"Did we ever confirm the number of killers?" ALTER-EGO asked suddenly.

"No, but it's definitely gotta be more than one!" Muni interjected. "There was way too much to do in one night for one person to do all alone! Now, I'm not saying that it wasn't Noa, but… There must be accomplices!"

Noa clutched her face in mock despair. "Oh, Muni, how you wound me!" Muni only rolled her eyes.

"But, Muni, there's no benefit to having accomplices," said Tsubaki.

"Perhaps the murders were unrelated? There could be multiple killers who simply did not work together," Dalia suggested.

"No, wait! Maybe it could be just one person!" Maho cried, finger on her chin and forehead creased. "Think about the amount of planning that went into these attacks. How many of us were mentally stable enough to have that many coherent thoughts, let alone the capacity to carry them out?"

They hadn't even decided if, and how many of, the attacks were premeditated or not.

An eerie smile spread slowly across Noa's face. She said nothing, watching the class descend into chaos, argumentation, and discord. Beside her, Towa shifted uncomfortably, gripping the railing of her podium with both hands as she struggled to look at Noa.

N-Noa… Why do they think it's you…? And… why aren't you saying anything?!

"All right, all right, enough already," Monochio interrupted flatly. "Order in the court. Order in the court. If you want to be so split about it, let us at least be civil and engage in a proper, formal debate scrum."

"Oh, not again!" Saori moaned as the campfire in the center of the room began to spin. The wooden, tree-stump podiums rotated with it, the students hanging on tight to branchy railings as they were pushed out into two opposing lines before being reeled back in to stand face to face.

"So, are the crimes linked, or not?" Rinku asked, tilting her head, and tapping her chin as she pondered.

"No! There's no way they're linked, because it's way too much for one person to do in one night!" Muni argued, hands on her hips, pouting.

"But if that one person was the only one able to see through the delusions…" Maho began.

"How do we know they were "seen through" though? Some of the wounds were pretty vicious…" Yuka's forehead creased in worry.

"Ordinarily, I would agree," said Esora, raising her wrist. "And yet, how and why would three of us survive unless our attacker let us?"

"To be fair, even I was able to be talked down," Shinobu crossed her arms. "That's the only reason Towa survived."

"So, you are suggesting you survived your injuries because your attacker had the mental awareness not to kill?" Miyu asked for clarification.

"Mental awareness or not, couldn't it still have been more than one person?" Rika asked. "I might be stupid for saying it, but I kept my head and didn't go out killing anybody!"

"Then let us consult the wounds," said Hiiro. "Some serial killers have signatures in their attack methods. Patterns."

"Signatures… You mean the fact that every injury ended in one of a pair of body parts being removed, right?" asked Noa grimly.

"Give it up, Noa, you're the only one smart enough to pull off this many crimes under such tight constraints!" Tsubaki snarled, arms crossed.

"Is being smart a trait strong enough to convict someone, though?" Kyoko asked gently.

"No, but the knowledge required for plans such as this requires a very academic thinker," ALTER-EGO's one eye flashed, hand on his hip.

"But the knowledge required is not something only Noa has," Dalia said doubtfully, touching her chin, troubled. After all, that was how they were able to figure out the plans at all. Several of them knew how to make chloroform, for example.

"It's not just the intelligence," Marika said. "It's the combination of the intelligence, as well as other things we have discussed so far, for example, the probability of more than one person remaining coherent enough to cause such destruction, as well as the serial killer signature attack theory." She was slowly starting to understand…

"Not choosing sides or anything, combination or not, don't you have any solid evidence?" Shinobu asked. "One killer just seems so impossible!"

"The bottle cap I found beneath Aoi's body!" Saori cried suddenly. "Maybe it came from whatever the killer used for the chloroform!"

"Noa wouldn't leave evidence as incriminating as a bottle cap in a place as incriminating as beneath Aoi's body!" Towa cried in stubborn denial.

Unluckily for her, her argument was weak, and did not compel the class in the slightest. Instead, as crazy as it sounded, a majority of them were at least willing to explore the idea of it only being one killer and attacker. Each piece wasn't much on its own, but when put together, it painted a very ugly picture indeed, and Noa was the prime subject.

She was the first to bring up COP, the most consistently knowledgeable on any topic (especially chemistry or health), and the only one in the nurse's office and unseen by anyone else that night. She was also, if they combined some of their earlier theories, perhaps one of the most likely students to overcome the mental effects of the mushrooms and be able to see the world clearly in spite of them.

