Hello readers and welcome to my new chapter. This chapter will be the start of the class trial. Hope this will be as good as the other chapters. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danganronpa.

Chapter 19: Watching Ch 1: To Survive Part 12

"Let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! So, your votes will determine the results." Monokuma began explaining from his throne. "If you can figure out 'whodunnit', then only they will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one, then I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!"

"And the killer really is one of us, right?" Makoto asked, a small part of him hoping for a no.

Unfortunately, the rest of him knew it was pointless to hope. "Of course!"

"Okay, then," Taka spoke up. "Everyone close your eyes, and whoever did it, raise your hand!"

The sound of facepalms echoed the room in response to the ridiculous proposition. "Bro, no one would raise their hand like that." Mondo groaned. "Remember if they get caught, they'll end up dead."

Taka dipped his head sheepishly. "Well, maybe they might have had a change of consciousness."

"Doubtful. If none of us revealed that they were the killer, then I doubt they will anytime soon." Celeste sighed.

Mondo facepalmed. "Don't be a goddamn idiot." He groaned. "Why the hell would they raise their hand?"

"Before we move on and start the trial, can I ask a question real quick?" Kyoko asked.

The camera then switched to the pictures of Sayaka and Junko on the podiums, a red X crossed over their faces. "What's going on with….those pictures?"

"Yeah. Why are those pictures?" Hina asked, looking a bit creeped out. "They're kinda creepy."

"Yeah. They are." Makoto agreed, shifting uncomfortably. They're also glaring reminders that Sayaka and Mukuro are dead.

Said girls were also aware of this, and Mukuro turned her eyes away from the screen while Sayaka shifted closer to Makoto for comfort.

"I'd feel awful if they got left out just because they died." Monokuma stated. "Friendship penetrates even death's barriers!"

"Friendships….penetrates?" Hifumi repeated, wide eyes.

His comments, once again, weirded out the entire class. "Seriously? Even during a time like this?" Leon asked in disbelief. "Mind out of the gutters, Hifumi."

Hifumi, who had the same reaction as his future self, looked away, trying to look innocent. No one bought it.

"Okay," Celeste spoke up. "But what about that other empty seat?" The camera switched to the last empty seat. "There were only fifteen of us to begin with, so why are there sixteen seats?"

"Oh, no reason." Monokuma answered. "It's just that our little courtroom here can technically fit up to sixteen people."

Byakuya narrowed his eyes. "I highly doubt it's a technicality."

"Most likely, the last seat was reserved for Junko, or Mukuro, in the mastermind's point of view." Kyoko stated. When she said that, something came into her head. A glaring detail she missed.

She'll sort that one out later, though. Right now, she needs to pay attention to the trial.

"Oh, right. Junko was the only one who didn't get caught." Hina said in remembrance. "Makes me wonder where she is now."

'In the monitor room, watching all of the despair so close, yet so far away!' Junko thought in a wistful dramatic way.

"Okay, that about does it for the preamble. Time to get started!" Monokuma announced. "First up is the case summary. Now, let the trial….begin!"

'The debate is about to begin.' Makoto thought to himself, looking focus and determined. 'Anything I found, anything I noticed….I have to be ready to speak up about everything. My life isn't the only thing on the line here. Everyone's lives are too!'

Sayaka sighed. "Will there ever be a time where you worry about yourself, Makoto?"

"Well, like 'I' said, it isn't about just me. Everyone's lives here are at risk." Makoto stated. "I can't fear for my own life when other lives are in danger too."

"Wise words to be spoken." Sakura praised.

As soon as Makoto finished thinking that, the camera zoomed out and started spinning. Continuing to spin, it zoomed in to the students and several bullets, each with a piece of evidence engraved on them, appeared onto the screen as an overlay. When the camera stopped at Makoto, the bullets were gathered up and put away into the slot beside it.

"What the-What the hell is this?" Mondo exclaimed in shock. Everyone else is also surprised by what they just saw.

"This is what's called the non-stop debate." Spirit explained to them. "There's gonna be several debates where Makoto is gonna spot contradictions in. Once he sees them, a bullet will be shot and he will correct that contradiction."

"What's the point in adding that?" Byakuya raised an eyebrow to their host. "I don't see the point in it."

"For one, it would be easier for you guys to spot contradictions." Spirit said with a shrug. "Not all of you are adept to spotting those things."

"He raises a good point." Celeste stated. "And what's the other reason?"

