Even now, Masashi could not believe the tragedies that had befallen him. Though he had seen quite a few dead bodies already to the point that his surprise at the discovery had been greatly lessened, in the end, things were still dreary. The day had already begun unusually with the strong storm, such that the group was now stranded on the Moonlight City, but in hindsight, the storm had simply foretold that this was a day of darkness.

"No… No, this can't be happening… this has to be a fucking lie!"

In far greater shock, Sayua had stared dumbly at Tanjiro's corpse for a few seconds before regaining her power of speech.

"S-Sayua, I know this is awful, but you need to calm down!" Masashi said, approaching her.

"Shut up… Just shut up, dammit!" she yelled as she forcefully waved him away. "Tanjiro's fucking dead, and you think I should just calm down?!"

"Your wrath is only getting in the way of your better judgment," Haruyuki replied coolly, apparently having recovered from his earlier surprise of beholding Hikari's corpse. "Understandable as it is, I'm afraid that it'll only serve to hinder us. And I would rather that no one were hurt."

"First, Hikari, and now, Tanjiro… This is awful, awful, awful!" Kasumi added with a choking voice.

"Wh-What…? What did you say?"

It was Kumi, who had grown incredibly pale and was now quivering as if looking a wild beast in the eye.

"L-Lady Hikari... Sh-She… Sh-She's dead?"

Mari nodded solemnly. "Unfortunately, even though we helped her, she still fell prey to this killing game... She's gone now…"

"Oh my God, no...!" Sorao blurted out as he covered his mouth with his hand.

"Such a shame…" Maiha commented, bearing a grim countenance. "Though I hardly knew her, she never struck me as particularly irksome."

"And now, two of our dear, beloved, and treasured companions are gone…" Faye said, lowering her head solemnly. "May they rest in peace..."

"N-No… Th-That can't be true…" Kumi said, looking increasingly pale, his voice likewise becoming more and more incoherent. "I-If she's dead… then… then..."

Haruyuki glanced at him curiously. "Hmm? What's this?"

"This killing game… L-Lady Hikari and Tanjiro… They're both dead... It's all meaningless…!" he continued, speaking as if in a trance. "I… I wanna leave!"

"K-Kumi?" Masashi said, the storyteller's speech so frantic that Masashi felt himself not daring enough to approach him.

"Get me out of here!" he continued, appearing to pay no heed to his surroundings. "Get me out of here! Get me out of here! GET ME OUT OF HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—"

His shriek came to an end, but not by his will. Instead, what looked like a dart had struck him on the back, and in a few seconds, he fell to the ground and moved no more.

"Wh-What the?!" Faye cried out.

Everyone looked in the direction whence the dart had come, and most bewilderingly, it was Monokuma, who held a crossbow in his hands.

"Whoo, nice shot, wasn't it?" Monokuma said laxly. "If I hadn't gone to archery school, I might have missed."

"Monokuma!" Kasumi exclaimed, looking at him incredulously. "Just what have you done?!"

"Yeah… What the hell are you doing with that thing?" Sorao said, staring at him wide-mouthed.

"Oh, this crossbow here? Nothing to worry about, really," Monokuma answered as he opened up the hatch in his stomach and stowed the crossbow therein. "What I have just shot at the galoof is nothing but a tranquilizer dart. He'll be awake after a while."

"Okay, but you still haven't told us why you shot that at him!" Masashi said, already tired of his presence.

Monokuma hung his head down and let out an annoyed sigh. "Oh, nobody knows the troubles I've seen… To put it lightly, I had a feeling that he was going to make a big fuss and make things harder for me to manage. Believe me, we've seen his type before, and we call such people 'screamers'."

"It's frightening to think that you may not be making it up…" Mari said, looking far more collected, despite the dread in her voice. "And moreover, Kumi acted like this last time, when we discovered Sister Hikari's body. Why didn't you stop him then?"

"Well, it was a once-in-a-lifetime reaction I wouldn't dare to stop!" Monokuma answered mirthfully. "But I figured it wouldn't be as interesting to see it again, so I saved you all the trouble of dealing with the screamer."

"He's, uh, going to be all right, isn't he?" Sorao asked, looking at the unconscious boy with much worry on his face. "It would be really, really sad if something bad were to happen to him…"

"Oh, don't worry, there's nothing life-threatening in the sedative, I believe," Monokuma said relaxedly as he set a paw on the brim of his white captain's hat.

That wording of yours doesn't relieve me at all! Masashi thought.

Maiha snorted, having quickly regained her cool and returned to her usual apathetic expression. "I am at the very least glad that we don't have to put up with his anguished behavior, and so I am relieved to have been done this one small kindness."

"Hey, don't speak like that!" Kasumi said, looking at her judgmentally. "Can't you be a little kinder toward him?"

"Yes, Maiha, I can't bear with that attitude of yours," Faye added, her tone more critical than usual. "You should know better than to say something like that."

Maiha winced, and the pridefulness in her face waned. "On the other hand… I suppose that Monokuma's treatment of him is more extreme than I should like it to be."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can we move on already?" Monokuma said as he glanced down at Tanjiro's corpse. "What have we here? Tanjiro Urata, the Ultimate Historical Novelist…. Hmm, what a shame, what a shame. He might have lived longer to see a poorly animated version of his works."

"Cut to the chase already!" Sayua cried out, clenching her fists. "Who the fuck killed Tanjiro?!"

"Aw, it's so cute to see you like that!" Monokuma said flatteredly. "For a moment, you almost got me to say it!"

"Fuck you!"

Sayua lurched toward the bear, provoked by his words, but before she should even lay a hand on him, Sorao drew her back by pulling on her arm.

"Don't get all reckless now!" he said. "Violence isn't the answer now, especially when that bear can kill you for breaking the rules!"

"L-Let go of me!"

Despite her struggle, however, Sorao managed to keep a good grip on her. Masashi recalled him saying that he had participated in martial arts and a few sports, whence it was no wonder that he found it easy to restrain her. Eventually, she seemed to see the futility in resistance, and so she stopped her thrashing.

"Now that's a good girl," Sorao said softly as he let her go. She only stood there with a gloomy countenance, and though there was certainly nothing good about it, it was at least a more welcome sight. "Don't do that again, will you?"

"Yes, I should very much like to see you avoid a gruesome and pointless death," Haruyuki added coolly.

"Fine… Have it your way," Sayua said, disgruntled as she walked a few feet away from Sorao. "But let me just say this! To the one who killed Tanjiro… I swear that I'll wring your fucking neck out until you can't breathe!"

The others did not respond outwardly to her declaration, but the unease on their faces was enough to show their belief that she would follow through with her words.

"You done with the angst yet?" Monokuma asked, looking wholly uncaring of her loss.

"Please, by all means, proceed," Maiha said modestly.

"Well, as you've heard, there were two body discovery announcements. And indeed, Hikari Fey is dead," Monokuma replied. "Anyway… it's time for everyone's favorite segment: the Monokuma File!"

Monokuma then handed everyone Monokuma File 4, though since Kumi was unconscious, Mari took his in his stead. With both keenness and fear, Masashi read it:

"This time, there are two victims: Hikari Fey and Tanjiro Urata.

"Hikari Fey's cause of death was poisoning, and the victim died in the staff lounge. Though there is also a head wound, it has been determined not to have been fatal. The time of death is around 8:55 AM.

"Tanjiro Urata's cause of death is a blow to the head with a blunt instrument. The body was discovered in the lower theater room. It has been determined that the victim was struck on the head twice, and one of the strikes killed the victim instantly."

"Hmm… How peculiar," Haruyuki muttered, furrowing his brow.

"What is it?" Faye asked.

"Haven't you noticed? Something very important is missing," he replied. "In Tanjiro's section, nothing is said about the time of death."

"Oh, but Hikari's section has the time of death listed!" Kasumi added, gaping.

Maiha turned toward Monokuma, giving him a cold look. "What is the meaning of this omission? I bid you to fix this at once."

Monokuma chortled as he shook his head. "I assure you, this is no mistake of mine. I mean, what's the fun in giving you all the sweet info? That'd make things a bit too easy, don't you think?"

"But without it, we can't figure out which of us is the blackened, right?" Sorao said as he put up a ponderous expression. "According to the rules, the one who killed first is the blackened."

"Hmph! You teenagers and your constant need for someone to tell you the time!" Monokuma replied, crossing his arms. "Back in my day, you humans relied on stars and all that jazz to figure out the time. Can't you be more like your forebears?"

"In other words, you want us to figure out Tanjiro's time of death," Mari said, heaving a tired sigh as she glanced to the side. "And if that is your intention, then it means that there are clues here that can show what it is."

"I'm not saying anything other than what I've just said!" Monokuma answered, covering his mouth as if trying to stifle his tongue. "Now, then… Investigation Begin!"

Monokuma then turned around, walked over to one side of the room, and sat by a stack of mattresses.

"Um... Aren't you gonna disappear like you usually do?" Kasumi asked.

"I would, but I'm taking my ten-minute break right now," he answered in an unusually calm voice. "Go on, go on. Don't be shy, now. Act as if I weren't here."

"All right, then…" Masashi said, feeling a bit uneasy. "I guess we have no choice but to investigate now."

"Hang on," Mari said. "Don't forget about the motive of this case: the contracts."

"Oh, that's right!"

If one of the others had a signed contract, then there would be plenty of reason to suspect that person. But now that he thought about it, would it not be too easy to single oneself out by having a signed contract or not having a contract at all? Still, he had better be thorough and check all the contracts anyway.

A few seconds later, Masashi and the others took theirs out, and the result was quite surprising.

"We all have our contracts…" he said, looking around, everyone appearing to be equally struck dumb. "And they're all blank!"

"W-Wait, what about Kumi's?" Kasumi asked. "We haven't seen his contract yet, have we?"

"No need for that," Maiha answered. "When we discovered the body, I actually thought to ask those with me to show their contracts. And we can all confirm that Takumi Takamitsu's contract was unsigned."

"Oh… Then in other words, none of our contracts have been signed at all!" Kasumi replied.

"And that means that there's no accomplice involved in this case!" Sorao interjected, smiling brightly. "Phew, isn't that a relief, dudes? We don't have to fear that one of us may be working with the culprit!"

"It would seem so," Haruyuki said, though still looking quite unassured.

"For now, let's stay here and investigate this room," Mari suggested. "Then we'll go over to the other parts of the ship."

Despite the relief on the others' faces upon the conclusion that there was no accomplice involved, whatever the reason might be, Masashi could not rest easy. There was no doubt that all had their contracts, and all the contracts were blank, but Masashi could not rid himself of doubt that there was something off about this.

I don't know why, though... he thought. Maybe I should just investigate first.


For the investigation, Masashi first had Kasumi and Faye watch over Kumi and Sayua in the dining room, who still looked far from whole. Besides wanting someone to console her, he figured that she might do something reckless if she were left to her own devices. And Kumi would most likely be out for a great deal of the investigation, so it was best to have them watch over him as well. Hence, it was only Masashi, Mari, Sorao, Maiha, and Haruyuki who were to investigate this room right now.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Monokuma File

Wanting to have a clear idea of this ship's layout, Masashi took out his Monopad and went to a section that showed a map of the whole ship.

Map of the Moonlight City

Aft side | Fore side

Second deck: Staff lounge | Upper theater room, Restaurant

Third deck: Clothing shop | Upper theater room (entrance)

Fourth deck: Ballroom | Lower theater room

Fifth deck: Music room | Ferris wheel room

The fifth deck was the only way to go from one side of the ship to the other. A set of stairs in the aft side connected the staff lounge, the clothing shop, the ballroom, and the music room. Additionally, the ballroom was connected to that set of stairs as well as one set leading down to an intersection in the fifth deck.

"Hmm... A killing happened in both the fore and aft sides," Masashi said.

"Just like how Murphy was killed in the upper decks of the pirates' cove, and Sister Hikari in the lower decks..." Sorao said, gaping. "Man, it's like someone planned it all out like that to make it fitting or something."

