Chapter 6: Trial of Ishimaru and Hifumi
Our surviving students find themselves in the trial room once again, this time to find out the culprit behind the murder of not one, but two of their classmates. Hifumi's dying words point at Hagakure being the culprit, but our heroes think otherwise.
Class Trial
In Session!
"All right, let's get the ball rolling. Someone's grubby li'l paws were itching for some easy cash. Bad enough to make them murder not one, but two of your classmates." Monokuma said. "Who was it?" The bear laughs.
"Like that's a big mystery." Asahina said.
"Ohhh...?" Monokuma sighed.
"Asahina, I know what you're about to say. I can assure you Hagakure isn't our man." Sonic countered. "And Hagakure, you can count on us to clear your name, because if we fail and you're named the culprit, we all die and the real murderer will get away."
"Thanks, man. I'm counting on ya." Hagakure said.
"That being said, he lacks a credible alibi for murder and/or body snatching. Not only that, he was found in flagrante wearing the cosplay in question." Celestia said. "That's you, Yasuhiro Hagakure."
"I'm telling ya, it wasn't me!" Hagakure yelled.
"Oh, give it a rest... Yamada said your name with his last breath!" Asahina argued.
"You say that, but you can't prove that he's the one responsible." Chloe said.
"Chloe's right! I was in La-La Land the whole time, remember?" Hagakure asked.
"Shut your lie-hole, murderer!" Genocider Sho yelled.
"Dude! Like you're one to judge!" Hagakure fired back.
"Order, please... Much though it pains me to say so, further evidence has been uncovered." Celestia said, revealing a piece of the costume and its blueprints. "Highly, suggestive items were found in his room. Together, these parts and blueprints speak for themselves. The soothsayer is without a doubt or murderer."
"No, that can't be right!" Tails refuted.
Truth Bullet: Hagakure's Handwritten Message
"It can't be established beyond a reasonable doubt that he wrote those blueprints himself." Tails said.
"You have something to share?" Celestia asked.
"Matter of fact, yes we do." Naegi spoke up as he revealed the note Hagakure gave him.
"What's that?" Chloe asked.
"A note Hagakure wrote me earlier today." Naegi responded. "Look closely, compare the handwriting. They don't match up."
Tails looked at the note. "He's right. The writing style is completely different."
"He likely changed styles to cover his tracks." Celestia theorized.
"My writing's barely legible as it is!" Hagakure countered.
"There's something else you should know. After they killed Ishimaru, the murderer almost certainly used the flatbed cart to move his body. We can deduce as much from the blood on its wheels." Sonic said. "The costume Hagakure was wearing doesn't bend at the waist, meaning Hagakure couldn't have operated the cart while wearing it."
"I see... So, Hagakure was indeed subdued and stuffed into the outfit as he maintains, ergo not our culprit." Togami deduced.
"Oh yeah! Sonic to my rescue!" Hagakure said.
"Kid's a regular Sam Spade!" Genocider Sho complimented.
"Hold on a sec... What about the pic Celestia has of Justice Robo attacking Yamada?" Kagami asked.
"Exactly. Hagakure couldn't very well have accomplished that unconscious." Sakura agreed.
"You both raise a fine point. With photographic evidence, he's still our only plausible suspect." Celestia said.
"Wait! Don't shrug him off!" Hagakure pleaded.
"Yes, we're jumping the proverbial gun here." Kyoko said. "It behooves us to weigh all possibilities carefully. Too much is still in question."
Celestia sighs. "If Hagakure's innocent, we've but one other choice. The only other persons who lack an alibi for the time of the murders. And I'm afraid that's you, Kirigiri and Shadow. One of you must be the perpetrator."
"A fair assumption, yes... But ask yourself this: Even with a flatbed cart, how could a girl like Kirigiri or even myself would be capable of moving Yamada?" Shadow said. "
"Well, a gal the size of an ogre would be!" Sho said.
"Yeah, but the ogre was on the second floor at the time, wasn't she?" Hagakure asked.
"Only one person could have managed it." Kyoko said. "Consider the possibility that Yamada simply moved himself." Everyone gasped at the idea. "As in: he walked up the stairs of his own volition."
"That would mean he... would've been alive the entire time!" Luka said.
"Hold up... I'm afraid that doesn't make a lick of sense." Celestia said.
"What precisely contradicts my theory?" Kyoko asked.
"The timing of the corpse announcement, for one." Celestia said. "It was played at exactly the moment Yamada's body was found the first time in the nurse's office."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't Yamada and Ishimaru found within moments of each other?" Kyoko asked.
