The group of students was now puzzled by Haruyuki's observation that it would seem impossible that the killer had been at the Memory Bank. It was clear that Kasumi's account of last night's events was right, but if it was true, then it led to a contradiction. After all, Futaba must have already been killed before 1:00 AM, and yet the history log of her pod showed that it had been used from 10:35 PM to that time.

The obvious explanation was that it was the killer that had used it to fake the time of death, but there was one problem: Kasumi had seen only one boat by the Memory Bank while riding the boat there. That boat had been Futaba's, and since Murphy had seen her riding to the Memory Bank by herself, the Memory Bank could have only had Futaba inside when Kasumi had arrived. The solution to this problem was that the killer had gone to the Memory Bank side and then pressed the button on their own boat, exploiting the boat's automatic movement.

The button's six feet away from the platform… Masashi thought. Normally, one can't reach it with one's own hands… unless...

Sayua waved her hand flippantly. "Well, if you ask me, the answer's obvious!"

"Oh? Care to tell us, then?" Sorao asked, looking contemplative.

The cheerleader smirked. "Since it's impossible to press the button while on the platform, the thief chick must've made a mistake and seen two boats! The killer was inside the pod when she went in, and so the killer simply left after she skedaddled!"

"No way I made a mistake!" Kasumi said in protest. "As a keen-eyed phantom thief, I assure you that I saw only one boat!"

"Huh… Well, that's troubling," Mari said. "If we can't figure out what really happened in the Memory Bank before Kasumi arrived, then I don't think we can narrow down which of us could be the culprit—"

"Uh, Kumi, what are you doing?" Sister Hikari asked, eyeing him uneasily as the storyteller seemed to be quickly scribbling something in his book.

Kumi looked back sheepishly at the good nun as he shut his book. "O-Oh, sorry, Sister Hikari! See, a really good idea for my next tale popped into my head, and I had to write it down! A-And besides… I don't think I can help much. I'm so confused by this whole thing!"

"Don't worry, dude. We all know that you're easily confused," Sorao remarked, smirking.

"W-Wait a minute, d-didn't you say th-that earlier?" Hikari asked.

"Uh, no, I'm pretty sure I didn't. You must've misremembered it, man," Sorao answered. "Anyway, it's the boat that presents a problem, so we should think about it a little harder, shouldn't we?"

"Maybe if we think about it some more, it'll all become clear!" Arashi answered.

All right, then… Masashi thought. Time to show what the killer used for the trick!


Nonstop Debate

"First of all, it's clear that the killer couldn't have jumped off the boat, right?" Sorao said.

"Yep, I'm certain of it!" Arashi answered. "The boat's way too wide to make the jump!"

"And the only way to make the boat move," Faye said, "is to press the red button."

"Then how did the killer manage to press it?" Sister Hikari asked.

"Maybe the killer used some kind of tool that could reach the button," Mari suggested. "That way, the killer didn't need to be on the boat at all to press it."

"But if that were true, it had to be something six feet or longer," Faye pointed out.

"Maybe they found a way to slow down the boat before jumping off!" Kumi said. "Maybe they used some kind of slowing magic!"

"Oh, slowing magic's a thing? Guess that explains the state of your brain," Sayua remarked, to which Kumi showed a confused reaction.

"Maybe there's another way to get to the Memory Bank we don't know of," Faye suggested. "Maybe the killer didn't need to use the boats at all…"

"None of those sound right, if you ask me," Murphy muttered.

"Well, if you have any better ideas, you'd better start saying them," Abraham replied scornfully.

Truth Bullet Chosen (Agree): Was-scepter

I agree with that!

"Mari, you're right about that!" Masashi said. "There was indeed something that the killer could've used to press the button while standing on the platform!"

"Wh-What? What was it?" Hikari asked.

"It must've been the was-scepter, one of the scepters in the palace's living room," Masashi answered. "The scepter is definitely more than six feet long!"

"Oh, that's right!" Faye said, eyes widened. "With its length, the obstacle that the boat's width made would be no problem anymore!"

"And come to think of it, didn't Kasumi say that she'd seen a scepter lying on the floor in the Memory Bank?!" Arashi said.

"That's right! I'm definitely not mistaken about what I saw! There was a scepter!" Kasumi let out a short laugh. "I should've known that's what the killer did! I completely fell for it! Man, I have to admit, the killer's pretty clever."

"I-I'm surprised you're p-praising the k-killer," Hikari said, glowering. "I-I mean, d-didn't the killer try to f-frame you?"

"Hey, I give credit where it's due!" Kasumi replied blithely. "As a phantom thief, I naturally like to see creativity!"

Kumi tilted his head, his expression confused. "Um, I don't really get it. Are you saying that the scepter had some kind of magic that the killer used?"

"Oh, what Masashi means is that the killer used the scepter itself, not whatever magic it has," Sister Hikari explained. "The scepter is long enough to reach the button, so the killer, standing on the platform, pressed it therewith."

"Then the boat, moving automatically, reached the other side, where the stairs were…" Tanjiro finished. "So there were then four boats on that side of the river, which matches what Murphy saw."

"So that's how the killer managed to fool me and Futaba?" Murphy said, his eyes full of bewilderment. "That's… actually pretty simple. I should've thought about that earlier!"

Most of the others murmured in surprise and shock at the ease of the trick that the killer had used to fool Futaba. The killer had exploited the boats' automatic function so as to create the illusion that no one had been at the Memory Bank, so that Futaba might be lured to a false sense of security. Stepwise, the killer's scheme had become clearer and clearer, and it seemed that the group was nearer to the killer's identity.

"That can't be right. There's one important thing you've forgotten."

But the one who dissented was none other than Maiha, who looked hardly convinced. Rather, she gave the others a cold chiding stare.

"What is it, Maiha?" Masashi asked. "Do you have a problem with my theory?"

"Of course I do." She brushed off a lock of her red hair. "It sounds plausible at first, and it certainly would explain the scepter's presence in the Memory Bank at the time. But if what you say is true, then one crucial problem emerges."

"Huh? What problem do you mean?" Masashi said.

"Think about the history log of Futaba's pod," Maiha said, giving Masashi a slightly annoyed look. "It shows that it was used from 10:35 PM to 1:00 AM. Why is that the case?"

Masashi thought about it for a few seconds.

"Well… as we've shown earlier, the killer wanted to frame Kasumi for the crime," Masashi answered, "and they needed to be sure that Kasumi arrived at the scene and saw Futaba's body."

"Trying to make sure of that while in another room would've been risky, I imagine," Sorao added, "so hiding in the Memory Bank was the best option for the killer."

"And that's why the killer decided to use her pod," Masashi said. "Since there's no indication on the outside that shows that it's currently used, Kasumi couldn't tell whether anyone was in Futaba's pod. That's why the killer used it as a hiding spot. It also helped to make us think that Futaba was killed at 1:00 AM."

"Man, the killer had a twofold use for that, huh?" Sorao said.

"Then in other words, once the killer was sure that the foolhardy thief had witnessed the scene," Maiha replied, "they had no need to stay at the Memory Bank anymore. Is that what you claim?"

"That sounds about right," Masashi said, nodding along. "I… still don't see a problem with it."

Maiha scoffed as she fiddled with a lock of her hair. "Then let me ask you this, commoner: how could the killer tell when the thief entered the room?"

"Huh? How?" Masashi said, confused. "The killer simply looked outside the pod—"

"Impossible!" Maiha exclaimed excitedly, as if expecting his answer. "Whenever the pod is used, all that the user inside can see is utter darkness. It's impossible to glance outside and see what is going on in the room."

"Ah, that's true!" Arashi replied. "When you put it that way, it really seems to have been impossible!"

"Yeah, I don't want to admit it, but she has a point here…" Murphy said. "If hiding in the Memory Bank had been the killer's plan, it wouldn't have worked."

"And not only that," Maiha said, smirking as she saw the others beginning to agree with her, "but the history log also shows that the one inside the pod left it at exactly 1:00 AM. It must've been after the killer had sensed that the coast was clear, the foolish thief having fled the scene."

"So in other words…" Mari said, glancing upwards, "if what Masashi says is true, how did the killer know when Kasumi entered and left the room, when the killer couldn't see her?"

It was then that Masashi widened his eyes, understanding her objection. "Ah! Th-Then… that's why you think my theory isn't correct?"

"Indeed. And therefore, the idea that the killer was hiding in the Memory Bank is ludicrous," Maiha said. "And since the killer was not hiding in the Memory Bank, the killer must have used another trick instead, one that they could do while far away."

"That… sounds reasonable," Faye said. "If what Masashi said were true, then it would mean that the killer couldn't tell when Kasumi would enter and leave. But we know that that's wrong."

"Looks like it to me," Abraham said.

"Yeah… Sorry, Masashi, but I think she has a point here!" Arashi said.

"Nah, I think Masashi's right on this one!" Kasumi added. "Maybe there's something we've overlooked! If the killer managed to disguise their presence with the boats, maybe the killer used some other way to tell when I entered the Memory Bank and left!"

"Maybe the evil warlock used some kind of spell!" Kumi added. "Maybe that's how they could pull off this part of their scheme!"

"Uh, I don't think so, but setting that aside… I agree with Masashi on this one," Tanjiro said. "I think the killer found a way to bypass that obstacle."

Murphy sighed as he lowered his head. "Then I guess that we're all split on this matter—"

"There's nothing that despair can't overcome!"

Monokuma growled as he raised his paws, feigning fury. "I can't believe it! You guys are split once again! And here I was, thinking that we had to transform these trial grounds only once!"

"Oh, come on, you didn't truly think that," Sorao said, shrugging casually. "You've been waiting for this moment, haven't you?"

"Nope! You know how long these trials take? Hours!" Monokuma answered, feigning outrage. "All these transformations make things even longer!"

"So then couldn't you just refrain from doing the whole thing again?" Sister Hikari asked.

"Well, I could... but it wouldn't really feel proper, if you catch my drift," Monokuma said as he crossed his arms. "So I may as well do it again."

Well… at least we can resolve our issue that way, Masashi thought. Now, I'll have to show that the killer must've been at the Memory Bank, or else we'll be led in the wrong direction!

"Sure… Let's do the thing you're totally against, captain," Sorao said, smirking. "Up we go, then."

Like last time, Monokuma took out a key after a circular panel had appeared before him. After it was inserted, all the students' podiums and Monokuma's throne then rose toward the ceiling. Once the fifteen participants answered the question shown on their podiums, they were then split into two sides, and so began the debate.


Debate Scrum

Question: After killing Futaba, where was the killer?

Elsewhere: Maiha, Sorao, Abraham, Faye, Murphy, Hikari, Arashi

Memory Bank: Masashi, Kasumi, Tanjiro, Sayua, Kumi, Sister Hikari, Haruyuki, Mari

"Could the killer not have left the Memory Bank around ten thirty-five?" Faye asked.

"No, the history log of Futaba's pod shows that the killer must've been there at ten thirty-five," Tanjiro replied.

"Is it not possible to fool the pod into thinking that someone is in it?" Sorao asked.

"The pod only works if someone wears the headset inside, so I don't think so," Sister Hikari answered.

