The ship had docked at a secret Future Foundation base, where the courtroom awaited.

The judge's bench stood tall in the back of the room, and public galleries lined the sides. The prosecution and defense desks sat on opposing sides, and a row of witness stands was placed towards the front of the room.

A considerable crowd filled the gallery, chattering with anticipation. Kyoko stood by Makoto's side at the defense's desk, and Juzo Sakakura stood behind the prosecution's desk.

Sakakura folded his arms. His and Kyoko's eyes locked in a mutual cold stare.

Juzo Sakakura. I don't know what your problem with Makoto is, but I won't let you hurt him.

The bailiff addressed the court. "All rise."

Everyone did so as the Chairman himself walked to the judge's bench. Kazuo Tengan. So he was presiding over this trial personally.

Tengan sat down and pounded his gavel. "Court is now in session for the trial of Makoto Naegi."

"The prosecution is ready, Your Honor," Sakakura said.

"The defense is ready, Your Honor," Kyoko said.

"Very good," Tengan said. "Sakakura-kun, your opening statement."

With a nod, Sakakura began. "At 11:20pm on the night of the murder, security found the defendant by the victim's corpse inside her quarters. In the defendant's hand was the murder weapon, a statue of Kazuo Tengan."

Tengan chuckled. "Oh, my. I'm the murder weapon?"

Kyoko narrowed her eyes. A woman is dead, Your Honor.

Sakakura ignored Tengan's distasteful sense of humor and continued. "Logs captured by the room's terminal show that the defendant rang the bell at 11:15pm. At least two witnesses overheard the confrontation that ensued. Based on their description of events, the victim died at about 11:18pm. Nagata-san sounded the alarm, and security apprehended the suspect. The witnesses' testimony will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the defendant is guilty of this heinous crime."

'At least' two, huh?

Tengan nodded. "Very well. Let's hear their testimony."

Akihiro Nagata and Aoi Eguchi took their places on the witness stands.

"Witnesses," Sakakura said, "state your name and rank for the court."

Nagata gave an excessively empathic salute. "Akihiro Nagata! Thirteenth Division Officer!"

Eguchi smiled calmly. "Aoi Eguchi, Thirteenth Division Head."

Sakakura faced Eguchi. "Tell us what you heard on the night of the murder."

"I could hardly believe it," Eguchi said. "I was in my room, looking over a document, when all of a sudden I heard shouting over in Nakazawa's room."

"Who did you hear?" Sakakura asked.

"The defendant and the victim, of course."

Makoto's face twisted in confusion. "He heard… me?"

"What did they say?" Sakakura pressed.

Eguchi grinned. "I'll tell you every word. Listen closely, everyone. This is the tragic tale of a boy who lost his family…"

"N-Naegi-kun? What are you doing?!"

"I know what you did, Nakazawa! I know you took my family!"

"Wh-what?! Naegi, I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Liar! We found the footage! We saw you do it!"

"F-footage? What?"

"Where are they?! Where's my parents?! Where's Komaru?!"

"I don't know! I swear!"

"Bullshit! Talk! Now!"

"Naegi, put that down!"

"Answer me!"

"S-stay away from me!"

"Get back here!"

Makoto broke into a sweat as he stared at Eguchi with wide eyes. "Th-that's a lie! I never said any of that!"

"But it's true!" Nagata said. "I was close to Nakazawa's room myself, and I heard it exactly as Eguchi described!"

Kyoko held her chin as she analyzed that statement. If Nagata claims to have heard the same confrontation, then this suggests that he and Eguchi are co-conspirators in Nakazawa's murder, but is it really that simple?

I didn't hear anything, but I was farther away. I can't be sure if there were noises or not.

"Of course, I ran to the scene," Eguchi said. "The door was open, and I saw the defendant over Nakazawa's body, literally red-handed. I guarded the exit while Nagata rang the alarm."

Murmurs rang throughout the gallery as people debated if Nagata and Eguchi were telling the truth.

The implication is that Nakazawa opened the door when she tried to run from Makoto, but Makoto cut her off and killed her for trying to escape. This would be consistent with the placement of the body. Not a poorly constructed lie, but…

"That must have been quite the shock," Tengan said.

"Nothing we couldn't handle," Nagata said. "I know nothing about that business with Naegi's family, but I couldn't let him get away with murder."

"Well-said," Tengan commended. "With Nagata-kun corroborating Eguchi-kun's testimony, I see little room for doubt."

