The Mastermind the students were next most confident about was the one of Peaky.

"Yeah, it's definitely not Shinobu!" Yuka scoffed, half joking and half serious. She may not have had the best mood, temper, tone, or vibes in general, but in case her sacrifice hadn't made clear, she was a hero! Jerk with a heart of gold… "And it's definitely not me!" Yuka continued.

"And we know that… how and why?" Muni's face and voice were deadpan as she side-eyed the other visual artist.

Yuka, however, didn't seem to hear her. "So that obviously means… it's Kyoko! Oh…" For a moment, she trailed off awkwardly, rubbing her arm.

Then, despite her shyness, Saori spoke up. Ohhh! I hate confrontation! But… "No, that's wrong!" Yuka's eyes widened in surprise, partly because of the interjection, and partly because it was Saori. "W-w-what about Esora?"

"O-oh… Right…" Yuka was caught off guard, then she wilted again.

"Can't believe you forgot!" Muni scoffed.

Can you picture the truth? "But still! How can we be sure it's not Kyoko?" Yuka insisted. "I mean, I don't want it to be any of us! But like we always say, it's never the obvious suspect! Esora might be too obvious! Don't ya think? After everything that happened to poor Kyoko last Stage…"

"Couldn't you argue that Kyoko is an "obvious suspect" because of the last Stage?" Marika asked, touching her face, looking concerned.

"Just because she went off the rails doesn't mean she's a Mastermind," Yuka replied. "What if she was being manipulated?" As Yuka said before, she didn't want any of her friends to be guilty, but they had to be careful! Every correct vote counted! If Yuka was to be convinced, evidence had to be provided! She clenched her Ultimate Abs and prepared for a battle with words faster than bullets!

"Let's do it!"

Oh Yuka, you just HAD to have a trial mini-game, didn't you? In the end, Miyu answered Yuka's challenge.

"These are Abs of Steel, baby!"

Much as it pains me to say, I believe Esora is the Peaky Mastermind!

"They'll point me in the way of the truth!"

Does that mean they'll flex in a certain direction? Oh, Yuka, please! Esora is the heiress of a tech company!

"Let's get it done!"

Don't you remember what we discovered in Stage I, from Monochio's first lost facial plate?

Miyu shot cleanly through Yuka's argument. No, the Ultimate Photographer hadn't remembered; not at first, at least—but in her defense, hey! It was a long time ago! The first time Monochio lost a facial plate… Half the trial room caught a glimpse of the logo engraved on the inside of the plate as Monochio dragged it away after the end of the first class trial. The Towa Conglomerate.

And as they discovered in the second class trial, Esora's family's tech company had strong ties to the one in Towa City. Although it had escaped their memories, the students used to know that a rivalry with the Togami Corporation was what turned the Shimizu Corporation to the side of the Towa Conglomeration. In the end, though, it wasn't the facial plate clue that cued Yuka into the truth.

Still mulling it over in her mind, she imagined herself atop a motorcycle with Esora. Starting from the thought of Esora's family company working in cahoots with someone else, Yuka traveled the path by the signs related to the green-haired girl's love of machinery. Even though Esora, herself, was Talented only in the department of instructing and organizing others around, having a tech company in the family gave the Ultimate Corporate Manager a unique appreciation for robotics and machinery, hardware and software, not just manufacturing and supply.

That was why… when Esora met classmate Yuka "Jennifer/Jenny" Sasago… they eventually teamed up to create a YouTube mini-series of VJ how-to instructional videos. Yuka, as Peaky's VJ, was the main host, but the one who chose the topic and focus of the show was… A little green frog!The full name finally spelled itself out in Yuka's head, the static interference at last gone. "Esoran!"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh! Yup! Yep!" The frog squeaked, croaked, and nodded, arms naturally shifting up and down as some of the other students in the podiums beneath it echoed its name in confusion and disbelief.

"You're… Esora's mascot!" Yuka breathed grimly, scowling up at the frog on the monitor at the back of the trial room.

"Hey! So she copied me on that too?!" Muni pouted, hands on her hips as she stomped. "Nyochio's WAY cuter than Esoran!"