"Then how did the killer know when Kasumi would arrive and leave?! The pod blocks off all sight!" Arashi said.

"Must the killer have used sight? Maybe the killer used sound instead," Haruyuki said.

"I-Isn't the pod soundproof, th-though?" Hikari said.

"Monokuma said that the pods aren't soundproof, so anyone inside could've heard something odd from outside," Mari said.

"But there was no strange sound playing at that time, was there?" Murphy asked.

"Wrong! There was sound coming from that light orb lying nearby!" Kasumi countered.

"But how the fuck could the killer have used the orb to their advantage?" Abraham said.

"The orb changes the music if the number of people in the room changes, so the killer must've used the change in music as a signal!" Masashi replied.

"But isn't it impossible for the killer to suddenly stop the memory they were watching in Futaba's pod?!" Faye said.

"The killer could suddenly stop watching the memory with the pod's 'abruptly end' function! It's even shown in the history log!" Sayua said.

"Even if that is all true, how did the killer leave the scene? Their boat was on the other side of the river," Maiha said.

"The killer could've ridden on Lady Futaba's boat and then did the trick from earlier to make it go back to the Memory Bank!" Kumi said.

This is our answer!

It was clear that the explanation given by Masashi's side made far more sense and was possible, so no one said a word in protest as the podiums and Monokuma's throne returned to where they usually were.

"I think it's clear that the light orb was used in the killer's trick," Masashi said. "Does everyone else agree?"

"Yeah, I've no doubt about it," Sorao said, nodding along. "All that talking sure persuaded me, man."

Faye sighed. "It certainly explains a whole lot…"

Maiha said nothing as she glanced to the side, frowning. To some extent, Masashi felt glad at such a sight, seeing the greatest gainsayer to his theory no longer able to raise any more opposition.

"Uh, could someone explain the killer's trick fully, please?!" Arashi said, raising his hand. "I'm having a tough time trying to picture it all!"

"Y-Yeah, th-there are a lot of d-details to take in…" Hikari said.

"Well, no harm in trying to summarize what we've deduced so far," Masashi said. "All right… First, the killer arrived at the fourth deck. At that point, there were only four boats on the side of the river by the stairs. The killer then rode to the Memory Bank on one of the boats."

"Then the killer… used the scepter to make the boat go back to the other side, yes?" Sister Hikari said.

Masashi nodded. "That's right. That way, only four boats would be on the other side of the river, which would make it look as if there were no one in the Memory Bank. Afterwards, the killer simply hid in the Memory Bank and waited for Futaba to come. When she did a few minutes before 10:35 PM… the killer ambushed her and killed her."

"And afterwards…" Mari said, setting a finger on her chin. "The killer took the note on Futaba's person, wrote Kasumi's name on it, and turned on the light orb's music function as part of the scheme to frame her. Then the killer entered the pod and went through Futaba's memories."

"Then when Kasumi arrived at 12:59 AM, the music change alerted the killer and made them abruptly end the memory they were watching," Masashi said. "After Kasumi fled the scene, the music changed again, and the killer waited for a moment before getting out of the pod at 1:00 AM exactly."

"And then finally, the killer checked the scene to see whether there was anything needed to be done. After all, Kasumi might have messed with the scene somehow. Once that was done, the killer left," Haruyuki said. "Taking the scepter, the light orb, and the murder weapon, the killer rode back to the other side on Futaba's boat. Then to move the boat back to the Memory Bank side, the killer simply needed to use the same trick as before."

"And thus completes the trick…" Sorao chuckled as he touched one of his red hair's locks. "Well, that sure was a doozy. But I guess the scheme was almost successful. After all, we almost concluded that Kasumi was the killer."

"All right, then… now what?!" Arashi said, fists clenched. "I mean, we figured out how the killer pulled it off, but we're still no closer to figuring out which of us did it!"

"What, is it not clear, you addle-headed hothead?"

It was Maiha, who seemed to have regained her composure, since she now gave her usual condescending glance at the others, her arms crossed.

"If the killer hid in the Memory Bank and killed Futaba around 10:35 PM," she said, "then it means that those who were not at the Memory Bank at that time must be innocent."

"It appears so," Abraham said.

"Then one thing can be concluded," Maiha continued as she raised a finger. "I am, without a doubt, innocent. After all, at that time, Murphy and I stumbled upon each other and headed back to our rooms."

"Oh, yeah, that's right," Murphy said. "Since I saw her in the flesh, she couldn't have been at the Memory Bank."

"Wait a minute… in the debate earlier, weren't you arguing against Masashi's position?" Tanjiro said. "Doesn't that mean you were arguing against a theory that would prove you innocent?"

"And?" Maiha said, tilting his head upwards. "In the class trial, I seek to root out the killer and find the truth of this case, even if it means arguing against something that removes me as a suspect. I assure you that unlike some of you, I have integrity."

"Integrity? Oh, please…" Abraham mumbled.

Huh, so her outburst against Kasumi earlier wasn't made because she was the culprit? Masashi thought, dumbstruck. She was simply that certain that she had done it…

"In any case, we can safely deem Maiha to be innocent," Sister Hikari said. "And we know that Kasumi couldn't have done it, too…"

Kumi clapped his hands, smiling. "Well done, then! I'm glad we've proven for sure that you two are not guilty!"

"Where was your fucking applause when I was proven innocent?" Abraham asked disgruntledly.

Sorao let out a chuckle. "Well, then, I think it's pretty clear. After all, if Kasumi and Maiha are innocent… there should be one suspect left, right?"

"One suspect…?" Faye asked uneasily. "But who?"

Ah! Masashi thought as he saw which of them Faye was referring to. That's right! That person also had a lockpick, so it must be…!

Masashi then glanced at the one whom he had in mind.

"Haruyuki… You're the only one left!"

"Hmm?" the art critic said as the others glared at him. His eyes were slightly widened as if he had only noticed something small fly right before him. "On what grounds do you accuse me?"

"Remember how we narrowed down our suspects earlier?" Masashi said. "Because the bat had blood on it, we know that the killer must've taken it out of the second exhibit room. But only three people could've accessed it at any time: you, Maiha, and Kasumi. Each of you had a lockpick at the time of the murder."

"And since Kasumi and Maiha have been shown to be innocent…" Sister Hikari said. "Naturally, you're the only suspect left."

"Th-Then it's you!" Kumi said, pointing at him with a quivering hand. "Y-You're the one that killed Lady Futaba!"

Haruyuki said nothing at first, many of the others appearing to take his silence as a sign that he was guilty. Masashi himself wondered what was going on in the man's mind; up to this point, he had shown a calm countenance, the weird outburst from earlier being excluded. But was that truly how he felt? Might it be that it was but a facade that he had put up to appear confident? With how unperturbed he appeared, Masashi felt some doubt in his assertion that he was the only one left.

But that's what the evidence suggests now… Masashi thought as he tried to reassure himself. I can't let his behavior dissuade me!

Eventually, a small chuckle came out of the man's mouth, which made some of the others look at him with confusion and dread.

"Wh-What's so goddamn funny?!" Sayua said.

"Nothing much, I assure you," Haruyuki said as his chuckling stopped. "I was simply relishing the moment of being the suspect of the case. It truly is interesting to be looked at with such wary eyes."

"You know, you could show a bit more emotion at a time like this," Sorao said, smiling. "Don't you even feel a tad worried, man?"

"Not at all. Why ought I to feel worried about a misguided accusation?"

"What…? 'Misguided'?" Tanjiro said.

"What a load of bullshit!" Abraham added. "You've got to be bluffing. You know you're done for, so you're trying to make us think you're innocent with that attitude of yours."

Haruyuki clicked his tongue. "I wonder how long it will take you to see that I am innocent. Or perhaps you need a little push in the right direction, I wonder."

"If you're innocent, you could just tell us why you think so…" Mari pointed out.

"But that would be much less interesting to see," Haruyuki countered. "I would rather see how you react when the realization kicks in."

What is up with him…? Masashi thought, bewildered. Why is he speaking like that as if he were uninvolved with all this?

In any case, whether he were innocent or guilty, Masashi had to take a good look at his reasoning and see whether he was right. Even though many of the others already seemed convinced of his guilt, Masashi had to remind himself that it was the evidence and not his personal reactions that mattered more.


Nonstop Debate

"Let me put it this way," Haruyuki began. "If I had been the killer, I would have had to go to the Memory Bank before Futaba did, yes?"

"That's right," Sorao said. "What's your point?"

"Well, if I had gone to the Memory Bank," Haruyuki replied, "wouldn't Murphy have spotted me? He was there at the fourth deck."

"True, I was there to do my painting for some time…" Murphy answered. "But I was there only from 9:00 to 10:30 PM."

"Then Haruyuki must've simply gone before Murphy went to the fourth deck!" Faye added. "That's why Murphy never saw him."

"Or maybe he managed to sneak past Sir Murphy somehow!" Kumi said. "Maybe he used invisibility magic! Or maybe he got some fairies to distract Sir Murphy!"

"Come on, I'd never be distracted by something like that," Murphy replied, looking a bit irked by Kumi's last suggestion.

"Moreover, unlike me, he doesn't have an alibi around 10:35 PM," Maiha said, "so he could've been hiding in the Memory Bank at that time."

"S-Seems pretty clear to me he's the killer…" Hikari said.

Truth Bullet Chosen (Refute): Bumper Car Games

No, that's wrong!

"Actually… no, Haruyuki couldn't have gone to the fourth deck before Murphy," Masashi said. "After all, he has an alibi during that point."

"Wh-What?" Faye said, looking startled. "A-Are you sure about that?"

"I am. You don't know this, Faye, since you felt a bit under the weather last night," Masashi replied, "but Haruyuki was with us when we played with the bumper cars."

Haruyuki let out a short chuckle, sounding deeply amused. "Indeed I was. I wondered when one of you would mention it."

"Oh, yeah, you guys were doing that," Sorao said. "Too bad I also couldn't make it. I felt a bit unwell, you see. So Haruyuki truly was there that time?"

"B-But isn't it possible that Haruyuki headed to the Memory Bank after the game was over?" Faye asked, looking at the others uneasily. "He doesn't have an alibi for the rest of the night, right?"

"That is true… but the problem is how long we played with the bumper cars," Masashi replied. "We started around 8:20 PM and ended around 9:30 PM. Haruyuki was with us in the bumper cars room the whole time!"

"Ah!" Arashi gasped. "Then… that means…!"

"There's no way Haruyuki could've gone to the Memory Bank afterwards without being spotted!" Kasumi concluded. "Haruyuki has to be innocent!"

"Wh-What?!" Abraham cried out as he tightened a fist. "Murphy! Are you sure you didn't see him?"

Murphy shook his head. "I'm pretty sure I would've noticed if he'd tried to go there. And even if he'd somehow slipped under my sight, the boat's sound would have alerted me."

"I can't believe it…" Faye mumbled as she hung her head, utterly dismayed.

Haruyuki chuckled again. "It was somewhat amusing to see the realization kick in. Rest assured, had you not realized it, I would have told you eventually."

"Either way, it's clear that he's innocent, I think," Murphy said. "So what now? I can't think of anyone else."

"Well, we just need to go over who had access to that room!" Sayua answered. "Simple as that!"