"Are you insinuating that this was all the work of one person?" Maiha said. "Is it not likelier that this was the work of two separate persons?"

Sorao raised his hands defensively. "Well, after what Arashi did, I can't really rule out the possibility, can I?"

"I think there's something more important than the eeriness of this case," Mari replied. "Do you know what sets this ship apart from the others?"

"Er, the scenery?" Masashi said.

"Well, yes, but that's not what I meant," she said, giving him a blank stare for a few seconds before glancing elsewhere. "Rather, it's the 'security system', which requires us to have our Monopads to walk into a room."

"O-Oh, yeah, that..." Sorao muttered, looking quite shocked as his face grew a little pale. "I can't believe that I've completely forgotten about that until now..."

"For what purpose do you bring it up?" Maiha asked.

"I should imagine that Monokuma has logs that keep track of all entries," Mari answered. "If we have those logs, then maybe we'll have a better idea on who the blackened is."

"Log, you say?!"

It was then that Monokuma, who had been sitting nearby, suddenly jumped up and rushed toward them.

"I've heard it! Someone said 'log'!" Monokuma said excitedly.

"You're done with your ten-minute break, I see," Haruyuki remarked amusedly. "And we should appreciate it if you could show us the security logs."

"You really, really think that I'll simply give you my security logs, which are full of confidential information that I'm paid big bucks to watch over?" Monokuma asked. "If you think that I will... then you're absolutely right!"

"Wow. That was quick," Sorao remarked as he looked askance at Monokuma. "I thought you'd be more hesitant about sharing such important info with us."

"Were I actually concerned, then sure, you would have a point. But let me tell you, the security logs don't really show much at all."

"They don't?" Masashi said.

"Nope. Makes you wonder what we spend all this money every month for."

"We'll be the judge of whether they show anything," Maiha said matter-of-factly. "Now I bid you to hand the logs over to us."

Monokuma let out a small and annoyed sigh as he hung his head down. "Always so pushy… Why don't I ever get any thanks from you guys?"

"I won't even dignify that with an answer."

Monokuma then took out from his white coat a few pieces of paper. "Go on, take them already. They're the security logs for today and begin at midnight. And just so you know, the logs don't show anything after the investigation began, since I've disabled the system."

Masashi randomly took one of the papers and turned it over, only to be bewildered by the contents of the paper, which was labeled "Ballroom" at the top.

"There's nothing written here!" he said.

"What?" Maiha said before she too glanced at it and widened her eyes in amazement. "Monokuma, explain this at once!"

"You don't get it, you dunces?" Monokuma said. "There's nothing on the ballroom's security log because there's been nothing to record."

"In other words," Mari replied, "not a single person has entered the ballroom since midnight."

"Exactamundo!" Monokuma answered. "Aren't you happy that you have less to remember now?"

Masashi then took a look at the next paper, which was labeled "Ferris Wheel Room", only to find that it too was blank. Taking in the fact that the Ferris wheel room too had not been accessed today, he took the next paper, which was labeled "Clothing Shop". This time, there was an actual log:

8:15 AM - Masashi, Kasumi, Sayua (enter)

8:30 AM - Sorao (enter)

8:34 AM - Sorao (exit)

8:35 AM - Masashi, Kasumi, Sayua (exit)

"So this is a record of our movements…" Masashi uttered. "It seems to record it whenever someone goes through the door."

"That would explain why my name pops up twice in a row," Sorao said, nodding along. "I went into the clothing shop at that time and left a few minutes later."

"And the three of us left afterwards," Masashi said. "That's when we bumped into you, Mari."

"Is that all there is?" Maiha asked.

"Yep, that's it!" Monokuma answered. "Not a soul has entered the shop since you three left!"

"Anyway… it seems that the security log matches your witness account perfectly, Masashi," Mari said. "I don't think this log is important to remember."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Security Logs (1) - Not a single person entered the ballroom or the Ferris wheel room this morning. Nor has anyone entered the clothing shop after Masashi and company left it.

They then looked at the security log for the restaurant, but found it to be quite unremarkable, for most of the former half of the log simply recorded what they had done this morning before they had learned that the Moonlight City had been separated from the other ships. The latter half, on the other hand, caught Masashi's attention, as it recorded everyone's movements after Masashi, Kasumi, and Sayua had left for the clothing shop:

8:15 AM - Tanjiro, Hikari (exit)

8:18 AM - Sorao (exit)

8:20 AM - Takumi (exit)

8:33 AM - Mari (exit)

8:43 AM - Faye (exit)

8:45 AM - Sorao (enter)

8:45 AM - Haruyuki (exit)

8:52 AM - Faye (enter)

8:57 AM - Takumi (enter)

8:58 AM - Haruyuki (enter)

8:59 AM - Sorao, Faye, Maiha, Haruyuki, Takumi (exit)

"Hmm… Quite a lot to process," Masashi said. "First, Tanjiro and Hikari left the restaurant at 8:15 AM."

"That's right. They said they were heading off to the music room in the lower fifth deck," Maiha answered. "What they did afterwards, I obviously do not know."

"And not long after their departure, Faye and the others finished their cooking session," Haruyuki added. "That was also the exact moment when they awoke me from my sleep and asked that I partake of their treats."

"What are the treats, exactly?" Masashi asked.

"Just a bunch of brownies," Mari answered. "And Faye, Sorao, Kumi, and I added our own special flavor to them."

"Yeah, she simply told us to fill the brownies with whatever flavoring was available in the kitchen," Sorao added. "More importantly, right after we were done cooking, we ate the treats. Well, everyone else did. I never ate mine, though."

"You didn't?" Masashi asked. "Why not?"

"I... didn't feel hungry at the time, that's all. Shame, because Kumi himself gave me a brownie to eat, and it killed my heart a little when I refused it and saw the disappointment on the little fella's face," Sorao answered, albeit less certainly. "That set aside, I wanted to unwind outside, so a minute or so after the treats were passed out, I left the restaurant and visited the clothing shop. You know that full well, don't you?"

"All right, afterwards, Kumi left as well," Masashi continued. "Anyone know why?"

"Apparently, he wanted to 'play' in the theater rooms. Obviously, he was up to his foolhardy chasing after ridiculous fantasies," Maiha answered, sounding none too caring. "And that reminds me... I ought to note that right before the cooking began, I saw the fool talking with Tanjiro and Hikari quite a bit."

"Really?" Masashi replied. "I was taking a nap at the time, I think, so I don't think I saw that moment. Do you know what they were talking about?"

"I don't remember clearly. I found myself quite uninterested in their conversation," she replied matter-of-factly. "However… one part stood out to me. That is, Takumi asked Hikari to write down something in his storybook."

"What? Kumi did?" Masashi said. "That's… not what I would expect."

Maiha rolled her eyes. "It's far more trivial than one may think it to be. Apparently, he wanted to see what her handwriting was like."

"Hmm, well, he's a writer. Maybe writers are into that kind of thing?" Sorao said, though his tone suggested that even he had no confidence in his suggestion.

"Are they, now?" Haruyuki said, looking skeptical. "Personally, in normal circumstances, I should think it to be a roundabout way to say that he saw something in her."

"Something? Like, you think he'd grown fond of her?" Masashi suggested.

"They certainly didn't bicker, did they?"

"Well, no, but I hadn't seen them talk to each other a whole lot."

"Still, maybe the little guy thought Hikari was pretty interesting in more ways than one," Sorao remarked. "Maybe he was into her look, what with her kimono and all that jazz."

I think you're just seeing things, Masashi thought. Still, I can't help but see this as important... I'd better keep a note of it.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Maiha's Account - Apparently, before Faye's cooking began, Kumi was talking with Tanjiro and Hikari about something. At one point, Kumi asked Hikari to write down something in his storybook, apparently because he wanted to see what her handwriting was like.

"Okay, now, Mari, you left the restaurant and met up with me, Kasumi, and Sayua," Masashi continued. "And later on, Faye left the restaurant as well. Maiha, Haruyuki, do you know why?"

"She claimed to be keen for a change of scenery and a breath of fresh air," Haruyuki answered. "Then after a while she came back."

"That's all?"

"According to what she said, yes," he continued as he flashed a small smile. "In any case, after Sorao returned from the clothing shop, I left the restaurant, for I had gotten the desire to see what you and the others were doing. You remember that you bumped into me near the music room, yes?"


They headed down the long stairs to the fifth deck, encountering no other surprises. But no sooner had they arrived at the door of the music room than they heard footsteps coming from someone walking through the fifth deck. Masashi turned around and nearly leapt in surprise at who it was.

"Ah, there you are."

Of all people, it was Haruyuki, who looked mildly surprised to see them, and to whom Masashi showed like surprise.

"Huh? What are you doing here, Haruyuki?" Kasumi asked. "Weren't you asleep earlier?"

"Indeed, after a while, I awoke, only to see that you were missing, and so I wanted to see what you were up to," he answered. "Pray tell, why do you look so troubled?"

Masashi then told him everything that had happened once they had heard that weird metallic noise. By the end, Haruyuki had looked quite astounded.

"Oh, my… Quite a situation we are in now," he said. "I'm sorry to say that I haven't seen Tanjiro at all since he left the restaurant with Hikari. They had already left for the music room, I heard."


"Yeah, that lines up with what I remember," Masashi said. "And you reported to the others what had happened to Hikari, right?"

"But of course. By that time, I should note, Takumi and Faye had already returned to the restaurant," he replied. "Takumi then suggested that we look for Tanjiro together. Right after that, Faye suddenly said that they ought to look in the theater rooms first and so left the restaurant."

"She left first?" Mari said.

"Yes, he speaks truly," Maiha added. "We followed after her. I followed first, and then that fool Sorao chased after me, asking me to wait."

"And then I joined them," Haruyuki added. "And of course, Kumi joined us. Of course, I never turned around while we were walking through the hallway, so there is a small, albeit very small, chance that it was someone who sought to deceive me—"

"No need for the dramatization. The little fella followed after you. Who else could it have been?" Sorao said, shrugging. "Besides, it's more important to mention what happened when we entered the upper theater room."

"Hmm? Did something unusual happen?" Masashi asked.

Maiha nodded. "It at least piqued our interest. When we stepped into the room, we smelled something strange. It was faint, but we could not mistake it for anything else but blood."

"Blood?" Masashi said. "Was there blood in the room?"

"No, none that we could see, though we barely had the chance to investigate the upper theater room thoroughly," Haruyuki answered. "In fact, the more intriguing part is that about ten seconds or so after we entered the room, we heard something from the lower theater room. It sounded like something… striking someone."

"What?!" he exclaimed. "Could it have been the moment of the murder?!"

"Pretty likely," Sorao replied. "And right after that, we heard a few different things falling onto the floor."

"Unfortunately, even though we could see most of the lower theater room from where we stood," Haruyuki said, "the upper theater room essentially is built upon a platform. Hence, with our range of sight, we could not see anything happening directly beneath us."

"By that point, there were too many signs showing that something was amiss," Maiha replied. "We rushed over to the lower theater room to investigate."

"And when we entered… we found the corpse," Haruyuki said, his tone growing more dreary. "And as you know, the others then asked me to retrieve you and inform you of the news. What a tragic state of affairs we find ourselves in."

So they smelled blood in the upper theater room and heard something striking someone in the lower theater room... Masashi thought as he summarized their account. Weird that the locations are different...

"Whew… This is a lot to take in," Masashi said. "But I'm starting to get a good idea on what happened on the other side of the ship during this whole mess."

"And as for the security log," Mari said, "it seems that everyone's accounts match the log. I don't think we need to worry much about any possible trickery with the log."

"Now, enough dilly-dallying," Maiha said as she turned toward Monokuma, who had been silent for quite a while. "Monokuma, I bid you to show us the log for the staff lounge, the scene of Hikari's death."

"Oh, uh, about that…" Monokuma said, shrinking a little as if in fear. "I suppose I oughta inform you that I can't do that."

"What?" she said, glaring at him as if he had just slighted her. "Whyever not?"