"Same reason as the music and opening. Also to make the trials, which is more of a debate, more organized and structured." Was the host's answer. "Just so you know, there will be more features like this throughout the trial."

The camera began switching from character to character as they speak. "I assert that the one who was murdered was Miss Sayaka Maizono!"

"...Yeah, we know that part already." Hiro deadpanned.

"And the murder took place in Makoto's room." Byakuya continued.

"In the bathroom." Hina added in softly.

"So it seems most likely that," Chihiro mused. "The killer must have taken her by surprise while she was in the bathroom." Chihiro then started to tear up a little. "She didn't even have a chance to resist…." Just as she said that, the last sentence appeared in front of her.

"Oh, I see it!" Hina said eagerly. "The contradiction!"

"We have eyes. We don't need you to tell us." Byakuya deadpanned.

'No, that's wrong!' As Makoto thought that, the bullets on the bottom cycled around until the correct one was highlighted. Then, it was shoot through the previous sentence as Makoto continued. "Just a second, Chihiro. Try to remember how my room looked," A flashback of the room was shown. "With the way things had been damaged, I think we can definitely assume there was a struggle."

That surprised Chihiro. "A struggle? Between who….and who?"

"Between Sayaka and the killer, of course." Makoto answered.

"One glimpse of the room and it should've been obvious." Byakuya remarked. "How did Chihiro miss that?"

"Maybe because she didn't get a good glimpse of the room." Taka suggested. "If any."

"So you're saying that….Sayaka wasn't caught by surprise in the bathroom?" Chihiro clarified.

"She must have been attacked in the main room first, then she ran to the bathroom to try and hide." Celeste theorized. "The killer followed her in, and that's where they finished the job…."

"That much should have been obvious after taking one look at the scene. It shouldn't even need explaining." Byakuya remarked coldly.

"S-Sorry," Chihiro said, looking embarrassed.

"Well he didn't have to be mean about it!" Hina complained with a scowl.

"...Okay, so what's next?" Was Hiro's question.

"Next is the subject of the murder weapon." Sakura answered.

"Wow," Hifumi said in amazement. "This is starting to sound like a real trial!"

"Yeah. This is becoming very serious." Hifumi agreed with his future self.

"Though from the sounds of how the class trial will be like, it seems like it's gonna be a mix of a trial and a debate." Makoto mused. "After all, each of us are making our arguments on which one of us did it."

"True." Kyoko agreed with him.

The non-stop debate started once again. This time, Sakura was the first to speak. "So what was used to kill her?"

"There was some kind of sharp object thrust into her stomach," Taka mused. "Without a doubt, that's the murder weapon!"

"So the killer used some random knife they had had on em…." As Mondo said that, the words appeared in front of him.

'No, that's wrong!' The bullet was shot and Makoto spoke up once again. "No. I do think it was a knife - but not just any knife. I'm almost positive it was a kitchen knife."

"Huh? A kitchen knife?" Mondo asked in confusion.

"After the murder, we discovered that one of the knives from the kitchen was missing." Makoto explained.

"Which means that knife must be the murder weapon." Sakura deduced.

"Ohh….yeah, I guess that makes sense. You could sorta see the weapon stickin' out of her stomach," Mondo said. "And if you look real close, it even has a lot of the blood on it, I could totally see that being a kitchen knife."

"Okay, so the murder weapon was a kitchen knife. But where does that get us?" Leon questioned. "I mean, we all know Makoto killed her, right?"

"That's r-right," Toko agreed. "Makoto's room was the s-scene of the crime. What more proof do you n-need?"

"A lot more proof." Sayaka growled, looking ready to strangle someone once again. Why are they so adamant that it was Makoto who killed her?!

Makoto gave the idol a pleading look, which got the idol to settle down a little. But she still has a slight scowl on her face.

"H-Hold on a second! I'm-!"

Makoto was interrupted by Kyoko. "Let's draw our conclusions after we've presented our evidence." Kyoko told them. "Otherwise, what's the point of the trial?"

"Well, we can talk all we want, it's not gonna change that conclusion." Leon remarked.

"Leon…."

Leon held his hands up in surrender. "It's not my opinion! It's his!" He cried, a finger pointing at the screen. No way he's facing Sayaka's wrath!

"I don't think that's true at all." Kyoko stated. "I'm sure if we keep at it, something new will reveal itself."

"You really believe that?" Hiro asked in a bit of disbelief. Kyoko merely stayed silent at that.