Tanjiro looked at her meekly. "But, Sayua, that's the problem. There is no one else that had access last night."

"What?!" the president of Team Tomi exclaimed, staring at her dismayed secretary in shock. "But if that's true, it means the crime's impossible!"

"Nope, it's not impossible!" Monokuma added. "One of you definitely did it, I can assure you!"

Most of the group glanced at one another in bemusement for a few seconds, wondering what the next step was. Masashi could not think of any other leads to talk about, either; how the killer had killed Futaba was clear, but narrowing down which of them could have accessed the weapon had led them to a dead end instead.

"I-If Haruyuki didn't do it," Hikari said, "then the three who c-could've gone into the exhibit r-room are all c-clear!"

"If we're stuck, then we ought to go with our gut!" Arashi yelled excitedly. "We should say aloud which of us we think is the most suspicious and vote for that person!"

"What, you've got a fucking death wish?" Abraham retorted. "Maybe we should think twice about Kasumi and see whether she's truly innocent."

Kumi groaned as he clutched his head. "I… I don't get any of this! Sister Hikari, do you have any ideas?!"

"S-Sorry, but nothing comes to mind…" the nun answered. "I don't think we have any other leads to chase."

"Well… there is one thing left."

Amid the confusion that had arisen since the group had found itself in a deadlock, the one clear voice belonged to Sorao, who had managed to keep his composure and showed no tension on neither his face nor his shoulders. At once, all looked at him.

Sorao…? What are you doing? Masashi thought, realizing that the musician was among the few that appeared confused.

"You see, I was thinking about the clues again," Sorao explained. "And one thing strikes me as odd."

"Odd? What is it?" Murphy asked.

"I was thinking about the bat, the murder weapon, you know," Sorao answered as he opened up his arms a little.

The… murder weapon?

Of all the things that Masashi thought that Sorao would have a problem with, this was far from the top of the list. After all, it had already been made clear what the murder weapon was in the class trial's beginning.

"I don't see anything odd with it, though," Faye said.

"Are you sure? The location's odd, for one," Sorao answered. "Let me ask you this: why didn't the killer simply leave the bat in the Memory Bank? They instead went through the hassle of putting it back in the second exhibit room."

"The killer wanted to hide the fact that the bat was used, I bet," Abraham answered. "If we couldn't find the murder weapon, it would make figuring everything out much harder."

"It certainly appears that way, and it's backed up by the fact that the Monokuma File was suspiciously vague about what the murder weapon was," Haruyuki replied, keeping his calm attitude.

"And yet, we found the murder weapon anyway. How?" Sorao asked, crossing his arms.

"The blood," Masashi answered, unsure as to what Sorao was trying to say. "A small amount of it was left on the bat. Using that, we could still tell that it had been used in the crime."

"Why are you asking us these obvious questions?!" Arashi yelled, eyeing him angrily. "It's pointless—"

"Isn't it weird, though?" Sorao said, undeterred by Arashi's anger. "The killer wanted to hide the fact that the bat was used as the murder weapon. But there's a small but noticeable amount of blood on the bat, which led us to find out that it was the murder weapon. Don't those two claims contradict each other?"

"Ah!" Faye gasped as her eyes widened, her hands shaking. "Th-That's right…! Now that I think about it, it doesn't make any sense at all!"

Many of the others murmured in shock as well, not having reached such a seemingly obvious conclusion until now. Masashi himself could hardly believe it; he remembered thinking about why the killer might have taken the bat back to the second exhibit room, but it had never occurred to him that it was that very deed that should have put his understanding of the murder weapon into question.

"Hang on a minute! Don't you think there's a simpler explanation?" Sayua said. "Isn't it possible that the killer simply forgot to wipe away the blood because they were in a hurry to get rid of the evidence?"

"What makes you think the killer was in a hurry?" Sorao replied, arms crossed. "The crime took place at nighttime, and as far as the killer knew, no one other than Kasumi was up."

"And the killer already foresaw that the foolhardy thief, wanting to hide her connection to the crime, would not alert the others of her discovery," Maiha added. "Therefore, the killer felt that they had more than enough time to make sure that everything should be how they wanted it to be."

"Then it's extremely unlikely that the killer missed the blood on the bat…" Mari concluded.

"So the killer… deliberately left the blood there?" Sister Hikari asked. "But that doesn't make any sense, does it? We still found out that the bat was the murder weapon."

"Right. It was the blood that led us to this conclusion," Sorao answered. "But, you know, maybe we ought to take a closer look at the blood. The next question to ask is: when did the blood get on the weapon?"

"When? Hah, that's easy!" Sayua answered. "It got on there when the killer whacked Futaba with it, duh! The killer simply returned the bat back to the second exhibit room after being done with framing that thief chick!"

As if expecting that answer, however, Sorao cracked a little smile and touched a few fringes of his hair. "Well, that's the natural conclusion to make… But I'd like to remind you guys what Kasumi said earlier."


Kasumi nodded. "Anyway… around the given time, I rode one of the boats to the Memory Bank, and I saw only one boat there, which must've been Futaba's. And sure enough, she was the only one there when I headed in! Too bad she'd already been killed, though…"

"What? She was… already dead?" Faye said, eyes widened.

"Yep. And let me tell you, I was very, very spooked!" Kasumi continued, keeping up her oddly blithe tone, even though the subject had become grim. "The weird music playing didn't help at all!"

"Wait… weird music?" Masashi raised his brow.

"Well, I say it's weird, since when I opened the door, it was playing a light piano piece. But when I actually stepped into the room, it suddenly changed into a jazz piece!"

"Huh… I'm pretty sure the Memory Bank doesn't play music," Sorao replied, looking somewhat surprised. "Did you see where it was coming from?"

"Yeah! It was coming from a smallish orb lying nearby," Kasumi answered. "The orb had a fair amount of blood on it, so I guess it must have gotten on the orb when the killing happened!"


"Oh, and there were two other things I saw! The note with the dying message, and the long staff lying nearby! It's the same scepter that those statues in the living room hold!" Red Mask said.

"You mean the was-scepter?" Mari said.


"Wait a minute…" Masashi said once he noticed something weird in her account. "Kasumi, you said that you had seen three things by the body: the light orb, the note with your name on it, and the was-scepter, right?"

"Uh, that's right!" Kasumi answered. "I took a quick look around the room, so I'm absolutely sure I didn't miss anything!"

"And yet something very important is missing in your account…" Sorao said before he cracked a little smile. "Where was the bat, the murder weapon?"

"Aah!" Abraham exclaimed, grinding his teeth. "Th-That's…!"

"Oh!" Kasumi gasped. "Oh, yeah, now that I think about it… I never saw such a thing! I can't believe I overlooked that!"

"Well, clearly the killer took it back to the second exhibit room right after killing Futaba," Faye suggested, looking none too impressed by the revelation. "After all, there was no need to keep it."

"I doubt so," Sorao replied. "Murphy saw Lady Inoshishi around 10:30 PM, and the killer definitely was at the Memory Bank around 10:35 PM, given her pod's history log."

"And given the amount of time it would take to go back and forth between the second and fourth decks, the amount of time to go through the exhibit rooms and lock them up, and the amount of time each boat ride would take…" Mari finished for him. "It seems unreasonable to think that the killer managed to put the bat back in the second exhibit room in a timespan of at most five minutes."

"And I'm pretty sure the killer would have no reason to hide the bat, since it's not as if they had expected Kasumi to do anything with it," Sorao said. "It's why they didn't bother hiding the was-scepter as well."

"So if that can't be the reason that the bat wasn't there, why did the bat disappear?" Sister Hikari asked.

Wait a minute… Masashi thought. Given that, there's only one possibility it could be!

"The bat... was never taken to the Memory Bank in the first place," Masashi answered. "It never 'disappeared' because it was never there to begin with!"

"Wh-What?!" Arashi exclaimed.

"Th-That can't be right!" Faye interjected at once. "If the bat was never taken to the Memory Bank, then how did the killer murder Futaba with it?"

"Yeah, even I don't know of any kind of magic that lets one do that!" Kumi commented.

"Well, that's just it. It's impossible for the killer to have killed Lady Inoshishi with a bat that they didn't have," Sorao answered bluntly, his expression suddenly turned serious. "The killer used something else instead."

Nearly the whole class gasped, faces mixed with shock and unbelief.

"Th-The bat's not the true murder weapon?!" Arashi exclaimed.

"I-I don't get this at all!" Kumi said. "I-I can't tell what's real and what's not anymore!"

"Well, you've been like that already, so nothing's changed for you, really," Sayua commented.

"But what about the blood? How did it get on the bat in the first place?" Murphy asked.

Sorao sighed. "It's possible that sometime after the scheme was done, the killer collected some of Lady Inoshishi's blood in a container and put it on the bat. That way, it'd look as if the bat had been used as the murder weapon."

"Well... I guess the fact that the bat was missing from the scene supports the idea that the blood was faked as well…" Sister Hikari said. "Still… if the bat's not the true murder weapon, then why did the killer go all the way to make it look as if it were?"

"Hang on. We can't go ahead and talk about the reason, when we don't even know what the 'true murder weapon' even is!" Faye protested.

"Rather insistent, aren't you?" Sorao chuckled as he flicked a fringe of his red hair. "But I agree. We can't find out the reason unless we know what the killer truly used to kill Lady Inoshishi."

The true murder weapon… What could it be? Masashi thought as all became ready for the next debate. And how is it connected to the true culprit's identity?


Nonstop Debate

"Maybe the murder weapon was an outside item all along?" Sister Hikari suggested.

"Sorry, but that can't be it. We'd already confiscated everything that could've been used as a weapon," Abraham replied.

"So even if we accept this theory that the bat wasn't used…" Murphy said. "The weapon still must've come from the exhibit rooms."

"Yeah, no doubt about it," Faye said, nodding along.

"Thinking about it some more, I think it's not so hard to figure out," Mari added. "Since we've proven that the killer couldn't have returned the weapon right after killing Futaba…"

"The true murder weapon should have still been in the Memory Bank when I visited it last night!" Kasumi replied. "But I don't think I saw anything that could've been used as a murder weapon."

"Looks to me like the whole theory's a lot of crock," Abraham said, frowning.

"So maybe the bat truly was the murder weapon!" Arashi said.

Truth Bullet Chosen (Refute): Light Orb

No, that's wrong!

"Actually, Kasumi, I think you saw the murder weapon," Masashi replied, "but you simply misinterpreted it as something else."

"Wh-What? What are you talking about?" Kasumi replied, tilting her head a little.

"Well… earlier, you said something rather interesting," Masashi answered. "You said that the light orb was covered in a fair amount of blood."

Kasumi gasped, apparently seeing what he was getting at. "H-Hey, wasn't it stained from the aftermath of the murder?"

"I thought so as well, but once it was pointed out that you had not once seen the bat," Masashi said, "I think the blood got on the light orb from a different cause!"

"You mean… the light orb was used as the murder weapon?" Murphy said, eyes widened. "But I thought the killer needed the light orb because of its music function."

"Yeah, finding two extremely different uses for the same thing… seems unconventional to say the least," Sorao said. "Hey, Faye, Abraham. How durable is the light orb?"

