Masashi could not believe the sight of the dead body lying before him. It had been dreadful enough to stumble upon a corpse, but now, he must face the fact that two people were now gone. He had last seen Murphy a few hours ago, expecting that he could always see him later, but he was now gone, even having told him his last words. And it had been only a few minutes ago when he had last seen Sister Hikari well and alive, but now, she lay before him, never to smile or laugh. And worst of all, this had happened on the night when they were supposed to send a distress signal to the outside world. Tonight was supposed to have inspired hope in everyone, and yet, this was by far the most despairing sight that he had seen.
"Why… Why did this have to happen?" Faye said with teary eyes as she and the others, standing by the doorway, beheld the sight.
"This is most deplorable…" Maiha said, her glare cold.
"Heh heh… No, no, I'm not scared at all, no way, no how!" Kasumi said, her hand set on her red mask, her smile unusually blithesome.
"N-No one's fooled, you know..." Hikari said, glowering. "Even for a killing, th-this is rather extreme."
Sorao said nothing, but his scowl looked far nastier than Masashi would expect, given that he usually put up a cool and relaxed face. Haruyuki too looked far more surprised than one would expect. Perhaps Sister Hikari's corpse had exceeded his every expectation as to what lengths a killer would go to escape this place.
"No… it's happening again…"
Kumi stepped forth, his every step full of fear and trepidation, but no sooner had he taken four steps than he fell on his knees, his teddy bear falling from his grasp.
"Wh-Why… Why is it happening again?!" he cried out, clutching his head with both hands. "Why… Why… WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!"
His screaming silenced all who beheld the scene. He let out grisly howls, sounding more like a wolf in its death throes than a man, even though it came from someone as small as a child. All the students backed away nearly at the same time as if it were sheer instinct, saying nothing as the boy shrieked like a broken alarm, pulled his knees to his chest, and covered his face with his hands. Masashi neared him, hoping that he could try to soothe him, but once he touched him on the back, he thrashed about, as if bereft of his ability to distinguish between friend and foe. Scuttling away, Masashi could hardly think that this was the same boy as he was used to seeing.
The screaming soon came to an end, and his voice having waned into a pathetic whimper, the storyteller stopped moving, looking like a baby quietly weeping. All looked at the sight for a moment, stricken by shock. Mari soon approached him, and this time, he did not attack her as she embraced him and quietly moved him to the sidelines. All this had taken place in seconds, Masashi knew, but it had felt much longer, as if the scream, with its dreadful might, had somehow warped his sense of time.
"Sheesh… He sure is wrought up about this," Sorao said, though the somewhat relaxed expression on his face belied his tone.
"That's putting it very lightly," Tanjiro added, looking slightly less uneasy. "And am I the only one thinking there's something weird about what he said?"
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"He said something about how 'it's happening again'..." Tanjiro explained. "It didn't sound odd to me at first, but now that I think about it, I don't remember hearing anything like that when we found Futaba's body."
"Nor did he say anything like that when he came up to us and saw that Murphy was dead," Haruyuki said.
"That is a curious matter, indeed, but there is a far weightier matter to delve into," Maiha interjected. "We heard a body discovery announcement shortly after we discovered Sister Hikari's body. Who was it that you found?"
Masashi explained what had happened ever since the blackout had happened, and his tale shocked the others as they marveled at how Murphy had still been alive when they had discovered him.
"Oh... Oh my God..." Tanjiro muttered. "I can't believe it... Murphy was attacked as well..."
"Yeah, I certainly didn't see that coming!" Faye said. "To think that two of us have been killed!"
"Hmm... Are we sure that we are not out of trouble yet?" Haruyuki said. "One of us is still missing."
Masashi gasped as soon as he looked around. "Sayua! Where is she?"
"Technically, none of us have found her," Maiha answered, looking none too bothered. "However, the boat on the lower third deck was missing during the blackout. As the rest of us are now here, and the Irishman now lies dead in the staff lounge, it's clear that she must have ridden on it earlier and become stuck on the ride once the power turned off."
Tanjiro sighed in relief. "At least I can see that in all likelihood she's in no danger."
"I'll go get her," Sorao said at once. "I should imagine she's pretty confused about what's going on, even with the announcements having played."
Once Sorao left the room, Faye glanced down at Kumi, who was still sobbing, albeit quietly. "Uh... shouldn't we do something about him? I don't think he's recovered from this."
"Oh! Maybe a drink will help him feel better!" Arashi said, slamming a fist on his other hand's palm. "I remember hearing from him that he likes milky tea, and if I remember correctly, it's sold in the arcade's vending machines! Let me go get a few cans!"
"Yeah, that sounds good..." Masashi said, nodding. Though he doubted that it would help him that much, at this point, he would not want the storyteller to fall apart even more.
"Let me go with you!" It was Kasumi, who raised her hand. "I need to go to the restroom! And there's a restroom in the arcade, right?"
"I beseech you to take her with you," Maiha said, frowning a little. "She began to complain about her stomach during our search, and I would rather not have her be any more nettlesome with her constant complaints."
"Well... I guess it all works out!" Arashi said, having looked uncertain at first. "All right, let's go!"
Arashi and Kasumi left the room, and for the next few minutes, the group simply waited for the departed students to return. Sometime later, Arashi and Kasumi returned, the former of whom held a few cans of milky tea, and the latter of whom apologized for having been longer in the restroom than she had expected. Arashi tried to give Kumi the cans of tea, but the storyteller barely acknowledged him, looking as if he had lost his wits.
"Let me have them," Mari said plainly. "I don't think he's in any state to respond."
Right after Mari received them, the door opened again, and in came Sorao and the missing cheerleader, whom most showed relief to see.
"Oh! Oh, holy crap!" Sayua cried out as soon as she turned her head toward the body. "You weren't kidding when you said the dead broad's body wasn't pleasant to look at!"
"Wait... what?" Faye said. "You know that Sister Hikari's been killed?"
"Ah, let me explain," Sorao said. Though he showed a look of concern, for some reason, Masashi had the impression that he did not feel all too worried. "It was as Maiha had said: Sayua was on the ride downstairs. I waited there a few seconds, and she came riding the boat. Once she got off, I explained to her what had happened."
"Sheesh... and the Irish guy's dead as well, or so I hear," Sayua said, looking more annoyed than disturbed by these developments. "What the hell's going on?"
Before anyone could offer any answer, however, all heard the sound that heralded the captain's coming, and Monokuma had popped up before Sister Hikari's corpse.
"Well, now, everyone's here at last!" Monokuma said, his face relaxed as if he had just taken a hot bath. "It sure took longer than I'd have liked, but that's all right. My friends call me Monokuma the Patient for a reason, I'll have you know."
"Monokuma!" Tanjiro said. "Wh-What are you doing here?"
"Oh, come on, Tanjiro boy, we've done this twice already! Surely you've gotten the hang of the program by now!" Monokuma said, clutching his stomach. "But then again, if truth be told, you are kind of slow, so I don't really blame you anymore."
"I-I'm not slow…" the writer replied, looking irked.
"Then you admit it's your fault you didn't understand me! Good to know!" Monokuma replied, at which Tanjiro grew even more irked, though he said nothing.
Monokuma then gave each student Monokuma File 3, but as for Kumi, who was still quietly blubbering over this tragedy, Mari took it in his stead. At once, the students read the report of the latest victims:
"This time, there are two victims: Murphy O'Hagan and Hikari Shinto.
"Murphy O'Hagan's cause of death was a single blow to the back of the head. The victim survived for some time after the attack. No other injuries have been found.
"Hikari Shinto's cause of death were several piercings to the back with metallic arrows. The victim appears to have died instantly. No other injuries have been found."
Masashi raised his brow. "Wait… Is this it?"
"Well, it's not surprising," Sorao replied, putting away his Monokuma File. "We don't know the exact time of death, but we already know when Sister Hikari died."
"Indeed," Maiha said, nodding. "We discovered her body while the lights were still off."
"And we saw Murphy die after the power had been restored," Haruyuki said, adjusting his gray scarf. "Since he died before our very eyes, it means that Sister Hikari's death happened earlier."
"Hey, now that I think about it…" Faye said, looking less upset. "Since there are two killings, which one of us is the blackened?"
"O-Oh, yeah…" Hikari mumbled. "I-I haven't thought about that at all."
Maiha took out her Monopad. "There's a rule that addresses this issue. It says: 'If two different killings by two different killers happen in the same time period, only the killer of the earlier death is deemed the blackened'."
"So it means only Sister Hikari's killer is the blackened!" Arashi concluded, slamming his fist into his other palm. "Then we can save time and focus only on her murder!"
"I'm not so sure about that…" Tanjiro replied, scratching his cheek. "Maybe Murphy's death has some connection to Sister Hikari's."
"And we shouldn't assume that their killers are different people," Mari said. "It's possible that the same person chose to kill them both."
"But why?" Kasumi asked, scratching her head. "Not that I'd ever try to escape, but if I wanted to, it would be enough to kill only one person, don't you think?"
Maiha crossed her arms as she looked annoyedly at the others. "Rather than stand around theorizing, we ought to start the investigation of both deaths straightaway."
"Y-Yeah…" Tanjiro nodded. "We can guess all we want, but in the end, we need to find the truth behind tonight's events…"
After more talking, it was agreed that Haruyuki and Faye would stay here to guard Sister Hikari's body, while Sorao and Hikari would guard Murphy's body. Afterwards, a few of the others left the room, off to begin their individual investigations.
"I'll stay with Kumi in the Pirates' Rest Spot," Mari said, holding him on the hand as he hung his head down listlessly. "Someone needs to look after him now... and I think that's what Sister Hikari would want."
"Oh…" Masashi said, disappointed that he would have to investigate the scene without her. "I guess that's for the best. I'll investigate by myself."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Monokuma File
"You there!" Maiha said to Sayua after Mari and Kumi had left the room. "I have some questions that I wish to ask you."
"What, me?" Sayua said. "Sure, go ahead... I've got nothing to hide, after all."
"Not here, though. I wish to talk somewhere less... unsightly."
Maiha then left, Sayua following her while mumbling something. The only ones still here were Masashi, Haruyuki, Faye, and Tanjiro.
Well, now... time to begin!
First, Masashi took a look at the body and the arrows that had slain Sister Hikari. There were so many that the body looked like a porcupine. He looked at her face, which showed hardly any shock; the one solace that he could find was that her death had been nearly instant, so she must have felt little pain. He glanced around for the murder weapon, and the answer became clear: there was a giant cannon by the wall. It was the shooter, which Masashi had yesterday bidden Sister Hikari find a way to disable. Given the number of holes in the muzzle and the fact that the corpse lay between the shooter and the wall that it faced, there was no doubt that the arrows had been shot therefrom.
Moreover, the boxes lying nearby and the wall opposite to the door even had many arrows stuck into them; judging by the position of these arrows, he thought it impossible to crawl underneath or jump over the shooter's barrage of arrows.
That's weird… Masashi thought as he glanced at the arrows once more. The shooter normally shoots paper arrows. So where did these arrows come from?
Masashi inspected the arrows, and if the bloody sight were not enough, the touch would make it clear that these were not props. "Wait a minute… I remember seeing these arrows in the arcade gift counter."
"Then it's all clear..." Haruyuki said, calmly looking down at the grisly sight. "The killer must have bought them and replaced the paper arrows before the murder."