'She's right. There's gotta be a breakthrough somewhere just waiting for us to find it.' Makoto thought in determination. 'Because I know damn well that I'm not the killer!'

"Luckily, there are. Three of them, in fact." Kyoko said, a small smirk on her face. "At least one of them should help clear Makoto's innocence."

"Three of them?" Celeste asked in confusion. "I gather that Hina's testimony, along with the doorknob being broken, are those breakthroughs, as future Makoto said. But what is the third one?"

Makoto was thinking about it for a moment. Thanks to how the investigation was organized, it didn't take him long to figure it out. "You're talking about the lack of hair in my room, aren't you?"

Kyoko nodded. "It would be natural for you to have hair in the room, since it's your room. But since all of it disappeared, it's safe to assume that the killer was the one to do it."

Hina beamed. "Three pieces of evidence that proves Makoto isn't the killer! Alright!"

Sayaka felt a little relieved at that. But she's still tense, knowing that the accusations against Makoto will still be going strong.

Once again, the non-stop debate started up, with Leon being the first to speak. "So I guess there's no question that the kitchen knife was the murder weapon." He said. "But where does that get us?"

"M-Makoto must have taken it f-from the kitchen, right?" Toko accused. "He did it in s-secret, when nobody was in the d-ding hall…."

Once again, when the words appeared, the corresponding bullet was shot and Makoto spoke up. "Okay, wait, hold on." He told them. "I didn't take the knife from the kitchen."

"Next you're g-gonna say you're not the k-killer, right? Go ahead and say it all y-you want….!"

"Damn. Future Toko is adamant that Makoto is the killer." Leon whistled.

Toko, seeing this and hearing what Leon said, frowned and looked away. Like everyone else, she didn't like that Makoto is being accused of murder. She especially didn't like the fact that her future self is so adamant about it. It made her feel worse than usual.

"Well, what if I had a witness?" Makoto countered. "What do you think, Hina?"

"...Huh?" Was the girl's response.

"Hina, I like you and you're a good friend, but if you forget the fact that you were in the dining hall….."

"I'm sure she won't forget!" Hina cried out, fearful of the angry Sayaka. She swore that Sayaka can be very scary sometimes.

"Remember what you were telling me earlier?" Makoto asked her, a flashback of Hina's words entered the TV before switching back to the trial. "Just to be perfectly clear, the knife disappeared while you were in the dining hall, correct?"

"Y-Yeah, that's right," Hina said, remembering what she told Makoto.

"And at any point while you were there, did you ever see me come into the dining hall?" Makoto asked her.

"Ummm….no, I don't think so…."

"You don't 'think' so?" Byakuya commented on.

"...No, he definitely wasn't there!" Hina corrected herself, with more confidence.

"The knife disappeared while Hina was in the dining hall. But I wasn't there the entire time." Makoto told all of them. "In other words, there's no way I could have taken the knife!"

"Alright! A good old alibi!" Hiro cheered.

Sayaka sighed in a bit of relief. "That should stop the accusations, right?"

"Okay, th-then what about this….?" Toko began suggesting. "What if the i-idiot swimmer girl and M-Makoto are in on it together, a-and lying to protect each other?"

"Oh come on!"

"You've gotta be fucking kidding!"

"Idiot swimmer girl?! That name again?!"

"Wow. Your future self is really hell-bent on the fact that Makoto is the killer." Junko whistled, causing Toko to wince.

"Y-Yeah." She cowered a little under the glare Sayaka is giving her, which is joined by a small frown from Sakura. Neither of them appreciated their closest friends getting accused.

"Idiot swimmer girl?!" Hina exclaimed in shock. "Oh, and more importantly, why would I get involved in something like that?!"

"Speaking of which, I'd like to ask the bear," Byakuya said. He turned to Monokuma's direction. "If there is an accomplice, do they also become 'blackened'?"

"So you ask, and so I shall answer!" Monokuma began answering. "Each murder is allowed to have an accomplice, but only the one who did the killing will get to graduate."

"That should shoot down Toko's theory of them lying to protect each other." Kyoko stated. "After all, if only the killer gets to profit, then there's no way anyone would work together."

"But someone could try saying that they didn't know at the time and work together anyway." Taka suggested.

"Maybe, but if so, then the accomplice would've revealed the crime by now." Byakuya said. "Or at least, give us hints as to who did it."

"So in other words, two people can work together, but one of them has no chance of profiting from it." Kyoko summarized.

"Then there's no way anyone would work together," Mondo stated. "Right?"