"Hey, hey, now! Esoran is very cute! Monochio is the one who isn't cute!" The little frog flapped its green arms as if it was clapping. "Hello, hello, Big Sis Jenny!" it added, turning to the Ultimate Photographer once more, smiling with a wide and eerie mouth.

Yuka's eyes widened in horror and her jaw clenched from the tension. N-no way! It… it is! …Esoran!

"So wait. Are you, like, a… mini Monochio?" Rika demanded, pointing accusatorily at Esoran. "Frog-ochio?"

"What do you think?" Esoran asked back, but the one who saw its uncanny front-facing image was… Muni.

"H-hey! What does that mean?!" she recoiled, raising her hands and arms protectively in front of herself.

"What do you think?" Esoran asked back. Its reply infuriated Muni, to the surprise of no one, but Esoran wasn't merely trying to be a troll. With Esora all but confirmed as a Mastermind, even Kyoko's most recent storyline not blinding the others to it, the class now had to decide what they thought of the other potential Mastermind with a mascot in the Killing School Transfer…

"B-but! What about everything Monochio's said before?!" Muni cried. "We have nothing to do with each other! It's too obvious! Maybe Esora and her mascot were in this game, but come on! It's not like I named Nyochio Munichio!"

"Well. Class…?" Esora squeaked quietly. What do you think?

The question on everyone's mind since Stage I was finally about to be answered, one way or another.For a moment, there was only silence. Then, Maho, after biting her lip and furrowing her eyebrows, finally looked up. She took a quiet breath in, and just before Muni could protest it, she spoke.

"So, you guys remember that weird Rinku video Monochio showed us?" the Ultimate Cook asked. Horror and worry filled Muni's eyes, but for once, the Ultimate Illustrator kept her mouth shut, listening intently to Maho, even though she mentally protested everything.

"You're saying you think it's Rinku?!" More than one student disagreed, some in horror, some in guilt, some in anger, some in disbelief.

"Not Rinku," Maho said quietly. "It wasn't something I noticed until I looked through the videos more thoroughly…" She pointed to the timestamps on every video. No, not the timestamps, that pale, faint, faded watermark logo on the opposite corner of every video clip.

"What… Is it?" Towa held her PheFo right against her face.

"Dumbass! That's not gonna help ya!" Muni snorted under her breath, arms crossed as she shook her head in disgust and disdain.

"It looks like… a bunny-ear headband to me…" Maho replied slowly, reluctantly.

"Wait! What?!" Muni squawked, nearly giving herself whiplash from how hard and fast she jerked her head from Towa to Maho.

"I know it's not the ones you're wearing right now!" Maho cried quickly. "But look!" She fast-forwarded through one of the videos until the screen in the background was a color conducive to highlighting the logo she was trying to point out. The ears were longer, and the band was thinner, but after Maho showed the others directly, they could see the bunny-ear shape. Even more importantly, though, Maho and Muni recognized the headband. VJ Only. Muni's stage persona, her "alter ego". And VJ Only had a YouTube channel…

"But the stuff I post is nothing like that!" Muni gestured at the shady, sketchy videos. "I mean come on, that crap?! It's obviously fake! Why would I post content of Rinku being shady?!"

"Was this what Shinobu was working on last Stage?" Maho asked quietly. "She seemed suspicious of Muni too…"

"Wha…? No!" Muni raised an arm protectively in front of herself again, growing frantic, struggling to conceal it. Why was Maho doing this?!

Unless… Muni's eyes widened in slow, horrified realization. No… Is Maho…? Muni was confident it wasn't her or Rinku, and even though Rei fit the description of an unobvious suspect, there was no evidence connecting her to any criminal activity either. At least the other "unobvious suspects" had at least a few things pointing their way upon second glance, but Rei seemed truly spotless. So that left… Hapiara's DJ and cofounder.

Muni's eye twitched, and she clutched the sides of her head in terror and horror. She stuttered and sputtered counterarguments and protests, but unlike Maho, she was far less composed. "Oh! Why do we have to go through all of this again?!" she despaired.

