Chapter 2: Adventures in Paradise Gloom (Deadly Life #3)


Warning: This fic contains intense violence, lots of OFFENSIVE cursing (thanks Monoyena, you fucking asshole!), character death, gore and blood, sexual innuendos, and possible spoilers for the Danganronpa series. But hey, everyone lurking in this fandom has at least played the first Danganronpa so no need to worry much there! Right?

With that said, please enjoy!


[MONOYENA'S INSULT EMPORIUM]


Seated on the couch was one Monoyena, completely alone and swirling a nice shrimp cocktail. Gnashing his cartoonishly sharp teeth together in annoyance, the poor hyena had been left so rudely alone by the others, who all decided to go check out Paradise without him… Not like he really cared. Only downside to this scenario was complete and utter boredom.

"Well, while those sacks of shits go out to have fun at some place called Paradise, I'm sitting here all alone sipping my delicious shrimp cocktail," Monoyena laughed, practically gurgling the drink in his mouth.

As far as robotic killer animals go, Monoyena sure knew how to handle his liquor. Expected nothing less from the brass and psychotic kook with a thirst for–

"Oi, fuckface, ya really gonna try to call me the psychotic kook?" Monoyena growled. "Look in the mirror, dumbo! Last time ya had some blonde bimbo kill a drug addict by making her slam her neck on a roller coaster! And you call me sick and twisted? Jesus Christ, son, go to fucking therapy!"

…Ouch…

"Anyway, what's this about fucking Paradise?" Monoyena picked his teeth with his Barbie Blade. "You actually made it into a place? I thought it was gonna be a fucking weapon. Like something you can bash someone over the head with. Womp womp! Like, wouldn't that twist be so much better?!"

Monoyena started to cackle.

"Bwa… Bwahahahahaha!" Monoyena laughed. "Four rewrites and this is the Trial ya settled for! Finishing a fic has really gotten to yer head, hasn't it?! Bwa… Bwahahahahahahaha!"

Monoyena couldn't stop laughing at my expense. Creating him was undoubtedly an ungodly mistake but so far, Twitter hasn't canceled me for Monoyena's existence and you know what, that's all that really matters in the world.

"Fuck cancel culture!" Monoyena growled. "People are too fucking sensitive over things that are obviously jokes! When I get my paws on them, I'll fucking smash their faces into their computer monitors, force feed them computer shards and electrocute the pussiness outta them! Bwa… Bwahahahahahahaha!"

…As I said, Monoyena is an ungodly mistake, so let's ignore this and get to the Trial shall we?

"You afraid of people yelling at you, mate?!" Monoyena glanced toward me. "Come on! Don't be such a pussy and take it like a champ!"

He shined his Barbie Blade toward me.

"Let's put some smiles on that face!" Monoyena cackled. "Bwa… Bwahahahahahahaha!"

Trial reconvene!

Trial Reconvene!

TRIAL RECONVENE!


[TRIAL RECONVENE]


"Oh look, yer back."

When the 13 playmates returned to the Trial Grounds along with Stanczyk, they could see the hyena gnashing his sharp teeth together, foamy drool seeping out of his lips. The more he waited for them, the more he grew increasingly impatient and annoyed that these kids weren't back arguing the fuck with one another.

And to rub salt on the wound…

"58 minutes and 14 seconds," Alisa nodded in satisfaction. "We came back relatively early, I would say."

"Shut the fuck up and go back to yer podium," Monoyena growled. "Ya skinny ass Corpse Bride-looking bitch!"

Alisa was not amused by that remark.

"I hope yer all fucking happy now," Monoyena grumbled. "Ya got to see what Paradise looked like. Ya got yer confirmation that to get there is through the Jap's Attraction. Now, can ya assholes stop wastin my time and get back to the Trial?! I wanna see you bitches fail so I can fucking slaughter you all damn it!"

"Jeez, someone woke up on the wrong end of the couch," Issac sighed.

"I finished three shrimp cocktails waiting for you fucks!" Monoyena exclaimed. "Three!"

"Yep, that'll do it," Issac chuckled to himself.

"Ignoring the hyena's bad temperament…" Kikuko closed her eyes. "I do have a question to ask…"

Kikuko glanced down at the ground, her eyes flashing blue for a slight moment as she thought carefully about what to ask. Then, after a while, she tilted her head.