"Hmm, well, you see, the guys I hired to install the security system for this place kind of failed to do a spot check, so… that door and the doors for the restrooms in the fifth deck aren't connected to the security system," Monokuma replied smarmily. "Boy, let me tell you, once I found out about this, I let them have it!"

"Sure, sure, whatever…" Sorao said nonchalantly. "In the end, all that matters is that there is no security log for the staff lounge."

Masashi groaned. "Ugh… If we had it, then it'd make finding Hikari's killer much easier…"

Now that he thought about it, though, had the killer been aware of this fact and thus exploited it to kill Hikari? It certainly seemed rather convenient that Hikari had been killed in the staff lounge of all places.

Updated Truth Bullet: Security Logs (1) - Not a single person entered the ballroom or the Ferris wheel room this morning, nor has anyone entered the clothing shop since Masashi and company left it. The records of the restaurant match witness accounts.

As the security system does not include the staff lounge or the public restrooms, there are no logs for them.

"Let's look at the log for the theater rooms, then," Masashi said. "The killer should've entered this room through the door, so their name has to be on it."

"Yeah, it certainly would make things much easier for us, wouldn't it?" Sorao said.

Masashi sifted through the papers, focusing only on the titles, and picked up the one that said "Lower Theater Room":

8:40 AM - Takumi (enter)

8:43 AM - Takumi (exit)

8:43 AM - Faye (enter)

8:52 AM - Faye (exit)

8:53 AM - Takumi (enter)

8:56 AM - Takumi (exit)

9:01 AM - Sorao, Faye, Maiha, Haruyuki, Takumi (enter)

9:03 AM - Haruyuki (exit)

9:13 AM - Masashi, Mari, Kasumi, Sayua, Haruyuki (enter)

"Well, that's… something," Sorao said, staring at it bemusedly. "I think there's clearly one thing in all our minds."

"Yeah… Tanjiro's not on this list anywhere," Masashi said, bewildered at the names listed here. "But we found his body here, so he must've come in here somehow."

"True… I think it may make more sense once we look at the other logs," Mari said nonchalantly. "Anyway, there doesn't seem to be anything off in this log. Kumi was apparently playing around in the theater rooms, which explains his appearances. And Faye came in here as part of her break, as noted."

"And of course, the five of us came to these rooms after we decided to go look for Tanjiro," Haruyuki added.

And Haruyuki then left by himself to go look for me and the others… Masashi thought. All right, nothing off at all.

Masashi then turned his attention toward the security log for the upper theater room, having a feeling that it would more or less garner as much attention:

8:20 AM - Takumi (enter)

8:40 AM - Takumi (exit)

8:43 AM - Sorao (enter)

8:45 AM - Takumi (enter)

8:45 AM - Sorao (exit)

8:53 AM - Takumi (exit)

9:00 AM - Sorao, Faye, Maiha, Haruyuki, Takumi (enter)

9:01 AM - Sorao, Faye, Maiha, Haruyuki, Takumi (exit)

"Curiouser and curiouser… Tanjiro is not on here, either," Haruyuki said. "It doesn't seem like he ever came to the theater rooms this morning."

In that case, how in the world did he come here? Masashi thought, furrowing his brow.

"One more thing," Mari said. "Sorao, why did you go to the upper theater room at one point?"

"Huh, that?" Sorao said, fidgeting a little as he looked to the side for a moment. "You know how I visited the clothing shop? After that, I… I felt like taking a look at the scenery in this room. The upper theater room has a pretty good view, so..."

"And you stayed there for only… about two minutes, it seems," Maiha said skeptically.

"Yeah, once I took in the sight, I decided to go back to the restaurant. Nothing wrong with that, right?"

Obtained Truth Bullet: Security Logs (2) - A security log of the upper and lower theater rooms. Quite noticeably, Tanjiro does not appear at all in them.

"All right, last up is the log for the music room," Mari said. "Since Hikari may have been attacked there, the contents of the log should be enlightening."

Masashi then sifted through the logs in Monokuma's paws, looking carefully for the one labeled "Music Room". However, after a few seconds, his search yielded nothing.

"Uh, Monokuma? Where's the log?" he asked.

"Hmm? What makes you think it's here?" Monokuma responded with an annoyingly innocent tone.

"Because all the other logs are here?"

"What a faulty assumption!" Monokuma said, his expression turning stern as if chiding him. "It wasn't here when you sifted through them a minute ago, and it certainly didn't magically reappear a second later!"

Maiha frowned with much disapproval. "What's the meaning of this? Why do you refuse to show us that log?"

"Puhuhu... You speak as if I'd promised you that I'd give you it. But really, I never said that," Monokuma said. "If I gave you the log, things might get a little too easy, don't you think?"

"In other words, the music room's log has some highly incriminative information," Mari said matter-of-factly.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that," Monokuma retorted. "All I can confirm is that you guys are a bunch of suckers for thinking that I'd help you out with everything!"

Masashi groaned again. Of course he should have known that things would not be easy. Without the log, they would not be ascertain who had entered the music room after Hikari and Tanjiro had supposedly gone there.

"Puhuhuhu… In the end, I've been rather useful, haven't I? I've given you more information than you deserve!" Monokuma said, sounding all high and mighty. "Hope the logs won't be too much for you to remember!"

Sorao heaved a sigh as he rubbed his head. "I'm getting a headache just from trying to remember the first one."

"It is a lot, but I don't think it's that great a problem," Mari said, looking unfazed by all this new information. "I think that we should simply focus on the two theater rooms' security logs."

"Yes, the other security logs are not that helpful, since all the movements recorded are backed up by witness accounts," Haruyuki said, nodding along.

I guess so… Masashi thought. Still, maybe I should keep them with me. Who knows, they could prove useful somehow.


After Monokuma left for good, Masashi thought that it was about time to actually examine the crime scene. Thankfully, there was not too much blood, so he found it relatively easy to bear with the corpse.

"The murder weapon is listed in the Monokuma File as a 'blunt instrument'," Mari commented. "It seems to be the bowling ball over there."

Indeed, a bowling ball lay right near Tanjiro's corpse, slightly bloody from the impact that it had made on its head. Masashi bore the ball to see how heavy it was and found it to be somewhat easy to wield, to the point that even someone lacking in strength would have no difficulty using it.

"Where did the bowling ball come from, anyway?" Masashi asked.

"Oh, that? That's no mystery," Sorao answered relaxedly as he pointed at a certain corner of the room. "You see that chest of props over there? The bowling ball came from there."

"That's right. I myself found the bowling ball there a few days ago," Mari said.

"As did I," Haruyuki added. "It seems that the culprit thought to use the nearest thing that they could find to slay Tanjiro."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Bowling Ball - A bloody bowling ball was found near Tanjiro's corpse. It was taken from the chest of theater props in the lower theater room.

A few inches near the bowling ball and the corpse was a stack of boxes that was climbable but was nonetheless not tall enough to reach the platform of the upper theater room. Still, it might be possible to reach the upper room's railing if someone jumped extremely high, whence Masashi thought for a moment that anyone could use the boxes as a shortcut. Of course, whether anyone had used that trick was another question; he doubted that any of the group, including the athletic Kasumi, would be able to do that. And what intrigued him more were a small toy car and a remote control lying by the boxes.

"Huh, what's this?" Masashi asked as he picked up the car. "Is this another toy from the chest?"

"Indeed, it is," Maiha answered. "It is rather curious to see this car here, however. Its role in the killing, if any, eludes me."

"Way too out of place to be left lying here by accident," Sorao said. "Since the remote control's here, the killer must've dropped it here before fleeing the scene."

"Yes, but what was the killer using it for?" Mari said. "I don't think this is something most killers typically use."

"Man, imagine it! A killer trying to kill someone with a toy car!" Sorao replied, sounding more excited as if having fun. "He'd have to attach a knife on the front or something before having it ram its victim!"

"Quite an impractical scheme, I should think," Maiha remarked, annoyed.

"But if it were to happen, it would be a somewhat novel sight, I admit," Haruyuki said, finding more amusement in this than she. "Sorao, assuming that you're innocent right now, if you ever plan to kill someone, try to be creative, will you?"

Sorao flashed a small smile, letting out a laugh in high spirits. "I'll keep that in mind."

No, please don't... Could you please keep it nice and simple? Masashi thought, though knowing full well it had become pointless by now to hope for a simple killing.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Toy Car - There is a toy car lying near Tanjiro's corpse. It is remote-controlled, and the remote control was found near the toy car.

Now that he had looked around the corpse's surroundings a bit, Masashi thought it best to find out what was on Tanjiro's person. As expected, his Monopad was there, but there seemed to be nothing remarkable about it. On the other hand, there were three other things that gripped him more. First, Tanjiro's contract was here, and thankfully, it looked to be in fine condition.

"Hmm… It's blank," Mari said as she picked it up. "It has only his name, and that's it."

"Then that means that Tanjiro never had anyone sign his," Sorao added as he shrugged. "Makes sense… I don't want to think about what would drive him to take part in a murder scheme."

"So is that all there is?" Masashi asked.

"Actually… there is something peculiar about this."

She handed Masashi the contract, and this puzzled him, as he saw nothing wrong with it. But as soon as he laid his hands on it, he saw at once what she meant.

"That is weird…" he muttered. "The contract feels… thicker."

"What? Really?" Maiha said, staring at him with bemusement.

She, Haruyuki, and Sorao touched the contract, and there was no room for doubt among them: Tanjiro's contract felt thicker, albeit ever so slightly, than their contracts.

"How could this be?" she said as she glanced to the side. "I cannot imagine why the contract is like that now."

"Something is definitely amiss about it..." Haruyuki said.

"Well, duh," Sorao said merrily. "How about something a bit more meaningful?"

Haruyuki wagged his finger in response as he clicked his tongue. "You mustn't rush my mind, for I am still in the middle of formulating a working theory."

"It sounds to me that you have absolutely no clue," Maiha said, showing a little smirk.

The art critic let out a sigh, looking quite tired. "That's not what I meant, but I digress..."

There was nothing else remarkable about the contract, so Masashi focused on the other item: a device that looked much like a remote control.

"Huh, what the heck is this for?" he asked as he looked at it from various angles, only to find nothing else remarkable about it.

"Certainly not the remote-controlled car. We have the remote for it," Mari answered. "And I certainly have never seen Tanjiro with that thing before."

"Neither have I," Sorao added. "Would've been pretty weird, too. It doesn't look like something you would casually have on you."

"Then obviously, it is for another device," Maiha answered, rolling her eyes. "And why are you looking at me like that?"

"Er… I was hoping that you might have some idea on what it could be," Masashi said.

"Well, if anyone knows, it's certainly not I," she said haughtily. "You ought to search elsewhere."

Finding nothing else of interest in Tanjiro's contract, Masashi took out the last item of interest from his corpse: a small pink camera.

"That camera…" Mari said, staring at it. "I recognize it. It was definitely Tanjiro's."

"I saw it as well," Haruyuki remarked. "In fact, now that I look at it, I recall a certain incident involving it this morning."


Tanjiro made his way to the door, but just as he opened it and passed through, he suddenly fell, and the sound of something dropping echoed through the room as well. At once, all looked toward him, only to see that the situation was far less severe than they had feared.

"Ow…" Tanjiro said as he rubbed his head.

As it turned out, he had simply bumped into Sorao, who had been about to walk through the door. He too was lying on the floor, groaning.

"Ah, man… You sure don't have good timing, dude," Sorao said, rubbing his own head as well.

"Oh, sorry about this… Ah! My camera!"

Two pink cameras lay next to the fallen men. They must have fallen from their pockets when they had bumped into each other.

"Sorao! What are you doing?" Faye said, her voice coming from the kitchen. "Come here and help me distribute the dishes."

"R-Right!"

Sorao picked up the camera lying by him, quickly shoved it into his pocket, and hurried back to the kitchen. Sighing for a moment, Tanjiro picked up the remaining camera and put it away before he entered the kitchen and came out with a glass of water.