"I-It's pretty durable, actually… even if it can't withstand falls from great heights," Faye answered uneasily. "I can imagine someone using it as a weapon without leaving a mark on it…"

"Though if you ask me, it would've been much better to use the bat instead," Abraham said. "The light orb's pretty limited in range, whereas the bat is rather long."

"Yeah, the more I think about it, the more it seems weird to use the light orb as a weapon," Tanjiro said. "It's almost as if the killer had been forced to kill Futaba with the light orb."

Wait… forced? Masashi thought.

"That would have been a rather risky move, would it not?" Haruyuki said. "The light orb, though usable, is not that effective a weapon. Of course, the killer managed to kill Futaba with it, but for some reason, the killer had not been able to use the bat instead."

"Thence comes the discrepancy in our hands…" Maiha said. "Ordinarily, both the light orb and the bat would have been present in the scene when the foolish thief walked in. And yet only the former was seen instead."

"Maybe it has something to do with the light orbs' availability," Murphy suggested. "Aren't light orbs available in both exhibit rooms?"

"Yes, that's right," Haruyuki answered. "There are four in the first exhibit room, and four in the second exhibit room."

Hmm… So theoretically, the killer didn't need to go to the second exhibit room for a light orb… Masashi thought.

"Perhaps the killer wanted to take both things," Mari suggested, "but for some reason could take only the light orb."

"I don't see what's so hard about walking out the door with both, though," Sayua said.

Why couldn't the killer use the bat? Masashi thought. Couldn't the killer have taken the bat out, at least?

"Maybe the killer couldn't take the bat since they couldn't return it to the room later," Tanjiro suggested. "The killer realized that and so decided not to use the bat."

"Hmm... That's pretty weird, don't you think?" Mari asked. "If the killer could take the bat, it follows that the killer could return the bat, doesn't it?"

"I think that we need to clarify the access that the killer had to the exhibit rooms," Haruyuki said. "Otherwise, we shall not have a better picture of the killer's movements."

"All right, then... Where shall we begin?" Sister Hikari asked.

"Let's think about the reason that Kasumi, Maiha, and I were suspected in the first place," the art critic said.

"The ground for suspicion was that we each had lockpicks last night," Maiha said, "whence we had unfettered access to the exhibit rooms."

"Are we sure there's no other way to get into those rooms?" Tanjiro asked.

"I'm damn sure. Faye and I checked the rooms thoroughly," Abraham answered, "and not a single trace of a secret passageway was found."

"And the only other thing connected the exhibit rooms to an outside place besides the front entrance is the vent," Sorao said, "but as we showed earlier, because of the vent rule, the killer couldn't have gone through that."

"That's why the killer must've used a lockpick, or so we thought," Murphy said.

"Hmm… With how things look, it looks like the killer had access to the room… and at the same time, didn't have access," Mari remarked.

"What the hell does that mean?!" Sayua said, frowning as she pointed at Mari. "That makes no sense at all!"

"Y-Yeah... I can't think of a-any other w-way to th-think about it," Hikari said. "Th-The killer h-had access or n-no access at all."

Is that true, though? Masashi thought as he looked down a bit. It is reasonable to think that, but maybe there's another part about the killer's access we're not accounting for… Something that the killer's managed to hide from us until now. If we figure out what it is, maybe we'll be able to find a new suspect!


Hangman's Gambit

Question: What kind of access to the exhibit rooms did the killer have?

?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?

First of all, the killer didn't have a lockpick. None of the people who had lockpicks last night could have killed Futaba.

T-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?

But the killer must've had access, since they did something with the bat, were it using it as a murder weapon or planting blood on it!

T-E-M-?-?-?-?-?-?

Maybe… the killer managed to get in at one point, even when they normally couldn't?

T-E-M-P-O-?-?-?-?

Yeah, maybe they had access at one point, but because of the circumstances, lost it afterwards!

T-E-M-P-O-R-A-?-?

And if they didn't have permanent access, that might have something to do with the weird discrepancy in the killer's abilities!

T-E-M-P-O-R-A-R-Y

So the killer could've been limited in their access to the exhibit rooms!

TEMPORARY

"That's it!" Masashi exclaimed. "The killer had access… but it doesn't mean that they could've gone into the exhibit rooms at any time!"

"Wh-What? What the hell are you getting at?" Abraham asked.

"We kept thinking that the killer either had full access to the room or no access at all," Masashi explained, "but I think there has been a third option all along; namely, the killer could've gotten an opportunity to be in there for a short while."

"An opportunity?" Sister Hikari said.

"Well, it certainly resolves the contradiction of the killer's access," Haruyuki answered. "The killer can't be someone with full access, but it can't also be someone with no access."

"So logically, the killer must've had a different kind of access…" Mari answered, her body swaying a little. "That the killer had access at one point but lost it later isn't something we've talked about, I guess."

"But what does that even mean?" Murphy asked. "How did the killer have 'temporary access' in the first place? I can't imagine a situation like that."

"Yeah, neither can I," Faye said. "No offense, but it all sounds pretty abstract and fanciful."

"Then let's think about it," Sorao said. "The killer was someone who ordinarily could not access the second exhibit room. But somehow, they managed to get inside."

"Well, the lockpicks are out, so the killer didn't use a tool to break inside, I think!" Arashi answered. "Uh, that's right, right?!"

"It sure sounds like it to me," Sayua said. "Still, that doesn't really help much."

"If the killer couldn't have broken in with a lockpick," Mari suggested, "then maybe they got someone to help them instead."

"Y-You mean, an accomplice?" Hikari asked.

"No… accomplices are out, remember? According to the rules, accomplices get no benefits, unlike the blackened," Mari said, looking upwards a bit with a dazed expression. "Um… How should I put this? Maybe they got the person to help them without letting that person be aware of it."

"Oh, I get it! It's like what I did for a heist a while ago!" It was Kasumi, speaking with an ever so blithesome voice. "That one time, I was going to take a certain piece from an art museum. But before I carried out the heist, I thought to plant some traps in some rooms that would be important, but would be heavily guarded during the heist."

"Oh? And what did you do next?" Haruyuki asked, eyes glinting.

"Long story short, during a public visit, while in disguise as a reporter," Kasumi said, "I gave one of the guards an excuse to let me into those rooms, and during that time, I secretly slipped in the traps. Those guards sure didn't see it coming when those smoke traps and flashy fireworks activated!"

"What an utterly loathsome tale, as one expects," Maiha commented, not at all amused that she must listen to her.

"A-And you used fireworks for your heist?!" Arashi said, mouth agape. "H-How dare you use such a beloved thing for your crimes?! That is not what fireworks are meant for!"

"Hey, now, as part of my policy, I returned the art piece once news got out of my successful heist, so in the end, nothing of worth was lost!" Kasumi answered.

"Uh, that doesn't really excuse what you did, you know," Tanjiro pointed out.

"All right, so what the fuck was the point of that story?" Abraham asked, clenching a fist as he frowned and glared at the lady thief with loathing eyes.

"What, you don't get it?" Kasumi giggled. "Simply put, maybe the killer needed to trick someone so as to get access into the exhibit rooms!"

"Trick… someone?" Masashi said.

"If that theory is true," Haruyuki said, "then it means that the person whom the killer tricked was important in accessing the exhibit rooms."

"But how was that person important?" Kumi asked. "I-I still don't really get it!"

"Well, there's one thing we should ask ourselves," Sorao said as he touched his red hair, chuckling. "Is there anyone connected to the exhibit rooms that the killer could even trick in the first place?"

Is there such a person? Masashi thought. Given how the exhibit rooms work—Ah!

Masashi gasped upon recalling a certain fact about the doors, shock rushing through his face, his eyes widened.

I see now…! If this is true, then it means… the culprit... has to be that person! Masashi thought. And that person's claim of innocence no longer holds any water!

"Uh, Masashi, are you all right?" Sister Hikari asked. "You look a bit pale."

"Oh… Well… Guys, I think I've figured out who the killer is," Masashi answered.

"What? Are you sure?" Murphy asked.

"You'd better think about it carefully!" Sayua said. "If you get it wrong, I swear I'll tear you a new one!"

"Well? Which one of us do you have in mind?" Sorao asked, showing no tension at all.

"I-It's not me, I swear!" Hikari said.

The longer the others looked at him with bated breath, the uneasier Masashi felt. It was simple to say the name, but having gone through the class trial once beforehand, he knew well enough what it meant after he named the one that the group was to condemn. It was all needful for the innocent students' survivors, and yet the task's needfulness did not make the unrighteousness go away.

Still... I have to say it, Masashi thought. If I want all my memories of Keiko back... If I want everything to go back to normal... then I must say it!

Masashi took in one last breath before he spoke and pointed at the culprit.

"The culprit is you, Abraham."

"Wh-WHAT?!"

Nearly all the others exclaimed at Masashi's answer, eyes widened, mouths agape. Abraham, the most bewildered of them all, simply ground his teeth as he looked at Masashi with a shocked expression, showing no signs of wrath.

"This… This is a bad joke, right?" Abraham uttered once he appeared to have regained his wits. "You can't be serious with your goddamn accusation."

"Y-Yeah! I thought we'd already proven him innocent, Sir Masashi!" Kumi said.

"Same. If anything, I thought he was going to accuse that pastry chick," Sayua said.

"Wait, do you mean me?" Faye said, pointing at herself uneasily.

"H-How dare you think that Miss Nirigiri could've done it!" Arashi yelled. "There's no way she would ever kill anyone!"

Masashi understood the bewilderment; after all, Abraham must not have expected him to go after him, especially when this was the second time that he had been accused. But this time, Masashi was certain that he had seen through his trick at last, and so he stood steadfast in his accusation.

"No, Abraham. This is no joke at all," Masashi answered. "You're definitely the culprit."

"You… You… You goddamn idiot!" Abraham said, one eye twitching in anger. "How the hell did you come to accuse me?! Wasn't the topic about how the culprit tricked someone important?! I don't see what I have to do with this!"

"Abraham… I'm pretty sure you're well aware of this," Masashi said. "You were alone at one point in the exhibit rooms at one point, and I believe you had used a little trickery."


"But one funny thing happened," Faye said. "After I locked the door, Abraham said he had forgotten something inside."

"It was one of the pens that I usually hold on my belt," Abraham answered, eyeing the pastry cook with unfriendliness as well. "It must've fallen off during the inspection. Once I had her unlock the door, I headed back inside by myself and took about three minutes to find it."

"And you were standing in the hallway outside the exhibit rooms the whole time, Faye?" Masashi asked.

"Yep. He insisted that I stay outside, and I was perfectly fine with it," Faye said. "After all, it was his pen, so it was hardly any of my business."


"Oh!" Faye gasped, covering her mouth with both hands. "Th-That's right... Abraham was alone at that moment! And I believed the reason he'd given me!"

"Gah!" Abraham groaned as he winced a little, and he took a second or two to recover.

"I knew there was something suspicious going on with that asshole waiter!" Sayua said.

"And not only that," Mari said, "but if I remember correctly, Abraham's whereabouts after the nightly inspection can't be verified by anyone. That means that unlike Maiha and Haruyuki, he could've been pulled off the scheme to frame Kasumi."

