Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration Chapter 10: Continuity Error (Part 8), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 1: Continuity Error (Deadly Life Part 3)

Warning: This is a Danganronpa fic. There's going to be a lot of violence, gore, and blood. And maybe a few other things. You've been warned (somewhat)

Luck… Was never really on his side, even when he was younger.

Always prone to accidents whenever the opportunity arose. From small incidents that seemed common to everyday people, to incidents that made one scratch their heads at. Because of this, he found his body riddled with injuries left and right. Almost as if he was a pain magnet.

But Benoit never let it bug him too much. Still, it made the others around him annoyed at how often it happened to him.

But after every injury, he managed to walk it off. He was built strong, after all, just like his father…

…

Today was unlike any ordinary day. Today was a day to be proud. And that's something his father had told him several times over the course of the day.

A day where he felt nothing but pure joy. He had just gotten the results back from two of his exams that very day, both in health and science. He had aced the first one, and managed to pass the second one with a respectful score. And as a reward, his father had taken him and some family members out for ice cream.

While Benoit wasn't following in the footsteps of his father, the old man had no problems with that. Not everyone could follow in the footsteps of a former Ultimate. His father had been known as the Ultimate Forester from back when Hope's Peak was still around. Nowadays, the school had been long closed, approaching three decades since they had last opened their doors.

And yet, seeing Benoit begin to carve his own path put a warm smile on his face. He had already said this before, but he would say it again. "Today is a day to be proud of." He patted his son on the back. "High school is approaching, so you need to begin to figure out what to do with your life."

While many ideas had formed in his head, Benoit couldn't pinpoint exactly what he wanted. "Well…" He still seemed a bit shy, even back then. "Probably something to do with health." Given that that was the exam he passed with flying colours.

And if that's the decision he made, his father would be proud. "That's the spirit."

With all the laughing going off, nobody had heard the faint sound of glass breaking nearby.

Above them, a worker had been slowly replacing some of the worn down glass with newer panes. However, he had made a mistake while replacing one of them, which caused the entire glass to shatter. "Oh sh-" He tried to call out, but given that he had found himself high in the air, he couldn't exactly afford to move around too much.

All while Benoit and his family remained unaware of the misfortune that was about to happen. Even with how shy Benoit was, he couldn't hold his excitement. He found himself skipping around. As he was skipping ahead of his family, he turned to face his father. "I'll find something in the next few years." Something to build towards. Something to make a future of.

…

And that's when the glass came raining down. Given that he had skipped ahead, he was the only one in range of the falling glass. Given the speed the glass picked up on the way down, most of them left cut marks on his skin on the way down, letting faint bits of blood pour out.

"Benoit!" His father tried to save him, but everything was happening too quickly.

Letting out a pained groan, Benoit took a step back, stepping on some glass that had fallen, causing him more pain. Enough pain that he felt like he had lost his footing.

He tried to stop himself from falling, but with nothing to catch himself, he found himself on the ground, with several painful shards lodged further into his skin.

At first, it was silent, as he felt dizzy from the fall. For a moment, the pain had stopped registering. But when he reached over for his left arm, pulling out some glass, the blood on it soon became very real to him.

The pain increased tenfold as reality soon struck him with what just happened.

The nerves in every part of his body were screaming out at him in agony.

He found it hard to keep himself conscious during all of this. The last thing he saw was his family rushing over to get to him…

…

The next time he felt conscious was at the hospital. During the surgery.

"How is he awake?" A voice he couldn't locate called out, probably belonging to one of the doctors.

One of the nurses seemed panicked. "We… We gave him enough to keep him under."

The pain from surgery had jolted him awake. As if to put the pain he felt earlier in the day to shame. His nervous system was in shambles. It made him feel pain he had never experienced before. It was as though his entire body was on fire, screaming out at him as his flesh was melting. His heart was calm because of the sedatives, but he felt anything but as his heart gave the illusion of wanting to jump out of his chest.

"Put him under again!" The doctor called out, and soon, the lights around him began to fade away…

…

The next time he woke up, it would be much later. He wasn't sure what time it was, but one thing became apparent very quickly; His body didn't want to move on its own accord.

He tried to move his leg to get out of bed, but it refused. Same for his left arm, which had taken the brunt of the initial impact. "Hello…?" He called out, hoping someone was in the room with him.

"Oh. You're up." Turning his head towards the voice, he saw a man sitting on a chair. They didn't appear to be a doctor, but they were taking notes.

"Who… Who are you…?" He mumbled out weakly.

Quickly standing up from the chair, the man shook his head. "That matters not right now." He put away the paper he was writing on. "I'll go get one of the nurses." He left the room.

After about a minute, one of the nurses walked into the room. He recognised her as one of the people who had been there during the surgery. She quickly approached the bed, looking down at him. "How are you feeling?"

"Um…" He tried to move his arm again, but it was being rather uncooperative. "I… I can't move that well."

She had figured as much, given what the doctor had told her. "Your nerves were severely impacted during the incident… So it's likely you won't be able to move them like you had before."

"What…?" Several different possibilities soon ran through his head. All the things he wouldn't be able to do. "That… That can't…" And to think that just earlier, he had been having one of the happiest days of his life.

Now. Nothing.

The emotional pain broke through the physical pain, taking the foreground.

Seeing the pain on his face grow, the nurse looked the other way. She wanted to say something, but she wasn't one to give false hope. Letting out a deep sigh, the nurse spoke up. "From what the doctor told me, he recommends you try and go to physical therapy. It might not be enough to restore your body to its former glory, but it should be enough to get you closer to normal." She moved closer to him. "Our hospital offers some, so if you'd like."

It wouldn't be enough to fix him, but it would be enough… "Yes…" He couldn't imagine a life where he couldn't move the way he wanted to. He was already accident prone, so his body would only find itself in more situations if he didn't do something about it.

Slowly nodding her head, the nurse turned towards the door. "I'll inform the doctor, then." She took one last look at him, before leaving the room.

This left Benoit alone in the room, staring up at the ceiling. He wanted to cry out, but nothing would happen. He couldn't even move one of his arms the way he wanted to. Couldn't get out of the bed without fear of falling down on the ground.

So he was stuck.

Alone.

A bright future he had imagined for himself had quickly faded away in the blink of an eye, and he hadn't even done anything wrong… "Please…" He almost begged. He just wanted everything to return to how they were before…

His only hope at this point would be physical therapy…

Trial Ground Zero

The room had been silent with the current revelation they were given. In fact, most couldn't believe what they were hearing.

"P-Poisoned?" Seira mumbled out. There had been no evidence to it, so how was it popping up now?

This is exactly the reason why Benoit didn't want to share his findings. Everyone was looking at him like he just said something wrong. "I… I…" No. He had to at least explain why he thought that. "The blood doesn't make… sense…" The original thought that had caused him to believe this. "The wound was too small."

"The knife wound?" It was the only wound besides the neck injury, but Gemini just wanted to make sure.

Slowly nodded his head, the physiotherapist moved his hand over to his side. "The wound wouldn't have caused that much blood." He had been injured before, and while he had several cuts, none of them led to the amount of blood they found in numerous spots.

"Not just that." Dae-Hyun decided to jump in. "But the blood wasn't constant. They were in random spots, right?"

Atlas wasn't getting any of it. "I fail to see how that means he was poisoned. So what if the blood was weird?"

"It doesn't match with how blood would spread with a knife wound like that." Gigi was starting to see where this was going.

Benoit nodded his head. "R-right! Not just that… but the blood on his clothes don't make sense either."

Gemini raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't?"

Ian leaned forward on his podium. "Now that you mention it, the location of the wound, and the pattern of blood on him doesn't make sense."

"Then…" Tatiana trailed off. "How do you suppose the blood got on himself?"

"I think…" Benoit had this idea for a while, and now he was finally going to say it…

…

"He vomited blood."

"Vomited?" Winter didn't like the sound of that. "Is that why you think he was poisoned?"

Gigi extended an arm out, closing one of her eyes. "He wouldn't have had any other wounds for blood to come out of. And if Benoit thinks he was poisoned, then that's the only spot blood could have come out of."

Laki moved her head from side to side. "Well, could have been a nose bleed!"

Edison adjusted his goggles. "No, that was a lot of blood. Vomiting the blood makes the most sense."

Gemini slowly nodded his head. "Then that might explain why he had blood on his hand too. From covering his mouth." Which would also explain the blood on his face too, now that he thought about it.

"If he was poisoned, that could explain why he was moving around so much." Hae-Won began to explain. "He was desperate to find something to save his life."