"O-Oh, yeah, that…" Sorao said, glancing to the side, his voice quivering a little. "Yeah, Faye really chewed me out when I told her about it... she said I ought to watch my step..."

Huh, he looks awfully unnerved… Masashi thought. Why does he sound so bothered? Was Faye really that frightening to him?

"I most certainly understand her complaint!" Maiha said derisively. "I've even heard that during the cooking, you accidentally knocked over a cup of coffee on the counter."

"Yeah... I was told to clean it up," Sorao replied. "It was pretty annoying that it spilled over the table and stained a bunch of stuff. And even with all my scrubbing, the coffee stains still aren't fully gone. Man, good thing it didn't get on my clothes..."

"Er, getting back to the topic... do you think that there's anything of worth in the camera?" Masashi asked, finding no worth in Sorao's complaining. "Maybe Tanjiro snapped a shot of his killer."

"Well, that would be rather anticlimatic, wouldn't it?" Haruyuki remarked.

"I'll gladly settle for an anticlimax to spend as little time dealing with that vexing bear as possible," Maiha replied snidely.

Masashi then turned the camera on and checked the photos, which appeared to be organized in reverse chronological order and in many different pages. However, a cursory glance at the current page showed nothing that stood out to him, as they were simply photos of various places throughout the four ships. Given that the photos had clearly been taken days before the murder, he saw nothing important in them.

"Guess there's nothing important here after all," Masashi said as he shoved the camera into his pocket. Though the camera's contents seemed worthless, he thought that it might be good to have something to take pictures with just in case.

"Yeah… What a waste of time that was…" Sorao said. Though his facial expression hardly changed, for a second, he still sounded quite perturbed as if there were something valuable about the camera.

There was nothing else about Tanjiro's belongings that caught his eye, but just before he moved away, he took a small glance at the other parts of the corpse and noticed that there was a bit of blood on Tanjiro's right hand. Moreover, right next to the body was a bloody handprint, and from the shape, it was clearly Tanjiro's.

"Why is his hand bloody?" Masashi asked. "It wouldn't be weird to see blood on his body, but there's actually so little blood on the other parts of his body."

"I mean, the only other place with blood is his head, and given how he got offed, it's no mystery," Sorao replied, pointing to his head wound.

"Does it particularly matter?" Maiha asked, sounding not at all interested. "The blood got onto his hand after the killer struck him. Simple as that."

"Did it, now?" Haruyuki said. "How would you explain the bloody handprint next to him?"

Maiha rolled her eyes. "Obviously, the poor man touched the floor with his hands as he was falling. The imprint clearly shows it."

"No, I don't think that's the case," Mari replied quickly. "Look at the wall."

She pointed at part of the wall right next to the body. Though it was slightly dark since this part of the room was underneath the upper theater room's platform, Masashi could still make out something red. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be another bloody handprint.

"Whoa!" Sorao said, reeling back. "What's the deal with that?"

"It appears to be of the same shape and size as the handprint on the floor, the handprint belongs to Tanjiro," Haruyuki said as he looked back and forth at the floor and the wall. "Yes, certainly, Tanjiro made them."

"Sounds pretty weird for Tanjiro to have made the handprint on the wall just as he was falling, then," Sorao pointed out.

Maiha scoffed, despite having her theory proven wrong. "Does it truly matter? I see no significance in these handprints."

True, I don't really see right now how the handprints are significant... Masashi thought. Still, I wonder why he left there in the first place...

Obtained Truth Bullet: Details of Tanjiro's Corpse - Four things were found on Tanjiro's person: his Monopad, a remote control, his camera, and his contract. The remote control does not work for the toy car lying near his body. His contract is blank, but for some reason, the paper feels slightly thicker than the other contracts. Notably, Tanjiro's right hand is covered with blood.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Bloody Handprints - There are two bloody handprints in the lower theater room. One is on the wall right next to Tanjiro's corpse, and the other is on the part of the floor next to Tanjiro's corpse. It seems that Tanjiro left the handprints behind, but why he did so is left unknown.

Once he was done looking at Tanjiro's corpse, Masashi thought to look at other parts of the lower theater room. He noticed that at the other end of the room and sitting by the wall was a short stack of white mattresses, by which Monokuma had sat earlier. Undoubtedly, it was part of the set of props available for theater use.

"Hmm? What's this?"

Something stood out on the topmost mattress, and it was impossible to miss it, for it was but a small speck of blood.

"That definitely was not there when I came here yesterday," Maiha commented. "I assume that it must have played some role in the killing."

"Hmm, but that's strange," Haruyuki added. "The mattress is on this side of the room, but the body is on the other side. I doubt that the blood got onto it during the killer's attack."

True… I wonder what this blood spot means, then, Masashi thought as he made sure to note it down.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Mattress - On the other end of the lower theater room is a stack of white mattresses. On the topmost one is a small speck of blood. Given the distance between the mattresses and Tanjiro's corpse, it seems not to have gotten on it during a struggle.

Masashi looked around some more and noticed that there was a small vent cover on the wall near the mattress. It was somewhat high, but he imagined that it would be easy to climb up to it with the mattresses.

"Say, do you know where this vent goes?" he asked.

"I believe that it goes to the hallway where the long set of stairs going up to the staff lounge is," Haruyuki answered. "I once inquired Monokuma about this."

The stairs, huh... Masashi thought. I wonder how important this vent is.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Lower Theater Vent - There is a vent in the lower theater room that is connected to the hallway in the aft side. Specifically, it is the hallway with the stairs going up to the staff lounge. Though the vent is somewhat high, anyone can get up to it with the help of the stack of mattresses.

Masashi and the others looked around some more, but found nothing else of interest in the lower theater room.

"Let's go check out the other rooms," he suggested. "I don't think there are any more clues here."

"Yeah, and besides, don't you think we need to get started on investigating Hikari's murder as well?" Sorao added. "She died by, uh, poisoning, right?"

Mari nodded as she set a finger on her chin. "It's actually quite puzzling… When we left Hikari by herself, we made sure that the door was locked with the help of Kasumi's lockpick."

"Ah, so in other words, what we have here is a locked room mystery," Haruyuki said calmly as if they were all discussing a book at a regular book club. "I was wondering when something like this would pop up again after the first murder in the moving carriage."

"You shouldn't have expectations about this in the first place," Masashi replied, once again finding the man's calm analytic nature to be weird at best.

"How can I not? As a game, this killing game is subject to conventions the likes of which one may see in mystery and detective fiction," the art critic responded.

"Speaking of conventions, don't the annoying ones get killed off first?" Sorao asked.

"That's not true. If it were, we shouldn't have to deal with you," Maiha said straightforwardly.

Sorao winced as he raised his hands defensively. "For the record, I like to think myself as having a high survivability rate!"

In any case, as far as Masashi could recall, there were no other doors to the staff lounge, but given that he had not searched it thoroughly yet, it was possible that there was a hidden passageway or something like it. After all, there had been a hidden door in the merry-go-round room in the first ship, and it was that very passageway that Haruka had exploited to kill Atsushi.

"Well, I don't think it's a good idea to search all the rooms together, you know?" Sorao replied. "I mean, we don't know how much time Monokuma's given us for the investigation."

"True, but from the last three times, it seems that he always gives us the right amount of time, uncanny as it may be," Haruyuki said, sounding not too disturbed.

"Nonetheless, I'd rather not spend time than I must on this sordid affair," Maiha said, letting out a sigh full of disgust.

"Exactly!" Sorao said as a smile appeared on his face. "How about we all split up into pairs and go through a room?"

"You want us to split up in pairs?" Mari said, looking askance at him. "I guess it makes sense, but… there are only five of us here right now. There'll be one person remaining."

"We could go to the restaurant and ask Faye or Kasumi to join us," Haruyuki suggested. "I am certain that the one remaining can look after Sayua and Kumi all by herself, yes?"

"Yeah, you see how it all works out?" Sorao said as he widened his smile. "Now, then… Masashi, how about you and I join forces?"

"Wh-What? You want me?" Masashi said, wondering for a second whether he might have misheard him. "Why?"

"Well... nothing much to it, really. I just thought it'd be nifty to investigate together as a pair for once, don't ya think?"

"Er, I guess so…" Masashi said, though skeptical. At first glance, there truly was hardly anything off about it, but something about Sorao's tone felt off, as if he were not telling him the whole truth.

"Fantastic! Marvelous!" Sorao replied, beaming. "How about you and I go check out the staff lounge?"

"The scene of the crime?" Mari said.

"Yep. I want to get to the bottom of this 'locked-room mystery' as soon as I can," Sorao said. "Here's hoping that the killer left some clues behind!"

You sure are excited about all this… Masashi thought. In fact, now that I think about it…

Sorao had been an acquaintance of Tanjiro's, the two having known each other for nearly their whole lives. Even if their relationship had not been that friendly, one would think that Sorao would be rather torn up about this, and indeed, Sorao had seemed rather shocked when looking at Tanjiro's corpse. And yet, he was quite upbeat, as if the death had merely been a bad spell.


The five chose to split up, Mari going to the restaurant to look for a partner, Maiha and Haruyuki checking out the Ferris wheel room. In the meantime, Masashi and Sorao made their way to the music room first, as it was the place where Hikari might have been attacked.

When they stepped into the music room, a strong familiar smell entered Masashi's senses. It was the smell of the perfume that he and the others had found in the drawer, which also carried a variety of drinks and poisons.

"Hmm… This smell…" Sorao muttered. "It smells like… perfume."

"Well, it is. It's from one of the perfume bottles in the drawer," Masashi said.

"Oh, yes… It slipped my mind for a second," Sorao said, trailing off for a moment. "You, Mari, Kasumi, and Sayua came down to this room after you left Hikari in the lounge, right?"

Masashi nodded. "When we came here, the smell was already here. And not only that, but the room itself looked quite clean."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Perfume Smell - A sweet perfume smell is present in the music room. It was already present when Masashi, Mari, Kasumi, and Sayua investigated the room before Tanjiro's body discovery announcement played. It seems to be connected to how unusually clean the music room is.

Sorao glanced to the side. "Who do you think attacked her, anyway?"

"Unfortunately, Hikari didn't remember that much. She'd been struck on the head, after all," Masashi said as he recalled his last moment with her. "But… she still gave us a clue on who her attacker was."


She stayed silent for a few seconds as she furrowed her brow. "I don't remember what happened after you guys left… I-I can't recall it… It's all hazy…"

"What?!" Masashi said. "Were you struck on the head?"

"I think something like that happened to me… Someone definitely struck me, yes..." Hikari groaned again as she rubbed her head wound with her left hand. "I-I can recall only a few bits… M-Maybe the one who struck me was… that man."

"'That man'?" Sayua repeated.

"I… I saw a figure for sure, but I can't remember his sight now... And I don't remember clearly whose voice it was…" Hikari replied. "But I remember that it sounded like a man's."


"Th-There's also one other thing…" she said, quivering. "After I was struck… I… I was lying on the floor, and my sight was nearly white… and I heard that man's voice once more."

"So what do you remember?" Mari asked.

Hikari stopped for a few seconds before answering.

"That man… I don't remember all his words, but he definitely said something about numbness," she answered as she looked down at her bloody hands. "Then I saw it... a hand reached down to my mouth and forced me to drink from a white bottle."

"A… white bottle?"

"Y-Yes, no mistake," Hikari shuddered. "I-I could still see the skulls on the label, too… What a horrible sight that was…!"


"So the one who struck her and fed her the poison was a man…" Sorao said, stopping for a few seconds. "Certainly doesn't sound like a gentlemanly figure."

"No, I guess not," Masashi replied. "It's too bad she didn't remember what he had looked like, either."

"Ah, well, things just can't be that easy," Sorao said as he clenched a fist. "If I could, I'd give the lowlife who would attack an innocent girl like that a piece of my mind. Let me tell you, with my martial arts skills, I'd pin him down easily!"

"No doubt about that. We've already seen how muscular you are…" Masashi said as he thought back with unease to that moment when Sorao had made a surprise appearance at the clothing shop.

