'Classroom Trial now in action!"

Then, the video ended.

Reuben blinked. Did that really just happen? Really? He badly wanted to watch the next video and see what a 'Classroom Trial' was like. But a glance at the clock and an unpreventable yawn destroyed that idea, so he gave up, shut down the computer, and went to bed.

And so, the trial starts next chapter. I am actually surprised that I got to finish this chapter so quickly-I am not sure if the same will happen with the next chapters, so don't expect that chapter to get uploaded the next day or anything like that. I will try to be as quick as I can though.

Regarding Reuben's side of the story, keep an eye out for Arielle. She will be important to the story later. And for anyone who is wondering if Arielle and Reuben are going to be an item, the answer is no, and the reason is in this chapter if you look carefully. But anyway, keep an eye out for her. Oh , and her Instant Messaging name is actually a book reference. Can you guess it?

So, what did you think of my first investigation chapter? What are your thoughts on the case? Any ideas on who the culprit could be? Or even as to their motive?

Please leave feedback!