"Seriously?!" Makoto shouted. "They could be –"

Kyoko threw her arm in front of Makoto, silencing him. "If it pleases the court," Kyoko said, "the defense would like to call their own witness."

Tengan nodded. "Bring them out."

Her whole body trembling, Toko took her stand.

"Witness," Kyoko said, "state your name and rank for the court."

She shivered. "T-Toko Fukawa. I'm just an intern, n-not even a full member."

"On the night of the murder, where were you?" Kyoko asked.

"I-in my room," Toko said.

"Your room is directly below the victim's room, correct?"

"Y-yes."

"Did you hear anything from the room above?"

"I heard a crashing s-sound," Toko said.

"When was this?" Kyoko asked.

"J-just before the alarm went off."

"Did you hear any shouting?" Kyoko asked.

Toko shook her head. "N-no, nothing like that. Just a thud and then the alarm. That's a-all."

The crowd chattered again.

"… shouldn't she have heard the shouting, too?

"… were they lying?"

"… or is she lying?"

Kyoko knew it was too early to celebrate. There was still a hole that needed to be addressed. Kyoko braced for the imminent –

"Objection!"

Sakakura said, "there is another witness that must be questioned."

Toko yelped. "A-another witness? Wh-what are you talking about?!"

"Genocide Jill," Sakakura said. "You and her don't share memories. We need to cross reference with her to verify your claims."

"Th-that's not necessary!" Toko yelled. "I w-would never let her out! Not here! Sh-she might as well be –"

"The defense concurs," Kyoko said. "Genocide Jill must be questioned."

Even if it was a trap…

To reach the truth, we need to know what she heard.

Toko continued to protest. "B-but! But!"

Sakakura's eyes pierced Toko with a venomous glare. Toko's legs quivered. "I… I…"

"Witness," Tengan said, "as long as you have not committed a crime, I assure you that you will not be punished for testifying." He furrowed his brow. "What you will be punished for, is perjury."

Toko gasped. "P-perjury?! N-no! I'm not lying! I'll cooperate!"

"Then let her out," Sakakura said. He stared at the collar around Toko's neck. "Or we will bring her out."

"O-okay, fine!" Toko said. "You asked for it! Here goes…

"AH-CHOO!"

A menacing grin spread across 'Toko's' face as her unnaturally long tongue lashed out. She looked around and scanned her surroundings. "What, what, what, whaaaaat?! Court's in session?! You finally putting dear old Jill on trial?!"

"Genocide Jill," Kyoko said, "sorry to drag you to the stand without warning, but your other self was being difficult."

Genocide Jill's eyes sparkled. "Hamburger Hands! And Big Mac! What are you two doing playing lawyer?!"

"We need your help," Makoto said. "There's been a murder, and we think you might know something."

Genocide Jill raised an eyebrow. "You think I did it?! Sorry, but I haven't seen any action for so long! I barely know what's going on anymore!"

"No, not you," Kyoko said. "Just answer my questions. When's the last time you were awake?"

Genocide Jill shrugged. "Hard to say, but maybe not too long ago. I was in her room, I guess."

"Did you contact anyone?" Kyoko asked.

"You bet I did!" Genocide Jill exclaimed. "Since I'm out for so little these days, there's no way I was passing up an opportunity to send messages of love to Master!"

"So it was you!" Makoto said.

"Oh? Did mopey me take credit? She must have been covering her ass! Those were all me, baby!"

"Then we can assume you were awake by 11:05pm?" Kyoko asked.

"Wasn't watching the clock," Genocide Jill said. "But if that's when the texts started, yep!"

Kyoko looked at Tengan. "Please pull up the text messages sent from Fukawa-san's phone to Togami-kun."

Although Byakuya had deleted the texts on his phone, the records remained in the ship's network. The texts were displayed on a monitor next to the judge's bench. The timestamps began at 11:05pm.

Fukawa: maaaaaasteeeeerrrrrr…

Fukawa: come to me master!

Fukawa: i waaaaaaant uuuuuuuu!

Kyoko glanced at Genocide Jill. "Are these the texts you sent?"

"Yep, yep!" Genocide Jill affirmed.

Tengan's eyes seemed glued to the screen as he scrolled down. "My, these are some… passionate messages."

Fukawa: u r the light in my darkness! the prince of my dreams! no boy has ever made my heart race like u!

