"Perhaps we should… look at Ibuki's body…" Noa suggested slowly, softly. It was evident by the look on her face that she wasn't thrilled with the idea, but with the injuries of the others so thoroughly exhausted, what other choice did they have?

"I was afraid you'd say that," Towa sighed, shoulders slumping.

"We don't need everyone to look, ya know? I have my theories…" Noa said out of the corner of her mouth.

"I got it!" Towa pouted defensively. Although she knew Noa was only trying to look after her, it made her flustered and embarrassed. Besides, I wanna help figure out what happened to Ibuki too!

Towa's stomach panged as she realized that the last time she and Ibuki ever spoke was when Towa was busy sprinting away from her, sure that Ibuki wanted to murder her. And before that, just minutes prior, they were laughing side by side with everyone, just like old times, just like normal. How fast the night changed. Towa and Noa never saw Ibuki again, save for the very brief interaction between Towa and Ibuki in the forest that Muni interrupted. Saori and Yuka rescued Ibuki the next morning, but she was unconscious by the time they reached the nurse's office, and she never woke again after that. Her last words were spoken to Yuka, expressing relief that her friends had finally found her to bring her home…

Towa's eyes stung. Now I couldn't see my PheFo even if I really wanted to, she thought with a wet laugh.

Beside her, Noa's eyes were narrow and critical. Ibuki's body was a ghastly sight, skin discolored red and blotchy, but Noa forced herself to study it well. She thought back to the medical textbooks she and Hiiro consulted, and she thought about the Academic Honors Anatomy class she took in her Hope's Peak days. General health was also a topic of the course, and with discussions of health came discussions of sickness.

Lesions vary in degree from areas of erythema and edema to marked blister and bulla formation. There can also be blistering and necrotic skin lesions on the hands, legs, back and ankles. These lesions are often misdiagnosed as burns, but can be caused by muscle necrosis resulting from hypoxia… In non-nerd-Noa-speak (a.k.a. Towa Talk), this meant that the red rashes all over Ibuki were caused by cell death from lack of oxygen.

Combined with the fact that she appeared to have died right in front of them without any of them knowing, or knowing the cause, Noa could at least confidently say that no student was directly responsible for Ibuki's death. And it couldn't have been the mushrooms because that would make Ibuki the only fatality out of the entire class, and she hadn't even eaten the most amount of Maho's stew! That honor went to Towa and Rinku.

"You guys," Noa murmured, "I think it's… carbon monoxide poisoning (COP)." She was unsurprised when the others cried out in surprise and protest, but already, the scientific explanation was forming in Noa's brain. She even thought back to a snippet of her Implememor-E. She and Tenko Chabashira crashed a Home Ec. class because it was having a bakeoff and they knew there would be tons of cuties in attendance. Someone mentioned COP detectors because the kitchens were becoming dangerously hot, and there were worries of poor ventilation.

"Ah, yes, I can confirm that," Maho interjected with a knowing nod. "Cooking Caution 101. Stoves, ovens, and the like, especially if gas-powered, can be silent but deadly killers." Several students snickered. Maho frowned and put her fists on her hips. "Oh, grow up, you guys!"

"I can confirm it as well," Hiiro said, looking at both Noa and Maho. Aside from the medical books, she'd TA'ed Home Ec. classes in the past and knew all about COP detectors. "I just never would've imagined it would be relevant to a case…" She touched her face, still slightly doubtful.

"Right," Kyoko agreed. "Isn't it kind of a bold assumption to say that Ibuki had COP, of all things? I mean, she was in the nurse's office, after all. Not the dining hall! And the kitchen wasn't even in use!" In light of the morning they had, breakfast was out of the question. Instead, it was whatever the students could scavenge from the snack cabinets.

"The kitchens were only an example," Hiiro said. "COP can come from more than just that. Vehicles, small engines, lanterns, grills, fireplaces, gas ranges, furnaces, dryers, heaters, or boilers can also cause it. All you need is gas and poor ventilation," she finished, and Maho nodded.

"Now you mention it, I did feel kinda dizzy and hot in the nurse's office," Rika said slowly, scratching her chin, one eye drifting shut.

"And you remember this only after someone else brings it up?" Saori deadpanned, raising an eyebrow. ALTER-EGO smirked at her approvingly.

Clever girl. I'm glad at least SOME of us are using our heads. He scoffed in his at Rika. Though perhaps she does not use hers because it is empty!

"Well, I didn't think to question it back then!" Rika shrugged. "Thought it was just stress, or somethin'! Office was pretty tight, after all."