"...We can confirm that Paradise was indeed the area in which Riku was shot first in," Kikuko briefly summarized. "The blood trail and the banana leaf that naturally grows there proves it."

Kikuko's expression shifted to that of confusion.

"But… aside from that, I need to ask…" Kikuko continued, looking puzzled. "Why was Riku in Paradise in the first place?"

"E-Eh?" Daisuke blinked. "W-What do you mean?"

"Well, think about what we know thus far," Kikuko began to say. "We know that Riku was tasked to protect the Sister's Button. We know that sometime later, he met his killer at Paradise. This would mean that both of them found the way to access Paradise. But why would Riku of all people want to go to Paradise? It really doesn't make much sense if you think about it logically…"

"I see what Kikuko is getting at," Fábio rubbed his chin. "Ideally, we would need to think about Riku's movements here. Why go to Paradise? Was he asked to go there by the killer or…?"

"I mean, even if he was, it wouldn't change the fact that he was still shot near the hip..." Aidan sighed, running his hand through his red hair. "I don't really see how this is a big deal…"

Well, the big deal about this was the fact that this entire case started at Paradise. And the reason for that was still relatively unknown. The question Kikuko wanted to know was why…? Why was Riku even in Paradise in the first place? Answering that could very help pave the path to the truth. At least…

…that's what Kikuko hoped.

"I believe the answer to this is much simpler than we think," Alisa spoke up. "The reason as to why Riku was in Paradise. The answer could very well be related to…

the Boy's button."

"The Boy's button?" Aidan blinked, before realizing. "O-Oh! Right! It was there, wasn't it?"


...They would be able to see that directly in front of the pond was a podium. A special podium... almost like it was the podium where that supposed artifact Marcus mentioned was originally supposed to be on. But instead of an artifact, what was placed on it was a single red big button, unactivated.

Below the button was a single word:

'BOY'

In other words…

"Hmph," Yukihiko remarked. "So, I guess Marabel really was right. This is where Paradise truly was this entire time."


"The last button that none of us was able to find until now," Yukihiko muttered. "Of course, the main goal since the Playtime Event was revealed was to search for the buttons. And while the other three were found, the Boy's was the missing link."

"Indeed, and we know that Riku and his killer were the only people who were able to find it," Alisa nodded.

"W-Wait, so then…" Aidan was seriously confused. "W-What does this even mean? I mean, why would Riku want to find the Boy's button?!"

A fantastic question that not everyone really knew. Riku wanting to find the Boy's button was strange enough. Doubled with the fact that he was placed on guard duty to defend the Sister's Button also meant that him leaving to find an entirely different button was also pretty damn weird. But... there was one person that could explain this. Yukihiko turned to that one person, narrowing his eyes.

"Why don't we ask Beautè?" Yukihiko glanced at his nails. "If I'm not mistaken, she was supposed to be guarding the Sister's Button with Riku. And now, look what has happened. Riku is dead and she remains unsuspected..."

"Till now, you mean, ah heh heh..." Beautè giggled.

"But as much as a prick Yukihiko is," Alisa folded her arms. "He's right. You were supposed to be on guard duty and yet, something happened. Why did Riku end up in Paradise, hm?"

"Ah heh heh..." Beautè licked her blood-red lips. "Something tells me you are expecting me to supply my Testimony! How elegant! But as I have told many others before... You may not like what you hear..."

She took out a hand fan and covered the lower half of her face, getting ready to supply her sequence of events. If it was anything like the shady alibi Yukihiko and friends heard before, then it wasn't going to help in the slightest... Unless she slips a contradiction into her words somewhere.

"Yes, it is true!" Beautè hid the lower part of her face behind her hand fan. "I was indeed tasked with guarding the Sister's Button along with the victim, Riku Arakawa."

"Where exactly were you two situated when you guys were guarding the button?" Yukihiko questioned.

"Directly outside of the Exit of Kikuko's Attraction, of course!" Beautè smiled. "My idea of course! I thought that hovering over the button would be much too boring and cramped for my taste..."

Beautè switched the hand fan so that it could cover the left side of her, maintaining that twisted smile she had.

"Anyway, spending time with victim however, stuck to only insulting and berating me for being such a..." Beautè glanced up, as if she were trying to ponder something. "...Hm. How did he say it? A red-headed bitch? Anyway, he was quite a boring person to work with, surprisingly."