"So Monokuma cut corners by making an announcement that covered both discoveries." Celestia deduced.
"Wrong!" Rainbow chimed. "Monokuma's not the kind of guy to cut corners."
"That's true. One, count 'em, one announcement per corpse, according to protocol." Monokuma agreed.
"Fine... Discounting their obvious change of position, nothing on either body indicated movement. Nor is Yamada a good enough actor to have played possum so convincingly." Celestia said.
"Wait... Played possum?" Tails thought aloud.
"You're leaving something out!" Naegi refuted.
Truth Bullet: Yamada's Glasses
"By all means, what detail have I missed?" Celestia asked.
"Think back to when we first found Yamada's body. His glasses were dripping with blood. It's an image that was burned into our heads." Tails said.
"But when he turned up in the art supply room, his glasses were clean." Naegi added. "He must've wiped them off to see where he was going. That's the only explanation."
"Where'd the blood come from in the first place, then?" Asahina asked.
"Simple, really. There's an emergency stash in the nurse's office, presumably for transfusions." Togami said. "He'd have certainly have access."
"Sounds like Tubby McFatass got kinda overzealous applying the Realism Rouge. Ha! What a rube." Sho commented.
"And no one saw him while he was on the move?" Celestia asked.
"Now that I consider it... While tracking down the bodies, Asahina, Applejack, and I noticed the art supply room was locked." Sakura remembered. "That door can only be locked from the inside, so somebody had to be in there. All else being as you say, it must have been Yamada." He had probably just moved Ishimaru."
"Talk about creepy." Kagami commented.
"Indeed, and as it happens I have hard evidence to back up Ogami's assumption." Kyoko said as she revealed a corner piece from a paper. "This scrap of paper was found in Ishimaru's hand. The rest, however, was stuffed into Yamada's... unmentionables."
"What were you doing in there?!" Kagami gasped.
"You went trouser fishing?!" Sho asked.
"Yes, yes. Whatever." Kyoko said. "Thankfully I didn't have to dig very deep."
The note read: "I found a hole that looks like a secret passage. I can see the outside... It'd be bad if Monokuma noticed, so everyone is secretly meeting up in the lab storage room at 6am."
"Ah! That's just like the one I got telling me to go to the game room!" Hagakure remembered.
"Almost. But not quite." Kyoko said.
"It was that cryptic note that led Ishimaru to an untimely demise." Shadow added.
"Knowing it'd be used as evidence against him, Yamada hid it where he assumed no one would find it." Kyoko finished.
"In this tighty-whities!" Sho blabbed.
"But what about the hammers?" Nino asked.
"Yeah, if we go by the order, Celestia and Yamada got conked, then Yamada got killed, followed by Ishimaru, right?" Asahina asked.
"I'm starting to think the murderer numbered the hammers to mislead us." Naegi deduced. "We now know Yamada wasn't actually killed until after Ishimaru. So the numbers don't really have anything to do with the order in which they were used."
"That does make sense." Kagami said.
"All right. Then which hammer had the honor of dealing the fatal blow to Yamada?" Celestia asked.
"The one hanging on the wall, apparently. There were signs showing somebody had washed it." Tails said. "It's safe to say that's our final weapon. For the sake of the case, we'll call that Justice Hammer Five."
"Clearly, Yamada wasn't just an unfortunate victim in all this. He moved Ishimaru's body, so at the very least he was an accomplice. But accomplices don't graduate, do they? No." Naegi said.
"I get it. You're saying the real murderer coerced Yamada into helping out with their scheme, and then, once everything was said and done, double-crossed him, right?" Adrien asked. Everyone was astounded at the idea that Hifumi was an accomplice who the murderer betrayed.
"Okay! Time's up, jurors! Justice be damned, the fat lady's in full voice!" Monokuma declared. "Who's da dirty double dealer what persuaded our favorite basement dweller to help murder the ex-hall monitor, only to mercilessly ice the blubber-butt once he'd outlived his usefulness?"
"Dang it, this was so straightforward when we came in here. How're we supposed to figure it out now?" Asahina asked.
"Yep. Sucks when you got nothin' else to go on!" Sho said.
"Come, now; the murderer must've slipped up somewhere." Kagami said.
"We're dealing with a formidable strategist." Togami commented. "Something tells me they dotted every I."
"Then maybe it's not Hagakure. So let's not forget they without an alibi." Celestia said.
"So, what? Our gooses are cooked?" Hagakure asked. "It's just game over for all of us?"
