The bottle of poison that had been found by Hikari's dead body had led the group down a false path. The group had now reasoned that it was the antidote bottle all along. Since Tanjiro's killer was not actually the blackened, the mystery of Hikari's death must not go unsolved now.

"First, the killer poisoned Hikari in an attempt to betray Tanjiro," Haruyuki observed. "Sometime later, that person replaced the antidote bottle's label with the poison bottle's. It was all to make it look as if the killer had entered the room after Hikari had drunk the antidote."

"The perp's gotta be someone who touched the bottle, duh!" Sayua said. "Masashi, Mari, Sorao, or this mysterious left-handed person!"

"Let us not forget that you and Takumi are left-handed, so one of you may have touched the bottle, whether you remember it or not," Maiha replied. "All told, we have five potential suspects."

"I'm still not really sure about this whole forgery thing, though," Sorao said skeptically. "You saw the poison bottle when you found Hikari's corpse for the first time, right? So that's proof that the killer must've entered the lounge after you had left Hikari there to rest. And here you are, saying that's actually a lie!"

"Yeah, and the only way for the killer to fake having entered the room is... entering the room?" Faye said, puzzled.

"That is rather self-contradictory, is it not?" Maiha replied.

"Actually... I wonder about that," Mari said. "The truth is, I thought I saw it… but I said so after I heard from Masashi about the poison bottle in the lounge during the investigation. But before that, I had remembered it to be the antidote bottle."

"Oh, so had I!" Kasumi said. "I thought I was misremembering for some reason, but I knew my memory was still good!"

"Yeah… that's right! I definitely remembered seeing the antidote bottle!" Sayua said. "That's why I didn't know what in the world you guys were talking about when you talked about seeing the poison bottle."

"The fact that all of you seem to have remembered differently," Haruyuki said, "suggests to me that there is further manipulation going on. Someone was purposely making you misremember, and that person was hoping that you would not clearly remember such a seemingly minor detail."

"Then the culprit may be someone who insisted that we believe in the deception," Maiha said. "Was there someone among us who did just that?"

And it was at that very moment that Masashi realized who it was.

The one who acted as Tanjiro's accomplice, only to betray him by secretly poisoning Hikari…

The one who fooled us with the poison bottle…

"I know who it is!" he said before he pointed at a certain man. "Sorao! It's you!"

As the others too muttered their surprise, Sorao said nothing as if he had not heard it at all. But his intense glare and his hand that was nearly clenched into a fist were enough to fill the stead of his words.

"Sorao? Why aren't you saying anything?" Faye said, looking at him worriedly.

"Have you anything to say against Masashi's accusation?" Maiha answered, appearing quite irate.

Sorao dusted off his shoulder as if that were the main thing to be concerned over, the intensity of his expression waning. "What about it? It's clear as day that it's wrong."

"Wrong? How?" Masashi said, befuddled as to how calm he was. "You were hoping that we wouldn't have a clear memory of the bottle! You've insisted the whole time that we misremembered!"

"I should've known!" Sayua said as she slammed a fist on her podium and stared at him wrathfully. "You were playing mind games with us!"

Sorao clicked his tongue, snorting. "Come on, think about it seriously, will you? What if I've insisted upon it? That's no substitute for solid proof, don'tcha think?"

"Well..."

"Besides, had I switched the bottles, I would have had to switch them after you discovered the body, but before the investigation," Sorao said as he flippantly waved his hand. "But that's impossible. When you guys found the body and saw the bottle, I was with Faye, Maiha, Kumi, and Haruyuki in the restaurant. And from then on out, not only did I have no chance to sneak off to the lounge, but I would've needed to be alone to do it. And I was always with someone, you see?"

"Indeed... that is a fairly airtight alibi," Maiha said begrudgingly as Sorao smirked and flicked one of the fringes of his red hair.

"Wait, I know!" Kasumi said excitedly. "You could've switched it during the investigation!"

"What?" Sorao said, looking slightly unsettled.

"You could've switched the labels while Masashi wasn't looking! I've done a similar trick in some of my thefts, so I'm quite familiar with the technique."

"Unfortunately, I have my doubts about it." Surprisingly enough, it was Mari, who spoke somewhat unhappily. "Even if we suppose that Sorao switched the labels, he must've needed some time to take off the antidote bottle's label and put the poison bottle's on it. But I doubt that would have taken even a few seconds."

Sorao let out a short laugh as he sneered. "Well said! If I had done the switching right beside Masashi, I would've totally been caught, right?"

That's what he says, but… was there really no opportunity for him to pull that trick? Masashi thought. No… he must've used something to help him... Wait a minute!

"That's it!" he exclaimed. "You used the cover of darkness!"

Sorao winced a little before recovering. "'Cover of darkness'? Whatcha talking about, dude?"

"These are my own words, I assure you," he answered earnestly. "And you know what exactly I'm referring to. During the investigation of the lounge, early on, you suddenly turned off the lights."

"Wait, what?" Maiha said, staring at him in shock. "He turned off the lights?"

"Yeah, and he said he wanted to 'recreate' the possible conditions of the scene back then. At the time, I believed it," Masashi replied, looking at Sorao with earnest disapproval. "But now I know… you were using the darkness to your advantage!"

"Could he have done it in such a dark room, though?" Faye asked.

"I'm sure he could've. It was dark, but there was still a little light coming from the window," he answered. "Either way, I was facing away from him for some time during then, so he had plenty of time to pull that trick!"

"Oh, that's sneaky!" Kasumi said in a somewhat complimentary way. "Isn't Sorao a cunning one—"

"Hey, stop praising the killer already!" Sayua said.

"What, I'm the killer just because I wanted to see whether the lights had anything to do with the murder? You've gotta be kidding me!" Sorao said, keeping a steadfast expression. "Besides, no one has explained why someone would switch the labels instead of the bottles. That would've been far easier, would it not? So why the heck would I have done such a thing?"

"Ah, well… I can't deny that you have a point there," Mari replied.

"Perhaps something happened to the bottle itself, such that it left it in bad shape," Haruyuki suggested. "And as a result, one certainly could not think to switch the bottles without being exposed at once."

Sorao scoffed as he set one hand on his hip. "That's nothing but a guess—"

"Wait a minute!"

The one who said that was none other than Faye.

"Faye? What is it?" Masashi asked.

"I… I've been thinking hard about today's events, and I've just remembered something important," Faye said. "And it's related to what I said earlier in the class trial."

"Ah… the security logs…" Sorao said, looking as if he had just felt a pang of pain. "I-I keep forgetting about that…"

Faye scoffed. "I'm not surprised, really. After two separate instances of spilling coffee this morning, I don't think I'll ever have you work in a kitchen ever again."

"Wait… two?" Haruyuki said. "I remember hearing about one incident."

"What, did Sorao not mention the second instance to you?" Faye replied, sounding quite casual now. "It was right after he came back from the clothing shop or whatever. He tried to pour himself a cup of coffee, only to spill it again! And right after I had to help him clean up the previous time!"

"Ugh… S-Sorry about that…" Sorao said, sweating.

"Well, you should be! Your second mess was far more disastrous! You even got the coffee stain on a bunch of the flavoring bottles on the counter!" Faye replied, sounding more and more agitated. "And you even tried hiding your mess by putting one of them away in your pocket!"

Sorao nervously chuckled. "Once again… sorry about that. I shouldn't have underestimated you."

"I didn't think it was weird at the time," Faye continued, "but now that you've brought up the possibility of a label switch... isn't it possible that that was why Sorao had to switch the labels?"

Sorao said nothing, but as soon as she had mentioned the possibility, for a very brief second, he gave her the evil eye.

"Huh? I-I don't really fully understand..." Kumi said.

"What she is saying is that Sorao had to switch the labels," Maiha explained. "The bottle was accidentally stained with coffee, and even if he had tried to wipe it away, I suppose that some of it would have still remained."

"So if he had just switched the bottles," Mari replied, "the trick would've been given away, wouldn't it?"

"That makes quite a bit of sense, actually," Haruyuki said.

"Well, Sorao?" Masashi said, looking straight at him. "How do you explain yourself? It's fully clear now that you're the culprit."

Sorao shrugged as if he had not heard it at all. "What can I say? You're wrong, and that's that."

"Oh, what the hell?!" Sayua replied, scowling. "How in the world can you just stand there while not giving us any answers?!"

"Because I don't have to prove a thing," he answered keenly, wagging a finger. "The fact of the matter is: all the proof that you have for doubting the poison bottle is memories. But it's so easy to shape memories, abstract things, into whatever you wish them to be. You have no solid evidence to back up your argument, do you?"

"W-Well... No, but..." she said, faltering.

Sorao snorted as soon as he saw that one sign of weakness. "If only one of you had taken a picture of the scene with a camera at the time! Then maybe you would have a point, Sayua. But the fact of the matter is: the bottle currently has the poison bottle's label. Nothing more, nothing less. People ought to believe more in what they see than in what they may have seen."

"Wait! What about what Faye said she had seen regarding the spilled coffee and the bottles?" Masashi countered.

"What about it?" Sorao said, unfazed. "All I did was spill coffee, which stained one of the flavoring bottles. She didn't say that it was the poison bottle I accidentally stained, right?"

"Can't say he's wrong," Faye said. "It's not as if I'd had enough time to take a look at that bottle's label."

"I must admit that Sorao has a point," Haruyuki said. "I do not wish to disregard what you remember, but an accusation not grounded on solid proof does not stand quite as well."

No... I can't believe it...!

Masashi was now certain that Sorao was guilty, but without more evidence, Sorao could continue arguing that they had simply remembered things wrongly. And yet, despite having managed to convince the others that the bottle was not strong enough evidence, Sorao himself showed few signs of glee. Rather, he seemed to be thinking about something, glancing slightly downwards with a focused expression.

What the...? Masashi thought. Just what is he plotting?

"But you're the only suspect left, aren't you, Sorao?" Kasumi said. "That's what all our logic says!"

"Logic...? Come on, girl, think for a moment! Doesn't that mean the logic is wrong?" Sorao said, looking back up at her and speaking with a somewhat unenthusiastic voice. "I had gone along with it since it made the most sense, but in the end, there's nothing that proves that I was Tanjiro's accomplice, is there?"

