Chapter 1: Burning Lights, Burning Spirit (Part 6) (Investigation)


Warning!

This is a Danganronpa Fic, so expect dark and serious themes! And also expect some choice words that might upset people - thanks to a certain Gas Station Manager! But also expect fun and whimsical themes as well! I hope you enjoy!


[Pheme's Room]

"Miss Pheme. Have you perused through the provided documents? Do any stand out to you?" The Figure asked her.

Pheme sat on her chair, looking over a large stack of documents. She had looked these over countless times, but she just isn't sure on what to decide. She was deciding on who should be a part of her fabulous killing game, but she was indecisive on who she would choose first. Who would be the first person granted the privilege of being a part of the Goddess of Fame's killing game? Pheme had a lot to think about.

"These Alumni have such fascinating profiles..." Pheme said aloud. "Such interesting pasts... as well as interesting traumas..." Pheme said that last part with a slight giggle.

"Well Miss Pheme? Do any stand out to you?" The Figure repeated themselves.

"Hm. Let me look at these other ones once more..." Pheme grabbed a stack of stray documents from a nearby table to look through.

"Let's see... Massandra Cura? Ultimate Best Girl? Mm, I'm afraid not. Not glamorous enough." Pheme threw that document to the side.

"How about this one? This is... Prince Gotterle Candold? Ultimate Fantic Writer? Nope. Not enough trauma for me!" Pheme threw that document away as well.

"This next one is... wait. Hold on..." Pheme intensely eyed the document she held, her interest clearly piqued.

Pheme took a couple of minutes, and read over the entire document. It was... fascinating.

"This one! This shall be the first person chosen to be a part of my glorious game!" Pheme stood up and threw the document in question into the air in her excitement.

The Figure ignored Pheme dancing around like a madwoman and picked up the document she showed interest in, and read it over themselves.

"Hmm. I see. Bessie B. Blossom is it?" The Figure intently read over the document.

"Yes! Yes! Bessie B. Blossom! Did you see? She's the Ultimate Pop Star! Oh, what a glorious and fun talent!" Pheme sang as she danced around. But she suddenly stopped when an idea popped into her head.

"Ah! I have an idea!" Pheme sat back down and pulled up a video on her computer. "Here! It's a performance video of hers! This was linked in the document! Let's have a listen!"

Pheme was talking to the The Figure, but they weren't listening to her. The Figure was still reading over Bessie's document with a concentrated look on their face.

But Pheme didn't care. She was just excited to watch her performance video!

Pheme went and clicked play on the video, and waited in anticipation for it to start.

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[Wax-Ember XLV - Performance Stage]

Bessie B. Blossom was standing offstage, currently hiding from the crowd. She didn't usually get nervous before performance, but something about this time was... different.

She peeked out and saw the ravenous and plentiful fans waiting for her performance. She knew she had to go out there and do her best. Do her best... for her.

Bessie was mentally preparing herself to go out there and perform her heart out, before she was stopped by the feeling of a hand on her shoulder. Bessie turned around at the feeling, and saw Ryuji Yamamoto, her talent manager... and her father.

"Bessie. What's taking you so long?" Ryuji asked, without a hint of kindness or gentleness.

"Boss? I..." Bessie paused.

Ryuji sighed and shook his head, having a feeling what her problem was. He wasn't in the mood for this again.

"Listen... Bessie..." Ryuji sounded out his words, like he was thinking of a way to somehow comfort her.

"I don't pay you to stand around and mope. So get out there!" Oop, he definitely wasn't going to comfort her. Ryuji half-pushed his daughter out onto the stage.

Bessie stumbled onto the stage, and instantly, the roaring applause and cheering filled her hearing. It was all she could hear. She looked out over the crowd. Who knows how many people were here? Hundreds? Thousands? All here to watch her perform and sing. Sing...

Bessie tried not to get lost in the complex machinery that is her mind, but she can't help it sometimes. Sing... Sing... Sing...

The word "sing" echoed in her mind over and over again. Yes. She has to sing. It's what she has to do. She is Bessie B. Blossom. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Bessie shook her head, in attempt to bring herself back to the real world. She looked over at her father, and saw him giving a hand motion, signaling her to hurry it up. Bessie understood. She took a deep breath. And...

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"Bzzzzzztttt~ What's the buzz my little helpers? It's your sunny-side-up gal Bessie B. here with another hit song for us to dance to. If you're feeling down, it'll get you back in the groove and right on tune… so… let's smile… and sing… forever and ever… together~" Bessie announced to the crowd. The cheering just didn't stop.

"WOOOOO! I LOVE YOU BESSIE B.!"

"YOU'RE THE BEST BESSIE!"

"I WANT YOU TO READ ME A BEDTIME STORY!"

"HAVE MY BABIES!"

All sorts of cheers could be heard from the crowd, some conventional, and some, well, not. That didn't stop Bessie though. With one last quick stretch, she grabbed her microphone... and... started singing...

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"Thank you everyone! I love all of my little helpers~!" Bessie had finished with her performance and was thanking the crowd. She had difficulty sounding legitimately thankful, even if she actually was. Luckily, her fans were a special breed, and seemed to understand her, no matter how she might've sounded.

Bessie walked off stage and sighed in relief. Another good performance. She really hoped she did her proud.

Ryuji was waiting impatiently offstage for his daughter and brightest star to return. He didn't intend to offer her any respite after her performance.

"Good job out there Bessie. Now c'mon, hop to it. Let's give some autographs, handshakes, pictures, whatever the fans want okay?" He may have worded it like a question, but it was more like a command. Whatever he told Bessie to do, she did it. End of story. She was like a loyal machine to her father.

So Bessie accompanied her father out to the countless lines of fans, all wanting a hug, handshake, autograph, or just something in general from their favorite pop star. Bessie had a bit of a cult following. People really liked her work. Perhaps a bit too much. Bessie didn't mind or care at all. Any fame she could gain, she took. All to make her proud.

Bessie walked through the crowd of fans, trying not to get crushed by the sheer volume of them. So many words and cheers echoed and stayed in her brain, like someone was carving something into metal. The words of her fans.

"Bessie! Can you sign my shirt?"

...

"Marry me Bessie B.!"

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"Can you sign my eyelids Bessie B.?"

...

Again, some were stranger than others. But she didn't mind it. She valued her fans a lot. She needed to value them. Like it was something programmed into her, or like her prime objective. And gaining fame was... also programmed into her. She knew that sounded ridiculous, but she didn't know how else to describe it.

So she gave autographs, answered questions, gave hugs, took pictures, anything her fans wanted. She did it all... for her.

Bessie continued to serve her fans, until she overheard a conversation from two people from within the crowd.

"Huh? That's Bessie B.?"

"Yeah! Isn't she great? Aren't you glad I dragged you here?"

"Uhh. Not really?"

"What? Why?"

"Her music is like... soooo creepy. It was like I was listening to cultist music. And she talks so creepy too! She's so weird! Ew, she's such a freak!"

"But... it's part of her charm..."

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Bessie tried to ignore that conversation.

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After the show had fully concluded, Bessie was now riding home in a limousine, along with her father. The ride home was filled with mostly small talk. But Ryuji did decide to strike up a small conversation.

"Bessie. How was it out there?"

Bessie blinked. She didn't expect a question from him. "What do you mean?" She asked back.

"What I mean is... how was it? You're still relatively early in your career, and considering... what had happened recently... I need to know how you are doing." Ryuji may have sounded concerned on paper, but in reality, he wasn't at all. Him asking his daughter about how she was doing was more... an annoying obligation. She needed to be in working order at all times after all.

Bessie stayed silent for a moment to think about the question. Truthfully, she didn't really know how it went. But...

"Well, it was good! And I'm fine! I'm the sunny-side-up gal Bessie B. after all~!" Bessie smiled and winked.

That was evidently good enough for Ryuji, as he faintly smiled. "Good. Remember this Bessie. You are my perfect star. So you must act like it." Ryuji sternly stated.

Bessie nodded her head in understanding.

"Alright, let's go over the agenda for tomorrow. You have dance classes from 6:00 am - 9:00 am. Then you go on the Yapping Yachiho from 9:05 am - 11:00 am. You have lunch from 11:01 am - 12:00 pm. More dance classes from 12:05 pm - 3:00 pm. Then singing lessons from 3:05 pm - 4:00 pm. You have a fan meet-and-greet from 4:05 pm - 6:00 pm. Then you have another show tomorrow from 6:10 pm - 10:00 pm. You also have a late night talk show to appear on from 10:01 pm - 12:00 am. And..." Ryuji paused for a moment. "That should be the schedule for tomorrow. Understood?"

"Yes boss!" Bessie tried to sound cheery about it, but that was easier said than done. But no matter how she felt, she had no choice but to listen to her "boss." Not even her father. Just her "boss." Bessie glanced at her phone. It was already 1:00 am. She shook her head. Better get ready for another full day tomorrow...

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When the limo arrived home, her father quickly split away from her, just telling her to "get some rest." Ryuji telling Bessie things like that is probably the most he's ever been concerned for her. But that isn't saying a lot.

Bessie continued to think to herself as she headed up to her-

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Her bedroom. Yep. Her own bedroom. Hers. She looked around, like it was the first time she had ever been in it. Everything was exactly as she remembered. Absolutely everything.

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Bessie got changed and got into bed, preparing to get whatever sleep she could before the new day. Another day full of songs, dances, interviews, fans, everything. She glanced over at her nightstand and saw a picture. A picture of two girls. Bessie stared intently at it. The picture... of two girls.

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Bessie took the picture and flipped it over, so it wasn't facing her. She then closed her eyes, and like the cogs of her brain were slowly slowing down... she fell asleep...

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[Pheme's Room]

Pheme blinked as the video cut off.

"Hm. That was certainly a lot more than just a performance! I wonder how that was even recorded?" Pheme covered her masked mouth and giggled. She loved watching it. But her attitude quickly changed.

"Bessie B. Blossom... What an ignorant girl. So foolish." Pheme mused.

"Not to mention her father, Ryuji Yamamoto. That's the attitude he takes with his child? I shouldn't be surprised." Pheme shook her head.

"How... revolting. Bessie B. Blossom is disgusting." Her mouth may not have been visible due to her mask, but she had a grossed out look in her eyes. Bessie was just... horrendous to her.

But Pheme paused for a moment after her wave of disgust before speaking again.

"And that's why...

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She doesn't deserve to be alive!" Pheme jumped up out of her seat.

"Ahem. Miss Pheme?" A voice called out. Pheme jumped back a little, getting scared. She had forgotten about the The Figure, who was still in the room.

"Ah, forgive me. I lost myself. So? Did you read over Bessie's document? How was it? How glorious was it? Did you love it? Did you?" Pheme hounded the figure with questions. It didn't faze the figure though.

"Miss Pheme. I'm afraid I must be the bearer of bad news here..." The Figure glanced over the document one more time before turning to look at Pheme once again.

"Bessie... wouldn't work out."

That... wasn't the response Pheme expected.

"Hm? Wouldn't work out?! Whatever do you mean?!" Pheme was getting agitated.

"Miss Pheme. You must trust me here. Bessie B. Blossom... wouldn't work in your plan. The exact reasoning is rather complicated, so I implore you to just trust my word."

Pheme turned away from The Figure and pouted. The first person she wanted so badly to be a part of her game wouldn't work? She was frustrated. But she knew... she had no choice but to trust The Figure.

Pheme turned back around with a disappointed look splayed across her eyes

"I... understand. Bessie B. Blossom will not be a part of the killing game." Pheme hung her head down.

"Exactly Miss Pheme. I'm glad you understand." The Figure smiled.

"Now, onto other matters. Let's look over documents. Perhaps... these? Gene Eric Namé, the Ultimate Everyman? Rose Harrison, the Ultimate Humanitarian? Or maybe..." The Figure continued talking, but Pheme was slowly zoning out. She was still frustrated, but she understood. They wouldn't reject her idea without good reason. And now... Pheme kind of wished she could've gotten to see the playlist The Contact provided for them on Bessie's document... ah well!