"Ah! You goddamn...!" Abraham exclaimed as he winced, grinding his teeth.

Sorao chuckled. "Looks like Abraham's a viable suspect again! Funny how things turn out."

"Have you anything to say in your defense?" Maiha asked. "It seems that the commoner was right on the mark in his accusation."

Abraham scoffed as he recovered, standing upright as he set his arms on his hips. "It's true that I was by myself in the exhibit rooms... So what do you say that I did next, then? You can't fucking vote for me just because of that, can you?"

"Well, if we go back to what we talked about earlier," Sorao said, "we figured out that the murder weapon was not the bat but the light orb."

"So if that's true," Mari said, "it means that Abraham never took the bat out. Instead, he smuggled the light orb out."

"Hey, so if Abraham's the killer," Murphy said, "why didn't he go for the bat, then? Why did he have to use the light orb as the murder weapon?"

Why did he do that? Masashi thought. Well... Given all the information we have right now...

"I'm not exactly sure of that, too," Masashi answered, "but I think that if we show that Abraham could smuggle the light orb out, the reason may become clear."

"You think I smuggled the damn orb out of the room?! Well, I refuse to accept this farce of an accusation!" Abraham said, his face stern. "Your argument is riddled with so many holes that even I am surprised by your damn stupidity!"

"Oh? Such as?" Haruyuki said.

"Why, the blood on the bat, of course!" Abraham replied, crossing his arms as he nodded with an indignant look. "Your accusation implies that I used the light orb as the true murder weapon, which means that I must've also planted Futaba's blood on the bat, as you argued earlier! But that was fucking impossible for me!"

"Why do you say that?" Masashi asked.

"When Faye and I went to the exhibit rooms this morning, we saw the bat and the blood on it," Abraham explained. "The blood was long dry, which means that it had been put there hours ago."

"But the only time when Abraham had unfettered access to the exhibit rooms was last night's inspection, after he told Faye he needed to look for a pen," Mari pointed out.

"But that leads to a contradiction," Maiha said. "At that time, Futaba was still alive, and so he could not have planted Futaba's blood on the bat."

"Exactly!" Abraham said, quickly raising a finger. "So the only way to plant the blood is to do it after the murder, but that's impossible!"

"Yeah, and it's not as if Abraham had had a container that already had Futaba's blood in it," Murphy said.

Kumi excitedly raised a hand, drawing out sighs from a few others. "Oh, I know! Maybe Sir Abraham can control vampires—"

"Shut up," Maiha said, her expression showing that she would brook no tomfoolery.

"A-All right…" Kumi whimpered as he looked down at his book of tales.

Was it truly impossible for Abraham to plant Futaba's blood? Masashi thought. Given that the only time when he could've done it was last night's inspection…

"Abraham… I agree with you," Masashi said. "I don't think you had Futaba's blood with you, so clearly, it was impossible to plant her blood on the bat."

Abraham widened his eyes in surprise. "Oh? Have you realized at last that you were acting like an utter dumbass with your accusation?"

Sorry, Abraham, but that's not how things will work out for you, Masashi thought, having expected Abraham to try to weasel his way out of this like that.

"Abraham… just because I said you couldn't have planted Futaba's blood," he answered, "it doesn't mean you couldn't have faked the murder weapon."

"Wh-What?!" Abraham exclaimed. "But how?! How could I plant blood on the bat when I didn't have any of Futaba's blood in the first place?!"

The answer was surprisingly obvious, now that it was clear that Abraham could not have used Futaba's blood.

"About that…" Masashi replied. "Whose blood is on the bat, really?"

"Ah!" Abraham exclaimed, having realized what Masashi was getting up, his appearance beginning to look ruffled. "Y-You can't be saying…"

"That the blood belongs to someone else? Indeed, that's what I claim," Masashi said.

Many of the others gasped.

"But we already know for sure it was Futaba's!" Arashi said. "She's the only victim in this case!"

"Ah, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the blood belongs to her." This time, it was Sorao, who seemed to have understood Masashi's point already. "If the killer wanted to fool us into thinking that the bat was the murder weapon… then it's not necessary to use Lady Inoshishi's blood, don't you think? We have no forensic equipment at our disposal, after all, so we can't tell the difference, anyway."

"B-But didn't Captain Monokuma s-say it was h-hers?" Hikari asked.

"Hey, now, don't you go putting words in my mouth!" Monokuma replied. "I definitely don't do that for you behind your backs, so I'm utterly aghast that you would claim I said something I never said! Hmph!"

"That you specifically mentioned 'behind your backs' when none of us suggested so makes me think otherwise…" Tanjiro commented.

"Anyway, that was straight from the horse's mouth," Masashi said. "That the blood is Futaba's has been only our assumption all this time."

"B-But whose blood did S-Sir Abraham use, th-then?!" Kumi asked, his face growing pale. The topic of blood must have been unpleasant enough to stir up such a reaction.

It's not as if Abraham had had a hard time getting blood... Masashi thought. The most obvious answer is...

"Well… since we can't tell whose blood it is," Masashi answered, "isn't it possible that the blood on the bat is his?"

"Wh-What?!" Faye exclaimed. "Masashi, you can't be serious!"

"Why not, though?" Mari said. "While inside the exhibit rooms by himself, couldn't Abraham have planted his own blood on it?"

"You mean, he had a container of his blood readied?" Sister Hikari asked.

"Hah, nice try, but that couldn't be done," Abraham said. "If I'd hidden a container of blood on my person, I would've had to move very carefully during the whole time I was with Faye to avoid the possibility that it might spill onto my clothes."

"But as far as I could tell, Abraham was moving normally," Faye said. "There wasn't exactly any carefulness in his movements."

"And he couldn't have explained why he secretly had a container of blood on him if the blood had happened to spill..." Mari said. "It would've been too risky, so I don't think he used a container."

"But, you know, is a container needed for that stuff?" Sorao asked, opening up his arms a little. "After all... the human body's already a good enough container, don't you think?"

"But wouldn't Abraham have needed a tool to open up a wound on his body?" Sister Hikari asked. "I doubt that he could've simply made one with his bare hands."

Abraham scoffed, albeit quivering. "Th-That's right. I would've needed something sharp to make a wound! But when Faye searched me with the metal detector later, it showed that I carried no such thing!"

Hmm… I don't think Abraham's wrong here, Masashi thought. If he didn't use a tool from outside, he must've used something else, then!

"It was still possible for Abraham," Masashi responded. "After all… aren't there knives in the second exhibit room? I'm pretty sure I saw some during the investigation, and you mentioned it as well earlier, Faye."


"Abraham and I tried to look for the murder weapon, but the only place that had anything usable as a blunt instrument was, well…" She scratched her cheek. "It was the second exhibit room. It was only natural, since a few days ago, we two had put away all items deemed dangerous in that room. Things like knives and ropes are stowed in there now."


"Ah!" Faye exclaimed, eyes greatly widened. "Th-That's right…! So… it was possible…!"

"But how did Abraham then close up the wound?" Tanjiro asked. "Wouldn't there be a lot more blood if he hadn't been able to do that?"

"Oh, I know!" This time, it was Arashi, who seemed particularly keen to answer the question. "Abraham could've secretly taken some bandages with him! There are plenty in the shop, after all! I know because I got some during the investigation!"

"And bandages aren't made of metal, so obviously, his bandaged wound wouldn't have been noticed by Faye's metal detector," Sorao said.

"Argh!" Abraham let out as the grip that his crossed arms had on his clothes tightened.

"So if Masashi's theory is right," Mari said, "then Abraham should have a cut somewhere on his body."

"N-No… Th-That isn't right at all!" Abraham protested. "Th-The cut on my arm is—Grk!"

"Oh, so you indeed have a cut on your arm," Haruyuki said, chuckling. "It seems that Masashi's theory is not so groundless anymore."

"Let me finish, you fucking idiot!" Abraham replied. "I got this cut a while ago, and it still hasn't healed. There's no way you can prove otherwise, so shut up about it already!"

However flimsy the excuse might be, he was right that there was no way to prove that he must have made the cut himself. But the fact that Abraham could no longer gainsay the theory that he had planted his own blood on the bat was enough to show that he had lost one of his defenses.

"But how did he get the light orb out in the first place?!" Arashi exclaimed. "There's no way he could've gotten it past Miss Nirigiri! She had the metal detector with her!"

"Yeah, and even if it's small, it's not that small," Faye said. "I would've spotted it on his person at once."

"True… Abraham couldn't have gotten anything past you," Sorao answered. "But you know, what makes you think he needed to try that path? After all, isn't there another way to smuggle the orb out?"

Hmm… Thinking about the layout of the exhibit rooms, Masashi thought, I can think of only one thing!

"Abraham must've used the vent to smuggle the orb out," Masashi answered. "The vent is connected to the Memory Bank, so he could've slid the orb through the passageway to get it past Faye!"

"Ah!" Abraham gasped as he covered his mouth with his hand in surprise. "Y-You… You can't be…!"

"Aha! See? I was right all along!" Sayua said, smiling as she nodded her head. "I knew that the asshole waiter had used the vent as part of his scheme!"

"But, Sayua, you said that he must've done it by crawling through the vent," Tanjiro pointed out. "That was pretty different from what Abraham had truly done—"

"Shut up! And I was on the right track, anyway, so it still counted!" Sayua said, which dismayed her meek secretary.

"S-So Sir Abraham… really did it?" Kumi said, sniveling. "I-I knew he was a bit mean, but I thought…"

Masashi sighed. "Sorry, Kumi, but it seems pretty clear to me that only Abraham could have done it. He had the opportunity to smuggle the light orb out."

"Y-You think that's enough to prove me guilty?!" Abraham said, clutching his black tie. "For your information… there's another fucking good reason why I can't have done it!"


Nonstop Debate

"Even if I'd planted my blood on the bat," Abraham began, "I couldn't have smuggled the light orb out!"

"But you had the opportunity to do it, didn't you?" Murphy asked.

"And you could've used the vent in the first exhibit room," Mari said. "It's connected to the Memory Bank, so you could've used it to get the light orb past Faye."

"Yep. He could've rolled it through the vent like a bowling ball…" Sorao said, smiling casually.

"But it's fucking impossible!" Abraham retorted. "The light orb's durable, yes, but if dropped at great heights, it'll break."

"Yeah, that's what Captain Monokuma told us a while ago," Faye said.

"The two horizontal passageways of the vent are connected by a twenty-foot vertical passageway," Mari said. "So if the ball was rolled down the vent, it must've fallen through that height."

"Oh! And the orb definitely would've been broken!" Sister Hikari said.

"Exactly!" Abraham said as he raised a finger. "And there is nothing I could've used to prevent that!"

"And with a broken orb, his scheme to frame Kasumi wouldn't have worked…" Tanjiro said.

"As far as I can tell," Faye said, "all the orbs show no damage, so Abraham must be right!"

Truth Bullet Chosen (Refute): Silver Thread

No, that's wrong!

"Nice try, Abraham, but you're wrong," Masashi said. "You definitely could've prevented the light orb from breaking when you rolled it into the vent."

"Wh-What?! Bullshit!" Abraham clenched his fist tighter. "Where's the proof?!"