"To be fair, you are acting pretty sus," said Towa, touching her chin and closing an eye. I know it's not Rinku! I don't think it's Maho or Rei… So…

"But don't you remember what Monochio said at the beginning of the game?" Miyu asked quietly, twiddling her fingers. A three-way debate began.

"How do we know that logo wasn't faked to frame me?!" Muni demanded, pointing angrily at Maho.

"Maybe Monochio was, like, hiding clues in plain sight all along?" asked Towa, referring to the logo. "It likes to only reveal the truth at bad times."

"Monochio said Muni was in no way affiliated with it! I do not trust Monochio lightly, however…" Miyu bit her lip.

"Everyone here knows how to photoshop! So you don't have to be a VJ to know how to fake something like this, ya know?!"

"Maybe when it talked about obvious suspects, this was the exception. Or the clues wouldn't be the obvious ones we thought they were."

"I believe that what Monochio said in the beginning of the Game is true. Muni is not our suspect. It is only trying to confuse us now…"

"Maho's only saying that because she's the guilty one, so she's faking and making up dirt on me!"

"I mean, which Hapiara member do we have the most proof against?" Towa asked, not in reply to Muni, but in perfect timing anyway.

"However, I acknowledge that I do not know who it is, if it is truly not Muni…"

Time to stir up the truth! "I agree with that!" Maho looked at Muni, surprising them all. Then she looked at Yuka. "It's true that you don't have to be a VJ to photoshop, but perhaps you could tell if any part of this video looks fake?" Now that they had copies on their PheFos, it was a lot easier to study, not just because of their newfound ability to rewind and rewatch the videos, but because Yuka was finally able to plug it into editing software on their PheFos to detect altercations to the original file. She found nothing. The logo wasn't photoshopped.

"I believe it was a clue Monochio gave you in the last class trial?" Esoran squeaked, interrupting the grim silence that had since settled over the class trial room. It was referring to what Monochio said in its final debate scrum. Nothing in the video was digitally altered. Although things were not as they appeared to be, everything they saw therein was all real footage.

"So did you… film this to… frame Rinku, Muni?" Maho asked, voice and eyes unreadable as she stared deeply at her only surviving unit-mate.

"What the—?! NO!" Muni thundered, but for once, there was just as much anguish in her face and voice as there was anger.

Before her outburst could continue, Hiiro cut her off. "Do you believe Rinku could be culpable, then, Muni?" Or Maho? Or perhaps… Rei?

"Wh-what?!" Muni recoiled with a teary-eyed hiss. "N-no!" She wrapped her arms around herself protectively and scowled, but her heart was racing with fear, not just for her the sake of her reputation as the not-Mastermind of Hapiara, but as the girl known for loving Rinku Aimoto.

I think it's… Maho. But I just can't prove it…! Muni refused to plead guilty, and refused to believe Rinku could be guilty. What was she left with? It was similar to Dalia, who refused to incriminate Rika, although she also refused to incriminate herself, even though everyone else suspected her…

"Wait! Oh. My. Gosh, you guys! I just realized that we're already about… halfway through the final class trial!" Rika cried, hands on her hips, beaming just a little too widely. The others, especially M4, cast her a surprise glance, but before they could ask—"So we've discussed Lyrilily, Photon, Peaky, and Hapiara. Now would be a good time for a Trial Intermission, but I think Imma spice it up a lil and give you all a gift instead!"

"Rika… What are you…?" Nearly everyone in the trial room, Esoran included, spoke with some degree of confusion, or even outrage.

"It's me! Hi! I'm the M4stermind! Consider ita freebie! But I need you guys to trust me so we can figure out who the RONDO Mastermind is!" she whispered, cupping her hands around her mouth as if trying to conceal her words. It was completely negated by how loud and emphatic she was. And it was also negated by the shock and disbelief of all of her peers.

"Ms. Seto!" Esoran gave the Ultimate Volleyballer a warning squeak, flapping its little green arms once.

"Does the name "Junko Enoshima" mean anything to anyone?!" she talked over the little green frog on the screen behind her and Marika.

"Ms. Seto!"

Breaths caught in chests. For several students, their answer to Rika's question was "yes".