Nonstop Debate

"Come on, admit it already," Sorao began. "Other than a few fuzzy memories, there's nothing that shows I am the accomplice."

"That's what you say, but we should look over everything the accomplice did," Mari said. "First, the accomplice secretly poisoned Hikari."

"I don't see anything on the label that points specifically to Sorao, though," Faye said.

"We also know for sure that Tanjiro and the accomplice had to move Hikari from the music room to the staff lounge," Haruyuki said. "Perhaps you left something behind on her corpse."

"Or perhaps he never touched the body, but made sure that Tanjiro could carry it unnoticed," Mari said. "Perhaps he acted as a watchman and helped Tanjiro sneak past the clothing shop."

"You mean, while Masashi, Sayua, and I were there trying out clothes?" Kasumi said. "Come to think of it, none of us ever saw Tanjiro."

"So what if you didn't? That doesn't point to me," Sorao said, waving his hand dismissively. "There's nothing that shows that I helped him carry the body unnoticed."

"Then what about the creation of the locked room mystery in the staff lounge, where Hikari died?" Maiha said. "Did Sorao leave anything behind?"

"You're turning to that? Don't be ridiculous," Sorao said. "You have no proof I helped create the locked room."

Truth Bullet Chosen (Refute): Clothing Shop Episode

No, that's wrong!

"Sorao… I understand now," Masashi said. "I understand the true meaning behind that one moment."

"Explain yourself, dude," Sorao said, shooting him a sidelong glance. "I've no idea what you're talking about."

"It's very simple," he answered. "Tanjiro knew for sure that none of us would spot him. And it's all thanks to you."

"Wh-What?"

"I know you haven't forgotten. At one point, you entered the clothing shop and… showed off," Masashi answered, begrudgingly recalling that one moment.

"Oh, yeah, that fanservice moment!" Kasumi said. "I still remember it…. Wait a minute. If you're bringing it up, then…"

"I think it's quite clear what the purpose of that moment was," Masashi said gravely. "Namely, he intended to distract us."

"Distract us?!" Sayua said. "You mean, he didn't want us to leave?"

"Yes, I think Tanjiro and Sorao realized that one of us might look out the clothing shop and spot them with the body," he explained. "So Sorao came up with a way to make sure that we should pay no attention to what was outside."

"I can't believe it!" Kasumi said, looking utterly aghast. "All this time, his fanservice was evil fanservice all along!"

"Hmm. 'Evil fanservice'... I never imagined that I should hear such a phrase," Haruyuki remarked blankly as he adjusted his gray scarf.

"And isn't that simply called 'seduction', anyway?" Faye said.

"In any case... it makes sense how Tanjiro could easily move the body without having to risk being spotted," Mari said. "He had an accomplice to act as a distraction. That explains Sorao's seemingly odd decision to suddenly show off."

"Coincidence!" Sorao said, looking rattled. "You can't prove that I did that as a distraction... It was horseplay, that's all. You're not going to condemn me on a fanservice moment, are you?"

"You say that, but you have twice been implicated in rather suspicious circumstances," Maiha pointed out. "I should be a fool if I saw no pattern here."

"Indeed," Haruyuki said. "It's beyond clear that you are involved in this case, Sorao."

As the others uttered their agreement, Sorao ground his teeth and looked to the side as if in shame. The sight of his displeasure gave Masashi a little glee, now that things were no longer going in Sorao's direction.

"This time, Sorao, you can't talk your way out of this!" Masashi said. "We all remember that moment clearly, and the timing of that moment is far too coincidental—"

"You're way off-key."

Sorao interjected, looking a little bothered, though much of his composure still remained.

"You can't just call me an accomplice and call it a day, you know," he said. "You still haven't answered all the questions yet."

"But what am I missing?" Masashi said. "What you did happens to be when Tanjiro needed to carry the body while not getting caught! No one believes it's a coincidence, and we all believe you're connected to the case!"

"Even so, you can't just deem me that and call it the end of the day, you know," Sorao retorted. "You've forgotten one important thing."

Rebuttal Showdown: Sorao Mineta

"Tanjiro and I… We knew each other before this killing game," Sorao began.

"But even though I thought highly of him, we weren't exactly on good terms, you know?

"He wasn't really fond of me, you see.

"And I'm sure you noticed it. How could you not?

"So there's no way that he'd turn to me as his accomplice, don't you think?"

"True, I don't think you'd be among Tanjiro's top choices for an accomplice," Masashi said. "But what if he had something that changed the situation?"

"'Change the situation'? I have no idea what you're talking about, dude!" Sorao retorted.

"He had nothing to bribe me with.

"And nothing to threaten me with, too.

"And I certainly wouldn't help him just because we'd known each other since childhood.

"So take back your accusation now, will you?"

Truth Bullet Chosen: Pink Camera

I'll cut through your words!

"Sorao… I don't like to think about this, but Tanjiro definitely had something incriminating, didn't he?" Masashi said. "Do you remember the pink camera we found on Tanjiro's person?"

"You mean the camera with that picture of Arashi preparing his murder scheme?" Sorao said. "Yeah, of course I do. I still can't believe that Tanjiro acted as his accomplice, dude."

"Actually… I wonder about that," he said. "It's true that this camera was found on Tanjiro, but…"

"It doesn't mean that it's his," Mari added, sounding unsurprised. It seemed that she had reached the same conclusion earlier.

"Wait a minute… Are you saying that the camera is actually Sorao's?!" Kasumi said. "Then that'd mean that he was Arashi's accomplice instead!"

"But why would Tanjiro have Sorao's camera in the first place?" Faye asked.

"Oh, I know!" Sayua said as she slammed her podium excitedly. "I remember that moment! Before today's breakfast, Tanjiro and Sorao bumped into each other, and they dropped their cameras! That must've been when the switcheroo happened!"

"Oh, yeah, that happened!" Kasumi said, gaping. "Can't believe that moment was more important than I thought!"

Kumi gasped as he tightened his grip on his teddy bear. "W-Wait, doesn't it mean that the camera Sir Sorao has right now is actually Tanjiro's?"

"Yes, that sounds about right," Mari said. "Sorao, could you please let us look at your camera? If the camera on your person is yours, then you have no reason to decline."

To Masashi's surprise, however, Sorao sneered as he took his pink camera from his pocket.

"Go ahead. Look as much as you want," he said as he waved it around. "You'll not find much to look at, though. You see, last night, I got tired of my photos, so I decided to delete every last one of them."

"You what?!" Sayua said. "You deleted Tanjiro's photos?!"

"No, I deleted my photos. Listen carefully, will you?" he said as he looked at her with a condescending and haughty look.

Oh, no, I should've known… Masashi thought as the excitement on his face waned. He must've deleted all the photos on Tanjiro's camera to hide the fact that the camera is his...

"Since it's pointless to examine the camera in Sorao's hands," Mari said, "we simply need to turn to the remaining camera, which is in Masashi's hands. Perhaps there's something in it that proves that it actually belongs to Sorao."

Sorao looked unmoved at her proposal. "Go ahead. I'm sure that nothing in that camera points to me as its true owner."

Masashi then turned on the camera that he was sure belonged to Sorao, and began to surf through the photos.

Drat… nothing in these photos comes off as suspicious… most of the photos are of the scenery... Masashi thought. Wait… This photo… Isn't it...?

"Everyone... please look at this."

Masashi then shifted to that photo and showed everyone else the camera.

"Wh-What…?" Kumi said. "I-Is that… a picture of me?"

Yes, it was a picture of him sleeping in his bed. The picture itself had absolutely nothing that stood out. Indeed, it would not look too out of place in a parent's scrapbook. But that itself was not the problem. He had noticed this photo during the investigation, but only now did he find it unusual for one reason.

"There's something you must recall," Masashi explained. "A few days ago, you failed to be present for breakfast, so out of concern, Mari, Sorao, Tanjiro, Haruyuki, and I headed over to your room. During that one moment, one of us decided to take a picture of you."

Something soon snapped him out of his train of thought, however. It was the click of a camera, and Sorao was holding a small pink camera and snapping a few shots.

"Um, what are you doing?" Masashi asked.

"I'm just taking a few pictures of the little fellow," Sorao said amusedly. "I think he looks a bit adorable while going on about fairies."

"That camera… Did you get that at the arcade's shop?" Tanjiro asked, looking askance at him. "I have the same model camera."

Sorao nodded. "Yep, I got this a few days ago. I wanted to take a few pictures of this place. Sure, this experience's been rather harrowing, but it's good to have a memento of my time here."

Sorao widened his eyes as he ground his teeth again. "You... You remember that?"

"That's right..." Masashi said as he looked at the photo and the details listed about it. "And if I take a look at the timestamp… ah, yes, it perfectly matches that day!"

"So there's no doubt, then," Mari responded. "Sorao, you took a photo of Kumi with your camera. But then why does this camera have the photo if it's not yours?"

Sorao said nothing, and this was the first time in the trial when he truly looked speechless rather than purposely ignoring everyone else.

"Wait, if that's actually Sorao's camera, it means that he was Arashi's accomplice," Faye said. "But why? Why would he secretly help Arashi in the first place?"

"Yeah, I don't get it, either!" Kasumi said. "It would be one thing if the last case's motive had been this case's… but there was no accomplice bonus back then! Sorao wouldn't have been able to escape with him even if he had gotten away with it!"

Yes, it's weird... Masashi thought. Think…! Why would Sorao go out of his way to hide his involvement in the crime?

Hangman's Gambit

Question: What did Sorao seek to accomplish by helping Arashi?

?-?-?-? ?-?-?-?-?-?-?

Wait a minute...

K-I-?-? ?-?-?-?-?-?-?

Arashi didn't intend for any particular person as his victim, did he?

K-I-L-L ?-?-?-?-?-?-?

All he needed was someone to stand in the shooter's line of fire.

K-I-L-L T-A-N-?-?-?-?

Sorao must've realized it…

K-I-L-L T-A-N-J-I-R-O

And he saw it as an opportunity to get rid of his target!