"Sounds like Riku," Mara remarked.

"Eventually however, I needed to use the little women's room," Beautè trailed her fingers over her lips. "So, I left Riku alone and went about my way."

"Little women's room?" Aidan looked confused.

"She means bathroom," Yukihiko briefly explained before turning toward the mysterious Ultimate. "Anyway, you just left Riku alone like that? What happened when you came back?"

"Oh, he was just gone," Beautè shrugged. "I imagined that was probably when he went to Paradise!"

"He just left his post like zat?" Manon widened her eyes in shock. "Zat doesn't help us at all!"

"Ah heh heh..." Beautè smirked. "I warned you..."

Beautè covered the top half of her face, revealing only her smirk.

"But I suppose if you were hoping to find out why the victim would want to find the Boy's Button in the first place..." she continued. "The victim did tell me one thing before I left."

Beautè leaned removed her hand fan and leaned forward.

"He told me that he found Paradise, and he was going to go save The Boy..." Beautè smirked, a dark gloom clouding her face and revealing only her piercing red eyes and smile. "That's why he went! To save the Boy!"

That was Beautè's alibi and already, no one really trusted it.

They all knew that Riku was on guard duty. Beautè said that she went to the bathroom and contended that the reason Riku would go to Paradise was to save the Boy. Because apparently... only he had found it. Only he knew about it. Despite this coming from Beautè and everyone knowing how full of shit she usually was, maybe this time... just once... maybe this was the tru-

"...I'm afraid I will have to call you out for this obvious lie..." Kazuki jumped in, shaking his head.

Okay.

"Oh?" Beautè smirked. "And why is that?"

"Because…" Kazuki folded his arms, opening one eye. And even with one eye open, it was enough to maintain the seriousness of his expression. "...I don't think it was even possible for Mister Arakawa to even try to save the Boy in the first place…"

"And why do you think that?" Beautè continued to ask, as if challenging the philanthropist.

"...Simple…" Kazuki smiled to himself, confidently. "The reason why Mister Arakawa would be unable to save the Boy is because…

the Boy's button wasn't activated."

"W-What?!" Kikuko widened her eyes.

"Think back to the rules of the Playtime Event…" Kazuki glanced to the side, instinctively reaching for his neck.


"That's where Hangman's Gambit comes in!" Monoyena's mouth turned into a twisted grin. "Ya see, the words you're guessing are actually clues guiding to specific locations throughout the Jungle of Joy! At each specific location is a button assigned to the borders of each kid!"

Monoyena pointed his Barbie Blade toward the boxes on the screen once more.

"Solve what the word is, and the button associated with that word will activate, allowing you to press it if you find it!" Monoyena declared. "For example… Let's say I solve the word for the Girl. The word will reveal where the Girl button is and once you find it, you can press it. Once you press it, the border will change to Green. That tells us that you have chosen to save the Girl and once the Deadline is up, we can go and kill the Boy instead. Got it?"


"O-Oh!" Kikuko understood. "You mean to say…"

"Exactly…" Kazuki nodded. "...In order for the buttons to work in the first place… They have to be activated… And the only way to activate a button…"

"...Is solve the word associated to that button, that's right!" Fábio realized. "Yumi and I ran into that problem yesterday when we found the Sister's Button!"


Aidan and Fábio had stepped out of the shrine to find themselves in a familiar pathway surrounded by bamboo trees. Straight ahead was the exit but to their right was…

"Hey, it's—" Aidan widened his eyes.

Sitting on a podium was a big red button that didn't seem to be activated at the moment. The single word written against it was as follow:

'SISTER'

In other words…

"Well, at least we know where it is," Fábio shrugged.


"Hey, wait a minute, yeah that was the same thing for when Daisuke and I found the Brother's Button too…" Aidan slowly trailed off, remembering that shortly after that moment was something… a little too awkward to mention.


There by the photo-op on the right was a podium with a big red button on it. Underneath the button was the word:

'BROTHER'

But unlike the button for the Girl's, it wasn't lit up, meaning whoever found it was could press it if they pleased, but nothing would really happen.

