Once the PheFo timers ran out, Monochio led the students to the trial room. The beckoning cat sat opposite the door on a red and gold couch bedecked with red and gold pillows. In front of it was a ring of 24 silver podiums on black and white tile floor. The circle of floor in the center of the 24 podiums was painted to look like a DJ disc, pitch black with a jagged red needle running the length of the radius.
Clockwise from the "top" of the room, where Monochio was seated, the podiums were grouped by unit: M4, Photon, Peaky, Hapiara, Lyrilily, RONDO, M4. Only one of the podiums—the one between Tsubaki and Aoi—was empty, containing a tall, golden stand with a concert poster-esque portrait hanging from it. Nagisa's face was on it, crossed out by intersecting guitar necks stenciled over her in pink.
Once everyone was settled, Monochio waved its tail as if it was a flag signaling the start of a race. Perhaps, in a way, it was. It was a race against the clock. A race against one another. A race against the Headcatster. A race against life, a race against death. A race against lies, a race against truths. It was a race against… the class trial! Trial. Start. All rise.
Accusations flew like bullets, and before long, the truth was lost. Only one girl, and her strange Synesthesia, could see through the discord.
Colors! Saki's silver eyes widened. As the class argued with itself, she could see every word fly around the room like deranged subtitles, silver-gray in color, literal white noise. Then one phrase stood out over all the others, for instead of silver, it was bright golden.
"I didn't do it!" Towa cried, starting the first nonstop debate immediately.
"Towa… That's… not even… an argument…" Noa deadpanned from the right. Dumbass!
"I didn't do it either!" Yuka cried immediately after.
"Shut it, Shutter-Face!" Shinobu snapped from her left.
"Yeah, you'll only look more suspicious that way," Tsubaki agreed darkly, resting her chin on her finger.
"W-well, if it is of any assistance, Esora, Rinku, Maho, and I were in the music room together!" Rei interjected politely.
"And I went to my room to work on my sketches!" To Rei's right, Muni butted in. "So obviously it can't have been me!"
"Tsubaki, Miyu, Haruna, and I were in the kitchen," Aoi said.
"Miiko and I were off pulling pranks together, hehehe…" Kurumi and Miiko hid smirks behind the tips of their hands as their eyes met.
"I'm still not finished lecturing you for that!" Haruna waggled her finger at both of them, stuck between them.
"Oh, calm down, Chairman." Kurumi yawned dramatically.
"Who are you calling Chairman?!" Haruna snapped back.
"Umm, Haruna, isn't that your Talent?" Maho asked quietly.
"O-oh, right!" Haruna straightened up and cleared her throat, blushing slightly.
"Well, this was a total waste of time!" Shinobu scoffed under her breath, rolling her eyes.
While the class continued to argue, Saki's breath caught in her throat. I don't think anyone else saw it, so it's up to me to tell them! And yet… The thought of speaking up in such a loud, hostile environment was… scary… But if I don't do it right now, then who else will? And when?
One of her unit's songs echoed in her mind. They had to start the trial somewhere…
Right here, right now! Saki replayed the debate in her mind.
Right here, right now! She saw the inconsistency in Muni's words a second time.
Right here, right now! Muni had no evidence to support her claim.
Right here—BANG! BANG! BANG!—I see the truth!
"No, that's wrong!" Saki lunged at Muni, pointing at her. The other 22 students were so stunned to hear Silent Saki, of all people, being so bold, that the entire room went dead quiet, except Monochio, who was laughing hysterically behind and between Marika and Saori.
"Oh, she said it! She said it! She really, really said it! Just like a true Danganronpa protagonist! She may not have the ahoge for it, but she's got everything else! We can only hope that not all the tropes come true for her…" Monochio winked a beady black eye at an unseen audience.
"Oh, you mean the tropes about women dying in the horror genre, right?" Miiko chirped suddenly.
"Miiko… Why do you know about such things?" Haruna leaned left, away from Miiko, horror in her brown eyes.
"Foreign horror film for a foreign language class!" Miiko clapped, grinning. Why the Ultimate Linguist was in a language class was a mystery in and of itself—and so was why said teacher would ever take Miiko's ideas—but the others were far more disturbed by her and Monochio's cheerfulness.