Sorao chuckled as if he were thinking fondly about days of yore. "That was pretty fun, wasn't it? Kasumi was all over my fanservice, and so was Sayua, even if she wouldn't admit it."

"Too bad it wasn't the kind of fanservice I like."

Sorao shrugged. "Well, nothing I can do about that. You're not my target audience."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Clothing Shop Episode - At one point, Sorao went to the clothing shop and tried on a swimsuit outfit for Masashi, Kasumi, and Sayua. This took roughly a few minutes, and Sorao then left, apparently planning to return to the restaurant.

Wait, why am I noting this down? Masashi thought with dismay. Oh, well... Won't hurt to keep a note of this just in case.

"By the way..." Masashi said, recalling that period of time. "After you left, we left the shop and bumped into Mari. Then we heard a faint noise coming from above."

"A faint noise?" Sorao raised his brow, looking quite puzzled. "I don't recall ever hearing such a thing."

"You don't?"

"Nope. And I don't think the others at the restaurant heard such a thing, either," he replied. "I wager they would've mentioned something like that if they had, right?"

"True... But we definitely heard it," Masashi said. "It sounded like something metallic falling onto the floor."

"That so? Well, did you see anything like that in the staff lounge?"

Masashi shook his head. "No, nothing seemed to have fallen there."

"Then maybe the theater rooms?" Sorao suggested. "It could explain why we didn't hear the noise."

"Uh, how?"

"What, you don't know? I asked Monokuma a while ago, and apparently, the theater rooms are soundproof. As long as the doors are closed, nothing reaches the world outside."

"But... if that's the case, then why did we hear the noise?" Masashi replied.

Sorao shrugged. "Dunno, it was only a suggestion."

Well, looks like that's another mystery to solve, Masashi thought as he heaved a small sigh. As if I were short of mysteries to solve...

Obtained Truth Bullet: Metallic Noise - After Masashi, Kasumi, and Sayua left the clothing shop and bumped into Mari, they all heard a faint noise from the upper decks. It sounded like something metallic had fallen onto the floor. Weirdly enough, no one else seems to have heard it.

They then looked at the other parts of the music room, including the celesta, but as expected, their investigation yielded no results. Thinking that there was no point in lingering here, Masashi and Sorao walked up the long set of stairs to the staff lounge, the scene of Hikari's killing.

"Oh, man… Not a good way to go," Sorao remarked as soon as he gazed at the body. "Can't imagine she went out peacefully."

Masashi took a quick search of Hikari's corpse and found two things: her Monopad and her contract. As expected, the Monopad had nothing of value, and when he turned over the contract, he felt a great sense of relief to see that it was blank. Yes, he had already doubted that Hikari would ever choose to participate in this awful contract game, but seeing the blank page turned his doubt to certainty.

And there's nothing weird about it at all... he thought. It doesn't feel slightly thicker, unlike Tanjiro's...

"Hey, Sorao, what do you think—"

And it was then that Masashi heard the door shut, and the lights turned off.

"Wh-What the...?"

The room had grown dark, but thankfully, light still came in through the window, even if the skies outside were dark.

"S-Sorao...?" he said, feeling a chill run down his spine.

"Right here, dude."

Masashi turned around and could make out the celesta player's silhouette, though his very sight was still dim.

"Uh, what have you done?" Masashi asked.

"Relax, relax, man. I was just testing out the lights," Sorao said. "I thought that the lights might have played a role in Hikari's murder. You know, just like how Arashi used the blackout to his advantage."

"So why did you shut the door?"

"To recreate the conditions, of course!"

"Er, so... have you found out anything?"

Sorao paused for a few seconds. "Actually... There is something that's caught my eye. Look at the window."

Masashi glanced toward the window and stared at it for a few seconds. "Um... All I see is stormy weather."

"Well, I'm not talking about the window itself," Sorao replied. "Haven't you noticed the curtain's only covering it up halfway?"

"Huh... That is kinda weird, but isn't the other curtain simply closed?"

"Could you check, then?"

Though this little observation felt rather insignificant, nonetheless, something about it drew Masashi in enough for him to look into the matter. Making his way to the window, he felt the curtain and looked at where the other curtain was supposed to be.

"Huh? That's weird..."

Now that he was up close, he could see that there was no other curtain to reach for. At first, he thought that there was only supposed to be one curtain, and the curtain present was simply not drawn enough. However, when he tried to draw it, he found that it could extend no longer. He looked up at the curtain rod and saw a few brackets on which another curtain could be hung.

"Isn't there supposed to be another curtain?" Sorao said pointedly. "It should be hung on that side of the window, but it's missing."

"That's right…!" Masashi muttered as he recalled the scene earlier. "And now that I think about it, the curtain was missing when we found Hikari unconscious here!"

"Whoa, really? You didn't notice the missing curtain?"

"Well, I don't really come here often enough to notice it at once," he explained, feeling a little flustered as if his name were on the line, "and besides, I was way more worried about Hikari to pay attention to a thing like that."

"And was it still missing when you found Hikari's corpse?"

"No doubt about it!" Masashi replied, remembering it clearly now. "Somebody must've taken it... but why?"

"Who knows?" Sorao said. "I don't really see anything else sticking out in the dark, so I guess I oughta turn the lights back on."

In an eyeblink, the lights were turned back on, and all color entered Masashi's sight again. Though it had been only a minute or so that he was enveloped in darkness, he was nonetheless glad that there was light. He looked at the red curtain again, checking to see whether there were any clues left behind, but unfortunately, there was nothing.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Missing Curtain - Two red detachable curtains are usually hung over the window in the staff lounge, but one is missing. It was missing when Masashi and company found Hikari unconscious but alive in the staff lounge.

Sorao knelt by the body and picked up the nearby fallen bottle, whose contents had already been spilled onto the floor. "Is this the bottle Mari had her drink?"

Masashi nodded without thinking as he looked down at the bottle. "Yes, that's the antidote bottle—"

But only after he actually looked at it did he stop. For a second, he wondered whether he was seeing things, but after he rubbed his eyes, the sight before him remained unchanged.

"That... That's not the antidote bottle!"

"It's not?"

"Look at the skulls drawn on the label! It's no antidote at all!" he replied, pointing at it. "That must be a bottle of poison!"

Sorao let out a small gasp. "Wait a minute... you're only just noticing this? But didn't you see this when you saw Hikari's corpse earlier?"

"I..."

Masashi thought back to the moment of the body discovery. He had seen a spilled bottle, and he had thought at the moment that it was the antidote. But now that he thought about it, the sight of Hikari lying dead on the floor had shocked him so much that it was the one thing that he focused on.

"This bottle... It definitely is an important piece of evidence, isn't it, man?" Sorao said, raising a finger. "Let's take a closer look at it."

Sorao looked at the bottle from various angles and even gently removed the label to see whether anything noteworthy was beneath it, but in the end, it turned out to be a simple bottle.

"A dead end," Sorao remarked as he put the label back on and set the bottle back on the spot where he had found it. "I was hoping that there'd be a clue."

"Like what?"

"I dunno, this thing with the label just reminded me a little of Arashi's scheme," he muttered. "You remember how you took him down by pointing out the contradiction with the labels' positions..."

Masashi could still recall that class trial, though many details of the case were murky in his mind now. "Yeah, it was a pretty close call. I still can't believe Arashi unwittingly exposed himself by pointing at the label during the investigation..."

"If it hadn't been for you, we'd all be doomed... that's what the others think," Sorao muttered as he gazed downwards, his eyes slightly lowered as if he were tired. "You've shown yourself to be quite a fortunate figure to have around... You truly have made the others happy in that regard."

"I... guess you could put it that way."

For a moment, however, Masashi could have sworn that he had heard an ever so small amount of bitterness in his voice, but such emotion fleeted as Sorao looked back at him with his usual cool smile. He truly had no idea as to what Sorao might be thinking, but he had an inkling that any kind thoughts that he had for him were fewer than he would like.

Come to think of it... where's the bottle of antidote? Masashi thought. I'm absolutely sure that we left it here, so... did someone take it after we'd left?

Obtained Truth Bullet: Bottle of Poison - In the staff lounge is a spilled bottle of poison. Masashi and Sorao discovered it during the investigation. The bottle of poison has quite a distinctive label because of its skulls drawn throughout. The antidote bottle was left in the staff lounge after Masashi and company left Hikari there, but its current whereabouts are unknown.

Next, Masashi thought to check the pile of junk that lay in one corner of the room. Though he doubted that there would be anything important, it was still good to be thorough and see whether the culprit might have accidentally left something behind there.

"Huh, what's this..."

As he sifted through the things, one particularly gaudy-looking object stood out. It looked like a small printer, and it was plugged into a nearby outlet, but the design was all black and white, a certain bear's face drawn on the front.

"Ugh... Another piece of Monokuma's merchandise," Masashi said.

"Must've been one of the many unsold models," Sorao remarked snidely. "What guy would want to have this thing stare at him?"

"Wait, Sorao, don't say that. That's only going to make him appear—"

"How dare you?!"

As he had feared, Monokuma popped up from the floor, looking wrathfully at them.

"I'll have you know, it took me a lot of time to come up with a good design!" Monokuma said angrily. "I originally wanted to make it look more artistic, you know... but in the end, I figured that simplicity was best, so I had it based on me. And here I am, hearing you slander it!"

"Setting aside the questionable design... I don't recall ever seeing this printer here before," Masashi replied. "Did you put it here?"

"But of course!" Monokuma answered, his anger waning. "In fact... a certain someone asked me to install this printer here."

Masashi widened his eyes. "What? Someone asked you to do that?"

"Oh, yes, yes, but I won't name names. Would be unprofessional of me, you see," he replied sleazily. "Personally, I think it spruces up this drab room. It's something that all people should have in their bedrooms."

"Hmm, it would make a pretty unconventional practice dummy, but maybe there's a market for it," Sorao said.

"What part of not insulting my beautiful work do you not understand?!" Monokuma replied, the fieriness in his voice returning, though it took Masashi a few seconds to remember that it was all fake. In any case, there was one more important question to ask.

"Why did that person ask you to put a printer here?"

Monokuma cocked his head to the side. "Well, why do people put printers in their rooms? To print things, dummy!"

"So in other words, this is just an ordinary printer?" Sorao said.

"Yep. All it does is print and copy papers. No biggee, really."

No way you're going to make me think this is no big deal! Masashi thought. The person who asked him to put it here... was it the culprit of this case? And what was it used for, exactly?

Obtained Truth Bullet: Printer - There is a small printer placed in the staff lounge. According to Monokuma, he put it there last night upon someone's request. This printer in particular can be used to print and copy documents.

Once Monokuma made his unceremonious exit, Masashi looked around once more. There was one more thing that stood out in his sight, and it appeared to be a small robotic toy lying by a somewhat great box. Its placement in the room seemed off, as the other junk in the room was piled up in one corner, from which it stood somewhat far, and its hands were extended outwards as if ready to shove things out of its way. As for the design, though it looked like a typical depiction of a robot in its upper body, it had no feet at all; rather, it had a set of wheels such that the lower body looked a bit like a racecar.

"Do you know what this toy does?" Sorao asked.

"Uh, no. Racing?" Masashi said.

Sorao chuckled as he clapped his hands once. "It sure looks like some weird racer, doesn't it? I actually heard from Monokuma a while ago that this was no ordinary toy."

"It isn't?"

"Nope. Apparently, it's a prototype robot that an engineer at Brightmere Research made," Sorao said. "And the only remarkable thing about it is that it can push hefty stuff with little difficulty."

"Really?"

"Yep. That's its only thing," Sorao said. "Not exactly too helpful to have a robot do that one thing only, is it, though?"

"No… I imagine an Ultimate Robotic Pusher wouldn't be too cool."

Still, the more he thought about it, the more its placement stood out. He was absolutely sure that he had seen it there when he and the others had come to this room and found Hikari unconscious, but he had thought nothing about it. Now that she was dead, he had an inkling that the robot might have been involved somehow.