"Well, earlier, Sister Hikari noticed something missing from the arts and crafts room," Masashi replied. "She said that she had found a container that was missing a significant amount of silver thread!"

"A-And?!" Abraham replied as he shot Masashi a loathing glance. "What does that have to do with fucking anything?!"

"I think there's only one way you could use the thread with the orb," Masashi said, looking back at him sternly. "You took some of that thread and hid it on your person before the inspection. Thread of that kind should be pretty easy to hide on your body.

"Then once you were alone in the exhibit rooms, you wrapped the orb securely with part of the thread," he continued. "That way, when you rolled it into the vent… with the remaining strand of the thread, you could slowly lower the orb down the vent! The thread was durable, so you knew that it wouldn't snap!"

"Argh!" Abraham exclaimed as he started, eyes widened. "Y-You…!"

"Wow, that actually makes a whole lot of sense…" Sorao said. "Guess the whole problem of his being unable to smuggle the orb out is now moot."

"Wait, but how did Sir Abraham know when the orb was at the bottom of the vent?" Kumi asked. "Did he use some kind of sight magic, or did he get a fairy to help him with that?"

"Well, if the orb were still hanging in the air at any point, the thread would move once Abraham let it go," Sorao said.

"So once he felt the thread move no more," Maiha said, "he could tell that the orb had successfully been smuggled through the vertical vent."

"Hey… that reminds me," Murphy said, "Which room did he take the orb from? There are orbs in both exhibit rooms, after all."

Hmm… Which room would Abraham take the light orb from? Masashi thought. Given that he would want to avoid as much risk as possible…

"He took one of the light orbs from the second exhibit room," Masashi answered. "Only he has the key to the second exhibit room, and so even if Faye had decided to go back to the first exhibit room later without his knowledge, she couldn't have noticed the orb's disappearance in the other room."

"Y-Yeah… That's right," Faye said. "And for your information, I didn't go back there after the nightly inspection! I was busy resting in my room!"

Masashi could see that much of the group appeared to be in agreement with him on how Abraham could have smuggled the light orb out of the room. Seeing the waiter's face, he was certain that he was getting nearer and nearer to the truth, and eventually, he would make him yield and admit to his misdeed.

"I think it's pretty clear what happened," Masashi said. "In the short time that Abraham was by himself in the exhibit rooms, he planted his blood on the bat and covered the wound with bandages he had secretly brought. And to prevent the orb from breaking, he used the thread hidden on his person to safely lower the orb down the vent. That was all he needed to do—"

"Stop fucking around with your bullshit!"

Abraham tightened his grip on his black tie, pointing at Masashi angrily with the other hand. "I must admit, you do a pretty good job spinning up that little tale in a few minutes. But you should know that there's another reason why this whole accusation of smuggling is fucking full of shit!"

"A-Another reason?" Masashi said, confused.

"Oh, yes, and once you hear it, no one hear will believe any of the shit spewing out of your goddamn mouth!" Abraham said. "Now listen well!"


Rebuttal Showdown: Abraham Zargari

"To begin with, the structure of the vents made it impossible to smuggle anything out!" Abraham began.

"The vent in the first exhibit room is horizontal and about five feet long, as is the vent in the Memory Bank.

"And both vents are connected to a tall vertical vent.

"I admit, I could've gotten the orb through the horizontal vent on the exhibit room's side and made it go down the vertical vent safely.

"But that's about fucking it!

"It would've still been stuck at the other end of the lower horizontal vent!

"It couldn't have moved on its own!"

"True, if nothing else had been done, the light orb would've been stuck there," Masashi said. "But doesn't that mean that you found a way to get it out of there later?"

"Impossible... Impossible!" Abraham replied.

"Because of the vent rule, I couldn't have crawled through the vent to get it out!

"And there's no way I somehow used the thread on the orb!

"And there was nothing else that I could've used to get back the orb!

"And if you think I somehow made it move on its own…

"That couldn't have been done as well!"

"Now admit already that your stupid little accusation was wrong!"

Truth Bullet Chosen: Was-scepter

I'll cut through your words!

"No, that's wrong, Abraham," Masashi responded. "There was a way to get the bat and the light orb once you had safely lowered it to the vent at the Memory Bank side."

Abraham scowled, grinding his teeth. "Hah! You bluff!"

Masashi shook his head. "Are you sure? After all, you say that the orb would've been too far away to get. But didn't we talk about a similar problem earlier in the trial?"

"Oh!" Sister Hikari gasped. "It was the part when the killer, as part of the murder scheme, had to press the button on the boat! The button was about six feet away from the platform, and so we figured out that the killer used the was-scepter."

"Exactly," Masashi said. "So we've already shown that reaching things six feet away wasn't a problem for the killer."

"Wait a minute… Are you saying that Abraham used the was-scepter to get the orb out of the vent as well?" Murphy asked.

"Well, would you look at that!" Sorao said. "Abraham found two uses for the same item. That's pretty clever of him, isn't it? And not to mention he did the same for the light orb!"

"B-But that doesn't make any sense!" Abraham responded. "Sure, the scepter could reach the orb, but pushing it out would've been another problem! It couldn't reach to the back of the orb and push it toward the vent opening!"

"Are you sure about that?" Masashi asked. "If the scepter were simply a six-foot pole, then I'd agree with you… But the scepter has something in particular that made it possible to push it!"

"Ah, I think I get what Masashi's talking about," Mari said. "One of the scepter's ends is shaped like a hook. So Abraham could've reached to the back of the orb and pushed it out."

"Argh!" Abraham exclaimed as sweat dripped down his brow. "You… You…!"

"But if that's true," Sister Hikari, "then when did he do that?"

"I reckon he had fetched the scepter and had gone to the Memory Bank with it after the nightly inspection," Masashi said. "He got the orb out of the vent with the scepter's help, and he used the scepter to pull off the trick with the boat."

"And that," Sorao said, "explains why Kasumi saw the light orb and the was-scepter, but not the bat."

"W-Wow! That was pretty creative on Abraham's part!" Kasumi said, looking a little bewildered. "I never would've guessed it! He sure is pretty cunning for a waiter!"

The others murmured in awe as Abraham's scheme had been exposed at last. Many of them looked certain that he was now the killer; Faye, in particular, showed a mix of amazement and shock, most likely because Abraham had managed to fool her.

"Y-You… You… You think you've won? Well, you're wrong!" Abraham replied.

"Huh? You're still not giving up?" Sayua asked.

"Of course not! My point from before still stands, even if the item you say I've smuggled is different now!" Abraham began. "When Faye and I went to the exhibit rooms this morning, none of the light orbs were missing! If I'd been the killer, I must've used some way to put the orb back inside! But that's impossible, since I needed Faye's key to get back into the exhibit rooms beforehand!"

Ah! Masashi thought. That's right... He made that argument way early on in the trial as well...!

"O-Oh, yeah!" Arashi said, mouth agape. "Even if he managed to get the light orb out, I don't think there was a way to put it back in the exhibit room!"

Abraham chuckled as he sneered. "Exactly. That's why the accusation against me is obviously—"

"Ah, that argument… I was waiting for when you would bring it up."

It was none other than Sorao, who had spoken coolly, his posture and expression casual and carefree.

S-Sorao...? Wh-What are you doing? Masashi thought, many of the others growing confused as well.

"You were waiting for my argument? What the hell are you talking about?" Abraham asked, looking at him with an irked expression.

"I mean… it's pretty odd, don't you think?" Sorao replied. "Remember what your first argument was after Masashi showed us why we should suspect you again?"


"You think I smuggled the damn orb out of the room?! Well, I refuse to accept this farce of an accusation!" Abraham said, his face stern. "Your argument is riddled with so many holes that even I am surprised by your damn stupidity!"

"Oh? Such as?" Haruyuki said.

"Why, the blood on the bat, of course!" Abraham replied, crossing his arms as he nodded with an indignant look. "Your accusation implies that I used the light orb as the true murder weapon, which means that I must've also planted Futaba's blood on the bat, as you argued earlier! But that was fucking impossible for me!"


"Don't you think it's odd?" Sorao asked. "He made that argument in particular, when he could've just pointed out it would've been impossible to put the light orb back if he had smuggled it out."

Maiha widened his eyes. "I… must admit that that is rather strange behavior."

"Y-You… What the fuck are you getting at?!" Abraham demanded as he gripped his tie again.

It was then that Sorao put a finger near his lips, chuckling a rather gleeful chuckle.

"You knew that if you made that argument right away, we would be much, much nearer to the truth than you would like," Sorao said, eyeing him amusedly. "That is why you tried to waste our time with persnickety arguments about the light orb's breaking, the vent's length, and whatnot. That's the truth, isn't it?"

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up right now, goddamn smartass!" Abraham yelled, his fist shaking, though whether it shook from anger or from fear, Masashi could not tell.

"I-I don't get what's going on!" Kumi said. "Wh-What's Sir Sorao trying to say?"

Haruyuki chuckled as he wagged a finger. "Ah, you don't understand his point? Then let me explain it in terms that you can understand.

"Imagine that there is a dragon, and we are knights to slay him," the art critic said, which captured the storyteller's attention at once. "The dragon can use three spells, from A to C. In the beginning of the battle, the dragon uses Spell A only, and that is enough to stop us from hurting him."

"Spell A... The argument that the killer must've used a lockpick, right?" Tanjiro said. Abraham looked as if he wanted to stop the analogy, but he said nothing as he simply clutched his tie and tightened his other fist.

"Exactly. But we knights manage to break through Spell A later," Haruyuki continued. "What do you think the dragon does next? Assume that you know that Spell B is a powerful spell that the dragon can use only if he cannot use Spell A, and Spell C is a weak but nonetheless annoying spell to deal with."

"Um... Use Spell B?" Kumi said. "I don't see why he would go with Spell C, anyway."

"That is what you think the dragon would do next," Haruyuki said. "But here's a surprise: he doesn't use Spell B. He uses Spell C again and again until he can't. Why?"

"Hmm... Maybe... Spell B is costly in some way?" Murphy said. "I'd only go for Spell C if I knew that I couldn't recover somehow from Spell B."

Haruyuki chuckled. "Precisely. In this case, let's say that if Spell B is used, an opening to the dragon's heart is exposed, which gives us an opportunity to kill the dragon."

"Spell B... is Abraham's argument that he couldn't have taken the light orb back to the second exhibit room," Masashi said. "And Spell C... is all the other arguments that he threw at us."

"Oh! I get it now! It makes sense!" Kumi said, clapping his hands.

"But, uh, what's the opening to the dragon's heart meant to be?" Arashi asked.

Now it was Sorao that chuckled. "You don't get it? The opening to the heart... is the lie in Abraham's argument, of course."

"Wh-What?! Lie?!" Abraham exclaimed. "B-Bullshit! There is no lie in my argument! It truly is impossible for me to have put the light orb back in the second exhibit room!"

"Oh, oh, I know!" Kumi said, raising his hand excitedly. "Maybe you actually put the orb back into the room this morning! But as part of your trick, you hid the orb with some kind of spell to make it invisible! That's how Lady Faye didn't see you with the orb!"

