Danganronpa: Brightmere Mysteries

by WritersMind15

Eighteen students find themselves at a wonderful amusement park incorporated in great ships that now sail through the sea. Despite the advertised promises of fun and glee, the students are soon told that if they wish to leave, they must kill each other and get away with it. (SYOC CLOSED)

21. The Lost Darling Beneath the Sands (7)

For a long while, Masashi only looked at the dead body on the floor. Though he had already accepted the fact that the killing game was likely to go on, deep down, he had hoped that they could all escape this awful situation. And yet, here lay the leader, slain by one of the fifteen whom she had sworn to protect.

Why…? Why did this have to happen? Masashi thought as he wept. Knowing that Monokuma had driven Haruka to kill with the first motive, he could not deny the possibility that one of the others too had fallen for temptation. Even so... why?

Mari looked down at the body, eyes having gone wide. Though her body had gone still for a few seconds, she had quickly recovered and soon knelt down as if about to conduct an examination. Meanwhile, Murphy shook his head as he looked down at the body. This time, he appeared less shocked than he had been when seeing Atsushi's body; at least he had already learned that the killing game was indeed real.

Eventually, Maiha tapped Masashi's shoulder. "Commoner, I know that this is a tragedy, but this is no time to weep. We must move at once."

"Move? What do you mean?" Masashi asked.

"She means that the others need to be able to come here," Murphy answered. "The only way to do so is by riding one of the boats through the river. Three of them are now on this side of the river, so it would be much easier for the others if we headed back to the other side."

"Oh… Oh, right," Masashi said, having forgotten about that for a short moment. He was surprised to see that Maiha had calmed down already. After all, it was her scream that alerted him and Murphy to her presence in the Memory Bank. But then again, a more level-headed person was what the group needed, now that the leader was dead, and they needed to go through the process of investigating and holding a class trial.

Masashi, Murphy, Mari, and Maiha then headed onto all three boats, Mari joining Masashi on his boat, and rode them to the other side of the river. Eventually, after a few minutes, the others came, most looking confused and panicking. Once they saw the remaining four, it did not take long to realize which one of them was the victim.

"No way in hell what you say is true!" Sorao said, setting a hand on his chest, his eyes begging them to tell him that this was all one bad joke. "Lady Inoshishi… Sh-She can't be… She can't be dead! There's no way I'll believe that!"

"If you refuse to believe it, then let us see the body," Haruyuki answered, who, on the other hand, seemed rather calm and collected.

The group then split off into groups, as each boat, having only two rows of seats, could hold at most four passengers. After they all sailed to the other side, they entered the Memory Bank, and the dreadful deed had been conformed to those who had been in denial.

"A-Ah… N-No… I can't believe it… but Futaba's gone! She's gone!" Faye said, trying to keep her composure.

Kumi shrieked and walked backwards, only to trip and fall on his back, tears welling in his eyes. "L-Lady Futaba… Sh-She's dead…? N-No… no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"Whoa… I didn't think it was one of the rich broads that'd go next," Sayua said, more disgusted than horrified.

"May she rest in peace…" Sister Hikari said, hanging down her head.

Red Mask said nothing, putting her hands in the pockets of her purple shirt and looking away as if trying to deny that this was even happening. Meanwhile, Arashi looked down at the body, weeping as he ground his teeth.

Sorao knelt by the body, tears leaving his eyes and falling onto the lady's right hand. "Lady Inoshishi… I… I truly thought… that we could have a future together… But… why? Why did it have to be taken away from us? Why… why… why?"

The musician kept weeping aloud as he kept his gaze at the hand. Eventually, however, Monokuma popped up, interrupting him in his mourning.

"Hey, there, everyone! Not so swell weather we have here, do we?" Monokuma said. "And on top of that, one of you guys is dead! What a shame!"

"'What a shame'? Is that all you have to say?" Haruyuki asked.

"Y-Yeah! Don't you feel sad at all?!" Arashi said, looking angrily at him with teary eyes.

"Sure, I do, buddy! I feel sad that we all have to do this early in the morning," Monokuma answered. "If you ask me, the perfect time to do a class trial is in the early afternoon. That way, we can all go out to a nice seafood restaurant afterwards!"

Mari sighed. "Leave it to you to get off topic. And besides, I don't like seafood very much."

"I will have no more of your rank hogwash," Maiha said boldly. "Simply give us the Monokuma File now."

Stopping his theatrics, Monokuma then handed each of them a black tablet. Most of the remaining students turned theirs on and read the contents of Monokuma File 2:

"The victim is Futaba Inoshishi, the Ultimate Figure Skater. The body was discovered in the Memory Bank, and the victim was killed in that same place. The cause of death was a blow to the head with a blunt instrument. No other injuries have been found."

Masashi looked askance at the file. For some reason, there was less written here than in Atsushi's file, in that the time of death was not mentioned at all. And what was up with the lack of clearness with respect to the murder weapon? Atsushi's file had mentioned that he had been killed with a kitchen knife, so was there a reason why it was made vague this time? Could it be that Monokuma expected them to do more of the investigation work as the killing game went on?

"Anyway, I'll leave it to you guys now!" Monokuma said. "Have fun investigating! I'll see you at the class trial!"

Monokuma then disappeared, leaving the fifteen speechless students here.

"Well, then, I guess we should get started already." It was Mari, who seemed none too frightened by the scene. "Standing here won't help us find out which of us killed Futaba."

"Indeed," Maiha said. "We must find the killer among us as soon as possible for our survival's sake."

"Yeah… None of us can deny that." Sister Hikari sighed. "Still, I'm shocked that one of us is now a killer! I thought that after Haruka's death, none of us would make the same mistake as she had!"

"In a way, you are right," Haruyuki said. "That is to say, the killer did not want to make her mistake of being caught."

"Hmph. We'll see about that," Abraham said.

Sorao sighed as he stood back up and wiped away his tears. "I… I think I need a moment to myself. Sorry, guys, but I don't think I'll be much help this time."

---

Like last time, most of the others left the Memory Bank to explore the other parts of the ship, the only ones remaining in this room being Masashi, Sorao, Mari, and Murphy, the last two of whom were to guard the crime scene. In the meantime, Sorao stood by a corner of the room, looking down at the floor as he kept weeping of his lover's death.

"Time to look at the body, I guess," Masashi said. Perhaps Futaba had left behind a few valuable clues that pointed toward her killer.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Monokuma File

It felt a bit weird to see such a graceful and splendid lady lying dead on the floor like it, and so it felt even weirder to have to examine the body. But at this point, he had to do it if he wanted to uncover as much evidence as he could.

First things first, he looked at the wound on her head. It looked rather severe, showing that the killer had applied much force with the murder weapon, as one might expect. Blood had leaked from the wound, forming a small puddle. And judging by how frail she looked, Masashi doubted that she had a chance to fight back. Someone of her rank likely had never expected to be attacked at all and so had not thought too much about self-defense.

"But here's the most important question," Masashi said. "Where's the murder weapon?"

There was nothing like a weapon anywhere in the room, oddly enough. Could the murderer have taken it with them after the wicked deed had been done? But if that were the case, then for what reason had the killer done such a thing?

Maybe looking around some more will help me figure out what it is, Masashi thought.

He began to look at the lady's corpse. There was something held in the left hand, and it seemed to be a piece of paper. Masashi slowly took it out and held it on the sides with both hands. The note said:

"The deputy is hiding something important from you. Go to the Memory Bank tonight to find out what it is. The password is 'Magdalena Engracia Pinto'. But do not go there if you see any boats on the other side. It means that someone is there."

"Wh-What the…?" Murphy said. "This note… It's…"

"Well, setting aside how the note's on her person," Mari said, "we can tell that the note was for her. After all, look at the password mentioned. I remember her mentioning a foreign name a while ago, so the name here's likely that same one."

Masashi widened his eyes a bit before sighing. "Yeah… It's the name of someone dear to her, to put it lightly. And more importantly… the part at the very end is a bit odd, isn't it? It's warning her not to go to the Memory Bank in case she sees any boats there. It's like it's concerned about her safety."

"If you think about it, it makes sense," Mari said. "Think about how we came here in the first place. The only way to come here is by boat, since Monokuma said a few days ago that swimming in the river was forbidden. So if anyone's at the Memory Bank, that person must have come here on one of the boats available, right?"

Oh, yeah… That's right… Masashi thought, recalling the night when he had encountered Maiha. Apparently, she had seen his boat and could tell that he was at the Memory Bank.

"That's oddly thoughtful of the writer to tell her," Mari continued. "Are we really so sure that the writer's the killer?"

"Yeah, that's a good point…" Masashi said. Last time, Haruka had written Atsushi a note because she had needed him to be alone in the Haunted Woods ride, but this time, was it possible that someone other than the killer had written it?