"But….what if they did work together, and and they just didn't know about the rule?" Chihiro suggested.

"Uggh, good grief! Enough already!" Monokuma exclaimed in annoyance. "No, okay?! There are no accomplices in this case!" He then realized what he just revealed. "...Oops! Did I say that out loud?"

"And that will shut down the accomplice theory." Byakuya sighed.

"It will definitely save a lot of time." Makoto agreed.

"Anyway, I didn't go to the dining hall, and I didn't take the knife." Makoto got back to the main subject. "So I'm not the killer!"

"Okay, so then….who did take the knife?" Chihiro asked.

"Hina seems the most obvious candidate." Celeste stated. "After all, she just said she was in the dining hall."

"Oh crap! Everyone's gonna blame me now!" Hina exclaimed in worry. "Why Celeste?"

"My apologies, Hina, but our future selves needed to point out something." Celeste told her.

"Relax Hina. I'm sure there will be an alibi for you soon." Sakura reassured, confident that Hina isn't the killer.

"N-No way! I swear it wasn't me!" Hina said in panic.

"Sure," Hifumi began. "But can you or anyone else prove that?"

"I can." Immediately, Sakura spoke up.

"That's right! Sakura was with me the entire time while I was drinking tea…." Hina quickly said.

Hina sighed in relief. "Oh, good. I got an alibi. Thank you, Sakura."

"Don't get comfortable yet. This implies that either of you could've grabbed the knife." Byakuya pointed out. That got a gulp from Hina.

"Uhh," Leon spoke up. "I hate to have to ask this, but just to be sure, Sakura's…."

"Me." Said girl shortly stated.

"...Right." Leon grinned nervously at the intimidating looking girl.

"Scared of one of our strongest classmates, Leon?" Celeste asked amusingly, getting several chuckles and smirks from his classmates while Leon grumbled.

"Can you blame me? She looks like she could take out a tank if she wanted to." He then gulped and quickly looked towards Sakura. "Um, no offense, Sakura."

"None taken. Like I said before, I'm aware of how intimidating I can look." Sakura stated, smiling a little in amusement.

"But then….couldn't either of them one of them have grabbed the knife?" Hiro questioned.

"Actually, no." Hina disagreed. "Because….um….well…."

"Just spit it out already!" Mondo demanded in irritation.

Sakura was the one to answer. "I stayed in Hina's room last night."

Several eyes widen in shock at this. "The two of you in a room….together?" Hifumi slowly questioned. A perverted look entered his features. "I wonder what those two were doing while in there. Something, explicit, maybe?"

"Oh gross, Hifumi!" Hina exclaimed, a creeped out look on her face. "I doubt anything like that happened!" Sakura merely sighed, wondering how Hifumi thought process end up to that.

Suddenly, Hifumi got hit with a baseball, drawing an "Ow!" from the fanfic creator, as well as wiping that perverted look off his face.

"Glad I found these puppies in the recreational room!" Leon said, tossing a baseball up and down on his hand. "Did you not see yourself on the TV fatty?" Hifumi had the decency to look embarrassed and sheepish.

"We're lucky that Jill left when she did." Byakuya sighed. "Her comments would've been more revolting than that of Hifumi's."

"Yes. We should be lucky that she isn't here." Sakura sighed in aggravation.

"I got scared thanks to those creepy videos. I wasn't really thinking, I just asked her to stay over." Hina explained herself. "Which means that we have airtight alibis!"

"Alright!" Hina said in relief. "Look like Sakura and I are out of list of suspects."

'So Makoto, Toko, Hiro, Hina, Hifumi and Sakura are crossed out of the possible people that could have killed Sayaka.' Byakuya thought to himself. 'Which leaves seven of us as possible suspects for her murder.' He didn't voice this out, though, deciding to keep it to himself to avoid trouble.

"You s-stayed over….?" Toko asked, a bit surprised. "Doesn't that v-violate one of the school r-regulations?"

"We're not allowed to sleep anywhere but the dorms, but it doesn't say we have to stay in our assigned rooms," Chihiro recalled. "So….I don't think that's a problem."

"It IS a problem!" Take protested loudly. "A boy and a girl spending the night together?! It's….it's….unwholesome!"

Immediately, several of them started laughing or smirking in amusement. Even Sakura is smiling in amusement at the mistake. Taka, however, moaned in embarrassment. "Oh no."

Mondo patted his friend in the back, still chuckling. "Don't worry, bro. Your not the only one who made that mistake."

"But….I'm a girl."