KILL TANJIRO

"I can't believe it…" Masashi uttered. "Sorao… how could you do such a thing?"

Sorao said nothing, but the lack of befuddlement on his face suggested that he already knew what Masashi was about to say.

"I should've realized it earlier…" he continued. "During the previous investigation, Tanjiro said something that wasn't important at that time… but now I know the true meaning behind it."

Masashi turned around at once, looking him in the eye. "Tanjiro! You came in here earlier with Sister Hikari?"

"O-Oh, yeah… You don't know what happened after we split up," Tanjiro replied. "Our group—Sorao, Maiha, Sister Hikari, Kasumi, and I—headed down to this deck. It was then that Sorao suggested that we split up to cover more ground."

"He did?"

Tanjiro nodded, his expression looking rather troubled. "I didn't really have in mind any particular location to check out, so I absent-mindedly mentioned the storage rooms as a possible place of interest. But as soon as I said that, Sorao insisted that I go check them. It was kind of weird... but I didn't really think much of it at the time. Afterwards, I asked Sister Hikari to accompany me."

Maiha let out a small gasp, her countenance full of astonishment and shock. "Don't tell me… that fool… He deliberately did that to…"

Masashi nodded. "He purposely split the group up and then had Tanjiro go to that room for one purpose… It was to make sure that Tanjiro would fall victim to Arashi's trap."

The others gasped at the ghastly revelation.

"I can't fucking believe it!" Sayua said, leaning out of her podium as she set both hands on it. "You've been manipulating us for that fucking long?!"

"And that's the truth you've been hiding from us?!" Faye said.

"No… That's..." Sorao said, his subdued displeasure waxing.

"Unfortunately for him, his secret assistance was all for naught," Haruyuki said. "He must've been quite angry to see that Arashi had wound up killing the 'wrong' person."

"Well, Sorao?" Masashi said with utmost graveness. "What do you have to say to yourself?"

"I-I… Ah..."

His stuttering lasted only a few more seconds, however, and eventually, Sorao stopped. The others said nothing at first, waiting for a response, but he would not say anything. But just as Masashi thought to ask him again, Sorao let out a long sigh and brushed his hand through the fringes of his red hair.

"Well... I have to say, I'm amazed that you've come this far."

Though he faced no one in particular, it was clear that he was speaking to Masashi.

"I guess that's only natural. You want the truth so desperately, don't you? You've been yammering nonstop about it.

"But you know, it's so annoying to hear you speak while you play the hero.

"You truly have no idea how grating your words are to my ears.

"I think it's only right... that I silence you once and for all."

At once, Sorao's rather tired expression disappeared, and what was in its stead could only be called wicked. His smile bore an air of serenity, but the way in which it was bent removed all possible relief upon its sight. His eyes narrowed down at his target with such sternness and exactness as a beast might have upon eyeing its prey. Even his posture was different, for he now stood fully straight, one hand rested on his hip, and this difference, though small, gave him a great presence.

"You've interfered with me long enough!" he declared, displeasure evident in his voice, yet something about it gave the impression of glee as well. "If only I had known how much of a thorn you are, then I should've had Arashi kill you instead!"

"S-Sorao!" Faye said. "Wh-What's happened to you...?"

"It's no mystery at this point," Mari answered. "What you see there is Sorao Mineta's hidden side... a side that the world was never meant to know."

Kasumi gasped. "Sorao! So you admit it! You were Arashi's accomplice!"

"Oh, yes, it's true!"

Sorao let out a short laugh as he confidently beat his chest with a fist. "It was I who found out about Arashi's murder scheme and tried to exploit it to kill Tanjiro! Now that you know my secret, I see no reason for playing the fool anymore, so go on, celebrate the truth that you so wanted to hear!"

"I had my suspicions about you... but I never expected you to be so... brazen," Maiha said.

"Yes... quite a revelation," Haruyuki said, sounding breathless.

Not looking frightened at all, however, Sayua cracked her knuckles as she glared at him. "Good fucking thing you've admitted to it so freely! Now let me go ahead and break every last fucking bone of yours!"

"Hey, no violence allowed in my courtroom!" Monokuma interjected. "Only I can break your bones whenever I feel like it!"

Sorao clicked his tongue as he wagged his finger. "Setting aside all mentions of bone-breaking, you'll be disappointed to learn that I am not the culprit of this case."

"You're not?" Mari said, furrowing her brow. "Then who is?"

Instead of answering her with words, the man raised his hand slowly and pointed his finger at a certain person.

"N-No... It can't be me!"

It was none other than Kumi himself.

"Yes, it's you, little fellow," Sorao said, smiling. "You're the one behind Hikari's death."

"W-Wait a minute!" Kasumi said. "Are you confused?! Kumi killed Tanjiro, not Hikari!"

Most of the others too let out cries of skepticism and surprise, but Sorao looked not at all deterred as a soft cackle slipped from his lips.

"There's no mistake at all, rest assured. He's responsible for both deaths," he answered. "And what's more, he and I were, how shall I put this... partners in crime."

What...?

Masashi said nothing, nor did the others at Sorao's incredible claim.

"Explain yourself," Mari asked a few seconds later. "Are you confessing to being his accomplice?"

"Yes... and no," Sorao said cryptically. "Let me explain.

"Last night, I went over to Kumi's room, wanting to see how he was doing after the whole episode in the dining room," he began. "He was weeping and breaking down... to the point that he didn't want to keep playing this killing game anymore. I sensed that desire oozing from him... and once I revealed my guess, he confessed to it and wanted me to help him escape."

"I... I did?" Kumi said.

"Yes, but I didn't sign your contract at that time. I wasn't willing to commit myself to such a venture unless you yourself did the deed. You agreed to it, and we agreed to kill Tanjiro sometime later.

"But something happened that I hadn't expected," Sorao continued, lowering his voice. "You ended up planning to betray me."

"Betray you?" Masashi said.

"Have you forgotten? His contract!" he answered, glaring at Masashi with a frown. "After I left the room, he must've prepared copies of his contract to deceive everyone, including me. He never intended to escape with me but with Hikari!"

"That's right! Kumi had Hikari unknowingly sign his contract with the carbon paper trick!" Kasumi added.

"I didn't know anything about it at the time, though," Sorao replied before glancing to the side. "In any case, we hadn't made any plans for our scheme to kill Tanjiro, but Kumi acted anyway, following his own scheme. After he had Hikari sign his contract, he went to the upper theater room at 8:20 AM, as you know from the security log... but this was all to deceive the security system and make it look as if he were in the room the whole time. In actuality, he was planning to find Tanjiro and kill him. He crept through the vent to the staff lounge and headed down to the music room.

"But that was when he stumbled upon something unexpected! He saw Tanjiro standing over Hikari's body, a club in his hands! Tanjiro noticed him, but had not the heart to kill him. Instead, he demanded that Kumi become his accomplice and aid him in hiding the crime! Naturally, Kumi agreed. Tanjiro left the music room not only to make a copy of his contract, but also to get the red curtain to clean up the blood. It was then that Kumi secretly poisoned Hikari, seeing that there was no saving her. He didn't want to escape this place with Tanjiro alive, of course, so if he should succeed, Kumi would escape only by himself.

"And this is where I come in." Sorao haughtily set a hand on his chest as if to emphasize his presence. "At that moment, I stumbled upon the scene and heard from Kumi what had happened, including what Tanjiro was planning to do. I saw a golden opportunity and told Kumi that I would help him. Then I signed his contract... at least, I thought I did. When I touched it, it felt a bit odd. At the time, I simply thought that some of our contracts were simply like that. But in actuality, it was one of Kumi's fake contracts. Of course, I didn't know anything about it at the moment.

"Now, before Tanjiro came back, I told Kumi to go along with Tanjiro's scheme, and I agreed to help him by distracting everyone in the clothing shop so that Tanjiro might carry the body without being noticed... but another unexpected thing happened.

"As part of creating the locked room mystery, Kumi and Tanjiro simply locked the door from inside and used the toy robot to move the crate and block the vent. Both of them went through the vent to the upper theater room. After all, Kumi needed to leave through that room as part of fooling the security system. But once both of them got out, Tanjiro tried to attack Kumi... and the rest is history."

"How... How do you know all that?" Faye asked.

"I met with Kumi just as he left the upper theater room in a panic after he had 'killed' Tanjiro," Sorao answered rather swiftly. "Kumi quickly explained to me everything that had transpired. I told him to cover up his tracks. And even after Monokuma knocked him unconscious with his tranquilizer right before the investigation began, I continued to help him. Of course, I confess to having switched the labels while Masashi and I investigated the staff lounge. But it was only after I found the printer in the lounge that I realized that I'd signed a fake contract of Kumi's and had been betrayed... so I looked for a way to make you vote for Kumi without exposing my own misdeeds."

"And that's why you've been lying to us?" Mari said with great skepticism. "It's quite a... complicated tale."

"A-And I don't remember doing any of that!" Kumi protested, looking rather pale. "I-I admit, I tricked Lady Hikari and killed Tanjiro... but I don't remember poisoning her and agreeing to working with you!"

"Of course you don't! You're still suffering from your amnesia!" Sorao said as his sneer widened. "But what I have said is the truth! Nothing but the truth!"

"No fucking way that's the truth!" Sayua said. "You... You're lying! You're trying to pin your own crimes on that bastard!"

"I believe so as well," Mari said. "I can't trust that everything that Sorao's told us is the truth."

"I-It has to be a lie!" Kumi said, shaking as he buried his face in the teddy bear he was holding. "I-I refuse to believe it! I-I'd never work with Sir Sorao to kill someone, honest!"

"Oh, but you would. And there's evidence for it, too," Sorao said before he faced Masashi. "Say, Masashi, you have my camera. Could you go ahead and check the latest photo?"

What? The camera?

Masashi wordlessly took it out and looked at the latest photo, which had not caught much of his attention beforehand. It was simply a picture of Kumi standing in a room (perhaps Kumi's bedroom, from the looks of the background), and since there were a few photos of other people in Sorao's camera, Masashi thought nothing of it as he let the others look at it.

"What, confused?" Sorao said, amused. "It's not the content of the photo that's important. Look at the timestamp."

