"R-Rin…? What are you saying?" Tenko muttered in a frightened tone at Rin's sudden change in demeanor.
"Oh do please TRY to keep up, Chabashira. I know class trials take a certain level of intellect that you just aren't capable of producing, but you could at least pay attention so I don't have to repeat myself." Exisal Rin hissed. "I said that it's IMPOSSIBLE for you all to solve this crime! No matter what you try or what logic you come up with, it no longer matters. It will always remain in the realm of speculation and theory! You're all stuck in an unsolvable crime!"
"An unsolvable crime?" Keebo repeated nervously.
"N-No! That's not true! We can solve this puzzle, no problem!" Kaede declared confidently, but her determination immediately faltered as she turned to Shuichi with a desperate look. "R-Right, Shuichi? We can solve this, can't we?"
"...I hate to admit it, but Rin is right." Shuichi painfully admitted. "We have no way to prove the cause of death."
"N-No…!"
"Thank you, Saihara. I knew I could count on you to pummel that truth into the heads of these moronic imbeciles!" Exisal Rin applauded. "You can't check the victim's body, and you don't have any conclusive evidence. To even attempt any more deductions would be to exercise futility. Just accept it already. There's nothing any of you can do. There's no way for any of you to know what happened."
"...But I know. I was actually involved, after all, so it only makes sense that I'm the only one who knows the truth."
"...Ah!" Shuichi gasped suddenly. "So that's what you were trying to do. That's why you did all of this! You used Kirumi's attempted murder to commit an unsolvable murder!"
"He…used my attempted murder plan to do this?" Kirumi muttered in shock.
"Heh heh heh…So you finally understand. That's right. It's just as I've said. That was my plan. A plan I was only able to carry out thanks to Tojo. I really did mean what I said when you handed me that antidote, you know? I really am thankful to you for what you've done." Exisal Rin told the maid in a mocking voice. "The moment I saw the poison and the antidote, my mind went into action, and I came up with this plan. A plan to take advantage of the situation and turn it in my favor. This is how I'm going to win!"
"Win…?" Shuichi repeated.
"That's right. Win. The sole reason I did all of this was for that purpose. I don't care what it takes or what it costs me. No matter what, I will be the one to win and end it all. I will be the victor. I will burn everything if that's what it takes. Even if that makes me the villain…even if I have to trample over all of you to do it, I will do so gladly. There's a high price to pay if you want to overcome the killing game, and I'm finally willing to pay it! After all, I remember now. I remembered that's my only purpose in life. I don't care about any of you or your opinions. It's too late for that, anyway." Exisal Rin declared confidently and with a chilling calmness.
"B-But how could you do something like this!? Th-This is–!" Kaede shouted.
"Oh do come off your high horse, Akamatsu. I would think you would know the hypocrisy of you telling me that." Exisal Rin snarled at the pianist. "Besides, what right do any of you have to judge me for this? Kirumi attempted murder and tried to justify it using feelings she had toward me. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? Knowing someone was willing to kill another and use my name in order to justify it. To have someone kill in the name of love for you? That's not love. That's an atrocity. A vile thing that makes me sick every time I think about it. So don't go off judging me for this when the maid there did something far worse. And you, Tojo, disgust me far more than the rest of these freaks. You can forget getting anything more than this from me in regard to that pitiful confession of yours."
"Rrk…" Kirumi flinched back hard at that, but remained silent. A look of pain and regret was painted on her face as the Exisal continued.
"So now you all know. The gimmick of this case isn't just the unknown victim. Far from it. That was just to set things up for the main course. The real mystery that needs to be solved is the unknowable culprit!"
"Unknowable culprit…?" Rantaro muttered as sweat began to form on his forehead.
"That's right. Unknowable to all…except me. No one could ever understand but me! Only I can know the true answer! So there's no more room for deductions or logic anymore! All you can do is choose the culprit with your own intuition!"
"I-Intuition?" Keebo cried out in confusion.
"Oh don't be such a baby, Idabashi. Robots might not have intuition like us humans, but you have something that's just as good, right? That 'inner voice' you keep going on about. Just use that or whatever. I don't particularly care how you go about it." Exisal Rin grumbled. "Either way, there's nothing you can do now. That's just how this trial is. So…who's the culprit this time around? Is it me…or Kirumi?"
"Th-That's…" Kaede tried to speak, but Rin didn't let her finish.
"There's no more time to try to think or reason things out now! Just trust your instincts and choose who you think is the most guilty and suspicious! So now it's time to start the heart-racing excitement as the blackened and the spotless face off! It's…VOTING TIME!"
"Hey! That's my line! I'm the one who decides when it's Voting Time!" Monokuma screamed angrily.
"Aw, c'mon… Stop being such a stick in the mud. It's over, isn't it? No one's gonna be able to figure out the truth. Let's just vote already." Exisal Rin moaned. "It's not like it's gonna be a problem, right, Monokuma? I mean, you know who the real culprit is, right? Just like you always do."
"Eh?" Monokuma muttered before going silent. And after a beat of tense silence, Monokuma began to tremble in nervousness. "Y-Yes…of course… Of course I d-do!"
"Eh? What kind of reaction was that?" Tenko shouted. "You sound like you have no idea what to say!"
"O-O-Of course I know what I'm saying!" Monokuma stammered. "Th-The culprit, you say? Ah, y-yes… Of c-course I know…"
"Why do you seem so flustered?" Keebo pressed.
"F-Flustered? Me? Hahahaha! What are you talking about?" Monokuma asked as sweat poured out of his fluffy body like a hose.
"Monokuma…do you not know who the culprit is, either!?" Shuichi asked with pure surprise.
"Huh?! Whaddaya mean I don't know!? Oh, what don't I know, huh!?" Monokuma shouted defensively.
"...You truly do not know, do you?" Kirumi asked, to which the bear remained silent.
"W-Wait! What does this mean for us, then!?" Kaede shouted. "Why doesn't Monokuma know who the culprit is!? And what does that mean for the trial!?"
"You don't think…that was the point, do you?" Rantaro asked.
"The point?" Kaede repeated, but Shuichi gasped at that moment.
"That's it! So that's what Rin was really after! That was the real objective of all of this!" Shuichi exclaimed.
"What are you on about now? What real objective?" Tenko asked.
"Rin wasn't just trying to create a murder that we couldn't solve." Rantaro began to explain. "He was trying to fool Monokuma, too."
"That's right. He wanted to create a murder not even Monokuma could figure out!" Shuichi declared.
"A murder that not even Monokuma could figure out?" Kirumi muttered.
"But why? What's the point of doing that? Why would he want to fool Monokuma?" Kaede asked.
"I don't know, but considering how many elements of this case can be cleared up by that line of thought, this has to be the answer," Shuichi stated.
"In all the previous cases, Monokuma always knew who the real culprit was, didn't he? No matter how complicated or difficult the mystery was, he always knew the answer. That's how he was able to determine whether we were right or wrong with our vote." Rantaro pointed out. "That probably means he had some way to watch and monitor us."
"Perhaps there are hidden cameras, strategically placed to avoid our detection." Keebo guessed.
"Ah!" Kaede gasped. "Hang on! Remember how the Electro Radar was originally described to us? Rin and Kokichi told us the Electro Radar was supposed to be a device that can disable small devices and tell the user how many were disabled!"
"Then does that mean that when Rin had Miu make the Electro Radar, he was trying to prove that there were hidden cameras and disable them?" Tenko asked.
"Then it's just as he theorized back during Tsumugi's trial," Rantaro muttered. "I had forgotten since it's been so long since that trial, but didn't Rin say that there might have been hidden cameras watching us?"
"That's how Tsumugi knew about my trap…" Kaede muttered.
"So that's why Rin commissioned Miu to make the radar, then. To prove the cameras existed and to disable them when necessary." Shuichi nodded. "So in order to make sure Monokuma couldn't see what happened, Rin must have used the Electro Radar right after Kirumi was knocked out, not just to disable the press, but to disable all the cameras that might have been watching them."
"But what's the point? Why would Rin want to do this?" Kaede asked again.
"Before we determine that for sure, I want to make one thing clear," Shuichi said. "If the objective were to create a crime that would stump Monokuma, the Exisals…"
"Ah! The Exisals!" Kirumi gasped. "Are you saying that the Exisals surrounding Monokuma were not trying to protect him, but to keep him in place there?"
"Yes. They were set there to watch Monokuma." Shuichi nodded.
"Watching him!?" Tenko shouted. "Ah! Then what Monokuma told me before!"