"It's rather weird that things like this are even sold in the gift shop in the first place," Tanjiro remarked. "It even sells such things as self-help handbooks and bottles of laxatives."
"The gift shop's choice of prizes is odd, puzzling, and questionable, to say the least," Faye said.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Metallic Arrows - These metallic arrows are available in the arcade gift shop. The killer must have substituted them for the paper arrows that the shooter usually shoots out. From the position of the arrows on the wall, it seems impossible to jump over the arrows or crawl underneath them while the shooter shoots them out.
Finding nothing of note on Sister Hikari's person, he thought it best that he take a good look at this room's layout.
When he stood at the doorway, which was at the far right side of the room, the shooter was a few feet to the left. It was placed right at the middle part of the wall, and so it essentially acted as a marker that split the room into halves. It touched the wall behind it, whence it seemed that there was pretty much no space to squeeze through. On each side of the shooter was a pile of mannequins wearing sundry clothes.
"Wh-Whoa!" Masashi said as he tapped one, which fell at once, and whose fall caused a chain reaction of sorts, as some of the other mannequins fell as well.
"Masashi! Be more careful, will you?" Faye said as she rushed over and set the mannequins back up.
"S-Sorry… I didn't expect them to fall over that easily," he answered. "What are all these mannequins doing here?"
Faye paused for a few seconds. "I believe that Sister Hikari set them there when she cleaned up the room a while ago. I remember seeing these mannequins on the left and the right of the shooter."
"And when the lights came back on, the mannequins were definitely at that spot," Tanjiro added. "None of them had fallen."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Mannequins - Many mannequins are set up on both sides of the shooter. It is easy to knock them over with the slightest touch. The mannequins have apparently been in the shooter room for a while now. None of them had fallen when the lights turned back on.
Next up, Masashi thought to check the part of the wall that the shooter directly faced. The arrangement of the boxes there struck him as rather odd, as they formed a barrier of sorts as if they were guards protecting their king from all sides. Some of the upper boxes as well as part of the wall were pierced with a great deal of arrows; it was not hard to see that the arrows must have hit them during the onslaught. A pile of arrows was also on the floor; most likely, some of the arrows had failed to pierce the wall and so bounced off and fell to the floor.
As he was about to search the boxes, Masashi noticed that sitting against the right wall was a dark-purple rectangular stereo.
"That stereo!" Tanjiro said, eyes widened. "I thought I recognized it, but I definitely had seen it before!"
"Huh?" Masashi turned to Tanjiro at once. "Tanjiro, could you explain?"
The writer nodded meekly. "I-I was in this room around 7:00 PM and found this stereo lying by the mannequins. It played a pretty soothing piano tune, so I thought I could come up with some ideas for my writing with it. Hence, I took it out of this room and headed over to the staff lounge on the upper second deck. I believe I was there until about 7:45 PM, since that was when Murphy came in and told me to get out."
"He did? But why?" Faye asked.
Tanjiro sighed as he lowered his head. "There was this special game event that would soon start, and he wanted to be by himself, not wanting to lose his focus, so he told me to get out. Before I did that, though, since I was done with the music player, I put it in the lounge's closet."
Faye looked closely at the music player. "So someone must've brought it here some time later. Did you see anyone go into the staff lounge?"
Tanjiro shook his head. "No… After I was kicked out, I stood by the arcade's gift shop counter. From where I stood, I could see whether anyone passed through the hallway. But no one came into the staff lounge. In fact, the only person I stumbled upon was you, Masashi."
"Oh, I remember that," Masashi replied, recalling that he had seen him around that time. "How long were you there?"
Tanjiro scratched his cheek. "Hmm… I think I left the lounge around 7:45 PM. I wanted to go back to my room, so I left the pirates' cove sometime later. Arashi was working on the fireworks on the main deck, so he can back me up here. Afterwards, though, when I arrived at the woodland kingdom…"
He sighed once more. "I wandered around the ship for some time, and when I arrived at the playroom, I happened to see Kumi play around some more. I thought it'd be good to spend some time with someone, even though it ended up being a little… awkward."
"Awkward?" Haruyuki asked. "In what aspect?"
"Well, to pass the time, he told me one of his tales, but he didn't seem to enjoy being around me," Tanjiro continued. "For instance... he kept telling me a tale that had two villains that had a startling resemblance to me and Sayua."
"Oh... Oh, my, that's one way for him to show antagonism, I suppose," Haruyuki said.
Yeah, as Kasumi said a while ago, that's his special way of being passive-aggressive, Masashi thought. I wonder whether relations between Kumi and Team Tomi will ever improve...
Tanjiro sighed. "I bore with it, though, since I thought maybe he'd warm up to me eventually. But more importantly… I eventually wanted to go to the restroom, so I left for the men's restroom on the upper deck. When I came back, though, I didn't see him anywhere. Instead, I found Mari in the playroom."
"Mari? Come to think of it, she was playing with Kumi when I had last seen her before the blackout," Masashi said.
"I asked her where Kumi had gone, and apparently, she had come back from taking a break in her room," Tanjiro answered. "Then she had let him go to the arcade by himself. Afterwards, we headed outside… and as you may have guessed, the blackout had already happened."
"All right… what about the music player?" Masashi asked. "Do you know where it came from?"
"Oh!" Faye gasped. "Now I remember! It's a prize offered in the arcade gift shop! Apparently, it's supposed to be a toy that's meant to be 'surprising'."
"Yeah… upon being touched on two of its sides, it'll play a piano tune and stop after a certain amount of time," Tanjiro answered. "There's a button to adjust the volume, but it's on the bottom half of one of its sides."
Haruyuki turned the player around in sundry directions and looked at its sides. "How intriguing… this toy's volume is set all the way up to maximum."
"And not only that," Tanjiro added, "but there's also a button to have it give off a dim light. So it can act like a lantern."
"What a strange feature to add..." Haruyuki mumbled as he raised his eyes. "I wonder what audience its designer had in mind."
"Most likely children," Faye said. "It's essentially a nightlight that can play music."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Music Player - Tanjiro found it lying in the Shooter Room around 7:00 PM and took it with him to the staff lounge. But around 7:45 PM, Murphy came in and told him to get out. Before he did so, Tanjiro put it in the staff lounge's closet. For some reason, when discovered in the shooter room during the investigation, it has its volume set to maximum. Upon being touched on any of its sides, it plays music automatically. It also has a function to give off a dim light.
Masashi then looked around some more and saw that to the left of the boxes and the arrows that had become stuck onto the wall was the red button to activate the shooter. There was a white sign taped above it saying "DO NOT PRESS - PAPER ARROWS WILL BE SHOT OUT OF SHOOTER".
"I saw Sister Hikari post this warning," Faye said. "I heard from her that she couldn't fully disable the shooter, so she had to put this up."
"Yet tragedy still befell us," Haruyuki said quietly. "It makes the whole event all the pitifuller, truly…"
Masashi noticed that to the left of the button was a circular window, from which a draft flew into the room. It certainly looked large enough for anyone, even someone as small as Kumi, to fit through. Noticeably, the window was slightly open.
"The window's open?" Tanjiro said. "That's weird… It wasn't like that when I came here earlier by myself. But now that I think about it, I believe it was open when I came here with Sister Hikari..."
Masashi turned around at once, looking him in the eye. "Tanjiro! You came in here earlier with Sister Hikari?"
"O-Oh, yeah… You don't know what happened after we split up," Tanjiro replied. "Our group—Sorao, Maiha, Sister Hikari, Kasumi, and I—headed down to this deck. It was then that Sorao suggested that we split up to cover more ground."
"He did?"
Tanjiro nodded, his expression looking rather troubled. "I didn't really have in mind any particular location to check out, so I absent-mindedly mentioned the storage rooms as a possible place of interest. But as soon as I said that, Sorao insisted that I go check them. It was kind of weird... but I didn't really think much of it at the time. Afterwards, I asked Sister Hikari to accompany me."
Hmm… So Sorao insisted that Tanjiro investigate those rooms, Masashi thought. And Sorao was the one who also had suggested in the first place that we split up...
"In the end, it was agreed that Kasumi should go with Maiha to the lower third deck, and that Sorao should search the Pirates' Rest Spot by himself," Tanjrio said. "But it's the weirdest thing… Sister Hikari and I came into this room. It was completely dark, save for a light in the other end of the room."
"It was the music player, right?" Masashi said.
Tanjiro nodded. "We thought it was weird that the music player was there, but we headed toward it anyway. When Sister Hikari touched the player, however, all of a sudden, we heard music coming from it! It was a piano tune, and it was extremely loud!"
"Then what did you do next?" Haruyuki asked.
"Well, we were confused as to what was going on, but Sister Hikari handed me the music player, since she wanted to see what was in these boxes," Tanjiro answered, the unease on his face growing. "I was trying to find the button to turn the music off, but since it was dark, I accidentally pressed the button for its light instead. It would've been completely dark but for our flashlights.
"And all of a sudden, I heard something… getting struck." Tanjiro gulped, his hands shaking. "I… I turned around and shone my light at Sister Hikari. At least… I thought it was Sister Hikari. But instead, all I saw was… was…"
He shuddered as he wrapped his arms around his stomach. "It was her corpse lying down on the floor... It took me a few seconds to realize what was going before I let out a scream in shock."
"Oh… Oh dear…" Faye said. "I can't imagine what it'd be like if I'd been there. To be standing next to Sister Hikari one second, and to see her dead the next!"
"Yeah… I suppose I ought to thank my lucky stars, though. Had I not moved away a few seconds earlier, I should've definitely met my demise!" Tanjiro said, quivering as his face grew a little pale. "Anyway… the music soon stopped. I heard footsteps, and when I saw the door open, it turned out to be Sorao, who yelped in surprise upon seeing all this. He stood at the doorway for a few seconds before coming nearer to me. And a few seconds later, Kasumi and Maiha arrived as well!"
"Then that's when the body discovery announcement played, right?" Masashi asked, to which the writer nodded. "Hmm… Did you see anyone else in the room before the shooter was activated?"
"N-No... but we didn't really look around the room when we entered," he answered. "I suppose it's possible that someone was hiding in here. Before coming to this room, Sister Hikari and I had spent some time searching the other storage room, so anyone could have sneaked in here before we came."
"And two more things…" Haruyuki said. "Where were you when Sorao stumbled upon the grisly scene? And was the shooter still shooting arrows when he came in?"
Tanjiro furrowed his brow as he eyed him in confusion. "Uh, those are some pretty weird questions… Anyway, to answer you, I'm pretty sure I was on the right side of the room, the side in which I could access the door. And the shooter definitely was still shooting arrows when Sorao discovered the body. Only after he arrived did it stop."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Tanjiro's Account - He and Sister Hikari entered the shooter room and saw a light coming from the music player. As they investigated it, Sister Hikari touched two sides of the music player, which made it play a very loud piano tune. Afterwards, once Tanjiro turned off the music player's light, the shooter was activated, and Sister Hikari was slain by its arrows, which made Tanjiro scream.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Body Discovery - After Sister Hikari died, the piano tune from the music player stopped. Sorao then opened the door and saw the whole scene while standing at the doorway. At that time, Tanjiro was standing by the right wall. A few seconds later, the shooter stopped shooting arrows. When Maiha and Kasumi arrived, the body discovery announcement played.
