Chapter 4: Secrets Revealed

Vanishing Act

"Don't leave us in suspense, Herr Wright," Klavier imposed. "Who do you claim to be the killer?"

"I think the killer in this case… is Chihiro herself. This wasn't a murder at all— it was a suicide."

Saying it out loud felt entirely different than merely considering the possibility. By putting it into the world, he was now truly confronting the possibility that Chihiro had killed herself.

"I'll cut through your words!"

By now, Phoenix was pretty used to interjections. But they had always come from one of the attorneys or one of the lucksters. This time, however, the exclamation came from right next to him.

"M… Maya?!" Phoenix exclaimed in disbelief.

"How could you accuse Chihiro of something like that, Nick?!" Maya demanded, her eyes sparkling. For once, Phoenix felt uncomfortable to be positioned next to Maya in the courtroom.

"I…" He tried to explain, but the words got caught in his throat.

"Chihiro was just as dedicated as the rest of us to escaping," Maya began. "Besides, a suicide just doesn't make sense! How could she have completed the deadly gauntlet at 12:50, locked up the Outer Hall, hid the key, destroyed the elevator, and made it back to the Outer Hall within 10 minutes?"

Phoenix failed to get a word in edgewise— Maya was refusing to even breathe until she finished her tirade.

"It's not like her to make solving the case as difficult as possible. Not to mention there's no way for her to strangle herself with a bunch of chains in that empty room! Any way you slice it, it just doesn't add up!"

Finally, Maya had concluded her rebuttal, allowing Phoenix to explain his line of thinking.

"I know there's a lot of things that still need to be explained," Phoenix began, "but every trial so far has had a less-than-obvious conclusion. We need to consider every angle. If we discuss my theory, we can determine whether or not it was correct. A suicide would explain a lot about the odd nature of Chihiro's death."

"A suicide is impossible!" Maya reiterated. It seemed she was, in fact, not done with her rebuttal. "If she really did commit suicide, why did she make it so hard to find out the truth? Was she trying to take us all out with her? And I'll repeat that she couldn't have strangled herself!"

Phoenix pursed his lips. He hated arguing against Maya, but he had no choice. "No, she could have strangled herself. Because I think the chains are a red herring, and that the true cause of death… was the rope."

"The… rope?"

"Everything about the rope has been bugging me since we found it," Phoenix began. "The door handles in the First Life Room were bent upwards, which wouldn't really make sense if the rope was used to tie the doors shut. Additionally, there are only a few frays near one side of the rope? Why? I think Chihiro tied the rope to the door handles, then tossed the rope over the top of the door before closing it. The rope would be taut, and tying it to the door handles ensures it would be strong enough to hold her body weight. She formed a noose with the rope… and hung herself. The frays are from the tension created by her body pulling down on the rope."

"And how do you propose she lifted herself off the ground in the first place?" Klavier questioned. "She couldn't have hung herself without being suspended somehow."

Phoenix nodded. "This is where the extra chair comes in. She took a chair from one of the empty rooms in the Prosecutor House and stood atop it before kicking it away. As for why she did it in the Outer Hall— since she completed the First Life Room via the Prosecutor House, she wouldn't have known about the true layout of the structure, and would have assumed her body would be discovered by anyone entering the Outer Hall."

"The wounds on Chihiro's neck are more in line with a hanging than a strangulation," Kyoko pointed out. "If she had truly been strangled by the chains, then we would have expected a much thicker wound wrapping around her whole neck, but with a hanging, the wound doesn't usually encircle the throat, akin to what we saw in this case."

"The way her body was positioned might also be evidence," Chiaki added. "If she had been strangled, you would expect her hands to be reaching for her throat, but instead they were resting by her side."

Maya bit her lip. "Could it really be true…?"

"Would a suicide even cause a class trial?" Makoto asked.

"Of course!" Monokuma answered. "Suicide is a form of murder! But don't take my response as evidence for this trial one way or the other— I'm just here to make sure your discussion is fair!"

The room was silent for a few moments as Phoenix's theory settled in. He knew there was one glaring flaw, and he was waiting for someone to point it out— because he had the answer to it.

Eventually, Apollo tossed his hands up, letting them flop lazily onto his podium. "Do I really need to be the one to say it? This doesn't make any sense. The extra chair was found in Chihiro's room, not in the Outer Hall. And Kyoko found her lying on the ground with a chain, not a rope, tied around her neck."