Fukawa: come master! weve waited long enough!

Fukawa: master! look what i found!

Everyone in the courtroom gasped or groaned in disgust as a piece of artwork was displayed, depicting Toko and Byakuya performing an act best left undescribed.

Fukawa: THIS COULD BE US RIGHT NOW!

Fukawa: DONT YOU SEE? EVEN THE INTERNET KNOWS WE ARE MADE FOR EACH OTHER!

The public gallery was filled with horrified faces, but none more so than Byakuya. His face was deathly pale as he looked away from the monitor, grimacing darkly. "Th-this filth has no place in court! Put that away!"

Kyoko forced herself not to cringe. She felt bad for Byakuya, but they had to verify that Genocide Jill was behind the texts.

I wonder, do such drawing exist of…

Kyoko cleared her throat. "Yes, we have confirmed what we needed. The exhibit may be shut off now." As Tengan turned off the display, Kyoko continued to question Genocide Jill. "What else happened that night?"

Suddenly, Genocide Jill gasped as if realizing something. "Oh, I get it now! I know who the killer is!"

Kyoko showed no reaction. So that's how it is.

"You do?!" Makoto exclaimed.

Genocide Jill's gaze fixed on Makoto with an ominous aura. "But of course you should know! It was you, Eggy Boy!"

Makoto froze. "Huh?"

The gallery erupted.

"… even she's accusing him?!"

"… then there's no doubt."

"… case closed!"

Makoto stared at Genocide Jill with wide eyes. "Wh-what? How can you say that?!"

Genocide Jill pointed her finger at Makoto. "I heard you! I heard everything you said!"

"What are you talking about?!" Makoto frantically asked.

"That Nakazawa person took your family or whatever, and she wouldn't talk, so you ended her!"

"No! That's not…!"

"Witness," Sakakura said, "please describe the incident in detail."

Genocide Jill smiled sweetly. "You got it!"

She recounted the confrontation between Makoto and Nakazawa, exactly as Eguchi had described.

His body trembling, Makoto spread his arms as he collapsed onto the desk. "Th-this can't be…"

Sakakura addressed the court. "As you can see, the witness remembers the incident exactly as Nagata-san and Eguchi-san. And since this witness does not share memories with her other self, we can be certain that she is describing the events from her own memory. She had not heard Nagata-san or Eguchi-san testify. She knows how it happened because it's the truth."

Kyoko's chest tightened, but she didn't allow her nervousness to show. It would have been easy if Nagata and Eguchi had simply lied about the sounds that night, but now it was clear that the perpetrator had somehow produced fake voices. She had to keep pressing the witness.

"Genocide Jill," Kyoko said, "are you certain that the voices belonged to Naegi-kun and Nakazawa-sama?"

Genocide Jill emphatically raised her arms. "One-hundred-percent! No doubt about it!"

"It couldn't have been an act?" Kyoko asked.

Genocide Jill shrugged. "If they were actors, they were the best I've ever heard. It was Hope Boy's exact voice. The exact same voice."

"Could it have been prerecorded?" Kyoko questioned. "Or perhaps AI generated?"

"Nope!" Genocide Jill insisted. "They were definitely not coming from a speaker! They were authentic human voices!"

"How can you tell?!" Makoto demanded.

"I'm not an idiot!" Genocide Jill yelled. "Anyone with a functioning brain can tell the difference between a machine and a fleshy human! Sorry, Spike Head, but I can't help what I heard!"

Sakakura sighed. "I think this charade has gone on long enough."

Tengan nodded. "Indeed. In light of this evidence, it would not be unreasonable to proceed to adjudication."

"Hold it!"

Kyoko thrust her finger towards the Chairman. "You can't do that! There are still mysteries to solve!"

"What mysteries?" Sakakura asked. "We have three witnesses, including one of your own friends, swearing to the defendant's guilt. What more proof do you need?"

Kyoko returned her focus to Genocide Jill. "What was the last thing you remember?"

Genocide Jill slapped her forehead. "Oh, right. After Big Mac screamed 'get back here!' there was a loud crashing noise, and the next thing I knew, I ended up right here."

That's it? "Did you hear an alarm?" Kyoko asked.

"No, nothing like that," Genocide Jill said.

"But you did hear a thud," Kyoko said.

"Uh, yeah," Genocide Jill said, confused.

Kyoko's eyes pierced into Sakakura. "Do you not understand what this means?"