Before Masashi should ask Tanjiro anything else, however, he heard someone open the door from behind. He turned around to see that it was Sayua, who stood at the doorway.
"Hey, Tanjiro!" she said, beckoning him to come to her. "You've been investigating this room, so you should be done, right?"
"Oh, uh, yes, I suppose," Tanjiro said as he approached her. "And I think I've seen enough..."
"Then let's get going!" Sayua said, moving toward the door. "That rich chick kept harrowing me with her damn questions, but she's gone now, so we're off to check off other places!"
As she strode out of the room, Tanjiro, as Team Tomi's loyal secretary, besought her to wait, leaving the room as well. Once he was gone, Masashi realized that he still had questions to ask Sayua, wanting to know more about what she had done tonight. But he then figured that he would stumble upon her later, and so he could always ask her then.
"Oh, yeah, there's one more thing..." Masashi said. "Faye, what were you doing before the murder?"
"Oh, me? You don't have to worry about me, really," Faye replied. "At 7:30 PM, I went to the Pirates' Rest Spot with Maiha and Hikari, since I was to bake some strawberry cake there on Maiha's request."
"And you were there the whole time?"
She nodded. "I can't say the same for Hikari, however. Sometime around 7:55 PM, I asked her to go out to the main deck to give Arashi some snacks. He'd been working so hard on the fireworks, so I thought he deserved a nice, scrumptious, and toothsome reward. I also asked her to go get some sugar from the kitchen in the woodland kingdom, since I wanted to cook something else later."
"Really? How long was she gone?"
"A bit longer than I expected, truly," she answered calmly. "I'm pretty sure that she arrived back at 8:05 PM. She said that she'd had some trouble looking for the sugar, since it was in one of the locked cabinets, and so she spent some time looking for the key. But five minutes later, she left again, saying she wanted to have some time by herself out in the hallway."
As for what had happened after the blackout, things were far simpler. Faye had gone to the woodland kingdom to check whether the missing persons were in their rooms. After hearing the body discovery announcement, however, she rushed over to the main deck, where Hikari had apparently been standing, and they both headed over to this room.
"Hmm… A simple enough tale," Haruyuki remarked coldly.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Faye's Account - Around 7:30 PM, Faye, Maiha, and Hikari went to the Pirates' Rest Spot. Around 7:55 PM, Faye sent Hikari out to the main deck to give Arashi some snacks and to go get some sugar from the first ship, and she came back at 8:05 PM. During the blackout, Faye went to the woodland kingdom to check up on the missing persons' rooms.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Hikari's Activities - Around 8:10 PM, Hikari left the Pirates' Rest Spot and stayed outside in the hallway.
Faye scoffed as she set her arms on her hips. "Well, what about you? We don't know a thing about your movements, since you'd essentially disappeared like a ghost when the blackout happened."
Haruyuki covered his mouth with his hand. "Oh, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that I now have an air of mystery around me. But let me warn you, my account is, on the whole, uninteresting. That is, I've done nothing worth your suspicion."
Faye narrowed her eyes on him. "That's what you say, but I'll be the judge of that."
The man chuckled, looking rather unbothered by her skepticism. "Very well. Earlier tonight, I left my room, finding myself wanting to play one of the games on this ship's arcade. I saw no one along the way."
"Huh? You didn't come across Arashi?" Masashi asked. "He was supposed to be working on the fireworks."
"I am not the man to ask," Haruyuki replied, raising a hand slowly, his tone dry and dull. "I arrived at the arcade around 8:15 PM, so you ought to ask Arashi what he was doing at that time. In any case, I was busy playing one of the games, so I'm afraid that whatever happened in the lounge or the nearby hallway never reached me... However, I should mention that as I began my game, I happened to glance at the hallway, and whom should I but you, Masashi, and Kasumi."
"Huh! You saw us?" Masashi said. "I didn't notice you at all..."
Haruyuki nodded. "You two were quickly walking through the hallway, so it's natural that neither of you noticed me."
"You saw them around 8:15 PM, right?" Faye said. "That seems right... It matches up with when Masashi and Kasumi arrived at the Pirates' Rest Spot."
Hmm... Then it's clear: when I saw Kasumi, it was sometime before 8:15 PM... Masashi thought.
"Anyway, sometime later," Haruyuki continued, "I quickly grew bored of my surroundings."
"You grew bored of your surroundings?" Faye asked, looking askance at him. "That's… rather odd to hear from you."
"My interest in things can waver at times," Haruyuki answered. "Have you ever experienced the feeling of wanting to watch a certain video, only to grow uninterested upon clicking it? That, my friend, is the same feeling as I felt."
What an odd comparison to make… but I get what he's trying to say, Masashi thought. Meanwhile, Faye looked no more unconvinced than she had been before he had given his answer.
"To rid myself of my boredom, I went to the water slide room," Haruyuki continued. "I had been simply gazing out the window when the lights had suddenly gone out. Needless to say, I was quite startled by the turn of events."
Faye looked warily at him. "So… why didn't you go downstairs then?"
Haruyuki opened up his arms. "Much as I wanted to, I was no fool to think that I should not find myself in danger if I were to venture downstairs. I suspected that there was a plot afoot, whence the safest choice was to stay in the room and wait for the lights to come back on. And indeed, after I made that fateful decision, nothing of note happened… until I heard it: the piano tune."
"The piano tune…" Masashi repeated, recalling that very moment as well. "When Mari, Arashi, and I were in the power room, we heard the music coming from elsewhere. And right afterwards, we heard a dreadful scream…"
"R-Really?" Faye said, eyes wide open. "Well, I certainly heard neither of those things… But then again, I was in the woodland kingdom at that point, so I guess those sounds didn't reach me."
"In any case, I certainly heard the scream as well. It sounded like a man's, and something about it seemed familiar to me," Haruyuki continued.
"Given what Tanjiro said earlier, that must've been his scream we all heard..." Masashi added.
"Whether or not that were the case, the scream certainly startled me." Haruyuki then crossed his arms and looked downwards. "At that point… I thought that I should be in great danger if I stayed in the room any longer. Hence, in my haste to leave the room, I tripped over a decorative treasure chest, and it hurt me enough to make me groan."
"After the scream, we heard something fall elsewhere," Masashi said. "And we heard a groan as well… That must've been you, then."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Haruyuki's Account - Haruyuki went to the arcade around 8:15 PM, seeing no one along the way. After playing a game for a short while, he headed up to the water slide room to contemplate and stayed there even after the blackout happened. Masashi, Mari, and Arashi found him there after they had heard him trip over a chest.
Judging by Haruyuki's account, Masashi started to make sense of the events that had passed in that short span of time in which he, Mari, and Arashi had been in the power room. Haruyuki had tripped over a treasure chest, after which Mari, drawn in by the noise, had run to the water slide room. Nothing came into mind that went against the man's claims.
Since there appeared to be nothing else to check out, Masashi left the room, starting to have some idea as to what had happened in the shooter room. He briefly checked out the other storage room along the way, but other than boxes containing sundry materials, it had nothing of note.
He stopped at the part of the hallway where he could continue off to the main deck, go down to the lower third deck, or go into the Pirates' Rest Spot. Right now, he was on the lower second deck. There were four more decks to check out: the main deck, the two upper decks, and the lower third deck. He also wondered how Mari and Kumi were doing and was about to open the door to the Pirates' Rest Spot, but he figured that Mari would want him to focus on the investigation rather than worry about him.
Masashi headed upstairs to the main deck, where he found Arashi talking with Maiha.
"That's all, I tell you!" Arashi said, scratching the back of his head. "There's nothing else I can recall!"
"Are you sure about that?" Maiha asked. "Your account's somewhat lacking in a few important details."
"Yeah, yeah, I've told you already!" Arashi answered. "Just because I don't recall the time, it doesn't mean I was doing something else! I'm just not good at this kind of thing!"
"Uh, what are you guys doing?" Masashi asked as he walked over to them.
"Oh, it's you," Maiha said as she walked over to him. "I've simply asked the rash commoner for his testimony. He's been rather vague and unhelpful in a few aspects, however."
"D-Don't tell me you suspect me to be the killer?!" Arashi said, clenching a fist.
"If truth be told, yes, I suspect you may have been up to no good," Maiha answered bluntly. "You may find it relieving, however, that you are not the only suspect I have in mind."
"No, I don't! Not at all!" Arashi answered, scowling. "There's nothing good about being suspected! You should know, since you were suspected twice in the last two cases!"
Maiha shrugged her shoulders. "And in the end, I was rightfully cleared of all suspicion. To be suspected is simply a part of this sordid process."
I seem to recall you being a little upset at being a suspect, though... Masashi thought, but he dared not to say it aloud.
"Arashi, could you say your account again?" Masashi asked. "I'd like to know what you were doing as well."
"Y-You don't suspect me as well, do you, Masashi?" Arashi asked, sounding less angry. "You, Mari, and I were together the whole time, weren't we?!"
Masashi took a few seconds to think about his answer. "That's true... I don't recall ever seeing you do anything suspicious, nor did you have an opportunity to sneak off and do anything funny."
Arashi widened his eyes, smiling. "Th-Then you believe me, right?! Tell that Maiha lady she's wrong!"
"I'd like to, but..." Masashi said, feeling a bit of hesitation at first. "I still want to hear your account to have a better picture of what happened. It won't hurt to be thorough."
The glint of gladness in his eyes waned as a frown waxed in return.
"Oh... well, if that's what you say, I guess I ought to do it," Arashi said. "To begin with, I was simply working on the fireworks! Hikari came over later and gave me some treats that Miss Nirigiri cooked for me. But... I don't know when that was. I don't have a watch on me, you see."
"Hmm… and afterwards, what happened?"
Arashi scratched his cheek. "Um… this may sound weird, but not long after I ate my treats, and Hikari left, my stomach began to ache greatly. I couldn't… well, bear it, so I rushed over to the men's restroom in the arcade! I don't know how much time I spent there, but by the time I came back here… the fireworks had gone missing!"
"They had been stolen by that time, I presume," Maiha said, a finger set on her chin. "How intriguing… It seems rather convenient that you suddenly had to go to the restroom."
"Are you saying... the killer somehow planned for all that to happen?!" Arashi said, widening his eyes. "No way! That's pretty unbelievable!"
Maiha scoffed as she shot him an unamused look. "Don't put words in my mouth, you hot-headed commoner. The very idea sounds implausible, anyway."
It truly sounds a bit strange… Masashi thought. Was Arashi's sudden need to go to the restroom a coincidence? Or maybe...
Maiha then glanced askance at Arashi, her arms crossed. "Getting back to the matter... once you saw that the fireworks had gone missing, what did you do next?"
"Well, naturally, I looked around!" Arashi answered. "I thought that maybe they'd somehow moved to another part of the deck. But when I couldn't find them, I rushed down to the lower decks. That was when I saw Hikari standing outside of the Pirates' Rest Spot."
Maiha narrowed her eyes on him. "If what you say is true, then you must have met with her right before 8:15 PM. That pitiful girl happened to leave the dining room five minutes earlier."
"She did?" Masashi said, sounding surprised, though he recalled having heard such a thing from Faye already. "For what?"
"Something about wanting some fresh air," Maiha answered uninterestedly. "She had spoken little since we had come to the dining room, so I hardly minded her departure."