Phoenix nodded confidently. "That's right."

"So, how do you explain that?" Apollo scoffed. "Did her corpse get up and rearrange the crime scene after she killed herself?"

"No. There are multiple details and scattered mysteries about this case that don't seem to add up. But the truth is, this entire case has been manipulated by another's hand. Chihiro never intended for there to be any confusion regarding her death… but Nagito did."

Phoenix expected the albino to laugh maniacally at this accusation, but he merely gazed at Phoenix with mild amusement. After another few moments of silence, Klavier spoke up, giving one simple command:

"Elaborate."

"As far as we know, no one else has cleared the First Life Room. Nagito has been strangely cooperative in this trial, providing us with countless details about the First Life Room, all of which seem to line up with reality. But he only told us enough to keep the trial going, never going beyond answering what he was asked. But he's tipped his hand a bit too far. It's seeming likely that Chihiro actually committed suicide. So, who could have used a bundle of chains to lock up the Outer Hall and re-frame Chihiro's death as a murder? Who could have used a sledgehammer to destroy the elevator button, slowing our investigation without hindering their ability to get to the Prosecutor House? Nagito."

Phoenix expected Nagito to exclaim "No, that's wrong!", but instead he merely continued gazing at Phoenix with a bemused expression.

"All of this is built on the assumption that Fräulein Fujisaki did, in fact, commit suicide," Klavier noted. "But, Herr Wright— I fear you have become caught up in your solo, neglecting the other band members in this concert of yours."

Phoenix tilted his head, struggling to understand Klavier's analogy. "What are you saying?"

"Motive, Herr Wright. Why would Fräulein Fujisaki do this?"

"Klavier, are you defending Nagito?" Apollo accused, pointing at the rockstar.

"Of course not. I merely require further explanation before accepting this."

"Also, why would Nagito mess with the crime scene in the first place?" Chiaki added. "It doesn't really help him to make a trial more complicated…"

"Um, I know I probably shouldn't be piling on like this," Makoto said apologetically, "but I thought of one more problem with this explanation."

"Yes?" Phoenix sighed. This was not a foreign feeling to him, having his theories attacked from every angle, but he knew he was capable of defending this one.

"How did Nagito get between the houses during the investigation? If he had chained up the door, he wouldn't have been able to enter the Outer Hall. But if he hadn't chained it up, then we could have followed him."

Phoenix closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his palms. He was beginning to wonder if he was really correct with his theory.

Then, he froze. A small smile slowly crept onto his face.

"Makoto, you're a genius!" He exclaimed. "That's the proof we were missing."

Makoto tilted his head. "Oh… Uh, you're welcome? Sorry, what did I say that proves anything?"

"If the Lawyer House door was indeed chained up, then you're correct in saying Nagito wouldn't have been able to use the secret passageway," Phoenix explained. "But, he clearly did. That means that the doors couldn't have been chained up, because he wouldn't have been able to get through them."

Makoto placed his fingers on his chin and furrowed his brow. "But the door was undeniably chained up when we went and checked it."

Phoenix nodded. "Exactly. Which means it was chained up after he entered but before we arrived."

Makoto snapped his fingers. "So he must have chained up the door after entering so he couldn't be followed!"

"But he definitely wasn't carrying a bundle of chains plus a lock with him when we woke up," Phoenix continued. "Which means he had them set up in there."

"And the only reason for him to have left chains in the Outer Hall…"

"...Is if he set everything else up." Phoenix felt a sense of pride for Makoto, who caught on to his line of thinking very quickly and was able to put together the solution.

Maya narrowed her eyes at Nagito. "You really did mess with Chihiro's body?! What's wrong with you?"

Nagito shrugged. "Nothing's wrong with me. I would argue that only those who cleared the deadly gauntlet can truly see things as they are."

"But you aren't denying the accusations," Chiaki noted.

Nagito remained silent.

Klavier sighed. "Every time we think you can stoop no lower, you find a way to surprise us. Your existence is vile."

"I think this proves my theory," Phoenix concluded. "Should w-"

"Objection!" Klavier interjected. "Herr Wright, please remember my question. All you have proven is that Nagito tampered with the crime scene. This does not prove that Fräulein Fujisaki ended her own life."

Phoenix clenched his jaw. Klavier was right. He had gotten too caught up in proving Nagito's interference, that he had neglected to prove the crux of his theory.

