"Maho," said Shinobu suddenly, "could we see your wounds?"
"H-huh?!" The Ultimate Cook wasn't the only one surprised by such a strange request.
"Even if we can definitively say Kyoko killed Rinku, then herself," Shinobu began, swallowing painfully as she was forced to admit that which she didn't even want to acknowledge, "I'm seriously considering that someone manipulated or forced her to do it."
"F-forced?!" Once again, the Ultimate Cook wasn't the only one surprised by Shinobu.
"I mean, in every class trial we've been through so far, when has the obvious suspect ever been the final or correct one?" Shinobu insisted.
"But even if someone forced her to do it, the truth of the matter is that she still did it," Maho reminded Shinobu, struggling to remain calm.
"Well, we still have time left on the trial clock," Shinobu smiled dryly, golden eyes darting over to Monochio lounging in its fold-out director's chair, megaphone by the chair leg, a clock over its giant, metal dome of a head. "And… like Yuka said in the beginning… I'm still fighting for Kyoko," Shinobu continued, tapping the brim of her cap.
"But why me?" Maho pressed.
"Because of the three of us," Shinobu gestured to herself, Maho, and Muni, "only you are strong enough to get the upper hand on anyone." She was referring not just to the mass panic debate that opened the class trial, but even past trials where Shinobu and Muni's own, weak, tiny physiques gave them an alibi. Including Dalia's trial, which inspired Shinobu's new line of questioning in the first place. Talk about full circle…!
"Now, granted, it could be Muni," Shinobu admitted, earning an outraged cry from the Ultimate Illustrator, "but I want to check your wounds first since I think it would be easier." Plus, I got a much bigger bone to pick with Muni that will take a lot more time to unpack…
"You know, you were wrong about Kyoko allegedly not committing suicide, right?" Muni interrupted with a snort. "Maybe it is exactly as it seems! I mean, how can we assume you are innocent?"
"Because if I wasn't, why would I keep the trial going when we've all decided Kyoko is the killer?"
For a moment, no one had any rebuttal, then Hiiro interjected softly. "Maho, will you allow us to see your injuries? I, too, believe Kyoko is guilty, however, I am now curious as to where Shinobu is going with all of this…"
"Easy for you to say! You're not a suspect!" Maho muttered, and Muni's face seemed to say the same. But nonetheless, the Ultimate Cook unraveled her bandages. Muni and Yuka took pictures so that everyone else could see Maho's wounds too, and compare them to Rinku's.
"So, just to confirm, Kyoko's the one who hit you?" Shinobu asked, voice unsettlingly emotionless as she scrolled through the photos. In particular, she was interested in the ones Muni took of the back of Maho's head.
"I'd be willing to bet," Maho said, Muni still posing her. "And I think it was before she ran into Rinku because there wasn't any blood on her."
"You think the weapon Kyoko used on you is the same one she used on Rinku." Shinobu's voice was still flat and unreadable.
"I would assume so." Maho agreed again, but slightly more on guard this time.
"Yuka," Shinobu whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "If Maho was really hit by that metal pole we saw lying beside Rinku, would her injury be shaped like this?" It was a bruise, but it wasn't as narrow as the ones lining Rinku's body. Furthermore, it was not as raised. While the injuries on Rinku's body were so violent that skin and bone were broken in several places, Maho's had one, smooth, round, even bump. Even if one could argue that it was a difference in aggression levels in Kyoko at the time, Shinobu still had her doubts…
"Unfortunately, I'm only a camera girl," Yuka whispered back, shaking her head apologetically. Just because they were pictures of wounds didn't magically mean she had all the medical knowledge she needed to properly analyze them. "If you want better answers, I think you might…" Her eyes slid back to the rest of the trial room. Shinobu bit her lip, weighing her options. Yuka observed closely, silently counting down in her head. The moment she got to "one", Shinobu finally sighed and voiced her thoughts to the rest of the class.
"So, you're suspecting me just because my injuries don't look exactly like Rinku's?!" Maho cried. It sounded ludicrous, but Saori and Hiiro in particular seemed to almost believe Shinobu's idea.
"Now you mention it… I'm surprised a bruise that… small could've knocked Maho out! I mean, yeah, it's on her head, but…" Saori trailed off, staring hard at the images, trying to articulate her thoughts. "O-oh! Not that I'm implying anything, of course! I'm not a nurse…" She was sheepish.