Masashi did so, only to feel his heart skip a beat.

"12:37 AM..."

It was then that he felt a chill run through him as the implications of this photo set in.

"You get it now, do you not?" Sorao said, smirking. "I said that I had met up with Kumi last night, and that is no lie.'

"You really took that photo? But why?" Mari asked.

He nodded. "I took it just in case Kumi should claim that I'd never met up with him last night. Of course, there's no other reason why I'd be talking with him that late... unless it was for something nefarious, yes?"

"I... I can't believe it," Masashi replied. "There's no way you're telling the truth!"

"Masashi... Much as I wish it were otherwise, I can't deny that there's some evidence to back up his claims," Mari said. "It's extremely likely that Sorao is telling the truth, at least with regard to forming a partnership with Kumi."

The others gasped and spoke to each other uneasily.

"Sorao's explanation does not appear to contradict the evidence," Haruyuki said. "And come to think of it, we'd never found out why Kumi would have Hikari sign his contract. His claim that he had done it out of fright from a nightmare is quite dubious... In fact, even after gaining amnesia, he still remembered tricking Hikari. I dare say he must've realized that he had been scheming something evil, and therefore, when we confronted him about it, he made up the excuse about the nightmare."

Kumi said nothing, but the way that he bit his lips and showed great hesitancy in responding was all the proof one needed. Masashi could not believe it, but it seemed that it really was true that Kumi had lied about his reason for tricking Hikari.

So Kumi really was partners with Sorao, but planned to betray him in the end...

"Not only that, but according to the security log, Takumi also went to the upper theater room at 8:20 AM and only left at 8:40 AM," Maiha added. "That is twenty minutes of unaccounted activity, and I certainly can believe that he was up to murderous mischief during that time. And he certainly had the capacity to execute such a scheme. After all, he would wind up coming up with a somewhat elaborate scheme to disguise the time of Tanjiro's 'death'."

"Yeah... the explanation that Kumi was actually sneaking to the music room is plausible, believable, and convincing," Faye said.

"And Sorao's explanation all sounds pretty detailed!" Kasumi said. "From the way he said it, it doesn't sound like a lie he made up on the spot!"

Wait a minute... Could it be...?

After Masashi had exposed Sorao's label switch trick and accused him of being the culprit, Sorao had looked awfully calm and seemed to be pondering over something. At first, Masashi had found it odd, but had quickly forgotten about it as his attention had been directed toward proving that he was Arashi's accomplice.

Don't tell me... all those questions and arguments were a distraction! he thought as he suppressed a gasp. He must've been thinking of a way to pin Hikari's murder on Kumi, so he had us talk about his involvement in Arashi's scheme to buy time!

And the worst part was that it was not wholly implausible that Sorao was telling the truth. Kumi had lost his credibility by being revealed to be Tanjiro's killer, and even though Sorao had undergone the same loss of reputation from being Arashi's hidden accomplice, he had had the foresight to take Kumi's photo last night and so had some evidence to back up his "explanation". That was enough to win over most of the others.

Sorao... I won't let you get away with this! Even if you're not lying about meeting up with Kumi last night, I'm still sure you're lying about the rest!

"In the end, from the circumstances of the crime, the culprit must be either Takumi or Sorao," Maiha said with much loathing. "I myself lean toward voting for Takumi."

"Well, I say we vote for Sorao instead!" Sayua said. "I don't trust whatever crap that bastard spews!"

After a few others revealed for whom they would vote, however, it became clear that there was a split in opinion. Nearly half the class would vote for Takumi, and the other half for Sorao. Of the nine students now standing here, Masashi was the only one who had not said anything.

Sorao snickered as he faced him. "Have you nothing to say, Masashi? Well, that's not so surprising. I said that I would silence you, and I am a man of my word."

Masashi gave him no answer, but Sorao was wrong. It was not that he had nothing to say; on the contrary, there was one thing that he was keen to say, but he knew that without proof, his accusation would fall on deaf ears.

"Incidentally..." Haruyuki said as he faced Monokuma. "There are nine of us, and if one of us votes for a third person, but the rest of us split our votes between Takumi and Sorao, what will happen?"

For a moment, most of the others murmured in excitement, seeing a potential way to escape this dilemma. Could there be a way to escape this predicament simply by voting for both potentially guilty parties?

"You're talking about splitting your votes?" Monokuma shook his head disapprovingly. "I don't like your lack of boldness... not that it matters. If the blackened and an innocent person get the same number of votes... the blackened wins!"

The others gasped, this time in disappointment. Masashi too felt disappointed, but since the possibility had lasted only a few minutes, his disappointment had not really amounted to much.

"Once again, I confess to having distracted Masashi and company at the clothing shop and having switched the labels during the investigation," Sorao said. "But I did that as Kumi's 'accomplice', not Tanjiro's! That's all that Masashi has proven."

"You swear to that?" Faye said.

"Of course. I also swear that after Tanjiro and Hikari left for the music room, I never saw Tanjiro, never signed his contract, and never became his accomplice. That's the truth."

"Since you swear so, then I suppose that if we prove that statement to be wrong," Mari said firmly, "we shall prove you to be the culprit as well."

"Certainly, I'll believe that his explanation is all a lie if he truly is Tanjiro's accomplice," Maiha said.

"Y-Yeah! No way I'll believe him anymore if that's the truth!" Kasumi said.

Though the others on Sorao's side expressed such sentiments, Sorao still shrugged his shoulders and flashed another smile, undeterred by their willingness to doubt him. "Oh, yes, yes, I suppose we can always check Tanjiro's contract and see whose name is on it…"

He then gasped, feigning shock. "Oh, that's riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, you can't! Tanjiro must've destroyed the contract! If only he hadn't done that! Too bad nothing shows that I'm Tanjiro's accomplice... not that I am so, mind you."

"Damn it, I can't stand how fucking smug you are!" Sayua complained, shaking a fist at him.

Masashi too grew more and more frustrated, though he knew better than to vent his frustrations and look whiny. It was clear that Sorao had bidden Tanjiro to destroy the contract after Sorao had signed it, but its destruction meant that no evidence pointed toward him. Even after Masashi had finally unmasked him, he was still close to getting away with it because of his well-crafted tale and the ever so smooth manner in which Sorao had told it.

"It's true that the contract is destroyed… but even so, that doesn't change the fact that Sorao signed it," Mari said as she looked down in contemplation. "As long as we find another way to establish it, then he'll not be able to deny it anymore."

Another way… to establish that fact? Masashi thought. Um… he signed Tanjiro's contract... but does that change anything? It's not like he's broken any rules...

Wait a minute… The rules?

Ah…

Ah… AHHHH!

I see! I should've realized it much earlier!

There is a way!

"Sorao… I'll prove it once and for all that you are Tanjiro's accomplice," Masashi said as he pointed at him. "Then you'll confess to all your misdeeds!"

At first looking amused by Masashi's persistence, Sorao then frowned as he paid him all his attention. "You're getting so annoying… I can see through you. You're just bluffing and hoping that I'll make a slip of the tongue, aren't you?"

"No, there's no need for that trick," Masashi said. "I know of another way to make you give up!"

"Hmph!" Sorao slammed a hand on his podium. "I've borne with listening to your silly words for far too long... It looks like I must silence you again!"

Argument Armament: Sorao Mineta

"Give it up already, will you?"

No, I refuse to!

"What nonsense are you going to spew?"

It's not nonsense, and you'll learn it the hard way!

"Your words grate on my ears, you know."

You're one to talk!

"Guys like you truly, truly piss me off."

I don't care!

"It's true that I acted as Arashi's accomplice…"

How can you be proud of that?

"But rest assured, I am no one's accomplice in this case."

Another lie!

"You can't prove it!"

I will, whether you like it or not!

"I speak nothing but the truth!"

You've been lying the whole time!

"I call your bluff. There's no way to prove that I was Tanjiro's accomplice."

Now was it.

It was time to make Sorao Mineta give up once and for all.

Masashi opened his mouth and said:

"Sign my contract!"

"Wh… WHAT?" Sorao said, looking earnestly befuddled.

"I'd like you to look at the contract rules," Masashi explained. "There are quite a few interesting bits to it."

"Interesting… bits?" Sorao repeated as he and the others took out their Monopads and looked at the rules.

Contract Rules:

1. To become your partner, the partner must sign his or her name on your Monokuma Contract. The deadline for doing this is the end of the class trial.

2. All Monokuma Contracts are handed down by Monokuma. If your contract is missing or damaged for whatever reason, you may ask Monokuma for a replacement, as long as it has not been signed already.

3. Once a contract is signed, it may not be nulled. The physical paper itself thus may be destroyed.

4. You may have only one person as your partner. Likewise, you may choose to be the partner of only one person.

5. Any breach in the above rules shall result in immediate punishment of the rulebreaker.

"Everyone here, Hikari, and Tanjiro all appear to have their contracts, and they appear to be unsigned at first," Masashi continued. "But as it turned out, there are two fake contracts among ours."

"Tanjiro's contract… and Kumi's," Mari added. "But we already know that Hikari unwittingly signed Kumi's real contract, as Monokuma told us earlier."

Masashi nodded. "In that case, we still have to figure out which one of us signed Tanjiro's real contract."

"That sounds about right," Maiha said before she let out a small gasp. "Ah, I see… I see where you're going with this."

"Now, Sorao says that he has never signed Tanjiro's contract," Masashi continued. "Let's say that this is true. Then he should be able to sign anyone's contract right now if he so pleases. But if Sorao has already signed another person's contract, then signing a second contract will count as breaking the rules."

"AHHH!" Sorao ground his teeth, looking more and more disheveled. For all his scheming, it was ironic that he had forgotten about this part of the contract rules.

"Yeah, you're right!" Kasumi said. "It says that we can have only one person as our partner!"

"And we know that Tanjiro's contract is still in effect, even after his death," Mari said. "After all, Rule #3 says that a signed contract may not be nulled."

"And here's the important part about the rules… more specifically, any breach in them," Masashi replied. "Anyone who breaks the rules will be 'punished' at once."