Obtained Truth Bullet: Futaba's Note - This note was found in Futaba's pocket, and of course, one cannot tell from the handwriting who the writer is.

Obtained Truth Bullet: No Swimming Rule - It is forbidden to swim in the river.

"By the way," Mari said, "do you know who knew about her darling's name?"

"Well, there should be one man who knows about it more than the rest of us," Masashi said. "Hey, Sorao!"

Once he beckoned Sorao to come and explained why he had called him, Sorao let out a great sigh as he crossed his arms.

"Sorry, man, but if you think you can tell which of us is the killer with that, you're out of luck," the musician answered. "Before the memory theft, Lady Inoshishi and I once talked about her dancer friend with most of the others, so essentially anyone could have heard the name."

"So it's pointless to try to figure out who the killer is based on who heard about the name…" Masashi heaved a sigh as well, wishing that it were that simple to root out the culprit with that alone.

Once Sorao headed back to his corner to contemplate whatever was in his mind, Masashi was about to put the note away, only to feel something weird on his fingers. He took a look at the back, only to start at the sight of blood.

"Wh-What the hell?!" Masashi said, startled to see its presence. Out of surprise, he dropped the note. "Wh-Why is there blood on the note?"

"Maybe it's a message written in blood on it," Mari said. "What does it say?"

Masashi looked at the floor for the note, only to gasp upon seeing that the note was in the puddle of blood from Futaba's wound. He quickly picked it up with both hands touching the sides, but it was too late: not only was most of it covered in blood, but he had also rubbed his hands on the sides, which caused the characters near the sides to be smudged with fresh blood. Thankfully, not all of it was lost, as the middle part of the note, covered in blood though it was, was still readable:

SU

YUKA

A character to the left of "SU" and one to the right thereof were, sadly enough, now unreadable, as were the character to the left of "YU" and the one to the right of "KA".

"Hey, look." Mari then pointed at Futaba's left hand, from which Masashi had taken the note. She directed his attention to the index finger, which was covered in blood. "Isn't it possible that Futaba wrote the message on the note after being attacked?"

"What, she wrote that?" Masashi said. "Come to think of it, the Monokuma File doesn't say whether she died instantly. I guess it's possible that she wrote this in her last moments…"

If that were the case, however, what did this message mean? Why would she write this of all things before her death?

Hmm… I wonder… Masashi thought as he memorized the contents of the note.

"Aw, man..." Sorao sighed, having watched the scene with bemusement. "If Lady Inoshishi wrote that, then it means you erased part of her last words, dude!"

"Yeah, that could've been a very valuable clue," Mari said blankly.

"Way to go, Masashi," Murphy said, sounding rather disappointed.

"O-Oh... Well, I'm very sorry about that!" Masashi said upon seeing a bit of anger on the musician's face. "I'll try not to do that again, I promise!"

"Uh, maybe you shouldn't be the one handling the evidence, dude. Just saying..." Sorao replied as he looked back at him with unconvinced eyes.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Bloody Message - On the other side of the note in Futaba's left hand is a message written in blood. Unfortunately, Masashi unwittingly caused some of the characters to be unreadable, so what the original message was is now unknown. The remaining characters that could be read are "SU YUKA". It seems that Futaba wrote it in her last moments, given the blood on her left index finger.

There was nothing else noteworthy from the body, so Masashi thought to look around the other parts of the Memory Bank. As it was a rather small room, every part of the room was visible to anyone just walking in. The main feature, of course, was the pods that held the students' memories. Masashi wanted to examine all the pods here, wondering whether any of them had been used, but the problem was that he could not access them all.

Oh, wait… I should just ask him, then.

Masashi sighed before he called for Monokuma, and just like that, the captain appeared in a flash.

"You called?" Monokuma asked.

"Yeah, I was wondering something about these pods," Masashi answered. "Were any of them used last night?"

Monokuma chortled. "For your information, only the victim's pod was used last night. And to answer your other question, it's the only time that it has ever been accessed, besides, you know, the unforgettable occasion we had the other day!"

"How do you define 'accessed'?" Mari asked, eyeing him curiously. "Do you mean simply opening the pod, or do you mean wearing the headgear inside and accessing its functions?"

"It's the latter! And the pod can be closed only if the headset is worn, just so you know!" Monokuma answered. "And speaking of that, it's all recorded in the History section of the pod."

"Huh? History section?" Murphy asked. "You mean, the pod records the interactions done inside it?"

Masashi was a bit surprised to hear that as well; even though he had already known about that from his one adventure with his memories, admittedly, he had forgotten about it until Monokuma had brought it up.

"Do you have a copy of her History section?" Masashi asked.

"What, you want to snoop into her private life and find out what she was doing? That's pretty creepy, if you ask me," Monokuma said. "But since you asked anyway, here it is! Brought to you by your local sponsors!"

Monokuma then took out a piece of paper that showed what had been done inside her pod. It looked unremarkable at first, as starting from 10:35 PM, Futaba had accessed the pod and had gone through her memories. But at the very end, it listed something unusual:

Day 5, 12:59 AM - Memory 7 abruptly ended.

Day 5, 1:00 AM - Pod exited

"What's up with the 'abruptly ended' part?" Murphy asked.

"Oh, you don't get it? I thought it was self explanatory," Monokuma replied. "If you press any two buttons on the right side of the headset, you can stop watching the memory you're currently on. You know, just in case it's really boring and whatnot, or just in case you hear something weird outside. These pods aren't soundproof, you know."

"More importantly, why did Futaba abruptly end that memory?" Masashi asked, who in truth had already known about that feature.

"Maybe she felt too tired to go on and so thought to stop," Mari suggested.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Memory Bank Pods - The pod's lid can only be shut if one wears the headset and accesses the program, and such an action is then recorded on the History section. Also, the pods are not soundproof.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Futaba's History - All the information recorded on the History section of Futaba's pod. The memories began to be watched at 10:35 PM, but the watching of Memory 7 was abruptly ended at 12:59 AM. The time of exiting the pod is recorded as 1:00 AM.

Other than on the day of the memory theft, this pod had not been accessed at all until last night. Also, Futaba's pod was the only pod used last night.

"Then if this is all true," Masashi said, realizing what this information meant, "Futaba must have been alive around 1:00 AM! Maybe she was killed around that time!"

"Maybe," Mari said. "But… who's to say that it was Futaba that used this pod?"

Masashi looked at her funnily. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"You seem to be under the assumption that the only one who could open a pod is its owner," she explained. "But Monokuma never mentioned that restriction, did he? All he said was that the pod's password must be typed in for opening the pod."

"Oh, yeah, that's a pretty good point," Masashi said. "Anyone who knew Futaba's password then could have been inside."

But then again, just because there's that possibility, Masashi thought, it doesn't necessarily mean it's true. Maybe if someone else got to the pod before she did, but was that possible last night?

Obtained Truth Bullet: Pod Access - All it takes to open a pod is type in the password, even if one is not the pod's owner.

"Now, then, any more questions for me?" Monokuma asked.

"Could you tell us about the structure of the ventilation system in this room?" Mari asked. "After all, because of the rule forbidding us to crawl through the vents, we can't really figure it out for ourselves."

Monokuma giggled. "Really? How do you think it'll help you to know? After all, you know full well the rule about the vents!"

"Just to be safe, I think we should know."

"So that's the way you'll play, huh? All right, then. As your friendly neighborhood bear, I'll tell you all that you need to know!"

Apparently, the vent in the Memory Bank was linked to the vent in the first exhibit room. Both vents started off as five-foot straightforward horizontal passageways, and what connected them was a vertical passageway that was about twenty feet tall. As both horizontal passageways were parallel to each other, one could think of the whole system as a rectangle that lacked only one of its two longer sides.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Ventilation System - The Memory Bank and the first exhibit room are both connected by a vent. Each side of the vent starts as a five-foot horizontal passageway, and they are both connected at the end by a vertical passageway about twenty feet high.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Vent Rule - It is forbidden to crawl through the vents in the palace.

"All right, that's enough. Thanks," Mari said before she looked elsewhere.

Monokuma growled a bit. "Sheesh! What a boring thank-you! Where's the praise for all the help that I've given you to solve this killing?"

"You know it's your fault that there's even a killing to solve, right?" Masashi said.

"Sure, sure, go ahead! Blame the bear for it as you guys usually do!" Monokuma replied as he lowered his head. "I feel so put down that I think I'll take my leave now…"

Keeping up the pathetic pretense, Monokuma then left, and no one here looked all the sorrier for his leaving.

Next, Masashi looked at the contents of her blue-and-white skater dress. He first found her Monopad, which, when turned on, showed the name "Futaba Inoshishi" on the screen before taking him to the main menu.