"And also my question," Chiaki added quietly, "but I guess the 'why' isn't really important since it's clear Nagito is responsible for messing with the crime scene."

"Let the intelligent people speak," Nagito snarled. "They're almost there."

Phoenix went over the details of the case in his mind again. Yes, the evidence pointed to his theory being correct, but he had yet to satisfy everyone.

"If I may," Kyoko said, interrupting his train of thought, "I believe I have the answer."

Klavier gestured vaguely with both of his hands, signaling for Kyoko to continue.

"I'm sure we've all noticed Nagito's strangely out-of-character behavior as of late," Kyoko began. Most of the courtroom nodded in response. "He went from revering all of us for being 'Ultimates' to insulting and scorning us. This shift happened between yesterday and today, and the obvious catalyst for this is whatever he found beyond the door to the First Life Room."

"Didn't Klavier ask about Chihiro?" Maya asked.

"Allow me to finish," Kyoko said icily. "If something lies beyond those doors which can create such a major personality change in someone whose entire existence was built upon being a stepping stone for Ultimates, then it's only logical that whatever Chihiro and Nagito learned is monumentally earth-shattering."

Phoenix saw where Kyoko was going, and he certainly agreed— but he knew better than to interrupt her.

"Therefore, it's not unreasonable to assume whatever Chihiro learned drove her to suicide," Kyoko concluded. "But there's another reason— I believe she wanted to help the rest of us escape."

"It's just like Nick theorized!" Maya realized. "The killer in this case did this so the rest of us wouldn't be trapped underground anymore!"

Kyoko nodded. "Precisely. As for why she didn't tell us what she discovered— perhaps it was something she didn't wish to impose on the rest of us, or perhaps Nagito stole her suicide note. Regardless, it's unlikely we'll deduce what she could have found."

"An excellent deduction, Kyoko," Nagito applauded, interrupting Kyoko's explanation. "And, well done to you, Phoenix, for uncovering the truth, both about the layout of the building and Chihiro's suicide."

"Are you being sarcastic?" Makoto asked.

"Not at all," Nagito answered. "I may not respect many of you, but I can respect solid deductions."

"That's enough out of you!" Apollo roared. "You mutilated a crime scene and made us suffer through a broken elevator, and for what? So you could watch as we try to figure out your idiotic mystery?"

Nagito smiled eerily. "I had a very good reason to do this, but I doubt you will ever understand."

"Isn't it suspicious that Nagito so freely admits to all of this?" Chiaki asked. "Last time he did that, he was misdirecting us."

Phoenix shook his head. "That doesn't appear to be the case this time."

"How can we be sure?" Maya asked. "I feel a bit uncomfortable taking him at his word."

"Perhaps someone can summarize the whole case?" Nagito suggested haughtily. "It's become tradition at this point, why stop now?"

Phoenix sighed. "I'll do it."

Understanding this death requires an understanding of the layout of the two halls. We assumed the Prosecutor House was on top of the Lawyer House, and the layout of the Outer Hall helped prove this. The truth is, there are two identical Outer Halls, and the Lawyer House is actually on top of the Prosecutor House. The doors in the Outer Hall which appear to lead to the opposing halls are actually fake.

This death was caused not by a selfish desire, but by a selfless want to let the rest of us escape. With Monokuma's explanation that we couldn't leave without a murder, the killer decided to take matters into their own hands. They cleared the First Life Room in an attempt to find another way out, but instead they found something which prompted them to take their own life. First, they took a rope that they received as a prize and tied it to the handles on the inside of the door to the First Life Room. Then, they wrapped it over the door and hung themselves in the Outer Hall using a chair from an empty room.

This should have been the end of it, but one of us had other ideas. At around 3:30 AM, Nagito cleared the First Life Room and discovered the secret of the halls' layout. When leaving the Outer Hall via the Prosecutor House, he stumbled across the corpse and decided to modify the scene to make the truth harder to deduce. First, he lowered the body onto the floor and replaced the rope with a chain. Next, he chained up the faux door on the first floor of the Outer Hall. He then went back to the Lawyer House and destroyed the elevator button. While the rest of us were preoccupied with the phone call, he snuck away and chained up the entrance to the second Outer Hall via the Lawyer House before dropping down to the Prosecutor House, leaving none of us the wiser.

Unfortunately, all of that was just smoke and mirrors. Because, this case was a suicide. And that means the 'killer…'

"Is Chihiro Fujisaki."