According to Maiha, Arashi was down in the lower second deck around 8:15 PM, Masashi thought. That was when Haruyuki said he had crossed the main deck. It certainly explains why he didn't see Arashi...
"Well, I told Hikari about the missing fireworks, but I asked her to keep quiet about it!" Arashi said after Maiha bade him continue. "I didn't want to cause a ruckus over it, since I was hoping that I could find them as soon as possible."
"In a manner of speaking, you did," Maiha remarked. "Around that time, I thought I had heard some shouting and exasperated pleas from outside."
Arashi gasped as he lurched back a bit. "Y-You heard me?!"
"If only I hadn't," Maiha said, sounding bored, which reaction only raised the astonishment on Arashi's face. "Anyway, tell us what happened next."
"Oh, well... I got her to search the storage rooms with me!" he continued. "There was nothing in the first storage room, but in the shooter room, we noticed that the boxes right across from the shooter were arranged a bit oddly! But there was nothing behind the boxes, so I figured that Sister Hikari had simply arranged it that way."
"Is that all?" Maiha asked.
"Oh, well, after we were done, I left Hikari outside the Pirates' Rest Spot and headed down to the lower third deck. I didn't find anything there, but I noticed that the boat for the boat ride was gone!"
"The boat ride?"
Now that he thought about it, last night, he and Kasumi had gone to look for Arashi and had found him on the boat ride. He had not tried it out himself yet, but he could not but find the boat's disappearance to be relevant, given tonight's circumstances.
"The boat was gone, so I guess someone must've been on the ride at the time!" Arashi said. "And that must've been Sayua... She was on the boat when Sorao found her!"
So according to Arashi, Sayua was there at that time... Masashi thought.
"After I looked around there some more," Arashi continued. "I headed back to the main deck, but that was when I saw Kumi!"
"Oh, yeah, I believe you said something like that when we all gathered during the blackout…" Masashi said. "You saw him go to the upper decks."
"I only saw him go up the stairs, and I wasn't sure where he was heading…" Arashi replied. "Anyway, after I looked around the main deck again, I headed to the arcade, and well... you know!"
"No, I don't," Maiha said sternly. "Don't assume I know what goes in your overly imaginative mind, commoner."
Arashi groaned as he scratched the back of his head. "Sheesh, you keep looking at me like that... I've got a feeling you're simply nitpicking at this point!"
"Even if I were, would it matter?"
Arashi merely ground his teeth as he tried to come up with a response, only to come up with a few nervous utterances. Eventually, he sighed and lowered his head.
"Well... I looked around for a short while, and then the blackout happened!" he said. "I managed to make my way out to the main deck, and soon enough, Hikari came, and so did you guys!"
Updated Truth Bullet: Hikari's Activities - Around 8:10 PM, Hikari left the Pirates' Rest Spot and stayed outside the room. Around 8:15 PM, Arashi then arrived, looking around for his missing fireworks. They searched the two storage rooms together, but found nothing.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Arashi's Account - After looking around the storage rooms with Hikari, Arashi went down to the lower third deck by himself. He saw that the boat as part of the ride was gone.
Hearing everything that he wanted from Arashi, Masashi then turned to Maiha. "Hey, Maiha, you were with Kasumi at the lower third deck during the time of the murder, right?"
"Indeed," she answered, sneering. "That wretched thief and I searched the deck together, whence there is no reason to think that either of us is the killer, however loathsome she may be."
Well, aren't you happy about it, Masashi thought. I guess she's glad she won't be accused again... Then again, if I were her, I'd feel relieved as well.
"Did you see anything unusual?" he asked.
"In the lower third deck? Other than the missing boat, no," she said. "After we arrived at the lower third deck, nothing of note happened at first. But after we heard piano music playing from above, a scream then followed, and we rushed over to the deck above at once.
"We arrived at the hallway where the storage rooms were," she continued. "As we saw someone walking through the shooter room's doorway. Because of the darkness, I could not fully see who it was, but given what we saw in the room later, I am certain that it was Sorao."
"So essentially, you saw Sorao walk into the room!" Arashi said.
"And once you and Kasumi entered the room," Masashi said, "the body discovery announcement played, right?"
Maiha nodded. "And shortly afterwards, the lights turned on."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Maiha's Account - After she and Kasumi arrived at the lower second deck's hallway, they saw Sorao walk into the shooter room. They then followed him and entered the shooter room.
Masashi looked around the main deck. First, he walked to the ship's bow, focusing on the mast that was part of the ship's decoration. The mast itself had a pirate flag hoisted at the very top, and there was even a long coil of rope tied around the mast as part of the decoration.
Maiha glanced down at the rope. "Hmm… I wonder…"
"Huh? What is it, Maiha?" Masashi asked.
She looked at him with a somewhat cold expression. "I'd rather not tell you."
"What? Why not?!" Arashi said. "Aren't we all in this together?!"
"If I told you, you might make me lose my focus on the case by proposing a ridiculous suggestion," she answered earnestly.
Arashi growled. "H-How could you say something like that?!"
I'm pretty sure that's her own special way of saying you're not worthy to work with her, Masashi thought. I guess that's all I'll get out of her.
He looked about the deck some more, but found nothing of note, whence he thought that it was about time that he checked out Murphy's crime scene. At first glance, it was hard to tell how Sister Hikari's killing could be connected to Murphy's, which had happened in the staff lounge in the upper second deck. It was likely that the two killings were related, since it seemed odd that they had happened in the same timespan.
Still… maybe they truly have nothing to do with each other, Masashi thought. I guess I should still look into it… Better safe than sorry.
Even with no people to play its games, the arcade came off as far livelier than usual. The game machines shone brightly, playing sundry tunes, and as usual, a soothing piece played from the arcade's loudspeaker. The sight had such an appeal to him that he would usually not mind playing a few rounds.
Nonetheless, it was not the time to unwind. He headed out to the hallway and approached the hallway's end where the staff lounge's door was. When he opened the door, it let out a great creak. Once he stepped inside, he once again beheld the dead man's body on the floor, Sorao and Hikari standing nearby.
"Ah, Masashi, you're here," Sorao began, looking a little delighted to see him. "I guess you're interested in finding out what happened here."
"Yeah…" Masashi could only say.
Things had gone beyond what Masashi would have imagined as the worst case scenario: not one but two people had been killed tonight. And given what he knew about Sorao, he was strongly inclined to believe that Sorao either had secretly played a great deal in tonight's events or knew something that he wished to keep hidden from the rest of the group.
Meanwhile, Hikari said nothing, hanging her head down, but Masashi sensed a greater deal of gloom and dreariness coming from her. He sensed that it was best not to disturb her and so chose not to delve into the matter.
"I'd like to talk about something," Sorao said. "It's about when you guys discovered Murphy's body. You mentioned that he was still alive, right?"
A tinge of regret smote Masashi's heart as he wished once more that he and the others had been able to save Murphy. Even though the man had already accepted that he would soon die, it still did not make his death any more acceptable.
"Did he say anything interesting in his last words?"
"Kind of..." Masashi replied. "Murphy did his best to tell us what had happened to him."
"I-I… I was only playing my game… as part of the special event..." Murphy said, his voice choking. "Then just as the next level started… I… was hit… from behind."
"Do you know who did it?" Mari asked, looking at him with a grave expression.
"N-No… The attacker… left as soon as they attacked me," he answered. "But… it doesn't make sense… no one entered the room… Then… maybe… was it when I left to go to the restroom? But… still… why... why me?"
"Hmm… A deep shame he couldn't see who'd hit him," Sorao said, shaking his head. "But we can still glean a few things from his account.
"First, he was playing one of the games here as part of the arcade's special event," he continued, raising a finger for each point that he made. "Secondly, Murphy left the room at one point to go to the restroom. Thirdly, he had thought that no one was in the room. If someone had been with him at the time, he wouldn't have been so confused as to how he had been attacked. And lastly, his attacker fled the room after striking him on the head."
"That… sounds about right," Masashi replied, going over his words as well.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Murphy's Last Words - Murphy was playing one of the arcade games as part of a special event. At some point, he left to go to the restroom. Also, at no point did he think that there was someone else in the room, nor did he see anyone come in. Just as Murphy began the next level of his game, he was attacked, and the killer fled the room.
Still, it was not enough to pinpoint what exactly had happened in this room. For instance, when had the attack taken place? Murphy had unfortunately said nothing about it. Without knowing when they had happened, Masashi found it hard to determine what exactly had happened and the reason why things had played out like that.
First things first, he decided to take a quick look at the body. The wound on the back of his head had stopped leaking blood, and his signature straw hat, sullied with blood, lay nearby, never to be worn again. Masashi checked the man's pockets, but found nothing of note.
"Wait a minute… When we tried to open the door earlier, I'm pretty sure Murphy's body was blocking it from the other side," Masashi said. "So his body wasn't originally lying down like that."
Indeed, he could see a small bloodstain on the door. Given the wound on the back of Murphy's head, and the small trail of blood from one of the arcade machines by the wall to the door, Masashi had a pretty good picture of what had happened after the attack: Murphy, struggling with all his might, tried to leave the staff lounge. But when he had gotten to the door, he had fallen, his body leaning against it.
"I wonder when Murphy fell down here…" Masashi said.
"You think it's important or something, man?" Sorao asked.
"Maybe…" Masashi could only say. "At the very least, after he fell here, his body blocked the door, and from that point on, no one could get in. It took me and Arashi to even get the door to budge a little."
"Ah, so no one could've come in here later alone," Sorao said, smiling as if he had come across a brilliant deduction. "And we're assuming no accomplices, so essentially, after Murphy fell by the door, and until you guys found him, the room was blocked off!"
Sounds right, but I don't know how important that'll be, Masashi thought.
Afterwards, Masashi took a quick look at the rest of the staff lounge, and a few things struck out to him. Both the machine and the seat before it were smeared with blood, and the game was the action game Battle on Blue Earth, which Masashi had played with Mari a few days ago. By the machine was a folded pamphlet that too had a little blood on it. Masashi picked it up, unfolded it, and read the contents:
Special Game Event: Battle on Blue Earth
From 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM, there will be a special event in which you can earn THRICE the usual number of tokens!
Entry to the game will be forbidden after the event starts, so be sure to arrive early and choose a difficulty mode before 8:00 PM!
"So this is the special event Murphy was partaking in," Masashi said as he read it once more. "With the blood and all, it's pretty clear Murphy was playing Battle on Blue Earth before he was attacked."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Event Pamphlet
"Speaking of that, what kind of game is Battle on Blue Earth?" Sorao asked. "I've seen it a few times, but I've never tried it out."
"Well, to put it simply, it's an action game made up of a series of timed levels," Masashi answered. "There's no pause button, so you have to keep playing until you lose. And it's definitely not a game that you can play while focusing on something else."
"So it is, like, a single-player game or something?"
"It is, but it also has a multiplayer mode," he answered. "And besides that, there are also four difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Extra Hard. I remember that they differed in a few aspects."
Masashi then headed over to another Battle on Blue Earth machine in this room, which currently showed the title screen. He reached the menu that showed the difficulty options, as it showed the differences in time:
Easy - Each level 3 minutes. Level order: GFBSGS
Normal - Each level 5 minutes. Level order: DFSGFB
Hard - Each level 5 minutes. Level order: SBDGSV
Extra Hard - Each level 5 minutes. Level order: FBGDSV
Key: G - Grassland, B - Beach, F - Forest, D - Desert, S - Snow, V - Volcano
"Hmm? What's up with 'Level order'?" Sorao asked.