"So how do you operate this thing, anyway?" Masashi asked. "I don't see a controller anywhere."

Sorao cocked his head to the side. "Really? That's weird… It has a remote control, so it should be around here later. Too bad I don't remember what it looks like."

A remote control, huh? Masashi thought. I don't know why, but something about it bothers me a little...

Obtained Truth Bullet: Robot Toy - A small toy robot was found near a box in the staff lounge. Apparently, it can only be moved through remote control, but its remote control was nowhere to be found in the staff lounge.

"I just don't get it, though," Masashi said once he took one more glance around the room. "The room was locked when we left her here. How did the killer get in and poison her?"

"Hmm, well… You know, I've been thinking," Sorao said, stroking his chin. "Was this really a locked room? Isn't it possible that there was another way to get in here?"

"You… think so?" Masashi said.

Sorao nodded keenly. "In fact, my gut feeling says there's something suspicious about that spot over there."

He pointed to the box near which the robot had stood.

"Yes, that's it… I'm sure that box is hiding something!"

Sorao walked over to the box and clearly had to exert some strength to push it aside. When he was done, he moved out of the way, and only then did Masashi see what the box had been covering up.

"A vent!" he cried out. "There's a vent there!"

He did not remember seeing it there, most likely because the clutter in the room had covered it up, but he should have known that the room might have something like it.

"Well, now…" Sorao said as he cleared his hands. "Masashi, go ahead and check it out."

"Huh? You want me to do it?"

"Well, yeah, I've already done the work of moving it. Time for you to do your part, dude," Sorao said insistingly.

Masashi groaned and then shrugged in reluctant acceptance. "I don't think those two things are equivalent, but fine, I'll check it out."

He opened up the vent lid and began to crawl through it. At once, he found it quite uncomfortable to be in, and there was only a small faraway ray of light at the end. Slowly and slowly, he crept toward it, and the more he proceeded, the quieter Sorao's cries for him to keep going grew. After a while, he could hear his voice no more.

Almost... there...

Upon approaching the other end of the vent, light breaking through the vent lid, he excitedly hastened his creeping, opened up the lid, and saw at once his location.

"This is… the theater room…"

But this was not the part of the theater room that he had explored in the investigation earlier. From his surroundings, it was clear that this was instead the upper half of the theater room. Indeed, what lay before him were rows of seats, a suit of armor standing by each side of the vent. It looked just as he had remembered it when he had come here a while ago.

Sorao was right! Masashi thought with amazement. There truly is another way to get into the staff lounge!

Obtained Truth Bullet: Upper Theater Vent - The vent in the staff lounge is directly connected to the vent in the upper theater room. When Masashi and the others discovered Hikari in the lounge, it had already been blocked by a box placed right before it.

"Hmm? Masashi?"

He turned to the left upon hearing that familiar voice, for it was Mari, who was accompanied by Kasumi. Both women looked rather incredulous at his presence as if he had just appeared out of thin air.

"Ah, Mari!" he replied. "What are you doing here?"

"Investigating this room, of course. Kasumi agreed to accompany me," she answered. "And have you just come here through that vent?"

"Er, appears so," he answered sheepishly, finding the thought of it somewhat strange. "Sorao and I were investigating the staff lounge, and we found this vent, so he had me check out what was on the other side!"

"Whoa, for real?" Kasumi said excitedly. "So there's a way to go from one end of the ship to the other without having to walk up down all those stairs?"

"I don't think this way's any more convenient, though…" he said, having found it somewhat awkward to move through the vent. "Anyway, I guess now's the right time to share some information."

"You first," Mari replied. "Did you and Sorao find any clues in the staff lounge?"

"Sure did. First, one of the red curtains in the room's missing."

"Oh, yeah, that curtain!" Kasumi said, sounding more surprised than he would expect. "So you noticed it as well!"

"'As well'?" Masashi said, raising his brow. "Kasumi, did you see it too?"

She nodded profusely. "To be honest, I noticed it once we found Hikari unconscious, and I was going to tell you, but the whole fuss about her being attacked and poisoned distracted me, so... sorry I didn't tell you earlier."

"It's no problem, really," he said softly so as not to make her feel bad for it. "And not only that, but we also found the bottle of poison used to kill Hikari!"

Mari widened her eyes, gasping a small gasp. "What? You did?"

Wow. Didn't expect her to sound that shocked... Masashi thought for a moment.

"Er, yes. It was lying right next to her corpse," Masashi said. "And the bottle of antidote is missing!"

"It is?!" Kasumi exclaimed. "To be honest, when we discovered the body, I thought the bottle lying nearby was the antidote!"

"So did I... But then again, I was quite focused on the corpse that I admittedly didn't give the bottle a second glance," Mari said, appearing to recall those moments, judging by her contemplative expression. "Did you find anything significant on the bottle?"

Masashi shook his head sadly. "No... Sadly, the killer left no clues there. I guess it's not too surprising, though."

"Anything else?"

The only other things worth telling her were the printer that Monokuma had placed in the staff lounge last night, the box that had been placed in front of the vent, and the toy robot next to it. He told her every detail, hoping that she might draw something useful from it later.

"Interesting... thank you, Masashi," she said modestly. "I have a few theories in mind now, but I'll tell you later. In the meantime, I suppose it's our turn to speak. I imagine that you want to know how Kumi and Sayua are doing right now."

"Ah, that's right!"

He admittedly felt embarrassed that he had forgotten about them, but many things occupied his mind as the investigation had gone by. Though he wanted to find as many clues as he could, after what had happened to them, he wanted to look out for their well-being too.

"Thankfully, Kumi's awake now," Mari said after Masashi asked her to tell him. "He seems to be a little groggy right now and isn't particularly in the mood to speak. Perhaps it's due to the effects of the tranquilizer, but I suspect that he's also greatly shocked by what's happened."

"No kidding! I still can't get his frenzied screaming out of my mind!" Kasumi replied, shuddering as dread rushed through her face. "At least Sayua's not acting violently now! Not that I couldn't deal with her if things ended up getting violent, of course. But I'm just glad that she's not angry anymore."

"Er, I don't think that's the case," Mari said. "I believe she plans to tell the culprit her thoughts in a few... choice words."

"Oh boy..."

Masashi tried to imagine how she felt exactly. It was no secret that she had a soft spot for Tanjiro, and so it was to be expected that she should feel great loathing toward the culprit. Though Sorao had managed to deter her from violence, he had a strong sense of foreboding that once the class trial were over, she would not be inclined to accept the truth calmly.

"Anyway, you don't need to worry about them for now. Faye's looking after them in the restaurant," Mari continued. "Moreover, Kasumi and I have found something rather intriguing."

Mari then walked over to the suit of armor to the right of the vent. "You remember that Faye and the others came into this room just around 9:00 AM, yes? During then, they were investigating this room."

"Uh huh," Masashi said. "In fact, I think they said they felt a faint smell of blood… even though they didn't see blood anywhere."

"Well, they didn't really have time to thoroughly check the room. They heard Tanjiro getting attacked, after all!" Kasumi pointed out. "Guess it explains how they missed this!"

Kasumi then went over to that suit of armor and moved it a little such that the back of it was now visible. As it turned out, despite the suit's appearance, there was a small hatch that one could pull to open up the back easily, which meant that the armor itself could not be separated into its different components; rather, it was simply one set piece. In a way, it almost looked like a special coffin.

When Kasumi opened the hatch and revealed what was inside, Masashi nearly started.

"There's blood inside it!" he uttered.

Granted, it was only a small amount of blood, but the very sight of it was already enough to unsettle him. Most of the blood was near the top, right where the head would go.

Curiouser and curiouser... he thought.

He examined the suit of armor some more and found that the only other thing was the detachable club in its hands, which looked absolutely unremarkable, though he noted that it was quite easy to wield as a weapon.

"Anything in that other suit of armor?" Masashi asked, pointing at the suit of armor to the left of the vent. On the outside, it looked exactly the same as the suit of armor beside him now.

"There's nothing remarkable inside," Mari answered. "But... there is one thing remarkable about the club of that suit of armor."

"Wh-What is it?" he said as the three of them walked over to the other suit of armor.

Mari took the club out of the armor's hands and pointed at a small spot on it. As it turned out, there was a small speck of blood on it, and it was so small that it was easy to miss it if one were to clean it in a hurry.

"Not hard to argue it's relevant to the case!" Kasumi added excitedly. "Maybe this is actually the murder weapon!"

"But... Tanjiro was attacked in the lower theater room, wasn't he?" Masashi pointed out. "And he was killed with a bowling ball."

"Then that means there's a trick involved!" she replied, sounding even more excited. "There's got to be one!"

"Given that all the other killings involved tricks, I suppose it's natural to think that," Mari replied, looking not at all deterred by the complexity of this.

Pretty sad that we can't expect a simple killing anymore... Masashi thought.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Suits of Armor - There are two suits of armor lying by the walls of the upper theater room. The suit of armor to the right of the vent has a slight amount of blood inside, and most of it is near the inside of the helmet.

Each suit of armor is holding a club in its hands. The club in the suit of armor to the left of the vent has a small spot of blood in it.

"Say, now that you've gotten me thinking about tricks, I've just remembered a heist of mine," Kasumi said, her eyes glinting. "Wanna hear about it?"

"Not exactly, but..." Masashi replied. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to take my mind off the investigation for a few minutes."

Besides, something about the keenness on her face made it hard for him to say no to her.

"You see, I was to steal a prized gem known as the Bandit Chief's Soul," Kasumi began, sounding too excited to pay any heed to Masashi's answer. "It was in display at a restaurant, since its owner, a famous actor, was holding a fancy dinner party. Unfortunately, guests might enter only if they had an invitation sent by the owner."

"So, uh, how did you slip in?" he asked, figuring that he might as well let her have her fun.

"Simple! The invitation itself was not hard to reproduce," she answered, "but the problem was that the owner attached his signature to each invitation. So I disguised myself as a fangirl and 'bumped' into him on the street. I begged him to give him his autograph, and he accepted... but little did he know, there was a trick to the paper he wrote on! You see, underneath it was... carbon paper!"

"Carbon paper?" Mari said. "Oh, yes, I see now... You hid the invitation underneath the carbon paper, so the autograph ended up on the invitation as well."

"Exactly!" Kasumi said. "I can show you this trick later if you want. I'm pretty sure I saw some carbon paper in the shop earlier."

"Er, you don't have to, really," Masashi said.

"Okay, now, with my forged invitation, I managed to enter the palace," Kasumi said. "Now, this is where things get more exciting. I—"

Just then, however, Masashi heard a sound coming from the open vent. No sooner had the three turned around and looked at it than a certain man came out thence.

"Man, what a narrow vent!"

It was Sorao, who seemed not to have noticed them. As soon as he got up, though, he looked toward Masashi and nearly started upon his sight.

"Masashi, there you are!" he said. "You had me worried for a while, you know!"

"I did?" he said.

"Yeah, dude! I waited and waited, but you never came back," Sorao replied, growing calmer as he spoke. "Soon, I feared something bad might've happened to you, so I came here."

"Hmm, well, I'm glad you were concerned about me," Masashi replied truthfully. "Sorry for not responding to you, but I was simply talking with Mari and Kasumi here."

"I was sharing one of my tales, actually!" Kasumi added in a lively way. "Let me start over for you—"

"Er, lovely as it is, there's actually one more reason I've come looking for you," Sorao continued. "As I waited for you, guess who suddenly popped up?"

"Uh, Maiha and Haruyuki?" Masashi guessed, remembering that they were supposed to be investigating the Ferris wheel room.

"Nope," Sorao answered somewhat dismissively. "I'll give you a hint: he's black and white and likes to kill people for a living."

"That's not so much a hint as it is an unflattering description," Mari remarked. "What did Monokuma want with you?"

"I'm not the only one he wants. He wanted me to gather a few others, and seeing that you're here…"

"Aw... We have to see him, don't we?" Kasumi said whiningly. "And I haven't even finished my tale!"