"Guess you can tell it's really hers with that," Murphy said.

"Yeah, I think that's a feature for all our Monopads," Masashi said. "It shows my name whenever I turn on my Monopad."

For some reason, he had a feeling that this one detail might be important later, so he made sure to take a note of it.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Monopad Name - Whenever one turns on a Monopad, the Monopad displays the owner's name.

Masashi wondered whether she might have written anything down in the Notes section, but all she had written down was a list of things that had made up her daily schedule. There seemed to be nothing remarkable in it other than the fact that her schedule had been rather booked, many blocks of time dedicated to keeping Sorao company.

"Did you usually spend that much time with her?" Masashi asked.

"Oh, definitely..." Sorao answered before he sighed a dreary sigh. "Aw, man... You know, we had gotten closer and closer each day, man... If this hadn't happened, I'm sure our relationship would've blossomed. We would've seen Battles Without Honor and Humanity together! We would've gotten married! And then we would've moved in to a great mansion by the sea!"

Sorao then sobbed a bit, wiping away his tears with his hands as he mourned his lost future. The death had clearly devastated him, but to hear what could have been was admittedly rather saddening, Masashi thought. He could hardly imagine how he would feel if he were to become a girl's lover, but were forced to be separated from her forever. Meanwhile, Mari stared blankly at Sorao, looking a bit bemused.

"Isn't Battles Without Honor and Humanity a yakuza film, though?" she asked of all things. "Don't you think that's something she wouldn't particularly care for?

Sorao stopped sobbing and looked at her with a weak expression. "Well, I liked it, and I was hoping that she'd be a bit open-minded about her entertainment..."

"If you ask me, you would've better gone for something with less action in it," Murphy remarked. "Futaba seemed like the kind that'd like those slow-paced romance dramas."

"Or maybe instead of staying inside to watch a film, you could take the girl out for a nice stroll through the park, and you two could look up, gaze at the stars, and admire how beautiful the moonlight is..." Mari said, her voice sounding slightly excited as part of her face betokened her enjoyment of that scenario.

Sorao sighed as he shook his head, his eyes keeping their dreariness. "Aw, man... That actually sounds kind of nice! Damn it, why did the killer have to take that lovely future away from me?!"

Now that I think about it, though, would the relationship have continued anyway? I mean, even without the whole memory theft thing, I'm not sure whether Futaba could've gotten permission from her father, however insistent she might be, Masashi thought as he put the Monopad back down. He chose to keep quiet about it, figuring that any suggestion that it might not have worked out would only upset Sorao now. Anyway, I guess I should ask for any witness accounts. Then again, if the crime took place at night, I'll be pretty lucky if there were even any witnesses at that time!

He asked Mari, Sorao, and Murphy what they had been doing last night. The first two claimed that they had simply been asleep in their rooms.

"I felt a bit under the weather after dinner, you know, so I was by myself the whole time afterwards," Sorao said. "I know it sounds a bit suspicious, but trust me, man, I did nothing suspicious."

"And there's nothing that you happen to have forgotten, is there?" Masashi asked, recalling what had happened last time.

"Well, if there is, I've forgotten," Sorao answered with a smirk. "But seriously, you don't have to worry about me, dude. I wasn't pulling ropes into my room or anything."

Yeah, let's hope that was actually the case, Masashi thought.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Sorao's Account - Sorao felt a bit sick after dinner at seven o'clock, after which point he rested alone in his room.

"How about you, Murphy?" Masashi asked. "Were you up last night?"

"Oh, yes, actually, and I saw something very important, to boot!" Murphy answered, his expression a mix of carefulness and excitement. "See, I was actually on the fourth deck sometime after nighttime began. I was tired of doing my painting in the arts and crafts room, and I thought that a change in environment could help, so I moved my set to the fourth deck."

"Where, exactly?" Sorao asked.

"On the platform by the stairs," Murphy said. "I headed there around 9:00 PM and stayed there even after the nighttime announcement played. Once I felt tired enough, I decided to head back to my room. But that was then I saw Futaba herself!"

"Y-You did?!" Masashi said. "She walked down to this deck?"

"Yep. She said she wanted to look around a bit," Murphy answered. "I saw her board one of the four boats and sail to this side of the river. I left before actually seeing her go inside the Memory Bank, but given this is the only room she could access, I assume she came here afterwards."

"Ah, and there were four boats on your side of the river at the time?" Sorao asked, a finger set on his chin.

"Yeah, it was like that the whole time I was there," Murphy answered. "It only changed once Futaba decided to take a ride on one of them."

"Huh, really…" Masashi said. "And what time did you see her, roughly?"

Murphy scratched his chin. "There's a clock in the arts and crafts room, so once I met with Futaba and went to put away my set, I saw that it was about 10:30 PM."

"Well, assuming that no one else saw her…" Mari said. "That means that you're the last one to see her while she was alive."

Yeah… And with no other witnesses, it's possible that Murphy's making this whole thing up. Masashi sighed as he lowered his eyes. Still, he may be telling the truth, so it's best to keep track of what he's said.

"Oh, and one more thing," Murphy added. "On my way back to my room afterwards, I actually stumbled upon a certain someone on the main deck of this very ship."

"You did? Who was it?" Masashi asked.

"Maiha, believe it or not," Murphy answered with an unamused expression. "She was walking toward the direction of the palace. Once she saw me, though, she instead asked me to accompany her back to our rooms."

"Whoa, really?" Sorao said. "That's pretty weird… If she was going in this direction, then it means she might have been planning to do something here, don't you think?"

Murphy snorted. "Whatever she may have been up to, all I can say for certain was that she saw me. If you have any doubt, go ahead and ask her yourself. She'll back me up."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Murphy's Account - Murphy headed down to the fourth deck around 9:00 PM and stayed there until around 10:30 PM. Afterwards, as he was heading back, he encountered Maiha, and they both headed back to their rooms.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Spotting Futaba - Murphy stumbled upon Futaba at the fourth deck just as he was about to leave around 10:30 PM. He saw her sail to the other side on one of the boats. At the time, all four boats had been on Murphy's side of the river.

There was nothing else to investigate here, so Masashi decided to check out any other rooms, hoping that the killer might have left something important there. He headed back outside and found Arashi standing around on the dock. The pyrotechnician had been assigned to stand by the dock to make sure that no one should be stranded, in the unfortunate case that all the boats were on the other side. Thankfully, there was still one boat here.

"All right, hop on!" Arashi said once Masashi told him that he wanted to go to the other side. Once they got on, he started up the boat by pressing the power button. The boat came to life and began to move, the two beginning their journey to the other side. In the very beginning, the boat made a very quick movement as it turned toward the other side, but once the turning was done, it began to move at a snail's speed as usual.

Why's this thing so slow? Masashi thought as they both sat back and relaxed. It was the only way to get from one side to the other, but it took a while to finish the journey. There was no option to change the boat's speed, so all he could do was sit back and wait.

Once they reached the other side, Arashi was about to go back to the Memory Bank side of the river, but Masashi stopped him.

"Hey, Arashi, I'd like you to get me something from the shop," Masashi said. "What I want is a stopwatch. I want to do an experiment with the boats."

"An experiment?" Arashi eyed him funnily before nodding. "Uh, all right, then!"

Arashi then rushed away to do his errand, and a few minutes later, he came back with a stopwatch and a few bandages, oddly enough.

"I got these just in case we might get hurt!" Arashi explained. "There are plenty of bandages, so I don't think taking a few was bad!"

Safety first, I guess. Masashi chuckled before he explained to Arashi what he wanted him to do. In this experiment, Arashi was to ride each boat from one side of the river to the other, since the point was to see whether the boats differed in any way. Masashi himself could not see how the boats might have played a role in the crime, but it did not hurt to gather information about it just in case.

The experiment ran slowly but smoothly. Minutes later, after Arashi was done testing each boat, the results were in: whichever boat he might take, and whichever side he sailed to, the boats were all of the same speed, and so it was clear that it took about a minute and a half to sail from one side to the other. Also, at the end of the ride, the boat automatically parked itself next to the dock, so right now, it was parallel to the platform.

And one more thing... Masashi thought, recalling the boat's movements. The boat makes a very quick turning movement at the beginning of the ride...

He originally had had the idea that someone could have pressed the button and tried to jump back onto the platform, but when he asked Arashi about how feasible that was, he responded with much certainly that it was unlikely.

"You could make it with much practice, but still, I don't think anyone would ever try to do that!" Arashi answered. "If you failed, you'd fall into the river, and you'd have to face punishment from Monokuma!"

Yes, Arashi had a point here. The power button was in front of the front left seat, and even if one were to press it while leaning from the right side of the boat, the side next to the platform, because of the boat's quick turning movement, one could not feasibly jump back onto the platform without landing into the water. And the boat was only about six feet wide, as far as Masashi could tell, but it was still too wide to let anyone try to press the button while standing on the platform.