Saori winced, for although Rika's claim was still tenuous, at best, she had a point. In a way, the COP theory was similar to the spear theory. It was plausible, but far too difficult to prove concretely. Although, thinking that Ibuki might've lived if we HADN'T found her… Saori winced again, far too scared to meet Yuka's eyes, even though she was desperately curious to know what the other girl thought about all of it.

"Hey… Wait a minute…" Rinku tapped her chin and tilted her head. While the others doubted the COP theory, she blithely ran with it and pondered how it might've worked. She put the clues together in her head like a puzzle, each piece with a phrase written on it. From left to right, once she had all the pieces in order, the clue was spelled out and she saw a completed image of… "Is that why we couldn't find any rubbing alcohol?"

Rinku, Maho, and Saori were on medicine duty, but as they noted, the shelf labeled "rubbing alcohol" was completely empty, even though every other shelf in the nurse's offices was full. As Rinku pieced together, the culprit could've used it to make the fire needed for COP. Rinku knew alcohol was flammable, both from Maho, and her time as an Ultimate Explorer. Fire and rubbing alcohol were safety-related topics necessary for anyone wishing to explore the wild, whether for camping or safaris. That same logic was why Rika knew so much about campfires.

"Doesn't work like that, unfortunately," Dalia winced and shook her head. "Rubbing alcohol can burn, yes, but not create an inferno."

"I told you that too, Rinku!" Maho sighed, fists on her hips again. They'd been watching a cooking show, Rinku dazzled by the chef pouring spirits on a cake and setting it on fire. That was also how Dalia knew alcohol was flammable, having seen something similar in her younger years.

For a moment, it seemed as though the class had struck another dead end, but the moment they began talking about rubbing alcohol, ALTER-EGO stiffened. A powerful, overwhelming odor—a stench—filled his memory. No, no, not mine… Hers…

"Aoi?!" he thundered, but although he could feel her presence within his mind, she was still in a catatonic state. Damn it! Ugh… Guess I have to do everything MYESLF around here! But no matter… shouldn't trust her anyway… And besides, the smell is still so strong, even though I wasn't there…

The self-proclaimed Ultimate Protector cleared his throat politely with a refined, almost haughty, smile on his handsome face. "You claim that you found no rubbing alcohol anywhere within the nurse's office, yet I distinctly remember the sharp, sterile, stinging scent…" At first, the class was hesitant to trust him, but the way his face darkened seemed genuine. It also made little sense for him to lie so suddenly, and as Hiiro suggested, he could've been experiencing an olfactory memory, which was the strongest type of memory.

"That is not to say alters can share memories just because smells are so powerful, but perhaps in this case…?" she tilted her head curiously.

"The smell was… slightly sweet, but very alcoholic, though not in a "wine, beer, spirits" sort of way," ALTER-EGO recounted sourly. "I only remember the scent, nothing else, so I couldn't tell you when or where or who. It was just… very heady, heavy around…" He gestured to his face and head. Hiiro's hands tightened on her podium railing. As ALTER-EGO continued to describe his experiences, memories, and sensations, she imagined herself clearing out the clutter from her mind. Soon, all that was left was a book: Genocider Genesis.

"I've got it!" Hiiro whispered as another factoid from a nonfiction section of the saga suddenly came back to her. She looked up abruptly and addressed the rest of the class. "To those of you who were part of the cleanup crew, did you use any bleach?"

"No, we couldn't find any," Kyoko shook her head ruefully. "In fact, I think bleach and rubbing alcohol were the only things we couldn't find! I gotta ask, though… why do you care? That is, why does it matter?" Maybe it made no sense to Kyoko, but Hiiro saw a connecting thread.

"Chloroform!" Bleach plus alcohol… Maho and Saori knew this, as a cook and maid respectively. Sanitation safety was key in their lines work.

"So… Now we know that whoever did the attacking and killing used chloroform to subdue their victims…!" Noa murmured grimly. "I'm assuming that's why no one really remembers anything about what happened…" The clue hadn't been related to COP, as they hoped and expected, yet it was still an equally important and enlightening revelation.

"Now that you mention it…" Esora's eyes widened slowly. "Of course, remembering a smell was the furthest thing from my mind in the moment, but perhaps…" She waved her wrist as she pondered. It was just a theory, and a rather shaky one at that, but she recounted feeling a few of her stab wounds before passing out. In hindsight, she was no longer entirely sure that pain was the reason why she passed out.

Hiiro was the only one unable to recall the smell of ethanol and ether, but given the nature of her injuries, lack of memory surrounding them, and the fact that she was the first to pose the idea that chloroform was involved at all, it seemed as though they were finally at a consensus.

Wait! Is that what that bottle cap was for…? Saori thought. At the same time, Miyu finally spoke, hushed, pink eyes widening slowly.

"So then… does that mean whoever is responsible is… someone who went inside the academy over the course of the night?"