"I'm pretty sure it refers to the order in which the player plays the levels in each mode," Masashi answered. "For example, if I play Normal Mode, I start off at a desert level, and then the next level is a forest level, and so forth."
"And what goes after the beach level, then?"
"If I remember correctly, it simply loops through the themes," Masashi answered. "So after that is a desert level."
"I see…" Sorao said, nodding along. "You sure know a lot about this. Have you played it before?"
"Well, a few times... Once with Mari two nights ago," Masashi answered, fondly recalling that time.
Masashi then turned over to Murphy's bloodied arcade machine, which appeared to show the results of the game. It was the same screen that appeared when one could no longer continue, and the background showed a light-brown scene in which there were cacti strewn all over.
GAME OVER
Total Score Calculated: 110370
Tokens Calculated: 110
Event Bonus Applied: 110 x 3 = 330
"Hmm… No useful information," Sorao said, frowning. "It doesn't say how long he was playing it or what mode it was, and the number of tokens rewarded hardly matters."
"Yeah, it's not as if the score were a dying message or anything like it," Masashi said.
"Well, what about the background?"
"If I recall correctly, it shows the theme of the level the player died in," Masashi answered. "So for Murphy… his character must have been killed at a desert level."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Game Modes
Obtained Truth Bullet: Score Screen - The screen shows the score that Murphy got when his character had been killed. His score, after calculation, was 110,370. The background shows the level in which his character was killed. In this case, it shows a desert.
Masashi walked around some more and saw something else by the bloody seat: a metallic bat that had a great deal of blood on it. As soon as he saw it, he recalled the time when he had seen the metallic bat supposedly used to kill Futaba.
"This bat… Where did it come from?" Masashi asked.
Sorao pointed at the door to the closet, the only other adjacent room. "Hikari and I found a few such bats as this in the lounge's closet. It seems safe to infer that the killer took the weapon from there. So no need to worry about that being a fake murder weapon!"
"Given this case's circumstances, I think so as well," Masashi said. "Abraham faked the bat as the murder weapon as part of his framing Kasumi, since she had a lockpick. But there are no weapons locked away this time, so there's no need to fake the murder weapon."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Metallic Bat - A bloodied metallic bat was found by a bloodied arcade machine during the investigation. The bat appears to have been taken out of the closet next to the staff lounge.
Wanting to look into the closet, whence the bat had been taken out, the closet next door was a moderately great room, sundry things stowed therein. He remembered what Tanjiro had told him earlier, his account of having brought the music player here to help him in his writing process.
"This closet's pretty roomy in here…" Masashi said. "Someone could stay in here without too much hassle."
Thinking that he had seen everything that there was in the staff lounge, he was about to leave, but then remembered that he had a few questions to ask Sorao and Hikari.
"Hey, Sorao… before the blackout, you were with Sister Hikari, right?" Masashi asked.
"That's right," Sorao said, smiling. "At the Egyptian palace, we chatted for a while starting at 8:00 PM. Of course, it's unfortunate that I can't back it up now, since Sister Hikari's gone, but come on..." He put out his arms, shrugging his shoulders. "You have to believe I'm innocent, dude."
But his reassurances of his innocence only put Masashi into further unease. Had he truly done nothing this time? Or was he truly innocent this time, despite his shadiness and questionable choices?
In any case, there was one last thing that he needed to know about. He looked at Hikari and called out to her gently.
"Are you all right?" he first asked. "I imagine it's pretty hard for you right now, what with Murphy's death."
Hikari said nothing, as if he had said something rude, but since she did not seem to grow displeased and simply nodded, he figured that it was her own way of acknowledging his words.
"Arashi's told me that you helped him out on his search for the fireworks before the blackout," Masashi said. "Is that true?"
This time, his question made Hikari raise her head, looking at him with slightly red eyes.
"Th-That's right..." Hikari answered, her voice shaky. "I-In fact... After he headed downstairs to search the lower third deck... y-you and that stupid thief appeared."
Ah, she's referring to when Kasumi and I were on our way to the Pirates' Rest Spot, Masashi thought.
Given that, the exact order of tonight's events became clearer: around 8:15 PM, Arashi had gone down to the lower second deck to look for his fireworks, after which Haruyuki had crossed the main deck to go to the arcade. Afterwards, once done with the search of the storage rooms, Arashi had gone down to the lower third deck. Right afterwards, Masashi and Kasumi had arrived at the lower second deck and had gone into the Pirates' Rest Spot, which explained why they had not seen Arashi. Finally, Arashi had gone back up to the main deck and had seen Kumi go upstairs.
Oh, wow... That's pretty complicated! Masashi thought. And it assumes everyone's telling the truth, too... Ideally, I'd like that, but...
"Did you notice anything odd?" Sorao asked.
"Th-There is one thing," Hikari said, facing downwards. "I-It wasn't during the search, mind you, b-but afterwards… After he went back upstairs, I stood outside the dining room. And sometime later, I wanted to walk around some more and headed to the shooter room."
She shuddered. "Th-Then it happened… the blackout happened just as I stepped inside. Th-That was also when I saw a light."
"Whoa, there!" Sorao raised his eyes. "What do you mean, a light?"
"I-It's exactly what I mean," she answered. "I-I saw a dim light on top of a stack of boxes opposite to the doorway… I-I was so startled that I left the room at once and shut the door. Th-Then I made my way up to the main deck…"
"Huh… If that's true, why didn't you mention that when we gathered on the deck?" Masashi asked.
Hikari glanced away from the two. "I-It slipped my mind, that's all… I-I only remembered it a few minutes ago."
"Hmm… Is that so," Sorao said, his tone skeptical. "Well, better late than never, I suppose. Anyway, what did you do after we all split up?"
"N-Nothing…" Hikari said, her face growing paler. "I-I stayed on the main deck the whole time… Th-Though I heard some weird music and a scream coming from below sometime later…"
"Yeah, that's not so surprising," Sorao replied. "Maiha, Kasumi, and I heard the same thing as well. Did you see anyone pass by?"
She shook her head profusely. "I-I'm pretty sure no one slipped by… I had my eye on the deck the whole time. But when the body discovery announcement played, that pastry cook came rushing not long after."
"So you and Faye came here together…" Masashi said.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Hikari's Account - After Arashi left her, Hikari stayed outside the Pirates' Rest Spot. She later went to the shooter room, but right when she went in, the blackout happened. She saw a dim light on top of a stack of boxes that lay opposite to the doorway.
"Oh, yeah, one more thing!" Sorao said, facing Masashi. "Tanjiro and Sayua came here a while ago, and I heard something pretty interesting from Sayua. Did you know that Sister Hikari had disabled the emergency button for the shooter this morning?"
"Wait, emergency button?" Masashi said. "Now that I think about it, I think I heard something about it earlier from Mari..."
"Yeah, well, Arashi told Sister Hikari about the backup buttons, since she had asked him to do something about disabling the shooter," Sorao replied. "Arashi was there to handle the technical aspects, but he also wanted one more person to see whether the shooter could still be activated with the backup button. That's why Arashi went around and asked Sayua to help them."
Masashi widened his eyes. "Wait, Sayua was with them? I didn't hear about it at all. Did anything weird happen?"
"According to Sayua, no. With a pair of scissors he got from the shop, Arashi cut the backup button's wires. While Sister Hikari stayed at the power room, he and Sayua headed downstairs afterwards to see whether pressing the backup button would do anything. But... there was one small thing that Sayua said had stood out to her."
Sorao scratched his cheek, looking bored. "I don't really think it's all important, but she went out of her way to mention it... Apparently, when Arashi pointed at the backup button to confirm whether it was the one that Sister Hikari had referred to, Sayua saw something weird on his wrist. It looked like some kind of... pink bracelet."
"Oh... I'm afraid there's no mystery there. That must've been the reconciliation bracelet that Kasumi gave him." Masashi said, somewhat glad to hear that Arashi had already worn it since this morning.
"Hmm? What's this about a reconciliation bracelet?" Sorao asked, sounding truly confused.
"Kasumi wanted to mend things with Arashi to make up for her pranks on him," Masashi explained. "She thought that giving him a bracelet would be a nice gesture."
"Huh, really… So that's the reason she gave you, huh?" Sorao said, a smirk appearing on his face.
Masashi looked askance at him. "Uh, yeah? Why do you sound so skeptical about it? Do you not trust her or something?"
Sorao opened up his arms again. "Oh, no, no, don't get it wrong, dude. I want to trust her, really… but I think there's more to her behavior than that. Just be careful around her, will you?"
Nonetheless, Sorao's words could not but trouble him. He trusted Kasumi as a dear friend, but there was no denying that even before the blackout, she had been acting oddly. Of course, he had already confronted her about it.
I can trust her. At least... I think I can trust her, Masashi thought. But... does Sorao know something about her that I don't?
Masashi headed up to the upper third deck, where the power room and the water slide room were. He thought to go to the power room, intrigued by what Sorao had said. When he entered the room, it looked as he had remembered it. And from the doorway, he could see everything in this room, as it was small and narrow. As he headed inside, however, he heard footsteps from behind, and in came a certain woman.
"Oh, hey, Masashi!" It was Kasumi, the ever so cheerful masked thief. "You're checking out this room as well, huh? I had a feeling that something important might be here."
"Yeah, I've heard a few intriguing things related to this room…" Masashi said. "Could I ask you something, Kasumi? What were you doing before the murder?"
"Wh-What? Surely you don't suspect me!" Kasumi said, looking slightly bemused.
"If truth be told, not really," he answered. "You were with Maiha during the blackout, so at the very least, I doubt you're Sister Hikari's killer."
Kasumi chuckled. "Glad to hear that! As I've said many times, there's no way I'd ever kill anyone! Anyway, to answer your question… before you found me in this very room, I was actually in the arcade!"
"You were? When and how long?"
Kasumi furrowed her brow as she glanced down. "I'm pretty sure I arrived right around 8:00 PM…"
"Uh huh… I guess that explains why I didn't see you when I went to the arcade beforehand," Masashi answered.
"Oh, yeah, but I'll have you know, the interesting part's coming right up!" she said. "See, after I was finished with one of the games, I happened to hear a weird noise coming from somewhere. It sounded like a piano!"
"A… piano?" Masashi said.
"Yeah! It sounded like it'd come from the staff lounge!" Kasumi answered. "I could barely hear it amid all the music playing from the arcade's machines, but I'm absolutely sure there was a piano playing!"
"Hmm… That's odd, to say the least. Neither the staff lounge nor the closet has anything resembling a piano," Masashi remarked. "Did you see anyone at all?"
"Nope! Once I heard that sound, I had my eye on the hallway, but no one left the staff lounge at all!" she answered. "And you know what else? After the piano tune went away, I saw Murphy come out of the men's restroom. He rushed out of there as if there were no tomorrow! He kept saying how an 'event' was about to start and headed off to the lounge."
"Hmm… Interesting," Masashi said. "Given your account, you must've seen him right before 8:00 PM. Thanks for telling me this, Kasumi."
"I appreciate hearing that from you," she replied, "but you know, I'm not finished yet!"
"Wait, you're not?" Masashi said, cocking his head to the side.