"Puhuhuhu! That's riiiiiiiiiiight!" Monokuma answered playfully. "And I'm sure you guys know full well what my brand of punishment is like. The second that someone breaks the rules, I sic all my weapons at the rulebreaker!"

"NO!" Sorao gasped as if trying to get something out of his throat. "I can't believe this... This can't be true, goddamn it!"

"Oh, but it's true, Sorao," Masashi said, growing bolder upon seeing Sorao's growing desperation. "Now, go on. Sign my contract. If you're innocent, nothing will happen to you. But if you're not…"

Sorao stuttered as he tried to come up with a response. "You... You can't be serious? You're essentially trying to kill me with that!"

"No, he's not," Mari added. "You did this to yourself the moment you became willing to partake in murder."

"I... I..."

"If you won't sign it..." Masashi said. "Then give it up! It's all over!"

At first, Sorao said nothing, but not out of unwillingness, for he seemed to struggle with getting his words out of his throat, his face growing more and more distraught. Even with his foul expression, however, something about it lost all its frightfulness as time went on, though that did not erase the tension on the others' faces as they stared silently at him.

Eventually, he opened his mouth.

"I... I can't believe it..."

He squeezed the sides of his head with his hands.

"It's... all...over?

"It's all over…

"It's all over!

"IT'S ALL OVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Having reeled back as he let out his hideous shriek, he then lurched forward and fell on his podium, his upper body resting on it. What he muttered was indecipherable, but it was not those words that Masashi was interested in hearing from him.

"Will you admit it now?" he asked. "Will you finally admit that you killed Hikari?"

A long silence fell in the room as everyone waited for his response. At first, Masashi truly wondered whether he had just fallen unconscious, but in a few seconds, Sorao weakly moved his arms to support himself as he heaved his body upwards.

"Fine... you win," he said weakly, his body slightly swaying. "I admit it... I'm the one... who signed Tanjiro's contract and poisoned Hikari."

Though it was beyond clear at this point, Sorao's outright confession managed to draw gasps of shock and dismay from a few of the participants.

"Then Kumi never went down to the music room?" Kasumi asked.

"Yeah... He had nothing to do with what happened there," he answered weakly. "He was just standing in the upper theater room doing nothing, it seems... until Tanjiro met him after sneaking in through the vent, and Kumi wound up striking him..."

"And everything you said about becoming Kumi's accomplice was a lie?" Mari said.

"No..." he answered as he straightened himself. "What I said about meeting up with him last night and offering to help him with a murder... that was all true. But I've never signed any contract of his... real or fake."

"Then why...?" Kumi said. "Why did you... offer to help me last night?"

"Because... I was planning to kill you," he said with great loathing, which drew a gasp from Kumi. "I was planning to manipulate you into killing Tanjiro with the promise that I would sign your contract. Of course, once the deed was done, I would expose your misdeed to everyone. Since I had never signed your contract, you would be the only one to be executed."

"My goodness..." Haruyuki said as the others stared at Sorao with utter horror. "You truly surprise me with how much you schemed."

"But something happened that threw off your plans, didn't it?" Mari said. "You bumped into Tanjiro, and your cameras were switched."

Sorao rubbed his head as if suffering from a headache. "Oh… It was that stupid Tanjiro's fault… Around the end of this morning's cooking session, I happened to look at the camera and realized that our cameras had been switched. I was so alarmed that I refused the brownie that Kumi offered me and ran off to the music room to get it back...

"When I entered the music room, Tanjiro had already looked through my camera and found out my involvement in Arashi's scheme... He tried to reason with me, spewing loads of irrelevant drivel... Of course, I laughed in his face and told him that all that he said was pointless. And instead of running like the feeble, insipid weakling he was, why did that stupid Tanjiro choose to fight back against me…?"

"Tanjiro fought back?" Faye said.

"Yes… He put up more of a fight than I imagined... It was too bad that he struck that stupid medium girl by accident!"

"Tanjiro struck Hikari while defending against you?!" Kasumi exclaimed. "So that explains why he attacked her when they were such good friends! It was all an accident on his part!"

"It's all clear now… Tanjiro must've panicked upon realizing what he had unwittingly done," Haruyuki said. "Even if he had not meant to strike her, the fact of the matter was that he had dealt her a nearly fatal blow. Hence, he was convinced that he would soon become the next blackened."

"Yeah..." Sorao said weakly. "I told Tanjiro to go up to the staff lounge to get the curtain to wipe all the blood away... and I even summoned Monokuma and asked whether it was possible to make a copy of his contract. He told us about the printer in the lounge, so Tanjiro headed there to print a copy of the contract as well..."

"And once Tanjiro was gone, you fed Hikari the poison when Tanjiro wasn't looking," Maiha said. "What a treacherous man you turned out to be."

Sorao said nothing more, appearing more and more dazed, insofar as he might fall any minute now. Now that all his machinations had fallen apart, it looked as if all his life had been sucked out of him.

"I have one more question," Mari said.

"Wh-What?" Sorao said, looking at her weakly.

"What do you know about the antidote bottle I found in the kitchen?"

Ah! The antidote!

Masashi had forgotten about it after he had called Sorao out on using the darkness to put the poison bottle's label on the antidote bottle. Now that he thought about it, that was the only loose end that had not been tied up yet, but was it all that important? Sorao likely had put it there as part of his original scheme to betray Kumi, though it was anyone's guess as to what Sorao exactly had had in mind.

"I... I don't know anything about that."

But Masashi was taken aback after hearing those words coming out of Sorao's words.

"You don't?" Mari said, her expression growing more sullen.

"No... The only poison-related bottle that I've touched this morning was the poison bottle that I took from the cupboard," Sorao explained. "I don't know who put the antidote bottle in the kitchen."

"I see..." Mari muttered as she glanced downwards a bit. "I was afraid that you would say that..."

"Mari?" Masashi said, finding her tone to be odd. "Does it really matter that Sorao doesn't know anything about the antidote bottle?"

Mari nodded, albeit somewhat reluctantly as if unsure. "It does... In fact... I believe that the antidote bottle has a far greater connection to today's events than you think."

"What?" Sayua said. "What are you getting at?"

"Don't forget, we still have not figured out such mysteries as the identity of the left-handed person," Mari said. "Until then, I don't think we can rightfully consider this case fully shut."

"But what's so important about that person?" Kasumi asked. "Are you saying that that person's actually the blackened?"

"But we know that Sorao poisoned Hikari! He's already admitted to it!" Masashi protested. "And because the door to the staff lounge was locked, we know that no one could've sneaked into the room and poisoned her!"

"I admit, the connection between the antidote bottle and Sorao's poisoning of Hikari isn't quite clear at first, but..."

Mari faced Masashi with quite a grave expression.

"Masashi... Do you recall that around the end of the investigation, I asked Monokuma a certain question about the poison bottle in the room?"

"Hang on," Mari said, sounding not at all flattered by the not-at-all subtle suggestion. "I still have one more thing to ask you."

Monokuma let out a highly annoyed sigh. "This isn't what I agreed to when I signed my work contract… What now?"

"It's nothing hard. Could you confirm whether the following is correct?" Mari said as she picked up the empty bottle of poison lying on the floor. "The poison that you put in this bottle exactly matches the poison described on this bottle's label, nothing having been omitted."

"Ding-ding-ding!" Monokuma said, somewhat half-heartedly. "Let me assure you, I may be scrupulous in a few areas, but even I would never resort to false advertising."

Mari smiled a small smile. "Well, that's what I thought, but it's nice to hear confirmation. I was worried that there might have been hidden effects you had conveniently left out."

"Wait… what?" Sorao said, looking at her with an increasingly alarmed expression. "You asked Monokuma that... after Kasumi and I had left the room?"

"Just to wonder about any hidden effects?" Kasumi added.

"Actually… no," Mari answered. "I was curious about that as well, but I had one other purpose in mind by asking the question that way."

"What?" Masashi said, confused. "I-I don't understand."

"To be clear, I deliberately worded the question in such a way as to confirm that the bottle was actually the poison bottle," Mari said. "I remembered the previous case, in which Arashi switched two important labels, and I was worried about the possibility of someone having fiddled with the labels. But if I had just outright asked Monokuma, I might have been refused a clear answer."

"Ah, I see," Haruyuki said, nodding. "Instead, you asked a question that assumed that the bottle in question was the poison bottle. If Monokuma did not correct you in his response, he would implicitly confirm that your assumption was correct."

Mari nodded before showing a small frown. "And therein lies the contradiction."

"Contra… diction?" Masashi said.

"Monokuma confirmed that the label truly belonged to the bottle... after Sorao had swapped the labels during the investigation," Mari said. "But that means that the antidote bottle's label doesn't belong to that bottle... And that the bottle in question isn't actually the antidote bottle."

"What? But does it not mean that before Sorao meddled with it, it already had the wrong label?" Maiha said.

Mari nodded, this time looking more certain. "The labels for the poison bottle and the antidote bottle... must have been swapped twice this morning."

"Wh... WHAT?!"

This time, the outcry came from Sorao, whose eyes were filled with life once more, though he did not look pleased at all.

"You mean… The bottle of poison that I used…" he uttered, jaw dropped. "Are you saying that before I poisoned Hikari, someone had already swapped the labels?!"

"But that would mean that the poison that Sorao fed Hikari was nothing more than the antidote bottle with the wrong label," Haruyuki observed.

"Didn't Hikari say for certain that she'd been fed the contents of the poison bottle, though?" Sayua asked.

"That was because she saw the bottle's label and its ominous-looking skulls," Mari answered, sounding quite confident. "Because of the label alone, Hikari was misled into thinking that she had been poisoned."

"S-So… when Sorao swapped the labels during the investigation…" Kasumi said. "He… swapped them back to their original places?"

"Yes, that's right. In other words, he put the poison bottle's label on the correct bottle. Quite ironic, that."

"No... No fucking way!" Sorao cried out, slamming his hands on his podium. "You can't be serious! You can't!"

"More importantly, however... because of the first label switch," Haruyuki said, ignoring his cries of outrage, "it stands to reason that at the time of the crime, the 'antidote bottle' was the poison bottle."