Sakakura shrugged. "What? We've already established that there was a crash before the alarm rang. There's nothing more to add."

"No! That's wrong!"

Kyoko pointed her finger firmly at Sakakura. "There wasn't one crash; there were two."

Sakakura scowled. "Two?"

"Fukawa-san believed that the crash she heard was immediately before the alarm rang, but she was mistaken, because the shock of the sudden, loud sound had caused her to switch to her other personality, therefore creating the illusion that no time had passed. In reality, the sound that Fukawa-san heard was at 11:05pm, and the sound that Genocide Jill heard was at 11:18pm."

"What's your point?" Sakakura asked.

Kyoko furrowed her brow. "Is it not obvious? The second sound was just a cover-up; the actual sound of the victim's corpse hitting the floor was at 11:05pm."

"Objection!"

Sakakura slammed his fist against his desk. "Baseless conjecture! That sound could have been anything! Perhaps Nakazawa tripped or something. Furthermore, there are logs showing that Nakazawa visited Yasui at 11:09pm! She was still alive!"

"Objection!"

Kyoko's gloved hands pressed against her desk. "So the logs say, but did anyone actually witness Nakazawa-sama alive after 11:05pm? With their own eyes?"

"What are you implying?!" Sakakura demanded.

Makoto scratched his chin. "Umm, can we really be sure the body wasn't moved? Maybe the killer used her body at the retina scanners. They could have covered the initial wound to avoid leaving traces in the hallway, and maybe the wounds dealt after death were carefully done to make the blood pattern look undisturbed."

"Perhaps," Kyoko said, "but it would have been extremely risky. If the culprit had been caught dragging a body all the way to Yasui-san's room, it would have been over. Nagata-san had entered the quarters at 11:07pm, after all."

"Hey! Whose side are you on?!" Hiro shouted from the gallery.

Kyoko turned towards Nagata. "Well? Did you see anything?"

Nagata tilted his head. "Hmm? No, I didn't see anything."

"What about the doors?" Kyoko asked. "Were they open or closed?"

"They were all closed," Nagata said.

Makoto held his chin in intense thought. "Closed…"

Kyoko continued questioning Nagata. "What did you do when you got to your room?"

"Wait a minute…"

"Oh, I just stayed inside," Nagata said. "It had been a long day, and I was eager for some –"

"No! That's wrong!"

Makoto thrust his finger towards Nagata. "You couldn't have stayed in your room!"

Nagata folded his arms. "Oh, is that right?"

Kyoko smirked. "Well? Care to explain?"

As he did so, Makoto's hazel eyes brimmed with determination. "When I left my room at 11:13pm, everyone's doors were closed, including Nakazawa-sama's. The doors automatically lock when closed, but there's no record that Nakazawa-sama's door had been unlocked from the outside since 11:10pm. That means the culprit must have been hiding inside, and that means they weren't in their own room.

"But Kirigiri, when you left your room at 11:19pm, the doors to Eguchi and Yasui-san's rooms were open. There's also no logs showing that they had ever been unlocked from the outside after 11:00pm. Someone must have been inside each of those rooms to open them. In other words, at 11:13pm, we can be sure that someone was inside Nakazawa-sama's room, Eguchi's room, and Yasui-san's room."

Kyoko's smile widened. "And the only room unaccounted for…"

Makoto shot an accusatory glare at Nagata. "Yours."

Pride swelled within Kyoko's heart. Well-done, Makoto.

A fire burned inside Eguchi's eyes. "What are you saying?"

Nagata gave an amused huff. "You think I'm the killer? Nice theory. One little problem. If the victim died at 11:05pm as you claim, then I couldn't have killed her. I wasn't in the quarters at the time."

"That's…" Makoto clenched his teeth. "Damn it!"

"You may not be the killer," Kyoko said, "but that doesn't mean you are innocent."

"Oh?" Nagata laughed. "Whatever do you mean?"

Kyoko folded her arms. "You could still be the one who assaulted my client."

"Ridiculous!" Eguchi shouted. "Aki is no criminal!"

Of course you would say that, but I also have someone to protect.

"My reasoning suggests otherwise," Kyoko said coldly. "Your emotions have no place in this courtroom."

Nagata grinned. "Can you back that up? Maybe I can't prove I was in my room, but can you prove that the opposite is true?"

"Someone must have been in Nakazawa's room!" Makoto shouted.