Hmm, so I guess that possibility's off the table now... Masashi thought.

Obtained Truth Bullet: River Boats - There are four boats available for going through the river. To get a boat to start moving, one must simply press the power button in front of the front left seat. The boat's movements and speed are all set, and it takes about a minute and a half to get from one side to the other. The boats appear to be the only way to go from one side of the river to the other.

Once Arashi sailed back to the Memory Bank side of the river on one of the remaining boats, Masashi headed up to the third deck. There were three rooms on this deck: the bumper car room, the arts and crafts room, and the pharaoh's throne room. He saw Red Mask standing by herself in the hallway, looking a bit nervous as she glanced at nowhere in particular, her hands in the pockets of her purple shirt.

"Hey, Red Mask," Masashi asked, "have you found anything new so far?"

"Wh-What, me?" Red Mask chuckled, doing a poor job of hiding her fidgetiness. "N-Nope, sorry, I haven't! I mean, I'd love to help, really, but I don't think you guys need me—"

And it was then that something fell from her pockets. Masashi looked down at the objects and widened his eyes upon seeing it.

"Is that… a lockpick?" Masashi said.

"Eep!" Red Mask squealed, flinching. "U-Um, no… It's not a lockpick! It's, um, uh… a lockpick accessory!"

Masashi quickly snatched it before the thief could get it back. "It's definitely a lockpick, Red Mask. It's not so unreasonable to think someone like you has something like this."

"Gah… All right, all right, it's a lockpick!" Red Mask said, her right hand set on her mask as her tone became filled with unease. "I didn't want you guys to find out, since you might have confiscated my lockpicks! And why are you looking at me like that? Is having lockpicks a crime or something?"

"No, but it makes you look rather suspicious. With a lockpick, you can pick any door, take whatever's inside, and re-lock the door after you're done with your dirty business," Masashi replied. "In any case, how many lockpicks do you have?"

"Um, well… I have ten lockpicks in total," Red Mask said. "But I don't have them all on me… You see, I've actually lost two of them lately."

"You have?" Masashi could not believe that the phantom thief had been less mindful of her belongings. Then again, her personality suggested that she was a bit ditzy, however proficient she might be, so he could easily imagine her dropping something without knowing about it. "Hey, come to think of it… the other day, I saw you looking for something in the garden… Don't tell me that it was…"

Red Mask nervously giggled. "Y-Yeah… Guilty as charged. I was looking for one of my lockpicks back then. They must've fallen out of my pocket at some point in the last few days."

"Huh… Is that so," Masashi said as he made a note of it. "By the way, you haven't been using your lockpicks, right?"

"No, no, of course not! What kind of girl do you take me for?!" Red Mask replied.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Lockpicks - Red Mask has been hiding ten lockpicks from the group. However, she has lost two of them over the last few days.

The only other noteworthy to ask her was what she had been doing last night. Unsurprisingly, Red Mask claimed that she was sound asleep in her room. Once done with her, Masashi then went into the pharaoh's throne room and found Maiha standing there by her lonesome.

Come to think of it, she was the first one to have discovered the body, wasn't it? Masashi thought. Maybe she saw something that could be important.

"Hey, Maiha," Masashi said. "What were you doing before you found the body?"

Maiha eyed him with some annoyance. "For your information, commoner, I was only going on a walk around the palace. When I headed down to the fourth deck, I saw a lone boat on the other side."

"And you grew curious and headed to the Memory Bank," Masashi finished for her.

"Exactly. Much like how that one night went," Maiha said with a sneer. "Oh, yes, I still remember. How could I forget such a singular occasion?"

"Yeah, it was one heck of an encounter," Masashi said, wondering what she was thinking. She had apparently not told anyone about it yet, but he still had a feeling that she was up to something. "Anyway, what were you doing last night?"

"Nothing that warrants suspicion, commoner," Maiha answered. "After nighttime began, I headed to the kitchen to get something to drink. Once I sat down at a table in the dining room to enjoy my drink, I saw Futaba walking by."

"Wait, you saw her?"

"Indeed. It was around 10:25 PM, and she was heading over to the main deck," Maiha said. "All she did when she saw me was bid me good evening."

"And was that all?"

"Well, I suppose I should be greatly remiss if I failed to mention that I happened to stumble upon the Irishman not long after," Maiha said. "I was about to go on a walk in the palace when I happened to bump into him. His sudden appearance shocked me so much that I thought it to be a sign that I ought to head to bed instead."

Huh, that matches up with Murphy's account… Masashi thought. So Murphy and Maiha both saw Futaba separately at a certain time period last night. Even if one of them is guilty and lied to me about it, the other's account then has to be true and proves when Futaba was still alive, so that's good.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Maiha's Account - Maiha was enjoying a drink in the dining room after nighttime began. After she was done, she was about to take a walk around the palace when she stumbled upon Murphy, after which she changed her mind, and they both headed back to their rooms.

Updated Truth Bullet: Spotting Futaba - Maiha saw Futaba going to the main deck around 10:25 PM. Afterwards, around 10:30 PM, Murphy happened to encounter Futaba at the palace's fourth deck. He saw her sail to the Memory Bank on one of the boats. At the time, before Futaba's arrival, all four boats had been on Murphy's side of the river.

As Maiha walked away, however, Masashi heard something falling from the pockets of her black dress. Masashi looked at the fallen item, and at once his sight was fixated on it, for it was none other than a lockpick.

"Why do you have that on you?" Masashi asked as Maiha picked it up. It definitely looked like the lockpick that Red Mask had on her, so it must've been one of the two lost lockpicks.

Maiha scoffed. "I found it lying on the floor a few days ago and thought it unusual. Since then, I have kept it on my person, if there should be any emergency in which it may prove useful."

"And why didn't you tell us that you had that?"

Maiha looked at him with a miffed expression. "It does not concern you at all, commoner. From what I could tell, it is but an ordinary lockpick."

"Still…"

"Always with that expression of yours! Do you think that I have planned to do some great misdeed therewith?"

"Well, no…" Masashi replied, though he had his doubts about her given how suspicious she had been this whole time.

"Then there is no reason to be concerned. Now begone, commoner."

"But—"

"Begone!" She then pointed at the door, her expression full of annoyance. "I wish to be alone right now, and your presence I find to be distracting."

Sheesh! If you're that insistent about it, I'll gladly leave you be, Masashi thought, wondering that she could be ever so irksome at a time like this. At least that's one mystery solved, though.

Updated Truth Bullet: Lockpicks - Red Mask has been hiding ten lockpicks from the group. However, she has lost two of them over the last few days. One of them happened to be found by Maiha.

Masashi left the throne room and saw that Red Mask had already left. He had planned on telling her about the lockpick, but he figured that it was likely best to save the discussion for the class trial, and besides, he still needed to find out what had happened to the other lockpick. He headed into the bumper car room, where Sister Hikari, Kumi, Sayua, and Tanjiro were standing. The latter two were looking around at the bumper cars, whereas the former two stood not too far from the door.

"S-Sir Masashi!" Kumi said. "Have you found the evil warlock that killed Lady Futaba with his black magic?!"

"Ah, no… sorry," Masashi said, already having figured out how to deal with the storyteller at a time like this. "But with your help, I'm sure we'll be able to find him."

"I-I'll try to help the best that I can!" Kumi said, trying to muster some pluck in his voice, though his eyes still showed great unease. "I don't want to let the evil warlock hurt anyone else! First Sir Teddybane… Then Lady Futaba… He mustn't get away with this!"

"Wait, Sir Teddybane?" Masashi said, raising his brow. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, about that…" Sister Hikari sighed. "Sir Teddybear's gone missing."

Kumi sniffed as tears began to leave his eyes. "Wh-Where is he?! When I woke up this morning, he was nowhere to be found!"

"Yes, Kumi panicked as if it were the end of the world," Sister Hikari said. "It took quite a while to calm him down. Right now, we're trying to look for the lost teddy bear."

"Huh… That's pretty weird," Masashi remarked, wondering at the whole story. "When I was with Kumi last night, he definitely still had his teddy bear."

"Th-Then it must've been stolen!" Kumi said as a little anger entered his voice. "The evil warlock must've gone into my room and taken Sir Teddybane with him!"

"But at that time, it was Sister Hikari that had the key to your room," Masashi pointed out. "Are you saying that she stole it then?"

Kumi let out a small gasp as he shrank back a little and nervously eyed the good nun. "N-No… S-Sister Hikari, I don't mean to accuse you at all! I know for sure that you would never do such a thing!"