"Enough of your goddamn bullshit already!" Abraham yelled as he slammed his fist on his podium. "You wasted our fucking time by making those other idiots give you a stupid-ass analogy, so shut the fuck up, you goddamn worthless shit-for-brains!"

Wait a minute… I think Kumi's on to something here! Masashi thought. Obviously, there was no magic involved, but there didn't need to be!

"No, I think Kumi has a point here," Masashi said. "Now that I think about it, there was only one opportunity when you could've put the orb back into the room: this morning's inspection!"

"Wh-What?!" Abraham exclaimed.

"Faye, you said that after you guys headed inside," Masashi said, "you were busy turning on the light orbs in the first exhibit room."

Faye gasped. "Why, that's right! While I was doing that, Abraham had already gone inside! He had some time before I went there!"

"So I got it right! Hooray, then!" Kumi said. "We're one step closer to figuring out how Sir Abraham tricked us all!"

"But I still don't see how Abraham is wrong," Murphy said. "When we still thought that the bat had been smuggled out, he pointed out that it was impossible to hide the bat on his person. Isn't it the same for the light orb?"

"True… it would've been downright impossible to hide the bat from Faye," Haruyuki said.

Sorao flicked a fringe of his hair. "But you know... doesn't that sound related to a certain issue we had earlier? You know, the reason why the killer could've taken the bat... but instead went for the light orb."

"Oh!" Sister Hikari exclaimed. "A-Are you saying that...?"

"Yep. When Abraham first made the argument about not being able to put the bat back in the room... he was absolutely right," Sorao answered. "But when he made the same argument with the light orb... this time, he lied. Why? There's one main difference between the light orb and the bat, besides their functionality."

One main difference...? Ah! Masashi thought, nearly starting upon the realization. So that's it! That's why Abraham didn't take the bat at all!

"It's the size," Masashi answered at once. "The light orb is much smaller than the bat, and so Abraham was able to smuggle the orb back into the second exhibit room."

Abraham scoffed as he waved his hand dismissively. "But I wasn't seen holding the orb, fucking maggots! If you're suggesting that I somehow hid the orb from Faye, then I ask you: how?!"

Think, Masashi, think! Masashi thought, feeling rather excited as he sensed that the trial was near its end. Given the circumstances in which Abraham could've done it… how did he pull off the last step of his scheme? He didn't use the size alone... He must've used something to help him!


Hangman's Gambit

Question: When Abraham and Faye went to the exhibit rooms this morning, what did Abraham use to smuggle in the light orb in his possession?

?-?-?-?-?-?

Let's see here… Why did the two go to the exhibit rooms in the first place? Oh, right, they needed to transport the rations that Futaba had requested.

B-?-?-?-?-?

Ah! The rations were many cans of food, and so they couldn't simply hold them with their hands!

B-A-?-?-?-?

Yeah, that's right! Both Abraham and Faye used baskets to hold in the rations!

B-A-S-K-?-?

The baskets had lids on them, so Abraham could've put the orb in the basket and hidden it in his cans of food!

B-A-S-K-E-T

And since the baskets can hold in about fifteen cans of food, I reckon Abraham's basket could've carried the orb!

BASKET

"That's it!" Masashi said as he looked him in the eye. "You must've hidden the orb in your basket of rations!"

"What have you just said?!" Abraham exclaimed, fright apparent in his eyes.

"You and Faye headed there this morning to move the cans of food that Monokuma had delivered earlier," Masashi explained. "You said so as well during the investigation."


"But that's not all," Abraham then added. "Around 6:30 this morning, I woke up and headed over to the dining room, where the thirty cans of food and ten gallons of water had been transported by Monokuma. It was part of the rations that Futaba had asked for."

Faye scratched her cheek. "Well, I woke up a bit later than Abraham. By the time I was ready, he had already gone there and filled in his basket with half the given cans. Each of us was supposed to carry fifteen cans."

Masashi remembered that before the body discovery, Faye had complained about Abraham's behavior, so this must have been the occasion that she had been talking about.

"Anyway, after I filled in my basket with the remaining cans, we came here to move the rations as we had the morning before," Faye continued. "After I unlocked the door to the first exhibit room, for about a minute, I was busy turning on the light orbs in that room, while Abraham had gone ahead and turned the lights on in this room. But once I was done and came here, he had already turned on all the orbs in his room and had unpacked his basket of cans."

"What can I say? I'm a quick worker, unlike my partner here," Abraham said snidely.


Faye gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "Ah! I never bothered to check the contents of his basket! When I arrived at the dining room, Abraham had already arrived there. Half the cans were already gone, and I just assumed that he had simply put them in his basket!"

"But in truth, he had already put the orb inside," Masashi said, "and he knew that you had no reason to scrutinize his basket. And since the baskets have lids on them, he managed to hide the orb and fool you fully!"

"Ah… Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Faye exclaimed, shock rushing through her face.

"So Abraham was relying on Faye to act like that?" Tanjiro asked.

"Seems so. The two had transported the rations yesterday as well, so he'd already seen how Faye would act," Sorao said. "And even if he had failed in taking the orb back to the room because, say, Faye woke up earlier than he had expected… it wouldn't have been a problem, I imagine. He'd just put the light orb elsewhere on the ship, and the only drawback is that the light orb's involvement in the crime would be revealed."

"So that's why he risked taking the light orb back to the second exhibit room," Mari said, nodding along. "Ideally, all traces of the light orb's involvement would be erased. Kasumi's witness account wouldn't have been a problem, since the killer had wanted us to doubt her, anyway."

"Wow! That's a pretty sneaky way to smuggle something!" Kasumi said, looking impressed. "It's pretty situational, but hey, it worked, so I guess I can't really complain!"

"Since the size of the light orb was an important factor in his plan," Maiha added, "it's clear at last why he didn't go for the bat in the very beginning."

"Abraham couldn't have smuggled the bat back in if he had smuggled it out," Haruyuki said, nodding along. "The size would've made it impossible to hide during this morning's transporting of the rations. But the light orb was much smaller, which gave him the opportunity to hide it in his basket."

"Grgh!" Abraham groaned as he flinched.

"Well, Abraham?" Masashi said. "If you have any arguments, please, tell us. But I think it's pretty clear how you pulled off your complicated scheme."

Masashi was somewhat relieved to see fear and dread on the waiter's face, thinking that he would give up and admit everything at long last. And for the next few seconds, Abraham stayed silent as he glowered, his eyes full of loathing and silent cursing. From what Masashi could tell, the others too thought that he had no counterargument left. It was over, or so it seemed.

But as Masashi was about to open his mouth, however, a quiet laugh came from the waiter, and the more time passed, the louder it grew. So haughty was the laugh that the confidence that the others had in their judgment changed into fearful confusion instead.

"You… You think you've had me?" Abraham said. "Well, sorry to fucking disappoint you, but I'll confess to nothing that came out of your goddamn mouth!"

Wh-What?! Masashi thought. He's still not given up yet!

Abraham smirked an arrogant smirk. "You spew out all that bullshit about access, vents, and smuggling, but you've forgotten one very, very crucial detail! That is… the size of the baskets!"

"The… size?" Masashi raised his brow. "What do you mean?"

"You see, each basket can barely hold fifteen cans," Abraham answered. "In other words, putting anything else in a basket of fifteen cans is impossible, unless that object is incredibly small.

"But!" Abraham made a swift motion with his right hand. "There are two things to remember: one, the light orb is no small object. I'd say that it's the size of several cans. And two, when Faye went to the second exhibit room with her basket of rations, I had already unpacked the cans in my basket. And she saw that there were exactly fifteen cans in the pile that I had just unloaded!"

"And… so what?" Sayua said. "How does that show you couldn't have done it?"

"You idiotic maggot! Is it not clear enough for you?!" Abraham said. "If I had tried to smuggle the light orb in my basket, there must have been far fewer cans to allow for room for the orb! But I most certainly had fifteen cans in my basket! That none of you fucking maggots can deny! In short, it is impossible for me to have smuggled the light orb by using the basket!"

"Aah... Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" Masashi exclaimed, utterly surprised by the force in his argument. "That… That is…!"

"I don't really want to say it, but Abraham's right!" Arashi said. "However you look at it, it definitely was impossible!"

"Yeah, and I don't think Abraham changed the basket somehow to fit in the orb," Tanjiro said. "We can check out the baskets ourselves if we're still unsure about that."

"M-Maybe Sir Abraham used shrinking magic to make the orb fit, then!" Kumi suggested less meekly than before.

"I told you to shut your fucking mouth and spare us from your endless bullshit about fairies and whatever!" Abraham exclaimed. "Anyway, it's impossible that I did what the goddamn idiot over there has accused me of doing! And so I can't be the culprit!"

"I… I can't vote for him in good conscience unless this is resolved," Sister Hikari said. "He's certainly uncouth, to say the least, but that doesn't detract from his argument."

"Y-Yeah, the culprit's got to be someone else, th-then!" Hikari said.

To Masashi's horror, more and more of the class appeared in agreement that they should not vote for Abraham. Notwithstanding all the conclusions made up to this point, it took only one persuasive counterargument to destroy all that work.

"No… No, that can't be it at all!" Masashi said. He was certain that Abraham was the killer, but until he figured out Abraham's last trick, he would not convince his peers to think so. "There may still have been another way for you to pull it off. You must've used a certain trick."

Let's see here… was there really a way for Abraham to smuggle in the light orb with his fifteen cans of food? Masashi thought. Given the size of the basket...

"I don't think Abraham could've put the fifteen cans and the light orb in his basket," Masashi continued. Abraham might be clever, but he most certainly could do nothing about the basket's capacity. "He must've put only five cans or so and the orb inside."

"So could he have hidden the other cans on his person, then?" Tanjiro asked.

"No… I don't think so," Faye said. "The cans aren't that small, and if he had managed to put ten of them on his person, he would've had to walk very carefully to avoid letting even one fall."

Abraham sneered as he crossed his arms. "You see? It was impossible to sneak the cans and the light orb at the same time!"

"That may be true… but that doesn't mean you couldn't have found another way to fool Faye," Masashi said.

Let's see here… since Abraham couldn't have taken anything from outside to help him, Masashi thought, he must have used something from the second exhibit room while Faye wasn't looking. Once I point out what it is, I'll have exposed his last trick!

Abraham frowned as he glared at his accuser. "You won't give up? What will it take for you to drop your bullshit? Well, fine by me! I'll make you fucking give up! You'll see how stupid, stupid, stupid you were for accusing me!"


Argument Armament: Abraham Zargari

"Shut the fuck up!"

No, you shut up!

"What you say is nothing but bullshit!"

No, it's not! You're the only one that could've done it!

"You've got the wrong man, bastard!"

No, I'm certain it's you!

"Honestly, someone should drill this right into your fucking skull!"

Oh, that's not happening any time soon!

"Don't you fuck with me with your bluffing!"

I won't give up! It's not an option here!

"You and your goddamn accusations can go to hell!"

You're not making this easier for either of us, you know!

"You fucking piss me off with your attitude!"

Ugh… Listening to you is really starting to get annoying.

"Fuck off with your bluffs!"

No… Sorry, Abraham, but that's not true at all.

"I couldn't have smuggled the orb!"