"And could it not have been Nakazawa herself?" Nagata challenged. "Or, here's a thought. You think it has to be me because 'only' my door was closed, but was my room the only one like that? Someone else had their door closed, didn't they?"

Makoto's face reddened with anger. "You aren't saying…?"

"Yes," Nagata said. "What about Kirigiri?"

"No way!" Makoto yelled.

Nagata's grin widened. "Your emotions have no place in this courtroom."

Kyoko scowled. "Nagata-san, you saw me leave my room."

Nagata looked up and pressed a finger to his chin. "Oh? Did I? I can't remember; it all happened so fast…"

"You…" Makoto seethed. "Now I'm sure. It was you who attacked me!"

Nagata waggled his finger. "Again, do you have evidence? This is a court of law. If you don't have the evidence, you have nothing. That's how trials work."

"Very true," Sakakura said.

With a frustrated growl, Makoto's fingers clawed against the desk.

"And what about you?" Kyoko countered. "Do you have evidence that I attacked Naegi-kun?"

Nagata shrugged. "No, just throwing out the possibility."

Hmm, not taking the bait, are we? I guess it won't be that easy.

Tengan shook his head. "I'm afraid the defense's allegations against Nagata-kun are insufficient."

"Indeed," Sakakura said. "The prosecution formally requests –"

"Objection!"

Kyoko shouted, "there's still another mystery! We still don't know how the rooms were wiretapped! Until we answer that, we can't call a verdict!"

"Oh! There were wiretaps?" Nagata asked.

Sakakura nodded. "Every room, save for Kirigiri's, contained unidentified surveillance devices."

"Everyone but Kirigiri?" Nagata grinned. "Suspicious…"

Kyoko scoffed. "If I were the one behind it, do you not think I would have bugged my own room to avoid this exact problem?"

"Hey, I'm just saying…"

Sakakura stared darkly at Kyoko. "I assume you have a theory?"

Kyoko pressed a hand against her hip. "There are only two ways to access someone's quarters. Either pass the retinal scan, or be allowed in by someone already inside. My client had never allowed any of the suspects into his room. Therefore, there's no way around it. Only the former is possible. Someone is able to fool the retina scanner."

Sakakura grunted. "Impossible."

Impossible? It would have been difficult, certainly, but impossible? Kyoko could think of someone who would be capable.

If I'm right about this…

Kyoko faced Genocide Jill. "One last question."

"Oh, hey!" Genocide Jill exclaimed. "And here I thought you forgot about me!"

"The two voices you heard," Kyoko said. "Did you ever hear them speak over each other?"

Genocide Jill raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Like, did they ever talk at the same time?"

"Yes, that is the question."

Genocide Jill massaged her chin. "I don't think so…?"

A smile creeped up Kyoko's face. "Really? Does that not strike you as odd? In such a heated confrontation, would you not expect them to yell over each other?"

"I guess…?" Genocide Jill wondered aloud.

Her smile widening, Kyoko crossed her arms. "I see. That's very interesting. Thank you, Jill-san. No further questions." She turned to Tengan. "Now, I believe it's time we heard from the last person known to have seen Nakazawa-sama alive."

"Very well," Tengan said. "Let's hear what Yasui-kun has to say." He took out some kind of remote. "But first, I believe we may dismiss Fukawa-kun."

He pressed a button, and Genocide Jill's body suddenly convulsed wildly as she clutched the collar around her neck. Her tongue retreated inside her mouth. She groaned. "Uh, i-is it over?"

"Indeed," Tengan said. "You were a lovely witness. You may go."

"O-okay…"

Toko was escorted back to the gallery while Yasui took her place at the witness stand. Like the others, Sakakura asked for her name and rank.

"Yuri Yasui, Fourteenth Division Officer."

Yasui's gaze didn't meet anyone. She stared darkly into space.

"Did Nakazawa-san visit you on the night of the murder?" Sakakura asked.

"Yes," Yasui said quietly.

"And what was the nature of this visit?"

Yasui stood silently for a while, still avoiding eye contact. "I… refuse."

Sakakura narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?"

"I refuse to testify," Yasui said.

"What? Why?!" Makoto shouted.

With an irritated growl, Sakakura shook his head. "It matters not. We don't need your testimony."

Nagata sniffled. "I d-didn't want your testimony anyway, idiot!"

Tengan hummed. "Well, if the witness has nothing to add, I believe today's proceedings may come to an –"

"Objection!"