"Oh, at the time, the Exisals were on auto-pilot and directed to only observe me. Their movements are more limited now that the Monokubs aren't around to pilot them." Monokuma explained.
"Autopilot? They can move on their own? I thought Kokichi had to control them to move them." Tenko frowned as her eyebrows narrowed at the bear.
"Well…yeah, but he could set the Exisals to focus on a target and let them do what they do without any action on his part. That's pretty much it." Monokuma explained.
"I see. If they were protecting him like guards, then they wouldn't have been circling around him and facing him like they were." Rantaro nodded. "They would have been scanning the area, watching out for us."
"But they weren't. That implies that they weren't watching out for us, they were watching him." Shuichi added. "They were trying to make sure that Monokuma couldn't leave, and that kept him from getting anywhere near the crime scene."
"Yes…Before I stole an Exisal, all four units were still focused on Monokuma." Kirumi confirmed. "That must be why when I stole one, the other three did not bother to pursue me as I headed for the hangar."
"Um, so…to summarize this discussion…" Keebo began. "Rin used the Electro Radar in the hangar while Kokichi had the Exisals watching Monokuma. In doing so, Rin was able to create a scenario in which Monokuma has no idea who the culprit is?"
"But hang on! That doesn't make any sense! Kokichi was the one controlling Monokuma! Why would he have the Exisals watching him?" Tenko asked.
"Then maybe Kokichi wasn't controlling Monokuma at all." Shuichi pointed out.
"Wh-What!?"
"It's true. I mean, Kokichi is dead now, after all. That proves that he wasn't the true mastermind." Rantaro noted. "Maybe he was like Tsumugi and was in charge of some things in this game, but his death proves that he couldn't have been really controlling Monokuma."
"So…Kokichi was not the mastermind of this game, then?" Kaede asked in a surprised tone.
"R-Really? Is that really true?" Kirumi questioned with a mortified voice.
"Remember that the only reason we thought that was because Kokichi told us," Shuichi stated. "Monokuma hasn't said a word about that. It's possible that Koikichi was just lying to us."
"Granted, it was a very convincing lie. I doubt anyone could have doubted him when he told us all that right after we saw the truth of the outside world." Rantaro grumbled. "He had us exactly where he wanted that entire time."
"Then…I did all of this…and he really was not the mastermind?" Kirumi asked. "Then…why did he not just tell me that? He was at death's door, and I asked him if he truly was the mastermind. So why did he not just tell the truth!? I would have given him the antidote then! He would not have had to die!"
"But no, that can't be right! Kokichi was a Remnant of Despair! We remembered that!" Tenko shouted.
"But that doesn't necessarily mean that he was the true mastermind," Shuichi explained.
"Is that really possible?" Keebo asked.
"Well, Monokuma?" Kaede turned to the bear with a questioning look.
"...I can't answer that without causing problems, cuz I gotta run this trial fair and squa–" Monokuma began, but Shuichi cut him off.
"Even more reason to give us the answer!" Shuichi declared in an annoyed voice. "If you don't tell us the truth right now, you'll be an accomplice to Kokichi's lies. Does that sound like a fair game? Would you say this class trial is fair?"
"Go on, tell us. Tell us whether Kokichi was the real mastermind or not." Rantaro told him.
"Geez, you guys really are persistent about this, huh? There's really no need to think about it now, is there? You're being way too forward with this." Exisal Rin shook his head.
"Aren't you normally the forward one?" Monokuma shot back. "I mean, I don't mind cuz that's probably part of your strategy, too. But in the interest of fairness, I suppose it's time to tell the truth. Unlike the lies Kokichi loved so much, the truth should be impartial to everyone. Isn't that right, Mister Wakuri? You know that better than anyone."
"...Really? You're going to throw that word around like it means something?" Exisal Rin growled. "The 'truth'? You don't care about the truth. You just want to save your sorry ass from this predicament you're now in."
"Well, that is true. I won't deny that." Monokuma giggled. "But that doesn't change the fact that now that it's been brought up, I am required to answer them to keep the trial fair. It's not fair if only you know certain truths in this trial that everyone should know."
"And what is that truth?" Kaede asked.
"I was not ever being controlled by Kokichi, cuz he wasn't the mastermind," Monokuma revealed.
"W-W-W-W-Wait! WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!?" Tenko screamed. "Y-You can't be serious, can you?"
"So…it's true…?" Kaede asked.
"Kokichi was just messing with you. I never once said he was the mastermind." Monokuma confirmed.
"Then it was all Kokichi's lie?!" Keebo asked.
"Yeah, that is what that would mean." Monokuma nodded. "With the key from the last motive, both Mister Wakuri and Kokichi were the first to learn the truth of the outside world. Based on his own deductions, Kokichi fabricated a lie to make you all think he was the mastermind."
"You mean he came up with all that himself?" Rantaro questioned. "That whole story was just something he made up, then?"
"Yep. His deductions got a lot of details right, though. Pretty impressive, honestly." Monokuma hummed.
"But what about the Exisals!?" Tenko yelled. "If Kokichi wasn't the mastermind, how'd he control them so easily?"
"He just used Miu's remote control, right?" Monokuma pointed out.
"Miu's remote control?" Shuichi repeated. "So the remote that Kokichi was using was made by Miu?"
"Another device Miu made that we weren't aware of?" Kirumi asked.
"Oh, you didn't know?" Monokuma asked. "Miu not only invented the Electro Radar and the Electrohammer. She also made a remote control that can hijack any electronic device. Kokichi just slapped a receiver on each of the Exisals and took them for a spin!"
"Y-You got to be kidding me! Why did Miu make all of this stuff and not tell us!?" Kaede exclaimed.
"Oh, Mister Wakuri knew of the remote's existence." Monokuma pointed out. "I guess he thought it wasn't important enough to share with you guys, though, just like with the Electrohammers and the Electro Radar."
"He did…?" Shuichi asked.
"Geez, way to lay it on thick." Exisal Rin grumbled. "And what? Are you planning on sharing all of my secrets with everyone now? Isn't it a bit unfair to tell them all that here?"
"Fairness has nothing to do with it. I offered up that info purely out of spite!" Monokuma shot back with a vengeful glare. "Spite toward you for trying to disrupt my killing game this whole time, and spite toward Kokichi for trying to usurp the mastermind's role and take over the game!"
"Ah, so you're going down that path in this trial, are you? Fine then. I don't mind going head-to-head with you. You'll at least put up an interesting challenge. Much more than these simpletons." Exisal Rin shrugged.
"So there's no doubt about it then. Kokichi wasn't the mastermind." Shuichi stated, ignoring the back-and-forth banter that Monokuma and Rin were now getting into.
"So we were just being dragged around by Kokichi's lies this whole time, then!?" Tenko shouted.
"What in the world was Kokichi trying to accomplish by doing any of that, though? Why would he go through all that effort just to pretend to be the mastermind." Rantaro asked.
"It's too late now to ask him. He's gone now." Keebo frowned. "And with him, the truth is gone as well."
"But if he wasn't the mastermind, then who is!?" Kaede screamed out the question.
"Why are you so certain there's even a mastermind to begin with?" Monokuma asked in response.
"What do you mean?" Shuichi questioned.
"Why, that's on a need-to-know basis, and you don't need to know," Monokuma replied. "Anyway, this conversation has flown off the rails. Let's get things back on track. This class trial is to figure out who the culprit is, not the mastermind. So….yeah… Get to talkin'!"
"For once, I agree with the bear. Even if it makes me throw up a little in disgust." Exisal Rin concurred. "Before you all worry about meaningless things like the mastermind's identity or Kokichi's intent with all of his actions, you need to solve this mystery. So hurry up and figure out who the culprit is. I'm getting sick and tired of listening to you guys go around in circles here."
"But Monokuma doesn't know who it is. How is he supposed to confirm the results?" Keebo asked.
"Who cares? It's not our problem. We should just leave it to Monokuma as usual. It's not like it will change anything." Exisal Rin said. "But that means you gotta run this class trial properly, y'know? So you're not allowed to make any mistakes, bear."
"Are you tryin' to get me to do something?" Monokuma asked with a glare.
"Well, you're the one butting into our business all the time, so it's high time for you to come down to our level." Exisal Rin pointed out. "You've been sitting there on your throne watching us play your games and solve these cases this whole time, but now you can't just sit back and watch. You can't be a spectator anymore now that this is a mystery you have to solve, too. That means you're just a participant in this class trial like the rest of us now! So let's resume this class trial, and Monokuma, you better think long and hard, too! This is it! The final class trial! Me versus Monokuma!"
