"Where is Shinobu?" Kyoko demanded, starting the first nonstop debate.

"Who attacked Aoi?!" Tsubaki demanded at the same time, equally outraged.

"Where do we even start?" Towa cried. "Multiple dead, multiple hurt, how many will we have to accuse?! What if there's more than one killer?!"

"Alas, I remember almost nothing," Esora sighed. Her hands (or rather, hand) behind her back, she stared unseeingly down at her podium's railing. Rei's death had yet to fully sink in, and there was still the mystery of Shinobu gnawing at her stomach.

"As if we'd trust you anyway!" Muni sneered, but her voice broke, and she was gripping her podium railing tightly. Esora, of course, was far from the only one in shock over Rei's death, though none of Hapiara looked very happy to have anything in common with Esora.

Damn it, Rei! Stupid, stupid! Muni cursed in her head as tears burned her eyes. Maho and Rinku were wracked with guilt as well.

Lucky them, someone else intervened. The truth speaks to me from the Other Realms! "I agree with that!" Hiiro pointed at Towa.

"Ehhh?" Towa reared back in surprise. "I got something right?!"

"There is indeed a lot to untangle, but the threads of fate are not so tightly wound that we cannot. As you said, we have surviving witnesses." Hiiro smiled dryly and gestured at Esora, Aoi, and herself. "I confess that I do not remember much, and I will not hide my bias in admitting that I would rather speak to Aoi first," she said, smiling dryly. "I am certain I am not the only one who feels this way…?"

Esora's eyes were still glued to her podium's railing.

"W-well, Aoi, what do you say? Do you… remember anything…?" Tsubaki asked worriedly. Aoi woke up so last-second before the trial that no one had time to explain anything to her. Outside of her initial, violent awakening, she'd been completely silent ever since, her one brown eye ever darting around the trial room. "A-Aoi…?" But still, RONDO's DJ said nothing. Instead, she rested a hand on her hip, bored expression on her face.

It was only after several more prompts and pleads that she finally gave a long-suffering sigh. "I don't owe any of you anything, answers or otherwise!" she growled, and everyone reared back. It wasn't just her harsh words, but tone. She sounded so low and gravelly. "What?" she snapped crossly. "One of you did this to Ao—me, but until I know for sure who, do you really think I would be so stupid as to just blurt out everything?!"

While the others struggled to even process what they were witnessing, Hiiro's suspicions were alarmed and she finally took the opportunity to ask that which she'd wanted to ask ever since Aoi woke up right before the trial began. Even though Aoi hadn't been like this for long, there were a few things that kept sticking out to Hiiro, and now…

"Aoi… Are you really… Aoi?"

"Tch! What does that even mean?" Aoi scoffed, voicing everyone else's thoughts as well. The Ultimate Diviner bit her lip.

I am an avid student of psychology, and yet therein lies the issue. I am but a student. It is not a matter of intelligence, rather, I merely and sincerely lack the knowledge to clinically diagnose someone, especially under THESE conditions! Oh, if only we had an Ultimate Psychiatrist in our midst! Though perhaps… there is still something I can provide that might be of use… Maybe the textbooks Noa and I skimmed…

Letter by letter, the diagnosis spelled itself out in Hiiro's brain. Dissociative Identity Disorder. DID was not as simple as "one experiences trauma, then develops other personalities to cope", but some of the behavioral symptoms Aoi displayed—including the change in personality, and what appeared to be a potential case of amnesia—fell in line with DID.

Most importantly, though, was the little verbal slip-up. It was the only thing that justified Hiiro finally voicing her theory explicitly. She did not believe the attack gave Aoi DID, rather, it forced her alter to front because it was so traumatic for Aoi herself. Unfortunately, this alter seemed to have no memory of Aoi's attacker, having only woken up after the fighting was over and the attacker gone.