"Wh-?! You are?!" Taka exclaimed in shock. Then immediately, he felt ashamed. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"

"Please forgive me for such a horrible mistake, Sakura!"

"It's alright, Taka. Like I said the before, this won't be the last time someone make that mistake." Sakura reassured, still smiling.

"But if it wasn't either of you, then what other possibility is there?" Celeste questioned.

"She's got a point." Kyoko agreed with the future Celeste. "With Monokuma prohibiting us from going in the dining hall during nighttime, it's not possible for anyone to steal the knife during that time."

"So SOMEONE had entered the dining hall. Otherwise, there's no explanation as to how the knife disappeared and was later used as the weapon to kill Sayaka." Mukuro said.

"Actually, there is one other possibility." Sakura recalled. "Right, Hina?"

"Oh yeah, that's true!" Hina started recalling as well. "One other person did come to the dining hall while we were there."

"Finally. Maybe we can find out which of us did it with this." Leon stated, with a bit of relief.

"But why didn't Sakura or Hina mention this in the first place?" Byakuya remarked. "While I can see Hina forgetting, Sakura isn't so dimwitted."

"Hey!"

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Byakuya questioned in annoyance.

"Well, because….they're not here anymore." Hina answered him.

'Huh?' Was the overall thought of most of them in the room. Someone who's not here anymore?

Makoto's eyes widened in surprise. 'Someone's who not here?' Makoto thought. 'Are you talking about….?'

"Sayaka." Hina continued. "She's the one who entered the dining hall. And then later….she wound up dead…."

That shocked everyone in the room. "S-Sayaka? She was the one who took the knife?" Makoto questioned, completely bewildered. Sayaka herself also had trouble keeping the shock to herself.

"That seems to be the only possibility." Celeste stated. "No one else could've taken the knife."

"But why did she take the knife?" Chihiro asked. "Did she want something for protection?"

"Yeah….yeah, I'm sure it's that." Makoto said, quickly clinging to that explanation.

A few others, however, thought differently. Byakuya has two theories: either Sayaka knew, or at least suspected, that someone planned to murder her….or was planning to do a murder herself.

Kyoko, however, is confident that Sayaka was planning to murder Leon. The knowledge just now given to them, along with the other pieces of evidence they saw, all made her more confident in her theory. She also suspected that Sayaka planned to frame Makoto for the murder, which is why she chose his room as the scene of the crime.

She looked at Makoto discreetly in concern, wondering how he would take it.

'S-Sayaka….?' Makoto thought, startled. "Then….Sayaka was the one who took the knife….?"

"That's the only possibility." Sakura answered. "And thinking back on it, she was acting kind of unusual. When she came into the dining hall, she didn't even look at us. She just went straight to the kitchen. As she left, she said she just wanted a drink of water. But most likely…."

Sayaka started shaking a little in trepidation. Why would she take the knife? Immediately, her thoughts went back to her future self's reaction to the motive, her behavior with Makoto after, her switching of rooms, and the possibility that she let her killer in the room. Could it be….? Did her future self….?

She shook her head. No! No, she wouldn't! She wouldn't go that far, right? She wouldn't do that to Makoto, would she? But no matter how she tried to shake that thought out of her head, a cloud of doubt still remained in her heart.

Junko covered her mouth to mask her giggle of glee. Oh, the tragedy! The despair! Once Makoto finds out about what Sayaka tried to do, he would feel so much despair! She couldn't wait!

"Then the person who took the knife was the victim herself!" Taka stated.

"I'm sure….I'm sure she just took it for self defense…." Makoto stated, not sounding very sure.

"So you're saying that the knife she took….was then taken from her, and used to kill her?" Byakuya clarified. His eyes then went straight to Makoto. "In that case, you may not have taken the knife, but you still could have killed her."

"What?!" Makoto, Sayaka, and a few others exclaimed. Some of the others' also have their eyes widened in surprise.

"What?!" Was the response from Makoto.

"S-See?! He did do it, a-after all!" Toko quickly stated.

"Oh come on!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Those comments came from Mondo and Leon, respectively.

"No, you're wrong!" Makoto protested. But unfortunately, most of them wasn't listening.

"So that's how you would twist the argument and send us all off in the wrong direction?!" Hifumi accused. "Hm-hmm….you possess a most terrifying talent…."

"Are we back to square one again?" Hina exclaimed in frustration.

Sayaka's anxiety transformed back to anger. "Are you guys that quick to point fingers at Makoto?!"