"Oh, enough of this already!" Muni stomped her foot before pointing right back at Saki. "You there! What did you just say to me?!"
"N-n-no evidence…" Saki squeaked. She tried to look brave. "You have… no evidence!" It didn't work. "O-o-of y-your… your… your claim…"
While she backed down, shaking, Muni could only gawk. Why's she saying I'M sus?! No one else has any proof either!
That wasn't true. Some of them already had alibis, Muni was just unlucky enough to have the first inconsistency Saki happened to see.
"After dinner," she clarified, clearing her throat nervously. "You went off on your own, didn't you? And you didn't see anyone else until the rest of your unit returned to your dorm later that night. But… as we discussed in the investigation, Nagisa's death likely occurred during that timeframe."
Even though none of them found Nagisa until the morning, based on the temperature they were able to obtain with thermometers from the nurse's office, they could estimate the time of death as hours and hours earlier than when they found her. It was especially devastating for RONDO, who noticed Nagisa's bedroom door shut by the time they returned, but rather than think anything of it, they merely assumed that she went to bed before them, uncharacteristic though it was. If perhaps they hadn't been lulled into such a false sense of security by Rinku's dinner party, they might've bothered to check, but it was too late now. Now all they could do was move forward, and Muni was first on the stand.
"B-but that doesn't prove anything!" she shrilled. "I- I- I- went back to my room, yeah! Because I- I- I needed to get away from you all!"
"Not helping your case, Muni," Shinobu said darkly, crossing her arms and smirking.
"I mean! I'm an introvert, ya know?! I just needed time to… recharge, yeah, that's it! I was drawing! In my room! That always helps me relax!"
"Nyahahaha, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Things are finally getting good!" Monochio cackled from its "throne".
"Would you please refrain from such childish behavior?" Miyu sighed. "This is a very serious matter. I do not believe that Muni is the culprit, but it appears that her inability to prove her innocence is a barrier still standing in our way."
"Inability to prove my innocence?!" Muni's eyes flashed.
"Wait, Miyu, what makes you so sure that she isn't the killer?" Haruna asked curiously.
"Think about it!" Miyu encouraged gently. "I know it is graphic, but I implore everyone to go back to the way we found Nagisa's body." Every eye turned to its respective PheFo, to the photo evidence gallery. "She was suspended fairly high up, was she not?" Miyu asked, her implication clear.
"So what? Muni could've used a stepladder," Shinobu scoffed. Muni gave a cry of indignation at the baseless accusation.
"But we found no stepladders at the scene of the crime, or anywhere else for that matter, did we?" Rei reminded Shinobu gently.
"Piano Baka!" Shinobu scoffed under her breath.
"Hey, hey, hey! Let us at least try to be a little original!" Monochio interrupted with a sneer. "I think I liked Shutter-Face more!"
Yuka winced in embarrassment as the Headcatster smirked at her and Shinobu.
Muni took the opportunity to find her voice again. "Y-yeah! Why are you so sus of me?! Isn't that kind of sus of YOU?!"
"Oh, let's not start that," Tsubaki interrupted with a sigh. Then she turned to Miyu. "I want to believe you, because your logic makes sense to me, but is size alone enough to remove someone from the suspect list?"
"I… don't know," Miyu admitted, biting her lip guiltily. She noticed the way Aoi and the Muscle Trio tensed up. It agonized her to suspect any of her friends, but Nagisa was dead and one of them was guilty; there was no getting around that. Nagisa's death did not appear to be a suicide.
For one, Nagisa hadn't seemed suicidal before her death. Yes, they were in a Killing Game; and yes, mental health struggles could be invisible, but it still seemed unusually sudden to some of them. Plus, even though Hiiro was only studying psychology and not yet an official psychologist, she specialized in abnormal psychology and swore up and down that she hadn't noticed anything abnormal about Nagisa—at least that wasn't her normal brand of abnormal, oxymoronic as that was. And Hiiro was closer to the Ultimate Guitarist than anyone.
For another, the trap itself was far too complicated. Why go to such great lengths as creating a rope trap? Granted, even if they were able to prove that it was a suicide, that wouldn't have been a happier outcome.