Kyoko yelled, "the defense has a right to cross examine the witness!"

Sakakura scoffed. "If she won't speak, what is there to cross examine?"

Kyoko took out a pen and paper and placed it on the desk. "Yasui-san, would you please come forward?"

Reluctantly, Yasui approached Kyoko at the defense's desk. Kyoko handed her the pen. "Can you sign your name?"

Yasui shrugged, but she did as asked. With her left hand, she took the pen and wrote her signature.

Just as I thought.

Yasui had worn a pistol on her left hip, even though she had lost her left eye. Clearly, she wasn't shooting according to eye dominance, therefore…

"Yasui-san, are you left-handed?"

Yasui's face twisted in confusion for a moment before she clenched her teeth. "Wh-what of it?"

Kyoko glanced towards Tengan. "Please pull up the exhibit of the victim's face."

Nakazawa's face was displayed on the LCD screen. Kyoko pointed at Nakazawa's blackened right eye. "Yasui-san, did you inflict this injury on the victim?"

Yasui lowered her head, refusing to speak.

"Yasui-san," Kyoko pressed, "if one were to strike someone's face with their left hand, which eye are they more likely to hit?"

"Objection!"

Sakakura's hands violently plunged into his desk. "Circumstantial evidence at best! Anyone can throw a punch with their left hand, regardless of -"

"Yes," Yasui said. "I punched Nakazawa-sama."

"Whoa! She just straight up admitted it!" Hiro shouted from the gallery.

As more murmurs ran through the gallery, Kyoko continued to question the witness. "Why did you do such a thing?"

Yasui whimpered. "That night… Nakazawa-sama… confessed something to me."

Makoto swallowed.

"What did she confess?" Kyoko asked calmly.

"She… admitted to kidnapping several relatives of Hope's Peak Academy's 78th Class."

This earned a bit more chatter among the crowd. The secret of Nakazawa's crime had already come out, but it was still a small shock to hear that she had admitted it. This was also the first they were hearing of her involvement in other kidnappings.

Yasui grimaced. "She said that it wouldn't be long until her crimes were exposed, and she wanted me to hear it from her first."

"Was she still in contact with the Remnants?" Kyoko asked.

"This is what she said…"

"… are you fucking serious?"

"I didn't want to, but they had my family, too."

"Your family? But…"

"When I got the order to kill Naegi-kun's parents… I couldn't do it."

Blood drained from Makoto's terrified face. "K-kill?"

"I don't know what happened in the end," Yasui said. "Maybe they're still alive. Maybe not."

Makoto tried to calm himself with a deep breath. "Did she at least know where they had been taken?"

"Towa City," Yasui said.

"Towa City?"

"That's all she knew."

Kyoko hummed. Towa City, one of the few places relatively unscathed by The Tragedy. It was hard to say how reliable this information was, but perhaps the Future Foundation would eventually narrow down the captives' locations.

"Wait a minute," Makoto said. "You're telling me that Nakazawa knew this whole time, and didn't tell anyone?"

Yasui frowned. "Yeah, that's what I said."

"You mean… you knew that all this time, and you just sat on it?"

"I… I'm sorry, but I couldn't risk my position."

"Your position?!"

"I know that sounds bad, but… nngh!"

"Get out…"

"Y-Yasui –"

"I said get out…"

"… don't you understand?! I'm one of the few voices of reason in this bloodthirsty organization! It has to be me! Someone else might get it wrong! I can't let that…!"

"GET THE FUCK OUT!"

"So that's why you struck her," Kyoko said.

"I…" Yasui's voice cracked. "I was angry, but I didn't kill her. I would never kill her."

"And what about her alleged second visit?" Kyoko asked.

"She rang the bell," Yasui said, "but I didn't let her in. I yelled at her to leave."

Kyoko quietly breathed a sigh of relief. "So you didn't see her."

"No," Yasui said. "Not until… we found her body."

Makoto solemnly lowered his head. "I'm so sorry."

Kyoko resisted the urge to tell him that it was too soon to declare Yasui innocent. Although…

Kyoko looked fiercely at Sakakura. "As the witness stated, she did not see Nakazawa-sama alive past 11:05pm. She also shouted quite loudly when ordering her to leave. This means anyone could have followed the victim as she went back to her room and killed her."