"They're quick to jump to conclusions,that's for sure." Mukuro clipped, very displeased as well.

'Damn!' Makoto cursed in his mind. 'If I don't do something, they're gonna blame me for the murder! Don't they understand? If they convict me, everyone's gonna die!'

"And yet, Makoto still wants to save everyone." Sayaka pointed out, causing the guilty parties to slump in guilt.

"Sayaka, relax. Remember, we can't control how our future selves think." Makoto said to placate the girl. "Besides, I doubt my future self is going to hate everybody just because of some accusations."

'Just because of some accusations?' Mukuro thought in aggravation. 'Makoto, sometimes you are too kind for your own good.'

"Hold on." Kyoko interjected. "It's still too early to decide conclusively that Makoto is the killer, wouldn't you say? Because, you see, if the room did belong to the killer, then they did something most bewildering. And until until we unravel that little mystery, you simply can't declare that he's the killer."

Several sighs of relief entered the room. "I'm really glad that you're there Kyoko." Makoto said gratefully, earning a small blush from Kyoko.

"I wouldn't let you get framed for something you didn't do, Makoto. No matter the situation." Kyoko told him.

"Bewildering? What the hell are you talking about?" Mondo questioned.

"Something was missing from the scene of the crime that by all rights should have been there." Kyoko explained.

"Something missing from the scene?" Byakuya repeated. "Your future self is talking about the hair, isn't she?"

"Oh, right! We still have that evidence for Makoto!" Hina beamed. "That should prove he's innocent!"

"I doubt that by itself would convince our future selves of his innocence," Celeste mused. "But it would be a good shift to that direction."

'Something that wasn't there at the crime scene?' Makoto thought. The camera angled to the side of his and his body turned black. Flashbacks of the investigation began showing. 'Let's see….I remember Kyoko was searching for something on the floor….she was searching for….'

Makoto's image went back to normal as it hit him. "That's right! There wasn't a single strand of hair on the floor!" Makoto realized.

"What the heck was that?" Leon questioned.

Spirit answered. "Another feature I added here. Whenever an important piece of evidence needs to come up, this is used."

"So….the culprit removed some evidence?" Chihiro questioned.

"Yes. And if I were the culprit, why would I need to get rid of all the hair in my own room?" Makoto asked them all. "It wouldn't be unusual at all to find my hair at the crime scene, if the crime scene is my room."

"The reason that all the hair was gone….was to remove any trace that Sayaka had ever been there." Celeste suggested. "That makes sense, does it not?"

"No." Kyoko answered. "If that were the case, they would have to do something about the body itself, not just her hair."

"Ah-ha-ha! Yes, very true, very true!" Hifumi declared dramatically.

"Now's not the time to divulge in your fantasies, Hifumi." Taka chastised. "This is serious, here!"

"I know it's serious! But I need the act the part of a mystery solver!"

"Mystery solver? It looks like Makoto and Kyoko are doing most of the brunt work." Junko scoffed. The fanfic creator deflated at that.

"Okay, then why wasn't there any hair on the ground?" Leon asked.

"The killer got rid of it all, of course. To remove any trace that they had ever been there." Kyoko answered.

"Wait, then that means….!" Mondo began saying in realization.

"Precisely." Kyoko interjected. "It's simply beyond reason to believe that the room's owner and the killer are one and the same."

"Alright! That should get us convinced!" Hina cheered.

"Hopefully." Sayaka agreed.

"Then….Makoto isn't the culprit?" Chihiro asked.

Before anyone could answer, Taka interjected. "But are you sure we can decide something so important base solely on the absent of some hair?!"

Heads were dropped. "You have got to be kidding us." Leon groaned.

"He's got a point though, as much as it annoys you guys." Makoto sighed. "We'll just have to hope that the last piece of evidence will convince everyone."

"I'm sure it will. After all, there isn't anything that should counter it." Kyoko said in confidence. "And with the missing hair evidence already given, it should convince everyone."

"No. There are other reasons that prove why Makoto couldn't have done it." Kyoko said smoothly.

"I would like to hear those reasons." Sakura requested.

"Here's the last piece of evidence," Sayaka murmured worriedly. While Kyoko says that the last piece of evidence should convince everyone, she's still concerned that her class will vote Makoto and get themselves killed.

While she's miffed that most of them are so adamant that Makoto is the killer, they're still her friends. She doesn't want any of them to die.

"Do you remember anything remarkable about the bathroom at the scene?" Kyoko asked them. "Sayaka was attacked in the main room first, then fled into the bathroom, right?"