"Doesn't that mean we need to think back to his movement." Seira pointed out. They had thought he had turned off the lights to get rid of his killer, but with Tatiana claiming innocence, and this new revelation, it felt less likely.

Lorelei tilted her head to the side. "Didn't I tell you before?" She crossed her arms. "He cut off the power to open the door in the security room."

Thinking for a moment, Ian slowly nodded his head. "And with what Tatiana said, the power was cut off before he went to the kitchen… Which means he had to have been poisoned…"

…

"Right after opening the door."

Things were starting to make sense. "Ah! So the blood spot in the security room would have been the first place for blood to appear. Then after that…"

"Wait." Atlas pointed out. "If he was poisoned right after the door was opened… Then that means he must have met with someone during that time."

"True." Hae-Won glanced to the side. "If we assume he was poisoned then, that makes sense."

"Sounds to me like someone didn't want him exploring that room." Ian pointed out, a smirk slowly forming on his face. "Got something you want to hide, Nova?"

"Nope. Not at all." She shrugged. "I don't interfere with what happens amongst contestants."

Dae-Hyun slowly looked over at Monokawa. "Oh? Unlike your little helper there?"

The otter pretended to sleep.

"I don't think we'd be able to prove where the poisoner came from." Gemini had to realise. "The only thing we can know for sure is that he was poisoned after the door was opened. For now, we should focus on what his movement was like after." He took out the note that he had on him, reading through it. "I'm… not sure." It was impossible to find the exact path. "Something has been bothering me this entire time. The blood in the kitchen and cafeteria makes sense, as does the blood in Tau Sector. However… The blood in the showers is throwing me off."

That one was a bit weird. Atlas took a step forward. "Yeah! Not to mention it was in the girl's showers. Why would Alan even go there in the first place!"

"Maybe he just wanted one look at the girls' showers before he died." Lorelei shrugged. "Too bad nobody was there."

"Hmm…" Edison hummed out. "No… I think I'm starting to get the bigger picture now. He would have had a reason to head to the girls' showers…" He swirled around his flask. "We were wrong about another piece of evidence. But if we just change what it means, it starts to make sense."

He was being vague, something Atlas didn't appreciate. "Oh yeah? Tell us, then. Stop wasting our time."

"The piece of evidence we were wrong about is…"

…

"The letter."

Hae-Won raised an eyebrow. "What about the letter?"

Placing his flask down, Edison tilted his head to the side, tapping his chin. "Hypothetically speaking, if the letter wasn't addressed to the kitchen, where would it be addressed too?"

Gemini turned his head to look at the ground. "Are you saying that instead of being addressed to the kitchen, it was addressed to the showers?"

"Exactly!" Yeah! They were getting it! "Because Tatiana doesn't seem to be the one who sent the letter to Alan, there'd be no reason to head to the kitchen at all yet."

Alright. But that still made no fucking sense. At least to Atlas. "So what, are you saying that somehow Alan knew who had sent the letter, and went to the girls' shower? Wouldn't he have gone to the guy's side instead?"

Thinking for a moment, Winter was understanding the point Edison was going for. "No." She could have left it at that, but decided to elaborate more. "The reason Alan knew to check the girl's side first was because…"

…

"He was the one who sent out the letter in the first place."

Not only had the location completely changed, but so did the recipient. Gemini placed his hand against his head. "So you're telling me that Alan sent out the letter to someone, instead of the other way around."

Slowly, the love guru nodded her head. "If Alan knew who the letter was for, he'd only have to check one side."

"Then…" Benoit mumbled out. "Doesn't that mean the letter was for a girl?"

"Oh!" Laki called out. "Then that means our killer is a girl!"

Ian tilted his head to the side. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves here." He leaned on his podium a bit. "We don't even know if the person who got the letter is the killer."

"Then, after that…" Hae-Won decided it was best to ignore Ian for the time being. "He made his way over towards the cafeteria?"

"Now that I think about it…" Tatiana mumbled out. "It's likely that the next place he tried was…"

…

"The elevator."

"Huh?" Dolly was a bit confused. "He wouldn't have gone to the kitchen next?"

The knife thrower shook her head. Slowly, a realisation crept into her mind, putting her in an uneasy state. "No. The blood cuts directly through the cafeteria."

"Are you saying that he tried to take the elevator up?" Melody called out.

"Because of the outage…" Gemini trailed off. "He would have been unable to."

"But then why the kitchen…?" Benoit mumbled out.

"Tatiana…" Dae-Hyun mumbled out, slowly turning his head towards her. "Were you making some noise…?"

To say she was quiet would be to lie. "I wasn't… exactly silent, no." The realisation was slowly creeping up on her with every passing word.

"Then… His reason to head to the kitchen." The talent manager crossed his arms, looking over at the knife thrower. "Was to…"

…

"Seek help."

Tatiana remained frozen on her podium as reality struck her to the ground, metaphorically. "He was…" Her mind raced back to what had happened that night. "He was only seeking help…"

It had only been a few minutes since the power had gone out, and Tatiana found herself frozen in place, now risking the chance to leave. "Alright, Luna…" She called herself to calm her down. "It's just a blackout!" She mocked her own fear. "Nothing comes creeping out of the dark. Haha…" And yet, such an uneasy feeling would not escape her so easily.

However, after hearing a weird noise, that feeling of dread only intensified.

Then, came the footsteps. Creeping ever so closer to the door she now knew was open.

There would be no warning. There would be no time to react. If someone walked into the kitchen, she wouldn't even be able to see them.

As panic filled her mind, she reached out for her knife. Her fingers trembled as the footsteps got closer. At this point, it would be her life against theirs.

As soon as she felt the presence of the figure stepping into the room, she took a swing without thinking of the consequences. And she was right to do so, as it connected with flesh.

Her potential attacker took a few steps back, making some sort of weird noise.

The next sound she would hear would be the sound of footsteps running off, which allowed her to sigh in relief… She was safe.

"He was looking for help… And I…" She knelt down onto the ground, realising what she had just done. "I could have done something to save him."

"Could you?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "What? Did you have the cure on you? Sounds like he was going to die no matter what happened."

The girl raised a fair point. After slowly getting back onto her feet, Tatiana had a lost look in her eyes. "I… Honestly… It might not have mattered in the long run." Even had she not attacked Alan, she was sure she wouldn't have been able to learn much. "It would explain the noises he was making.

"Noises?" That was an interesting bit of information. Or at least Gigi thought so. "What was wrong about the noises?"

"Because of the poisoning, I believe he was unable to speak. Which meant that even had I not slashed him, I wouldn't have been able to help, or even know the identity of who poisoned him."

Benoit slowly nodded his head. "It was because of the puking that… I assume he was unable to speak."

"So what? After he almost dies…" Atlas trailed off. "He goes off and gets himself killed in the Ultimate Talent Manager Station?"

"No…" Gemini shook his head. "I'm not sure if that's where he would have gone…" Taking a step back from his podium, he grew deep into thought. "It's likely he moved back to Tau Sector. With the elevator cut off, and Tatiana occupying the kitchen, it's likely he was still trying to find someone who could save him."

"Still…" Atlas trailed off. "That doesn't explain why his next thought was to go to the Ultimate Talent Manager Station." He narrowed his eyes at the boy in the question. "Unless he knew someone would be there."

"Hold on now." Gigi jumped in. "No splotches of blood were ever found in his station, so it's entirely likely he was moved there after he died. Remember, the real cause of death wasn't poisoning, it was strangulation." And they still hadn't narrowed down which of the two it had been.

Now that they were back on track with that, an idea formed in Hae-Won's mind. "I think this solves the dilemma of the scratch marks. If Alan had been poisoned, he might have been too close to death to even fight back his killer."

Things were starting to make sense with each step of the way there… And yet, there was still so much left unsolved.

Listening to this back and forth go on for quite some time began to bore the gambler. Ripping out a page from May's book, Ian let out a yawn. "Shouldn't we be focusing on who could have poisoned Alan?" Ian suggested with a mischievous look on his face. "And with everything at our disposal, there's only one person I could think of who would be able to do it."

"Oh yeah?" Gigi placed a hand on her hips. "And who would that be?"

He was quite confident in his answer, and he was letting it show on his face. "It's easy, honestly. The one who poisoned Alan was…"

…

"Edison."

Nobody was more shocked to hear that than Edison. "Huh?" He didn't think this would get turned on him at any point in time. "What makes you say that?"

Leaning forward on his podium, he still had that same cocky look on him. "There's two reasons I think so, but let's go ahead with the first one." He pointed over towards the flask in his hands. "You carry around chemicals, don't you?"