Pheme sighed to herself. She put Bessie out of her head for now, and focused looking over more potential documents...


[Grand Theater]

"I'm worried about Kei." Lake looked worriedly at the door of the Grand Theater.

"Yeah... strange." Rival glared at the door. "Not like... I know him well. But I wonder what he had... on his mind."

Kuroko got a look of concentration on her face. "I don't know-nya. I hope he's okay-nya."

"Yeah..." Rival muttered. There was definitely a worst case scenario here... but he didn't want to think about that right now. How could he? The main thing on his mind was how he almost got crushed by the spotlights. That's... well, pretty strange. That'd be an awfully strange coincidence. And Rival didn't think it was. And...


Bessie turned back to her audience of two. "Pheme brought down two microphone stands, both with their own microphone. The microphones are wireless as well~! She then installed four spotlights above the stage! They're super sturdy though, so don't worry! And Pheme gave me a remote to control them with too~! It can turn the lights on and off, lower and raise them, and more!" Bessie took out the aforementioned remote for a split second, but she quickly pocketed it.


Rival remembered what Bessie explained, and what Pheme provided for them for their show. But the main thing on his mind... is that, in theory... Bessie should've had the remote that controls the spotlights. He didn't think Bessie would try to kill him. But it's just a rather disconcerting thought. And...

"Rival! Look!" Lake suddenly blurted out, breaking Rival out of his thoughts. "The monitor!"

Rival and Kuroko looked up at the monitor on the Grand Theater. What they saw... was Pheme's face. And it had... a very malicious aura around it. Like it usually does, I guess. "Oh no..." Rival had a sinking feeling for what this was for.

"Attention my glamorous stars! I have something very important to tell you all! What is it? Well... a body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the boarded-up room at once!" Pheme is actually kind to her glamorous stars as she told them where to go, unlike in Gold's fic, where they need to run around like headless chickens to find the body.

Lake and Kuroko looked up at the monitor in horror, while Rival merely had a mildly frustrated look. He turned to the other two with him. "Let's go." Rival jumped off the stage and urged Lake and Kuroko to follow him.

"Wait up! Please Rival!" Lake ran after him. They really didn't want to be alone right now.

"Hold on Rival-nya!" Kuroko joined up with him as the trio rushed out of the Grand Theater.


[Grand Lobby]

Rival felt his heart beat faster as left the Grand Theater. Again, he didn't want to consider the worst case scenario here... but he couldn't deny that he was about to. And when he did leave...

"Shit..." Rival muttered. It didn't take long for him to notice the white smoke coming out from the... Boarded-Up Room? Wait. What?! His heart started to beat faster as he ran up to the room.

Lake and Kuroko were still a bit behind him. "Rival! Wait up!" Lake called out. "Oh no!" They quickly noticed the white smoke pouring out of the Boarded-Up Room. The ballet dancer turned to Kuroko. "Let's go!"

"Right-nya!" Kuroko nodded in response. But they only ran a few steps before Kuroko slowed down. "Hold on... what is that acrid smell-nya? That stinks-nya!"

As soon as Kuroko brought it up, Lake noticed it too. "Yeah... you're right." They looked around. "It has to be that smoke... geez... what happened?" Lake questioned as they continued running, apparently still not even considering the possibility of it being a body.

But they ran those few extra feet...

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Until they heard a voice coming from the Boarded-Up Room. "Mr. Aikawa, Mr. Kaneshiro, Mr. Mashimoto, I ask you to get out now!" Lake, Kuroko, and Rival who was a little closer to the scene all saw Pheme escorting Kei, Joji, and Genjiro out of the room. They were surprised that Genjiro would ever willingly listen to Pheme, but that's a problem for another day.

"Alright alright I get it..." A visibly slighly burned up Kei muttered to Pheme sarcastically as he walked out.

"But that was... that was...!" And Joji seemed scared shitless.

"..." Genjiro said nothing, just walking out with a scowl on his face.

"Guys! What happened?!" Lake, followed closely behind by Kuroko, ran up to the three men.

"Lake! Don't go in there! It's... it's..." Joji's hands were shaking. He had trouble speaking.

"What Joji? What is it?" Lake still didn't understand. Well... that's a lie. They heard the body discovery announcement. But they weren't just going to acknowledge that.

"Kei-nya? What happened-nya? Was that announcement..." Kuroko instead chose to go up to Kei. But she trailed off when she saw the distant look in his eyes. "Kei-nya?"

Like he was snapped out of a trance, Kei suddenly started looking around him. "Huh? Oh hey Kuroko." He said casually. "It's... well..."

"It's a body." Genjiro said for him, crossing his arms.

Lake and Kuroko's eyes widened. Rival felt his heart drop into his chest. "You... can't mean..." Rival's thoughts were starting to spiral. He couldn't... there was no way that...

Genjiro cocked his head to the now wide-open door way. "Go and see for yourself." The normally boisterous and loud Genjiro was now a bit more... mellow.

"Genjiro no! They shouldn't-!" Joji tried to stop the three from entering.

"Hold on." But Kei stopped Joji instead. "Everyone is going to have to see it one way or the other. Let them go and see it." Kei's hand shook slightly.

"But-!" While Joji wanting to shield the eyes of others was a kind gesture, there was no one he'd be able to succeed in that. Because...

"Hey! I heard the announcement! It's in the boarded-up room?"

"W-was the announcement s-serious?"

Ji-hoon and Adam arrived together.

"Ji-hoon! Adam! You guys won't-" Oh, hold on Joji. More people need to arrive first before you say anything else. Because shortly after the two men arrived...

"No shit huh? Someone finally got offed?"

"Nyahaha! Finally! I knew one of the humans would snap eventually!"

Alpha and Cathy arrived together.

"You two-?!" Nope Joji. Can't speak yet. More people need to arrive first. Because after Alpha and Cathy...

"No way that shit was serious right?"

"This is... *cough* quite the development."

Yoshino and Rosalind arrived together.

Joji chose to forgo speaking this time, instead waiting for the rest of their group to gather.

Next... Aurora and Raiha arrived together.

After... Damien, Aelia, and Darren arrived together.

"Guys..." Joji finally had permission to speak now that everyone was here.

"Is... that everyone?" Kei eyed the group.

"*cough*" Rosalind coughed. "No it is not. Ayaka is currently upstairs in her room. She was seemingly *cough* afraid of the announcement, and she chose to stay in her room. I saw no reason to drag her out."

"Yeah, Rosa is right." Yoshino patted Rosalind's shoulder. "I tried to drag Aya out here, but she wouldn't go." She shrugged. "I figure she's safe in there anyway."

Everybody understandablely looked concerned by that, including Damien. "My dear Ayaka..." He muttered.

"Alright." Ji-hoon stepped up. "Counting Ayaka, the eighteen of us are here... ah."

It was like it hit all fifteen, exlcuding Kei, Genjiro, and Joji, at the same time.

Rival flinched. "Wait... is..." He didn't want to believe it. He couldn't believe it. No... no!

Rival suddenly broke off from the group and ran towards the board-up room. He pushed past Ji-hoon and Pheme, the latter of which who was still guarding the room. "Mr. Seizon! Calm down! You're lucky I don't consider that breaking the rules!" She called out after him, to no avail. "Well atleast I finshed clearing out the fire and smoke already, so he'll be fine!" She shrugged.

"You already cleared that room of the fire? I could smell that shit when I in the fucking Action Studio! No fucking way." Alpha apparently didn't belive Pheme.

Everybody else seemingly did believe her, as the rest of the group, barring Kei, ran in after Rival.

Pheme frowned watching everyone run in. "Hmph. They could stand to be a little more polite..." She pouted. Alpha and Kei didn't care.

In fact, Alpha went up to Kei and lightly punched his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey."

Kei turned to Alpha with a raised eyebrow. "Hm? What is it?"

"Just want to confirm. It's Bessie in there, right?" Alpha got straight to the point.

Kei slowly nodded. "Correct. What, you don't want to see for yourself?" He smirked.

"Hah!" Alpha stomped her foot. "And be a part of everybody giving shocked expressions, all as a means to extend the word count? I'm good." She turned her back to Kei and Pheme.

"Hey!" Pheme pointed at Alpha. "I'm the one who breaks the fourth wall! Not you!"

Alpha ignored Pheme and walked away.

Kei chuckled. "Tough crowd huh?"

Pheme scoffed. "Tch! What a miserable girl..." Pheme crossed her arms, then glared at Kei. "Are you going to join your fellow stars in there?" She cocked her head to the boarded-up room.

"Hm... nah." Kei slowly shook his head. "I'm not the type to... directly investigate a crime scene. I prefer to find evidence elsewhere personally."

Pheme smugly nodded. "Ah! I get it! You've already seen enough dead bodies in your life, so fair enough you wouldn't want to see more!" She taunted him.

Kei shot Pheme and quick and serious glare. But in a split second, he mellowed down to his usual unnerving smile. "That's a good one. You're quite the comedian."

Pheme seemed to laugh at her own "joke." "Indeed! I am quite hilarious!" She praised herself.

"Right..." Kei darted his eyes away from Pheme's gaze for a moment. "Hey. I was going to walk away, but I wanted to ask you something first."

Pheme perked up. "Oh? A question for me? Ask away!"

Kei smiled. "It's a question relating to something I saw... two days ago I believe?"


New scanner was installed.

Scan your Star-Phone to open the door.

Pheme told me to tell you all.

-Darren


"Darren left a note outside the VIP Quarters talking about the new scanner." Kei recounted.

Pheme tilted her head. "And? What's your point?"

"Well my point is..." Kei continued. "Where do you get paper in this place?" He explained his question.

Pheme nodded in understanding. "Ah! That's your question? That's an easy one!" That was apparently an easy one for Pheme to answer. "I supply the paper! If you'd like any, I'll happily fetch it for you!" Pheme then leaned in a little, then turned her voice down to a whisper. "If I can be honest... I get the paper from Ms. Akiyama's Ultimate Studio! Don't tell anyone though!" She winked.

Kei wasn't sure why Pheme would share that latter part with him, but he wasn't going object against extra information. "I see. Thanks for answering." He winked. "And while we're here... where is Yoshino's Ultimate Studio by the way?" Kei decided to try his luck.

Pheme did the :finger_waggle: emoji at Kei. "I'm afraid I cannot say that much Mr. Aikawa! I applaud your boldness in asking though!"

"I appreciate the compliment." Kei said sarcastically as he gave a feigned smile. "Anyway... that was all I wanted." He turned around. "I'll just walk around for now I think." And he walked away without another word.

Pheme watched Kei walk away for a few seconds, before muttering something to herself. "Wow... I'm really glad I chose to kidnap Mr. Aikawa for this wonderul game!" And after that, Pheme promptly walked into the board-up room, to see how the rest of her stars were doing.


[Boarded-Up Room]

"..." Rival stared lifelessly at the sight of Bessie's charred corpse. Any sort of hint of light in his eyes was drained. "Hanako..." He muttered, not caring if anyone heard him or not.

The other thirteen stars in the room just... stared. Well, some did more than just stare. "Bessie! No!" Lake ran up to Bessie's body, then fell to their knees. "Why... why..." Tears started to form in the corner of Lake's eyes.

"Oh my god..." Aurora covered her mouth in shock. "Bessie..."

Raiha stood there, her mouth agape. "B-bestie...?" That was all she could mutter.

"Shit! God dammit!" Ji-hoon said sharply as he stomped his foot.

"Don't look at it my dear Aelia!" Damien attempted to block Aelia's sight, so she wouldn't have to witness it.

Aelia peeked over Damien's hand anyway. "O-oh god..." She muttered as her eyes widened at the sight.

"Holy shit..." Yoshino muttered. "Hey." She nudged Genjiro's shoulder. "She really dead?" She whispered as she pointed at Bessie's body.

Genjiro rolled his eyes. "Of course she is you dumbass."