"Well... If you want, you can tell me later after this class trial is over," Masashi replied.

"R-Really?"

"Yeah, it sounds amusing enough, I guess."

Kasumi smiled a small but gleeful smile. "Oh, glad to hear that from you! I trust you're a man of your word!"

"O-Of course I am..." Masashi said, now feeling a slight tinge of doubt.

"Er, do I need to know what she was talking about?" Sorao said, looking confusingly at them. It took Masashi only a few seconds to remember that he had just come here, so he would not know what they had been doing in this room.

"It's nothing concerning," Mari answered. "Anyway... it seems like he wants to show us something if he had summoned us. If it turns out to be a waste of time, we'll have lost nothing but a few minutes, I should hope."

"I guess so," Masashi said. "All right, let's go hear what he has to show us."

Just as Masashi was about to make his way to the door, however, Sorao walked back to the vent. "No need to go that way, my man. We have a perfectly good shortcut here, haven't we?"

"What, you want us to go through that cramped space?" Mari said.

"You'd rather go down the long stairs, walk through a long hallway, and walk up another long set of stairs?" Sorao replied, opening up his arms as he shrugged.

"Hmm. I admit, it is rather tiresome to walk up and down those stairs…" Mari said, pausing for a few seconds. "All right, I'll give it a try."

"Fine by me!" Kasumi said, looking much more gleeful. "It's nothing I'm not used to."

"Oh… I guess if you're all going that way, I may as well join you," Masashi said. However silly it might be to crawl through the vent again, not wanting to be left out was a strong enough push to make him do it.

The four of them then entered the vent, Masashi leading the way. Eventually, they arrived at the staff lounge, and they were greeted by a certain bear standing right by Hikari's corpse.

"Finally!" Monokuma said. "You know how many precious minutes you've taken away from me? I demand recompensation at once!"

"So what is it you want to tell us?" Mari asked, ignoring his pointless chatter.

"Straight to the point, I see. Couldn't you take some time to play around?"

Monokuma then shook his head and adjusted his white captain's cap. "Anyway, I've been observing your investigation, and I've noticed that you seem to be having a little trouble! That's why out of the goodness of my heart… I'll help you just this once!"

"You will?" Mari said skeptically. "For some reason, I don't feel inclined to believe you."

"Neither do I," Masashi, Sorao, and Kasumi said at once.

Monokuma let out a small growl as he pouted. "Sheesh! What an ungrateful lot you are! All right, fine, I'll give it to you straight: for a special price of nothing, I'll give you information on… fingerprints!"

"Fingerprints?" Masashi said.

"That's right. I'll tell you whose fingerprints are present on anything that you give me, and I'll do this only once."

"Whoa, no way!" Kasumi said, gaping. "You mean, you've already taken our fingerprints?!"

"Why are you so surprised at this point? Of course I have a database on you guys!" Monokuma said. "In fact, my dear Kasumi, I know enough things about you to conclude that I'd make a good partner, if you know what I mean."

"Ew, no!" she replied, making no attempt to hide disgust in her tone.

"Well, have it your way. Just remember what you'll be missing out on!" Monokuma responded as he flexed his arms as if thinking himself brawny.

"Man… Pretty creepy to have a strange and nefarious organization know all our secrets…" Sorao said, looking rather seriously at Monokuma. "If I could stop you guys somehow, I definitely would…"

"Assuming that you're being truthful, I'll take you up on your help," Mari said straightforwardly. "We have nothing to lose, after all."

She headed toward where the empty bottle of poison was lying. He and Sorao had examined it earlier, but had found nothing of note, though its presence still puzzled him. And of course, there was no need to ask her why the fingerprints on the bottle would be worthwhile to know. Without hesitation, she grabbed the bottle and handed it over to Monokuma, who then stared at it for a few seconds.

"All right, let's see here…" Monokuma said. Even though Masashi knew that he was not doing any analyzing at all, he had no reason to doubt his information; after all, every room had a surveillance camera, so Monokuma knew full well what had happened. "First of all, Masashi, Sorao, Mari, your fingerprints are on this thing."

"No surprise there," Sorao replied, shrugging with a bored expression. "Masashi and I investigated this room earlier, so it's only natural for our fingerprints to be on it."

"And I've just touched it, so of course my fingerprints are on it," Mari said.

"And mine aren't! Feels good to be left out this time!" Kasumi added happily.

"Hey, I'm the one talking here!" Monokuma interjected as he glanced down at the bottle some more. "Now then… there is one more set of fingerprints."

"What? There is?" Kasumi said. "Whose?"

The four waited for Monokuma to continue, only to be met with silence as he stared at them blankly.

"Um, aren't you going to say it?" Masashi said.

"Hmm? Why do you think that?" Monokuma asked, feigning innocence.

"Well, why else would you mention it?" Mari added.

Monokuma chortled for a moment. "What a silly bunch you are, assuming things I've never said! All I said is that I've discovered the owner of the fourth set of fingerprints. Not once did I promise to tell you who it is!"

"It's certainly none of us three, is it?" Sorao said.

"But of course. It's someone else, rest assured," Monokuma said. "Aw, come on, why the long faces? I've been nothing but helpful to you!"

"Well, that information's important!" Sorao insisted. "Masashi, Mari, you said that Hikari had heard a man's voice before being struck on the head, yes? And the man also fed Hikari the poison, didn't he?"

"Quite right," Mari answered. "She clearly remembered seeing his hand as he made her drink the poison."

Sorao snapped his fingers. "Then it's settled: the man is the owner of the mysterious set of fingerprints! Case solved!"

"Um, not really…" Masashi replied, staring blankly at him. "We still don't know who the man is."

"Not that hard, really," Sorao answered confidently, placing a hand on his own chest. "It's neither you nor I, as Monokuma has just confirmed. This leaves only Tanjiro, Haruyuki, and Kumi, though I really can't imagine the little fellow attacking Hikari."

"True, neither can I, but I can't exactly exclude the possibility," Mari said hesitantly.

"Puhuhu! Confused, I see!" Monokuma replied, looking awfully flattered. "You know what, since I'm such a nice guy, I'll give you just one more hint."

"Huh, really…" Masashi said, having expected Monokuma to simply deny them any further answers.

"Ready? The person is… left-handed!" Monokuma said. "Not right-handed, not ambidextrous. Left-handed."

Sorao gasped loudly as he widened his eyes. "Dude, I know who the man is!"

"What? You do?" Masashi said. "How?"

"If Hikari's attacker was left-handed, then that rules out Tanjiro!" he explained excitedly. "As an acquaintance of his, I can assure you that Tanjiro was ambidextrous, even though he preferred to use his right hand. If I'm lying, may Monokuma strike me down!"

"Oh, that won't happen," Monokuma answered. "I'm a kind and merciful god. I only strike down those who make no sacrifices for me or come from the Netherlands."

"Why the Netherlands?" Kasumi asked.

"It's full of people who hate bears. That's why there's not a single bear in sight there."

That can't be right, Masashi thought.

"Getting back to the topic... Tanjiro never touched the bottle, is that right?" Mari asked.

"Yes, that's right. Nor did he ever touch any of the bottles I put in the cupboard," Monokuma said. "What a goody two-shoes he was. He wouldn't dare to go near the thing, even though it's filled with other helpful stuff as well. Who could go wrong with energy drinks and spices?"

As if you needed to badmouth the dead even more... Masashi thought, suppressing his want to upbraid him.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Fingerprint Data - The only people who have touched the bottle of poison discovered in the staff lounge are Masashi, Sorao, Mari, and an unknown left-handed person. Monokuma explicitly ruled out Tanjiro having touched this bottle and any of the other bottles.

"Huh, if it's not Tanjiro, then that leaves… Haruyuki and Kumi," Masashi said.

"Haruyuki can't be the culprit," Mari answered at once. "The restaurant's security log shows that he left the room only after I had left to find you. By that point, Hikari had already been attacked."

"So Haruyuki has an ironclad alibi..." Sorao replied. "Guess we can cross him off our list then."

"But if that's true, the only one left is... Kumi!" Kasumi said, her mouth slightly open. "And not only that, but he also has no clear alibi!"

"Do you truly suspect him?" Mari said.

"Well... I don't want to... but... we have to keep in mind all the facts, don't we?"

I can't believe it, either… Masashi thought. I don't know why, but something about this feels too weird…

"Guess there's nothing else to check out," Sorao said as he took in a breath of air. "Say, how's Kumi doing? I've been wondering about the little fella."

"Thankfully, he's awake now!" Kasumi answered. "He still feels too groggy to say anything, though, but I'm sure that with enough time, he'll make a complete recovery."

"I still can't believe Monokuma shot him with a tranquilizer..." Masashi said, recalling that moment. "What an awful, awful bear..."

"Hey, I'm still here!" Monokuma said, glowering as he waved his paws at him, as if ready to punch him. "And you must admit, it was a pretty good shot!"

"There's nothing admirable about anything you've done," Mari replied coldly.

Sorao then turned toward the door. "I don't feel like being in this room anymore. I wanna go check up on the fella."

"So do I!" Kasumi chirped. "Let's go together!"

"You two can go," Mari said. "I want to investigate this room some more with Masashi."

Sorao sneered. "Investigating with him again, I see... Well, I think I get what's going on."

No, it's nothing like what's in your mind, I can tell you that much, Masashi thought with some bemusement as Sorao and Kasumi left the room.

"Well, I guess that's that," Monokuma said as he clapped his paws together. "Now, then, I'll be on my merry way as well and let you two have some alone time—"

"Hang on," Mari said, sounding not at all flattered by the not-at-all subtle suggestion. "I still have one more thing to ask you."

Monokuma let out a highly annoyed sigh. "This isn't what I agreed to when I signed my work contract… What now?"

"It's nothing hard. Could you confirm whether the following is correct?" Mari said as she picked up the empty bottle of poison lying on the floor. "The poison that you put in this bottle exactly matches the poison described on this bottle's label, nothing having been omitted."

"Ding-ding-ding!" Monokuma said, somewhat half-heartedly. "Let me assure you, I may be scrupulous in a few areas, but even I would never resort to false advertising."

Mari smiled a small smile. "Well, that's what I thought, but it's nice to hear confirmation. I was worried that there might have been hidden effects you had conveniently left out."

Sheesh, I can totally imagine Monokuma doing that... Masashi thought. He hadn't mentioned he'd put in a printer in this room beforehand, so it's good to get confirmation about the poison.

Once Mari assured him that she had nothing else to ask him, the self-called captain took a few steps back and disappeared, leaving the two of them alone at last.

"Well, that was... something, I guess," Masashi said. "What now? Didn't you say you wanted to investigate the room?"

"I did, but there's one more thing I want to check," she replied as she looked him in the eye. "Do you still have the camera you found on Tanjiro's person?"

"Oh, that? Yeah, it's still here," he said as he took it out. "But Tanjiro never took any photos this morning, so there aren't any clues or anything on it, right?"

"That's what I thought at first, but…" she said as she narrowed her eyes on the camera. "I think it's best to be thorough and check all the photos."

"You think there may be a clue in a photo that could've been taken days ago?"

"Perhaps. We have nothing to lose in investigating it, anyway."

"I suppose so…"

Masashi then turned on the camera and went to the section wherein all the photographs were stored. A great deal of photos were stored, most of them showing mainly the many places of Brightmere Mirthyard, and they were nothing special, looking like photos that a tourist might take during vacation.

Tanjiro must've really liked the designs of this place… I can't say I don't understand it, Masashi thought as he continued to skim through the older photos, finding the place not to be shabby looking, despite the less than ideal circumstances that they were all in now. And, aw, there's even a photo of Kumi in bed. How cute.

Other than that, however, there seemed to be nothing else remarkable about the photos. Masashi yawned at one point and was about to remark on how many photos there were before his eyes suddenly stopped at a certain photo.

"What the heck…?"

He had just gone past the photo, but just from a glance, something off had appeared. He went back to the photo and stared at the camera with wide eyes as he took in the sight.