"You versus Monokuma?" Shuichi repeated in a shocked voice.
"As I said, my only purpose now is to win here. And when I play, I play to win. That's just who I am deep down. I need to know that I am, without a doubt, the victor in every perceivable way in whatever I do." Exisal Rin explained. "But what's considered winning here in this killing game? Beating the other players? Obviously not. No…It's just as I said before at the very start of this. I only need to beat one person. The real mastermind."
"Beating them in their game would make me the true victor here. So that's how I'll win. That's why I went through all this trouble to pick a fight with Monokuma! I created this entire mystery in order to one-up him and utterly crush the mastermind by my own merits and skills! If I can fool everyone including Monokuma until the very end of this trial, then I'll be the winner!"
"You did all of this…just to beat Monokuma and the mastermind?" Rantaro questioned.
"I see. So you truly do intend to throw us all to the side in order to pursue this goal, then?" Keebo asked. "If so, then it seems you truly have changed."
"It's like he's crazy now or something…" Tenko muttered.
"To do all of this just to 'win'... Why…?" Kirumi tried to reason it out, but couldn't come up with a feasible answer. "What's the point in 'winning' in something like this?"
"What's the point in anything anymore? You saw the outside world. There's nothing out there for us anymore. This is the only place people like us can exist now. There's no greater meaning left to be found. No greater meaning in life. No greater meaning to death. It's all the same in the end. So if that's the case, then I'll do what I want to the bitter end, and what I want is to win. That's all." Exisal Rin explained.
"But aren't you the Ultimate Hope? How could you do something like this? What kind of hope could something like this create? Do you even care anymore?" Kaede asked desperately.
"...Ultimate Hope? Me?" Exisal Rin repeated before he started laughing to himself, the Exisal's hand being placed on the mech's head as he did. "That's a funny joke. No, really, my sides are going to hurt from that! I didn't know you were such a comedian, Akamatsu. I mean, really? Me? The Ultimate Hope? What an awful joke! It's so bad it's funny!"
"What do you mean by that?" Shuichi asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, that's not important right now. Let's just get this trial going again." Exisal Rin shrugged. "If the students or Monokuma don't know who the true culprit is, then that makes me the winn–"
"Don't underestimate me. Or Shuichi and the others for that matter. We're not as dumb as you think, Mister Wakuri." Monokuma argued.
"Oh?"
"Puhuhu… It's just like a Remnant of Despair to try to assume control of the game, and it's just like the Ultimate Hope to try to derail things like this, even if it's been done in such an erroneous way. But if you think you can do whatever you want because of your talent or role in this game, then you've got another thing coming. These kids are all that's left of Hope's Peak Academy. If you think they're gonna make this easy for you, you better think again!"
"Hey! Who's side are you taking he–" Tenko began to ask.
"Side? Isn't it obvious?!" Monokuma asked. "Monokuma joins your party."
Monokuma (Ultimate Despair Headmaster) has joined the party!
"Wait, what!?" Tenko shouted.
"Who invited you!?" Kaede asked.
"Now, let's join forces and unravel the truth behind the case!" Monokuma declared, ignoring the glares the students were aiming at him.
"We were going to do that with or without you anyway, you know." Rantaro rolled his eyes and shook his head at that.
"Let's just ignore Monokuma. His actions are always beyond comprehension." Keebo stated.
"Yeah! Let's just focus on the case!" Monokuma agreed.
"Be quiet, you! I doubt you'll help us at all!" Tenko glared angrily at the bear.
"Now, where should we start?" Monokuma asked, once again ignoring Tenko. "We've already established what Rin is after in this trial and how he was able to set it all up…"
"He's just going to keep going on like nothing is wrong, is he?" Kaede muttered with a pointed frown.
"In my experience, whenever you learn a new fact, you learn something else along with it." Monokuma grinned.
"Yes, let's look for that!" Keebo nodded.
"Keebo certainly is getting warmed up to him…" Rantaro chuckled.
"I see, so it goes back to that… The evidence I couldn't wrap my head around before…" Shuichi muttered.
"And what evidence would that be, Shuichi?" Kirumi asked.
"The video," Shuichi answered. "Let's discuss the video of Kokichi being crushed by the hydraulic press."
"Rin said that he filmed that video to prove he was not the victim," Rantaro stated. "But now we know that Rin was trying to mislead Monokuma, so what was the point of the video then?"
"It does seem pretty strange now, doesn't it?" Kaede hummed as she pressed a finger to her cheek.
"Then what kinda mistake was Rin tryin' to get me to make?" Monokuma asked.
"Maybe he crushed Kokichi with the hydraulic press so the cause of death would be unknown?" Keebo suggested.
"Rin did state that was the reason," Kirumi noted.
"But if that were the only objective, there would be no need to film it." Shuichi pointed out. "Discovering the crushed body would have been enough. No need to show us the film."
"That's true…" Monokuma hummed thoughtfully.
"So there must be another reason Rin went out of his way to film the victim's death then?" Kirumi asked.
"You're overthinking things again. I did it to prove I wasn't the victim. That's all. The victim's identity isn't the mystery I was trying to create. It was the way he died, so your line of reasoning is flawed." Exisal Rin explained.
"No. That's a lie. You wouldn't do something like this without needing to do so. Making that video and showing it to us was to help you trick Monokuma. Taking the video of the murder but keeping the victim's identity hidden…there's only one reason you would do that." Shuichi declared. "If you show the moment of Kokichi's death, of course it would lead us to believe he died. Even if we can't positively identify the body, we would still believe Kokichi was the victim. That was the reason your jacket sleeve was left to hang out the press, too, wasn't it? To keep us guessing until the very end?"
"..."
"Your silence only further proves my point," Shuichi shouted before pointing to the Exisal. "That was exactly the mistake you were trying to get Monokuma and the rest of us to make! You wanted to keep the victim hidden, no matter what, so you made us think Kokichi was the one who died with the video!"
"So you're saying Kokichi isn't the victim, then?!" Rantaro asked with wide eyes.
"D-Does that mean that the victims were switched?!" Keebo exclaimed.
"Switched!?" Tenko cried out in shock.
"Then it was some other dead body that got crushed by the hydraulic press?" Kaede questioned with a serious expression.
"What?" Kirumi gasped.
"Where would he even get a dead body, though?!" Tenko yelled.
"There should be plenty to choose from if you reuse the body of a former victim–" Keebo suggested, or at least he tried to before Rin cut him off.
"If there was an unknown body, then we could guess the victim was switched. That is something that might have been possible, but unfortunately for you all, that possibility wasn't actually possible in this case. Switching the victims was clearly impossible to do." Exisal Rin pointed out. "You all saw the footage, so you have to agree that there was no opportunity to do anything of the sort, right? The video showed the victim being crushed, and nothing more. How would a switch be possible? We already established that the footage was not doctored in any way. All the camera can do is play, record, and pause, so editing was impossible without hooking it up to a computer, which Monokuma said didn't happen."
"Dammit! Me and my big mouth!" Monokuma screamed angrily.
"That means that switching out the victim would not be possible." Exisal Rin stated. "Also, not to point out the obvious, but if Kokichi didn't die and he was switched out with some other body, then he'd still be alive and well, wouldn't he? But clearly, he isn't here. And we already discussed this numerous times, that there's really no point in trying to retread that line of thought, is there? The chances of that happening is imposs–"
"It might be possible." Kirumi interrupted.
"Huh? What are you on about, Tojo?"
"There could be a trick to make the switch possible. Who knows what you might have done after I was knocked out in the hangar. So it might be possible we just have not discovered what trick you employed for this." She explained.
"Really? And what trick was that?" Exisal Rin asked, getting only silence in response. "See? You don't know. None of you do. Because there was no trick. That would have been imposs–"
"Kirumi's not wrong. I'm sure there was a way for it to be possible." Kaede stated. "So I refuse to give up! We won't stop until we find the truth!"
"That's right! We just need to think harder about this!" Tenko nodded with a smile. "Once we do that, we're sure to find out the trick behind that video!"
"We don't really have any choice, do we? Our lives are still on the line." Rantaro pointed out. "Rin might want to win, but if that leads to our death, then we have no choice but to find out what exactly he did."
"If Kokichi is still alive, then we would be able to question him about his actions as well." Keebo nodded. "In that case, I also believe we should think deeper on this matter. Those are answers we need, after all. If there is a chance we can get them, then we should pursue this matter further."
"Then we're in agreement, then." Shuichi smiled. "We'll figure this out. Together."
