Summary: Did you really think…that he would ever be able to win?

"After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you want, the Class Trial will begin!" The intercom shut off with a crackle of static, and Naegi resisted the urge to fall to his knees. Now was not the time for grief.

"Fuck…and I thought we were done with this shit." Owada somewhat gently nudged the Luckster to one side, stepping into the room. Naegi swallowed back his emotions, dropped his bat with a resigned clatter and followed suit.

"Owada-san. Ogami-san. Do you two mind guarding the body?" One among them had succumbed to the temptation of greed. Whether it had occurred before or after Naegi's own sacrifice was another thing entirely. In any case, there was a murderer within this crowd. He glanced from face to face, eye throbbing beneath its coverings. To say that he was angry would be an understatement. But that could be saved for later. "We need to secure the crime scene."

"Duly noted, Naegi." / "Yeah, sure dude." The two powerhouses spoke in unison, exchanging a grim look with one another. He nodded his thanks, before tentatively approaching the body.

A grip on his shoulder stopped him. Naegi turned, noting that it was a surprisingly serious Togami holding him back. "Hold on for a moment. If my suspicions are correct, Monokuma should be coming any second now."

"Thaaaaaaaaaaaat's right!" The bear waddled towards them, a thick stack of files teetering precariously in his arms. "My my, Togami-chan, you sure are clever."

"Save your platitudes for someone who cares."

"Boo~ Well, everyone was getting bored of your happy happy school life. Don't take it as a bad thing, one of you has the chance to graduate now!"

"Enough!" The Scion barked, releasing Naegi from his grasp. "Stop monologuing and give us what you came here to give us."

"Hehehe…well then, here's Monokuma File Number Two . I was hoping we'd be up to three or four by now, but I'll take what I can get. See you all soon, my precious students!"

Naegi accepted his copy with slightly trembling hands. "Any of you who don't feel like contributing to the investigation…I'd like you to assemble in the dining hall. Or check the rest of the school."

"How can you be so calm!?" Asahina berated, looking away from the corpse in the room. "Another investigation…? Examining the dead body of one of our friends and knowing that someone else did this to them…and you're— you're treating this like it's routine!" The Swimmer glared at him, tears beading in her eyes. "I bet you're the one who killed him, didn't you!? I saw you go into his room!"

He closed his eye, resisting the urge to punch her in the face. That particular bit of information drew a series of hushed murmurs from the more fearful members of the class, but he was cut off before he could even begin defending himself.

"Calm yourself, Hina!" Ogami demanded, an uncharacteristic harshness to her tone. "Naegi has proved time and time again that he would risk life and limb in defiance of the Mastermind! If there's one person you shouldn't be suspecting, it's him!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ogami-san…" He didn't quite know how to feel about that. "But that's an assumption you don't want to make. Everyone's a suspect here, unless proven otherwise. All our lives are at stake. We can't afford to make mistakes."

"In that case, how do you explain being seen entering Hagakure's room, while he was still alive?" Celeste pressed a finger to her chin, looking completely unruffled by the presence of a dead body. He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"For the record, yes, I did visit him before he died. However, what Asahina-san neglects to mention is that shortly after I paid a visit to Hagakure-san…I went and torched the third motive."

"and got my eye permanently scarred for my troubles." Went unsaid.

He winked dryly. "Plus, there was the fact that he was the one who invited me. You make it sound like I barged in, stabbed him and walked back out."

An awkward silence ensued before Naegi sighed. "Think what you want. But don't let your bias kill innocent people. We've got a murder to solve."

"Despite Naegi's rather blasé attitude, he makes a good point." Kirigiri adjusted her gloves. "Too many people will contaminate the scene of the crime. If you're not going to help, please go to the dining hall." Her eyes gleamed. "It'll also help us narrow our list of suspects in case someone decides to destroy any evidence they have on them." Asahina made a sound like a screech before stomping off. Naegi was too busy reading the Monokuma File to really care.

Ishimaru raised his hand. "If no one minds, I would like to volunteer to watch over those not participating in this investigation!" He looked slightly embarrassed. "I will admit, I am a little squeamish."

"I'll stay." Fujisaki folded their arms, determined. "Considering the suspicious nature of this murder, I might be able to help. And I'm not going to stand by and cry."

Fukawa was long gone by this point (unsurprising, considering her phobia of blood and other personality) while Celeste was walking away with dignity. Yamada scurried after her, with Ishimaru following suit.

He glanced up from the file to give the silent Enoshima a questioning look. Normally he'd like to have her around…but recent events and his own paranoia secretly hoped that she would choose to leave. She shrugged, shifting her position to Naegi's side. "I'll stick around to make sure this idiot doesn't collapse because he's still injured."

The remaining students couldn't help but chuckle despite the situation. Even Naegi.

Adjusting his eyepatch, the Luckster slipped into his colder headspace. "Let's begin then, shall we?"

First, the Monokuma File.

"The victim was Hagakure Yasuhiro. The time of death is estimated to be around 3:45 a.m. The body was discovered in Hagakure's room, in the dormitory. All evidence suggests that the death took place in the living room. The cause of death was a blow to the back of the head. There was also an injury to his throat. Death was not immediate."