"Geez... it was just a question." Yoshino went back to looking at Bessie's corpse. "Fuck..."

And the less vocal ones, like Darren and Rosalind, merely gently closed their eyes.

As everyone reacted to the sight of Bessie's body, Pheme walked in, having finished her conversation with Kei. "Oh! I see you've found Ms. Blossom's body!" Pheme said without a care in the world as she walked up to Bessie's body.

"Pheme... i-is... s-she... really..." Lake had trouble speaking through their tears.

Pheme had trouble stifling her laugh. "Yes! Don't you worry Mx. Beaumont! Ms. Blossom is dead! And one of you killed her! Exciting right?!" Pheme looked around, expecting a bigger reaction from her captive stars. But nobody had much to say.

"One of us... really killed Bessie-nya?" Kuroko asked.

"Well of course Ms. Kurobara!" Pheme nodded. "It appears that one of you was rather desperate to escape this place! Or..." Pheme's face had a malicious shade cast over it. "Perhaps one of you heard or saw something on the motive apps... and decided that Ms. Blossom needed to die for it..." She giggled.

That's right. They had almost forgotten about the motive.


Pheme waited for the initial wave of surprise to end before she continued. "As you all may have surmised, the camera app will allow you all to access the camera feed coming from anyone's Star-Phone! So at any time and any place, you can see whatever someone is doing! Provided they have their Star-Phone on them of course. Pheme could see questions and concerns popping up in the group's minds. But she wasn't finished yet!

...

Pheme giggled. "I'm happy you all caught onto it quickly! Yes, the audio app will allow you to listen in on anyone here, provided they have their Star-Phone on them of course!"

...

But it wasn't completely similar. It took a second for Raiha to notice the difference. The difference was that she saw eighteen dots near the cafeteria area on the map. Like with the other two apps, everybody quickly realized what this was about.

Pheme saw that everyone realized what this meant too! "Ah, have you all surmised what the Map (Tracking) app is all about? At this point, it's essentially an upgraded version of the regular old map app! In the Map (T) app, you're allowed to see where everyone else is, at all times! Heh." Pheme seemed especially satisfied with this one.

But Darren seemed more confused than satisfied. "Looks like we can't tell which dot is for which person though. That on purpose?" He took a sip of his non-alcoholic drink.


The motive... of destroying their privacy. Did someone... did someone really use those apps? Then... they decided that Bessie needed to die because of what they heard and/or saw? Seriously?

"Did someone really..." Joji immediately started to warily look around.

"Don't even think about it." Ji-hoon put his hand on Joji's shoulder. "Man, don't listen to what Pheme says. Any sort of motive or whatever... doesn't matter right now. What matters right now..." He gazed at Bessie's charred corpse. "Is figuring out what happened." Ji-hoon wasn't an expert on calming people down, so he wanted to put out this metaphorical fire before it even started.

"Right..." Joji luckily took Ji-hoon's words to heart, then stared at Bessie's body. "You're right." Joji couldn't help but feel... well, helpless here. "Damn it..."

Pheme pouted. "Hm. Boring. I wanted to see Mr. Kaneshiro lose his cool. That would've been rather exciting!"

Adam seemed appalled. "T-that wouldn't h-have been exciting at all!"

"Anyway..." Pheme started to walk around the room, ignoring Adam's comment. "I think that's enough fluff for now. Shall we get started on the investigation?" Pheme snapped her fingers, then everyone heard a sound come from their Star-Phones. They apparently had a notification.

With shaky hands, most everyone pulled out their Star-Phones, and saw that the notification came from their evidence app. "What is this...?" Damien muttered as he opened up the app, and saw something called a Pheme File in it. "Pheme, what is this?" He looked up from his Star-Phone.

Pheme giggled. "Open the Pheme File and find out what it is for yourself! All of you!" She urged her stars to follow her command.

"So be it then..." Damien muttered as he went to follow Pheme's command. But first, he noticed that Aelia wasn't on her Star-Phone. "Come over here my dear Aelia, let us look at this together." He gave her a reassuring nod.

Aelia looked up at Damien like she got snapped out of a trance. "Huh? R-right!" She blushed a little as she went to peek at what this "Pheme File" was. Almost in unison, everyone went and tapped on the Pheme File...

-The victim was Bessie B. Blossom, the Ultimate Pop Star.

-Her body was found inside of the boarded-up room on the first floor of the Studio.

-Bessie's cause of death was immolation. Bessie was also electrocuted, and there is evidence of a single blow to Bessie's head from a blunt object.

-Bessie's time of death was 7:51 am.

"Interesting..." Damien muttered as he read the Pheme File.

"I *cough* see." Rosalind looked up from her Star-Phone. "Just like the previous killing games, you give us the basic information."

Pheme happily nodded. "Correct! The Pheme File will give you the basic death information on the victim! I'm so kind to you aren't I?"

"Well damn." Yoshino read over the Pheme File again. "Bessie got burned, electrocuted, and hit over the head? My god..."

Aurora, Raiha, and Rival had stayed silent this whole time. They just... had no words. "Pheme non-bestie?" Raiha's voice had no energy in it. "So we really gotta do it? The investigation thing?"

"Well of course you do Ms. Miyahara! We need to do the Studio Trial after all! An intense debate where all of you will work together, or not work together to find out who killed Ms. Blossom! Excting right?" Pheme seemed rather eager.

But the silence that ensued seemed to imply that Pheme was the only eager one here. "Hm. Tough crowd." Pheme crossed her arms. "Well anyway, you should get to-"

Pheme cut herself off when Rival started to slowly walk away and out of the room. "Mr. Seizon? Where are you going?"

Rival didn't answer. He just kept walking.

"Rival...?" Aurora quietly asked, then turned her head down.

Rival again didn't answer as he left the room.

"Shouldn't we go after him? He can't be okay right now." Joji asked.

Genjro shook his head. "Nah. I wouldn't. None of us are okay right now. Just let the man be." He slowly turned to look at Bessie. "I don't fucking know what his relationship was with Bessie... but just let him be. A man's gotta be deal with this type of thing by himself." Genjiro offered his take.

Joji slowly blinked. "If you say so..."

Pheme raised her eyebrows. "Well I suppose I can't force Mr. Seizon to join in." She shrugged. "But like I was saying... it's time for you to investigate! You'll be given a set amount of time to look around the first floor for clues on who killed Ms. Blossom. After that time is up, you'll be guiding to the trial grounds- the Grand Court. And I'll explain more for when we actually reach that point!" Pheme curtsied. "So? Any questions?"

Adam raised his hand.

"Mr. Brooks!" Pheme called out.

Adam took a deep breath. "H-how long are we g-given to investigate?"

"Ah! That's a good question!" Pheme clapped. "To answer that... don't worry about it! I'll tell you when your time is up! And that's all you need to know!"

Adam frowned a little. "B-but that doesn't-"

"Any other questions?" Pheme ignored Adam's complaints.

...

...

...

"I guess not!" Pheme gave a satisfied nod. "Well, I'll start your investigation timer momentarily! And if you have any questions you want to ask me, I'll... be around! And... oh yes! Before I forget! Mr. Mashimoto! Mr. Kaneshiro! You two best consider yourselves lucky!"

The big muscly men gave Pheme a confused look. "Huh? The fuck you on about?" Genjiro crossed his arms.

"The door!" Pheme pointed at the now broken down door of the boarded-up room. "You two, plus Mr. Aikawa, technically broke a rule by breaking that you know!"

Joji narrowed his eyes. "Wait... oh shit! Rule five yeah?"


5. Breaking or Destroying any cameras or studio property present in the studio is strictly forbidden and will result in immediate punishment from Pheme.


"Oh." A look of realization swept across Joji's face. "Well we had no choice! Bessie was fucking burning in here!"

Pheme chuckled. "I am of course aware of that. You three boys would normally be punished for that... but I'll let you boys off the hook this time! But don't think you'll be this lucky next time!" Pheme skipped to the empty doorway of the room, then looked back on her stars once more. "Anyway... Good luck~!" She then skipped away, to who knows where.

"Fucking bitch..." Genjiro muttered.

...

...

...

"Alright." Ji-hoon broke the silence that ensued after Pheme left. "I can't imagine all of you are very eager to start this investigation... but we have no choice here." He looked back on Bessie's body. "We need to figure out which one of us killed her. And I know some of you are probably thinking "but we need to trust each other!" right now. But you have to ditch those thoughts. You all saw the rules. We get this wrong, we die." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "And I'd rather not die if it's all the same to you." He finished his speech.

...

"Yeah..." Raiha muttered. "IDK why Bessie had to die..." She looked up at Ji-hoon with a determined look. "But I don't want to let her killer get away. Killing someone... especially a bestie of mine... is so cheugy." She shook her head.

"Yes. I agree with Raiha." Aurora shared in Raiha's determination. "I can't... I won't... bah." She was having trouble with her words. "I'm determined to get to the bottom of this. For Bessie. I can't stand by and let her killer get away."

Raiha and Aurora shared a smile.

"My dear Aurora, my dear Raiha, you both are quite right." Damien was in agreement. "To think one of us would kill my dear Bessie... I cannot stand for it." He looked over to his dear Aelia. "Are you in agreement my dear Aelia?"

Aelia was zoning out, so it took her a second to snap back into existence. "Y-yes! Whoever killed Bessie... ugh." She felt sick to her stomach.

"Hell yeah!" Yoshino stomped her foot. "I don't know how much help I'll be... but I want to pitch in somehow! So damn right I'm in agreement!"

"Well... I can't imagine anyone would *cough* want me aiding them, but I suppose I'll help as well." Rosalind adjusted her parasol cane.

Darren turned around. "I'll help in my own way." And he walked out. Classic Darren.

Everyone shared words of agreement, even Lake. "I really do hate this..." They looked down at their feet. "But... I still want to help!" Lake tried to be determined as possible here. Anything to push down those uneasy feelings.

Ji-hoon smiled at the sight. He... really can't bring himself to trust most of these people. He knows too much about some of them. But... for now... he was glad that everyone wanted to cooperate. It'll make finding the scumbag that killed Bessie a lot easier. He was surprised that even Genjiro was cooperating. But Ji-hoon wasn't objecting. "Alright. Let's do it then. We won't fall here, and especially not to Bessie's killer. Let's go!"

And so... the investigation begun...

...

...

...

After Ji-hoon's proclamation, some people split off from the group to explore other areas. Not everyone wanted to be around a charred corpse, and that was understandable.

As of right now, only Darren, Yoshino, Lake, and Kuroko split off to investigate elsewhere. Everyone else wanted to stay in the boarded-up room for now.

"Hm..." Cathy put her hands on her hips. "Given the locked-up nature of the room... I expected thr inside to be a bit more exciting. Because... what is this room?"

"That's a valid point my dear Catherine." Damien walked up next to her. Aurora and Aelia were currently investigating with the beautician for now.

"Yes..." Aurora started to think about Cathy's question. The fire had ravaged a lot of the original wallpaper, paint, etc., so it was difficult to tell what this room originally was. But from what was left, it appeared to be a mix of a music room and a storage room. On the wall that faces the entrance, there were a few stray shelves, and burnt up music posters. Most were unintelligible now, but there was one of that was still somewhat in tact. "This is…" Aurora squinted. "A poster of Louis Armstrong? I believe he was a famous trumpeter."

"That's correct." Damien joined Aurora. "I personally don't listen to him too much, but I understand the legacy he has left."

"W-wow…" Aelia looked at the damaged poster. "He must been… r-really impressive."

Aurora turned to Aelia and smiled. "Indeed. But I wonder…" She turned back to the poster. "Why have this of all things in here?"

"That's a valid question…" Damien began to investigate the shelves next to the poster. "Well then… look at this." Damien showed off a number of trumpets on the shelf. They seemed to have been a bit damaged by the fire.

Aelia picked one up. "It's a b-bit worse for wear… but it's still kind of pretty."

"Yes… it is." Aurora picked up another one. "They've been clearly damaged by the fire… but that seems to be the extent of their damage."