"Oh, I'm glad to hear that from you!" Sister Hikari said, keeping up her bright smile and showing no displeasure at all. "But I'm still confused as to how the thief stole Sir Teddybane. After all, I'm rather sure that the locks of our doors cannot be picked."

Well, the teddy bear couldn't have been stolen while I was with him, Masashi thought, and it most likely wasn't stolen after Sister Hikari took his key. So when did the thief have the opportunity to take—

Masashi gasped, realizing with more frustration than dread at the culprit's identity. Thinking back to Kumi's incident last night, he remembered that there had been one particular moment when he had not been with Kumi.

---

"Hey, don't you think that you should tell that Sister Hikari woman about this?" Sayua said, sounding unusually thoughtful about this. Maybe a few seconds of helping him had helped her realize the gravity of the situation.

"Yeah, good point," Masashi said. Kumi might be doing better now, but it would be untruthful of him if he were to keep this hidden from her.

"Then go look for her! She should still be in the dining room," Sayua said. "Don't worry, I'll watch over him. I'll make sure that nothing bad happens to him."

"Oh, thank you! I'll be right back!" Masashi was glad that Sayua for once was not trying to back out of this. Without wasting any more time, Masashi rushed out of the door, leaving her with him in his room.

---

"Hey, Sayua!" Masashi cried out, beckoning her to come here. "Could I ask you something?"

"Huh? What is it?" the cheerleader asked, accompanied by Tanjiro.

Masashi sighed before looking at her warily. "Sayua, did you take Kumi's teddy bear when I was gone?"

Instead of protesting against the charge, Sayua cracked a little smile. "What if I did? It's not against the rules here, is it?"

"Y-You… You're the one that took Sir Teddybane?" Kumi said, trembling as he looked up at her.

"Yes, that's right, and we're really sorry about it!" Tanjiro said, the uneasiness on his face growing. It seemed that he had already known about Sayua's theft and had something to do with it later.

"B-But... But why did you take him in the first place?!" Kumi cried out.

Tanjiro sighed as he thought for a few seconds. "If I remember right, Sayua said that it was… some kind of payback?"

Sayua waved her hand flippantly. "That's right! He kept pissing me off with his fantasy shtick, which got really old and annoying. So I thought as payback, it'd be right to take his teddy bear and have him piss his pants later once he saw it was missing. So during the idiot's little incident, while Masashi was out looking for the nun, I took the teddy bear out from his satchel, put it in my room, and rushed back to his room as if nothing had happened."

"Th-That's your reason for stealing his teddy bear?" Masashi said, Kumi and Sister Hikari eyeing her with shock and awe.

"Well… I do agree that he's a bit irritating with his behavior and obsession with fantasy," Tanjiro said, looking hesitantly at her. "But I definitely would not have approved of it if I'd been there."

"H-How… How could you do such an awful thing?!" Kumi exclaimed, looking a bit angry at her and holding his teddy bear defensively as if fearing that she might take him again. "I… I was so scared and confused when I found out Sir Teddybane was missing! E-Even for a troll like you, what you did was bad!"

"Yes, I agree with Kumi here! What you did was utterly shameful and small-minded," Sister Hikari said sternly. "You should be grateful that we can still resolve this incident without any permanent loss."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. No one got hurt in the end, anyway, so I don't see why you have to keep complaining about it," Sayua said, paying her little heed.

"That's… not exactly the problem," Tanjiro pointed out.

"That's because there isn't a problem!" Sayua retorted to her dreary secretary. "Look, buddy, you need to look at things from my perspective. If you were in my shoes, you'd do exactly the same thing to make that idiot stop messing around with you. I mean, even you admit that he's pretty fucking annoying, so come on, you have to agree that he had it coming to him!"

Ah, Team Tomi's inner workings, I see, Masashi thought as he watched the two bicker for a bit, though Sayua's forcefulness let her have her way around with the meek writer. It was amazing that Tanjiro had managed to endure being with her.

"So what happened to Sir Teddybane?" Masashi asked.

Tanjiro sighed. "That's… actually kind of a long story that unfortunately involved me."

"Yeah, and I'll be the one to tell it!" Sayua said as she raised her index finger. "You see, after you guys were done tending to the idiot, I headed back to my room. My first plan was to force Kumi to join me in exchange for getting his stupid teddy bear back. But after I tried for a few hours to go to sleep, I realized that it was probably a bad idea to try to do that. After all, the brat could then whine to the nun and cause me even more trouble, so I gave up on that idea and thought about something else instead."

Oh... And here I was, thinking that you'd realized what you had done was wrong, Masashi thought as he sighed.

"I still had a teddy bear in my disposal, and I figured before it went back to its dumbass owner, I could at least have a bit of fun with it," Sayua continued. "So I had the idea of hiding it somewhere and forcing Kumi to look for it later."

"And so…?" Masashi said.

"Well, what do you think? I headed out of my room and thought to put it somewhere in this palace!" Sayua said. "I, of course, asked Tanjiro to come with me."

"It's more that she knocked on my door several times, woke me up from my slumber, and forced me to come with her…" Tanjiro clarified, Masashi imagining that he had had that same look of exasperation as he did right now. "I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't budge, and I didn't want to cause any more trouble at that time of night, so I thought it best to do what she said."

The greater question is why she even needed you if all she wanted was to hide the teddy bear, Masashi thought. It was not as if there had been any obstacles in the way; the closest thing to one was the storm, and even then, it was only lightning, thunder, and strong winds.

"So what happened next?" Sister Hikari asked, Kumi eyeing the cheerleader uneasily as he waited for the desired answer to the question of his teddy bear's whereabouts.

"Well, in the end, after looking around, we decided to hide the teddy bear in the arts and crafts room," Tanjiro answered. "Come to think of it… at that moment, we saw something very interesting."

"Interesting?" Masashi said, his interest piqued.

"Yep! Just as we were about to leave the room," Sayua said, "we saw someone rushing through the hallway and heading up the stairs! It was none other than that phantom thief chick!"

Masashi widened his eyes. "Wait, you saw her? Red Mask? At that time and place?"

"Yeah! My two eyes here don't lie, you know!" Sayua said. "I'm sure it was her! The clothing that that person wore matched hers!"

"Th-That's rather strange, to say the least!" Sister Hikari said. "At what time did you see her?"

Tanjiro nodded. "Thankfully, there's a clock in the arts and crafts room, so we know for sure that it was exactly 1:00 AM when we saw her. I don't think she spotted us, since she was not too far from the stairs when we saw her."

"So once we sensed she was gone, we skedaddled and went back to our rooms!" Sayua finished.

Amazing... So this ridiculous tale had a good ending after all... Masashi thought, as he now had a useful witness account with a reliable record of the time. That the two had happened to be there at the right time seemed like nothing short of luck. And moreover… I wonder why Red Mask was on this ship at that time...

Obtained Truth Bullet: Sayua's Account - At exactly 1:00 AM, while in the arts and crafts room, Sayua and Tanjiro saw Red Mask running through the third deck's hallway and going up the stairs.

"I-Is Sir Teddybane still in that room?!" Kumi asked frantically.

"Uh, yes, it should still be there..." Tanjiro answered.

Upon hearing his answer, Kumi told Sister Hikari to follow him as he rushed over to the room at once. The good nun followed after him, begging him to slow down.

"Come on, let's not dilly-dally anymore. We'll get to the bottom of this case and find the one that killed the rich broad!" Sayua declared as she headed for the entrance.

"Uh, yes, of course…" Tanjiro sighed as he drearily followed after her. Masashi wanted to confront Sayua about her misdeeds a bit more, but he had the investigation to tend to. The worsening relations between Kumi and Team Tomi were a problem for another day.

After looking around the bumper car room and finding nothing of note, Masashi headed out and saw that Haruyuki now stood outside the arts and crafts room. He could hear chatter coming from inside; it seemed that Kumi and Sister Hikari were now searching thoroughly for the storyteller's stolen companion.

"I suppose you wonder what I was up last night," Haruyuki said. "I can assure you that I was simply sleeping in my room. Before then, I was with you guys when you played your game on the bumper cars."

"You know, I still think you should've joined us," Masashi replied, recalling that night. "It was a lot of fun! I think you would've enjoyed it!"

Haruyuki let out a wry chuckle. "But had I not stayed out of the scene, how would I have observed it and all its interesting details? My interference would've made things far less interesting."

"Interference"... I wonder why he thinks like that, Masashi thought. Is there any reason why he insists on separating himself from everyone else?

"Anyway, as the others can attest, the game lasted from about 8:20 PM to 9:30 PM," Haruyuki added. "If Futaba were killed in that time interval, then we who were in the bumper car room have an alibi. If not, then any of us could've killed her afterwards, I'm afraid."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Bumper Car Games - Masashi, Mari, Kumi, Tanjiro, Sayua, and Arashi were all in the bumper car room from 8:20 PM to 9:30 PM. Haruyuki was there the whole time as well, but not once did he participate in the game.