[Truth Bullet Acquired]

Less information than the first case, but that was to be expected. Especially since Monokuma had mentioned things would get harder with "experience". The recollection sent a visceral shudder down his spine. Hopefully the investigation would shed some more light on the situation.

Kirigiri was now crouched over the body, carefully adjusting it. Thankfully, Naegi managed to take a mental snapshot of the way Hagakure had been lying when they first entered before she started moving his corpse. He had been lying against his table, as though he had tripped and fallen.

[Truth Bullet Acquired]

He'd check back with her in a little while. Togami snapped his fingers. "Naegi, I'm purchasing you temporarily."

"Eh?"

"You've got a sharpness to you that has made my life significantly more enjoyable." Gee. Thanks. "I'll be doing my own investigating, but I expect you to offer your perspective when I request it. Understood?"

"Now listen here—" Enoshima began, before the Luckster quickly clamped his good hand over her mouth. They could argue about this when there wasn't a limited time frame for checking out the crime scene.

"Understood loud and clear, Togami-san."

"Good." The bespectacled teenager smirked. "Now tell me, what about this case seems so suspicious?"

"I think Fujisaki-san might have a better idea than me, but I'll speculate." He inclined his head towards the Programmer, who was currently inspecting the door. "It's a locked room mystery. When I tried the door earlier, it refused to open. Considering Hagakure-san's general attitude and the timeframe of this murder, they must've somehow broken into the room undetected. Our dorm doors don't lock automatically, which means one of two things. One, he left his door unlocked and the killer happened to enter…or two, the killer had a way to bypass the lock. "

[Truth Bullet Acquired]

"Good. You, crossdresser." It was Enoshima's turn to hold Naegi back. "What else?"

Fujisaki blinked slowly, before shaking off the rather unflattering nickname. "Naegi-san covered the entrance, but he didn't mention the exit strategy. I may be wrong of course, but he did mention that the room was locked after Hagakure-san was…murdered. Which means the killer must've taken the key with them, and locked the room when they left."

"Huh." The Fashionista cut in, somewhat baffled. "Doesn't that mean that we just need to find who has the key to this room?"

"Unfortunately, that would be too easy." Kirigiri stood up from her crouching position, pulling something from Hagakure's hand. "The key's right here. Which means Naegi's first observation was correct. This is a locked room murder."

"Shit…then that doesn't really make sense now, does it?" Owada piped up from where he was currently leaning against a wall, arms folded. "If his key is here, how the hell did the son of a bitch who killed him lock the door?"

"Perhaps the lock was picked?" Ogami offered her own suggestion.

The Programmer immediately shot it down. "I may be more skilled with technology, but I did analyse the mechanisms of these doors when we first arrived here. They're not impossible to pick, but it'd be very difficult. Standard locks may be vulnerable to a bumping system, but these are incredibly sophisticated. It's why our keys are longer than the average one. Counting the number of teeth on one, there are two rows of seven pins. The lock itself is also separate from the handle of the door. Ergo, if someone had picked the lock, it would've taken a significant amount of time and a proper set of tools to do so. "

"That makes it impossible then." Togami concluded, nodding with some satisfaction. " Because Naegi over here patrols the corridors so often, no one could possibly pick the lock in the time between his rounds. "

"I could've been asleep though?" Naegi countered half-heartedly.

"We're assuming the timeframe for the murder is between the day the motive was given, and your incineration of it." Kirigiri pointed out. "What were you doing those three to four nights?"

"Well—" He pulled up his mental directory. " First night I patrolled, moved some stuff to the gym, then went back to walking around. Second night was more patrolling. Same with the third. And I burned the money on the fourth. There's a two hour time frame during the fourth night between me stopping my patrol and Monokuma coming to investigate. They could've picked the lock then."

"Jesus, Naegi, do you even sleep?"

"If the only reasonable period of time is on the fourth night, it couldn't have been lockpicking." Kirigiri turned to the Programmer. "How long would you say it'd take?"

"With a standard lockpicking set?" Fujisaki pondered the question. "Depends on the person's experience. But considering the nature of our door locks, an hour. Although someone could've been practicing though, and that would reduce the time significantly. Even if we consider the possibility that they started practicing after the motive was revealed, that's four day-night cycles."

"A fair point." The teenager acknowledged. "However, I was also performing my own investigations at night. I only saw Naegi around from time to time, indicating we must've happened to patrol in intervals. Taking into account the time of Hagakure's death, and the fact that he didn't have enough time to seek help, even if the file suggests his death took some time, it must've happened at night. So even if Naegi wasn't there, I would've seen someone pick the lock. "

[Truth Bullet Acquired]

"Still…" Naegi conceded the point. "We're back to square one. His key is here, and the door was still locked."

"Could someone have gotten a duplicate key?"

"Nope." The Luckster remembered his small test. "While a key can fit into someone else's lock, each lock is unique." The room lapsed into silence for a short period of time, before an idea struck Naegi across the back of the head.