No, I'm pretty certain you could have!

"Impossible… Impossible!"

It is possible!

"What is the so-called trick that I used to fool Faye?"

Masashi readied himself and gave the waiter the answer that he had desperately hoped that he could not figure out:

You used yesterday's cans of rations!

"Wh… What?" Abraham said much more quietly, as if his answer had bereft him of his boldness. "What on earth... are you talking about?"

"Remember that yesterday morning, you and Faye transported rations as well? You put in the second exhibit room a total of thirty cans," Masashi said. "And this morning, you guys found that ten cans from that pile were missing."

"O-Oh, yeah, that's right!" Faye said. "I completely forgot about that!"

"A-And?" Abraham said nervously. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Here's the thing… you hid the light orb in the basket, that's for sure," Masashi continued. "But to do that, you needed to make room in the basket, so you needed to take a certain number of cans out of the basket. That, however, led to a new problem: how would you explain the smaller number of cans in your basket when you had to unload them?"

"Ah!" Faye said. "Don't tell me that he… used the cans from yesterday's pile!"

Masashi nodded. "When you went into the second exhibit room, Abraham had already unloaded his pile of cans, or so he wanted you to think. But the truth is, to make up for the missing cans, he simply substituted them with cans from yesterday's pile of cans. He had time to do so, since he also needed to put the light orb in its original place."

"Oh, so that's how he fooled Faye," Sorao remarked. "He made it look as if he had unloaded fifteen cans from his basket, when in truth, he had unloaded far fewer and had taken the rest from another pile."

"A-Argh!" Abraham groaned, his confidence dwindling.

"But wait… Where are the ten cans that Abraham never took with him to the exhibit room?" Sister Hikari asked.

"Yeah, we've looked through the ships and haven't found them!" Faye said.

"Well… if you wanted to hide something from the rest of us, where would you put it?" Haruyuki asked.

Arashi gasped. "His room! He must've taken the ten cans to his room before Miss Nirigiri woke up and met with him!"

"Grrk! You... goddamn... maggot!" Abraham uttered but with much less boldness and energy.

"W-Wait, why didn't Abraham g-get rid of the cans wh-when he c-could?" Hikari asked. "I-I mean... those cans are p-pretty incriminating..."

"I imagine that it was impossible to get rid of them," Sorao answered. "After all, he couldn't have very well thrown them out into the sea. That would've been against the rules."

"Indeed. It was rather easy to dispose of the silver thread that he had used to smuggle out the light orb, I imagine," Haruyuki said, "but metallic containers were another story. So he simply thought it safest to hide them in his room, which no one but him could access."

"So, Abraham, it appears that your last trick's been exposed at last," Masashi said, unwilling to stop now until he heard a confession from the man. "I'm sure that if Captain Monokuma lets us search your room, we'll find exactly ten cans of food there."

"N-No! You can't...!" Abraham protested, his voice still showing some strength.

"Puhuhuhuhuhuhu!" Monokuma said. "I generally don't hold recesses, but you've certainly given me more than enough reason that I'm willing to approve a search!"

"Wh-WHAT?!" Abraham exclaimed, his voice filled with fear. "N-No... Th-This can't be happening...! No, no, no, no, no!"

"Well, Abraham?" Haruyuki said. "Do you wish to have us search your room, or will you admit to your misdeed here and now?"

"Either way," Maiha said, "you are done for."

"And that," Masashi finished, "should be good enough evidence to show that you killed Futaba Inoshishi!"

"Aah…. Aah… I… I… I...!"

Abraham said no more and hung down his head.

A few seconds passed, and it was clear that he had lost all willingness to resist anymore. Though glad that things would soon be over at last, Masashi was far sadder that things had to end up like this. Like last time, he would have to say another of his peers leave, and however irksome and unlikeable Abraham might be, he was still his fellow man, and he did not deserve to die. Nonetheless, it was too late to have things go differently. He had to make everything clear for the others, and afterwards, he could go back to the peace that he had thought that they all had managed to achieve.

"It's time to show the truth of your scheme," Masashi said. "After I'm done, I expect to hear a confession from you. Do you understand?"

Abraham said nothing, which Masashi took as a sign that he understood full well what was going on.


Closing Argument

"First of all, the killer wrote two notes," Masashi began. "One was to Futaba, and hers told her to go to the Memory Bank that night, with a seeming reassurance that it was safe to do so. The other was to Kasumi, and it told her to go to the Memory Bank at 1:00 AM. The note also told Kasumi to destroy it.

"The killer now needed to get the murder weapon, which was behind locked doors. Around 7 PM, the killer and Faye did their nightly inspection of the exhibit rooms. But after the two left the rooms, the killer asked Faye to unlock the door, claiming that they had dropped a pen inside. In truth, however, the killer used that time by themselves in the rooms for two things. One was to make it look as if a metal bat in the second exhibit room were the murder weapon. The killer did so by using one of the knives stowed in that room to make a small wound on their body. The blood was then planted on the bat, and the killer used the bandages that they had secretly brought to cover the wound.

"The other task was to smuggle one of the second exhibit room's light orbs out. The killer used the white thread, which they had also hidden on their person. They tied the thread to the light orb and then rolled the orb through the vent in the first exhibit room. They then grabbed the thread and used it to safely lower the orb, since it would break if simply left to drop from a great height. Once the killer determined that the orb had touched the bottom of the vent, they then left the exhibit rooms. Of course, Faye inspected the killer with her metal detector, and from the findings, she thought that the killer had not tried to smuggle anything out, which was exactly what the killer wanted her to think.

"Now the killer needed to get the orb. They took the was-scepter from the living room and went to the Memory Bank with it sometime before 9:00 PM, since that was when Murphy would arrive at the fourth deck to do his painting. Because of the scepter's hook-like end, they could use it to get the orb from the vent. The whole complicated scheme with the vent was due to the fact that it was against the rules to crawl in the vents.

"With the murder weapon, the killer was ready at last. To trick Futaba into thinking that it was safe to go to the Memory Bank, they pressed the power button on their boat, as the boats' movements are all automatic. Of course, that meant that the killer was stranded on that side, but that was a risk that they were willing to take. The killer then waited in the Memory Bank for a long while.

"Their waiting, sadly enough, paid off, as Futaba made her way to the Memory Bank. She saw no boats on the Memory Bank side of the river, so she assumed that no one was there. But when she went there, the killer then ambushed her and struck her with the light orb, which killed her.

"Now the killer planned to pose as Futaba to make it look as if Kasumi had killed her later. The killer turned on the music function of the light orb, wrote Kasumi's name with blood on the back of Futaba's note, and went into Futaba's pod. For the next few hours, they watched her memories, making the History log function of her pod record these actions.

"When Kasumi arrived at the Memory Bank at 12:59 AM, the music suddenly changed. After all, a special feature of the music function was that it would change if the number of people in the room changed. The killer then abruptly stopped their current memory, knowing that Kasumi had arrived. Frightened by the body discovery and her name written on the note, Kasumi then fled the scene at once, which caused the music to change again.

"The killer then got out of the pod at 1:00 AM exactly and checked the scene to make sure that everything should be as they wanted. Afterwards, they picked up the scepter and the orb, turned off the music, and left the Memory Bank. To get back to the other side of the river, they simply used the boat that Futaba had ridden on, and they used the same trick as before to send it back to the Memory Bank side. The killer had no problem with putting the scepter back in the living room and getting rid of the silver thread from earlier.

"There was one last part to their scheme: smuggling the orb back into the second exhibit room. The killer woke up early and found in the dining room the supply of rations given by Monokuma. They then filled the basket with only five of the cans and the light orb, the remaining ten cans hidden in their room. They needed five exactly, because there were thirty cans in total, and the killer and Faye were each to move fifteen cans.

"Once Faye woke up and finished her preparations, she and the killer went to the exhibit rooms. At that point, the killer had to move quickly. Faye was busy turning on the light orbs in the first exhibit room, so during that time, inside the second exhibit room, the killer not only put the orb back to its original spot but also took ten cans from yesterday's pile of rations. They then combined those cans with the five cans from this morning's provisions, and thus, they completed the illusion that fifteen cans had been in their basket all along. Faye was completely taken in when she went there and unloaded her basket.

"And so, the trick was complete! The many complicated parts of this scheme made it look as if the killer had needed permanent access to the second exhibit room, which the killer definitely lacked!"

Masashi then pointed at the culprit, who could only show a weak scowl. "Now that your scheme has been shown in full detail, will you confess at last, Abraham Zargari, the Ultimate Waiter?!"

Once Masashi was done, all the innocents looked at the waiter, amazed that he had managed to pull off a rather complicated scheme and had almost gotten away with it. The doubts and uncertainties that he had effected in them had undoubtedly been many, but in the end, all his work had been made utterly meaningless.

"Abraham?" Faye asked, looking somewhat worried. "Are… Are you all right?"

For the next few seconds, he said nothing, but as Masashi thought that he planned to accept the result in silence, the waiter opened his mouth.

"I… I can't believe it…" he uttered. "To be beaten… by cans of food of all things… This… has to be a fucking bad joke..."

"So… you admit it?" Sorao said, staring at him with a hint of seriousness. "You're the one that killed Lady Inoshishi?"

"And you're the one that framed me for the crime?" Kasumi said.

Abraham, however, turned away not only from him but also from all the others.

"Just get on with the vote already," Abraham said. "I have nothing else to say."

Though it had been fully clear that he was the killer, to hear his words of resignation shocked many of the others for a few seconds. To hear a fellow human give up on his life like that was very hard to handle, to say the least.

A few seconds later, however, the silence was broken by a certain bear's laughter.

"All right, now, I'm sure you're all tired and hungry, so let's get to the voting!" Monokuma said. "You can sate your appetite for information afterwards! Now, then, it's… Voting Time!"

Like last time, the podiums' panels turned on, showing the square with the students' faces on it. Without further ado, Masashi voted for Abraham.

"The voting has finished!" Monokuma said. "Let's go ahead and see the results!"

The courtroom's monitors turned on, all showing a unanimous result for Abraham.

Monokuma chortled as he set his paws over his mouth. "Who will be chosen as the blackened?! Will you make the right choice or the dreadfully wrong one?!"

Then the roulette wheel with the participants' pixelated faces showed up, and the spinning wheel stopped at Abraham's pocket. The usual signs of celebration showed up, signaling the class trial's end.


Surprise! The killer was Asshole Waiter all along. How many of you guys thought that he was suspicious?

What was a clue that Abraham had done it? After the previous chapter, it was possible to figure out that it was Abraham. The killing was obviously not a suicide, so Futaba is out. Kasumi couldn't have done it (and I think it was possible to figure that out after the investigation chapter), and because of the timing, neither Maiha nor Haruyuki could've done it. That means that all three people with lockpicks and thus full access to the exhibit rooms are out. And since the killer had to have some level of access, all characters with no access are out as well. That leaves Abraham and Faye, each of whom had half-access, but Faye never had an opportunity to go to the second exhibit room by herself and do anything with the bat, which leaves Abraham by process of elimination.

Anyway, like last time, the trial's aftermath and the execution will be shown in the next chapter, and I'll give my thoughts on Abraham then.