"Honestly, Hiiro, I know you like your murder mysteries, but shall we keep unsupported clinical diagnosis to a minimum?" Aoi teased patronizingly, but Hiiro refused to let up, and at the same time, Tsubaki was also thinking hard. She may not have had the clinical knowledge Hiiro did, but she didn't need it to acknowledge that there was definitely something wrong with how Aoi was acting and talking. The only problem…

I know exactly what pulls Aoi into a conversation the quickest, but if this isn't "Aoi", per se… Gray eyes darted desperately around the trial room for any sort of inspiration as to how she could get Aoi to at least start talking. Tsubaki's gaze unintentionally swept across Nagisa's portrait. You're the only one! she thought, stomach tightening as she turned from the portrait to Aoi.

"I know you don't trust us right now, and that's probably the safest decision, much as I wish that weren't the case," she began, and to everyone's amazement, Aoi actually turned to her with a look of genuine interest and surprise. Where once she smirked so ruthlessly at Hiiro mere seconds ago, the moment she realized that Tsubaki was talking to her, some of the condescension disappeared from Aoi's eye.

"But if you want to find your attacker, all of us have to participate in the class trial together, much as I wish that weren't the case either," the Ultimate Vocalist continued with a dry smile. Then, her face softened. "Please, Aoi? Do it for Nagisa."

"Who did it?" Aoi demanded sharply, face instantly stiffening and darkening again as her eye darted to portrait between her and Tsubaki.

Tsubaki flinched, heart pounding at Aoi's sudden sharpness. "It was an accident," she whispered, barely breathing. "But Miiko Takeshita…"

Aoi's eye narrowed. "Which portrait?" It was a question that startled all of them, except Hiiro. She only smiled.

Way to go, Tsubaki! You found another clue! She carefully, politely invited herself back into the conversation and helped Tsubaki pick Aoi's brain about what she did and did not remember of her classmates. The result were telling. She could remember RONDO practically perfectly, but Aoi's memories of everyone else were far vaguer. But that shouldn't be because even though Aoi never saw any of her Hope's Peak memories, motive videos, or Implememor-Es, we've still been trapped in this Killing Game together for weeks now.

"Damn it, fine, you got me." A grin stretched across Aoi's alter's face. "Though it wasn't really fair, two against one…" She tapped her chin, smile becoming a smirk again as she looked Hiiro and Tsubaki up and down.

"Aoi…?" Tsubaki asked softly. Her voice…! It sounds… different…!

"What the hell…?" Rika whispered at the same time. RONDO wasn't the only unit able to hear the vocal difference anymore.

"Who is "me"?" Hiiro asked calmly, the only student whose eyes weren't bugging out of their skull.

Aoi's alter's smirk widened. It's Yoyake, meaning Four Houses, since Miyake means Three Houses, but like hell am I admitting that in a room full of strangers! "I haven't really fronted since Aoi and I were kids, so names were… never really necessary… for us… But perhaps for the sake of the symbolism, we," Aoi's alter met Hiiro's eyes, "can choose the place we met." ALTER-EGO.

It was an exclusive nightclub not too far away from Hope's Peak. As high schoolers, all of RONDO were technically too young to perform there, but as Ultimates and rebels, rules couldn't stop them. They pulled metaphorical strings just as much as literal ones.

"You didn't… choose that club just because of the name… did you?" Hiiro couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.

"Of course not!" ALTER-EGO scoffed. "Though Aoi and I did always laugh at the irony… I mean, what else was I supposed to call myself?! Aoi-Ego?! Ha! That's a laugh! Though I suppose… in a way… I am Aoi's ego, or at least part of it… Ah, but speaking of her!" ALTER-EGO's eye lit up. "I suppose that now we have a name for me, for the sake of further differentiation, we can use he/him pronouns for me as well!"'

As ALTER-EGO would explain, his and Aoi's genders were completely unrelated, but as Aoi developed a more masculine style over the years, ALTER-EGO would sometimes still envision himself in the outfits Aoi used to wear.

"I would joke that I was more of a woman than she was," ALTER-EGO scoffed, arms crossed. "To put it crassly, if it helps you simplify it, Aoi is a masculine woman, and I am a feminine man."