"You lot are a stubborn bunch, aren't you? 'Together'? What is this? Some sort of shounen manga or anime? You're deluding yourselves. There is no trick." Exisal Rin growled.
"That's probably another lie." Monokuma rolled his button eyes.
"However, if the victims were switched, then that would mean the footage was altered." Keebo pointed out. "How could it have been altered when we know that the footage wasn't edited?"
"If we could figure that out, maybe we'd know how the swap actually took place," Kaede added.
"I knew that video was suspicious. No degenerate would ever record so vile as crushing a body without some shady reason. So we just gotta find the trick, right?" Tenko asked.
"Sounds simple enough, but if it were that easy, we'd already have noticed it." Rantaro hummed.
"Then let's discuss it. If we put our heads together, we're sure to figure it out!" Tenko smiled.
"Go ahead and try. Once you do that, then you'll all have no choice but to accept that finding something that doesn't exist won't work out too well for you guys." Exisal Rin grumbled as the next debate began.
"There must be a trick to that video!" Tenko declared.
"That's what you all gotta figure out!" Monokuma nodded.
"As I keep saying, there is no trick." Exisal Rin bluntly stated. "You can keep checking all you want, but there's no editing function in that camera, so the video could not be altered in any way."
"Then maybe something else was done aside from editing the video?" Kirumi suggested.
"That camera angel was a bit strange, wasn't it? Why was the video recorded at such an odd angle?" Kaede muttered.
"Was the person in the video really Kokichi?" Rantaro asked. "Is it possible it was a body double of some kind, like Angie's wax sculptors?"
"Something seemed off about that video to me…" Keebo began. "When the hydraulic press stopped for a brief moment."
"I agree with that!" Shuichi shouted. "Keebo is on to something! It is weird that the hydraulic press stopped for a second, isn't it!?"
"Hmm? Why's that?" Kaede asked.
"Because when Keebo and I first investigated that hydraulic press, it didn't stop at all," Shuichi explained.
"Yes, that's right! The hydraulic press kept lowering itself without stopping back then!" Keebo nodded.
"But in the video…" Rantaro murmured as he bit his thumb. "I see. So that's the oddity this video has."
"Yes. The press in the video pauses ever so briefly." Kirumi nodded with a grim expression. "Even more suspicious, it stops right before it crushes the body."
"But why would it stop then?" Tenko asked.
"There's only one reason I can think of to answer that," Shuichi replied. "The only way to stop the hydraulic press is the 'Force Stop' button."
"If Rin used his Electro Radar in the hangar, it would have interfered with the press's safety function." Kaede nodded. "That means the only way to stop the press would be to manually stop it using the control panel."
"And that someone must have been Rin, as he was the only person in the hangar who could have done so," Kirumi noted.
"...Oh?" Exisal Rin hummed before the mech tilted its head coyly. "Hm, actually…maybe I did press it by accident? I can't say I recall. It might just be a glitch in the camera. But even if it wasn't a video glitch, what of it? The press only stopped for like, a second. You can't switch the victim in such a short time, can you?"
"That is true…" Keebo frowned.
"There's also the question of how the bodies got switched while the camera was rolling. That would've clearly been caught on camera." Monokuma added. At that, Shuichi thought for a moment before snapping his fingers.
"Ah, I see. It wasn't just the press that stopped…"
"...Eh? Huh? Whaddaya mean?" Monokuma asked while tilting his head.
"If you stop something else at the same time you stop the hydraulic press…" Shuichi began.
"Wait, are you saying the video camera was also stopped?" Kaede asked. "If you stop the camera at the same time as the press, the press would appear as though it only stopped for a moment, but in reality, that would allow the victims to be swapped without any of it getting caught on camera."
"Then after the body was swapped, the press and the camera were both started up again at the same time." Rantaro finished. "If done correctly, we'd be none the wiser."
"That's what I've been saying this whole time!" Monokuma shouted.
"Since when!? It was Shuichi and Kaede who came up with all of this!" Tenko screamed.
"I see. So that is why the video was taken at the odd angle Kaede mentioned." Kirumi hummed thoughtfully. "The trick could only work at that angle."
"Huh? Why?" Monokuma asked, seeming to be more of a burden than a help in the trial thus far.
"To get the trick we just described to work, the camera had to be set up precisely." Shuichi agreed with Kirumi, once again ignoring the bear. "The video camera must have been set up somewhere near the press's control panel. To operate the press and the camera at the same time, it would have to be near the switch."
"And that location was able to allow the video to be recorded at that necessary angle. Using that position to record allowed the victim's body to become hidden by the press once it lowered enough." Kirumi finished.
"So since the video was recorded using such an odd angle, then that proves the trick was used, right?" Kaede asked with a smile.
"Yes, it most certainly was intentional on Rin's part. He most likely used that tripod that was in the hangar to adjust the camera's height to make sure the body would be hidden by the press." Rantaro noted.
"Did that come from the warehouse, too? Geez, that place is like a 4D pocket!" Monokuma laughed.
"Don't you dare make that reference! I don't want you sullying my childhood." Tenko grumbled.
"So…this logic is correct then? Rin used that video angle trick and switched the victim in the hydraulic press, right?" Kirumi asked.
"If that's true, then Kokichi must be alive!" Kaede shouted.
"Before he was crushed by the press, he was swapped with a different body!" Tenko agreed.
"Well, wait just a minute…" Shuichi suddenly said in a voice full of dread, his expression now concerned and full of bleakness.
"Why?! I thought what I said made sense." Tenko frowned as she crossed her arms.
"...Tenko, the different body you mentioned… What are you talking about?" Shuichi slowly and nervously asked.
"The bodies from the other cases, of course! If Rin used one of those…then…he'd…wait." Tenko frowned as she suddenly trailed off.
"Actually, yeah… How would Rin get another body for the swap? He couldn't have gotten one of the older bodies from the previous cases, could he?" Kaede asked.
"I had originally thought that perhaps he managed to find that out from Kokichi somehow, but now…" Keebo muttered.
"Yeah. Kokichi isn't the mastermind, so he wouldn't know where the old corpses from the other cases would be kept. Not only that, but neither he nor Rin would have been able to suddenly produce one of those bodies to switch out." Shuichi stated.
"Well, Monokuma? Care to answer? Y'know, since you're part of our 'party' now?" Rantaro asked nervously. "Would any of us be allowed to reuse a body from a previous case?"
"Very well, I'll answer that." Monokuma nodded.
"Oh, now you're just giving in to all their demands. You're not even trying to remain impartial anymore." Exisal Rin complained.
"Well, it's crucial information to make the trial fair," Monokuma explained with a smug smirk. "This discussion is pointless if it's not clear what the culprit was allowed to do, right?"
"Since when have we ever known exactly what a culprit was or was not allowed to do in a case? That's the whole point of the mystery! We have to figure it out ourselves! You can't just give them the answer like that! That's like if a game show host gave all the contestants the answer right before the prompt and question!" Exisal Rin yelled.
"Oh? You seem to be getting agitated, Mister Wakuri. Are you getting worried we're getting to the truth?" Monokuma asked with a flash of his cruel, toothy grin.
"...Of course not. I knew you weren't intending to play fair in this trial. That's why it'll be so much more satisfying when I see the look on your face once I win. It will have made this whole farce worth it." Exisal Rin declared confidently after a very brief pause.
"Hmm. Whatever you say." Monokuma chuckled before returning his attention to the rest of the students. "Now then, regarding the re-use of a dead body… That is impossible! All the dead bodies have already been thrown away!"
"Th-Thrown away…?!" Kaede repeated with a mortified face.
"H-How awful! Have some respect for the dead!" Tenko agreed.
"The other bodies are…gone?" Kirumi asked with a new urgency in her voice, her eyes shrinking down to pinpoints as fear slowly began to overtake her features. "Th-Then…who did Kokichi switch places with?"
"..."
"S-Shuichi? What's wrong? You know the answer, right? Who did Kokichi switch places with?" Kirumi asked, newfound desperation in her voice as she pleaded with the detective for an answer.
"...Kirumi…I think I missed something very important here." Shuichi finally responded.
"Something important?" The maid repeated shakily.
"I…I can't believe I overlooked this!" Shuichi shouted as he gritted his teeth and slammed his hand against his stand.
"What do you mean?" Rantaro asked. "What…did we all miss?"
"There were only two people in the hangar at the time the bodies were swapped." Shuichi began. "That means…it's just as Rin told us before. They were working together."
"Huh? Working together?" Rantaro gasped with wide eyes. "Wait…you mean–!?"