"No, no, Saori, I think you might be onto something," Hiiro's eyes lit up as Saori tried to hide behind her PheFo, lifting it slowly. I agree with that!
Trouble's cooking! "You can't really thing I'd fake this, do you?!" Maho gestured to her head before the Ultimate Diviner could continue.
"Well, as Saori said, a head injury like that shouldn't have knocked someone out." Hiiro met her challenge to a showdown calmly.
"Well, it did!" Maho shot back disdainfully. "Do you really think I just beat myself upside my own head until I pulled it off?"
"If you were trying to hide something…"
"Remember, no weapon was found near my body when you found me!"
"Unless you were only pretending to be passed out."
"No way! I was legitimately unconscious!" That much was confirmed to her when one of the students that found her said they'd even tried using a reflex test to wake her up, and for a moment, it hadn't worked.
"It's just that the shape and size of the wound—as well as the intensity, as it were—do not seem to align…" Hiiro touched her chin.
"Well what about the timing?!" Maho cried. "You think I could've done something like that to myself for real in just one swing?!"
Right when Maho was about to insist that this line of questioning was becoming increasingly ridiculous, Hiiro ceased immediately. "Hmm. I thought not." She sounded slightly disappointed, but she shrugged, quickly and gracefully retreating from the showdown.
"H-huh? What?" Maho reared back, genuinely surprised by Hiiro's abrupt surrender. Hiiro only met Maho's eyes, her own sparkling impishly.
"Even as an honorary member of the Muscle Trio, strength alone is not enough to fake an injury of your kind. And as you said before, you ran into Kyoko before she ran into Rinku, so I fail to see how you could've manipulated her into anything, especially after being struck from behind. Heh."
"Y-yeah, that's right!" Maho was still surprised by Hiiro's sudden switch in allegiance, but as the realization kicked in, so too did her awe and exasperation. She always knew Shinobu was being ridiculous… She just wanted and needed me to find the proof that would satisfy her.
And as Maho had mentioned before, all the wounds on her arms were defensive. "It was… something… Dalia… taught me…" Her face fell, and the survivors of M4 flinched. That was why Maho was so supportive of the Ultimate Dancer in her class trial. Dalia and Maho had a long history together, and in almost every instance, the younger, smaller girl idolized the older, taller one.
Even after all was said and done, in the late Ultimate Dancer's honor, Maho vowed to uphold the Muscle Trio and help protect her unit-mates and classmates, even though the Muscle Trio was down to two. And sadly, this time, there was no one else to become an honorary third.
"Even Muni can point out that I was trying to de-escalate things at first!" Maho continued insistently. Muni did not answer, knowing that suspicion was about to fall on her, but to deny it would've looked like a pathetic attempt at "she started it!" or "she said, she said!"
Shinobu could only laugh at the irony of her situation. At first, she wanted to interrogate Muni on suspicion of her collaboration with Monochio, but she interrogated Maho first to cover her tracks. Then, right as she was growing suspicious of Maho (she could've been lying about when she ran into Kyoko, after all; they had no way of disproving it), suspicion was turned right back to Muni again.
And with so much proof countering the theory that Maho's head injury was faked—and her defensive wounds obviously weren't—Shinobu knew she would only look like an asshole (or at least, a bigger one than usual) if she kept picking the Ultimate Cook's brain, much as she wanted to. For the time being, all she could do was grit her teeth, and turn her attention to Muni.
At long, long last, the question about her relationship with Monochio would finally be answered.
ooo
"Why do you all think I did anything?!" Muni shrilled, eyes wide. "Just because of Shinobu's theory?! I thought we all agreed that I was too puny to pull off anything like that! Puny Muni, right?!"
"Well, you were pretty dead-set on keeping Rinku with you," Maho said, and Muni shot her an infuriated scoff.
"You think I could "charm" Kyoko, or whatever?!"
"Well, you have always talked about glowing up your internet persona," said Yuka, looking apologetically at her fellow VJ.
"Guys!" Muni cried out in betrayal once again. "Oh, honestly, this is getting unnecessarily convoluted! Why not just hurry up and vote already?! We know who did it!"