Without a body of his own, ALTER-EGO had far more freedom to imagine himself however he wanted. Sometimes he looked exactly like Aoi, and other times, he was more feminine, with long, flowing hair and a fancy outfit befitting that of a queen or empress. That was one place where Aoi and her alter differed slightly. They were both flamboyant, but ALTER-EGO more so and more often.

"Wait, so have you been, like, living inside of Aoi's brain, and spying on her life out of her eyes this entire time?!" Rinku cried. Both Maho and Muni shot her despairing looks, sighing and shaking their heads.

"To put even more simply and crassly, yes," ALTER-EGO smirked. Rinku's words were… an exaggerated metaphor, and not just because she'd rather inaccurately described DID.

As ALTER-EGO mentioned briefly before, he hadn't really fronted since he and Aoi were kids. He was always there, in the back of Aoi's mind, and literally too, preferring to live in the depths of her headspace while she fronted. Sometimes, he could even disappear so deeply into their shared headspace that he would be "unconscious" for months at a time, like a sort of hibernation period.

This was why ALTER-EGO had sporadic memories of Hope's Peak and RONDO, and none of the Killing Game or anyone else. He was always there, but less and less often as the years went by. Maybe it was fate, maybe it was luck, but it seemed as though they'd been kidnapped and thrust into the Killing Game during one of ALTER-EGO's hibernation periods, and Aoi's attack was what woke him up for the first time in months.

That idiot girl didn't wake me up, didn't ask for help before things got too overwhelming for her! Now she's gone and made everyone worry for her unnecessarily! AND she fucked up our perfectly good eye! You think she would've learned from the first time I had to come save her sorry ass… This is what happens when she gets too close to people! SOMEONE always ends up hurt and worried and I have to clean up!

ALTER-EGO didn't show it, but his missing eye hurt like a bitch.

"Wow! That's so cool! Sounds like Aoi had a really good friend in you! Or… you in her?" Rinku continued to gush innocently, and for a second time, ALTER-EGO was almost taken aback. While he'd been lost in rather cynical thought, she seemed to view him as Aoi's big brother.

"I don't know… seems pretty fake to me!" Muni crossed her arms disdainfully. "I mean, how stereotypical to have an evil personality?"

Noa and Hiiro locked eyes. Yes! Muni had just armed them with another truth bullet.

What type of alter is ALTER-EGO? Three answers flashed through their minds. Protector. Child Alter. Persecutor.

There were far more than just three types of alters, but those were some of the most common. The second one was easily ruled out. ALTER-EGO was rude and egocentric, but he was not childish. Protector was closer, but his abrasiveness…

And the fact that Aoi kept ALTER-EGO hidden from them. Yes, he'd been dormant for ages, but if he remembered Hope's Peak, it hadn't been that long. Of course, none of them had any right to Aoi's medical history, and stigma was no doubt a huge part of why Aoi never said anything about it before, but what if there was another reason as well…? What if she thought she was protecting them by keeping him hidden inside…?

"ALTER-EGO is what DID would call a Persecutor," Hiiro was speaking to Muni and the others, but her lavender gaze was locked with ALTER-EGO's brown one. "They are essentially misguided Protectors—"

"Misguided?" ALTER-EGO interrupted with a growl and Hiiro winced apologetically. "Didn't you see what happened to me?!" He ripped open his shirt to reveal a binder and tons of stab wounds. Then he gestured impatiently to the bandaged wrapped around his head, around his missing eye."I am Aoi's White Knight, the Ultimate Protector, and I will smile the day I find whoever—"

The trial doors crashed open before ALTER-EGO could finish speaking, and everyone shrieked and whipped around to see—

"I OBJECT!" Shinobu Inuyose, Ultimate Gamer, standing in the doorway, covered in blood and wielding a knife.

AN: Aoi having DID was inspired by "RONDO Side: Origin" and Toko. I apologize if the reveal is sudden, but if the investigation was more drawn out, I would've left a lot more clues about Aoi's behavioral change so it wouldn't seem quite as random as it does here.

Also just for my own recordkeeping, the minigames used in this chapter were "Hangman's Gambit" and the "Portrait/Student Selection".