"Right." Damien picked up another trumpet. "I don't believe these were used in the murder. I can't imagine how, anyway."

"Y-yeah… what else is there?" Aelia began to investigate more, specifically to the right of the shelf of trumpets, as there was another slightly broken shelf next to it. "These are… s-sheet music?" Aelia picked up some of the aforementioned sheet music from off the shelf.

"Ah yes! They are!" Aurora picked up some too. "Music was never my area of expertise, but I can still recognize it."

Damien picked up some too. "These are quite complex pieces of music. I'd say that this is my dear Ayaka's Ultimate Studio, but the trumpets throw a wrench into that idea. But it's still rather interesting."

"Hm…" Aelia began to investigate a bit more of the room. The back wall was pretty much covered in trumpet and music related things. It was when she reached the right wall where stuff began to change up. "W-what is this…?"

"Oh hey Aelia bestie." A mellow Raiha appeared to be investigating the same thing as Aelia. "This caught your eye too huh?"

"Y-yeah… it did." Aelia and Raiha looked upon a rather strange poster that covered the entire right wall. Large parts of it had been burnt off, but five shapes were still visible on it. Going from left to right, it was a house. Then a car. Then a gun. Then a chair. Then a bomb.

"How… weirdchamp." Raiha couldn't think of any other words. "Wonder what it means…"

"No clue…" Aelia muttered in response. She didn't know what to think about it… but it felt important. She knew that for sure. "W-wait... hold on." Aelia spotted a hole in the poster. When she peeked through it... "H-hey Raiha! Come l-look!" She called the trendsetter over.

"Oh? You see something Aelia bestie? Say less!" Raiha went over to her. "What is- oh. Real?" When Aelia called her over, Raiha didn't expect to see a camera in the wall. "A hidden camera...?"


Kuroko's tone of voice dropped any cheerfulness it had, sounding more serious than usual. "Well... there was a part of the wall in my Ultimate Studio that was loose-nya. I looked behind it, and there was a camera in the wall-nya. And Rosalind confirmed that it was a camera used for filming-nya."


"J-just like in Kuroko's Studio..." Aelia muttered.

Raiha narrowed her eyes. "IDK what these cameras mean, but let's keep them in mind, right Aelia bestie?"

Aelia determinedly nodded. "R-right!"

"Hm." Raiha turned away from the giant poster and the hidden camera and over to the corner of the room. "YK, if there was anything here, it's been clapped now."

"W-what? Clapped?" Aelia turned to look at what Raiha was looking at. "O-oh… I see." Large pieces of rubble had fallen from the ceiling, and currently rested in the right corner of the room, and near the entrance of the room as well. Cathy and Rosalind were currently investigating the door, which lay across a pile of rubble. "G-geez… the fire really had an effect on this p-place."

"That's so true." Raiha slowly nodded, then looked over to Bessie's body across the room. "The boys are probably cooking up something about that fire and how it even started."

Aelia followed Raiha's gaze. "Right…"

...

"Hol up a minute." Raiha didn't want it to transition away from her and Aelia just yet.

"R-Raiha? What... is it?" Aelia looked over to her.

"Aelia bestie? What's that by your feet?" Raiha pointed to Aelia's feet.

"H-huh?" Aelia looked down, and saw a burned-up note. She picked it up. "W-what is this?" The note was on a mostly burnt up piece of paper. But it looks like the main message remained intact.

"clockwise circle 162215? TF does that mean?" Raiha took the note from Aelia.

Aelia gave the note a blank stare. "I h-have no idea... do y-you think it's important?"

"Well obvi! How could it not be?" Raiha pocketed the note. "Let's spill the tea to everyone later yeah?"

"Um... sure!" Aelia nodded, trying her best to smile at the same time.

"Adam? Are you sure you want to investigate her body as well? I'm fine doing it myself." Ji-hoon has armed himself with gloves, and was getting ready to investigate Bessie's burnt up body.

"Y-yes. I'm sure." Adam nodded. "I w-want to be of use." It also helped that Bessie's body… didn't even really look like a dead body at this point. It was just… burnt.

Ji-hoon didn't want to waste time fighting it, so he just rolled with the academic's wish. "Fine."

"Hey, atta boy Adam!" Joji patted Adam's shoulder. "Way to show spunk!"

"Yeah... not bad kid." Genjiro commented. "Expected you to run away scared shitless from the body."

"I w-wouldn't r-run away..." Adam muttered. No one heard him.

"Hey, I don't want to he a dictator here..." Ji-hoon seemed annoyed with the muscle men. "But shouldn't you guys focus on monitoring the scene?"

Genjiro rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah we get it man. Make sure no one messes with evidence and shit. You don't need to repeat it."

Ji-hoon silently glared at Genjiro, then went back to looking over Bessie's body. "So let's see here..." This was already a different experience than investigating that K.M. guy.


The group stared at the dead body of the unknown man as he lay on the coffee table in the living room. He had rather crazy spiked up hair, with most of it being black, but with a bit of the right side of his hair being white. He had bright yellow eyes, and a dark yellow suit vest, dress pants, and blazer to match. Then he had a white undershirt and tie. Then he had a brown belt, and at his feet he wore brown dress shoes. He had the look of a sort of business man. Ji-hoon tried to think, but he didn't recognize him. Perhaps he wasn't famous? Or perhaps he was. Who can say?


Ji-hoon didn't recognize that K.M. guy. He hadn't seen that guy before in his life. But Bessie... even if it was only for a few days, he knew her. He wasn't going to let stuff like that get in his way. But he hadn't really experienced this before.

Ji-hoon rapidly shook his head. What was he doing? He was getting too lost in his thoughts. "Alright..." He spoke aloud as he officially started to look over Bessie's body. She was currently laying on her stomach.

Ji-hoon picked up Bessie's arm. "Christ..." He didn't want to be weird... but he couldn't tell what was her clothes and what was her skin. Her whole body felt somewhat leathery.

Adam looked at Bessie's body sadly. "I'm glad she didn't s-suffer at least."

Ji-hoon looked up and raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

"B-Bessie suffered immolation, according to t-the Pheme File. And it s-seemed like she got third degree b-burns. Burns that b-badly will kill the nerve c-cells that cause p-pain. So I don't think s-she suffered from the f-fire, luckily." Adam explained.

Ji-hoon slowly nodded. "I see. I guess I underestimated your knowledge here." He looked back down at Bessie's body. He wasn't going to say it... but if she really didn't suffer... that's at least a little comforting. But... "Even if she didn't suffer from the fire... there's still her two other injuries." He pointed out.

"T-that's right..." Adam looked at the Pheme File again. "Electrocution a-and a blow from a blunt object?" Adam looked around. It didn't take long for him to notice something. "We'd h-have to think more about her electrocution, b-but do you think this was what the k-killer used as a blunt object?" Adam pointed to a crowbar on the floor near Bessie's body.

"A crowbar huh?" Ji-hoon thought back. Where did that come from again...?


"Oh let me tell you how amazing mine was!" Raiha was excited to explain. "So, there were like, phones, tech, and trends everywhere! There was even the crowbar trend represented in there! It was soooo lit! You all gotta visit sometime! And like-" Raiha was going to continue talking but she stopped herself. What she had described was kinda it. So she awkwardly stopped talking.


"That came from Raiha's Ultimate Studio." Ji-hoon recalled.

"Ah y-yes! I remember t-that now!" Adam shot Raiha a quick glare. He didn't think it was Raiha at the moment, but it was definitely something to consider.

"But I think you're right about that Adam." Ji-hoon ran his hand over Bessie's head. "I can feel the injury from the blunt object. I'm sure it was the crowbar." He said confidently.

"W-why do you say that?" Adam swallowed down his natural nevrousness to get a little closer to the body.

"It's her head injury." Ji-hoon ran his hand over her head injury again. "It's like... skin was ripped off, or something similar. Because... I think I can feel her skull."

Adam's eyes instantly widened. "W-what? H-how in the world is that p-possible?!"

Ji-hoon gave Adam a deadpan stare. "I don't have too much medical knowledge, so I'm afraid I can't answer that. But it definitely feels like the skin of her head got ripped off... all the way down to her skull. Not sure what the killer did with that crowbar, but it had a hell of an effect on Bessie." He made the head injury a little more visible for Adam.

"O-oh... I see now." Adam still didn't want to touch the body, but observing what Ji-hoon was talking about was rather interesting. "It r-really goes down to her skull?"

Ji-hoon quickly nodded. "That's what I said. It's just that... her skull feels rather weird."

"W-well what do you mean by weird?" Adam wanted clarification.

"It just doesn't feel like a skull. Or what I expect a skull to feel like, I guess." Ji-hoon explained. Already the first investigation and it was going in a really weird direction. "And that's not all." The celebrity detective pulled out a few wires from Bessie's head. "I can confidently say that these didn't come from Bessie. They were basically laying atop her head. Not sure where they came from, but there's another thing for us to worry about."

Adam observed the wires that Ji-hoon showed him, then chuckled. "W-wow, it's almost like B-Bessie was some sort of robot."

Ji-hoon slowly looked up at the academic. "Are you serious?"

He quickly shook his head. "N-no. J-just a passing thought."

"I see." Ji-hoon went back to Bessie's body. A robot? Surely not... unless? Nah...?

Anyway, the boys quickly got back to business. They were already finding some strange things about Bessie's body. "Alright..." And it looked like they were finding some more strange things! "Look at these Adam." Ji-hoon pulled out two things from Bessie's pocket.

"F-fasicinating..." Adam didn't have any gloves, so he chose to let the gloved-up one handle this. "That's Bessie's Star-Phone, and t-that's... a remote?"

"I believe so." Ji-hoon set them to the side. "Her Star-Phone seemed broken too. Couldn't turn it on. Not sure about the remote."

"B-broken? Star-Phones can break?" Adam started to think.


4. Attempting to break or destroy a Goddess-Brand Star Phone is prohibited. Anyone attempting to break or destroy a Goddess-Brand Star Phone will receive punishment from Pheme.


"You're thinking about rule four, right?" Ji-hoon read Adam's mind.

"Y-yeah..." Adam eyed the broken Star-Phone. "It's interesting t-that they can be broken. Is it s-safe to touch?"

Ji-hoon shrugged. "I don't see why it wouldn't be safe."

Using his words as permission, Adam took Bessie's Star-Phone, and started to look it over. "Interesting..." The Star-Phone seemed worse for wear, but it wasn't outwardly broken in any way. It seemed fully functional on the surface. So... it must be something internal. Then... "I w-wonder if being electrocuted broke the Star-Phone? Like a short-circuit, or s-something similar."

Ji-hoon seemed surprised. "That'd make sense. It isn't fire-damaged at all, so it likely isn't heat." Pheme is original, as she does copy the way the OG E-Handbooks break. Ugh.

"R-right." Adam nodded. "Then... I suppose w-whoever electrocuted Bessie, be it t-the killer or Bessie herself, is at f-fault for this."

Ji-hoon dryly chuckled. "Makes Pheme's job a little easier. The rule breaker is already dealt with, or they'll get dealt with at the trial."

Ji-hoon might be able to dryly chuckle about that sort of thing, but Adam couldn't.


7. If the guilty party is exposed via majority vote during the Studio Trial, them and them alone will be punished.


Something like a "punishment" wasn't something he could just... accept. But now wasn't the time for that anyway. Because...

"How... are you guys doing?" Aurora slowly approached the boys.

"Aurora? A-are you sure you w-want to-?"

Aurora cut off Adam with a shake of her head. "Please don't worry about me." She gazed sadly at Bessie's body. She didn't know her for long... but...


"Hey, girls? I want to say something real quick~!" Her face didn't show it, but Bessie seemed a little serious. Raiha and Aurora turned around, and stayed quiet for Bessie so she could continue. "I just want to say... that this was so fun~! I love hanging out with you guys~!" Bessie out her left hand on Aurora's shoulder, and put her right on Raiha's shoulder. "Both of you... are my besties~!"