"Nope! See, after Murphy headed inside, I went upstairs to the power room to, well, think about a few things. I don't know how much time passed, but then my train of thought was interrupted by what sounded like a creak!"
"A… creak?" Masashi said.
"Yeah! Along with some footsteps that sounded like someone running!" Kasumi said. "That intrigued me, so I headed downstairs and tried to open the lounge's door. But guess what? It didn't move at all!"
"It didn't? So it was locked?" Masashi said. "Wait, no, that can't be… The door doesn't have a lock in the first place."
"Well, I wasn't familiar with that room at all, so I thought it might be some special feature of the door!" Kasumi answered. "Anyway, after that, I felt a little thirsty and got myself a can of soda in one of the arcade's vending machines. And I headed upstairs, and, well, you know!"
"I stumbled upon you…" Masashi answered. "Yeah, I remember that. I accidentally made you spill your soda. What time was that exactly?"
Kasumi shook her head, however. "Sorry, but I wasn't really paying attention to the time at that point… I was busy thinking about things, so I didn't bother to look at the clock."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Kasumi's Account - Right before 8:00 PM, arriving at the arcade, Kasumi heard a piano tune coming from the staff lounge. She looked at the hallway, but saw no one leave the staff lounge. Afterwards, Murphy rushed out of the men's restroom and hurried to the staff lounge.
Sometime later, standing in the power room, Kasumi heard a creak and rushing footsteps coming from downstairs. She went down to the deck below and tried to open the staff lounge's door, but it would not budge. Afterwards, she bought a can of soda in the arcade and went back to the power room upstairs, and Masashi then saw her.
As he was about to begin checking out the power room, however, he heard even more footsteps coming hither. To his surprise, it was Arashi.
"Masashi! You're here!" Arashi said, eyes widened.
"Hmm? What are you doing here?" Masashi asked. "I thought you were investigating the main deck with Maiha."
"Gah, don't remind me of her!" Arashi said, grimacing. "She was very insistent that I help her out with her investigation! So when those two came, she took her eye off me, and I took the chance and darted out of there at once!"
"'Those two'?" Masashi said.
"Sayua and Tanjiro!" Arashi answered, touching his blue beanie. "Sayua got into an argument with Maiha over something, and that was when I saw a chance to leave!"
"And that is when he bumped into me in the arcade!" Kasumi added before she took a sip of her soda. "I was investigating the place, and I suggested that we check out the power room together. Of course, Arashi had to go to the restroom first, which explains why I came here alone."
"Hmm… Interesting to hear," Masashi said. "All right, let's look around. Maybe there's a valuable clue hidden somewhere here."
Masashi looked at the panel of buttons, which was on the wall opposite to the doorway. As far as he could remember, neither he nor Mari nor Arashi had pressed the buttons on the wall, and it was Haruyuki that had pressed the button to restore the ship's power. The buttons were all lined up from top to bottom, a rectangular label to the right of each button.
Something else caught his attention next. Between the button and the label was a small hatch that looked as if he could move to the side. When he did, he saw nothing but wires, which he assumed to be the part of the button.
"Oh, I don't know whether you know this already, Masashi, but I was here this morning!" Arashi said as soon as he approached the panel of buttons. "Sister Hikari asked me to help her disable the shooter's backup button! And I asked Sayua to help me with it!"
"Yeah, Sorao told me about that earlier," Masashi answered as he glanced at the buttons again. "Umm… Which one's the backup button?"
"Oh, that one, of course!" Arashi then pointed at a certain button that was on the lower half of the panel.
"The button's labeled 'Emergency Shooter', so I guess that's it!" Kasumi added.
"Anyway… let me take a look at the buttons," Masashi said as he opened up the hatch.
He glanced at the inside parts of the shooter's emergency button. The button was linked to a few wires of sundry colors, but they all had been cut, which matched what Hikari and Arashi had said about the event this morning. Starting from the bottommost buttons, he checked the insides of the other buttons, expecting them to still have their wires. As he opened the slot for one of the upper buttons, however, the sight inside rid him of his calmness.
"What the…?" Masashi said as he peeked inside. "The wires inside this button… they're cut!"
"Wh-What?!" Arashi blurted out as he glanced up at it. "Wh-Whoa… you're right! Why are they cut?! I'm pretty sure I cut only the wires for the Emergency Shooter button!"
Masashi glanced at this button's label, which read "Empty Supply". But even with the label, he still could not exactly understand what its function was.
"Oh, well… I guess I'll have to talk to him…" Masashi sighed before he readied himself. "Captain Monokuma!"
"Yes?"
At once, Monokuma popped up, looking carefree as if he had no clue as to what was going on. At his appearance, Arashi nearly started, whereas Kasumi simply stood still as she gazed at the bear blithely.
"Oh… It's you," Monokuma said. "And here I was, hoping that a prettier face awaited me."
"Do you know what the 'Empty Supply' button does?" Masashi asked, ignoring his attempt to provoke him.
"That thing? What, you don't get it, you silly old dummy?" Monokuma snickered. "It's the button used to empty the shooter's supply of arrows. Just in case you can't take them out by hand, the button can be used to do the emptying. But, really, what kind of lazy bum do you have to be if you can't do that of all things?"
"Whoa, really?" Kasumi said. "Looks like someone didn't want any of us to press that button!"
Obtained Truth Bullet: Disabled Button - In the power room, the Empty Supply button, the one for emptying the supply of arrows, no longer works. But the only button that is not supposed to work is the Emergency Shooter button, the button for activating the shooter, and Arashi cut that button's wires this morning, as witnessed by Sayua and Sister Hikari.
The room where the shooter's supply of arrows can be accessed… I don't think I've ever gone there, Masashi thought.
"By the way, one question!" Kasumi said. "It's about these buttons' labels… Are they labeled correctly?"
"What, are you concerned that the button labeled 'Emergency Power' isn't actually the button to provide the ship with backup power?" Monokuma said. "Well, rest assured, before placing these labels here, I had to memorize the order exactly ninety-nine times, so I can say for certain that all those buttons are labeled correctly!"
"Oh, well, that's good!" Arashi said, nodding. "I was beginning to think that we might have somehow mixed up the buttons somehow!"
"Well, you haven't! So there!" Monokuma said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some paperwork to do! A captain's life isn't as easy as you think it is—"
"Wait, one more thing," Masashi said.
Monokuma looked at him with great shock. "What is it?! What could be so important that you interrupted my captainly monologue?!"
"Do you know how to go to the room where the shooter's supply of arrows can be accessed?" Masashi asked.
"Hmm? So now you're asking me!" Monokuma replied. "Well, I wasn't going to tell you! But… if I do this for you and survive, then I can get you to do me a favor later. Yes, maybe I can get you to catch me some delicious fish for dinner or find me a hot girl to spend the night with… All right, cost-benefit calculation complete! Just this once, I'll help you out!"
Monokuma then leaned forth, as if ready to tell him a great secret that was not meant to be publicly uttered. "Right now, the only way to get to the supply room is to take the boat in the deck below. Normally, you can't reach the room, since the ride's automatic—"
"Wait, it's that room?!" Arashi said, looking as if about to jump. "I saw that door last night when I rode on the boat, but I thought it was only a staff door!"
"Oh, but you thought wrong!" Monokuma answered. "The room that the door leads to is right below the shooter room! And to get to it, you'll need this!"
He then took out what looked like a small ID and handed it to them. "That's an employee ID that'll unlock the boat's Manual Mode! Now you have the privilege of being the second one to lay their hands on it!"
"Wait, what?" Masashi blinked twice as he took in his words. "Second one? Who borrowed it from you before I did?"
Monokuma covered his mouth with his paws as he snickered. "Sorry, Masashi boy, but as part of maritime policy, I must respect captain-passenger confidentiality! All I can tell you is that by the time you began your investigation, that person had already returned it to me!"
"Could you at least tell us when that person borrowed it?!" Arashi asked, pumping his fists.
"Oh, sure! I don't think that person will mind at all if I tell you guys!" Monokuma answered. "That person asked me for the ID last night. And for your information, my lending the card doesn't count as helping with the killing, so you can't call me out on rule-breaking!"
"Wait, but since you went out of your way to say that, it means that it wasn't an innocent person who borrowed it from you!" Kasumi pointed out. "So we know for sure it was the culprit!"
Arashi gasped. "Th-That's a good point, Kasumi!"
Monokuma shuddered as he widened his robotic eyes. "O-Oh no… Did I really say that? Me and my mouth! I-I… I…"
Without saying anything else, Monokuma disappeared from the room, looking as if humiliated by his slip of the tongue, but Masashi wondered whether he truly had not intended to give that away. Of course, it was already somewhat obvious that it had been the killer, but Monokuma had thankfully removed all doubt.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Employee ID - A keycard that allows one to access Manual Mode for the boat in the lower third deck. According to Monokuma, the culprit borrowed it from him last night, and when the investigation began, it had already been returned to Monokuma.
Masashi looked at the buttons once more and took a look at each of them again. He confirmed that it was only those two buttons that had their wires cut. Afterwards, he took a quick look around the power room, but saw nothing of note. And the only interesting thing in the trash can was the one can of soda that Masashi had accidentally made Kasumi spill when he had met her here before the blackout.
"Hey, Arashi, one more question," Masashi said. "As we talked about earlier, you disabled the shooter's backup button this morning with Sister Hikari and Sayua. Could you tell me everything about it?"
"Oh, of course!" Arashi answered before giving Masashi an account of what had happened, which account matched what Sorao had told him earlier.
"And Sayua mentioned that you had a pink bracelet on your wrist," Masashi said. "It was the bracelet that Kasumi had given you, right?"
Arashi nodded profusely. "Of course it was! What else could it have been?!"
"Oh, Arashi, are you wearing the bracelet?" Kasumi asked.
"Huh?" Arashi turned toward her with a confused expression. "Why do you have to ask me that?! Of course I am! See!"
With a confident grin, he pulled up his sleeve and showed her the bracelet.
"Oh, you sure are wearing it!" Kasumi said cheerfully. "I was beginning to think that you might think that it was tacky, but I'm glad to see you like it!"
"N-No way I'd think such a thing!" Arashi responded, cheeks reddening. "I-It's not bad-looking at all... and it's very important to me..."
Despite the glee that came from this scene, Masashi could only feel greater unease swelling up within him. She might put up a blithesome disposition, but she seemed rather focused on Arashi and his bracelet, as if she were trying to reassure herself of something.
"If truth be told," Arashi continued, "I actually didn't know about the backup buttons in the power room until someone else told me about it!"
"Wait, someone told you about it? Who?" Masashi asked.
Arashi scratched the back of his head. "It was Sorao. After Sister Hikari asked me to find a way to disable the shooter, I first looked at the button in the shooter room. Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything about it, since it was built into the room, so to speak. After a while, Sorao came in, asking me what I was doing. So I told him, and then he told me about the backup buttons. After he left, I rushed over to Sister Hikari at once!"
Sorao... told Arashi about it?
Sorao had not mentioned it at all when talking about it earlier. Of course, it was perfectly possible that Sorao had simply forgotten about it, but Masashi could not ignore how Sorao had forgotten about it. And Masashi doubted that Arashi was lying about this, as it would be easy to prove him wrong, and it would only result in more suspicion toward Arashi.
Just what was Sorao up to? Masashi thought. Even if he didn't do the killing... I can't help but think he was doing something shady for sure.