He looked around the room. Most of the group seemed satisfied (if not slightly horrified) with his explanation. Nagito sported a demented grin, as per usual.

"Chihiro…" Maya held her hands to her chest.

"Is there anything left to discuss?" Klavier asked.

Apollo exhaled slowly. "I don't think so. I think we can go ahead and vote. Any objections?"

The response was a somber chorus of shaking heads and "no"'s. It seemed everyone was more than ready to be done with the trial and the Lawyer/Prosecutor Houses. Phoenix never thought he would actually miss Kurain Village.

"Voting time?" Monokuma perked up. "Well, if you're all in agreement, then let's get started! I'll give you all three seconds to object. One… two… three!"

No one protested, and once Monokuma's count concluded, the slot machines popped out of their podiums.

Phoenix steeled himself before selecting Chihiro's face and confidently pulling the lever.

Normally, only the pixelated faces of the living students would appear on the slots. This time; however, he saw 9 faces quickly whirling by— the 8 living students plus Chihiro. —Click!— The first slot landed on Chihiro. He hated to admit it, but this might have been the best possible outcome for the trial. —Click!— Since it was a suicide, they only had to lose one of their friends. He would have preferred they all found a way out together, but Chihiro had taken matters into her own hands in a manner which spared everyone else. —Click!— Of course, Nagito had thrown a wrench into what should have been a simple trial. Even so, Phoenix got the sense that he did it not out of some twisted sense of fun, but rather to… how had he put it? Construct a ladder to help them ascend to a greater hope?

The slots all rested on Chihiro's face, and, like usual, a brief fanfare played as flowers and monocoins erupted from the machine. Although there were more coins than last time (as only 4 of them had voted accurately in the previous trial), with only 8 people voting this time, the cascading tokens were much quieter than they had been in the first two trials.

"Well done, that's four for four!" Monokuma clapped. He leapt down from his throne as it and the podiums slid into the ground.

"So," the bear said upon landing, "obviously there isn't a blackened for you all to have an emotional and sappy goodbye with, so we should just get this over with, yeah?"

"Finally, something sensible from you," Klavier said, looking down on the bear with disdain.

"Fun fact!" Monokuma tapped his temple with a claw. "Artificial Intelligences can actually be made to feel pain! If you program an aversion to certain stimuli, it's functionally equivalent to any wounds I could afflict to you all!"

"And you bring this up… why?" Klavier asked.

"To assure you all that the following execution is still going to be tremendously painful!"

Phoenix was shocked to hear there would still be an execution— if the blackened was already dead, who was Monokuma going to…

Of course. He knew the answer. The one mystery they hadn't solved was the disappearance of the laptop containing Alter Ego. But now, the truth was becoming clear. Alter Ego hadn't been hidden by anyone, not even Nagito. Monokuma had confiscated the laptop to preserve for the upcoming class trial… because he was going to execute the AI.

"Well, no sense saying goodbye to a computer program, right?" Monokuma taunted. "Might as well get started with the execution!"

Phoenix wanted to protest, but he knew it wasn't worth wasting his energy. Everyone else seemed to be of a similar mindset as a television screen popped out of the ground, displaying whatever twisted execution Monokuma had come up with.

"Let's give it everything we've got! It's… Punishment Time!"

~~Chihiro Fujisaki has been found guilty!~~

~~Time for the execution!~~

System Failure:

The laptop containing Alter Ego was placed on a lone wooden pedestal in the center of an empty room. The visage of Chihiro seemed serene, its eyes slowly drifting back and forth, taking in the situation.

A cord of some kind flew out of the wall and plugged into the laptop. The AI flinched, its visual representation malfunctioning slightly. Another wire attached itself to the computer, and Chihiro's face became more noticeably glitched. Scattered sections of pixels rapidly flickered and inverted their colors as Alter Ego became further distressed.

As more wires connected to every port on the laptop, visible beams of electricity started arcing through the air. Alter Ego's pain grew as the keyboard and screen began melting away from the heat being created.

A particular beam of electricity ignited the laptop battery, which sparked before erupting in flames. Beads of sweat appeared on Alter Chihiro's face, the pain clearly visible in the digital representation.