She definitely had an effect on her. But Aurora couldn't even imagine how Raiha and Rival were feeling. She glanced at Raiha, who was currently investigating a corner of the room with Aelia. Raiha admittedly seemed like the type to hide her true feelings. But Aurora just hoped that she was doing fine. And Rival... well. She didn't know how she could help him. But she couldn't harp on it forever.

In fact, Aurora had a certain reason for coming over here. "I couldn't help but notice..." She picked up the remote that Ji-hoon got off of Bessie's person.

Ji-hoon raised an eyebrow. "You recognize it?"

Aurora nodded. "I do."


"She then installed four spotlights above the stage! They're super sturdy though, so don't worry! And Pheme gave me a remote to control them with too~! It can turn the lights on and off, lower and raise them, and more!" Bessie took out the aforementioned remote for a split second, but she quickly pocketed it.


"This was the remote that Pheme gave Bessie. It was meant to control the spotlights above the stage." Aurora recalled. "And... it's definitely broken now." She wasn't a technology expert or anything, but it was pretty obvious that it was broken.

"J-just like Bessie's Star-Phone then." Adam took the remote from Aurora. "Looks like b-both of the t-things on her p-person got electrocuted... t-then they broke."

Aurora tilted her head. "Really? So Bessie's Star-Phone is broken?"

"I b-believe so." Adam looked over the phone again. "N-neither Ji-hoon nor I could get it to t-turn on."

"Hm..." A thought appeared in Aurora's mind. "Would you mind if I took her Star-Phone? It might be a longshot... but I'm wondering if I could get anything out of it in Raiha's Studio. There's plenty of technology in there. It might be worth a shot."

Adam looked to Ji-hoon, like he was seeing if the celebrity detective would give permission for that or not. Ji-hoon shrugged. "I don't see why not. If you think it's worth a shot, go for it."

Aurora thinly smiled, then pocketed Bessie's Star-Phone. "Thank you. Now... I'll leave you to it. I'd still like to investigate a little more in here anyway." And she walked away.

"I h-hope she can get something out of it t-there." Adam hoped.

"Right." Ji-hoon didn't necessarily care about that right now. There were still more details about Bessie's body he wanted to investigate. Well... more like details around Bessie's body. "I think that's basically it for her body. It's..." He took sharp breath. "It's isn't a nice sight. The crowbar is one thing... but the fire and electrocution... god. Whoever did this is a horrible person. That's for sure." He spoke with an amount of conviction in his voice.

"Y-yeah..." Adam timidly yet confidently agreed. He couldn't even imagine why Bessie suffered these injuries. Wait. Now that he thinks about it... "We s-still don't know how Bessie got burnt or electrocuted."

"That's right. We don't know that do we?" Ji-hoon hadn't even realized that yet. "I wonder..." He shifted his focus away from Bessies body, and onto the rest of the room. "Actually, there's one more thing before that." Nevermind, his focus went back to Bessie's body. "Never really acknowledged the bloodstain coming from her head."

Adam hadn't really either, but Ji-hoon was right. Bessie had a dark violet bloodstain eminating form her head. "W-well that shouldn't be a surprise. B-Bessie being hit on her h-head would cause her to bleed."

Ji-hoon shook his head. "I know that. I point it out because of that other bloodstain." He pointed behind Adam.

Other bloodstain? Adam looked where Ji-hoon was pointing, and already saw Aurora and Damien investigating it as well. "Oh! I d-didn't h-hear you two back there!" "Back there" was like two feet behind him, so I'm not sure how Adam didn't hear them, but whatever.

Ji-hoon walked over to the small bloodstain. "You two have a better eye than I thought." He complimented the starlet and beautician duo before kneeling down.

Damien shook his head. "I, alas, did not notice this small detail. That was all the work of my dear Aurora." He flashed Aurora a smile.

"Thank you Damien." Aurora returned the smile. "But this black bloodstain is strange isn't it?" She got back on topic. "It's different than the one from Bessie's head, and this one is very small too. It was rather hard to see."

Ji-hoon squinted his eyes. Aurora was right. It was hard to discern it from among the burnt up floor. But it was there. "It's times like these where I wish I had more medical knowledge..." Ji-hoon ran his hand over the bloodstain. "But this seems like a bloodstain from something like a scraped elbow or scraped knee to me." He inferred.

"I could certainly see that." Damien looked at the elbows and knees of the people in the room. "I'd say we should check for any small injuries to people's elbows or knees, but that'd be too big of a time sink I'm afraid." He slowly shook his head.

"I agree." Aurora narrowed her eyes. "Besides, even if we did find an injury like that on someone, there'd be no point. That'd be circumstantial. It wouldn't prove anything. And what we want here... is truth."

Ji-hoon raised his eyebrows, then got up. "Took the words out of my mouth. I agree." He straightened his glasses. "I'm curious as to why the bloodstains are different colors though. I get that blood changes color when exposed to fire. But I wonder why this happened?" The celebrity detective started to think aloud.

Damien chuckled. "Indeed... it's quite a mystery." The mysteries surrounding his dear Bessie as a person and her death seem to only grow curioser.

Aurora stayed silent. Choosing to think internally. She wished she-

"Nyaha!"

Welp, guess she wasn't internally thinking today was she? Aurora, and then Damien, looked over and saw Cathy digging and scavenging around the broken down door. Cathy and Rosalind had chosen to investigate the door together. To Aurora and Damien, it looked like Cathy grabbed something from under it and snatched it away. Eh, probably just some kleptomania tendencies. They didn't want to assume, but they wouldn't be surprised.

...

...

...

"Nyahaha! What a fascinating door!" Cathy stood up as she circled the broken door.

"Yes. I *cough* agree." The polar opposite duo of Cathy and Rosalind were, like previously said, investigating the door. And like what Cathy just said in the previous paragraph, it wad rather fascinating. For one, there was no handle. But the most interesting part... "I cannot help but wonder *cough* why a door would need six hinges on it. It seemes strange. Two on each side, and two on top of the door." Rosalind tried to think of why that'd be needed, but she really couldn't think of an answer.

"Hm..." One might expect Cathy to not help at all with the investigation, but she can sometimes be in a helpful mood! "To me, this feels like a trick door! Like you need to do something to it first before you can actually open it!"

Rosalind thinly smiled. "That feels like something the *cough* Ultimate Cat Burglar would have experience in, so I trust your judgment." Rosalind was about to look around the door again, but a question popped into her mind for Cathy. "Say, Cathy? Forgive me for being so forward, and I know a question from me must be rather exhausting to answer. But I *cough* didn't expect you to help out at all with the *cough* investigation."

"Oh?" Cathy slowly shook her head. "My motives are not up to question by a human." She said that last word with a healthy amount of disdain. "But if if you so strongly do want me here, I'll happily leave you be! Nyahaha!" And Cathy promptly left. Well she didn't leave, more like she started to investigate the doorway itself.

Rosalind slowly blinked. "Okay." She then went back to looking at the door. There... wasn't actually much else to glean. Genjiro, Joji, and Kei had no choice in the moment, but it being broken does make it a bit more difficult to investigate. But Rosalind tried anyway. She tried to touch one of the hinges. "Oh." And it moved! When she touched one on the side , it moved little upwards. And when she touched one on the top, it moved a little to the right. "Interesting..." She muttered, then got up. She looked around. Everybody was still investigating their hearts out. Good for them. She'd continue, but this atmosphere was starting to make her feel a bit unwell.

Rosalind started to leave, but stopped at the doorway. She slowly turned around when she saw Raiha approach the door they were just investigating, and she pulled out a note from her pocket.

"Wonder what that trendsetter human is doing..." Cathy narrowed her eyes as she observed the trendsetter human.

Rosalind chose to stay silent, and just walked out. Moments later, Cathy shrugged, and walked out too, in the opposite direction of Rosalind.

...

...

...

"I believe we've almost covered everything in this room at this point." Damien, Aurora, and Aelia were back to investigating with each other.

"Y-yeah..." Aelia looked around. "It's really o-only the left side r-remaining now."

"Right." Aurora, followed by Aelia and Damien, moved over to the left side. Compared to the right side... it was notably less music themed. It just had shelves full of random items. Cleaning supplies, a stepladder, boxes full of a random assortment of things, buckets, gasoline, and- hold on. Gasoline?

"I see you three have spotted it too?" Ji-hoon had finished examining Bessie's body for the moment, and went to look around at the surrounding area. Adam was still with him.

"Yes, we have indeed spotted it." Damien walked up to a toppled over shelf in the corner.

"It doesn't seem like this shelf held too many things. It's interesting that its toppled over." Aurora observed. "Every other shelf is still standing after all."

"Hm..." Aelia got down on her knees to see what had even seemingly fell off the shelf. It was just: "A c-canister of gasoline... and a bucket? The c-canister is empty. A-and the bucket... is empty too."

"Makes sense." Ji-hoon took the canister from Aelia.

"W-what makes sense about it?" Aelia asked him.

Ji-hoon looked behind him. "I forgot to tell you this Adam, but I think I at least have some details about the fire started. There was gasoline on Bessie's face. The smell of it anyway."

"F-fascinating!" Adam began to think. "That g-gives a piece of the puzzle. We know how that gasoline got onto her face then, but w-we still don't know how it s-started." The academic pointed out. "N-nobody has found any m-matches, or a-anything similar, right?" He asked the group of five he was in. Everyone shook their heads.

"What about that bucket?" Aurora changed topics. "Could it be relevant?"

"Well let's see if it is." Damien picked it up. It seemed... like a normal bucket. But... "Ah. The inside of the bucket has a rim, roughly at the halfway point of the bucket itself. It doesn't seem to be purposely there either." Damien pointed out.

That piqued Adam's curiosity. "D-do you mind if i s-see that Damien?"

"Of course!" Damien handed Adam the bucket.

"D-do you think a rim is important?" Aelia wasn't sure what to think.

"Well..." Adam observed the rim, then looked up at the ceiling. He then looked at the other buckets on the other shelves in the room. He went over to the other buckets. "I s-see... that's interesting."

Ji-hoon went over to him. "Adam? What's up?"

Adam adjusted his glasses. "The bucket f-from the toppled s-shelf, is the only one of the buckets to have this rim."

"You don't say?" Ji-hoon was intrigued. "Go on."

"A bucket, or any container f-forming a rim like this, is d-due to whatever it was h-holding having c-certain properties about it. The d-details don't r-really matter..." Adam opted to skip the long explanation. "But, theoretically s-speaking, I believe this b-bucket held water. And that w-water had certain properties in it, and t-that caused a r-rim to form." He finished his explanation.

"Woah, that's wild! Adam, you kinda ate that up." Raiha jumpscare!

"T-thanks..." Adam wasn't really too used to modern slang, so he didn't really know what to say.

"Alright then. Do you think water was in it when Bessie got killed?" Ji-hoon out here asking the important questions.

Adam looked down at the ground. "T-that... I don't know for sure. But we should k-keep this in mind."

"Hold up. Was Bessie wet or anything? That could tell us if the bucket was filled up, you get me?" Raiha brought up a valid point.

Ji-hoon shook his head. "No, she wasn't. Water could've just evaporated though. So we have no way of knowing for sure." So no. Bessie was not wet. But Ji-hoon then smiled, changing the topic. "That's a nice observation Adam. Good job." He praised the academic, then went back over to Damien's harem- uh I mean, back over to the other three people.

...

"Oh, I'm glad you're back over here Ji-hoon. We'd like you to see this." Aurora motioned towards a part of the wall.

"Oh?" Ji-hoon's curiosity kept on getting peaked. Because at where Aurora motioned to, he saw two things. It was semi-hidden behind the toppled shelf, but he saw a small slab of metal, and he also saw a hole in the wall, with exposed wiring. "That's pretty interesting. Help me out here Damien?" He motioned to the shelf.

"Of course!" The duo ignored the actual muscle men still in the room, and moved the shelf out of the way. "Here we go..." Damien picked up the slab of metal. "This... I'm not sure what to think of it." He was at a loss for ideas. "My dear Aelia? My dear Aurora?" He asked his two dears. They shook their heads.