"All right, I guess that's about it for this room!" Arashi said. "Let's go check out the water slide room, Kasumi! My gut's telling me there's something important there!"
"U-Uh, all right…"
For some reason, Kasumi's voice grew shaky, as if Arashi had said something that had unnerved her. Or perhaps something about the water slide room made her uneasy. Either way, Arashi would be by her side, so Masashi doubted that she would be in any danger or do anything strange.
There was nothing else that Masashi wanted to ask either Arashi or Kasumi, so he decided that this was the best place to stop.
"Since you're checking out the water slide room, I'll go back downstairs and check the supply room," Masashi replied.
And so the three left, Kasumi and Arashi heading off to the upper third deck's only other room.
As Masashi arrived at the upper second deck, Masashi wondered how Kumi was now doing. Mari was supposed to be taking care of him in the Pirates' Rest Spot, and even now, he feared that he might not even be near to recovery. It was ever so understandable, as such a kind lady had cruelly been bereft from them all, and the murder scene was far bloodier and dreadfuller than Masashi had anticipated.
Aah… The fact that I'm thinking such a thing shows I'm getting too used to this stuff, he thought. None of this should be normal to me!
He arrived at the upper second deck's hallway, and as he neared the stairs going down, he heard a loud creak from behind. He turned around, only to stop at once from seeing who had come out of the staff lounge.
"Mari!" Masashi cried out as he rushed toward her. "Wh-What are you doing here? And where's Kumi?"
She looked hardly bothered by his questions as he stopped. "Don't worry about him. I tended him to him a long while, but eventually, I wanted to go investigate the scene. Hence, I had Maiha watch over him."
"Oh, well, that makes sense—" Masashi stopped once he fully took in her words. "Wait, Maiha? Have I heard that right?"
She nodded. "Maiha happened to come over, and I got her to look over him. Of course, since she said that she was very interested in keeping an eye on him, I'm pretty sure she's simply suspicious of him."
"Suspicious…? Now that I think about it, I haven't heard what Kumi did before we found him again," Masashi answered as they both walked down to the lower second deck. "You said during the blackout that he'd left to go to the arcade or something."
"That's right," she answered plainly. "Thankfully, after calming him down, I got him to say what he had done. Apparently, when he arrived at the arcade, he spent some time there all by himself before going to the men's restroom in the arcade. But after he headed inside, the blackout happened, and he was all alone in the dark."
"O-Oh… That… That must've been frightening for him," Masashi replied.
"Yes, he was whimpering and quivering the whole time that he told me the tale," she said. "He feared that monsters might lurk nearby, so he stayed in the restroom the whole time, ever so watchful of his surroundings. Even when the lights turned back on, he stayed in the restroom for a while, wishing for whatever threat there might be to go away."
"So that explains how he suddenly appeared from the arcade after we found Murphy's body…" Masashi muttered.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Kumi's Account - After leaving Mari in the woodland kingdom, Kumi went to the arcade, seeing no one there. Shortly afterwards, he headed to the men's restroom in the arcade, but then the lights turned off. Frightened, he stayed in the restroom, and even after the lights came back on, he waited a while before leaving. He then stumbled upon Masashi and company after they had discovered Murphy's body.
Masashi and Mari stopped right at the intersection where the Pirates' Rest Spot, the stairs to the lower third deck, and the latter half of the hallway met. He then told her everything that he had learned so far, including the fact that the killer had borrowed an ID card from Monokuma.
"Interesting… I didn't think too much about how exactly the killer put in the arrows into the shooter," Mari answered. "I believe I saw a door like that during the ride a few days ago. But at the time, I dismissed it as simply a door leading to a staff-only room, so I didn't think twice about it."
"Hmm… And anyone could have found out about the door and asked Monokuma later for a way to go there, so I can't rule anyone out as the culprit on that alone..."
Masashi sighed as he thought about how things might have been different if he had noticed the door. He might have grown curious enough to try to access the room, and maybe then, Sister Hikari's murder could have been prevented.
No… I can't dwell on this right now, he thought as soon as he felt an urge to weep. No, I have to keep it together! Even at a time like this, I'm still the leader… I need to stand strong and help save everyone in the class trial!
That settled, he took in a deep breath of air and stared at nothing in particular as his mind was rid of its regrets.
"All right…" Masashi said. "Mari, let's go."
The lower third deck was split into two parts. The right part was made up of a large swimming pool, above which was a tube that was part of this ship's water slide. The left part was where the boat ride was, and the boat itself was small. As part of the ride, the boat would first take them up to a higher part of this deck through a slope, but from where Masashi stood, he could not see the rest of the ride's scenery. By the boat was a sign that said:
DO NOT SWIM IN THE WATER.
THE BOAT WILL AUTOMATICALLY STOP IF THERE ARE NO OCCUPANTS.
"So it's like the river from the last case," Masashi said. "Since no one can swim in the river, the only way to access the supply room is by using the boat."
"But this time, it seems that Abraham's trick wouldn't work," Mari pointed out. "This boat seems to detect whether anyone is on it. If there isn't, it stops. I wonder how that changes things..."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Boat - The boat that is part of the ride in the lower third deck is the only way to go through the river, as it is forbidden to swim in the river. The boat automatically stops if it detects that no one is aboard.
But before he should board the boat, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs to this deck. He and Mari turned to see who their visitor was, and to his surprise, it was none other than Sayua and Tanjiro.
"Huh? Oh, it's you!" Sayua said as they ran toward Masashi and Mari. "Don't tell me you're thinking of checking out that room!"
"Oh, so you've heard about the supply room?" Mari asked, looking none too startled by their presence.
Tanjiro nodded. "Yeah, we were investigating the water slide room and bumped into Arashi and Kasumi. They told me about how you were planning to check out the supply room, which we hadn't known about."
"So we rushed all the way down here!" Sayua said. "If I have it right, you have some kind of keycard that lets you control the boat and whatever!"
Mari nodded. "You're free to check it out with us. The boat's large enough to hold four people."
"What have you guys been doing, anyway?" Masashi asked.
"Oh, well, we've been checking out some of the other parts of this ship," Tanjiro answered. "In fact, we found out something interesting—"
"Hey, zip it, Tanjiro!" Sayua said, nudging him on the shoulder. "Let's keep it simple and say there was nothing interesting on the main deck!"
Hmm? Masashi thought, furrowing his brow. What was Tanjiro about to say?
Masashi waited for him to continue, but it seemed that the writer would say no more about it, as he reluctantly shut his mouth and glanced elsewhere. Masashi figured that it was some kind of important discovery that Sayua wanted to get credit for, and so she would keep it under wraps for now.
Speaking of her… now's a good time to ask her what she was doing before we found her, he thought. She's the only one I haven't heard from yet.
Upon being asked so, Sayua sneered. "If you think I'm the killer, I've got a bridge to sell you, buddy! But for your information, I was here on this very deck the whole time. I came here around 8:05 PM, and I didn't see anyone along the way."
At that time, Arashi was in the restroom, apparently, Masashi thought. So Sayua's story checks out here, at least.
"You came here of all places?" Masashi asked, finding that part to be more peculiar. "But why?"
"To give the boat ride a try," she answered. "After my headache went away, I got bored and remembered that the boat ride was a thing, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. So I gave it a whirl a few times, since I thought it wasn't too bad. But when all the lights turned off, I was stuck in the middle of the ride!"
"Oh… and so you didn't think of trying to get out?"
Sayua scoffed. "Of course not, dummy. It's against the rules to swim in the river. And I figured I'd better stay still and wait for things to end, than to blindly try to find my way out of there. If I had continued any further, I might have bumped into some death trap or whatever!
"Thankfully, once the lights came back on, the boat began moving again, and Sorao was there and told me the whole story," she said. "And that's all. That good enough for you?"
Obtained Truth Bullet: Sayua's Account - Around 8:05 PM, Sayua left her room and headed all the way to the lower third deck, seeing no one along the way. She rode the boat ride a few times, but in the middle of her ride, the blackout happened, which left her stranded. Rather than try to escape, she waited until the lights came back on, at which point the boat moved again.
They then seated themselves, he in the seat that had a steering wheel and a set of pedals. Though there was a button that said "START", Masashi instead looked around to see where he could use the ID. A few seconds later, he found a keycard reader, against which he held the ID. Right afterwards, the boat began to whirr. Masashi took this as a sign that he could now control the boat, and so he stepped on the pedal.
"Whoa!" he cried out as soon as the boat moved.
It took him a few seconds until his wits returned to him, after which he gained control of the boat and slowly had it climb up the slope. During the rise, he looked around himself nervously, wondering what awaited him at the top, but when he glanced at Mari, he was shocked to see that she showed no fear at all, as if she were used to this. Of course, she had gone on the ride before, but even so, it was rather uncanny that she showed not even a little hesitation. She was tapping her foot, her finger tapping her armrest, but those movements seemed to have come about from a desire to move around rather than an urge to escape. It reminded him of how she had acted when he, she, and Arashi had been in the power room during the blackout.
"Anyway, the culprit behind this blackout appears to have simply flipped the switch and broke it," Masashi continued, standing by the breaker box in the middle of the power room. "Now let's go check out the other rooms—"
At that moment, something else broke the power room's silence. Of all things, an extremely faint piano tune rang through the air, which silenced Masashi and his two companions as they turned their heads around in confusion.
"Wh-What is this music?" Masashi said, sweat dripping down his brow. "A-And where is it coming from?"
"It sounds like it's coming from downstairs..."
At that moment, something else broke the power room's silence. Of all things, an extremely faint piano tune rang through the air, which silenced Masashi and his two companions as they turned their heads around in confusion.
"Wh-What is this music?" Masashi said, sweat dripping down his brow. "A-And where is it coming from?"
"It sounds like it's coming from downstairs..."
It was then that Mari moved from her spot to the power room's entrance, and Masashi's eyes were fixated on her, for he awed at how calm she was. Even though he was certain that this piano tune did not bode well, she still went ahead to go find the cause, whatever the danger might be.
I wonder… Did something make her the way she is now? Masashi thought, feeling surer and surer that this had been due to something that she had experienced in the past. It was too unnatural to have always been part of her.
Masashi looked at the others to focus on something else. In contrast to Mari, Sayua, who already knew what this ride was like, still seemed a little squeamish as she glanced outside, however tough her countenance looked. And of course, Tanjiro looked uneasy, quietly swaying about as he groaned a little.
When the boat reached the top, he found that the upper part of this ride had the same scenery as the lower part. But at the other end was a tunnel that seemed to head underneath, and he gulped as the boat went nearer and nearer to it ever so slowly. When the boat entered the tunnel, he was beset by darkness on all sides, though a few dim lights hanging on the wall lit the way forth. To his pleasant surprise, the path was not a slope heading straight down but a long windy twisting path, and so he could relaxedly look at his surroundings.
The tunnel was, like the rest of the ship, designed to be a cove, and so as they sailed through the tunnel, they were met with the likes of robotic pirates standing by the walls and calling out stereotypical pirate phrases. There was even a pair of pirates dueling each other in a sword fight, and as they passed by the pirates, a sudden explosion of smoke appeared as part of special effects. Were they not on an investigation, Masashi would gladly spend the rest of his time enjoying all that the boat ride offered.
I hate to admit it, but this amusement park's not half-bad, he thought. Too bad its owners are now using it as a site for murder.