"All but one of us, if we're wrong." Togami reminded them.
"(I've gotta think...)" Naegi thought. "(There has to be something. Go back. Look at every detail... Consider every angle... Remember.)"
"Wait a minute..." Tails spoke up. "Celestia, remember when we found Yamada's body in the nurse's office earlier this afternoon? You said something that seemed strange. You mind repeating it to us?"
"Well, let me think... What was it?" Celestia pondered. "I believe something like "we'll be picked off one-by-one? Exactly like they were," if my memory serves. Is that what you meant?" Togami glared at the gambler upon hearing her words.
"Yeah, that's what I thought you said." Tails said. "You were in a panic, I know. We all were. No one could blame you for talking out of your head like that. But "they?"
"He's right. At that point you shouldn't have known Ishimaru was dead." Naegi agreed.
"Speaking of things said in a panic, try to think clearly, Naegi, Tails. What about this photo?" Celestia asked, showing the photo once more.
"Easy... It's not a snapshot of Yamada being attacked by Justice Robo at all." Naegi responded.
"Look closely... It's of him carrying an unconscious Hagakure." Tails added.
Celestia giggled with a sinister smile. "Whatever did I do to make you want to paint me as the villain in all this?" That was when she became angry. "Because even for a pair of feeble-minded jackasses, you couldn't be more sorely mistaken!"
"Celestia, what's gotten into you?!" Asahina gasped.
"No... You're the only answer that ties up all the loose ends." Naegi argued.
"Are you as deaf as you are thick?" Celestia said. "Yamada invoked the killer's friggin' name as he drew his final breath!" She calmed down. "Why must you make it so difficult." She then lashes out again. "Dammit! Yasuhiro Hagakure is the murderer!"
"We're sorry... And you almost pulled off the perfect crime..." Naegi glared
"Shut up! You know nothing! Y'hear me? Nothing!" Celestia yelled.
"The only thing we don't really know is... your real name!" Naegi said.
"How dare you accuse me of sharing a ludicrous name like "Yasuhiro" with that troll?! I should throttle you both!" Celestia barked.
"Fine, let's say we're wrong! All you gotta do is tell us who you are." Naegi demanded.
"Gladly! But I expect you all to give me your full, undivided attention!" Celestia yelled. "My real name is Celestia Ludenberg! Unless you got proof otherwise, you can crawl back into the reeking cesspool from whence you came!"
"If it's proof you want, we'd be more than happy to provide it, Celestia Ludenberg..." Tails spoke.
Truth Bullet: Digital Student Handbook
"...If that truly is your real name!" Tails finished. Celestia gasped in complete horror.
"Our digital notebooks are programmed to display our full names when we power them on. We'd like to see yours." Naegi demanded.
"Jig's up, Celestia. You've lost." Tails said.
Celestia giggled. "You've lost." Dear, oh dear. That string of words takes me back. Haven't heard them in a while. Roll the dice... And like that, it's over."
"Does this mean... you confess?" Max asked. "You admit to killing them both?" The gambler nods to Max.
"Honesty; refreshing for a change." Sakura said.
"What purpose would it serve to be a sore loser?" Celestia asked. "The house does always have the advantage. Monokuma, sir... May we get this over with? Please... I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
Monokuma laughs. "You got it, babe! Jurors! Lock in your votes!"
The slot machine then starts spinning before the reels stop on Celestia's face and the coins pour out, indicating a correct verdict.
"Right again! Congratulations! The sinister strategist behind this dubious double homicide is none other than Celestia Ludenberg, a.k.a. Taeko Yasuhiro!" Monokuma declared
"Yasuhiro," You were right, Naegi." Tails said.
"If only the disgusting tub of lard would've kept his piehole shut. A damn shame." Celestia said. "Mark my words, this is the last time I'll put my faith in another human being."
"I see. So you stole Alter Ego from the locker room to provoke him?" Shadow asked.
"Oh yes! Worked like a charm!" Celestia admitted. "A simple matter, when you know which buttons to push."
Flashback – Hifumi's room
Celestia enters Hifumi's room and takes a seat. "I'm sorry... I took this in Ishimaru's room." She shows him a photo of Alter Ego on Ishimaru's desk. Hifumi screamed.
"I knew he had it in him! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" Hifumi yelled. "But I thought Alter Ego was programmed to shriek if either of us came within five feet?"
"Forgive me... I was extorted into pilfering it on his behalf." Celestia admitted.
"Wha-?!" Hifumi yelled.