"It d-doesn't seem to have f-fallen... from a shelf or anything." Aelia pointed out.

Aurora crossed her arms. "If that's the case, where did this come from?"

Damien shook his head. "If we can't find an answer right now, let's leave it for later." He pocketed the slab of metal.

"Right." Ji-hoon agreed. "I'm more interested in this exposed piece of the wall anyway." He got down on his knees for a closer look. Damien joined him.

"I think we can safely say..." Damien tried to look inside the hole. "That Bessie, or her killer, didn't cause this. This appears to be natural wear and tear."

Ji-hoon nodded. "I agree." He took out his Star-Phone and tried to use it as a light to see inside of the hole. He couldn't really see much, besides for the exposed wiring. "I wonder if these are the same wires that were on Bessie's head or not..." He thought aloud, then got up. "Anyway, for as interesting as this is, I don't think we are going to get much out of it."

Damien got up as well. "Fair enough." He loomed around the room. "Is... that essentially everything in here?"

Ji-hoon, and everyone else looked around too. "It looks like it. It feels like we've gotten plenty of puzzle pieces... but we just need to figure out how to connect them." They could assume a whole load of things though. Like the exposed wirings possibly being connected to the blackout. But that type of talk is more suited for the trial.

"If that is the case... then I believe I'll take my leave." Damien bowed. "I'd like to see how my dear Ayaka is doing, and I'd like to keep her up-to-date on the what has happened."

"I'll j-join you Damien!" Aelia volunteered.

Damien smiled. "Very good then. Shall we go?"

"O-okay!" Aelia nodded.

Damien and Aelia left the room.

"If they are leaving, I'd like to leave as well." Aurora informed the remaing people. "I'd like to investigate Raiha's Ultimate Studio... as well as see if I can get anything out of Bessie's Star-Phone. Would you like to join me Raiha?"

Raiha perked up after hearing her name being mentioned. "Like obvi?? Let's go!"

With a smile and a nod, Aurora, then followed by Raiha, left the room. It may not have been apparent, but both of them were silently grateful to be out of that room.

And that just left the boys. "I'll stay here for now." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "I want to make sure that nothing was missed. You three are free to leave if you'd like to."

Joji let out a deep breath. "I think I'll go then. This... isn't exactly a pleasant atmosphere. I'll see if I find anything elsewhere." With a wave, Joji left.

"You going too?" Ji-hoon glared at Genjiro.

The wrestler shook his head. "Fuck that. You wanted Joji and I to guard the crime scene. And now I gotta stick around to still guard it. I don't know what the fuck you're up to." Genjiro was apparently suspicious of Ji-hoon.

The celebrity detective rolled his eyes. "Fine. Adam?"

Adam slowly nodded. "I t-think... I'll stick around too."

Ji-hoon shrugged. "Fine by me."

And the three boys got back to investigating...


[VIP Quarters]

"I sincerely hope my dear Ayaka is alright." Damien approached Ayaka's door.

"I f-feel like... she is. She's p-probably just nervous from... everything that h-has happened. I don't blame her..." Aelia looked down at the ground.

Damien was about to knock on Ayaka's door, but he stopped. He caressed Aelia's cheek. "My dear Aelia..."

Aelia's blush reached unprecedented levels already. She looked up. "D-Damien...?" God he had pretty eyes. Why was he...

"Aelia. I..." Damien started to trail off like he was going to say something important, but he stopped. He narrowed his eyes. "I'm sorry my dear Aelia, could you please move? I believe I've spotted something on the floor behind you."

"W-w-what?" Aelia felt a little deflated, their moment being quickly lost. But she knew she shouldn't think about that right now. She moved and turned around. "What d-did you... oh." Aelia quickly noticed what Damien was referring to. There were two notes on the floor. One was in front of Aurora's room. The other was in front of Bessie's room. "H-how strange..." Aelia grabbed the note in front of Aurora's room. She got a concerned look on her face as she read it. "D-Damien?" She showed the note to Damien.

"Hm?" Damien got closer to Aelia in order to see the note. "That is... oh. Oh dear." The note read:

Aurora. Don't leave your room. If you do, someone will try to kill you.

And that was all it said. Damien narrowed his eyes. "That's rather concerning..." He got a closer look at the note. Huh. "I'd very much to like to ask my dear Aurora about this. Considering that she did evidently leave her room. And there is also the fact that she is currently alive..." Damien started to think about the implications of the note.

Aelia stayed silent, letting Damien think. But Aelia got an idea. "I-I'll grab the note in front of Bessie's r-room...!" She speed walked over to the note, grabbed it, then went back over to Damien. "H-here..." She handed it to her crush.

"Thank you my dear Aelia." Damien took the note from his dear Aelia. "Let's see what it says... ah." The note said:

Bessie. Come to the Boarded-Up Room. It'll be open. I need to talk to you.

"Well then. Quite the valuable piece of evidence." Damien looked it over once more. "Did you already read it my dear Aelia?"

Aelia nodded. "Y-yeah I did. I guess... it's g-good to know how the k-killer drew Bessie to the boarded-up room."

Damien solemnly nodded. "Indeed..." He eyed the note once more, then he suddenly pulled out a crumpled note from his pocket. "Let's see..." He started to compare them.

Aelia near had a heart attack seeing that note. Because...


Aelia knew she had a point. But it was difficult putting her feelings down onto paper like that. She wasn't even sure why she was writing a note to him instead of outright telling him. She groaned to herself, and worked up the willpower to write a little more of the note.

Dear Damien,

I like you

That was all she could do. Her heart was beating a mile per minute as she attempted to write this. And as she thought about Damien too...

...

"Oh! H-hi Damien!" Aelia instantly started blushing, but she tried to hide it. "And for what I was talking a-about... don't worry about i-it!" She discreetly crumpled up and threw the note she was writing in the trash can next to her.


Oh god oh god oh god why does Damien have her note?! Aelia felt her heart start to beat faster. Oh god oh god oh god oh-

"Hm. It doesn't match." Damien smiled as he suddenly pocketed the crumpled note, as well as Bessie's note.

"H-h-huh?" Aelia didn't expect him to suddenly do that.

"They don't match. The handwriting of these two notes, I mean." Damien explained. "I found this crumpled note in the trash earlier, and I was curious if the handwriting matched the notes there were apparently given to our dear Bessie and my dear Aurora." He smirked. "It didn't." He turned back towards Ayaka's door. "Anyway, we'll be sure to share these notes with the rest of the group later. For now, let's fetch my dear Ayaka shall we?"

Aelia felt whiplashed from what just happened. She had no words. Her mind had no thoughts. She just blankly stood there as Damien went and got Ayaka.

Damien knocked on Ayaka's door. "My dear Ayaka? It's me, Damien. Could I ask you to open the door? It's safe out here. I'm with my dear Aelia as well."

...

...

...

Ayaka's door slowly crept open. She peeked at Damien, then an Aelia, then let out a small sigh. She then fully stepped out of her room. Wow. That was easier than both Damien and Aelia thought.

"Are you alright my dear Ayaka?" Damien got right to asking.

Ayaka slowly nodded. "I'm f-fine. Thanks." She darted her eyes away. "I heard t-the announcement and all... but I just... didn't want to d-deal with it. I guess." She sounded a little embarrassed.

Damien smiled and shook his head. "I completely understand my dear Ayaka! It isn't a pleasant announcement to hear. For now..." He looked to his dear Aelia. "My dear Aelia and I will be going to my dear Raiha's Studio. Would you like to come with us, and we could catch you up on what has happened?"

Ayaka darted her eyes between Damien and Aelia. "Fine." She knew she couldn't stay in her room forever. No matter how guarded she felt, Damien did have a... somewhat comforting presence.

"Alright then. Shall we go?" Damien led the way.

Aelia and Ayaka shared a look, then followed after him. Sorry, no stringpullers content :(


[Ultimate Trendsetter's Studio]

"Erm... what the frick??" Raiha immediately noticed something wrong when she entered her studio.

"Raiha? What's the matter?" Aurora apparently didn't notice anything wrong though.

"There! One of the podiums is empty!" Not wanting to waste time, Raiha got right to the juicy investigation details.

Aurora looked to where she was pointing. "Oh! I see..."


There were also podiums in the middle of the room as well. In the middle podiums, there were a variety of exclusively phones. Different models, brands, everything. Some extremely fancy, but some old and cheap.


"You have an impressive eye Raiha." Aurora and Raiha walked up to the empty podium.

"Obvi? I'm the Ultimate Trendsetter YK?" Raiha eyed the empty podium. It took her a moment to remember what was there. "Oh yeah!"

"Raiha? Did you remember what was there?" Aurora was curious to learn. She never payed too much attention when she was in Raiha's Studio anyway.

"Ofc I do! A spare Star-Phone was here!" Raiha recalled.

It took Aurora a few moments to process that. "A... spare Star-Phone? I'm sorry?"

Raiha giggled. "Sorry Aurora bestie, guess I never yapped to you about it. Pheme explained a little of it to me a bit ago. It's like, the same model and stuff as our Star-Phones, but with no apps. Also no initials on the back. Then like, for the Map (T) app in the motive yeah? It'll give off a signal for that. Crazy huh?" Raiha put her hand on her hips. "But why the flip would anyone yoink it?"

Wow. Aurora again hadn't expected to hear that. That feels too important for Raiha to have not mentioned it before, but now wasn't the time for that. "We'll definitely keep that in mind. And was it there when we were in here last?"

Alibis haven't been mentioned yet, but Aurora and Raiha were together from as soon as they woke up, all the way up to the BDA. And they were in Raiha's Studio the whole time. "I was woke AF when we were in here Aurora bestie... so I remember that it was in here then."

Interesting. "So... whoever took it was someone who arrived at the group after us then?" Aurora started to think.


Next... Aurora and Raiha arrived together.

After... Damien, Aelia, and Darren arrived together.


So either Damien, Darren, Aelia... or Ayaka took it? Was that right? Aurora started to shiver. She didn't like that she was being suspicious of people already. She didn't like the feeling.

And it looked like Raiha noticed. "Bestie, let's not think about the phone RN! We'll worry about it later! Let's hook up Bessie's Star-Phone and see if we can get some juicy tea off of it!" Raiha changed topics.

Aurora let out a quick breath. "Right. We'll inform everyone of this later, for now we'll focus on Bessie's Star-Phone."

Raiha satisfiedly nodded, before taking Bessie's Star-Phone from Aurora. "Aight. Let me cook up something here..." She half-whispered as she approached one of the laptops in her studio.

It was then when Aurora realized that Raiha had previously said that none of the tech works in here. Huh. Was this a waste of time then?

"Ah ha! EZ!"

Well, I guess it wasn't a waste. "You got it that fast?" Aurora went over to Raiha, surprised.

"Obvi???" It sounded like Raiha thought that was a silly question. "The Star-Phone is busted beyond belief, but I was able to transfer her profile over? IDK if it'll help but it's something right?"

Aurora smiled and nodded. "Anything is useful right now. Good job Raiha." She praised her bestie.

Raiha giggled. "Anyway, let's get this tea!" Raiha opened up Bessie's profile from the laptop. "Oh wow. That's some tea alright." It was quite the sight. Bessie's profile read:

Name: Hanako Yamamoto

Gender: "Female"

Ultimate Talent: Backup Dancer

Birth Date: "May 20th"

Height: 5'5

Weight: 110 lbs

Blood Type: N/A

"So that's Bessie's real name then?" Raiha muttered. "Hanako."

Aurora stayed silent for a moment. Bessie's real name was the least of her concerns. "Bessie's real name being Hanako is interesting... but I'm more interested in everything else. The quotes around her gender and birthday. Bessie having no blood type. Then the biggest elephant in the room... her talent."

"Huh... good point. Ultimate Backup Dancer?" Raiha didn't know how to react. "Guess she had more secrets than we thought..." Raiha seemed oddly serious for once.