"So... the blackened..." Maiha said, eyes widened. "It must be the one who fed Hikari the antidote!"

"It's not Sorao?!" Faye cried out.

As the others cried out in shock at this conclusion, Mari looked straight at Masashi.

"Masashi… You know which of us did it, right?" she said with utmost calmness. "Which of us fed Hikari the poison while thinking that it was an antidote?"

"I... I think... it... was..."

He ground to a halt.

He saw the answer.

But that could not be.

It was too cruel to be true.

Yes, what he saw was a lie.

It was all a lie.

As long as he remembered that, there was no need to go forward.

Sorao Mineta was not the culprit.

If Mari had said nothing, everything would have been all over. This tragedy would have worked out in her favor.

She had already accepted other forms of tragedy throughout this killing game. It was unfortunate that all the victims had died prematurely, but in the end, it was relatively easy to recover from those losses. She had mainly felt pity at these turns of destiny.

But why...?

Had it truly been right to let things simply go the way that they had been? Could she bear with the consequences of staying silent and letting things go in her favor?

On the one hand, she had lived life so daringly that she had expected death to come not by her own bidding but on its own volition. But on the other hand, when she imagined the consequences of escaping this killing game alone, a certain pain entered her heart.

Could she really just say nothing and let things go in her favor?

For the first time, she could not answer that without certainty. Doubt now dwelled within her.

And yet, paradoxically, it was that same doubt that had filled her with certainty.

She knew what she must do.

Masashi said nothing, however. His face had grown pale, and he stood still as if something had bereft him of his power to move. He must know what the answer was, but she had a good feeling as to why he would not say anything.

I guess… I need to help you. Just one more push… and then I hope you'll be able to live through this without me.

Forgive me... I know that it'll hurt, but...

I've already made up my mind. I'll guide you and everyone else to the truth.

Without further ado, she opened her mouth and bade everyone to listen, which caused all to pay attention to her, though obviously with no expectation of the truth that would reveal. Then the words simply flowed:

"I was the one who fed Hikari the contents of the false antidote bottle."

At first, no one said a word, only staring dumbly at her, as if she had just uncharacteristically told them to shut up. But in just a few seconds, the others stumbled on their words.

"Is... Is this true?" Maiha asked, looking at Kasumi and Sayua, the other two people who had been present during the unfortunate killing.

"I... I think so," Sayua said, speaking quite hesitantly. "Yeah, I remember clearly now... It was definitely her who did it. She was holding the bottle, all right."

"Y-Yeah, I remember that as well!" Kasumi yelped. "I can't believe it... Mari! It was really you!"

The others who had not known about this then murmured to one another in utter astonishment at this development.

"Unbelievable!" Maiha cried out. "To think, she should end up becoming a killer like that!"

"I can hardly believe it!" Faye exclaimed. "But... I can't deny that it makes sense!"

"Lady Mari... She didn't mean to kill Hikari!" Kumi said with watery eyes. "Oh, why did she have to be the blackened!"

"What an unexpected turn of events..." Haruyuki muttered, stroking his chin.

Sorao said nothing, but Mari sensed that the last few minutes had filled him with such a shock as he had never felt before in his whole life. He had just learned that all his lies and scheming would end up obscuring the truth of the case even to him.

"Mari... were you hiding that fact all this time?" Sayua asked, leering at her.

Mari shook her head. "No... I can assure you, when the class trial began, I suspected that Sorao was the culprit. But once Masashi proved that the labels must have been switched, I remembered Monokuma's answer to my last question during the investigation, and the pieces began to fall. Only after Sorao confessed and confirmed that he had nothing to do with the 'antidote bottle' in the kitchen were my fears confirmed."

"That's... I can't believe it..." Kasumi muttered.

"I'm sorry to say that it's all true," Mari said with an unbroken voice, and her reply silenced the others. "But it's all clear now, is it not? I alone am the one directly responsible for her death, so please, vote for me—"

"Stop it already!"

For the first time, Masashi spoke, some life returning to him and enabling him to move his head and arms, but there was not a whit of happiness on his face.

"I don't understand..." he replied, his voice choking. "Why... Why do you keep saying those things, Mari? Can't you see that it's all a mistake?"

"A mistake?" Mari said.

"Yes... You keep saying that the labels had to have been switched twice," he answered. "But that's not true... I'm sure we've overlooked something! I'm sure that you're simply mistaken!"

No... I don't think we have.

If his words were meant to uplift her, then in truth, they went against his intentions wholly. It saddened her to see him put little faith in his own reasoning and everything that they had been worked up to this whole trial. But she had to admit that not everything about this case had been explained yet. And until that part of the truth remained shrouded in darkness, he would have room to argue for doubt.

"Masashi... I see that I haven't convinced you well enough," Mari said. "In that case, let's work out the truth together."

"The truth?" he said, sounding in utter disbelief. "I don't know what you're talking about... what's there to wonder about?!"

Rebuttal Showdown: Masashi Kousaki

"You have no proof that the bottle you found in the kitchen was really the bottle of poison!" Masashi began.

"Oh, sure, you wouldn't expect an antidote bottle to be in a kitchen in the first place.

"But maybe someone had it there for emergency purposes or something!

"Even if the poison bottle was taken there to kill someone...

"I can't see any reason for the label switch!"

"Masashi... I'm afraid to say that you're not thinking too clearly right now," Mari said. "I'm sure that there was a good reason why the poison bottle couldn't have been taken there as it was."

"What? Why would anyone fiddle with the labels in the first place?!" he responded.

"There was no reason for anyone to swap the labels!"

"I'm sure the bottle you found was just the antidote bottle!

"Maybe we're just misreading Monokuma's words!

"Or maybe he lied to us in order to hide the fact that Sorao's the true culprit!

"Please, Mari, believe in yourself... believe that you're not the culprit!"

Truth Bullet Chosen: Bottle of Poison

I'll cut through your words!

"Masashi... What you say is not correct," Mari said. "There's a clear reason why someone wanted to switch the labels."

"Wh-What?" Masashi said, sounding quite frightened.

"It's the label itself," she answered. "We must ask ourselves: what makes the label for the poison bottle stand out?"

"Doesn't it have all those creepy skulls drawn on it?" Sayua replied. "That thing was basically screaming 'DRINK ME, AND YOU DIE'!"

"Yes, it's quite distinctive, is it not? I imagine that it would look noticeable if someone were to use it in plain sight."

"Aah!" Masashi winced. "Y-You're not suggesting that… the attempted killer used the poison in front of someone else?"

"It certainly would make sense," Mari answered. "And one more thing: it would be quite odd for someone to hide this bottle in a kitchen of all places. Would it not make more sense to hide it back in the music room's cupboard after having applied the poison?"

"True... if I had been the user, I should've taken it back there and swap the labels back to erase all traces of their scheme," Haruyuki said. "Judging by its presence in the kitchen, however, I should imagine that it was used in the kitchen, but left there by accident."

"Come to think of it... this morning, didn't you guys hold some kind of cooking session there?" Sayua said.

Faye gasped. "Yes, that's right... I held one with Mari, Sorao, and Kumi. We were all baking brownies!"

"Then there's a good chance that the poison was used during the session," Mari reasoned. "One of us could've laced one of the brownies with the poison."

"But which one of you?" Maiha said. "In terms of fingerprints, you and Sorao have touched it during the investigation, so we have no way whether either of you also touched it during the cooking session."

"But Masashi had no role in the session, so we can exclude him," Mari said. "That just leaves me, Sorao... and the unknown left-handed person. And I assure you, I never had any plans to poison the treats."

"Neither did I..." Sorao replied, sounding quite uncertain as to where this was all going. "So... that leaves only the left-handed person."

"And let us not forget: the culprit poisoned the treat and obviously planned to feed it to someone," Haruyuki said. "So it must've been someone who had already planned to kill from the beginning."

Someone else who planned to kill... Mari thought. Yes... I can think of one person.

"It's clear who it was," she said smoothly. "You, Kumi."

"Huh?"

Everyone else immediately stared at the storyteller, who pointed at himself as if seeking confirmation.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about, Lady Mari!" Kumi said unconvincingly. "I don't remember ever trying to kill anyone using poison!"

"That's what you say, but... there is proof that you were up to no good," Mari pointed out. "Not only are you left-handed, but you were also involved in the cooking session."

"Ah!" Kasumi gasped. "Then... the chances of him having used the poison and leaving it behind in the kitchen are pretty high!"

Kumi squealed. "N-No, I... Even if my fingerprints are on it, that doesn't mean I ever planned to use it... Maybe I touched it by accident at one point..."

"True, but you also tricked Hikari into signing your contract through the carbon paper trick," Mari continued. "You were planning to betray Sorao that morning, it seems."

"Just to escape with that stupid medium girl!" Sorao roared, suddenly raising his voice in utter consternation. "I figured out your treachery after your carbon paper trick was exposed, but... to hear that you're the reason why my scheme to kill Hikari failed! Explain yourself! At once!"

"I-I don't know, honest!" Kumi said, whimpering. "I don't remember anything from the cooking session! I've lost all memory of it!"

"Not a single thing?!" Sorao exclaimed, peering at him with a mix of anger and astonishment. "Of all the goddamn things to forget about because of your amnesia...!"

"It's all clear now," Mari said, ignoring his growing bewilderment. "During Faye's cooking session, Kumi needed to disguise the poison bottle so as not to attract any attention from the others. If one person even took a peek while he put the poison into one of the treats, then he would be exposed immediately."

"I-Is that what I really did…?" Kumi said, shaking. "I… I can't recall it at all…"

"What you say makes some sense," Maiha said, "but why did he choose the antidote bottle to swap labels with? Why not any other bottle?"

"I imagine that he didn't want to mix up with any other bottle that someone was likelier to use, such as, say, an energy drink," Mari said. "And if he had just taken both bottles, the absence of the 'poison' bottle might have been noticed by someone, and it would've raised an alarm. Certainly more than the absence of an 'antidote' bottle."

"True, the antidote bottles don't really look that remarkable, unless you read the small print on the labels," Haruyuki said.