Shooting out his hand, Daisuke reached forward to press the button. A clear monkey brain moment as this was all based on instinct and the appealing nature of such a flashy red button. Before his hand made contact however, Aidan grabbed him by the wrist, snapping him out and forcing the larger male to blush.


"...It… wasn't turned on… either," Aidan cleared his throat and continued anyway, never meeting Daisuke's ashamed look.

"But how exactly does this tie into–" Kikuko was about to ask before she realized the answer herself. "Wait… You don't mean…"

"...You remembered…" Kazuki smiled to himself. "The Boy's word was never solved in the first place. In fact…"


"...I had the most trouble with this one…" Kazuki noted. "When I solved the other words… I used preexisting knowledge of each location and their most identifiable traits… FISHERMAN. TREEHOUSE. PRIESTESS."

Kazuki instinctively moved his hand toward his neck.

"But the Boy's Button was different…" Kazuki seriously stated. "Because unlike the others… It just so happened to be in a location that no one had ever discovered… A location that I hadn't clued in until the Trial began..."


"...We only managed to solve it in this very Trial…" Kazuki extended out his arms like he was an archangel not named Ralphael. "...Right before the break!"

"Ah heh heh..." Beautè cackled. "So, you've caught me! Well done!"

"Ugh, for once, Beautè, could you please stop treating this as a game and be serious for once?" Kikuko frowned. "There are real lives at stake in this game. There should be no reason for you to lie about so trivial!"

"Unless... there is a reason on why she's lying..." Fábio rubbed his chin.

He could feel Beautè's intense gaze peering into his soul. But for someone who felt like he had already sold his soul, Fábio did his best to ignore it. He glanced around and rubbed his chin, thinking about this to the best of his ability. The reason Beautè would lie.

Fábio glanced back toward the red-headed Ultimate.

"...You know why Riku really went to Paradise, don't you...?" Fábio frowned. "Or rather... why he left his post."

"Did you figure it out, Barbosa?" Issac smiled.

"Wait, we're trusting Beautè on the fact that he did leave his post?" Aidan blinked before realizing what he was saying. "Huh. I guess it makes sense if he wound up in Roderick's Attraction..."

Fábio tuned out Aidan's ramblings for the time being, thinking only about the answer to why Riku left his post. Why Riku ended up in Paradise and ended up getting shot near the hip like that...

"What if the answer is much easier than we've been letting on?" Fábio asked.

Fábio thought about it a little closer now.

Riku couldn't have gone to Paradise because of the Boy's button. He, like everyone else, would've known that the Boy's button wasn't activated. So, realistically, it would make no sense for Riku to be Paradise just to save the Boy when the button wasn't even activated. It would make no sense for him to be in Paradise, period!

Fábio was right.

The answer was simpler than that. The reason Riku was at Paradise was because…

"I think..." Fábio began to say. "The real reason Riku was even in Paradise was because…

he got there by accident!"

"B-By accident?!" Daisuke widened his eyes. "W-What?! H-How?!"

"Think about it this way…" Fábio folded his arms as he began to explain. "If I was Riku and I was guarding the Sister's Button and for some reason, wanted to go to the Ruins, what route would I realistically take? The long walk from Village to the Ruins or…"

"...an easy transportation system dat would take him from one side of da Jungle to da other!" Yumi widened her eyes. "Dat is brilliant logic, pardner!"

"Yeah, and I think that's exactly what happened to Riku!" Fábio nodded. "Riku probably wanted to get from one side of the Jungle to the other but knowing Riku, he'd definitely hate to waste time just taking the long way. That's why he decided to use the coaster path…"

"...But in doing so, he would've found Paradise by accident," Kikuko followed along. "Because in reality, taking the Exit side of the coaster would just send you directly to Paradise."

"Exactly," Fábio nodded. "That's why I think this is the only reason why Riku would be at Paradise–"

"Your stance is all wrong!" Mara interjected.

Mara flashed across the screen; her fiery gaze pointed directly toward the figure skater. She was in fighting position, ready to take on the offense against Fábio's defense, because there was clearly something that Fábio said that didn't sit well with her.

"M-Mara?" Fábio widened his eyes.

"Your reasoning is shallow and stupid," Mara insulted, folding her arms. "There is no way Riku would be at Paradise just because he found it accidentally."

"B-But wouldn't that be the only explanation as to why Riku was even at Paradise in the first place?" Fábio blinked.