"This?" He glanced over at his flask, which had taken a reddish colour now. "You think I use this to poison Alan?" He reached over to grab a vial, adding it to the mix. Soon, the concoction turned a midnight black colour.

"Now that he mentions it…" Seira mumbled out. Just what were those substances.

Swirling around the contents of the flask, Edison looked over at the rest of the group. "You think this is some kind of poison?"

"As the Ultimate Chemist, you could make whatever you want." Dae-Hyun pointed out.

"Quick!" Dolly yelled out. "He's armed! Get him!"

Laki was all on board for this. "Yeah! Let's jump him!" Just before she was about to jump, however, someone stopped her.

"Hold on." Hae-Won announced. "Are we even sure this is poison he has?"

The dark expression that was on Edison's face quickly cleared away. "I can prove to you that I don't carry any poison of that type with me."

Lorelei rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah? The only way you're going to prove that is by drinking it. So go ahead. Poison yourself."

Giving the flask one last swirl… He did just that! He lifted up the flask to his mouth and downed the entire thing.

"Woah there!" Tatiana hadn't expected him to be serious.

Lorelei was also caught off guard. "Why is everyone here a raging fucking lunatic?" She thought she was bad.

After drinking the entire thing, he wiped his mouth away. "See? Perfectly fine."

Watching him for a bit, Gennosuke let out a little laugh. "So that's what it is. Food colouring."

Filling up the flask with some new liquids, Edison nodded his head. "Most of what I carry around is just for show. Nothing dangerous."

Of course, his phrasing didn't go unnoticed. "Most of them?" Gigi raised an eyebrow.

Reaching towards the back, he pulled out three vials. "These are the only non-food colouring things I have on me. However…" He trailed off, shaking his head. "They wouldn't have had the effect you would think they would." Pulling out the vial from earlier, he swirled it around. "This is the luminol, and while ingesting it would be a bad idea, it would not have caused Alan to vomit blood like that."

Next, he reached out for the last two vials. "And this also would not have had the desired effect." He poured two of the vials together, before shaking the flask. After a few seconds, the liquid was bubbling. "Let me demonstrate!" With a quick motion, he chucked the flask into the center of the room, which exploded on contact.

Most people quickly hid behind their podiums. The only people who didn't was Gigi, who remained unphased, Laki, who had sparkles in her eyes, Ian, who was enjoying the show before him, Sakura, who was ready to just tackle Edison to the ground, and lastly, May, who had just woken up.

"Huh?" She rubbed her eyes. The first thing she had said all trial. "Did you solve it yet?"

"Edison did it!" Dolly quickly said, poking out from the podium. "Get down on the ground May!"

Slowly, the sleepy girl turned her focus to him. "He killed Alan?" She wasn't convinced. "What about strangulation?" She didn't see how someone like Edison could do it.

Ian shook his head. "We're not worrying about that right now. We're worrying about the poisoning."

"Ah, you're here now…" She mumbled out before slowly tilting her head to the side. Then, she went silent again.

Figuring that she had gone back to daydreaming, Sakura took the lead again. "Monokawa, you can't possibly think it's a good idea to let him walk around with explosives like that."

The otter shrugged. "What do you mean? It's perfectly safe."

Seira's face paled up. "We're on a space station. One wrong move and-"

Edison adjusted his goggles. "No. The station is much too sturdy for this to do any real damage."

Still… One person couldn't have let this slide.

"I've got you in my sights."

Ah, he thought he might have been out of the clear now, and yet, here Sakura was, intending on finding him guilty.

The security guard held her hands behind her back, looking at him with a menacing look. "Sure, the two of them might be used to make that concoction, but we don't know how they act separately, do we?" It was clear that he was trying to divert attention here.

Hmm… It seems that people still suspected him. Adjusting his goggles, he shook his head. "No. I'm sorry, but the two on their own wouldn't have had the desired effect you are all looking for."

"Oh really?" Now Ian was curious to see what he would say.

Nerd emoji time. "The mixture I just created was nitroglycerin. An explosive liquid." Taking out two of the three vials, he examined both of them. "It's made from nitrating glycerol with white fuming nitric acid." After examining the two of them, he put them away. "As you could expect, the nitric acid would not have the effect that Alan was put through. As for the glycerol." He pulled out the vial again. "It's non-toxic."

Ian let out a small laugh. "And we're just going to believe that? Not a risk I want to take."

Gennosuke raised his hands a bit, trying to come to Edison's defense. "I think you're trying to get the wrong person here." Pulling the lollipop out of his mouth, he flashed a charismatic grin. "Even if he could have poisoned Alan, I don't think he would be the culprit."

"But…" Benoit mumbled out. "The poison does have to do with this, doesn't it?"

Still, Sakura wasn't ready to let this lead go quite yet. "I know Ian mentioned one more thing, and instead, I'm going to question you about it." She already knew where he was going with it. There was no way she was going to let the poisoner escape. "The cleaning supplies could have been used."

"Ah!" Benoit gasped, realising where this was going. "Y-yes…" He trailed off. "I concluded poison… might have been what was used so I-I went up to the cleaning room to check on the supplies. But none of the ones I had access to were open…"

Noticing another specific use of words, Gigi spoke up. "Are you implying that the ones you couldn't access were used?"

"Ah!" Dolly called out. "I remember now. Edison had the cleaning job. How nice of him to volunteer for such a difficult role."

He quickly shook his head. "Huh? I didn't volunteer at all!"

"Hmm…" Ian had moved over to the scanner next to the glass case. "Is this how we assign jobs to ourselves?"

"Exactly." Nova nodded her head. "Once you scan your bracelet, you will register yourself for a job."

An idea was forming in his head. "Do you need to be opened to the job app to do so?"

"Nope. Just scanning your bracelet without turning it on will be fine."

That's all he needed to hear. Quickly grabbing onto Edison's arm, he pulled his bracelet into the scanner.

"H-hey!" The boy tried to protest, but he had absolutely no control.

As soon as the bracelet hit the scanner, it made a dinging sound, before registering his name onto the screen.

"Huh?"

"Oh how generous!" Dolly called out. "Get to cleaning, boy!"

He quickly moved his bracelet away. "Hey! I didn't ask for this!"

Edison was now tilting his head down.

"It's possible that the poison could have come from some of the chemicals." Dolly pointed out. "In which case, the butler did it."

"Butler…?" Dae-Hyun mumbled out.

Even after proving that the stuff he was carrying around couldn't have been used on Alan… They still choose to pursue him as the killer. "It wasn't me. And I have proof." He moved over to start tapping away at his watch. "See?" He showed his watch to reveal his status as unemployed.

"And?" Ian wasn't buying it. "That doesn't prove anything. You could have just gotten rid of it after the deed."

Looking back and forth, Michael finally decided to step up and provide the only help he could on this trial. "I have… A way to prove if he's innocent in terms of the job."

Edison liked the sound of that. "Yeah? And what is it?"

"Show us…" The hooded figure trailed off.

…

"Show us the timer."
"Timer?" First Seira was hearing of that. "What timer?"

Pulling his hood to obscure even the shadows, the mystery man shook his head. "Seems I've left out that part at the meeting. If you quit a job, you have to wait an entire day to get a new one. Nova provided us with a timer."

Well, he had a job now! Michael glanced over at his bracelet, looking through it. "And how do we quit?"

Her visor turned blue, and her expression saddened. "Oh? You already want to quit? You just started."

He put down his watch. "No. It's not that. I just want to know for the future."

Well, she couldn't fault him for that! "You can access that in the job app. You'll be given the option to quit your job. After that, you have to wait a full day to be able to accept another one. Fortunately, the watch comes with a timer so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle."

Edison had no problem showing that off. He raised his watch… only to show that there wasn't any timer. "I got rid of the job a few days ago. I wasn't going to be the cleaner."

"Then, did anyone else pick up the job?" Atlas suggested. "Everyone, show off your bracelet job status."
Surprisingly, nobody opposed this idea, however they all showed nothing out of the ordinary. No timers, and nobody had been assigned the cleaning job.

"What the hell…" The soccer player narrowed his eyes. "Does that mean that nobody opened the glass door?"

"Wait…" Now Benoit felt a bit dumb. If nobody had the job, that means he could have checked during the investigation… But now, they wouldn't be able to know.

"And?" Ian shrugged. "What's stopping Edison from simply pouring some of the contents into one of his flasks? Then he could quit the job and wait a few days."

"Huh?" The chemist took a step back. "Are you implying that I've been planning this murder for days?"

"Maybe after your humiliating loss, yeah." The gambler suggested. "You didn't seem too content, but to think you'd kill Alan instead of Gennosuke."

The psychic placed a hand on his heart. "I'm wounded at the attempt on my life."