"Yes. I do." Shuichi nodded. "The only two people involved in the swap were the victim…and the culprit. The culprit was operating the camera and the hydraulic press, while the victim lay inside. If they switched places while the press and the camera were stopped, then the person who turned the camera and the press back on was the original victim. To put it simply, both people operated the press and camera at different times."
"An impossible trick…unless the victim and culprit agreed to cooperate beforehand!" Shuichi declared.
"The victim and culprit cooperated? Then you mean Rin wasn't lying when he told us he did all of this because Kokichi threatened him!?" Tenko shouted.
"No, it's more than that. Rin admitted that was to trick us already. However, while he wasn't threatened into this by Kokichi's threats, Rin still worked together with him to create this absurd scheme. That was the truth in his statement." Shuichi explained.
"Is…that really possible?" Keebo asked. "I mean, a victim working together with their culprit is…"
"It sounds bizarre, but perhaps that was the whole point," Shuichi answered. "Commit a crime that was so confusing, even Monokuma would be tricked."
"Geez, this culprit's a real jerk," Monokuma grumbled before flashing a victory smile at the gang. "So, have you realized whodunnit yet?"
"..." Everyone remained silent as their collective dread began to merge and come out. They all slowly turned toward the Exisal with them in the room, and doubt began to show on all their faces.
"...The apparent victim we saw in the video was Kokichi. Which means Rin was the one operating the hydraulic press and camera…at first." Shuichi began to explain. "If the two of them switched while the press was stopped, then the culprit who started the hydraulic press again and crushed Rin…has to be Kokichi! So…the person inside the Exisal isn't Rin. It has to be Kokichi!"
"..." The Exisal remained silent at the accusation. Nothing came from the machine. No sound. No voice. It just stood there, unresponsive as Shuichi accused it.
"Wh-What did you say?!" Tenko yelled as she was taken aback by the detective's statement, not wanting to believe it.
"Th-That can't be true, can it?" Kaede asked with tears in her eyes.
"But…it makes sense, doesn't it?" Keebo pointed out with a pained expression.
"So the culprit of this case is…Kokichi Oma. That is what the Ultimate Detective has deduced, right?" Monokuma questioned.
"Kokichi is the culprit? I don't doubt he might have done something so drastic, but…to kill Rin? Are…you certain about this, Shuichi?" Rantaro asked through gritted teeth. "Is Rin…truly dead? And… Kokichi is the culprit who murdered him?"
"I don't want to believe it either…but it's the only way any of this makes sense," Shuichi muttered with a grimace. "My detective work has led me to the conclusion that Rin is the victim and Kokichi is the culprit."
"...So it's true? Kokichi…really is in there?" Keebo asked while looking at the Exisal.
"..."
"Hey! Answer us!" Kaede demanded. "If you're in there, Kokichi, then come out and tell us why you killed Rin! Tell us why you–!"
"I'm the culprit." Kirumi swiftly cut the pianist off with a stern look.
"H-Huh?"
"There is no possible way that Rin could be dead, and it is just as impossible for Kokichi to be the culprit. Kokichi is dead. That is a fact. Because I killed him." Kirumi stated.
"W-Wait, but didn't we just–?" Tenko tried to ask.
"I saw it with my own eyes." The maid explained. "I saw Rin drink the antidote that I gave him. That means Kokichi has to be dead. He died from my poison blade. Thinking otherwise was just naive on our part. The truth clearly shows otherwise. In the end, this was just another result born from my selfish desires to keep living with you all."
"Kirumi…Are you…?" Shuichi began, but stopped himself.
That couldn't be it, right? She couldn't be attempting to protect Kokichi, could she? Is she simply trying to deny the possibility that Rin is dead, or is she willingly trying to get us to the wrong answer now that it seems that Rin gave his life for this mystery?
But…
"There was only one antidote, so it's impossible for Kokichi to have survived being poisoned." Kirumi further elaborated. "So…this is the real truth to this case. There are no other possibilities."
"It's not decided yet." The Exisal finally spoke up using Rin's voice. "I could have still killed Kokichi using the hydraulic press. Either way, those are the only two options. Monokuma knows which one is correct though, right?"
"Huh? Are those the only options?" Monokuma asked sadly.
"I…guess that's how things turned out." Kaede frowned.
"No, that can't be! The person in that Exisal is–!" Shuichi argued, but–
"It's not Kokichi!" Kirumi screamed fiercely. "I saw Rin drink the antidote, so there's no mistake! Kokichi is the victim! I poisoned him! I killed him! There is no room for doubt! That is the absolute truth! You're just deluding yourself into thinking otherwise!"
"..."
Shuichi remained silent as he thought about what Kirumi said. So that's how it was, huh? She was going to keep going with this line of thought, whether to protect Kokichi…or to simply deny the fact that the person she cared for the most is dead.
Shuichi could understand that, but there was still one thing that he couldn't understand. Rin. Why would he agree to such a plan? Why would he help create a mystery that required his death? Shuichi couldn't imagine that he would do so for wholly selfish reasons, even with how Rin had changed after the last trial. No matter what he had said, and no matter how he acted, Shuichi just couldn't believe he didn't care about them anymore. So doing something like this was mind-boggling. Just what was the point?
Shuichi was determined to find that out, but before any of that, he had to get to the bottom of this problem first.
"But Kirumi, you don't know for certain that Rin drank the antidote." Shuichi pointed out.
"Wh-What?" Kirumi gasped.
"You saw him drink it right in front of you, but you couldn't confirm he actually did it. You were knocked out by the Exisal before you had the chance to." Shuichi explained. "So maybe…there's another possibility."
"What…are you talking about? What…are you trying to say, Shuichi?" Kirumi asked as her expression darkened with pain, sorrow, and, more evidently, anger. "Impossible! Everything you just said is nothing more than a fallacy! You're wrong! Your deduction is all wrong!"
"Stop trying to deny it, Kirumi. Just accept the truth already." Shuichi pleaded, only to get a snarl in response.
"What truth!? All you care about is your own reasoning! You don't even listen to others! I refuse to let you risk everyone's lives on a mere hunch made by a self-righteous brat! Your logic is flawed! I will keep repeating myself until you get it through that head of yours! There is no other possibility! I killed Kokichi!"
And thus began another familiar scene. The pure desperation and agony in Kirumi's voice as she hurled tattered and stitched-up reasoning against Shuichi was heart-wrenching. The pain and despair she was feeling were overwhelming, but Shuichi didn't let it consume him. Even as Kirumi pleaded and begged and screamed and cursed him, he held his head high as he waited patiently for her to give him an opportunity to strike back with his reasoning.
"Y-You…can't prove anything! No matter what you say…I know what I saw…!" Kirumi finally said after she had exhausted herself. "I saw Rin drink the antidote!"
"It ends here, Kirumi." Shuichi declared as he pointed at the maid in his usual pose. "Rin just pretended to drink the antidote! He didn't actually drink it!"
"He pretended…to drink it…?" Kirumi muttered in a tone of utter despair. "Impossible…I refuse…to acknowledge it…!"
"Kirumi…Drinking the antidote was just part of this lie Rin was creating." Shuichi calmly told her. "You were in a panic at the time, so perhaps you weren't paying close enough attention or missed something in your haste, but no matter what happened, the fact remains that you did not and could not confirm that Rin did drink the antidote."
"Rin must have known that. In fact, he could probably see Kokichi preparing the remote for the Exisals, so perhaps he had an idea of what was going to happen, so he took advantage of it, just like he did with the circumstances Kirumi helped create. He only pretended to drink the antidote to that end. Once Kirumi was knocked out and the Electro Radar was used, I believe Rin gave the antidote to Kokichi." Shuichi explained.
"But…why would he do something like that?" Kaede asked.
"There's only one reason I can possibly think of." Shuichi began. "I think he was trying to protect both Kirumi and Kokichi."
"Protect Kirumi and Kokichi?" Tenko repeated.
"I get it. It's the reason he took the knife in the arm for Kokichi when Kirumi tried to finish him off." Rantaro responded. "He was trying to prevent Kirumi from becoming the blackened while also protecting Kokichi from dying."
"That's right. No matter how he may have acted recently, we can't deny Rin's character. Up until now, Rin was single-mindedly pursuing one goal." Shuichi nodded.
"To protect everyone he could from the killing game…" Kaede muttered.
"So…he gave Kokichi the antidote to save his life." Keebo frowned.
"But that just meant that he was going to be killed by Kirumi's poison, then! How is that any better than Kokichi dying?!" Tenko shouted.