Tanjiro shuddered. "Th-This isn't something I'd like to see right before I go to bed."
"You don't like pirates, Tanjiro?" Mari asked.
"I don't have anything against them in particular, truly. But I simply don't really like that kind of imagery," Tanjiro explained. "It's why I didn't really like the Haunted Woods ride."
"Oh, yeah, the same ride that that Atsushi guy was killed in!" Sayua said coarsely. "It sure spooked the hell out of me, I tell you!"
Tanjiro groaned as he looked down. "Please don't remind me of that…"
Eventually, the boat reached level ground, and as they continued onwards, Mari pointed at a certain part of the wall that was connected to a small wooden dock. But by the dock was a door, and Masashi saw that it was time to disembark. He looked at the boat's controls and pressed the stop button once he parked it near the dock.
Sayua moaned as she stretched out her limbs. "All right, let's go already! I can't wait to get this damn investigation over with!"
"Same for me, but for a different reason…" Tanjiro mumbled.
Masashi opened the door, and the four went in. What awaited them was a flight of stairs that too went in a windy twisting way, but thankfully, the going was short, and they arrived at the top in no time. There was another door, but this time, when they headed in, Masashi knew for sure that this was the supply room.
"Wow… So this is it," he said.
The supply room was small, but its main feature, the shooter's supply of arrows, was right in the center of the room. It was a great glass container full of metallic arrows, and the container was connected to a nontransparent tube that was linked to the ceiling. On a nearby wall was a button labeled "Empty Supply", and by the container was a pile of paper arrows. It was now clear how the culprit had removed them from the container and replaced them with metallic arrows sometime before the murder.
"Oh, what the hell?!" Sayua said as she pointed at a certain spot to the right. "Look at that! It's blood!"
"Blood? Why is it here of all places?" Masashi asked as he looked at the small puddle of blood. "It seems far too great to have come from a simple injury…"
Tanjiro looked around and stopped once he looked up. "Oh! The blood's coming from there!"
He pointed at the ceiling, which had blood dripping down. It was then that Masashi noticed that the ceiling was full of gaps. Accounting for the fact that this room was right below the shooter room, he could draw only one conclusion.
"That's Sister Hikari's blood!" Masashi said. "It dripped down the floorboards, which is why there's a puddle of blood here!"
"Oh… Now that you mention it, the shooter room's floor has plenty of gaps," Tanjiro said, eyes widened. "And the location of the blood matches up with where her body is."
"Hmm… Is it possible that something fell through the gaps during the killing?" Masashi asked. "Maybe the killer dropped something."
The four then looked around the room, keeping their eyes on anything that could have fallen through the gaps. But aside from the supply of arrows, the room had few remarkable things. Near the door through which they had come were layers of blue tarp stacked together, and on the bottom of the pile were several long thin poles. There were also a few desks set beside the walls, but they had nothing remarkable on them.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing!" Sayua declared after a few minutes. "I think we can safely say the only thing that's fallen is the dead nun's blood."
"Hmm… It appears so," Mari said.
Obtained Truth Bullet: Supply Room - In the supply room is a container in which the shooter's supply of arrows is stored. Some of Sister Hikari's blood has dripped down through the gaps in the shooter room's floorboards. The only other noteworthy thing in the room is a group of long thin poles placed under a stack of blue tarps.
Looking around some more, Masashi noticed that on the glass container of arrows was taped a sign that said:
If foreign material is detected in the container, and the button is pressed, an alarm will play. The alarm automatically stops after fifteen seconds.
Warning! If the button is pressed again during the alarm, the shooter will be activated, and the alarm will be turned off.
"Well, this is interesting…" Mari said as she looked down at the sign. "The shooter apparently has a security mechanism, as it were…"
"If I understand this right, an alarm plays if someone presses the button in the room above," Tanjiro said. "But the shooter only shoots out arrows if the button is pressed again afterwards."
"And the alarm activates only if there's 'foreign material'," Mari said. "What exactly could that be?"
"Well, yesterday, Sister Hikari and I tested out the shooter, and I didn't hear any alarm," Masashi said. "The shooter shot out paper arrows at that time, so I assume that 'foreign material' refers to anything other than paper arrows."
"So since the container has metallic arrows in it now, an alarm should play if the button is pressed," Tanjiro said as he scratched his cheek. "But that's odd… I don't recall hearing an alarm of any kind when I was in the room with Sister Hikari."
"Well, that's pretty telling in and of itself…" Masashi said. "I wonder why you didn't hear anything like it…"
"Setting aside why you didn't hear it," Mari said, "what would you have done if you had heard an alarm?"
"If truth be told… I think I would've been much more alert," Tanjiro said. "I would've certainly thought that something dangerous was afoot."
Obtained Truth Bullet: Shooter Warning - If the button in the shooter room is activated, and there is something other than paper arrows in the shooter's supply, then an alarm will be activated. The alarm is turned off either if fifteen seconds pass or if the button is pressed again.
"I think that's all there is here," Masashi said. "I don't really see anything that helps us determine which of us is the killer, though."
Sayua sneered. "Well, you don't need to think more about it! For, you see, I've already figured it out!"
"You do? Then who is it?"
She widened her smirk as she raised her shoulders. "Sorry, buddy, but that's for the class trial! I'll be expecting many claps and cheers from you after I tell you!"
"Even I haven't been told about it," Tanjiro said plainly, looking more and more resigned. "She really means it when she says she wants to keep it under wraps."
Just then, a jingle rang through the room, and the four looked at the room's monitor, in which Monokuma appeared.
"All right, all right, I've had enough of this!" Monokuma said. "Things have gotten long enough! Now it's time for your guys' favorite part: the class trial! Head over to the main deck of the pirates' cove right now! At once! Straightaway! I don't need any more synonyms, do I?"
The announcement ended.
When Masashi and his companions arrived at the cove's main deck, all the others had already come, many of whom looked uneasy as they gazed at the horizon.
"Ugh… Even after going through this twice, I'm still not ready for this!" Arashi said, tapping his foot nervously. "A third class trial's not good for my heart!"
Faye sighed. "I understand how you feel… I still can't believe that one of us would dare to kill, even after the first two murders."
"I sure hope we've found enough clues!" Kasumi said. "Arashi and I looked around in the water slide room, but found nothing! We even searched the power room again, but once again, no luck!"
"Really? Not even a single bit?" Faye said.
Kasumi shook her head. "Nothing important in the trash can… Nothing on the back of the labels… Not even anything hidden in the buttons' hatches! I thought I might've struck gold, since something like that happened on one of my previous heists."
Maiha scoffed. "Were I in charge here, I would forbid you to prattle on about your loathsome escapades."
"Oh, come on!" Kasumi said whiningly. "You don't want to hear even a tale of mine? You can even have it short!"
"The only thing that I should like to have short is the time I must spend with you," Maiha retorted, frowning.
Kumi, who stood by Maiha, appeared to have recovered a little, as he no longer was weeping, nor was he fully still as if he had been turned into a marionette. But he said nothing at all, staring blankly at the deck and hugging his teddy bear. If Masashi did not know any better, he would never think him to be of the kind who usually frolicked happily around in the search of fantastic creatures.
"More importantly, we've searched through this ship, and we still haven't found the fireworks!" Arashi said, clenching his teeth. "Has anyone else found them?"
"No, but maybe they're on another ship," Maiha said. "Had I been given more time, I should've thought to check out the woodland kingdom and the Egyptian palace—"
"Everyone, look!" Sorao cried out. "The ship has come!"
Indeed, the great black ship came from the horizon without a hitch, and when it was right next to the main deck, the usual gangplank popped up on the cove's port side.
"I guess it's time!" Kasumi said, smiling nervously. "The show must go on, after all!"
After a moment's hesitation, the twelve students boarded the ship and entered the elevator taking them down to their judgment's site. The whirring was the only noise that rang through the air as the elevator headed down. Eventually, it stopped, and the twelve stepped out to the courtroom. Once again, its appearance was different; the whole floor now had a dark-blue color, the walls painted gray as if resembling a stormy night. The podiums were colored brown as if they had been made from wood, and as expected, Abraham's, Murphy's, and Sister Hikari's podiums were now occupied by their crossed-out portraits.
"Ahoy there, mateys!" Monokuma said. "Tonight, we sail through stormy seas, and whether we shall make it depends on how well ye do!"
Haruyuki let out a deep chuckle. "With two killings this time, I wonder whether we shall truly survive this."
"Hey, don't say that!" Kasumi said, setting both hands on her cheeks. "Saying something like that is totally a jinx!"
"I don't really think we'll be jinxed, but I still don't really like the sound of that…" Tanjiro remarked.
"Hey! Cut your chatter, ye good-for-nothing buccaneers!" Monokuma said, raising his paws. "Get to your positions and start your work on the deck!"
Without any further words, the twelve students went to their respective podiums.
Two of us… are gone this time.
Masashi gulped as he looked around and saw the dread on all the others' faces. It was hard to imagine that someone among them would even think about killing Hikari Shinto, the Ultimate Nun. She had been kind and sweet, always thinking the best of others, and even if it had been to the detriment of her health, she would still go out of her way to help others. But it was clear that kindness was no shield against death. She was gone from this earth forever.
But it was not only she that they had been bereft of. Murphy O'Hagan, the Ultimate Potato Farmer, had been unexpectedly killed as well. In the beginning, he had optimistically thought that no one would truly participate in this killing game. Of course, after the first class trial, he had known better, but even so, he still kept his spirits up, distracting himself with activities like painting and playing arcade games. He had also had a distaste for his Ultimate talent, and Masashi had wondered whether he might eventually get over it. Sadly, it had come to pass that he would die unhappy with himself, his last words full of regret over his deeds. And if Masashi and the others had found him earlier, perhaps he would still be with them.
No… Now's not the time for regrets, Masashi thought. Right now, we need to focus on the case… It's all for our survival… and for our peace.
Murphy had died after Sister Hikari, whence there was technically no need to delve into his death. Still, was it one person who had killed them both? Or was it two different people? Whichever one he might prefer, they must uncover the truth in the class trial and learn to live with it if they wanted peace to return.
Hello, everyone! I apologize greatly for my longer than usual absence, but I've had some other things going on, so regrettably, I couldn't publish this sooner.
Anyway, the investigation ends here! I know this investigation chapter is much longer than the other two, especially because this time there are two killings. It's also complicated by the fact that the characters' whereabouts at certain times are a bit important. Hopefully, though, this case isn't too complicated. In fact, with what you've seen here, I think you can figure out which character the blackened is.
As usual, here's the trial seating order:
1. Masashi Kousaki
2. Maiha Hanazawa
3. Murphy O'Hagan (DEAD)
4. Abraham Zargari (DEAD)
5. Arashi Seiya
6. Sister Hikari Shinto (DEAD)
7. Takumi Takamitsu
8. Haruyuki Kanagawa
9. Mari Anzai
10. Futaba Inoshishi (DEAD)
11. Atsushi Morokuzu (DEAD)
12. Faye Nirigiri
13. Kasumi Ayukawa
14. Sorao Mineta
15. Haruka Minami (DEAD)
16. Tanjiro Urata
17. Sayua Tomi
18. Hikari Fey
It doesn't matter, but I think it's neat to see how the overall appearance of the class trial changes over time. Eventually, it becomes sad to see so many dead students' portraits lined up like that.