"H-hey! I think I just remembered something else!" Rinku interrupted, tapping her chin as she looked at Noa. "I know we didn't get a normal breakfast today, but I tried to go into the kitchens to cook something for myself, and I saw that some of the stoves near the back were on, but nothing was cooking on them!" she said, and Maho's eye twitched. The stoves had been on… and left empty and unattended?!

Not only did it hurt her Ultimate Cook heart, but especially with all the COP talk… Why didn't she say anything sooner?! Ugh… Why didn't I think to check?! Even Maho had been content to simply eat the dry snacks provided to her that morning. Cooking was the last thing on her mind. Now that I think about it, though… I think that… NOA was the one who suggested that I only have dry snacks today and not even bother going farther back into the kitchens… And wasn't it Noa who ran back and forth between the dining hall and nurse's office the most often?

"Now it's just confirmation bias!" Noa snorted. "No matter what I say, you'll find a way to twist it around as "proof" that I'm the killer!" To the surprise of all, she whipped around on Towa. "Oh, this is all your fault!"

"But I—! Noa—!" Towa hadn't meant to so thoughtlessly tell ALTER-EGO about Noa being sent to the nurse's office, but it was a fact any of them could've verified, because all of them were there when Ibuki gave the command to Noa, and she accepted it.

"Noa! That's enough!" Tsubaki snapped, hands on her hips as she seethed. Now that she knew who to direct her fury to, all Hell would now break loose. Tsubaki lunged for the jugular, no more waiting or holding back. "If anyone should be asking those questions, it's us! Why did you do this, Noa, huh?! HUH?! Why did you do this to Aoi? To Hiiro? To Ibuki, and Esora, and Rei?! How dare you act like Towa is wrong for exposing you for what you truly are: a filthy, disgusting, mass-murdering MONSTER! Why, Noa, WHY?!"

ALTER-EGO looked Tsubaki up and down with an approving, interested smirk while Hiiro reached out to her in concern, but Tsubaki refused to be reeled in. Instead, she laid into Noa for all it was worth. But by the time she was done, and the smoke had cleared and the dust had settled, Noa only stood there still smiling serenely.

"Unbelievable. I am the brightest star in the sky, yet I couldn't even receive a fair trial!" Noa cried. "Though perhaps, it is for the best… At least for you." She cast a baleful, iridescent glare at her classmates. "Had we done this fairly, we never would've even reached this trial at all!"

"The hell does that mean?" Shinobu narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, but Noa ignored her and the others to address Monochio.

"Why'd you do it, hmm? Why'd you trigger that BDA?! I could've pull off my perfect crime if it weren't for you meddling cat!"

"Mmm." Contrast to Noa's angry accusations, Monochio was utterly flat and calm. "I suppose you are correct. What I did is terribly unfair. But… I think what you did is terribly unfair as well, don't you? Trying to sweep the board of all my pieces at once like that."

While some of the students looked at Noa in confusion and alarm, she seethed at Monochio. "Nowhere in the rules do you address that!"

"Very well then. I shall henceforth amend the rules posthaste. From today on, it shall be against the rules to kill more than two people."

"Fukushima, you got a lot of explaining to do!" Tsubaki growled. Whatever Monochio's rule change was for, it didn't explain anything to her!

"Noa… No! Please tell me this isn't true!" Towa begged at the same time. There was no way this was a confession, right? Right?!

Noa, however, ignored Towa in favor of addressing Tsubaki. "Tell that to Monochio!" she snapped, cocking her head bitterly at the giant Headcatster. A moment later, though, her face softened into a rueful expression. "However, I concur. Be forewarned, though, it is a lot of exposition. So why not break it up a little, shall we? You know I'm a huge theater nerd, so there's nothing I love more than storytelling!"

"What does that have to do—?" Tsubaki began, seething, but Noa cut her off, clearly relishing the chance to finally brag about all that she'd done.

"Let us start from the beginning. Maybe Monochio won't play fair, but I will," Noa sniffed. "What did the mushrooms do to us?"

"Tasted bad?" Rinku guessed.

"Caused indigestion?" Rika guessed.

"What? No! They cause hallucinations!" Maho cried. "Jeez!"