"Not at all," Mara shook her head. "Because you forgot to account for one thing…"

The karate master narrowed her eyes.

"The killer…" Mara frowned.

"A-Agh!" Fábio realized.

All that theorizing on why Riku was at Paradise and yet, he had completely forgotten to figure out the other half of that important riddle: Why the heck was the killer at Paradise as well?!

"Now you understand…?" Mara folded her arms. "If Riku found the place by accident, then what about the killer? Why was the killer in Paradise?"

"C-Couldn't it be possible that the killer was trying to follow Riku?" Fábio suggested.

"That would suggest that the killer had been planning to kill Riku for a while," Mara shook her head, literally karate chopping his words into pieces. "And as far as I'm concerned, there would be no reason for the killer to do that. According to you guys, he wasn't doing anything suspicious but guarding a button."

"W-Well, then maybe the killer also stumbled onto Paradise by accident!" Fábio argued.

"And that would lead the killer to attack and shoot Riku?" Mara folded her arms. "Why?"

"I…" Fábio blinked.

Crap.

Mara was right.

With the killer added into the equation, this just got a little more complicated than he had thought. There was no way either Riku nor the killer would have any reason to go to Paradise, especially if the Boy's button's Hangman word hadn't been solved. That was why Fábio thought that Riku ended up in Paradise by accident. But what about the killer…?

Fábio shook his head.

"No… I think both Riku and the killer did actually find Paradise by accident!" Fábio declared.

"Then, you better be prepared to prove it," Mara folded her arms. "What evidence do you have that proves that finding Paradise was an accident…?"

Fábio was stuck.

How should he go about answering that question? He didn't have the evidence. He was on the same boat as everyone else. He didn't know where Paradise was until half an hour ago so… How does one prove that Riku and the killer both found Paradise by accident…?

"Consider this my act of charity…" Kazuki intervened.

Kazuki flashed across the screen, his both arms extended as if he were allowing permission for someone to hug him. With one eye closed and the other eye directed toward Fábio, Kazuki flashed a grim yet assuring smile telling him that he had the answer.

"...Oh… Miss Garcia…" Kazuki sighed. "You know that's not fair…"

"What do you want?" Mara folded her arms.

"...Just to inform you with something really quick…" Kazuki shook his head. "...To ask Mister Barbosa for proof that Paradise was an accident… I'm afraid it would be impossible for not just him… But for anyone to provide… I'm afraid…"

"Oh jeez, thanks," Fábio deadpanned.

"But…" Kazuki closed his one opened eye and grimly smiled. "...I think there is sufficient evidence that can prove that the killer also stumbling into Paradise by accident would definitely lead to the killer attacking Riku… Boy… That sure is a mouthful…"

"You think the killer and Riku finding Paradise accidentally would lead to one of them getting shot?" Mara raised an eyebrow. "I'm calling your bluff…"

"No bluff…" Kazuki slowly smiled. "Only facts…"

And he sure had the facts.

Fábio declared that both the killer and Riku found Paradise by accident. Kazuki agreed. But Mara still had a tough time believing it. After all, how could two people find one place by accident lead to one of them shooting the other? What exactly would link two seemingly different scenarios into one functioning narrative…

Whatever the answer was, Kazuki knew it.

Extending out his arms with grim confidence, the philanthropist continued.

"This is the proof you are looking for…" Kazuki declared. "The proof that the killer and Riku finding Paradise accidentally would have in fact led to one of them getting shot. The evidence is…

the Sister's border color."

"W-What?" Mara blinked.


The Boy (3) ~ Red

[]A[]A[]I[]E

The Girl (4) ~ Green

FISHERMAN

The Brother (3) ~ Green

TREEHOUSE

The Sister (4) ~ Red

PRIESTESS


"Remember what the Sister's border color was on the day the second Playtime Event was first announced…?" Kazuki questioned.

"Well, yeah," Mara folded her arms. "Wasn't it…"


The Boy (5) ~ Red

[]A[]A[][][][]

The Girl (4) ~ Red

[]I[][]E[][]A[]

The Brother (3) ~ Green

[][]EE[]OU[]E

The Sister (4) ~ Green

[][]IE[][]E[][]


"...Green?" Mara questioned.