"Yeah, then they ran after her, got into the bathroom, and stabbed her." Mondo confirmed.

"And how did the killer get into the bathroom? Did they have any trouble with it?" Kyoko asked them.

"What do you mean?" Celeste inquired.

"It's fairly obvious that the killer had some trouble getting into the bathroom," Kyoko began explaining. "There was clear evidence left behind."

"You're talking about the doorknob, right?" Makoto recalled.

"Huh? The doorknob?" Hiro said in confusion. "What doorknob?"

"The doorknob for my bathroom….it was completely broken." Makoto told him. Going on his E-Handbook, he showed a picture of the broken doorknob to everyone. "See how the top part was unscrewed, and the doorknob about ready to fall off?"

"Oh yeah, that's true," Chihiro agreed. "But what does it mean?"

"In trying to bypass the lock, they ended up nearly removing the entire doorknob." Kyoko explained. "This is another most bewildering act for the room's owner. It proves Makoto is beyond suspicion."

"So what, you're saying he wouldn't break the door in his own room?" Leon asked rhetorically. "But if the only choice you have is to break it, you break it! There's nothing 'bewildering' about it!"

"Not if it didn't have a lock in the first place, and the owner knows how to open it from the outside." Byakuya remarked. "With those cases, it's pretty bewildering."

"Definitely." Kyoko said in agreement. While she and Byakuya don't see eye-to-eye a lot of times, they can agree with one another on some things.

"You still don't see? Okay then," A small smirk formed on her face. "Let's take another look at how the incident unfolded. Hopefully that will help you understand…."

'A most bewildering act. I almost didn't notice it at first, but….is that a key point here?' Makoto thought to himself.

Non-stop debate started up yet again and Kyoko was the first to speak. "The incident took place in Makoto's room." Kyoko began summarizing. "Sayaka was attacked in the main room first. She then fled into the bathroom."

"Then the killer ran after her," Mondo continued for her. "And they got into the bathroom."

"At that point, the killer had to try and bust down the door," Leon spoke in. "Because Sayaka had locked it."

"No, that's wrong!" The bullet was shot as Makoto gain the attentions of the others. "The reason my bathroom didn't open wasn't because it was locked. After all, the girls' rooms are the only ones with locking bathrooms, right?"

"I can't believe we've forgotten about that fact." Celeste stated with an aggravated sigh. "Why didn't we think of that sooner?"

"Suspicion and fear clouds your judgement." Mukuro said quietly. "These emotions are rather common in the battlefield, mainly fear though. And it always causes soldiers to lose their cool and ability to think, ultimately leading them to their deaths."

"A-A fearfully a-accurate description." Toko said with a shiver. "That a-almost happened to our f-future selves."

"Yes," Sakura agreed. "Now that you mentioned it, it is true."

"Then….why didn't your bathroom door open….?" Chihiro asked him.

"Because it was stuck." Makoto answered.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Leon questioned, confused.

"My bathroom door doesn't fit in the frame quite right." Makoto explained. "Monokuma over there can testify to that."

"Yup! True as true can be!" Monokuma confirmed. "But ya know….you're supposed to be the Ultimate Lucky Student, right? But to have such a cruddy door…." He giggled at the thought. "That's not lucky at all!"

'That title is the bane of my existence.' Makoto mentally sighed in aggravation. People would always comment on that, and compare him to another lucky student that's currently suspended. Apparently, that student's luck is as unpredictable, but much better, than his.

"But you know, that bit of unlucky is pretty lucky, right?" Hiro mused. "I mean, if that door wasn't stuck, it would've been harder to convince everyone else that he isn't the killer, right?"

Everyone blinked and took a second to register what the clairvoyant had just said. When Hiro put that way…. "I think Hiro said something intelligent for once." Celeste said in astonishment.

"What do you know? Miracles do happens." Byakuya stated, the two comments drawing a "Hey!" from the fortune teller. "Anyways, the fool does have a point. That luck of yours seems to have worked out in your favor."

"I really do wish I know how exactly it works." Makoto moaned.

'You're telling me.' Junko thought to herself. 'Even with my analyst abilities, it's hard to predict that luck of his.' That both annoys her and excites her. It could stuck a wrench in her plan at any time, but at the same time, the unpredictable nature of it is just sooo exciting. Almost as much as despair's unpredictable nature.

It's a conflicting feeling, that's for sure.