"By the way," Haruyuki said as he went through the pockets of his black coat, "I have something that ought to interest you greatly."

He took the item out, and indeed, it piqued his interest greatly, for it was none other than a lockpick.

"I found it two days ago on the kitchen floor," the art critic explained. "Since then, I have hung onto it."

"Uh huh…" Masashi said, once again amazed that such a thing had fallen into his hands. "And I take it you felt no need to tell the rest of us about it."

Haruyuki chuckled as he put the lockpick away. "I see that you have begun to understand me."

Masashi sighed as he took note of the lockpick. On one hand, it was good that Haruyuki had been forthcoming about the fact that he had it, but on the other hand, the fact that he had revealed it only now caused Masashi to become a bit wary of him. It did not help that the man overall came off as somewhat creepy, even if he was cooperative and willing to help in the investigation. But was Haruyuki truly the kind of man to kill someone, though? Sure, he was creepy, but so far, Haruyuki had done nothing but make somewhat interesting observations, and he had proven to be of some help in the last investigation. On the whole, he seemed like someone that would rather stay out of current affairs if he could, which was somewhat a waste of his intelligence.

I guess it's a waste of time to determine whether he's the killer by thinking about that, Masashi thought. This was a killing game; he had learned the hard way that anyone, even the softest and kindest person of them all, could very well resort to murder if the temptation to do so were great enough. Haruyuki could very well be doing a good job hiding his actual feelings, but it was better to determine whether that was true through the evidence. At least the whole mystery of the missing two lockpicks is now solved...

Updated Truth Bullet: Lockpicks - Red Mask has been hiding ten lockpicks from the group. However, she has lost two of them over the last few days. Maiha and Haruyuki found them at some point, and they both had the lockpicks last night.

Seeing nothing else to talk about with the man, Masashi left and headed into the arts and crafts room. The room was pretty much an utter mess, as cans of paint were lying around carelessly, and papers and other art supplies were strewn throughout the floor as if a storm had come through the room. But the people here certainly looked more joyful than any victim of a storm, as Kumi was now holding tightly onto his teddy bear.

"Oh, Sir Teddybane! I'm so glad you're not hurt!" Kumi said as he hugged it, his eyes full of tears. "You have no idea how worried I was for you! Never again will I let you be kidnapped and placed in a paint can!"

Ah, that's cute… He worried about his teddy bear as if it were a friend of his, Masashi thought as he smiled at such a sight.

As he left Kumi be in his reunion with his teddy bear, Masashi headed over to Sister Hikari, who was in the middle of cleanup. He asked her whether she had found anything odd while going through this room.

"Actually, there is one thing," Sister Hikari answered as she bade him look at a few containers of thread. She pointed at a can of silver thread, which was already open. "I've noticed that this can is missing a significant amount of thread."

"Really? When did it go missing?"

"Well, I came here yesterday to get some thread for my knitting," Sister Hikari said, "and I noticed that the silver thread had already gone missing. It was still there when I did some knitting before Monokuma gave that awful motive, so someone must have taken it."

"Hmm… Maybe that person simply took it to do some knitting, like you," Masashi suggested.

"It's certainly possible, and I thought the same thing," Sister Hikari replied before she looked more apprehensive. "Still, given our current circumstances, perhaps someone took it for more… nefarious purposes."

"Well, is there anything special about the silver thread?"

Sister Hikari looked at the container of silver thread. "It says that this kind of thread is special in that it's very strong and durable. Because of that, the price is rather dear."

"Yeah, with that description, I can see how useful that can be."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Silver Thread - A significant amount of silver thread is missing from one of the cans in the arts and crafts room. The thread is apparently very strong and durable.

Seeing nothing else to check here, Masashi left the room, headed up to the second deck, and saw that the door to the first exhibit room was open. He headed inside and found Faye and Abraham standing around, the room being lit by a small glass orb on a stand on each corner. He also noticed that there was a vent near the door to the second exhibit room; it must be connected to the vent in the Memory Bank, as he had heard earlier.

"Need any help with anything?" Masashi asked.

"Oh, well, there are a few things, truly," Faye said, eyeing him uneasily. "For one, we've been thinking about the murder weapon."

"The Monokuma File says that it's only a blunt instrument," Abraham said before he sighed. "How fucking tiresome it is that the bear doesn't tell us that simple fact."

"And since all the blunt tools we've found outside the second exhibit room are too unwieldy to use," Faye said, "it stands to reason that it must have come from that room."

The three then headed over to the second exhibit room. Masashi had not been here since he had first walked around the ship as part of the group's first investigation thereof. In this room lay such sundry things as ropes, nets, knives, gallons of waters, and cans of food. What caught his eye, however, was a metal bat lying on the floor, for there was a slight amount of blood on it.

"Wh-What the…?" Masashi said as he felt it and saw that it had dried a long time ago. "Why is there blood on this thing?"

"Oh, that? We were wondering about that ourselves when we saw it this morning," Faye said. "We were planning on telling Futaba about it later, but, well… you know…"

Masashi lifted it and found it rather easy to wield, though its great size would hinder him if he were to walk stealthily around with it.

"It seems pretty clear that it's the murder weapon," Faye said as she eyed the weapon with unease. "Guess that's one mystery solved."

I wonder why the killer returned the weapon here, though… Masashi thought. Maybe the killer felt a need not to leave it behind in the crime scene?

Obtained Truth Bullet: Metal Bat - A metal bat was found in the second exhibit room during the investigation. It is hard, sturdy, and easy to use, but its size makes it impossible to hide on one's person. There is a slight amount of blood on it.

Masashi looked around and saw that the second exhibit room had glowing orbs to light up the room as well. He picked up one of them and saw that there was a small square slot on the orb. Opening it, he saw that the inside of the orb contained some machinery, and what he could access were a few buttons. Pressing one of the buttons made the orb play music, much to his surprise.

"Wh-What the heck…?" Masashi said as he pressed another button, which made the music stop.

"Oh, I guess you don't know this, but the glowing orbs here also have a music player function. Monokuma told me and Abraham that it's for livening up the room, but personally, I find it pretty weird," Faye answered. "I mean, it even has this one function. Here, look."

Faye told Masashi to turn on the music again. Once he did, she then told Abraham to step out of the room and then come back in.

"Why the fuck should I?" Abraham said, giving her the evil eye as he crossed his arms. "It's bad enough that you fucking forced me to tag along with you during this investigation, so can't I have a moment to myself?"

Faye sighed as she frowned a bit. "I'd prefer that you make this whole process easier for us by cooperating. It takes only a few seconds, and surely a brute like you can understand that."

"Brute?"

Abraham looked as if about to argue against her even more, but at the last second, he relented and so did as she had told him to do, apparently sensing that it was a waste of time to bicker with her. When he left the room, the music from the orb, surprisingly enough, changed to another piece, and when he came back in, it changed yet again.

"You see now? The light orb apparently also detects how many people are in a room," Faye explained. "So it can change music if it senses that someone's left the room, for instance."

"That's… pretty weird," Masashi commented. "I guess it can help make the room feel different every time someone walks in, but it could also feel a bit jarring, if you ask me."

"Apparently, they were originally used for another part of the amusement park," Faye answered. "For whatever reason, though, the orbs were moved here and given a new purpose as lights. I guess they didn't feel the need to remove the music function, though."

Masashi raised the orb, continuing to look at it some more, only to have it slip his hands and begin its fall to the floor. Luckily, however, Abraham caught it before it could hit the floor.

"Be careful, you goddamn klutz!" Abraham said as he set the orb back on its stand. "The thing might break if you toyed around with it carelessly."

"Does it really break that easily?" Masashi asked.

"From the height you were holding that thing, it wouldn't break. It's surprisingly durable," Abraham answered. "But I heard from Monokuma that if it's dropped from great heights, it's very likely some damage will be caused."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Light Orb - Each exhibit room has four light orbs (meaning that there are eight light orbs in total), and besides the lighting they can provide, they also have the function of playing music and having the music change if someone leaves or enters the room. The light orbs are rather durable, but if dropped from great heights, they are very likely to suffer some damage.

"So what were you two doing last night?" Masashi asked. Because Faye had the key to the first exhibit room, and Abraham the key to the second exhibit room, they had some connection to this room, from which the murder weapon must have been taken.

Abraham sneered. "What I did should be none of your fucking business, but if you must know, I was in my room the whole time after the nightly inspection."

"Nightly inspection?" Masashi said.

"Ever since Monokuma gave out the motive, Futaba had been making us two check this room every night to make sure that nothing had been taken here," Faye answered. "Last night, we did the nightly inspection at 7 PM, which was earlier than usual, since I felt a bit sleepy and wanted to finish it early."