Well. That certainly narrowed down the list of possible suspects, didn't it…?

"W-wait, but all four of us were together for the entire night!" Rika cried, waving her hands as she gestured to herself and her unit-mates.

"Surely you do not think I cut off my own ear and stabbed myself, do you?" Hiiro asked, tilting her head, touching her face, expression unreadable.

"Hey! It's true you guys sent me in first! But I never even made it inside before the mushrooms started hitting me too!" Noa frowned.

"I took my team and ran, right as the chaos started."

"I… confess… that my… hallucination… was about…"

"I was on the academy steps at the time,"

"We locked ourselves in our room, and I saw against the door!"

"My claustrophobia… It was so bad that I was paralyzed… Aoi carried me to my dorm…"

"After that, I just kind of… blacked out."

"And none of us left the entire night! I swear!"

"But she couldn't stick around, and after she left, I guess I went crazy again and ran off! I know… sounds suspicious, right?"

"I was on the northeast side of the forest, so that's why I ran into so few of you."

For the first time, the lack of Saki's Synesthesia actually hurt the students. For the first time, it seemed as though a perjury was going to go unnoticed. But then… "I agree with that!" ALTER-EGO looked at Hiiro fiercely, and she looked at him in surprise. "I may not have been the one to carry you inside, so I don't have exact memories, but even in periods of dormancy, I can sense Aoi."

"You can… sense her?" Tsubaki looked up, gray eyes hopeful while ALTER-EGO nodded, frowning, arms crossed.

"We leave each other feelings, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. It's like walking into a room after someone with perfume or cologne was there. Even if they are gone, you can still tell they used to be there. In Aoi's case, I felt worry and doubt, and then sheer panic, as she tried to save you." ALTER-EGO eyed Hiiro venomously. "That is how I know your story is truth! For it is reflected in Aoi's feelings!" He scoffed quietly. "I also felt that idiot's indecisiveness! Always tried to tell her it would get us both killed someday!" Just like the first time… Years and years ago…

"Hey!" Tsubaki interrupted, eyes flashing, hands clenching into fists while she was only half aware. "Her indecisiveness is only because she cares so much! You aren't even a fraction of the protector she is!" It wracked the Ultimate Vocalist with unspeakable guilt to imagine that she might've been part of Aoi's indecisiveness, as she forced the poor DJ to choose between her two friends rather than thinking about herself. It was the only thing Tsubaki could agree with ALTER-EGO on. They'd failed Aoi terribly. Oh, Aoi, I'm sorry…

Unsurprised by her outburst this time, ALTER-EGO merely smirked and shook his head. The Ultimate Singer girl was just too soft, even though she pretended not to be. She was like Aoi that way. No wonder Aoi decided to pick her up and string her along! ALTER-EGO snorted disdainfully. Then he turned his attention back to Hiiro. Amusing as he found Tsubaki, as of right now, Noa was the true person of interest.

Obviously, Rika isn't guilty. All of M4 can vouch for her! She didn't even need to present an alibi. But as ALTER-EGO correctly noted earlier, Rika didn't have much of a head or brain to speak of. And Hiiro's not guilty either, because there's no WAY she could've given herself all those injuries. Not that she would anyway. That's just stupid! Though I do wonder… Why DID she leave her dorm after Aoi deposited her there?

As Hiiro, herself, noted, the excuse she gave was suspicious, for it was hardly an excuse at all. "After she left, I guess I went crazy again and ran off!" So that left only one person as the most likely suspect. But how to force her to confess…?

She's CLEARLY lying through her teeth, so why not fight a little fire with fire, hmm? ALTER-EGO chuckled inwardly, sinisterly. Fukushima, you've just been a little too clever. All your scientific talk… Maybe you tried to conceal it in the beginning, but eventually it bled through.

ALTER-EGO's perjury would go unchallenged. Noa's would not. "You said you were sent in first. What do you mean by that?"

Noa winced, remembering that ALTER-EGO was the only one who wouldn't understand her implied message because he was the only one who wasn't there when Ibuki sent her to get the medicine.

Towa, meanwhile, answered without a second thought, beaming innocently at ALTER-EGO. "She was looking for medicine for us!"

"So… you would've been headed to the nurse's office," ALTER-EGO said slowly, meeting Noa's gaze expressionlessly. She did the same, and he had to admit, he was mildly surprised, impressed, and taken aback, expecting her to cower or grow defensive.

"I never got that far, and I took off long before Hiiro and Aoi ever arrived," she instead insisted flatly.

Lies! Lies! Lies! But how to get Fukushima to prove it…? I may not have been here for very long, but from what I've already seen, any time we get hunches like this, we're close… We just need to look at it from a different angle first…

Trial Intermission.