"I didn't do anything!" However the poor chemist was running out of ways to prove his innocence.

Hae-Won let out a small sigh. "Pursuing this route seems like a dead end. There's no way to know if Edison was the one who took cleaning supplies, or if someone else managed to slip in right after he did."

Ian spent a few seconds thinking about this. She wasn't wrong, anyone could have swooped in and done exactly what he accused Edison of doing. So instead, he raised his hands in defeat. "Alright. You've got me. I'll give up." Still, he didn't like the idea that he wasted all of this time for nothing.

Soon, the timer on the wall began to flash. "Not to worry anybody or anything…" Monokawa spoke up. "But you have about forty minutes left to solve this entire thing. So I'd get to it, if I were you."

The room fell silent, only to be broken by Gennosuke. "Is there even a point to this poisoning thing?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes, slamming her hand on her podium. "Of course there is! Why wouldn't there be?"

He raised his hands in defense. "Woah, woah. I see how it is." He placed a hand on his hips. "Still, we can't forget the fact that we only have forty minutes left to find the killer."

May shook her head. "Finding the person who poisoned Alan wouldn't be a waste of time."

Benoit nodded his head. "I… I agree." He had gone through the effort to piece that together, so he wasn't going to let that information go to waste.

Gemini let out a sigh. "I know that it's important… But we can figure out who poisoned him after…"

Gigi narrowed her eyes. "And what if the person who poisoned him is the same? Are you just going to ignore it?"

"Hey." Nova looked down at Monokawa. "They're arguing."

The otter had stopped paying attention for a brief period. "Hmm?" When he looked over, a smile crept up on his face. "Oh! I love it when they fight!" He flew towards the center. "Participants! What seems to be the issue here?"

Michael shook his head. "We're torn on what we should do next…" Personally he wanted to drop the poison now. Finding out the identity of the killer was more important.

"Ah! Is that how it is?" He rubbed his hands together. "Then how about we settle this quickly?" He floated over towards where Nova was. "Then I guess it's time for a bit of a debate."

"Weren't we already doing that?" Dolly pointed out. "So what are we doing now? Debating squared?"

Floating high above the trial grounds, Monokawa spoke up. "All people in favour of discussing the poisoning, raise your hand."

Only about eight people raised their hands. This included Benoit, Dae-Hyun, Edison, Gigi, Hae-Won, May, Sakura, and Seira-

"Hey!" Atlas yelled out. "It might not seem like it, but I lifted my arm up.

"Fine!" The otter seemed annoyed. "I'll count you too. Lower your hands. Everyone who thinks we should skip this part, lift your hands."

The rest of the people had their hands up now. This was Benjamin, Gemini, Gennosuke, Ian, Laki, Lorelei, Melody, Michael, Tatiana, and Winter.

Slowly, Monokawa did some quick math. "Well, if Alan was here I'm sure he'd be part of the first group… Which means we have a tie here! So instead, why don't we speed up the process a bit."

Soon, the podiums began to shake a bit, before slowly rising from the ground.

"W-woah!" Tatiana held onto the podium tightly. Once she had stabilised her balance, she looked around in amazement. "I didn't know these could fly too."

After a while, the podiums broke away from the circle they were in. Instead, moving to either side of the room. The podiums were set up in a way that they were now facing someone on the other side of the room.

"What… Are we doing?" Benoit held onto his podium, glancing at the ground.
In between both lines of podiums, Monokawa looked around. "It's something I'd like to call Scrum Debate."

"Scum debate?" Hae-Won mumbled out. "You're the only scum I see."

"SCRUM! Whatever. Who cares."

Scrum Debate: Should we pursue the poisoner?

Ian leaned forward on his podium, seemingly not caring that it was now floating in the air, and one wrong move could send him falling. "Honestly, I think this whole entire thing is one large dead end. We should just focus on who strangled Alan." As soon as his argument was done, his podium flew away, causing him to no longer be part of the argument.

"Oh yeah! You only got ten seconds." Monokawa pointed out. "After that, you're out to let room for more people."

May let out a small yawn at that, tilting her head back. She didn't seem bothered by the fact that Ian flew away. "But this trial is meant to figure out everything that happened… Leaving any stone unturned feels a bit… wrong." Her head fell over slightly, and she fought to keep consciousness. "The poisoning directly affected this entire case, so we have to pursue the poisoner as well."

Now Michael was in the spotlight, something he very much did not like. "It may have affected the entire case… But we can't do anything with that… We don't even know what he was poisoned with."

"Um…" Now it was Benoit's turn to try and make some arguments. "As stated before, the poison would have needed to come from the cleaning room. It's the only place someone could have gotten poison."

Rolling her eyes, Lorelei felt like Benoit was an easy opponent verbally, so it was her turn now. "Oh yeah big guy? But didn't you already forget how much of a dead end thinking like this is? We can't prove that anyone took anything from there."

Adjusting his goggles, Edison swirled his flask around. "We might not be able to prove that anyone took anything from there. But we might be able to still take this poisoning route down a few more avenues." He leaned closer to inspect the green liquid within his flask. "If we inspect the effects of the poison some more, we might be able to figure out what he was poisoned with."

That sounded like a bunch of NERD talk! From NERDS! And you want to know who hates NERDS? Well a lot of people actually. Bullying has become a real probl- I mean. Laki spoke up at this very moment. "OK! Cool!" Long pause. "And how will that help us figure out the killer? It won't."

"That's all-" Edison began to speak up, but his turn was already used so it's time to move on to the next person.

"No." Sakura narrowed her eyes. "We need to figure out who poisoned Alan now." She seemed really determined to do it. "We have to do it at all costs."

Now it was Melody's turn. "I know where you're coming from… But… We don't have the time to figure this out."

"Because Ian-" Wait, Sakura's turn is already over BYE.

Now the focus shifted over towards Dae-Hyun. "You can't discount the poisoner as the killer just yet. There's still a chance that the poisoner and killer are one in the same."

"Oh?" Winter tilted her head to the side. "And why do you figure that?" To her, it didn't really make any sense. "The killer wouldn't have poisoned him, and then strangled him. They would have settled for one or the other."

Slamming his leg down onto the podium, Atlas sent a glare her way. "You really think so, huh? Well there was a reason the killer had to poison Alan. They did it to make him easier to strangle!"

Dolly let out a laugh. "Oh yeah? You assume that the killer poisoned Alan and then let him run off? Impossible! The killer would have strangled him much sooner than that. Waiting allows Alan to write out a mess-" Well she said her main point so her podium went away, allowing the next person to say their argument.

Now the focus was on Gigi, and she didn't exactly have any arguments at the ready. "Personally, I think the reason strangulation was chosen was to hide the poison from the station report."

Shifting over to Gennosuke, he let out a small laugh. "While it's true that the poison wasn't included in the station report. There was no way for the killer to know that would be the case. Come on, for the rule-" And he was gone.

It was now Seira's turn, and she was growing nervous. "Then… The killer used the poison to make it seem like somebody stronger had committed the crime."

Now it was Tatiana's turn, and she knew exactly where to take this. So ignoring most arguments before her, she flashed a cocky smile. "Actually, there exists concrete proof that the poisoner can't be the killer!" And she was just about to say it before her podium flew away.

They were running out of people now, which left Hae-Won as the last one from the truth team. "I don't believe that one bit, y'know? No such evidence has presented itself."

Lastly, it was Gemini. He let out a heavy sigh. "We've actually spoken about it before. The reason the poisoner can't be the killer is because…"

…

"They were the first person to discover the body."

Now that all eyes were on Gemini, the podiums slowly moved back over to all face each other. "Remember, we still haven't figured out who the first person to discover the body was. That means that it's likely the poisoner."

Lorelei placed a hand on her hip. "And that's why they won't admit it. If I poisoned Alan, I wouldn't admit to it."

"Hmm…" Hae-Won hummed out. "Then that means they must have gone to check up on the body. Obviously, though, they didn't find him like that assumed…"

So now they were left with the poisoner having not killed Alan. Which meant that they still had to pursue the strangulation…

Scrum Debate End

Now that they had dropped the idea entirely, and figured out that the poisoner must have been the one to have discovered the body, they were able to take it to a different direction.

May let out a small sigh, disappointed that they weren't going to figure out who the poisoner was. And yet, she wanted to take charge of the trial now. "Even if we don't figure out who the poisoner is… it's still strange…" She hummed out in thought.

Given nobody else seemed to be asking. "What is?" Atlas decided he'd bite.

Tapping her chin a few times, she hummed out again. "I was on the elevator since just before nighttime… and yet… I didn't really see anybody."