"It wouldn't be, if things had ended there," Shuichi replied. "But it didn't. After Kirumi was knocked out and Rin had handed the antidote to Kokichi, I imagine the two of them began to negotiate together. Rin just saved Kokichi's life, after all. I bet Rin used that in order to get Kokichi to cooperate with the plan."
"Not just that, but Kokichi had a stake in the plan, too," Rantaro noted. "While Rin wanted to prevent Kirumi from becoming the blackened, this would also allow them a way to trick Monokuma. As whoever in that Exisal has said multiple times, the goal here was to win the game by tricking Monokuma and the real mastermind. That certainly sounds like what Kokichi was trying to do when he pretended to be the mastermind."
"But what good is this plan to trick Monokuma and the real mastermind if Rin ended up dead in the process!? Why would he help create a plan that results in his death!?" Tenko yelled.
"I imagine that was just a cost Rin was willing to take if it meant he got what he wanted in the end." Shuichi frowned. "Remember how he's been willing to walk into death traps for lesser reasons before? I doubt this was any different in his mind."
"It also adds to the confusing element of the case," Kaede muttered with a grim tone. "You wouldn't think that someone would help plan their own murder."
"He went so far as to give up his life…just to create this mystery?" Keebo asked.
"Only Rin would do something at such an extreme level, and only Kokichi would be all too willing to help see such a nefarious scheme through to the end," Shuichi stated. "Who else but those two would agree to die and kill just to execute their plan?"
"This…is just too crazy… They would go that far…?" Tenko muttered in a terrified tone. "But I still don't get it. What's the point in any of it!?"
"I bet those two were just determined to beat me at my own game, no matter what." Monokuma laughed. "After all, both of their plans had failed spectacularly. Rin couldn't stop the killing game no matter what he did, and Kokichi's plan to usurp the mastermind totally blew up in his face! This was just them being petty till the very end! Well, two bad! Shuichi figured out the truth!"
"Truth? Are you sure it's not delusion?" The Exisal asked.
"Delusion?" Shuichi repeated.
"Yeah. A delusion. One completely off the mark, all to make you guys think I was the one who died." The Exisal explained. "But who cares what you freaks and nobodies think? This is between me and Monokuma. I don't give a rat's ass if you extras and pawns in this game get it right or not."
"Extras and pawns?" Rantaro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"H-Hey! That's fine, though, right? That means that even if we get it wrong, we won't get kill–" Tenko tried to say with a shaky smile, but–
"No, I'd still kill you all. Don't put Rin's words in my mouth." Monokuma interrupted.
"What!? Why!? You're in the same boat as us! You don't know either! You were part of the party and everything, too!" Tenko exclaimed.
"Geez, what did you expect from him? He's the one forcing us to play this killing game, after all." The Exisal pointed out. "But let's ignore him for now. I mean, you're the ones pointing him in the wrong direction, so his opinion on this hardly matters anymore. If you really wanted to solve this case, you'd get your heads out of your asses and start properly thinking about the case."
"...Fine then. I'll prove it to you." Shuichi declared. "I still think Kokichi is the culprit. Thinking of it that way makes all the pieces fit. So I will show you the truth… The truth you can't deny!"
Closing Argument: Climax Reasoning
ACT 1
"Let's go over the trick that Rin and the culprit created together. Last night, Keebo saw Kaede from the window of his lab. She seemed to be carrying something in her backpack and was heading to the Exisal hangar. When she reached the hangar, she handed what she brought to Rin through the bathroom window.
Rin had been locked in the hangar's bathroom due to the special lock Miu had made, so Rin had asked Kaede to bring him something from his dorm room: the Electro-Radar, a device he got from Miu which can disable small electronics in a set range and for a set time all depending on how much power is used. Rin was going to use the radar to disable the electronic lock and break out of the bathroom.
Perhaps he even intended to confront the one who trapped him there in the first place, considering the second item he asked Kaede to bring him: a small knife. It seems that maybe Rin was going to arm himself with the knife and try to challenge the person who had locked him in there. And that person…is the culprit of this case!"
ACT 2
"Some time passed, and Kirumi made her way to the hangar. She was going to the hangar to kill the culprit and save Rin from his confinement. However, the hangar had an electric barrier preventing her from entering. Fortunately for her, she had an Electrohammer to get around the barrier…in a way. She used her Electrohammer to disable an Exisal and climb inside. She knew Exisals could bypass the barrier…so she got inside one!
Around that time, Rin and the culprit began their confrontation. I imagine that before Rin could use the Electro-Radar, the culprit decided to check up on him. When the culprit suddenly opened the door, Rin took his chance and ambushed the culprit with his knife, but Rin didn't intend to kill the culprit. He just wanted to disable him. That's why Rin stabbed the culprit's right arm. If Rin really wanted to kill him, he would have stabbed in a more fatal area or tried to slash the culprit's throat.
The culprit reeled from the attack, and Rin, tossing his knife aside in the bathroom, jumped on the culprit immediately. He didn't want the culprit to summon an Exisal with the remote. While they were fighting, something happened that caught both of them off guard. The shutter of the hangar opened, and an Exisal stepped inside! Neither of them was expecting an Exisal to suddenly show up and interrupt them.
The culprit pulled out his remote in an attempt to control the Exisal, but Kirumi leaped out of the cockpit and hit the culprit with a throwing knife she had brought with her. The knife hit the culprit right in the back, and it was no normal blade. The tip was covered in a lethal poison from my lab called Strike-9 Poison.
The poison kills slowly. It seems Kirumi wanted the culprit to answer some of her questions and confess before he died. But even with poison in his veins, the culprit continued to spin his lies, which only seemed to anger Kirumi further. When she had enough of his games, Kirumi tried to finish him off by throwing another poisoned knife right at him, but this time, Kirumi was the one caught by surprise."
ACT 3
"To keep Kirumi from becoming the blackened and save the life of the culprit, Rin jumped in front of the culprit to shield them with his own body. As a result, Rin's left arm was stabbed by a poison-laced throwing knife, too. Now panicking that she had just poisoned Rin, Kirumi rushed over to his side and pulled out the antidote she had brought with her. She had planned to use it just in case the culprit was being manipulated or tricked like Tsumugi might have been.
Kirumi quickly handed the antidote to Rin and told him to drink it. Rin stared at the bottle for a moment before nodding and pressing the bottle to his lips, drinking it all in just a few gulps…or so it seemed. In truth, that was just a lie on Rin's part. He only pretended to drink the antidote in order to trick Kirumi. He knew there was only one antidote, and he was going to use it on himself. He had something else in mind for that.
With Rin having 'drank' the antidote, Kirumi relaxed a little, but that only made her drop her guard. While she was with Rin, the culprit managed to bring out his remote and control the other Exisal that was in the hangar with them. With one strike, Kirumi was knocked to the side and rendered unconscious from the hefty blow.
Kirumi had been dealt with, but the culprit must have felt panicked and defeated. He had been poisoned, and the only antidote was given to Rin. There was nothing else the culprit could do in this instance. But that's when Rin decided to pull out his Electro Radar. I doubt he had a real concrete plan at that point, but he knew one thing for certain. Whatever happened next, he didn't want anyone finding out about it, especially not Monokuma and the True Mastermind. So he decided he would use the Electro-Radar to disable all of the cameras in the hangar."
ACT 4
"Not wanting to risk anything, Rin turned the radar to full power before activating the device. The radar's jamming signal was stronger than anything it had sent out before, and its range was much larger, too, probably covering the entire cyber courtyard at best. After using the Electro Radar at full power, the device's unstable battery most likely began to emit smoke from being overused. Rin tossed the device away right before it exploded, destroying the radar completely
With the hidden cameras in the hangar now taken care of, Rin moved over to the culprit and helped the culprit drink the antidote. I imagine the two of them had quite the talk after that, what with Rin giving up his life in exchange for the culprit's. I don't know what they might have discussed with each other, but one thing was obvious.
With the culprit having drunk the antidote and Rin still slowly dying from Kirumi's poison, the two had to quickly come up with a plan to fix this if they wanted to prevent the killing game from starting up again, or at least turn it in their favor. But with the only antidote gone and the Strike-9 Poison slowly circulating through his body, Rin's death was inevitable.
But in that desperate situation, the two of them thought up a plan…or more accurately, a clever lie. They incorporated this unforeseen event into a plan to help them win the killing game! Or, should I say...help them defeat Monokuma and the True Mastermind! That was the Rin's and the culprit's true objective, one that just so happened to align at that moment.