"Although…" Naegi began slowly, sorting out his thoughts into something more comprehensive. "We're just assuming this key is his. The one time I came in here, Hagakure-san left his key inserted into the lock on the inside of the door. It doesn't make sense for him to suddenly change his habits."

"And the only thing that indicates this is his specific key is the nameplate." Enoshima grimaced. "So someone could've just swapped them out and locked the door afterwards to look like Hagakure just keeled over and died on his own."

Togami blinked. "Colour me intrigued. This shifts the murder from the possibility of being a crime of passion to premeditated killing. Well, all we have to do is confirm it." He gestured to the door. "Go on then."

Kirigiri sighed, but did it anyway. Inserting the key into the lock, the people present watched with bated breath as she attempted to twist it. "It's jammed."

"In that case, we know for certain; this is someone else's key. "

[Truth Bullet Acquired]

"Well, that's one mystery solved, but we're not closer to figuring out who did it. Someone still had to bypass the lock when they entered, and we don't know how they did that." Naegi turned to the corpse, gingerly stepping past a crumpled newspaper to better observe the scene. "Now for another. How did he die?"

"Blunt force to the back of the head." Owada rattled off the information they already knew. "We don't know what he was hit with though."

" There's blood on the edge of this table. He could have fallen back and hit his head. Or, more likely, he was pushed." Kirigiri began, tapping said edge to punctuate her point. " The marks on his neck indicate he was choked, judging by the shape of the bruises. Interestingly enough, this room lacks signs of the sort of scuffle that would logically have happened. Of course, that could mean that this room was cleaned up after his death. "

" No traces of rubbish in the trash bin. But there are scraps of paper on the floor, like someone shredded something here."

[Truth Bullet Acquired]

Naegi surveyed the room, comparing it to the mental picture he had. " Two crystal balls are missing from that shelf. "

"So where did they go?"

[Truth Bullet Acquired]

"The Monokuma File explicitly stated that he was killed with a blow to the back of the head. So either the fall killed him, or more likely, someone decided to use one of his glass trinkets to kill him. Ironic." Togami adjusted his blazer, turning on his heel. "I don't think we're going to get much more from this room. I'll be checking waste disposal. Someone else should get alibis from the rest of the class. Naegi, stay here and try not to aggravate anyone."

"Hold on there." The Luckster pointed out. "If we're getting alibis, we should start with everyone present first."

"Hmph. Fair enough. I was most likely in the library when this death occurred. I suppose we know where you were as well."

"I was asleep. I maintain a rigorous schedule that involves going to bed so I will not be fatigued in the morning."

"Probably snoozing as well. Don't see much point in staying up late."

"I was working on a project." Fujisaki glanced over at Naegi, hinting at the nature of said "project".

"And I was reading." Kirigiri's gaze also implied what she was reading.

"Unfortunately, it's unlikely that the majority of the class will be able to back up their alibis." Togami shrugged nonchalantly. "Especially since most of them are likely to say that they were sleeping. Well then, if that's all, I'll be going. See you at the Trial."

"...sometimes I really hate that prick." Enoshima murmured, seconds after the Scion left their sight. Not surprising. He was a little bit of an asshole. "What else do we have to investigate? Because at this rate, we'll be going into that Trial blind."

Kirigiri frowned, but didn't disagree. "We have a basic profile of the killer, at least. Possibly motivated by the money. Stronger than Hagakure. Had enough technical know-how to bypass the lock, or was trusted enough by him to be let in at night. Methodical, considering they cleaned up the place and rigged it to look like an accident."

"That's it?"

The enigmatic Ultimate sighed. "That's it."

"Shit."

Naegi shook his head. "Let's not dwell on it too much. We have several questions here, and answering them will most likely give us the identity of the killer. How did they get in? Why did they kill Hagakure-san? When did they do it? We already know where to begin. But we don't have nearly enough evidence to make a conclusive case."

"I'll start working on the alibis." Fujisaki shivered. "They're more likely to talk to me than someone like Naegi-san. Sorry." He laughed despite how heavy the mood had gotten. It was a fair point.

"Go with them, Enoshima." The Fashionista grumbled, but followed the Programmer. Naegi approached the body, feeling a tad bit ill as he touched Hagakure's cold skin. The faint sickly sweet scent wafting from it did not help in the slightest.

"How long has he been dead?"

"Hard to say." Kirigiri murmured. "Days, most likely. When we encountered you shortly after Monokuma tortured you, he wasn't there. Should've suspected that something was up. Careless of me. The body is still stiff, but we also have to take into account the relatively cold conditions it must've been sitting in." She flipped the body over, pressing down on exposed flesh and letting go. "Livor mortis has passed, so at least more than twelve hours. We don't have a thermometer, so I can't tell how much the corpse has cooled. And we're not able to perform an autopsy either." She glanced up at him. "He's gone too long without being discovered. Any sort of hint that we might've been able to glean shortly after death has disappeared."

Naegi shuddered, before very carefully unhooking the beaded bracelet around Hagakure's slack wrist. Ignoring the sensation of the three other people in the room watching him closely, he pocketed the accessory.

"Well then." He stood up, glancing around the room. "We've still got time. Let's make the most of it."