Ian was about to say something, but then he got cut off by Gigi.

"Wait." She placed a hand on her hip. "Do you mind repeating that for me?"

"I didn't really see anybody." What else would she have needed to repeat?

Quickly, the referee shook her head. "No, the other part."

"Oh… I was on the elevator since just before nighttime." That made more sense. That was an odd sentence.

Tatiana let out a nervous laugh. "You mean since right before the blackout. That's when the elevator lost power, is it not?"

"Hmm…?" While she hadn't thought of it much earlier, she felt like saying more information now. "No. When I got stuck on the elevator, the power was still on. The elevator lost power… about three hours after I got trapped."

Silence. Followed by a "What" from the knife thrower. "How does that make sense?" She couldn't wrap her mind around it. "The elevator was inactive because of Alan cutting power to the station.

"No…" Gigi trailed off, starting to get a bigger picture of what was going on. "I'm starting to believe that the elevator wasn't inactive because of the power outage."

"H-huh?" Well that didn't make sense to Tatiana. "But I couldn't use the elevator, right? What other reason would there have been that would have prevented me?"

The referee crossed her arms. "Sure, you showed up when the power began to come back on, but did you try to enter the elevator before?"

"Well… no. I only attempted the first time after my encounter with Alan. It didn't work, so I assumed the power outage made it inoperative."

"Then, there's a chance something else stopped it from working, and it would align with what May said." If she was right about this idea… Nothing would really change for this trial, but it would affect their future understanding of things. "The elevator wasn't working because of…"

…

"Rule #2."

Well since not everyone was Gigi, they would need to look at the rules again. "Rule 2 is…" Melody hummed out to herself as she checked her watch. "The nighttime rule?"

"Yes." The referee placed a hand on her hip. "It mentions that some utilities will be offline. Like the showers. However, I'm willing to bet the elevator is one of those utilities."

"T-that's absurd!" Edison took a step back, almost dropping his flask on the ground. "Why would the elevator be offline?"

Gennosuke thought for a moment, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling. "Seems kind of dumb to me." He glanced over at Nova. "Is it true? Is the elevator turned off at night?"

She didn't provide an answer.

Slowly nodding to himself, he smiled. "Figured as much." Turning his attention back to everyone else, his smile faded. "Seems like it was inoperational."

"Then…" Hae-Won spoke up. "Tatiana could have taken the elevator at any time after seven?"

Hearing that, she was feeling kind of dumb. "So…" She trailed off, letting out a nervous laugh. "No need to wait till nine, huh."

"But…" Dae-Hyun trailed off, running his hand through his hair. "What exactly does that change? Whether the elevator was active or not doesn't matter."

The referee didn't seem to believe so. Something was nagging at the back of her head, but for the time being, she felt like May should get back to her story.

Where was she? Oh. Right. "Like I said, I didn't see anybody…"

Ian could finally say the response he wanted to say earlier. "But weren't you sleeping? You could have easily missed someone."

"The elevator dings every time the doors open, so that couldn't be it." She made sure to be careful. "I wanted to make sure nothing bad would happen to me… So I kept myself alert." While sleeping. "But, ever since I got on the elevator, from the time I got off after Gigi dragged me away… I didn't see anybody besides Tatiana."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "But some of us went down while you were in the elevator. So already, that's a lie."

"Let me rephrase…" She forgot she might need to spell it to them. "Tatiana was the only person I saw go up, but never down. Your group I saw take the elevator down, and returned later…"

"Wait…" The knife thrower was realising the implication. "That means… you didn't see anyone else…" This was not looking good for her.

"But…" May trailed off. "Isn't it odd? Even if Tatiana was the killer, I should have still seen someone go up the elevator."

Not wanting people to think wrongly, Tatiana quickly jumped in. "Which I'm not, by the way. Just thought you should all know. Haha…" She let out a nervous laugh.

The academic prodigy decided to humour that. "And… if Tatiana is telling the truth… Then that means there are two people I should have seen go up the elevator."

"As we can't prove whether or not she's the killer right now…" Gigi crossed her arms. "We can still answer your conundrum." She had kept this in the back of her head ever since she attempted early this morning. "Because you weren't always in the elevator, it's possible that someone still managed to slip by you."

"Oh really?" She was really curious to hear that. "Do enlighten me…"

Raising her hand, the referee moved her finger around, getting ready to point at someone.. "Because there's one person who could have slipped up the elevator." She pointed at the individual with her black glove.

…

"Michael."

"W-what?" The hooded figure took a step back. "Why me?"

Gigi kept pointing at him, watching him like a hawk. "Because. You were the only person unaccounted for. When I gathered everyone for the tie breaker, you were the only one not to show up. And it also means that was the only time the elevator wasn't occupied."

"Huh?" Melody tilted her head to the side. "Can't be all, is it? If so, that sounds baloney." Michael didn't seem like he could hurt a fly.

Winter tilted her head to the side. "I'm inclined to agree."

"Wow, popular amongst the ladies, aren't you?" Ian wasn't impressed. "You're talking to a killer, you know."

"Besides…" Dae-Hyun trailed off. "He doesn't really have anything to defend himself with. He just has that same story of before. He felt sore, so he stayed in his room. I find that hard to believe."

"It's… It's the truth." He quickly turned to look the other way. Now he felt like he made a poor decision. Especially with all the eyes trained on him with ill intent. "Please… you have to believe me."

"We aren't going to believe shit if you just keep giving us a defense like this." Hae-Won narrowed her eyes. "At least fight or… something. Anything."

From the looks of it, he would need to fight to defend himself. But was he really capable at this time? He had nothing to prove his story. So the only thing he could do was find a different avenue. Find a way to make it so anyone else could have likely taken the elevator. "Can we go back to what we mentioned earlier… about May being in the elevator before the power outage."

"I see you there, an idea cooking." Gennosuke flashed a smile. "What about it?"

"If rule #2 includes the elevator… doesn't it seem odd?" He didn't really believe his own words here, but he knew he had to try something. "It feels… impossible for nobody to realise that until now."

May slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, that is weird. Maybe someone knew already?" Not that it helped much.

This was going to sound really stupid, but an idea appeared in Michael's head. "What if… There was another way to switch floors…" He wasn't expecting much from this idea, however…

"Matching ideas, matching pairs." Winter called out, a smile on her face. Which was just an interesting way to say she agreed with him. "I believe that it was entirely possible for someone to do exactly that."

"Really?" Michael wasn't even sure of his own idea.

"Sounds to me like you're just going to his aid." Atlas narrowed his eyes. "How about you just realise he had to be involved?"

"Now now." Gigi waved him off dismissively. "Let's hear her out. I don't want to declare anyone guilty if there's still room for doubt."

"But it seems unbelievable." Laki pointed out. "Are you telling me that there was a secret tunnel somewhere? We never found- Oh! I know where!"

…

Before she could even say something, though, Winter let out a few fake coughs to try and get everyone's attention again. Seems like they were getting way off topic now. "Like I was saying. I think there might have been a way to get from the bottom floor to the top floor without using the elevator."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "And how would they do that?"

She covered her mouth with her hand. "Well, I don't know how it's done. I only know who would know how." Lowering her hand, she scanned around the room, looking for the individual in question. "And that person is…"

…

"Gemini."

"Hey that's me!" Quickly, all eyes were on him. He only offered a smile. When he noticed that everyone was looking at him, he spoke up. "That's right. I found a way. Surprised you noticed."

Twirling her hair around her finger, she smiled. "Not like you hide it very well."

"Evening, ladies." Gemini showed up out of nowhere to greet the two.

Tatiana jumped back. "H-hey! Where did you come from?"

He tilted his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

She pointed at him. "I left you downstairs. How did you get up here?"

Now he was really confused. He pointed over towards the elevator. "I just took the elevator like anybody else."

That… was odd. She hadn't heard the elevator at all. "Are you ly-"

Winter decided to put this to an end. "Tatiana, I think you might need to get your hearing checked out as well. I saw him walking off the elevator."

Well now she didn't know what to think. Placing a hand on her forehead, she let out a sigh. "Maybe I'm just getting tired."

Realising just what that meant, Tatiana pointed a finger in her direction. "Then that means you lied to me!"

"Something like that." The love guru didn't really seem bad about it. "I didn't want to just rat him out. But now I am certain he's found a way to switch between both floors."

"Do tell, pretty boy!" Dolly urged him on. "How did you do it?"

"Well…" He trailed off, ready to give his explanation, when he realised something. The gaze of everyone was… a bit alarming. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Dae-Hyun shrugged. "If you found a way, wouldn't that make you the killer?"