"Faye, you kept a close eye on Kumi during the cooking, right?" Mari said. "Did you see him use anything that looked like the antidote bottle?"

"Well… no," she answered. "At least, not that I remember. I saw him use one bottle at one point, but it looked fairly generic. At least I can say for sure that it didn't have the poison bottle's label. No creepy skulls, certainly."

"Hmm… Well, that's a bit disappointing to hear," Mari responded. "But all the evidence suggests that the poison was disguised as the antidote bottle meant to blend in as a flavoring bottle, so it's clear that one of the brownies has been poisoned."

"Well, a few of us ate the brownies, but are still standing, so clearly, the brownies we ate had no poison in them," Faye said.

"There are still a bunch of leftover brownies in the kitchen, I believe," Haruyuki said. "We can simply ask Monokuma to detect which one has poison."

"It's all damn clear, then!" Sayua said. "Hey, Monokuma, listen up—"

She stopped, however, once she glanced toward his throne, but found no one sitting on it. It took all the participants a few seconds to learn where he was, for they soon heard sounds of someone munching on snacks just below the throne. Indeed, it was Monokuma, who was holding a tray of brownies and shoving them unceremoniously down into his throat. Many groaned as they watched as if they beheld a fearsome beast swallowing its prey, especially with how bloated Monokuma's stomach looked.

As soon as Monokuma was done, he leaped back up to his throne and burped rather uncouthly, his body quickly becoming as thin as it usually was. "Well, that was a good snack, I'd say! Could've used a bit more flavor, though. But that was all the brownies I found in the ship."

"Monokuma! Do you detect any poison in any of the brownies?" Masashi asked.

"Poison... Hmm..." Monokuma said as he leaned back, everyone watching him with bated breath. "After a careful analysis of the recent entries to my digestive system... I can tell you for certain... that there is absolutely no poison!"

"Wh-What?" Mari uttered, her relief fleeting.

"No poison at all?!" Kumi said. "Then... I never used poison...?"

"That's right!" Masashi declared, looking much livelier and excited than before, though there was still no smile on his face. "You didn't do anything wrong during the cooking session, Kumi... So Mari's theory is wrong!"

The others cried out in shock and confusion at this development.

"Now hang on a minute," Mari said, trying to think of an alternative explanation. "Even if there was no poison in any of the brownies, that doesn't preclude the idea that Kumi didn't have the disguised poison bottle with him to the cooking session. Perhaps he didn't have the chance to apply it."

"No way that's true!" Masashi asserted. "After going through all that effort to disguise a poison bottle and tricking Hikari into becoming his partner, there's no way he would've failed to use the poison! Faye even saw him use a bottle on a brownie at one point, so he totally had the chance!"

Mari widened her eyes slightly, keeping most of her composure. "Oh, yes, well… I suppose that makes some sense."

"You admit it, right?! The fact that there was no poison in the brownies proves that there was never a poison bottle in the kitchen!" Masashi said. "And the bottle you found in the kitchen was a genuine antidote bottle! I don't know why it was at the kitchen, but it doesn't matter! What's most important is that the bottle Sorao used was the poison bottle for sure! He's the one who poisoned Hikari, not you, Mari!"

Despite his seemingly strong claim, however, Mari did not feel inclined to agree with him. His logic was valid, but one of the premises of his argument was rather questionable.

He relies mainly on the idea that all the brownies were eaten, she thought as she set a finger on her chin. But… is that true? Now that I think about it…

"I'm afraid you are wrong, Masashi," she replied, her mind now clear. "Not all the treats have been eaten yet. In fact, there's one left remaining."

"Wh-What?! No… You're mistaken! You're the one that's wrong!" he exclaimed as he stretched one arm out to the side to look assertive.

"No, I'm not. In fact, I'll prove it here and now."

Masashi… I can't bear to see you like that.

Don't worry… I'll show you where it is…

I'll end this twisted case once and for all!

"Why can't you believe in your own innocence?!" Masashi roared. "If you won't believe in yourself, then I'll make you see the truth!"

Argument Armament: Masashi Kousaki

"Mari, please…"

Please listen to me.

"Listen to me!"

If only you did the same for me.

"You're wrong… Completely wrong!"

Masashi…

"Sorao is the killer, not you!"

I'm afraid not…

"You've done nothing wrong!"

No…

"So why are you arguing against me?!"

Because you've placed all your hope in a lie.

"You're mistaken!"

If only I were.

"Don't you care about yourself?!"

I've already made my choice.

"There's nothing left to look at!"

There is… and I'll show you at last.

"I don't believe it! Where is the remaining treat?!"

This was the moment of truth.

It was time to fulfill her choice.

Without further ado, she answered:

"It's inside the satchel!"

"Wh-What? Satchel…?" Masashi said puzzledly.

"Yes, do you remember what we did earlier in the class trial?" Mari responded. "I ended up searching Kumi's satchel for the bloody curtain, which he used to clean up Tanjiro's blood. However, there was one item that didn't seem relevant at the time."

"Let's see…"

She took out the contents one by one. They ranged from bottles of ink, a plastic bag holding what looked like a brownie, a perfume bottle, and his teddy bear. Eventually, however, Mari took out what looked like a great red cloth, and though it was hard to tell at first, one could notice a few great red stains on it.

"AH!" Kasumi exclaimed. "That's right! One of the things you took out was a bag with a brownie!"

"Why, Kumi must've saved one of the treats!" Faye said.

"I... I did?" the storyteller said, clearly bewildered.

"And since all the other treats were eaten," Mari continued, "if I am right in my theory about Kumi's poisoning of the treat, then this treat must have poison inside."

"Th-That's…!" Masashi said as he ground his teeth.

"Well, now…" Haruyuki said, eyes glinting as he looked on in amazement. "I must say, I never expected our fate to hinge on a scrumptious treat."

Upon being bidden, Kumi took out the treat from his satchel, his hands shaky. Mari could hardly blame him, since the next few seconds would prove whether he had had murderous intentions this morning.

"So, Monokuma?" Mari said. "Does that treat have any poison?"

"Puhuhu… Do you even need to ask?"

Monokuma tried to stifle a laugh, but of course the laughter came out of him a few seconds later. "Of course the treat has poison in it! The same poison that Hikari had swallowed!"

As soon as those words left his mouth, all fierceness and resistance on Masashi's face vanished in an instant, sheer shock swallowing him. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out, as if bereft of his speech. The others, though not speechless, nonetheless could hardly muster a response that showed doubt. Monokuma had delivered the cold and harsh truth, and none of them could gainsay him on this matter.

"It's settled, then," Mari said, neither smiling nor frowning. "Kumi used the bottle of poison disguised as an antidote bottle to poison one of the treats... And I found that bottle and used it to 'cure' Hikari."

"Wait, stop!" Maiha bade, waving a finger at Kumi. "Why does that fool have that brownie in his satchel in the first place?"

"I... I don't remember clearly, but..." Kumi answered. "Now that I think about it... I think I offered it to someone, but that person declined."

"That must've been your target!" Sayua answered. "So who was it?! Who was it you were gonna kill?!"

"Given what I've heard during the investigation," Mari answered, "I think it's clear, actually."

"What are the treats, exactly?" Masashi asked.

"Just a bunch of brownies," Mari answered. "And Faye, Sorao, Kumi, and I added our own special flavor to them."

"Yeah, she simply told us to fill the brownies with whatever flavoring was available in the kitchen," Sorao added. "More importantly, right after we were done cooking, we ate the treats. Well, everyone else did. I never ate mine, though."

"You didn't?" Masashi asked. "Why not?"

"I... didn't feel hungry at the time, that's all. Shame, because Kumi himself gave me a brownie to eat, and it killed my heart a little when I refused it and saw the disappointment on the little fella's face," Sorao answered, albeit less certainly.

"Wait… NO!"

Sorao pointed right at Kumi, who shrank a bit.

"YOU... YOU TRIED TO KILL ME?!"

Kumi gave no coherent answer as he stumbled upon his words, but he looked every bit as shocked as his attempted victim.

"If I recall correctly, Sorao declined the brownie because he was in such a hurry to go to the music room to get his camera back from Tanjiro," Maiha said. "But in that case, Takumi would have just offered the treat to one of us who remained in the restaurant."

"But I don't remember Kumi offering it to us or putting it back with the other brownies," Faye said.

"The fact that he chose not to poison us, despite its being quite easy, suggests one thing," Mari concluded. "Sorao alone was his target."

"I was... his only target?" Sorao muttered out of incredulousness, his fury waning as shock took its stead.

"In a way, this whole thing quite fitting," she replied. "Sorao... you said that when you formed a partnership with Kumi last night, you were never planning to sign his contract. Instead, you would coax him into murdering one of us, and you would then expose him, leaving him out to hang. In other words, you were planning to betray and indirectly kill him from the very beginning."

"I-I..."

"And it looks like the feeling was mutual. Perhaps Kumi sensed that you were not sincere in your intentions, so he plotted to escape with Hikari instead and directly kill you. From the very beginning of the sham partnership of you two... you were planning to kill each other.

"And there's more: if you hadn't bumped into Tanjiro and caused the camera switch, you would've taken his poisoned brownie, and he would've succeeded. Of course, that didn't happen, and you soon wound up trying to poison Hikari and betray Tanjiro in a new hastily formed scheme... but that was also pointless since Kumi had unwittingly thwarted you by switching the labels beforehand. And in the end, I became the blackened instead of you.

"In other words, there were two outcomes for you this morning: either you would die from eating the poisoned brownie, or you would hatch a new scheme that would backfire on you immensely. Either way, every part of your machinations... was all for nothing."

"A-All for nothing..."

Sorao hung his head down, looking utterly shamefaced.

"All for nothing... all for nothing... all for nothing..."

His voice was then reduced to a whimper, and he said no more. Never had he looked more pathetic and pitiful than he did now, but Mari was far more concerned toward another man.

"It's all settled now," she said. "The blackened… it's clear, isn't it, Masashi?"

Thankfully, Masashi seemed to have recovered a little, his face's paleness waning. Though he still looked slightly dazed, Mari sensed that his wits were slowly coming back to him.

"I… I… Oh…"

Looking away from her, he sounded as if trying to stifle a groan.