"Yes..." Truthfully, Aurora didn't know how to react. She admittedly took Bessie's Star-Phone on a complete whim. But she didn't expect to come up... with this. "I wish we could've learned more about her." The starlet said sadly.

Raiha bit her lip. "For real..."

...

...

...

The two shared a moment of silence for Bessie.

One that got quickly interrupted. "Ah, my dear Raiha! My dear Aurora! It's always a pleasure to see you!" Surprise surprise, Damien and his dears Ayaka and Aelia walked into Raiha's Studio, like they said they were going to during the previous scene.

Raiha disconnected Bessie's Star-Phone from the laptop in shock and pocketed it. The laptop screen turned off. "Oh heya Damien! What's the tea?"

"Do you need something of us Damien?" Aurora tried to not stay sad over Bessie for the moment.

"I did not mean to disturb you ladies." Damien could sense he interrupted something. "But I merely had a question for you, my dear Aurora."

Aurora tilted her head. "For me? What is it?"

Damien walked up to Aurora with a heavy sigh and handed her the note. "Do you recognize this note?"

Aurora's blood immediately grew cold at the sight of it. She stayed silent for a moment. "I do." She said shakily.

"S-so... you recognize it?" Aelia chimed in. "W-we found it... outside your room."

Aurora bit her lip. "I'm... sorry for not bringing it up earlier." She closed her eyes. "When I first woke up, it was fairly early morning. When I was about to leave my room, I found this note on my floor. I assume someone slipped it under my door. I... didn't know what to do. I felt... frozen. But... a few minutes after I saw the note, I heard a knock at my door."


KNOCK

KNOCK

KNOCK

"Ayo! Aurora bestie? It's me! We gotta be up for Bessie's show!"


"I heard Raiha knocking on my door." Aurora continued. "And perhaps it was against my better judgment... but I opened it. I trust Raiha after all." She opened her eyes. "I ended up telling Raiha about the note too. After that, we went to her studio. Then the next thing that happened was the BDA."

Raiha slowly nodded.

"S-so, do you have any idea who wrote the note?" Ayaka out here asking the important questions.

Both Raiha and Aurora shook their heads.

"O-oh." Ayaka was right for asking that question anyway.

"I see..." Damien began to think about something. "My dear Aurora, would you mind if I held onto your note for now?"

Aurora slowly shrugged. "I suppose I don't see why not." She handed him the note.

Damien smiled sincerely. "Thank you my dear Aurora." He then began to walk out. "I could see that you two were in the middle of something. I didn't mean to interrupt you." He said solemnly before he left, followed closely behind by his dears Ayaka and Aelia.

Raiha blinked. "Huh. That guy almost has too much rizz."

Aurora narrowed her eyes. "Perhaps. Anyway." She turned back to the laptop. "Could you... reconnect Bessie's Star-Phone? I'd like to see her profile once more."

"Sure." Whenever Raiha doesn't use slang, you know it's serious. She reconnected Bessie's Star-Phone... and the two girls shared a moment of silence for their fallen bestie.


[Comedy Studio]

"This place has better drinks than I thought." Darren, like he usually does, was sipping away on a nondescript alcoholic beverage.

"Do you always gotta drink? Did you have a plan for going in here?" Yoshino put her hands on her hips.

Darren had his back turned to her. "Sure I did." He took another sip. "You know the inner bar in here rotates right?"

Yoshino raised an eyebrow. "Rotates?"

"Yeah." Darren took another sip.


Pheme giggled. "It's a fun little feature of the Comedy Studio. This "Inner Bar" let's call it, is a little special. The Inner Bar is able to move around the outside of the Comedy Studio. I hold the power to move the Inner Bar around. The entrance connects to one of three points in the Comedy Studio. The points are on the left side, which is the one is connected to now, the middle, which is behind the curtain of the stage, and the right side of the Comedy Studio." Pheme slowly nodded. "I believe that's it! Exciting isn't it?" Pheme smiled from beneath her mask.


"Oh. No shit?" Yoshino didn't know that. "Was that why you wanted to investigate this place? You thought it might be important?"

"Yep." Darren took another sip.

...

"You think it's important then?" Yoshino wasn't sure.

"Nope." Darren took another sip.

"Oh." Yoshino felt underwhelmed.

"You know what is important?" Darren suddenly said. "3. 45. Not for the investigation, but it's important for someone else." He took another sip.

"I feel like I wasted my time coming here." Yoshino got a little mad.

Darren shrugged. He seemingly didn't care

...

...

...

"Attention my glamorous stars! Your investigation time is over! Now, I ask you all to meet in the Grand Theater! Further instructions will be supplied there! See you soon!" Pheme's sudden announcement cut off.

Yoshino groaned. "I feel like I didn't get shit done. Whatever I guess." She started to walk out. "You coming?" She looked behind her.

"In a minute." And that was how Darren replied.

"I don't get how some of these people can act like this..." Yoshino muttered as she walked out.


[Grand Theater]

One by one, people started to slowly trickle into the Grand Theater. Each and every person walked in with pure trepidation dripping in their steps. The tension was heavy.

"It's almost time to start... isn't it." Yoshino looked down and shook her head.

"Y-yes. It's almost here." Adam sighed.

"I'm g-getting nervous..." Aelia hugged herself. "D-Damien? Could you-" Aelia looked around. Wait. Where was Damien? She could've sworn he walked in with her and Ayaka. Ayaka had already separated from her... so where did Damien go? Aelia went and looked out the Grand Theater doors. "Oh!" She tried to keep quiet, as she saw Damien and Pheme talking to each other. Huh. She'll just wait for him then. She closed the door, the got to waiting patiently.

"Hey." Ji-hoon got the attention of Lake and Kuroko, who were currently on the stage, watching everybody walk in. "Was this where you two went off to? What's up with those fallen spotlights?" He pointed out.

Looks of realization spread across Lake and Kuroko's faces. That's right. Nobody knew about what happened to Rival yet. Rival was in the room too. He just wasn't saying anything. Well. They might as well explain. "Guys..." Lake got everyone's attention, and then they explained.


Kei suddenly jumped up from out of his seat like he heard something. He looked up, and then back at Rival. "Rival! Move! Now!" He sounded completely serious for once.

"Huh?" Rival promptly looked up.

It was like slow motion. That agonizing slow motion... of seeing a spotlight falling... and it was falling directly... onto... Rival...


"Wait what?! Rival almost died?!" Fair enough Ji-hoon was surprised.

"Oh *cough* dear..." Rosalind coughed.

"Oh my god! Are you alright Rival?" Aurora immediately turned to the backing vocalist, and so did most everyone else.

Rival didn't seem like he was doing very good. But that was mentally. Physically, he was fine. "I'm fine." And he expressed that.

"Fascinating... do we think that someone tried to kill Rival?" Aelia somehow didn't notice Damien walking back into the scene.

"Hold up... Bessie had a remote to control the spotlights yeah? How about that?" Raiha remembered.

"D-didn't you m-mention that Aurora?" Adam remembered too.

"I did." The starlet nodded.

"Yo, can we stop for a minute?!" Genjiro stomped his foot. "Can we exchange information before we start theory crafting and bullshit?!" He brought up a valid point.

"Fair enough." Kei agreed. "Shall we do that first then?"

"I-I'd like that too." Ayaka slowly nodded.

The group of eighteen then did a basic information exchange. Just to make sure everyone was on the same page. Certain people left out certain things, but don't worry about it!

"All very interesting things..." Kei hummed. "And that reminds me. I have two things I'd like to share with everyone."

"Oh-nya? Do share-nya!" Kuroko, as well as everyone else, was interested.

"Well first... was the main thing I was doing for the investigation. I was collecting alibis." Kei stated.

"No way? So the little bitch lawyer was doing something? Color me surprised." Alpha crossed her arms.

"Well at least I was actually doing something, unlike you." He gave a quick roast to Alpha. "Good place to start though. Cathy told me that her and Alpha were together in the Action Studio at the time of death. That right?" He smirked.

Alpha crossed her arms harder. "Yeah. I can unfortunately say that the pussy cat isn't the killer. She was bothering the fuck out of me in the Action Studio." Cathy just said "Nyahaha!" in response.

"Very good." Kei smiled. "Let me recount everyone else's alibis then..." He then, like he said, explained what he learned of everyone's alibis.

Ji-hoon and Adam were together in the Horror Studio at the TOD.

Raiha and Aurora were together in the Ultimate Trendsetter's Studio at the TOD.

Yoshino, Rosalind, and Ayaka were all in the VIP Quarters at the TOD.

Cathy and Alpha were together, as previously mentioned.

Damien, Darren, and Aelia were together in the Comedy Studio at the TOD.

Then Lake, Kuroko, Kei, and Rival were together at the TOD. And Genjiro and Joji were part of three that triggered the BDA. The other one being Kei.

...

"So everyone is accounted for then? The hell?" Joji realized.

"Well hold on." Kei stopped him. "Let's not forget that it's possible the killer killed Bessie without being in the same room. But it's still rather interesting isn't it?"

Yoshino grunted. "That's fair I guess. What about your other thing? You said you had two things to say right?"

"I did say that." Kei nodded. "To put it simply... Kuroko, Lake, and Rival." He got their attention. "Before I ran out of the Grand Theater earlier, or more accurately, I want to say why I ran out."

Lake titled their head. "Oh! Okay. Why did you do that then?" They forgot that Kei never gave an actual reason for that.

"Well..." Kei started to explain.


He started to pace around a little. "I could always..." Kei muttered to himself before looking at the other three. They weren't paying attention. Good.

Seeing his chance, Kei opened up his Map (T) app, to see the locations of people. After a couple of seconds, it loaded. "Hm..." He started to whisper to himself. "Some people there... two in there... one person in there... one person in... oh. Oh no." Kei quickly pocketed his Star-Phone, then looked at the other three. "Hey! You three stay here!" He suddenly yelled out before running out the door.


"I checked on the Map (T) app, and I saw a Star-Phone signal in the boarded-up room. That's why."

A collective gasp could be heard in the group. Lake had the biggest one. "What? You did?! But we... we vowed to not-!" Lake really valued that vow.

Genjiro shrugged. "You seemed like the type to break vows lawyer boy! Ha ha!" He mocked him.

"Hold on!" Ji-hoon stopped anyone else from talking. "You're serious Kei?"

"Why would I lie about that?" That was how Kei answered.

Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "Okay. Any "vow breaking" can be talked about later." He didn't want to waste time on sentiments like that. "What did you see Kei? This could be vital."

"Yeah, we don't want the fucking "uwu I'm so cute and naive" ballet dancer yapping about breaking promises. Fucking tell us already Kei." Lake looked visibly hurt by that, but Alpha couldn't care less.

"I can do that." Kei had wanted to explain what he saw anyway. "So... at 7:50 am, the signals were...

4 in the Grand Theater.

2 in the Horror Studio.

2 in the Action Studio.

2 in Raiha's Studio.

1 directly outside the Comedy Studio.

1 inside the Comedy Studio.

3 in the VIP Quarters.

2 outside the Boarded-Up Room.

1 in the Boarded-Up Room.

and that's what I saw." Kei recounted.

"H-hold on a minute." Adam immediately noticed a problem. "That's eighteen s-signals. It should be nineteen, counting B-Bessie. Did you miss one?"

Kei shrugged. "Don't think I did. I remember fairly vividly. Besides, Bessie's Star-Phone was broken right? It probably didn't give off a signal in that case."

"Ah y-yes! That's fairly likely..." Adam thought.

"That's good food for *cough* thought Kei." Rosalind slowly nodded. "More things to think about for the *cough* trial."

"Right..." Ji-hoon spoke a bit weirdly. "Actually... I have something to say too. A bit more "food for thought.""

Kei tilted his head. "Oh really? Tell me, did you-"

Ji-hoon nodded. "I did. Adam can back me up. As soon as I heard the BDA, I opened up my own Map (T) app. It was like a reflex. I knew there would be information there so I did."

Another collecive gasp rung out.