"And did you guys see anything odd?"

"Nope. Not a thing. Everything was where it should be, and we made sure to turn off all the light orbs before leaving, since Futaba said it'd be a waste of energy to keep them on," Faye said.

"Why did you guys even have to turn them all on, anyway?" Masashi asked.

"Futaba was pretty careful and wanted to make sure that there was nothing suspicious about them, so she had us check to see whether they worked each time," Faye said before glancing at her partner. "But one funny thing happened. After I locked the door to the first exhibit room, Abraham said he had forgotten something inside."

"It was one of the pens that I usually hold on my belt," Abraham answered, eyeing the pastry cook with unfriendliness as well. "It must've fallen off during the inspection. Once I had her unlock the door, I headed back inside by myself and took about three minutes to find it."

"And you were standing in the hallway outside the exhibit rooms the whole time, Faye?" Masashi asked.

"Yep. He insisted that I stay outside, and I was perfectly fine with it," Faye said. "After all, it was his pen, so it was hardly any of my business. And I knew that he wouldn't try to smuggle anything out of the room, just in case he had lied about the pen."

"Huh? How do you know that for certain?"

Faye smirked as she took out a small metallic device that looked a bit like a magnifying glass. "This here is a metal detector, which I got a few days ago. Since all the items that he could try to hide in his person are made of metal, the detector would've alerted me if he had tried."

"But as it turns out, once I came back out with my pen, and she used that thing on me," Abraham said with a smirk, "it turned out that all that I had on me were my Monopad and the items on my belt, which most certainly had not come from the room."

"I see…" Masashi said as he made a note of the two inspectors' activities.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Nightly Inspection - Around 7 PM, Abraham and Faye did their nightly inspection of the second exhibit room and found nothing out of the ordinary. After they left the exhibit rooms, Abraham had Faye unlock the door, claiming that he had left a pen inside. While Abraham was inside the exhibit rooms, Faye stood outside in the hallway for about five minutes. After Abraham came out of the exhibit rooms, Faye used her metal detector on him and found nothing suspicious on his person.

Obtained Truth Bullet: Metal Detector - Faye carries around a small metal detector on her person.

"But that's not all," Abraham then added. "Around 6:30 this morning, I woke up and headed over to the dining room, where the thirty cans of food and ten gallons of water had been transported by Monokuma. It was part of the rations that Futaba had asked for."

Faye scratched her cheek. "Well, I woke up a bit later than Abraham. By the time I was ready, he had already gone there and filled in his basket with half the given cans. Each of us was supposed to carry fifteen cans."

Masashi remembered that before the body discovery, Faye had complained about Abraham's behavior, so this must have been the occasion that she had been talking about.

"Anyway, after I filled in my basket with the remaining cans, we came here to move the rations as we had the morning before," Faye continued. "After I unlocked the door to the first exhibit room, for about a minute, I was busy turning on the light orbs in that room, while Abraham had gone ahead and turned the lights on in this room. But once I was done and came here, he had already turned on all the orbs in his room and had unpacked his basket of cans."

"What can I say? I'm a quick worker, unlike my partner here," Abraham said snidely.

Faye frowned a little as she continued. "Well, it was after his unpacking that he'd noticed something a bit unusual."

Abraham pointed at a certain corner in which there were six columns of canned food. Not all the columns were of the same height, however; one column was made up of five cans, but a few others were made up of two or three instead.

"Ordinarily, each column is supposed to be of five cans," Faye said. "But for some reason, exactly ten cans are missing now. And I even searched Abraham with the metal detector just in case he was trying something funny, but nothing weird popped up."

"Huh, really?" Masashi said as he looked at the cans. They were all somewhat small, but carrying even a few of them would be tough without something to hold them in. "How were they stolen from here, when all the doors were locked?"

"That's the great mystery," Faye replied. "Those columns of cans are made of the cans that we brought here yesterday morning, actually. The ones we brought this morning are right there."

She then pointed at another corner of the room, and in that corner were also six columns of cans, but each of them was made up of exactly five.

How were those cans taken out of this room? Masashi thought, also wondering how it might be related to the case. Perhaps it was connected to how the killer had somehow taken the murder weapon out of this room, even though both doors had already been locked. Maybe the same way to smuggle out the weapon had been used to smuggle out the cans, but he could not see why the killer, if it were the same person as the thief, would have thought to steal the cans.

"By the way, what kind of baskets did you guys use to transport the cans of food?" Masashi asked.

"Ordinary ones with lids on them. The baskets we have can barely hold fifteen cans, so the lids make sure none of the cans can fall off," Abraham answered.

"And did you guys bring the gallons of water here afterwards?"

"Yep. After we were done putting the cans in this room," Faye answered. "It was pretty annoying, tiresome, and laborious, since we could move only four gallons every time. But in the end, we got the job done."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Morning Duty - Abraham and Faye came to the exhibit rooms around 7 AM, each holding a basket of fifteen cans of food. For about a minute, Faye was occupied with turning on the first exhibit room's light orbs, while Abraham had gone to the second exhibit room and turned on the light orbs there. After he had lit up the room and unpacked his basket, however, he noticed that there were ten cans missing from the pile of yesterday's columns of canned food.

"And is the door the only way to get to this room?" Masashi asked.

Abraham scoffed. "What do you think, maggot? Do you see any other fucking ways? And I'm the only one with the key to this room."

"But since I have the key to the first exhibit room, it should have been impossible for him to come in last night without me," Faye said with a bit of unease. "The same goes for me. I couldn't have gone into the second exhibit room and gotten the weapon out, since I didn't have the key to this room. That was the whole point behind giving me and Abraham separate keys, after all!"

"So there's no reason to suspect either me or Faye," Abraham concluded.

Hmm… They both have a point here… Masashi thought, feeling somewhat keen to eliminate them from his list of suspects. If one wanted to go to the second exhibit room, one would have to go through the first exhibit room, and since both keys were in different hands, in theory, neither of them should have been able to access the weapon. Still, could there have been some way to bypass the locks?

Masashi decided that he ought to investigate elsewhere, seeing nothing else of note in the exhibit rooms. Just as he left the first exhibit room, however, he nearly bumped into someone walking through the hall. It was none other than Mari, who looked none too fazed by the incident.

"Hey, Mari, what are you doing here?" Masashi asked, slightly befuddled to see her here. "I thought you were guarding the crime scene."

"Oh, I was, but I wanted to look around more, so I had Arashi agree to look at it instead," Mari replied. "Sorao's now the one in charge of transporting people back and forth."

"Ah, I see..." Masashi, from what he could tell, figured that Mari was not the kind of girl who would like to stay in a room for too long, having noticed how she liked to move about. "Well, since you're here, want to join me?"

Mari thought for a few seconds. "Sure, why not? I don't think there's much time left, though..."

"Oh, that's no problem! I think I've already found a goodly amount of clues," Masashi answered. "Maybe I can tell you later what I've found, and you can figure something out from it."

It was then that Masashi noticed Hikari standing by the door to the lounge. Like last time, she seemed to be doing nothing in particular.

"Wh-What do you want?" Hikari said, giving them both the evil eye. "I-If you think I-I did it, y-you should think twice. A-After all, I have no r-reason to k-kill Futaba."

"Really?" Masashi said.

"D-Duh. I-It was the motive that p-pushed the killer into k-killing her, o-obviously," Hikari replied. "I-I'm not really interested in g-getting my memories back… I'm all right w-with how things are now. S-So clearly the o-ones you should s-suspect are the ones who stand to b-benefit the most from it."

"Hmm… I see…" Mari said. "Well, I see where you're coming from. It's a pretty interesting line of thinking, don't you think, Masashi?"

Sure, but if you ask me, that'd make things too easy, don't you think? Masashi thought. On one hand, Hikari had a point about which of the group would have been most tempted to kill Futaba, but on the other hand, the killer likely had already taken that into account and so might have pretended to be little affected by the motive. "Anyway, last night, what were you doing?"

"Wh-What else? I-I was sleeping," Hikari answered. "I-I can't really help you there… B-But I remember seeing something w-weird."

"Hmm? 'Weird'?" Masashi said. "What is it?"

"W-Well… I-I'm not sure h-how important it is…" Hikari replied. "I remember that a few days ago, before dinner… I-I saw Futaba h-handing that stupid th-thief her Monopad."

"What? Red Mask?" Masashi said. "Why would Futaba have her Monopad?"

"F-From what I could t-tell, th-the thief had somehow lost it a few hours ago," Hikari said. "S-So Futaba looked around and found it."