Ah… that's how they viewed it! "Hey wait!" Which wasn't the truth at all. "I didn't kill Alan!" Well, this was a turn he hadn't been expecting.

"Nobody else has found a way up." May pointed out. "So wouldn't that leave you as the only one…"

"Huh…" Benoit wasn't buying it. "I… don't think the killer would admit to it." And also he just couldn't see Gemini as the killer.

"Hey-" Seira jumped in. "Gemini can't be the killer, so stop looking at him like that."

Oh? "Are you saying this with any proof?" Ian had the usual smug look on his face.

She quickly nodded her head. "Of course I have proof… I have a reason Gemini can't be the killer."

…

"I saw him leaving his room this morning."

Dae-Hyun let out a sigh. "It's true. He did leave his room this morning…"

Unlike his room, however, the lights weren't as bad. He could faintly see, but it was unreliable.

After his door opened up, a few more did.

"Free at last…" Seira mumbled out, stepping out.

Shortly after, Gemini stepped out of his room when the door opened. "Man… what was any of that?" He looked around, spotting the other two. "Same thing happened to you?"

"Yeah." Gemini shook his head. "I've been trying to get out for the past two hours."

Ian raised an eyebrow. "And what does that prove?"

She didn't think she would need to explain the implication. "With the power being off until almost 9 this morning, it would have been impossible for the killer to enter their room. Thus, anyone who was stuck in their room couldn't have been the killer."

Benoit let out a sigh of relief. "So he was stuck in there that night…"

"Then…" Winter hummed out. "Who else could have done it?"

"H-huh…" The astrologist hadn't thought that far. She just knew Gemini couldn't have been the killer.

"Couldn't the killer have seen Gemini pull off his stunt?" Gennosuke suggested. "Sounds like it would be easy."

"First!" Laki called out, interrupting everything. "I want to know how he did it!"

This got a cocky smile out of him. "You want to know the secret of my craft. It's quite simple honestly. After finishing my pizza, I attempted to return to my room via the elevator. But I quickly discovered that the elevator didn't work. It didn't take me long to realise why that was." Seems he was quick on picking up that it was because of a rule. "So… I did what any sane man would do at a time like that… I…"

…

"Scaled the elevator shaft."

Long silence.

"I… I don't think anybody sane would do that." Seira had to be the bearer of bad news.

At no point did his charismatic smile falter. "So it would seem." But he knew for a fact that he was completely sane.

"Are you saying he climbed up the entire elevator shaft?" Dolly freaked out slightly. "I knew he was hot, but to be athletic too!" She was fawning over him. Which was easier given they were right next to each other in the podium order.

Meanwhile, not everyone was as eager to believe that. "He climbed up the elevator shaft without any issues?"

"Ah…" May hummed out. "Yes. I do believe that would have been possible…" She tapped her chin. "There was something there that made it easy to do… Namely…"

…

"The spikes protruding from the elevator shaft."

"Ah yes!" Tatiana declared. "They did have those. It would have been very easy to grab onto, too."

Just when there was no room for doubt, Sakura decided to jump in. "Sure, some people would have been able to climb up it. But are we sure Gemini would have been able to?" It's not that she doubted his skills or anything, but she wanted to be absolutely sure there was no way to refute this claim.

Seira slowly nodded her head. "It wouldn't be the first time I saw him climb something like that."

"And it won't be the last." The escape gremlin added.

Maybe, but was the risk even worth it? "What do you want me to do?" But this was Gemini, and out of everyone here, he was one of the people who always seemed to have his head screwed on right.

He brought Seira along, and yet he wasn't even sure what he wanted her to do. "I'll see if I can climb up the entire door." There were barely any places to climb, however he was confident in his own skills. "I'm a master at this, watch." He grabbed onto part of the door protruding out, and slowly managed to make his way up.

Seira watched on with interest, given she didn't think it was possible. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"You know…" He stopped climbing to think for a moment. "I don't know." Nor did he care at this very moment. All that mattered was reaching the top. Alan and the others had mentioned that there was a puzzle about this entire thing.

After almost slipping to his death a few dozen times, he finally made it in a more advantageous position.

"Yes!" Gemini called out. "I'm amazing at climbing. You would be surprised how often that becomes useful. Fences can not hold me back."

"So what, the bastard just climbed up the spikes?"

"Exactly!" The escapist seemed proud of his accomplishment. "However, I ran into a problem when I reached the top of the wall."

"And that is…?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow.

Letting out a sigh, Gemini placed both his hands on his hips. "I had found a panel I could use to get to the hallway above me. However… It wasn't close to the wall at all. There was a hook that I could maybe latch onto, but it was too far for someone to reach out and grab."

Well, that seemed like a bust to Benoit. "Then… You wouldn't have been able to… grab onto it, right?"

"Not unless he wanted to risk falling…" Michael shook his head.

"Oh yeah?" Lorelei placed a hand on her hip. "Gemini could still have done it. He had one thing that made it possible."

…

"His rope."

Moving his hand over to his rope, Gemini showed it off. "Exactly. I was able to hook this onto the hook and kind of swing myself to the panel. Opening it, I brought myself up to the second floor. Of course, I was also able to retrieve my rope." Putting it back around his pants, he let out a sigh. "I can't see anyone doing this without one. "The hook would have been too uncomfortable to grab with your hands, and the likelihood that you would slip and fall to your death is high."

"Now the question is…" Gennosuke brought a hand to his chin. "Did anybody see you do this?"

He shook his head. "Nobody was in the cafeteria at that time, and I didn't hear any of the doors open. And when I reached the hallway, I looked around and saw nobody. Nobody should have seen me do it."

Atlas shook his head. "Well who the hell would be lunatic enough to try what you did?"

Swirling the contents of the flask, Edison spoke up. "We are forgetting one possibility here." He adjusted his goggles. "It's simple… Someone saw him do it."

"..." Lorelei had a dumbfounded look on her face. "Are you re-"

Hae-Won lifted her hand up. "Let's hear him out first."

Smiling back at her, Edison put away the flask. "I know nobody could have seen him from the cafeteria… But that wasn't the only place that someone could have been watching."

May was the first one to pick up what he was talking about. "You mean the-"

"Yes. The killer saw them using…"

…

"The cameras"

A silence fell into the room. If it was the cameras…

"We checked the cameras." Lorelei explained. "When we first explored the room, we were able to take a quick glance at every room." She pointed forward. "And when we looked over at the camera for the cafeteria…"

Looking at the next camera showed off the cafeteria. It was hard to imagine that one camera could capture all of this, but the only blind spot was directly under it. But given that it was so low to the ground, it wasn't a problem. From this view, one could see all the tables, the door to the kitchen, and lastly, the entirety of the elevator, including the ceiling it disappears into.

"Anyone who would have been watching that camera could have seen what Gemini did." Gigi pointed out. "Who was on camera duty?"

That's what the rest of the silence was for. Some people knew where this was going.

"Then that only leaves us two suspects." Dae-Hyun was the first to break the silence. "Only two people had access to the cameras. To operate the cameras, you needed to be assigned to it via the job function. And there were only two slots… Two slots taken up by…"

…

"Michael and Sakura."

The two remained silent for the first few seconds, with Sakura being the first one to speak up. "Just because I'm registered to the monitors, you think it's me? There could have been plenty of other ways the killer could have known how Gemini got up."

"Unlikely." Gennosuke shook his head. "It has to be one of you two."

"Really?" Lorelei raised an eye. "Then Sakura makes the most sense. Michael is bitch made."

"H-hey, no I'm-"

To prove a point, she kicked him in the knee and he crumpled to the ground. "Look how fragile he is! I of all people shouldn't be able to do that to him!"

Quickly, Melody helped him back on his feet. "There was no reason to do that. Poor fella… " She mumbled out.

He leaned a bit on his podium. "It's… fine."

Still, Atlas wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily. "You guys are so gullible, aren't you? It's a killing game. It's only natural to act weak if you want people to underestimate you."

It seemed that the hooded figure would not get a break as long as the soccer player was around.

Winter was starting to get annoyed on his part. "Do you ever back off from him? You seem to hold a grudge against him."

He didn't really, but he trusted Michael about as far as he could thro- hey wait a second. "You underestimate someone once, and it's over." He narrowed his eyes. "Unless you can prove without a shadow of a doubt that it couldn't have been Michael, then I will assume he's just as likely as Sakura."

"Then…" Edison adjusted his goggles. "Shall we prove which of the two it can be, right here, right now?"

"Are you saying you can narrow it down?" If that was true, Hae-Won was glad to hear, because she was stumped.