"And has no one noticed the pattern between all the hallucinations?" Noa asked serenely, ignoring the banter of the three. The class looked at her, then one another, a few of them even shuting their eyes as they tried to think about all the hallucinations recorded in their PheFo logs.

Rika, Rinku, Yuka, and Aoi were scared of failing to protect friends. Saori, Tsubaki, Marika, and Maho were scared that everyone hated them. Dalia, Towa, and Esora were scared that the others were going to gang up on them. Muni was scared of abandonment. Shinobu went mad with rage, and Kyoko went mad with worry for her. Miyu couldn't withstand the separation from Lyrilily any longer. Hiiro was stricken with claustrophobia.

Kyoko and Miyu reached the answer first, the four-letter word spelling itself out in their minds. Fear.

"B-b-but what about you?!" Towa demanded, trying and failing to sound brave as she turned on Noa and shook a fist. "Weren't you scared?!"

"I was," Noa nodded calmly, intentionally vague. She reveled in the outrage, disgust, and disbelief of the others. THIS is how you put on a show!

But even though the others were stumped, Marika's purple eyes were searching, her mind hard at work. Lights, camera…!

"Oh, Noa!" the Ultimate Model sing-songed, and the Ultimate Theater Actress turned to her, eyebrows raised. "Will you battle Marika?"

Noa's surprise did not wane, a wicked smile spreading across her face. Their rebuttal showdown was about to begin.

"Ah, at last, someone who isn't afraid to use her brain!"

"You can hardly blame the others," Marika frowned. "Unlike you, we were actually affected by our hallucinations!"

"Who said I wasn't?" Noa smiled sweetly and touched the corner of her mouth.

"That is true… Somehow, you were able to overcome and manipulate them… Or at least ignore them."

"You're suggesting I magically invented a cure?" Noa snickered. "I am flattered that everyone keeps speaking so highly of my intelligence, but…"

"No, that's wrong!" Marika interrupted, pointing at the Ultimate Theater Actress in dark triumph. "Not a cure, but your Talent."

I've had my eye on you for a while now… Your unnaturally calm demeanor the entire time… Sometimes you hid the truth in lies, but other times, you supported the truth wholeheartedly and even gave us the keys we needed to unlock every clue. That was all done to throw us off your trail, wasn't it? It would've looked too suspicious to consistently be on the wrong side of every debate, but of course, you wouldn't want to be on the right side either.

As they discussed in the debate scrum, each piece wasn't much on its own, but when put together… Academic intelligence, and the ability to strategize were key, yes, but Marika had finally figured out the missing piece that only Noa possessed. "I think she was giving us a clue before…"

"I'm a huge theater nerd, so there's nothing I love more than storytelling!"

"You played us all like puppets, characters on your stage in your narrative. Isn't that right, Ultimate Theater Actress?!" Marika cried.

"Of course, a fellow actress would understand." Noa smiled dryly and nodded. Marika reared back in surprise.

Wait a minute! How does she know about THAT? Marika has never mentioned her past ambitions to be a movie star outside of her own unit! And she didn't think it was anything from any of their Implememor-Es, because no one mentioned Marika's past after viewing them.

But while Marika fell silent, Noa was more than happy to brag. "Acting is such a beautiful thing, for it requires duality, understanding of self and other, the ultimate form and expression of universal awareness! Through the actions and words of others, I was the first to understand the true power of the mushrooms, and I was able to make myself become whatever they needed me to be in order to trust me. It is no difficult task for me to create personas to adopt and discard as necessary," she shrugged.

"Oh, cut the shit and tell us straight!" Shinobu groaned. "What the hell did you see, and how the hell did it not affect you?"

"I don't know if I would say it didn't affect her…" Kyoko remarked dryly, touching her chin as she studied Noa with guarded, critical eyes.

"Noa… what did you see…?" Miyu asked softly. Noa only gave her an unhinged smile. It was Towa who answered.

"No… Don't tell me… It wasn't related to… cuteness?" She felt stupid even suggesting it, but to her surprise Noa laughed and nodded.

"Oh, Towa, you know me better than anyone!"

"W-w-wait, how the hell does that work?! What the hell is cute about ANY of this?!" Muni cried, clutching the sides of her head.

Then Noa started laughing and didn't stop. "Hehehe… hehe hehe… hehehe…!"

AN: It ain't a DR Chap 3 Trial unless the killer's completely crazy! And tomorrow, you'll see it's even crazier yet…

Noa had a very large body count in mind indeed…