"But you protesting isn't exactly helping your image," Hiiro replied.
"Shut it, Hiiro!" Muni snapped.
"Ok, sorry!" Hiiro shrugged cheerfully.
"Shinobu," Rika spoke up for the first time in quite a while. "What's your endgame? I mean, why are you gunning for Muni? Or even Maho? I have to be honest, it really doesn't make sense to me. Is there something you're hiding?"
"Yes! Exactly! That's what I'm wondering too!" Muni pointed at Rika, nodding frantically. It was time for the moment of truth.
Shinobu bit her lip before finally speaking up. "It's something… from the very first day. Monochio… never really let us talk about it…"
Huh?! What?! Why is she looking at me like that?! Somehow, Muni managed to reach through her panic and memories, pushing the clutter aside as if she was cleaning out a room. Behind the mess, she saw a picture, a plush cat. Nyochio.
"W-what? No… No way! You can't seriously—? But don't you remember what Monochio said?!" There was no affiliation between it and Muni.
"But can we trust it?" Shinobu asked grimly, arms crossed. In truth, she actually did believe it, but just as with Hiiro and Maho, Shinobu did indeed need some sort of solid proof to help her whittle down her list of possible suspects, not for the murderer, but the Mastermind!
"I… I… I didn't do this!" Muni panicked as she talked, clutching the sides of her heads, eyes going wide with fear.
But can any of us know that as a certainty?
"It's not my fault!"
That's what everyone says.
"How dare you all suspect me like this?"
Well, given the circumstances…
"It's not fair! Not fair! NOT FAIR!"
Neither was Rinku's death. Or Kyoko's. Or anyone else's in this God-awful Killing Game!
"Who are you to accuse me anyway?! Me! The One and Only! The Munique Muni Ohnaruto!"
Because you are Nyochio's creator, and if your technological tricks somehow worked in this Killing Game?
"Ohhh, you'll all be sorry for this! Accusing me!"
It was just like with… with… Esora…
Muni's words were a mess. Shinobu's brain, meanwhile, raced a thousand miles an hour. It was time to call upon another dead unit-mate. "What about Esora?" Those three words made the girl beside Shinobu tense up.
"… What about Esora?" Muni crossed her arms and pouted, clearly not enjoying being compared to her.
"Her family tech company… We suspected it earlier, so…"
"But there's a huge difference between… that…and my Nyochio! Nyochio isn't even here!" As many possessions as the students found already waiting for them inside Hope's Pinnacle—even down to Muni's sketchbook and bunny-ear headband—the OG Nyochio was gone.
"Wouldn't that be all the more reason to suspect…?" Shinobu's golden gaze again darted over to the still and silent Headcatster. The smug smirk stretched across its giant, metal facial plates was gone now. It didn't like this topic of discussion.
"But I would never want to create a "Game" like this!" Finally, a quiver in Muni's voice. "And I especially would never want to hurt Rinku! I know we may have thrown hands in the past, but she was still my very best friend in the entire world! And I l—!" loved her more than anything, anyone.
"Hem, hem!" Monochio cleared its throat haughtily, a sound of rust, scraping metal, and six voices wrapped into one. "Shall we return to the true and prrrroper point of discussion? We seem to have strayed… off topic." Its retractable tail shot up from behind it, pointing to the trial clock above its head. Wait a minute. Had that much time really passed already? Shinobu wasn't the only one to curse herself for not paying more attention. "Please, do entertain us, for we are the director of this story, after all!" It gave another regal laugh, tossing its crowned, metal head back.
Shinobu sucked in a breath. So… something in her line of inquiry did bother it! But before she could act on it again, or even address it, Monochio leapt gracefully over M4's heads and into the center of the ring of class trial podiums. Every student reared back, and Monochio cackled triumphantly at their fright, the six voices creating an echoing effect somewhere deep in its large, fuzzy chest.
"As we have stated since the beginning, Muni Ohnaruto truly has nothing to do with us! But if you so insist upon dragging us into the trial anyway… Well, we suppose we have kept the audience at home waiting long enough! We are the progenitor of these class trials, after all, so why not participate in them ourselves?!" With every word, its six voices became more discordant, highlighting just what its pupils were up against…
Monochio has entered the chat. Monochio has joined the battle. A new challenger approaches...
Trial Intermission.