"There's no denying it now…" he said weakly. "You're the culprit... That's what all the facts show."

He looked as if he were one step closer to falling on his knees, which would be a most dreary and undesirable sight.

"Masashi… Please, look at me."

With some hesitation, he did as he was bidden.

"I want you to show that you fully understand what happened this morning," she said. "Could you start from the very beginning?"

"You… You really want me to?"

"You say that you accept the truth… so I want to make sure that you truly accept it."

At first, Masashi said nothing, as if frightened of what would come afterwards. But in a few seconds, he nodded.

"All right… I'm not sure about everything, though."

"It's okay. You don't need to be certain about everything to go forth."

"If that's what you say, then… I'll try."

Closing Argument

"I'm still not fully sure on what happened, but… I think I have the gist of it.

"This whole case… It began when Kumi and Sorao agreed last night to work together as partners in crime. They never signed each other's contracts, and as it turned out, each planned to betray and kill the other. Sorao planned to have Kumi kill Tanjiro, expose him, and let Monokuma execute him. Meanwhile, Kumi planned to have Hikari sign his contract, and he would then kill Sorao with poison. To prepare for this, Kumi printed copies of his contract to fool us and switched the labels of two bottles: a poison bottle and a corresponding antidote bottle. He left the 'poison bottle' in the cupboard in the music room.

"This morning, Kumi asked Faye whether he could cook with her later. A bit later, though, Tanjiro and Sorao bumped into each other. At that moment, their cameras fell from their persons, and each picked his up… or so the two thought. But in truth, they had mixed up their cameras, so each got the other's camera instead. This small mistake ended up having a massive effect on things to come.

"Sometime later, Kumi made sure to ask Hikari to write down her signature in his book. In truth, he used the carbon paper trick to get her signature on his real contract. After that, during the cooking, Kumi used the 'antidote' bottle for flavoring on one of his brownies. Because of the plainness of the antidote label, no one regarded him with suspicion. This brownie was, of course, poisoned and intended only for Sorao.

"However, there was one problem: after the cooking session was done, Sorao found out about the camera switch. Panicking at Tanjiro finding out his involvement in Arashi's murder scheme, Sorao declined Kumi's brownie and rushed off to the music room. Disappointed, Kumi kept the brownie on him and headed off to the upper theater room. But he had left the 'antidote' bottle behind in the kitchen by accident.

"Meanwhile, Sorao confronted Tanjiro, and the two got into a fight over the cameras. Tanjiro tried to fight back against Sorao, only to accidentally strike Hikari with one of the room's clubs. Though Hikari was still alive, Tanjiro panicked.

"It was then that Sorao quickly came up with a devious scheme. He first instructed Tanjiro to go to the staff lounge upstairs for two reasons. First, he was to get the red curtain to wipe away the blood with. Second, Tanjiro was to make a copy of his own contract to fool the rest of us with. While Tanjiro was gone, Sorao grabbed a 'poison' bottle and fed it to Hikari. Most unluckily, however, it was the antidote bottle whose label Kumi had tampered with earlier, so in truth, it had no ill effect on Hikari. Once Tanjiro returned, Sorao signed Tanjiro's contract, and Tanjiro then destroyed it. Tanjiro was now under the false impression that he would soon become the blackened.

"Afterwards, they cleaned up the music room to get rid of all signs that a fight had occurred here, using the curtain and a perfume bottle. Now, they plotted to move Hikari's body to the staff lounge, but fearing that Tanjiro might be spotted, Sorao thought of an idea. He went up to the clothing shop, where Kasumi, Sayua, and I were, and he distracted us long enough for Tanjiro to safely carry Hikari up the stairs, with the bloody curtain and perfume bottle at hand.

"Afterwards, Tanjiro locked the door to the staff lounge from the inside, set Hikari on the couch, crawled into the room's vent, and used a toy robot in the room to push a bunch of boxes before the vent. This was all to create a locked room mystery to confuse us. Then he crawled through the vent to the upper theater room. He was probably planning to meet up with Sorao and dispose of both pieces of evidence.

"Unfortunately, another complication arose. When he got out of the vent, he bumped into Kumi. I don't know what exactly happened, but their encounter ended with Kumi striking Tanjiro on the head with a club. Tanjiro stumbled back and knocked down a suit of armor.

"Meanwhile… one of us found the 'antidote' bottle in the kitchen and, worried about the implications of its presence, decided to go look for me. We bumped into each other as I left the clothing shop with Kasumi and Sayua, and the three of us were told all about the discovery.

"Just then, however, we heard the sound of Tanjiro knocking down the suit of armor. We didn't know what it was at the time, but we still headed up to investigate, unlocked the door to the staff lounge, and found Hikari unconscious inside. After we had heard her account of being 'poisoned', the same person who had found the 'antidote' fed it to her… Once that was done, we left Hikari there to rest and locked the door on the way out. Unfortunately for us, the poison soon took effect and took Hikari's life.

"Getting back to Kumi… he was panicking from having 'killed' Tanjiro. He hid the body in a suit of armor, got rid of all the blood with Tanjiro's curtain, and hid the curtain and the perfume bottle in his satchel. Then he quickly devised a way to fake his time of death. Once he was sure that the coast was clear, he simply smuggled his body down to the lower theater room by throwing it down onto a mattress. Then he set the body near a stack of boxes, and set a bowling ball and a toy car to push it on top of the stack. Afterwards, he left to fetch the others at the restaurant to begin the search for Tanjiro.

"Unbeknown to him, however, he had not actually killed Tanjiro. Instead, he had simply knocked him unconscious. At the very moment, after Kumi and the others were in the upper theater room, and he was sure that he was not being watched, he activated the toy car and had it push off the ball. But Tanjiro had already awakened and stood back up, putting his bloody hand on the floor and the wall to support himself. But the ball landed on his head and killed him for good. Afterwards, in the midst of the confusion, Kumi dropped the remote for the toy car from the railing. He and the others rushed off to the lower theater room and found Tanjiro's body, activating the body discovery announcement.

"That was the end of Kumi's involvement, but Sorao had one more step in his scheme. Under the false impression that he had already become the blackened, he saw an opportunity to throw us off the scent. During the investigation, after he went with me to the staff lounge, he shut off the lights and exploited the darkness to switch the 'antidote' bottle's label with his 'poison' bottle's label. Unbeknown to him, however, as the 'antidote' bottle had been the poison bottle all along, he had actually put the label back to its correct place.

"This long chain of events… these two intertwining killings… the two who were deeply involved with them tried to cover it up… but in truth, neither had become the blackened.

"The one caught up in all of this… is the one who unwittingly fed Hikari the poison while thinking that it was an antidote.

"I can't believe it, but it was you...

"Mari Anzai, the Ultimate Phenologist."

Everyone was silent for a few seconds. Undoubtedly, the sheer complexity of this case caused by two separate killings looked utterly daunting, and even now, not all the mysteries had been solved yet. Still, the key facts seemed to be right.

"Mari…?" he said. "How… How did I do?"

Much to his surprise, she flashed a small smile.

"That sounds about right," she said, sounding happy. "Of course, it could've been a bit shorter… but I think you did well enough."

He wanted to thank her for the compliment, but given the price that he had to pay for being right, he could not muster a smile. Even now, he did not understand how she could act like that. How could she be happy when she knew what would await her?

It's not fair... It's not fair!

"I still can't believe it... That's the truth of this case?" Faye said.

"It's just too cruel!" Kasumi said. "Mari never meant to kill Hikari... She never meant to kill anyone, unlike those two!"

Both Sorao and Kumi said nothing, as if hearing their misdeeds laid out before everyone else had bereft them of their wits. Masashi felt not at all sorry to see them like this and wanted nothing to do with them for the time being, but he knew that he would have to hear them out in a few minutes.

"Cruel as this is, it would be crueler not to vote for her," Haruyuki said. "We owe her for her nobility."

"Her... nobility?" Sayua said.

"Do not forget, we were on the verge of voting for Sorao, the wrong person," he explained. "But it was Mari who led us to the right path... it was she who let us know that she was the blackened. Even though she would've gotten away with it easily by not saying anything, she still spoke and revealed to us the truth. Is it wrong to find it moving?"

"In a way, what you say makes sense..." Maiha replied with no consternation at all.

"I appreciate hearing that from you, but..." Mari said. "I never really thought of my choice as noble."

"Hey, hey, enough lollygagging! We still have work to do!"

It was Monokuma, the only one with a gleeful disposition in this doom-laden courtroom.

"Seems to me that you've heard enough!" he said. "So let's get to… cue drumroll… Voting Time!"

The podiums lit up, and the all too familiar voting screen appeared before all the remaining students. This time, Masashi trembled upon seeing all the available options, and for a moment, he froze, preferring to abstain rather than vote.

No… There is no point in denying it anymore… That's not what she wants.

Willing himself to go forth, he pressed Mari's portrait.

"Let us now see the results!" Monokuma declared.

As expected, the majority vote was for Mari. There was, however, one vote for Kumi, and judging from how Sorao scoffed as soon as the results popped up, the vote must have been out of sheer spite.

"Who will be chosen as the blackened?!" Monokuma said with his usual excitement, though this whole thing was a formality at this point. "Will you make the right choice or the dreadfully wrong one?!"

The screens turned on, and the roulette wheel showing all the participants' avatars appeared. The wheel went on and on until it ground to a halt, and once it stopped on Mari's avatar, celebratory music, applause, and confetti rang throughout the room.

Winning had never felt hollower.

The moment of truth has come at last! I've been waiting for this for a long time now. And this is a pretty complex case, though individually, a few parts are pretty easy to figure out such as Sorao's blatant attempt to meddle with the evidence.

Anyway, as it turns out, Tanjiro's killer was Kumi all along… and it also turns out that he gets to live because of how double murders work in this killing game. Also, the case becomes far more complicated because of Sorao's meddling, and in the end, because of a few unfortunate events and mistakes, the blackened, Hikari's killer, ended up being that person, so things will become… messy, to say the least.

Anyway, next time, the truth behind the guilty parties' misdeeds will be revealed. See you later!