"Ji-hoon? B-But that's what Pheme wants us to-" Lake's voice grew a bit shaky as they said their plea. But they were cut off.

"Shut the fuck up Lake! We don't always need that shit! Just let the man explain!" Lake was cut off by the roar of Genjiro's voice.

Lake took a step back, shifting their eyes away from the scene.

"Bro! You didn't have to yell at Lake like that! They were just-" Joji moved to defend the ballet dancer, but he was also cut off.

"Ahem!" He was cut off by Ji-hoon clearing his voice. "I knew some of you were going to he against me doing that. But at this point, I can't bring myself to care."

People got a little thrown off by how rude Ji-hoon was, but people kept their comments to themselves.

"So? Explain what you saw then." Damien urged him along.

"I will." Ji-hoon cleared his voice again. "At 7:52 am, I saw...

2 in the Action Studio.

2 in the Horror Studio.

3 in the VIP Quarters.

1 in the Comedy Studio.

3 outside the Comedy Studio.

1 in Raiha's Studio.

3 in the Boarded-Up Room.

3 in the Grand Theater.

and that's it." Ji-hoon recounted.

"T-there were a few differences..." Adam observed.

"Fascinating. Sorting through this evidence might prove to be a challenge." Damien narrowed his eyes.

Raiha and Aurora shared a look. 1 in Raiha's Studio? Could that be the person who stole that spare Star-Phone? Theories started to flow through everyone's minds like a broken dam. But...

"I have arrived my glamorous stars! I apologize for the wait!" Pheme burst through the Grand Theater doors. "Who's ready for an amazing Studio Trial?!" Pheme smiled wide from beneath her mask.

Everyone just glared at her.

"Boy, you stars sure are a tough crowd sometimes!" Pheme skipped up onto the stage, urging Kuroko and Lake off of it in the process.

Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "Let's get this done. Where are we going for the Studio Trial?"

"Yeah, c'mon you BDSM bitch! This is already a stupid fucking waste of time!" Alpha said that, to the surprise of no one.

Pheme giggled. "I'm glad to see you excited! But for where you'll be going..." Pheme pulled out a remote and clicked a button. "Look no further!"

...

Within seconds, a door appeared on bottom left-hand side of the Grand Theater. It opened on its own, and it revealed an elevator.

"H-how did that get there?" Ayaka widened her eyes.

"Wow-nya! Crazy special effects-nya!" Kuroko seemed impressed for some reason.

"My dear Kuroko, I'd advise you to not praise Pheme, thank you." Damien crossed his arms.

"Now now! We don't have all day!" Pheme stomped her heel-clad foot. "Into the elevator! All of you! We have a wonderful Studio Trial to get underway... followed by a Stardom Finale as well!" Pheme got off the stage and slowly urged people into the elevator.

Grumbles and complaints could be heard from nearly everyone. It still felt a little surreal. Being so close to the Studio Trial. Having to figure out Bessie's killer. It was a strange feeling...

"Pst. Adam." Ji-hoon whispered to the academic as the group slowly filtered into the elevator. "Quickly. What do you think about..." The whispering unfortunately got a bit too quiet for the narration to hear.

Adam nodded. "I t-think you're right. I agree." He whispered back before all eighteen officially got onto the elevator.

Pheme could've melted at the sight of her stars packed into the elevator. She gave them a quick wave. "I'll see you all soon~!" She gave them a wink as the elevator doors closed...

...

...

...

None of them could tell how long the elevator ride was. It felt like the longest moment they've experienced in their lives. I mean... It's not a pleasant feeling... being in a group of eighteen, and knowing your standing next to a killer. Some people surpressed their suspicious thoughts, and some embraced them. Some welcomed this trial, and some hated it. The group was a wild swirl of so many different people and personalities... to Pheme, it was great. But she wasn't here right now. It was just the eighteen stars... and a deafening silence as they decended further into the earth...

...

...

...


[Grand Court]

When those elevator doors finally opened...

"Welcome! Welcome my adorable stars... to the Grand Court!" Pheme's voice echoed as the remaining eighteen stars entered.

"W-What is this place...?" Aelia looked with wonder at the new location they've just entered.

This place... it was hard to describe it. It was a circlular room, with nineteen podiums in the center of it, along with a silver and white throne in the middle of it too, of which Pheme was currently sitting upon. They didn't know how she managed to beat them all there. Spotlights and cameras lined the top of the wall and the ceiling, giving the place a very overwhelming aura. The walls had a hollywood backdrop, showing film studios and film lots. Lastly, the floor was a red carpet. This room... this entire room... was only befitting of a star. Was Pheme the star? Was Bessie the star? Was Bessie's killer the star? It's hard to say.

Pheme quickly noticed everyone staring transfixed at the scenery. "I understand how enchanted you are by this wonderful court... but i ask you all to get to your podiums, post-haste!" Pheme clapped her hands.

Nobody wanted to follow Pheme's instructions. Why would they? But they did as they were told. They slowly found the way to their assigned podiums, which had their names on them.

Starting from the right of Pheme's throne, the podium order went as follows:

Cathy, Raiha, Genjiro, A portrait of Bessie's face with two microphones over it, forming an "X" shape, Ji-hoon, Joji, Kei, Kuroko, Lake, Alpha, Rival, Aurora, Rosalind, Yoshino, Adam, Aelia, Ayaka, Damien, Darren, and then finally, back to Pheme's throne.

"Oh goodie! We can finally begin! We can finally begin the Studio Trial!" Pheme snapped her fingers, which caused a giant monitor to descend out of the ceiling.

"W-w-what is that?" Adam looke up nervously.

"Fascinating *cough* technology..." Rosalind muttered as she looked up as well.

Soon enough, the monitor fully descended... and... it started to play a video.

...

"Hello everyone! Welcome to the Studio Trial!" Pheme's slightly muffled voice could be heard from the monitor. "Welcome... to the first Studio Trial of Danganronpa: Obscurity's Disgrace!"

A title card for "Danganronpa: Obscurity's Disgrace" appeared above Pheme's head in the video."Now... let's meet our cast!" Video Pheme snapped her fingers... which started... the opening.


First, it was a picture of Cathy, who was standing triumphantly on top of a building, with a sack full of stolen goods in hand.

"Catherine Munchkin"


Next, it was a picture of Raiha happily texting away and chatting with her followers on her phone.

"Raiha Miyahara"


Next, it was a picture of Genjiro, flexing and laughing in front of a crowd of his devoted fans.

"Genjiro Mashimoto"


Next, it was a picture of Bessie, looking horrified at the sight of a spotlight crushing a human body.

"Bessie B. Blossom"


Next, it was a picture of Ji-hoon, typing away on his computer and finding dirt on all the latest up-and-coming celebrities.

"Ji-hoon Jo"


Next, it was a picture of Joji, who was happily installing the framework into a house that was under construction.

"Joji Kaneshiro"


Next, it was a picture of Kei, who was in a courtroom, and smugly staring at a frightened defendant.

"Kei Aikawa."


Next, it was a picture of Kuroko, who was smiling as she hypnotized a pretty lady up on a big stage, in front of an audience.

"Kuroko Kurobara"


Next, it was a picture of Lake, who was smiling and doing elegant ballet dances in front of an audience.

"Lake Beaumont"


Next, it was a picture of Alpha, who was behind the counter of her gas station, chatting up a customer. She also seemed... somewhat happy?

"Alpha"


Next, it was a picture of Rival, who was standing far back on a stage, singing his heart out. He also seemed... happy?

"Rival Seizon"


Next, it was a picture of Aurora, who was smiling and waving to crowds of her adoring fans as she walked down the red carpet.

"Aurora Beaufort"


Next, it was a picture of Rosalind, who had a determined look on her face as she got perfect shots for a movie she was working on.

"Rosalind Reinhardt"


Next, it was a picture of Yoshino, who was in her room, surrounded by horror movie posters, and she was writing her next big hit novel.

"Yoshino Akiyama"


Next, it was a picture of Adam, who was smiling with glee as he aced another big exam, like he usually does.

"Adam Brooks"


Next, it was a picture of Aelia, who was happily performing a puppet show for children in the park.

"Aelia Celani"


Next, it was a picture of Ayaka, who was seemingly happy as she performed away on her violin in front of a crowd.

"Ayaka Naganohara"


Next, it was a picture of Damien, who was with two other random women, and he was happily recommending them the perfect perfume.

"Damien Lux"


Finally, it was a picture of Darren, who had a content look on his face as he offered a drink to a customer as he chatted with them.

"Darren Taylor"


It cut back to Pheme, with a masked smile on her face as she faced the screen. "I sincerely hope you enjoy... I sincerely hope you enjoy Danganronpa: Obscurity's Disgrace!"

The video cut off, and the monitor began to go back up into the ceiling.

"That was..." Ji-hoon was understandably weirded out by that. But...

"How the hell did they even get those pictures?" Yoshino was weirded out too, but more by how much Pheme doesn't care about their privacy.

Everybody had their own comments to say... but a few people could only think about one thing.

"Bessie..." Rival, Aurora, and Raiha all muttered in unison. An image of her body flashed into their minds.

Bessie B. Blossom. The Ultimate Pop Star. Ever since the beginning of this horrible game, Bessie had a certain presence. A presence was was... comforting, in a way. It told you that, no matter what, this wacky pop star will keeping fighting to keep spirits up. It was... nice. She devoted herself to her show, and despite her strange mannerisms... everyone could tell... the she was good. It's as simple as that. But now...

She's gone. One of them killed her. They have eighteen suspects. It won't be easy. They don't even know why she was killed. But... they'll figure it out. No matter what they do... no matter how bright the light of fame or how blinding the darkness of obscurity... they'll solve it.

They'll bring the truth of Bessie's murder to light!


And there it is! The first investigation is finished!

Man I really hope I didn't forget to include anything in here that I included in the trial. I don't want to jinx it, but it'd be very unfortunate.

But yeah! Here we are! Writing the investigation was definitely different than writing the daily lives, or even the trials. It surprised me a little. So much cross-referencing between this and the trials XE

I hope it turned out good though, and I hope I gave you all of the information you need to figure out Bessie's killer! At this current point in time, I still do need to edit the trials, but that shouldn't be too bad.

Alright, before I head out, I want to give a shoutout because I feel like I haven't given one in a while! So shoutout to Danganronpa: Your False Words by Prince PokePersona! The wonderful creator of our beloved Raiha has his own DR fic, and it's very enjoyable so far! If you decide to give it a read, look out for Goro Fusazane, an OC of mine in the story! :D

Now I think that's it. I hope you all look forward to figuring out Bessie's killer!


Glamorous Stars Remaining: 18

Adam Brooks - Ultimate Academic [PROJECT DRAMA]

Aelia Celani - Ultimate Puppeteer [theycallmewotch]

Alpha - Ultimate Gas Station Manager [Epifanio Therion]

Aurora Beaufort - Ultimate Starlet [WolfieRed23]

Ayaka Naganohara - Ultimate Violinist [Sempi]

Catherine Munchkin - Ultimate Cat Burglar [Nekoja]

Damien Lux - Ultimate Beautician [oddlyillregular]

Darren Taylor - Ultimate Bartender [Otterplay]

Genjiro Mashimoto - Ultimate Wrestler [Grandma Sue]

Ji-hoon Jo - Ultimate Celebrity Detective [TheRoseShadow21]

Joji Kaneshiro - Ultimate Carpenter [SureJahn]

Kei Aikawa - Ultimate Lawyer [theotakureader101]

Kuroko Kurobara - Ultimate Hypnotist [MrUtenaHolic]

Lake Beaumont - Ultimate Ballet Dancer [KadachiNova]

Raiha Miyahara - Ultimate Trendsetter [Prince PokePersona]

Rival Seizon - Ultimate Backing Vocalist [SinWriter7]

Rosalind Reinhardt - Ultimate Cinematographer [Orlando Butler]

Yoshino Akiyama - Ultimate Horror Novelist [DeathlyJazzHands55]