"Well… That's kind of interesting, but that's not what I'd exactly call weird," Mari remarked, Masashi thinking it more to be evidence that Red Mask was somewhat careless with her belongings. Given the thief's overall personality, he was not too surprised to hear that she had somehow lost her Monopad.

"Y-Yeah, but…" Hikari grimaced. "As dinner started, I-I saw it… a g-great look of anxiety on R-Red Mask's face… Sh-She didn't look h-happy at all that she had it back."

"Huh… That is weird," Masashi said. He did not remember seeing such a thing, but then again, he had hardly ever paid attention to Futaba before the beginning of the dinner meal, so it was possible that he had simply missed that moment between Futaba and Red Mask. "I wonder why Red Mask felt anxious…"

"Who else was there at that time?" Mari asked.

"D-Duh... Everyone else... Th-Though I'm not sure wh-which of them noticed it..." Hikari replied. "I-I bet that stupid storyteller d-didn't know about it... H-He's always so obsessed w-with his dumb fantasies."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Hikari's Account - A few days ago, before dinner began, Hikari saw Futaba give Red Mask her Monopad, which the phantom thief had lost a few hours ago. After getting it back, however, Red Mask looked unusually uneasy.

Masashi and Mari then headed to the lounge, a small room that had many golden chairs as well as statues of jackal-headed men on the walls. Each of the statues carried an unusually long staff one of whose ends was shaped like a hook and made to resemble a certain animal-like figure, but he could not tell what it was.

Hmm... I wonder... Curious, Masashi carefully took the staff out the statue's hand and felt it. The staff was wooden and did not seem easily breakable, but it was rather cumbersome to work with because of its long length.

"By the way," Mari said, "I believe that's called a was-scepter."

"It certainly looks familiar," Masashi said. "I think I've seen this before in some Ancient Egyptian artwork or something."

"If I remember correctly, it's meant to be a symbol of power," Mari replied as she looked at it. "That's why it pops up a lot in relics and artwork of weighty authority figures."

"Looks pretty long as well," Masashi commented as he looked from one end to the other. "That thing's got to be about six feet long! There's no way anyone would take a walk around with it, if you ask me."

"Hmm... Hey, Masashi," Mari said, "how strong do you think that is?"

"Uh... I don't know, really," Masashi said, feeling the staff. "It seems pretty strong, but there's no way to tell without trying to hit something with it."

"If that's the case, let's see about that through experimentation."

Masashi looked askance at her. "Uh, what? What do you mean?"

Mari then opened up her arms, her expression still blank. "Try to whack me with it."

"Wh-WHAT?! You want me to hit you with that?!" Masashi exclaimed, eyes widened.

"I'm pretty sure that any attack with it shouldn't hurt too much, but I'd like to test it out just in case," Mari replied calmly. "And even if it hurts more than I expect... well, what's done is done."

"Uh, are you really sure about this?"

"If it's serious, you can call the others and have me treated."

"That wasn't exactly what I was worried about..." Masashi said with a whimpering tone. It was unbelievable that Mari would volunteer herself for such an experiment, as if she were unworried about her well-being, or as if she were confident that she could withstand the hit. "Besides, I don't think I could land a good hit on you with it, anyway. It's way too long to use."

"I'm not concerned about that. I just want to know how strong it is."

A few seconds later, Masashi sighed as he saw how persistent she was in the experiment. "All right, then... Stand still!"

Masashi wielded the staff and, holding the lower end thereof, raised it and swung it at the girl, who slightly flinched at the sight. But upon its landing on her right shoulder, she merely let out a small groan as Masashi felt the recoil going through the staff.

"Huh... Well, that was disappointing," Mari said as she rubbed her shoulder. "Guess it's not very strong."

Obtained Truth Bullet: Was-scepter - A long scepter that is more than six feet long and is held by one of the statues in the lounge. One of its ends is shaped like a hook and is made to resemble a certain Egyptian figure. Though not easily breakable, because of its length, it is incredibly unwieldy as a weapon.

"If it were much shorter, it'd be better, I reckon," Masashi said. "Anyway, you're not hurt, are you?"

"Only a little. It's nothing to worry about," Mari replied, her voice showing no pain. "So it's certain that the staff's not very strong. That, or you don't have a lot of strength."

Hey, I tried my very best! Masashi thought. Besides, do you really want to test my strength? Even if one hit's not strong, a few hits will add up over time.

At that very moment, however, the same old jingle played from the speakers, and Monokuma appeared on the monitor.

"Hey, guys! Guess what? It's time for the class trial!" Monokuma said. "Head on over to the main deck of the Egyptian palace. You've been through this once before, so you know the drill! Well, then, I'll see you guys soon!"

Then the announcement ended.

---

The remaining fifteen students gathered at the location that Monokuma had bidden them to go to. Like before, most of the survivors looked uneasy and stayed still, whereas a few others seemed not at all worried at what was coming up.

"I tell you, we've got this in the bag!" Sayua said to Tanjiro, the cheerleader looking more spirited than her follower. "With our minds, there's no way the killer will get away with this."

"Uh, yeah, whatever you say..." Tanjiro replied.

Meanwhile, Red Mask glanced away from the rest of the group, humming a short tune that Masashi could have sworn that he had heard a long while ago from a TV show. Whatever the tune might be, the phantom thief looked far more carefree than Masashi might expect from her usual self.

"Look, everyone!" Sister Hikari cried out as she pointed at the sea. "The ship's coming!"

Indeed, the great black ship appeared on the horizon, and the nearer it came, the more the survivors' dread at what was to come rose. Once it was next to the palace, a gangplank emerged from the ship's deck and landed on the port side of the palace's deck.

"Here we go again…" Sorao said before they all crossed the gangplank.

There was the same elevator waiting for them at the stern. The fifteen students stepped inside, and then the elevator made its noisy and deafening descent to the courtroom. Once the elevator stopped, the students stepped out and saw that the courtroom had changed its appearance as well. Formerly, it had matched the first ship's woodland setting, but now, the walls were painted a light brown, the floor resembling sand in appearance. The eighteen podiums were still there, however, and Haruka's and Futaba's podiums were now occupied by posts showing their crossed-out portraits.

"Ah, welcome back, passengers!" Monokuma said. "Like the redecorating? I felt like a desert theme would be fitting this time. After all, things are going to get pretty heated!"

"I-I'm not sure how much of this I can take…" Hikari mumbled.

"Well, if you're truly innocent, you have nothing to worry about," Abraham said. "Now come on. Let's get this fucking thing over with already."

"Y-Yeah! We'll find the killer in no time, I'm sure!" Faye added.

And so the fifteen students stepped onto their podiums.

Ah… I can't believe we have to go through all this again…

Masashi looked at his fellow survivors. Sadly enough, the latest victim was Futaba Inoshishi, the Ultimate Figure Skater. Very early on, when the killing game's reality had still not been shown them yet, most of the group had elected her to be their leader, and she had promised that she would do whatever she could to stop any killings from happening. And even after Atsushi's and Haruka's deaths, she had not wavered in her conviction to make sure that the killing game should not claim another victim. She might have been a bit too uptight and persnickety about a few things, especially because of her upbringing, but there was no doubt that she had done many things in the group's interest, thinking ahead of time.

But it had all been for naught. She had become the next victim instead, having been backstabbed by one of those whom she had sworn to protect. It was such a sickening betrayal that Masashi wondered what had pushed the killer among them to break this trust. Whichever person it might be, that person had broken the peace. The punishment was unpleasant, but there was nothing that he could do about it now. All he could do now was fight for the truth, root out the evildoer, and restore the peace.

---

Here's the investigation, everyone! It's pretty long and a lot to take in, I know, but hopefully, I've done a good enough job to tell you guys all the details you need to know. You can figure out enough of what happened in this case, I think. I'm not sure whether this case is easier than the previous one, so I'm keen to hear your thoughts and guesses on this case! And like last time, not all the Truth Bullets will actually be useful, nor has everything been included as a Truth Bullet.

Like last time, I'll show you the trial seating order. It hasn't changed, but I'm of the kind that likes to keep track of this kind of thing:

1. Masashi Kousaki

2. Maiha Hanazawa

3. Murphy O'Hagan

4. Abraham Zargari

5. Arashi Seiya

6. Sister Hikari Shinto

7. Takumi Takamitsu

8. Haruyuki Kanagawa

9. Mari Anzai

10. Futaba Inoshishi (DEAD)

11. Atsushi Morokuzu (DEAD)

12. Faye Nirigiri

13. "Red Mask"

14. Sorao Mineta

15. Haruka Minami (DEAD)

16. Tanjiro Urata

17. Sayua Tomi

18. Hikari Fey

Since Futaba's now dead, the character nearest to Monokuma's throne is now Mari. Also, Tanjiro stands next to Sayua during the class trial. Isn't that swell?