"Huh? This is…"

In this photo was shown a certain man holding what looked like some kind of bag. He was beginning to walk down a set of stairs in a certain hallway, and though his face could not be seen because the photo had been taken from behind, his clothing and his other physical characters were enough to show who it was.

"This is… Arashi…"

Indeed, there was no mistaking it. The young blond man in the photo was wearing the same set of clothes and had the same build. It truly felt bizarre to see a picture of someone who had been alive until recently, let alone someone who would end up a killer, but however many times he blinked, the picture still remained in the camera, showing the same man.

"That's not the only strange part," Mari said. "Look at what he's holding."

"Ah! That bag he's holding... it has arrows sticking out of it!" Masashi said. "Wait a minute… arrows… don't tell me it's related to his murder scheme!"

He could still remember what Arashi had done. He had plotted to kill someone from afar by activating a certain shooter in one of the rooms in the pirates' cove. To do so, however, he had replaced the paper arrows in the shooter's supply with the metallic arrows that were offered in the ship's arcade.

"If I recall correctly… the room with the shooter's supply had to be accessed through boat," Masashi said. "This must be the moment when Arashi was going down to the boat to replace the arrows!"

"Indeed," Mari said. "And let's take a look at when this photo was taken."

Mari went to the part in the camera where it listed such details as the time when the photo was taken. For this one, the timestamp read "12:33 AM".

"That confirms it," she answered. "As you deduced during the class trial, in preparation for the murder, Arashi replaced the arrows the night beforehand."

"Oh God…"

More and more memories of that case flooded Masashi's mind. He could even recall the moment when Arashi had been voted as the blackened and violently moved to his death site. For a second, the memories of his charred corpse brought about a pang of nausea in Masashi, but he quickly managed to suppress his want to spew.

"Painful as it may be to see it for yourself, I think we have a more pressing question to answer," Mari said, not looking physically bothered, but Masashi wondered whether she too was holding in her shock. "Why does this photo exist?"

Masashi let out a small gasp. "Oh yeah… This photo… It clearly wasn't taken by Arashi, was it?"

"No, it seems odd that he would create such an incriminating piece of evidence. And besides, this camera has no delay function. Someone else had to have taken it."

"Someone…? But who?"

"Well, whose camera is this?"

Despite the answer's obviousness, upon realizing it, Masashi could not but feel a shiver crawl down his spine.

"Tanjiro… He took this..."

"That's what it looks like, yes," she answered, her frown deepening ever so slightly. "Now we must ask ourselves this: since he took this picture, he must've known what Arashi was up to, and yet he chose not to stop him nor reveal his scheme to us? Why?"

"When you put it in those words… it almost sounds like…" Masashi stopped for a second as he struggled to say what was on his mind. "Tanjiro was... acting as an accomplice to Arashi."

"I certainly can't think of any other explanation."

"Wait, but that can't be right!" Masashi said as soon as he thought of a rebuttal. "Arashi denied having an accomplice, and Monokuma confirmed that!"

"Did he?" Mari replied, looking him sharply in the eye as if ready to chide him, though he knew that that was not her intention. "I'm afraid you may have misread his words."


"All right, now… I guess my time's nearly up," Arashi said. "Is there... anything else you guys want to say to me?"

"Two things, actually," Mari said. "As for my first question… something has bothered me ever since your scheme was revealed."

"Hmm? What do you wish to ask him?" Haruyuki asked.

"I can see how Arashi managed to kill Sister Hikari… but nevertheless, for the plan to be a success," Mari answered, "Arashi needed to make sure that everyone should split off into two groups, and that someone would go into the shooter room. That everything went so smoothly for him is surprising enough to make me wonder…"

"W-Wonder what?" Hikari asked.

"Arashi… did you perhaps have an accomplice to aid you?"

"A-An accomplice?!" Arashi said, eyes widened. "No, you're mistaken! I planned out everything by myself! I wasn't working with anyone, honest!"

"Puhuhuhu!" Monokuma chimed in. "I can assure you that Arashi never asked anyone to be his accomplice, and he never talked about his plan with anyone! And this is coming from me, so you know it's true!"


"Monokuma never actually said that Arashi had had no accomplice," Mari pointed out. "All he confirmed was that Arashi never asked anyone to help him."

"Ah…! So... are you saying that Tanjiro somehow found out his scheme and decided to help Arashi without him knowing?"

"It would seem so. Perhaps Tanjiro happened to discover Arashi while he was preparing his murder scheme. That is when the only opportunity to take the photo appeared."

"I still don't understand, though," Masashi said, doubt remaining in his heart. "Even if Tanjiro acted as Arashi's accomplice, he would still have been executed if Arashi had gotten away with it."

"Well, I certainly doubt Tanjiro wanted Arashi to win the killing game," Mari said. "It seems more that for whatever reason, he found it important for Arashi to carry out his murder scheme. Actually having him get away with it was not part of his objective."

"Okay, then… If that's the case, why didn't Tanjiro show this photo at the class trial? If he had, we would've solved it much more quickly, right?"

"I don't want to say this, but… perhaps Tanjiro wanted to solve the class trial without having to bring the photo up. He'd have brought it up as a last resort if things had ever turned out that way. And in that case, he would've revealed that he had known about the scheme beforehand, but willingly let Arashi execute it. Certainly, it wouldn't have looked good on him."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Pink Camera - One of the photos in the camera found on Tanjiro's person shows Arashi preparing for his murder scheme the night beforehand. The fact that this photo was never shown during Arashi's class trial strongly suggests that Tanjiro knew about Arashi's scheme, but purposely did not try to stop him.

"That… makes some sense," Masashi said. "But even if we set it aside, why would Tanjiro still have the photograph after the class trial? Arashi had already been executed, so there was no longer a need to keep it."

"Who knows? Maybe Tanjiro kept the photo as a memento. Or maybe he thought he could use it somehow in the future," Mari said. "But now that I think about it… this camera… perhaps…"

Just then, the usual jingle played, and Monokuma appeared on the monitor's screen.

"Investigation Complete!" Monokuma said, sounding obnoxiously loud. "Hmm… That didn't sound as good as it had in my head. Oh, well… Anyway, I think it's about time to settle things. Go to the main deck and wait out there. And no complaining about the weather, mind you!"

The announcement then ended.

"Well... I think there's a better place to share my theories at," Mari said. "In the meantime, we had better get going."

Though curious as to what she had planned to say, in the end, Masashi thought that it would be pointless to try pushing her now. Without saying anything else, he followed after her.


When Masashi and Mari arrived at the main deck of the Moonlight City, it was still raining heavily, but the storm's fierceness had waned to the point that he could make out what was on the horizon.

Kasumi shivered as she wrapped her arms around herself. "I-I wish the ship came sooner or later… I-I don't want to stay out here."

"Are you worried about catching a cold?" Haruyuki asked.

"Well, I guess there's that, but… s-seeing all that water… I-I don't want to imagine being thrown into the sea and drowning!"

Maiha scoffed and waved her hand derisively as she rolled her eyes. "You're far more weak-spirited than I should expect from such a brazen thief as you."

"Oh, shut up!" Kasumi retorted, sounding a bit aggressive now. "You always think you're so high and mighty, but I bet if I throw you into the sea, maybe my point of view will finally get through that brainpan of yours!"

"Now, now, Kasumi, I'd prefer that you didn't do that," Haruyuki said pacifyingly. "You can throw her into one of the pools instead."

"That's not what you're supposed to say!" Maiha said as she frowned deeply at the man and crossed her arms.

Setting aside their little squabble, Masashi looked around and noticed that Kumi was now awake, though looking rather untalkative and staring down at the ground. He asked Faye what his condition was.

"He says that he feels quite dazed and confused," she answered somewhat apathetically. "I don't think he's in any state to talk about what he had done earlier."

"What, really?" he said. "That's a shame… I have a few questions I want to ask him, but I guess I shouldn't make things worse for him."

Meanwhile, Sorao stood by himself, gazing at nothing in particular. Interestingly enough, he looked rather calm, as if not fearing what might befall him in the upcoming class trial.

I wonder what's on his mind… Masashi thought. Could he have found out who the blackened is already during the investigation? There's certainly something different about him this time...

Eventually, Mari cried out that she could see the ship coming. A few minutes later, it arrived, and the gangway was lifelessly set on the main deck so that they might board the ship where their doom was to be chosen.

"No point in tarrying," Maiha said. "Let us winnow out the traitor among us."

"Yeah… Let's get this over with."

Sayua leered at the others for a brief second before stepping onto the gangway. Though she sounded rather quiet, as if she had quickly learned that it was of no use to act violently, Masashi knew that deep down, she was putting up that image for appearance' sake. He wanted to say something comforting to her, but he had a feeling that she would simply ignore it at this point, as her focus was on finding the culprit and giving that person a piece of her mind.

In any case, he and the others silently followed after her into the elevator, which then began its descent. Though the whirring had grown all too familiar at this point, the familiarity was not enough to ease Masashi's mind.

Once the elevator stopped, the nine students quietly left and gazed at the courtroom that had awaited them.

"Well, you know the drill by now!" Monokuma said, sitting laxly at his throne. "And if you don't, consider seeing a physician. No, really, I mean it. I care very much about your health."

"What an awful joke," Maiha muttered.

"Not even worth a chuckle," Haruyuki added.

"Sheesh, everyone's a critic! No one cares about looking out for others nowadays," Monokuma replied as he sat in a more relaxed posture on his throne.

Without further ado, all went to their respective podiums, facing one another once again.

Another double killing… How could this have happened?

Unlike last time, he could believe that someone would kill two people, even though only one was necessary. It had been foolish to assume that none of them would make the same mistake as Arashi.

Still, he found it unbelievable that Hikari Fey, the Ultimate Spirit Channeler, was now gone. Though she had been rather standoffish and quiet for most of the killing game, in the end, she seemed never to have gotten on anyone's bad side, so he wondered at first why anyone would target her. But on second thought, perhaps it was that docile side of hers that the killer had sought to exploit. Perhaps the killer had seen her as an easy kill and nothing more.

And what was worse was that throughout the killing game, she had been unable to use her spirit channeling powers. She had mostly been indifferent toward this, having loathed her powers, but around the end, she had thought to use them to help Tanjiro. But now, she was dead, having never learned the reason why she had seemingly lost her powers.

Sadly enough, Tanjiro Urata, the Ultimate Historical Novelist, had joined her in death. Throughout the game, he had simply acted as Sayua's right-hand man, but on the whole, he had always seemed like a swell and optimistic man who could never loathe anyone, even the ones who had killed in this killing game.

No… There is one exception to that.

Masashi gazed over to Sorao. Tanjiro had made it clear that he had many misgivings toward him, and though he had not gone into much detail about them, Masashi doubted that he had weak grounds for feeling that way toward Sorao. And now, the one participant who knew the most about Sorao's past was gone, never to share his knowledge with anyone.

I'm so confused… What exactly happened?

Unlike last time, it was unclear as to which of the two had died first. From the Monokuma File and from witness accounts, it seemed that Hikari had died first, whence the blackened was her killer. Still, Masashi wondered whether it was that simple. And there was another question: were her killer and Tanjiro's killer the same person, or were their deaths the handiwork of two different people?

Well, no matter, he thought. I'll find the answers to these questions, I swear.


Hello, ladies and gentlemen! I'm truly sorry for making you wait much longer than usual, but I've been busying myself with hobbies, and even though I enjoy writing this, I wanted to take a break for a while.

Anyway, now that you've seen the investigation, which character do you think killed Hikari, and which character killed Tanjiro? Or do you perhaps think that only one person killed them both, as it was with Arashi? And I know there's a lot of information to take in, but I hope I haven't made things too complicated.

As usual, the trial seating order:

1. Masashi Kousaki

2. Maiha Hanazawa

3. Murphy O'Hagan (DEAD)

4. Abraham Zargari (DEAD)

5. Arashi Seiya (DEAD)

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 (DEAD)

17. Sayua Tomi

18. Hikari Fey (DEAD)

There sure are a lot of dead people, aren't there?