It's actually why the culprit claimed to be the mastermind in the first place. It had been the culprit's plan to win the killing game by usurping the mastermind, but now with Rin about to be killed by Kirumi, there was only one way for them to achieve that goal now. And to do that, they had to work together.
And so, with their interests aligned and their backs pressed against the wall, the two were now working together as accomplices in an insane plan.
Thinking fast, the culprit and Rin dragged Kirumi out of the hangar and closed the shutter so that Kirumi could not re-enter the hangar once she woke up. When Kirumi did wake up, she tried desperately to break into the hangar, even slashing the control panel to do that, but she couldn't get the hangar to open again. Defeated, Kirumi had no other choice but to leave.
And thus, Rin and the culprit's final lie was set into motion."
ACT 5
"There was a lot to prepare, and not a lot of time. They had to work fast. If Rin died from the Strike-9 Poison, the whole plan would be ruined. After fabricating the scene in the bathroom, the culprit dragged Rin's by-now-weakened body by the foot to the hydraulic press. This is how the swipe pattern bloodstain from the bathroom to the press was created. Rin, with the support of the culprit, stood in front of the press's control panel. The two of them were finally ready to execute the insane lie!
While Rin was setting up the video camera near the hydraulic press's control panel...the culprit laid face up and shirtless inside the press, draping Rin's jacket over their shoulders. Then, Rin activated the press and the camera's record button at the same time. The hydraulic press came down slowly, all caught on tape for us to see. Normally the safety function would have triggered, but the Electro-Radar's full power jamming signal had disabled it.
The press got lower and lower, and just as the culprit disappeared from view…Rin pressed the 'Force Stop' button and the camera's pause button simultaneously.
The two then switched places...and also switched roles. The "culprit"...and the "victim." The would-be victim became our culprit and started up the press and camera.
Despite everything that he and the culprit have been through, and despite the horrible things the culprit had done, and despite how he might have felt as of late, Rin still had the same desire he had shown throughout the entire killing game. He didn't want anyone to die, especially if there was something he could do to stop it. So, he saved the culprit's life in exchange for his own.
His strongest desire was still the same as when this killing game began. More than anything, Rin wanted to save as many people as possible and defeat the mastermind and the killing game…even if it meant dying himself!
And so, Rin was crushed by the press, and the whole thing was caught on video. Rin's left sleeve of his jacket was dangling from the press, adding to the confusing nature of this case once the culprit made their appearance and the murder video was shown.
Now alone, the culprit collected the video camera...and tore the hydraulic press's power cord, so that it could never be raised again. This would make it impossible for us to determine the identity of the crushed body. But there was another reason the victim was killed in this way... It obfuscated the cause of death, making the case that much more difficult to solve. This was all part of their plan to create a murder not even Monokuma could figure out!
With the press disabled, the culprit returned to the bathroom to flush their own bloodied clothes. It didn't matter if they were found, as those clothes would add more conflicting evidence that pointed to the culprit's own death. Finally, they climbed inside of an Exisal to hide...and waited with bated breath. And here they are now in this trial, pretending to be Rin. They're trying to deceive Monokuma in order to defeat the True Mastermind!
...And that's it. That's the Unidentified Culprit Trick Rin and the culprit came up with."
Shuichi placed a hand on his face as he turned and stole a glare at the Exisal in the room. He could imagine the sort of face the culprit inside was making at the moment. The childish smirk, the smug look in his eyes, and the hints of worry at being found out.
"The culprit is in that Exisal. ...It's you, isn't it? Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader!" Shuichi explained as he pointed at the Exisal. "I'm right, aren't I? That's you in there, isn't it, Kokichi?"
"..."
"Really? Is it really Kokichi?" Kaede asked.
"I must reluctantly agree with Shuichi's deduction–" Keebo was about to agree.
However…
"I see. So you finally have reached the truth, then? Are you sure about that?" Exisal Rin asked in a smug voice.
"...Huh?" Kirumi let out a confused noise as she turned to the mech with an absolutely defeated and exhausted expression.
"You… Are you really going to still deny it?" Rantaro asked.
"Deny it? Oh, no. I'm not going to do that all." The Exisal shook its head.
"You…aren't?" Keebo asked.
"Then you admit it! You really are in there then, Kokichi?" Tenko asked.
"Well…it's certainly a possibility, isn't it?" The Exisal using Rin's voice asked before leaping into the air and landing behind Kokichi's podium.
"However, that's all it is. Just a possibility! You silly goobers are still mistaken about one point Shumai made!" The Exisal giggled, now using Kokichi's voice.
"Kokichi!" Tenko growled once she heard that voice, but Shuichi's reaction was different.
"...What do you mean by 'mistake'?" The detective asked.
"Oh? Has the little detective not figured it out yet?" Exisal Kokichi asked before laughing in a twisted way. "Nee-heehee…Silly Shumai. You're assuming we weren't trying to get you to realize what we were doing!"
"...What?" Shuichi let out a horrified noise at the statement.
"Yep! We tooooootally saw this coming. We knew that no matter what we did, we wouldn't be able to completely hide the truth from the Ultimate Detective forever! That'd be stupid of us to even try! We'd need to come up with something completely based on luck to do that!" Exisal Kokichi laughed. "So…"
The Exisal lept up again, returning to Rin's podium.
"That's why we purposely paused the video to get you all to reach this conclusion!" Exisal Rin confessed.
"Y-You…wanted us to reach this conclusion?" Rantaro asked in a confused voice.
"You saw this coming!?" Kaede exclaimed.
"That's right. So if you all were going to reach this conclusion no matter what we did to try to hide it…" Exisal Rin began before hopping back over to Kokichi's spot.
"Then we decided to use that to trap you guys!" Exisal Kokichi shouted happily.
"Trap us?" Keebo repeated.
"Oh, Keeboy, you sad, sad Pinocchio rip-off. Of course you wouldn't get it immediately." The Exisal shook its head. "What I'm saying is that if we knew you'd figure out what we did for the swap trick, then why would we bother swapping then?"
"What!?" Rantaro screamed as the Exisal swapped positions again.
"I mean, it's a pretty obvious solution, isn't it? Why bother using a trick that'd get figured out in the first place?" Exisal Rin asked. "So we just paused the camera to make you think we swapped places, when in reality we didn't."
"S-So…that means that the victim is actually–" Kirumi began before the Exisal lept over to the other podium again.
"Or maybe that's just a lie! Maybe we did actually swap after all!" Exisal Kokichi proclaimed proudly. "Or am I lying again? Who knows at this point? I'm dead after all!"
"Or is it me who's actually dead?" Exisal Rin asked as the mech moved over to the other spot. "Until you figure that out, I'm afraid you all are at a new deadlock."
"H-How do we even begin to try to figure this out!?" Tenko asked.
"There isn't a way to. We can't prove whether the swap happened if Rin and Kokichi knew we'd get to this point, can we?" Kaede questioned.
"..." Meanwhile, Shuichi kept quiet as he watched the Exisal dance around, hopping from one podium to the other.
He refused to believe it. There was no way his detective work was wrong. Still, the possibility that the two managed to create a scenario in order to fight against the possibility that Shuichi figured out their trick was something that frightened the detective. Both Rin and Kokichi were smart. Together, they could have reasonably thought ahead of time to create a scenario to defend against them all discovering the truth, but that's all it was. A defense.
No matter what they say, the video showed Kokichi being crushed, which meant the two were trying to fool Monokuma into thinking Kokichi was the victim. It wouldn't make any sense if they didn't swap in order to fool Monokuma. There'd be no point in the video existing. Kokichi had to be the culprit who killed Rin.
So why was Kokichi still fighting him on this? The truth had already been revealed. There was no reason to try to keep struggling like this, was there?
Was this about Monokuma? Or is there another aspect to this?
"You claim everything is set, and that's it, but you don't have any evidence to prove it, do you?" Exisal Rin asked.
"You all think the body was switched when the hydraulic press stopped for a moment. But are you sure about that?" Exisal Kokichi asked. "I mean, I know it's hard to believe that I died. I mean, c'mon. It's me. But the video clearly shows that I died, right?"
"Of course, if the swap did happen, then that'd mean I was the one who died." Exisal Rin continued. "But if we knew that ahead of time, I could have just paused the press and camera without swapping out bodies. That way, you'd all think I was dead when I'm not!"
"But that's just speculation in the end. No evidence to prove or disprove it." Exisal Kokichi shrugged. "It's totally possible that I was crushed by Rin or was killed by Kirumi's poison, just as it's possible that Rin was the one who was crushed by me. Rinny could have also died from poison, too. All of those are possible outcomes here, but there's no way to prove one over the others. That's the truth."