Swirling around his flask, he had a big smile on his face. "We can prove it by using the conclusion we reached earlier. Namely, we can prove it using the…"

…

"Letter."

"And… what does that do?" Atlas shook his head.

Inspecting the flask closer, Edison hummed out. "Earlier, we concluded with the letter that Alan went to the showers to find aid. Aid he assumed would have been there." Now it was time for the real part of his theory. "Scientifically speaking, the person he was trying to look for had to be a girl. He went to the girls' showers, after all."

"And you think that it's me… just because of that?" Sakura wasn't believing any of it. "Do better than that. Sure, I'm a girl, but that doesn't mean it was for me. Why would Alan have wanted to send me a letter in the first place?"

"Oh…" His theory had pretty much been thrown to the side. "Nonetheless!" He would just have to think of something else in the meantime.

"Nuh-huh!" Laki called out. "You aren't escaping that easily! There was a reason you received the letter!"

The security guard narrowed her eyes. "Oh? I'm curious to hear what that may be."

"The reason Alan sent that letter to you was…"
…

…

"Get you out of the security room."

"And why would he want to do that?" Sakura crossed her arms. Unbelievable theories, one after the other.

Lorelei rolled her eyes. "Because he needed to get to the locked door.. And you stood in his way."

"Why would I stand in his way? If he had a way to get into the locked door, I would have let him. There would have been no reason to get me out of the way."

"Except…" Hae-Won trailed off. "That would only hold true for any of us here… But this was Alan we are talking about. He was paranoid."

"Right!" Edison exclaimed. "And unfortunately, I think the only person he trusted was me." for some reason

"Yeah, he didn't even want me to watch their efforts on the cabinet." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "I doubt he would have trusted you of all people."

"Does that imply she's worse than you?" Ian raised an eyebrow. "Last I checked, she saved a life while you've only been a bitch to others."

The cyber security girl was about to say something else, but she was cut off by Sakura, who still wanted to defend herself. "Even if he didn't trust me, why would I in my right mind go and check out a vague note like that one? I would have had no reason to go investigate something that I could easily prove as false in a matter of seconds." That was a fair point, and for once, nobody really had anything they could say to counter that. "I wouldn't have left the room. So Alan wouldn't have been able to access the security room if I was there."

"Actually…" Michael spoke up, having begun to piece things together. "There's a reason he said the confrontation was happening in the shower…"

"Oh? And why would that be?" Sakura wasn't believing anything he had to say. At this point, she had gripped onto her baton. She stared him down with an intense gaze.

For a moment, the hooded figure felt intimidated, but he was going to hold his ground. "There's something unique about the showers compared to every other room on the first floor…"

…

"There are no cameras there."

Now that all eyes were on him again, he let out a deep breath. He didn't want to turn on Sakura like this, but he felt like he had no choice. "When I checked out the cameras again, you and I noticed something, didn't we?"

Michael moved over closer to the monitor to view all the cameras. He didn't have the time to check all of them, but every room was shown off, including several views of the hallway. The only exceptions were the rooms they slept in, and the showers.

"At least this can't be used in a negative way." Sakura was relieved that some rooms were off limits for the cameras.

"Because there were no cameras there… if you received a note like that… You would have no choice but to check out the showers in person."

Sakura remained silent for a bit, tilting her head down.

Finally, every piece was falling into place one by one. "Just admit to it." Ian leaned forward on his podium. "Save us the trouble." His eyes slowly shifted over towards the timer, which barely had above ten minutes. "Time's running out after all…"

With each second that ticked away, Sakura shifted her body ever so slightly, before slowly looking up at the people staring at her. "You say I'm the killer, but the killer would have been stuck on the first floor." She shone her light at "So, tell me. How can I be the killer, while having been on the second floor the entire time. You all saw me, remember? I joined up with you shortly after the doors opened up."

"Didn't we already establish how a killer could have gotten to the second floor without the elevator?" Seira pointed out.

Shining the light in her direction now, she shook her head. "No. Gemini had a rope on him at all times." Picking up her walkie talkie, she spoke to it. "Unlike me, none of my tools would have allowed me to get to the second floor."

None of her tools…? "No, there was something you could have used." Gemini shook his head. "There was something that when used, would have made everything easy."

Sakura held onto her baton, slamming it onto her hand. "Then what the hell did I use? Tell me!" She pointed the baton at him.

Letting out a sigh, he shook his head. "If you say so… What you used was…"

…

"The rope from the Ultimate Talent Manager Station."

"Right." Dae-Hyun crossed his arms. "Using that, she could have easily made it up the elevator."

The walkie-talkie began to make a lot of noise, and Sakura had to take a step back. Regaining her footing, she began to crush it a bit. "The rope? What the hell…" She glared over at him. "You say I used the rope to get up to the second floor." Sakura pointed out. "But then how did it end up back down in the Ultimate Talent Manager Station?"

This was actually quite the easy answer. Almost too easy of an answer, Hae-Won thought to herself. "And here you are, playing stupid. You don't think we know how you were able to get the rope back down to the first floor? You used…"

…

"The locker room."

"That's right!" Tatiana exclaimed. "With the locker room, anyone would have been able to send something to Dae-Hyun's station, given it had a compartment there."

He slowly nodded his head. "Yes. There was one. Monokawa got sent down there."

"Oh! You received my gift!" The knife thrower was rather happy about this. "Wonderful!"

The talent manager gave her a dumbfounded look before shaking his head. "So using the locker room, you'd be able to send the rope back down."

Tilting her head down, the security guard shook her head, flashing the flashlight towards Dae-Hyun, who seemed mostly unbothered since his hair obscured the light. "You say that, but don't you remember the state of the station? With the power out, I wouldn't have been able to send the rope down at all. So are you implying that I just kept the rope on me, or that I even risked leaving it in the locker room where someone could discover it? That seems like a bad bet to make."

However, this time it was Gigi's turn to stand against her. "That's not exactly true. You would have still been able to hide the rope in the locker room."

What the hell was she talking about? "Oh yeah, you and what proof?"

"Same one I've been pulling from the entire time. You would have been able to hide it in the locker room because…"

…

"The lockers themselves could be opened during the blackout."

Reaching back for the letter she had received from Nova. "As stated here…"

Here's what functions would have been unusable during the power outage for every room:

Motive Room: The monitor in the back, and the buttons on the table.

Cafeteria: Food services, and the monitor in the back.

Cleaning Room: The glass door would not be usable.

Locker Room: The additional function of sending your storage would be unusable.

Kitchen: All appliances, including the trash chute.

Ultimate Talent Manager Station: Props requiring electricity would have been unusable.

"Only the option to send off the contents of your locker away was disabled during the blackout. Which meant that you could have still hid the rope." Gigi pointed out, putting the note away. "You're running out of avenues of argument rapidly."

Crossing her arms, it was true. "That's a possibility, but do you have any proof that I did just that?" Her eyes drifted to the side, inspecting everyone's looks. "You say I sent the rope down, but do you have any proof that I actually did it? For the most part, it just seems like you're just saying what you wanted."

That was the one thing they seemed to be lacking at the moment. However…

"You want to make a bet on that?" Ian called out with a cocky grin on his face.

What the hell could Ian even prove? "Oh yeah? Sure. I'll bite. I'll make whatever bet you want to." She might have lost the chess game to him, but she wasn't going to back out.

Letting out a small laugh, the gambler stood up straight, pulling out his deck of cards. "Honestly, I figured something like this would happen, so I made sure I came prepared."

That's when Benoit remembered their interaction before the trial. "That's right… you checked out the locker room."

Exactly. "And…" He reached out for a piece of paper. "I went searching for any information that I could gather. I was able to figure out who had a locker in the first place." He took a glance at the paper. "Hae-Won, Tatiana, and…" He trailed off. "You, Sakura."

"Y'know, he isn't lying." Hae-Won tilted her head down, a smile on her face. "Tatiana and I registered our fingers when we first explored the room." Which meant Sakura being there was pretty damning.
"Not only that, but I had someone provide me with a list." The gambler continued, slowly turning his attention over to Monokawa. "Isn't that right?"

"Oh!" The otter looked around. "Yeah, I guess I did do that. Didn't think you'd admit it."

Ian shrugged. "You ratted me out earlier, so it was only fair. But I was able to determine when the contents were sent. The first time that function was used was about four days ago."

"Yup!" Tatiana yelled out. "That's when I sent out Monokawa down to the Ultimate Talent Manager Station."