Ignoring Monokuma, Kyoko spoke up. "So the reason the door didn't open was because it was stuck," Kyoko began explaining. "But the killer didn't know that, and assumed it was locked. So they tore apart the doorknob to get in."

"Okay, but then why would the killer even think the door was locked in the first place?" Celeste questioned. "Everyone should have known you can't lock any of the boys' bathrooms."

"The killer could've easily made that mistake, thanks to one important detail about the scene of the crime," Kyoko stated in confidence.

Makoto furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "The killer must not have realized that it was my room." Makoto concluded.

"Wait, so they didn't even know where they were?" Junko asked in disbelief. "Are you sure that it isn't Hiro? Cause it sounds like a Hiro move to me."

"Can you guys stop being mean?!"

"Well, since Sayaka was in the room and not me, it would have been an easy mistake to make." Makoto said. "So it isn't that idiotic."

"So you're saying that it's still idiotic."

"I-I didn't mean it like that!"

"What?! Are you saying the culprit didn't even know where he was?" Hifumi exclaimed in shock. "That's….inconceivable!"

"And yet, he's absolutely right."

"SAYWHAAA?!"

"Well, to be more specific," Kyoko began correcting herself. "What the killer didn't know was that Makoto and Sayaka had switched rooms. Which is what led to the misunderstanding about the bathroom. If Sayaka had been in her own room, then…."

"Then there would have been a lock on the door, and they would've had to break through!" Taka realized.

"So they had no idea how unnecessary their actions were," Sakura sighed.

"Ultimately, we can't know if it came open by force or by pure accident," Kyoko began concluding. "The killer must have been considerably confused, with no idea as to how they actually got the door to open."

"Regardless," Byakuya interjected. "It was a pointless act. Wasting time trying to break down a door that wasn't locked is…."

"...definitely something I wouldn't do, since I would've known exactly why it wasn't opening. Right?" Makoto finished.

"That is….a definite possibility." Byakuya sighed reluctantly.

"You want salt on that wound, Byakuya?" That smug question came from Sayaka. Byakuya just ignored her.

"So the killer would have to be someone who didn't know they'd switched rooms?" Chihiro guessed.

"Then Makoto c-couldn't have done it…..!" Toko realized.

"We managed to convince Toko!" Hina cheered. "If we got her convinced, then the others are definitely convinced!"

"Yes. Finally." Sayaka said in clear relief. Those damn accusations against Makoto are over now.

'That's what I've been trying to tell you….' Makoto thought in exasperation and relief.

Once again, more than a few looked away in guilt for what their future selves put Makoto through. If they're capable of pointing fingers at someone just because of circumstantial evidence, what else could they be capable of?

"After all that, you don't look pissed off at the slightest." Leon commented on. "If I were put through the ringer like that, I would pull a Mondo and curse them all three ways to Sunday."

"It's impressive, seeing Makoto keeping his cool most of the time." Kyoko complimented, also intrigued by his mental fortitude. "Most people in your shoes wouldn't have taken all of those accusations so easily."

Makoto blushed. "I wouldn't say easily," He protested. "My future self nearly panicked a couple of times."

"Yet you managed to pull yourself together," Sayaka countered. "Give yourself some credit, Makoto. You did a very good job there." Makoto blushed, especially when Sayaka gave him a kiss on the cheek and wrapping her arms around his. That drew dirty looks from Celeste, Mukuro, Kyoko, and Hina.

'Well, at least she's feeling better for now.' Makoto thought, relieved and face still burning up. 'The trial, along with some of the features, helped a lot. Thanks a lot Spirit.'

Too bad the slightly pleasant atmosphere won't last for long.

And that's the end. Yeah, sorry for splitting the trials into parts, but if I tried to put it all in one chapter, it would become waaaay too long. So, you'll just have to wait for the next parts, where the class will discovered that Sayaka isn't really a complete victim in the case. Writing out Makoto's and Sayaka's reaction to that will be really fun. Review, favorite, and follow and I will see you later.

Questions and Responses section!
Q: Makoto forgave just about everyone in the Danganronpa series, but what about Junko?
L: It's very true that Junko has done just about everything bad in the book of evil, but do recall the ending of DR1 where he still tries to get her on the side of hope despite her crimes. While I can't say what Spirit has planned in regards to this, I'm sure that Makoto (whatever he's doing right now) has probably forgave her or at the very least, understands why she has done everything.

Q: Will Junko scrap her plans before she gets to see the end game?
L: Stay tuned! :)