Sakakura folded his arms. "Then how do you explain the voice of Naegi confronting the victim? Even if the culprit had the means to perfectly mimic both Naegi and Nakazawa's voices, they would also need to know about the investigation. And the only one aboard the ship who had been informed was you, Kirigiri-san."

"That's right!" Nagata exclaimed. "Man, the evidence against Kirigiri just keeps pilling up!"

Kyoko closed her eyes. "Yes, that is an important question. How did the culprit know about Nakazawa-sama's crimes?"

Makoto stroked his chin. "Could… Eguchi have overheard it? He was in the room next to Yasui-san, so maybe when they were talking –"

"Hold it!"

Eguchi shook his fist. "Now wait just a minute! Let's say, for the sake of argument, I had been plotting to kill Nakazawa. If I had overheard that Nakazawa was about to be arrested, why would I have gone through with it? What motive would I still have?"

"That's true," Kyoko said. "There would be little reason to kill someone who is about to be incarcerated. Although it's unclear if Nakazawa-sama would have been executed, at the very least we can be certain that she would have been permanently stripped of her rank. It's possible that the killer did not know this."

"But, the killer had to have known," Makoto said.

Kyoko shook her head. "No, that's wrong."

Makoto opened his mouth in confusion. "What?"

"The killer did not need to know," Kyoko said. "The only one who needed to know is the one who dragged you to Nakazawa-sama's room."

Makoto gasped. "So, you think they weren't even working together?"

"It's a possibility," Kyoko said. "A likely one, if we consider the circumstances of the murder."

"The circumstances?"

"The murder was not planned," Kyoko said. "It relied on Nakazawa-sama spontaneously visiting Yasui-san of her own volition. It was an opportunistic kill, which suggests that the killer was acting alone."

"Okay," Makoto said, "but even if that's true, someone still needed to know."

"True," Kyoko said. "To figure out how your attacker could have known of the investigation, let us construct a profile of their behavior. The culprit went out of their way to frame you. Why? To protect the killer? Or was it not merely a means to an end?"

Makoto hummed. "But like you said, they could have just killed me."

"Correct, so why would they want to frame you, specifically? What kind of person would want not only to kill, but to tarnish the reputation of the Ultimate Hope?"

Makoto's eyes widened. "Are you saying…?"

Kyoko raised her index finger as she explained. "Think about it. I may have been the only member of the Future Foundation who knew, but there is another party who would be well-aware of what Nakazawa-sama had done. The ones who allowed us to find the evidence in the first place."

"So, the culprit is a…"

Kyoko nodded. "There is a Remnant of Despair among us."

"Objection!"

The courtroom trembled as Sakakura's fist once more slammed into his desk. "You don't have a shred of evidence! If you're so sure, then who is it? Who is the traitor?"

"First," Kyoko said, "we must determine how my client's abduction was pulled off. If the criminal who assaulted my client was not working with the killer, then how did my client's attacker know about the murder? To know this, they must have been the one to bug Nakazawa-sama's room, and as I said before, the culprit is capable of tricking the retinal scan."

"But how could anyone fool the retinal scan?" Sakakura asked.

"I don't know," Makoto said, "but wouldn't they have had to? Because, if we assume that the killer wasn't working with my attacker, then the killer would have closed the door after killing Nakazawa-sama, which would have automatically locked it with Nakazawa's body still inside. For my attacker to get in, they would have needed to pass the retinal scan on their own."

Kyoko smiled proudly. "Excellent reasoning, Naegi-kun. This is another reason why the criminal scanned Nakazawa-sama's retina by Yasui-san's door at 11:09pm. Not only did it create the illusion that Nakazawa-sama was alive, it gave them a cover to unlock the door to Nakazawa-sama's room."

Sakakura growled. "Until you explain how this is possible, you're wasting our time."

"The suspect also forged my handwriting," Kyoko said. "According to my client, it was a perfect forgery. The criminal then knocked out my client in the breakroom without leaving a trace behind, not even a strand of hair. They then perfectly mimicked the voices of both my client and the victim to make my client look like the killer."

"Are you listening to yourself?!" Sakakura snapped. "What you're saying, it's impossible!"

Kyoko gave a lopsided smile. "Impossible, you say? Don't you know? Impossible crimes are my specialty."

"Then who is it?!" Sakakura yelled. "Who in the world is capable of pulling this off?!"

"Who, indeed?"

That should be obvious by now, but how to prove it?

And if we prove it, will it lead us to the true culprit?

Kyoko pointed her finger…