"No, that's not true... The fact is he raised a hand to me and I surrendered." Celestia recounted. She then fell to tears.
"The filthy barbarian! On top of coming between me and the reason for my existence, he dared manhandle a lady?!" He barked. "By the flaming moons of hell I will be his apocalypse!"
"We'll do it together. Give him everything he deserves." Celestia suggested. Hifumi gasped.
End Flashback
Everyone gasped that someone like Hifumi would agree to this plan. "What kind of woman would do such things to a man?" Applejack asked.
"And after playing dead for you, what, pray tell, did Yamada think was next on this to-do list?" Togami asked.
"Stammer something to the effect of his having barely escaped with his life, or what have you... If pressed for details, he could always feign amnesia." Celestia said.
"Ha-ha! And Fatass actually went along with it?!" Sho asked.
"As far as he was concerned, the plan was for me to kill one of you while he was being interrogated... I'd have a distraction; he'd have an alibi. He followed along like a loyal puppy 'til the bitter end, believing I'd hatched a plan by which we'd both graduate. Love leaves one vulnerable to all sorts of foolishness, I suppose."
"So then, your back wasn't against the wall when you killed him; you were planning to do it from the beginning!" Sunset said.
"I was desperate... The plan is scarcely coherent unless the one who plays dead winds up dead in fact later on; or then what's the point?" Celestia admitted.
"Desperate; you out of everyone here?" Chloe asked.
"No joke! What about living in harmony and making the best of things and all that noise?" Hagakure asked.
"That was bullshit!" Celestia barked, making Asahina, Hagakure, and Chloe yelp in fear. "You idiots don't know the first thing about desperate! I'd have mowed down all of you to get out of this Roman Holiday!" She calmed down. "You see... The grandest of dreams was within my reach. A fairy-tale castle. One fit for an empress... Where I could recline in palatial comfort: be waited on hand and foot for the rest of my life. It's what I deserve! And the things I stooped to; everything but the shirt off my back was gambled away trying to make that dream a reality..."
"And that was when Monokuma unveils his mountain of cash and your only thought was "jackpot!", isn't it?" Chloe asked. "Hmph! I could've done the same thing if I were in your shoes."
"But... Aren't you terrified at all? I mean, you're about to be executed." Sunset asked.
"Oh, I imagine deep down I'm absolutely paralyzed with fear, but there again, you have my talent... I'm so good at deceiving everyone else, deceiving myself is child's play. In a previous life, I'm sure I had to have been Marie Antoinette." Celestia responded.
"So, you know how execution works." Hagakure said. Celestia turns to Shadow and holds out her hand.
"Best of luck. Though I know it's hollow coming from me." She spoke. Being fair, Shadow accepted her handshake. "Maybe dreams aren't so merciless... But no... Now is a cruel time for epiphanies."
"We see you as someone who is atoning for what they did, but Monokuma sees you as a bloodthirsty witch." Alya said. "And in the old days, those who are marked as witches are burned to death."
"Indeed, they are." Celestia agreed. "Farewell, everyone. Until we meet again, perhaps in another life."
"I'm sure we will..." Sunset said.
After Celestia said her goodbyes, that was Monokuma's cue to hit the big button with his gavel.
Celestia has been found guilty.
Time for the Punishment!
Celestia was tied to a stake in an old town setting as hay appeared under her as did multiple Monokumas who were dressed as villagers holding pitchforks and torches.
"Just like a real witch-hunt, huh?" Sunset asked.
"Yeah, and like Alya said, witches are sent to the flames." Marinette said.
The Burning of the Versailles Witch
A villager lit the hay as it quickly caught fire. All Celestia could do right now is look towards the sky with big pleading eyes until she heard sirens. A fire truck with several Monokuma firemen fast approached as it sped at her. It jumped off a ramp and hurtled right at her, smashing her and the village against its grill while the last Monokuma firefighter heroically put out the last flame.
After collecting Celestia, Hifumi, and Ishimaru's souls within the medallion, Shadow walked the halls with Marinette.
"Are you sure you want to carry all those souls?" Marinette asked. "One I understand, but seven? You shouldn't push yourself too hard."
"I know, but Kuwata promised us to give them new hope after we escape this high school of despair. Besides, I've pushed through worse." Shadow said.
"By the way... Before Owada was executed, what did you mean when you told Ishimaru that you felt his pain a long time ago?" Marinette asked.
Before Shadow could answer, they hear landing blows coming from the gym. Peering inside, they were surprised to see Sakura and Monokuma fighting one another.
"What...?" Marinette was speechless. "What's going on?"