After the knife thrower was done, Ian continued. "But there was one more use of the function. At 10:30 this morning, the function was used again."
Gigi thought back a bit. "Yeah, I know where I was at that time. I was…"

"I…" It was a hard decision to come up with. "That's just if nothing else happens." But someone would have to bite the bullet and kill if they wanted any chance of surviving. The life of many outweigh the life of two. This reminded me of the trolley proble-

Soon, footsteps came down the hall from the upper portion of the Omicron Sector. "Ah, that's where you are." It was Sakura. "What are you speaking about?"

Letting out a sigh, Gigi spoke up. "Talking about ending the motive." Although she knew Sakura wouldn't take too kindly to it.

"Don't do anything stupid." The security guard narrowed her eyes. "There's no reason to give up hope right now." As much as a body dropping now would make everything easier.

"You had just returned from the locker room at that time, hadn't you?" Gigi crossed her arms.

Now, Sakura couldn't dispute the fact if Monokawa was the one who gave it directly. If Ian had given it, she could play it off as him trying to frame her. She held onto her baton again. "And?" There was still one thing they were missing. "Why would I have killed Alan? If all you say is true, he would have already been dying. There'd be no reason for me to get my hands dirty."

Now this time, Benoit finally had another idea up your sleeve. "It… It made sense to kill him." He felt weird having to utter that phrase.

Narrowing her eyes, she yelled at him. "And what would that be?"

Feeling the pressure now, he almost took a step back… But he had to speak his mind. "The motive… the motive…" It was quite sad, honestly. "The motive was…"

…

"To prevent him from dying from the poison."

Gemini frowned slightly, trying to think of a reason. "But what would that have done?" In the end, Alan was dead, so nothing had changed.

Ian tilted his head to the side. "I see…" Seems it had misunderstood things. "Like a mercy kill, if you will?"

"Huh…" That's not at all what Benoit had in mind, but they didn't give him the chance to speak up.

Still, the accused said nothing. Just staring at the ground the entire time.

"But…" Michael mumbled out. "If it was a mercy kill, what was the point of the entire trial… She could have just told us."

Hae-Won shook her head. "No. She needed there to be a trial. She couldn't tell us… because she had her own motive for this trial."

"Huh?" How could she have a motive for the trial? "What do you mean?"

"The reason she took this to a trial was to…"

…

"Find who poisoned Alan." She crossed her arms. "It's why she was so vocal about trying to figure out who poisoned him, even with the time limit slowly expiring."

The person who poisoned Alan… Sakura clenched her fist, slamming it down on the podium. She had been hoping to find out who the hell did that, and yet… nothing came of it.

Looking at the ceiling, the tattoo artist let out a sigh. "Damn… Let's just go over the entire case…"

Act 1: Alan had his own motives last night. He probably had them for a while, given he took the taser right after his minigame. That's probably when he began hatching his plan. Wish he told one of us about it. Right before midnight struck, he set up his plan to get the culprit out of the room they had been monitoring. He left a note for them. The note instructed the culprit that a confrontation was going to happen in the showers. Unable to check the monitors to confirm it, they were forced to leave the room to go investigate themselves.

Act 2: Given free range to use the monitoring room, Alan made his way to the power fuse. From what he was told, a high voltage would be enough to trip the power in the entire station. Using the taser, he was able to overload it and send the station into a power outage. Because of that, all the doors that were locked opened up, while the rooms we were staying in shut down completely. This included the door he wanted to explore. The second door that was blocked off in the monitoring room.

Act 3: This was his plan all along, y'know. Open the door and find what he's looking for. Unfortunately, someone had managed to sneak up on him. I'm not sure how it went down, but the attacker must have gotten the upper hand on him, and poisoned him. From there, he was almost shit out of luck. He was going to die with all the blood he was vomiting. That left the first splotch of blood of the night.

Act 4: However, Alan wasn't out of luck. Because he sent out that note to the culprit, he knew where to find them. That's why he moved over towards the girl's side of the shower to investigate. However, misfortune struck him… He was unable to find the culprit. Because of that, he was forced to find help elsewhere. The easiest place to get help would have been on the second floor. For that, he made his way towards the cafeteria, leaving two new splotches of blood there. One in the middle of the cafeteria, and one on the door. However, because of rule #2, he was unable to access the elevator at all, leaving him with even less options.

Act 5: Thankfully, he thought he might have had a chance to be saved. He heard a noise coming from the kitchen, and decided to investigate. If he could get any form of help, he'd be in the clear. Unfortunately… Things didn't work out as he had hoped. He found Tatiana, but due to the blackout, and because of the poison, he was unable to communicate with her. Panicking, Tatiana attempted to defend herself by attacking him with the knife. This left a streak of blood on the counter, and Alan was forced to retreat.

Act 6: With that, all avenues of escape were done. He was forced to realise just how little time he had left. He made his way back towards Tau Sector, maybe hoping to gain a little bit of more information. And that's when he finally ran into the culprit. The culprit had found him almost dead. Because words were unable to be exchanged, and with Alan beyond saving. They made the ultimate choice of strangling him, forcing him to die to something other than the poison.

Act 7: Alan didn't even have the energy to fight back, given that no scratch marks were ever found on his body, nor did anyone here have evidence on their own hands. The culprit was left with a body that they had caused. Thinking for a bit, they moved his body over to the Ultimate Talent Manager Station, and began to set up the scene of a fake murder. They set him down on the chair by the desk. Using the mouse that Dae-Hyun left behind, they were able to access the room beyond the walls.

Act 8: With the help of the taser they had found on Alan, they used it to cause the walls of the station to break. This caused the entire room to turn to shit. The walls weren't allowed to close. This also allowed the culprit a way to get back into the room. Now that the walls were in this state, they could use the latches on the wall to tie the rope around it, before wrapping it around Alan's neck. With the force of the wall, it gave the illusion that he was strangled by rope. Next, because of the force exerted by the wall, part of the rope snapped off. But this worked in favour of the blackened.

Act 9: Because now they were able to use the rope for the next part of their plan. They needed the rope if they wanted any chances to get back up to the second floor. The other day, they had witnessed Gemini switching floors without the need of the elevator. All the culprit had to do was climb up the spikes, and use the rope to swing themselves over to the panel. Now, they were free to roam around on the second floor.

Act 10: Now on the second floor, they needed a way to get the rope back to the Ultimate Talent Manager Station. Luckily, the locker room had just what they needed. Sticking the rope into the locker, they tried to send it away. Only to find out that the power outage prevented them from doing so. They were instead forced to wait until the power came back on to fulfil the rest of their plan. Once the doors opened back up, they joined up with us like nothing had happened. Once the power returned after the tenth game, they were forced to wait until after the tie breaker to send the contents of the locker down to the Ultimate Station."

"This is a murder that could only have been committed by you, Sakura Gambino, the Ultimate Security Guard!"

Maybe not the best case in the world, but I still had a lot of fun writing it! And I think it was a decent case to start off the entire story. Don't worry, they'll get better than this, and hopefully more convoluted.

It's very weird how much this case changed since I first came up with it. To the point I had to rewrite the entire closing argument again. XE So much evidence changed. The blood spots were in the same places, but they had slightly different meanings. But the general beats of Alan getting poisoned, slashed by Tatiana, and strangled by Sakura stayed the same. Just a lot of minor changes. Originally the note was supposed to send Sakura to the Ultimate Talent Manager Station, but chose not to have it be there. That's just among several of the changes I ended up making. Maybe once the story is done, I'll list them all off. But for now, there's some secrets I want to hold tightly to my chest :D

As many people had predicted, it was Sakura the killer, but maybe people thought it was going to be her before the body even dropped anyways, so there was no escaping that fate.

Also this is completely because Project didn't want to send in the interview, and you can't prove otherwise :D Maybe next time you'll learn, fuckface.

Next chapter will be the epilogue, and we will say goodbye to Sakura Gambino, the Ultimate Security Guard. Looking forward to writing that out.

Participants Remaining: 19

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Benoit Chevalier - The Ultimate Physiotherapist [Epifanio Therion]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

Giustina "Gigi" Giulio - The Ultimate Referee [Nekoja]

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Computer Security Specialist [CandleFire45]

Michael ? - The Ultimate ? [Omakin]

Melody Eleanor Hopkins - The Ultimate Tap Dancer [Prince PokePersona]

Kim Dae-Hyun - The Ultimate Talent Manager [oddlyillregular]

Lakshmi "Laki" Krishna - The Ultimate Lucky Student [Sempi]

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Ian Santiago - The Ultimate Gambler [Animeboy15]

Tatiana Novak - The Ultimate Knife Thrower [ExtraMeme]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]

Kim Hae-Won - The Ultimate Tattoo Artist [Weekaro]

Sakura Gambino - The Ultimate Security Guard [PROJECT DRAMA]