"That's true, we don't have proof that the bodies were switched…" Kaede muttered.
"No, we should trust Shuichi's deduction! I'm sure everything will be okay!" Keebo told the others. "This emotion I've learned…I believe you call it 'faith'. That's what I feel right now."
"I agree. We should believe in Shuichi's reasoning." Rantaro nodded.
"Well, I don't care either way." Exisal Rin sighed. "But if you guys get it wrong, you'll have to deal with Monokuma."
"Ooh! I'm so excited now!" Exisal Kokichi cheered. "What will the results of this Voting Time be?"
"It won't matter, because if Monokuma makes a mistake, he can't do anything to punish anyone, right? He'd have no right to execute anyone." Exisal Rin pointed out smugly. "Then, once that's done, it'll be my victory. And that will finally ruin the entire killing game."
"Ruin…?" Shuichi repeated before it all clicked.
That was it! That was their objective here! They're trying to beat Monokuma and the mastermind to ruin the killing game itself! That's why Kokichi's being so stubborn about this!
But what does he mean by ruin? Monokuma can do whatever he wants to the rules. How do you 'ruin' something like that? What would be the point?
"C'mon, Monokuma. Start the voting already." Exisal Kokichi whined.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm gettin' to it. Sheesh…" Monokuma rolled his eyes. "Let's proceed with Voting Time, shall we? So sorry I fell short of your expectations, but I'm pretty sure I won't make any mistakes. Cuz I got the Ultimate Detective's airtight logic on my side."
"..." Shuichi felt his skin pale when he heard that. 'Cuz I got the Ultimate Detective's airtight logic on my side'. Then Monokuma was just using him to stop Rin and Kokichi from ruining the game! He was just a tool to stop them! Shuichi could feel his hands shaking with frustration once he realized that.
So now he knew. The whole truth, and why. But he still had a choice in the matter. Shuichi believed in his own logic…And he also believed in Rin, who gave his life for this. If he believed in this plan to ruin the killing game so much he would give his life for it and trust Kokichi to see it through to the end, then Shuichi knew what he had to do.
From this point on, it's not about logic! It's about how far Shuichi was willing to go for the same cause.
He believed in Rin. Not as a detective, but as Shuichi Saihara.
So if Rin trusted Kokichi, Shuichi would swallow his negative feelings toward the Supreme Leader and trust him, too.
"Ah, can I just say something? I'd like to have one last conversation before we vote." Shuichi suddenly said.
"Hm? One last conversation?" Monokuma repeated.
"There's…more to talk about?" Kirumi asked in a tired voice.
"You see, before we vote…there's something I have to say," Shuichi admitted. "I just need you all to listen."
"...Alright. Go on then." Exisal Rin told him. "What's so important that you have to say it now?"
"Alright." Shuichi began as his podium moved to the center of the circle. "Let's pin this down. Who is inside that Exisal?"
"Hm? Kokichi, right?" Keebo answered.
"That's what you said before, isn't it?" Kaede tilted her head.
"Mister Wakuri is the one who died. And the culprit is Kokichi, standing right there." Monokuma smirked.
"Isn't that right?" Tenko questioned.
"It's the most reasonable thought process with all the evidence presented," Rantaro noted.
"It totally is. As if I would die!" Exisal Kokichi laughed. "I will never die!"
"As if I would give my life for a sack of shit like Kokichi. Obviously, Shuichi's logic is wrong." Exisal Rin argued.
"It doesn't matter what you say." Kaede frowned at the mech. "I trust Shuichi, so–"
"R-Rin, I'm sorry, but…this is enough now, isn't it? I just…can't keep lying like this for you." Shuichi suddenly said.
"Oh?" Exisal Rin let out a confused noise.
"Shuichi?" Kaede questioned.
"Did…you…just say 'lie'?" Rantaro asked.
"And why did he say 'Rin'?" Tenko added. "The one in the Exisal is–"
"I'm so sorry, everyone. I've deceived you all." Shuichi 'confessed' in a pained voice.
"...Huh?" Monokuma muttered.
"The truth is…after we found the crushed body, I…saw Rin." Shuichi told them.
"You…saw Rin?" Kirumi asked, a bit of life coming back to her eyes as she spoke.
"Yes. He…He threatened me." Shuichi began. "Rin told me that if I didn't do as he said, he'd use the Exisal to kill all of us. He wanted me to lie about what I saw to create a story that made it seem like he wasn't the culprit. But I can't do it anymore! I can't keep lying like this for no reason! I have to tell the truth… Rin isn't dead! He's alive!"
"H-Hold on! Why are you saying this now!?" Rantaro asked, absolutely flustered by the sudden confession. "You had all this time and you after you made that insane case to use to reveal all of that?!"
"I'm so sorry, Rantaro, but…it's true," Shuichi replied.
He really was sorry, but he had already made his choice. He was going to believe in Rin, and that meant believing in Kokichi. If Monokuma wanted to use him and his detective work, then fine. Shuichi would just lie then.
"Everyone, please…don't vote for Kokichi!" Shuichi pleaded with them. "There's no doubt about it. Rin is in that Exisal! He's the culprit!"
"...Hey, Shuichi… I dunno what you're scheming…" Monokuma began with a heavy growl. "But as far as I'm concerned, you guys aren't extras at all. If you guys are wrong, you're gonna hafta take your punishments like champs! Got it!?"
"I'm not wrong," Shuichi said confidently. "We can't vote for Kokichi!"
"That's enough out of you!" Monokuma screamed. "There's no use in continuing with the class trial anymore. No matter what you say or what you want, it's time to end this! It's time to get the vote started, and that includes you, too, Kokichi! There's a screen in the Exisal to use, right, so you have to vote, too! Now then, the heart-racing excitement as the blackened as the spotless face off! It's…VOTING TIME!"
"..." All the while, the Exisal remained still and silent as the voting began.
Now without any more chance to discuss, the students had no choice but to look down at their screens and vote. And soon, they all did, albeit with pained expressions and doubt creeping over the faces.
"Puhuhu…It seems the voting has finished. Now then, let's see the result." Monokuma giggled as the monitor lowered to show the voting's results.
The results were…interesting.
Rin Wakuri – 3 votes.
Kokichi Oma – 4 votes.
"Who'll be chosen as the blackened!? Will you make the right choice or the dreadfully wrong one!?" Monokuma asked as the verdict began.
The giant slot machine appeared and began spinning, before finally landing on Kokichi's face.
CLASS TRIAL END
ALL RISE!
"Puhuhu! Too bad, Shuichi! It seems that most of your friends didn't buy the crap you were spewing at the end there." Monokuma laughed. "Well, luckily for you, those four were right! Kokichi Oma is in fact the culprit of this case! Shuichi lied when he said he saw Mister Wakuri! I would have seen that if something like that happened!"
"Shuichi…lied?" Kaede asked before turning away from Shuichi. "Then…I was right to vote for Kokichi."
"K-Kaede…?" Shuichi gasped.
"I'm sorry, Shuichi, but…I couldn't believe you at the end." Kaede admitted.
"Same. It was just too sudden." Rantaro frowned.
"Y-Yeah. Same here." Tenko said in a sheepish voice.
"Th-Then…who voted for Rin with me?" Shuichi asked.
"That…would be me," Keebo admitted. "I…just felt like I had to trust in you Shuichi, even if what you said was suspicious."
"The third vote must have been Kokichi," Kirumi stated in a lifeless tone. "After all…I voted for Kokichi. You proved it was him, Shuichi. Without a doubt. No matter how much I might want it to be true…Rin is dead. That…was the truth of this case."
"Kirumi…"
"So then why…why did you lie at the end? Why…why did you give me hope that Rin was still alive?" Kirumi asked with tears in her eyes.
"I…I…"
"Before all that, I think it's high time that our culprit came out and revealed himself," Monokuma stated. "You hear that, Kokichi? Time to come out and take your punishment like a champ!"
"...Welp, this was bound to happen." Kokichi's voice came from the Exisal in a defeated tone. "That's just what I get for trying to go up against the Ultimate Detective. Oh well. Guess it's time to explain things."
And so, the Exisal's hatch cracked open before slowly opening up.
And then…the culprit, Kokichi Oma, revealed himself.
"You were right. I am the culprit who killed Rin Wakuri." He confessed with a calm expression. One that seemed to reflect sorrow and regret.
This...was the truth.