The wall in front of Alter Ego suddenly collapsed, and Monokuma emerged wielding a fire hose. After briefly assessing the situation, the bear activated the hose, completely drenching the laptop. As the water crashed into every crevice, the laptop was slowly pushed back, until it finally toppled off pedestal. The screen finally switched off just before the computer crashed into the ground, shattering to pieces. Monokuma stomped on it a few times, further crumbling the hardware, before vanishing as the room slowly faded away.

Phoenix hated watching what was essentially Chihiro experiencing a second death. Although they had not spent a lot of time with Alter Ego, Chihiro's world-changing invention was now forever erased from the world, with neither the creator nor the program left alive.

Monokuma re-appeared. "I sure am glad I got to execute someone this time! Suicides are always scary— what if I'm left without someone to execute? I would probably die of sadness!"

"Why did you execute Alter Ego?!" Maya demanded. "She was innocent!"

"Are you not breaking your own rules?" Kyoko added.

Monokuma wagged a finger at Kyoko. "Not at all! The rules state that the blackened in a case will be executed. Since the blackened in this case was Chihiro Fujisaki, executing a perfect digital copy of her seems more than fair."

"I disagree," Phoenix countered. "Nothing about this scenario was fair. You're becoming sloppy, Monokuma. You're getting rid of the oh-so inconvenient 'rules' and changing the structure of the game how you see fit. The truth is, you're concerned about us."

Monokuma guffawed. "Concerned? You can't be serious! I'm more afraid of mice than I am of you all!"

"It doesn't seem very ethical for a headmaster to lie to his students," Nagito scolded.

"I'm not lying!" Monokuma stomped a foot.

"You're being oddly defensive," Apollo observed drily. "Even without my full ability, it's pretty clear you're tense about something."

"I don't need this!" The bear scowled. "Get on the elevator and get out of my sight!"

Monokuma disappeared. With nothing else left in the courtroom, the remaining 8 students entered the elevator (which had reverted to its industrial appearance). Despite everything— despite losing four of his friends in three days— Phoenix couldn't help but feel as though Monokuma was finally losing his grip on them. Even Nagito had stopped insulting the other students for a moment to pile on against their captor. Was it too much to hope that this trial would be the catalyst to unite the rest of them to bring down the mastermind?

The cynic in him said it wouldn't be. But, even if there were more class trials in the future, he knew he couldn't give up the fight, and he knew the others wouldn't, either.

As the elevator doors opened to reveal the Channeling Chamber, Phoenix exited the elevator with a newfound vigor. The day was still young, and as he stepped into the sunlight, he resolved that Chihiro's sacrifice would not be in vain.

Nagito failed to suppress his laughter as he closed the door to his yurt. With Chihiro's suicide, the rest of the class had no doubt cast aside any desire to continue playing this game. As such, it fell to him, and him alone, to become the stepping stone that would propel the final students to new heights.

No, not to new hopes. Not because they were Ultimates. But simply because they were not yet ready to face the mastermind and win. The weak needed to be purged, and the strong needed more trials. They had done well to solve the mystery regarding Chihiro's death, but it wasn't enough.

If he was lucky, he might be able to end the game within a week. But when had his luck ever worked in his favor when the chips were down?

He stepped into his bathroom, once again thinking over what Alter Ego had told him. He had been quite lucky (a sign that he had misfortune in his future) to be the first to stumble upon Chihiro's suicide— he was the only one who got to view what could only be considered a suicide note. However, instead of a note, the Ultimate Programmer had let his virtual duplicate deliver the message, which included an explanation of the programmer's discoveries and his reasoning behind committing suicide. Kyoko had been right on the money with her theory regarding Chihiro's motivations, save for the part where Chihiro explained that while he identified as male, he presented as female to avoid seeming weak. The hope displayed by Chihiro in attempting to overcome his perceived weakness and save everyone had brought tears to Nagito's eyes... at least before he'd learned the rest of the programmer's discoveries.

Of course, Nagito had hidden the laptop in his room after hearing the message, but it had vanished during the night. At first, he thought one of the other students had stolen it from him, but it truly seemed as if he was the only one to hear Alter Ego's explanation of Chihiro's suicide, since Monokuma was the one to confiscate the laptop.

Everything he learned from the First Life Room could be explained by what Chihiro had discovered. Unfortunately, freely handing out this information would only cause despair. Even if hope was no longer his objective, he still knew he couldn't allow despair to flourish. No, the others would need to come to this conclusion on their own if they wanted to continue.

"So then…" Nagito clapped, producing the rewards he had received from the First Life Room. "Let the games begin!"