"Ugh, well, can't I just… go get the drawings and prove it to you that way?" Muni complained.
"Nope!" Monochio said cheerfully. "Unless it's on your PheFo, you're shit outta luck, kiddo! Ain't nobody leavin' this trial room after a trial starts!"
"But what about bathroom breaks for intermissions?" Kurumi and Miiko interrupted while Haruna slapped her forehead.
"They'rrrre in the back!" Monochio's tail flicked over its couch.
"Besides," Marika interjected, surprising everyone, "even if it was allowed, how would we know that those drawings were created when she said they were? Couldn't they have been made days in advance?" It was a harsh accusation, but unfortunately, far from impossible.
Muni's stomach sank. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. It seemed that the whole class was ganging up on her…
"Wait! Wait one sec! I actually think I have an answer to that!" Rinku pounded her podium excitedly. While all the others could only focus on Muni, Rinku's mind was hard at work, racing a million miles an hour. She imagined herself riding a mental motorcycle, because that seemed to be the most popular vehicle of everyone she knew in the academy. Every road sign contained questions pointing her to a conclusion. I got it!
She turned on her PheFo and pulled up a shared file of written testimonies and alibies. In one of Rinku's, collected earlier during the investigation by Towa and Noa—who were "interviewing" her at the time—she offhandedly mentioned that after she, Rei, and Maho were done in the music room, they went to the Hapiara dorm where Muni was indeed working on sketches.
"I remember her showing them to me right before bed!" Rinku grinned. "They weren't there before, so she definitely made them that night! And there were so many of them that she wasn't kidding about needing all evening to work on them, even as the Ultimate Illustrator!"
"I did not show them to you!" the Ultimate Illustrator pouted. "You burst into my room and just started looking right over my shoulder!"
"Oh, right…" Rinku had the grace to look sheepish while Maho face-palmed.
"Still, Rinku's testimony, is it enough to solidify Muni's alibi?" Tsubaki asked.
"It better be!" Muni said quickly. "Why would Rinku lie? She gains no advantages!" It was a good point. As Monochio made clear multiple times, protecting a murderer meant nothing in its game. If the class pinned the murder on the wrong student, they would all be executed, protector included.
"Plus," Maho said slowly, removing her face from her hand, "Rinku isn't really the type to lie…"
It was exactly as Monochio said on the first day. As important as cold, hard facts and evidence were, equally important was the ability to recognize truth and lies in one another. Even if the class could imagine Rinku lying to protect a friend, could they imagine her doing it with rules as grim as the ones Monochio set? And if so, why? What motive did Rinku have? Well, only those who knew her well might know that.
"And, I don't know if you'll believe us…" Maho looked at Rei before looking at the rest of the students, "but neither of us recall seeing any of Muni's drawings before that night either." So now three students were vouching for Rinku. They were all from her unit, yes, but would they really all be willing to go down for her, and take everyone else with them, including themselves?
"So… what do we do?" Towa was the first to break the tense and awkward silence that slowly settled over the trial room. "Do we believe that Rinku and Muni are probably innocent, and that Hapiara can probably be trusted, or do we…?"
"Yes, believe that Muni is innocent!" Muni cried impatiently before being hushed by the rest of her unit, and several others.
"I think it might be best to believe them for now," Ibuki said gently. "After all, this trial has a time limit, so we can't follow any one line of inquiry for too long. We have to explore as many angles as possible in the time we're allotted!" She punched her palm, grimly determined.
Her reminder sobered the others up, and it was effective in steering the conversation away from Muni, for better or worse. The first nonstop debate was complete, but the class trial had only just begun.
AN: The room is a mish-mash of all 3 trial rooms in the big 3 DR games, and if you want to know how everyone is positioned around the trial room, just look at one of the very last shots of D4DJ Petite Mix when they're all holding hands in a circle before it fades to a DJ disc.
Rinku is in front of the door, and Monochio is behind/between Marika and Saori on the opposite side of the room.
Also, the "Mental Motorcycle" is basically "Logic Dive/Psyche Taxi" (let me know in the comments if you want to see more "original trial games" in future chapters) and Saki's Synesthesia allows her to see the trials as if she was an actual DR protag (aka the player).