"Precisely…" Kazuki nodded. "And yet… suspiciously… When Miss Zachary and I guarded the monitors today… The border color for the Sister was Red… In fact... You should've seen that much when I handed my eTicket to you all to figure out the word for the boy... Do you know what this means…?"

Mara didn't say anything.

"...I see," Fábio decided to answer for her. "The Sister's border color was Red. Which had to mean that at some point, someone had pressed the Sister's button."

"...And changed it to Red… Yes…" Kazuki nodded.

"Okay, but I don't get it," Mara frowned. "How does this even relate to why the killer shot Riku?"

"Well…" Kazuki gave the karate master a grim smile. "Because the one who pressed the button had to be the killer…"

"W-What?!" Mara tightened her fist.

"Think of it this way…" Kazuki placed a hand over his neck, instinctively. "...The button for the Sister's Button would be at the Exit… correct? Well… what if our killer arrived at the Exit side of Miss Unmei's Attraction… They press the button… locking the Sister's button on Red. Then… they try to go to the other side of the Jungle. But that's when the killer discovers Paradise for the first time…"

Kazuki tilted his head with a smile.

"...Mister Arakawa… who was guarding the button directly outside of the Attraction at the time… saw this and decided to follow behind the killer…" Kazuki continued. "Using the control panel on the Exit side… Mister Arakawa presses Automatic to call the coaster back… He stops it by turning it to Manual. Then… he climbs aboard the coaster… and arrives right where the killer is… Paradise."

Kazuki folded his arms and looked down, gloomily.

"...I imagine that would be when Mister Arakawa realized what the killer was trying to do…" Kazuki frowned. "And… in a desperate attempt to stop Mister Arakawa from foiling their plans… the killer fires a shot… misses… but hits him in the hip. After that… Well… we sort of know the rest."

Kazuki slammed both hands onto his podium, his gaze becoming increasingly serious.

"...But that is how both Mister Arakawa and the killer found Paradise by accident!" Kazuki declared. "The killer turned the Sister's button to Red and tried to go to the other side of the Jungle and Mister Arakawa simply followed behind to confront him."

Kazuki looked away, a pained expression on his face.

"And to think that Mister Arakawa tried to do a good deed before he was attacked so cruelly…" Kazuki muttered.

"Yeah, that makes a lot of sense now," Fábio rubbed his chin in thought. "This would be how I imagine Riku and the killer to end up in Paradise and then Riku getting shot. Thanks for the help, Kazuki."

"...Any time…" Kazuki grimly smiled toward the figure skater.

"So, what do you think about all of that, Mara?" Fábio frowned. "You have any more objections to that or…"

Mara kept her arms folded and simply looked away. She considered what Kazuki said for a moment before sighing to herself. She couldn't help it. She hated to admit it but it did make some lick of sense. What other reason would they have to be at Paradise? What other reason would there be for Riku to get shot in the hip in Paradise…

"...No objections," was all Mara had to say.

"So, to reiterate," Alisa folded her arms. "This entire case started because Riku was following a killer who had marked the Sister for death. And the reason they both ended up in Paradise in the first place was because the killer tried to go to the other side but ended up in Paradise instead. Not only that, but Riku would've recalled the coaster cart the moment the killer left to investigate and used that to follow behind the killer…"

Alisa fixed her glasses, her eyes in thought.

"Tell me about that…" Alisa began.

"A-About what?" Daisuke blinked.

"The killer…" Alisa responded. "Why would the killer want to mark the Sister for death? Out of all the children on the board, it was only the Sister who's border changed so why…?"

That was a very valid question.

In Alisa and Kazuki's case, only the Sister's border color had actually changed to Red. Everyone else stayed the same. It was obvious why not for the Boy's but for the Girl's and Brother's… They were still Green. Unchanged. So, what was the killer's purpose behind changing the Sister's color? What were they trying to do…?

"Oh, honey, I think the answer is obvious…" Yukihiko narrowed his eyes. "The reason why the killer changed the Sister's border to Red…

they were planning to turn all of the children's borders Red, weren't they?"

"W-What?!" Aidan exclaimed.

"Turn ze children's borders Red?!" Manon widened her eyes. "You mean, ze killer's true plan…"


"...You get to right some wrongs and change up the votes!" Monoyena cackled. "But that also includes the option to turn everyone's buttons Red. And if you keep 'em Red, well, now it's you fuckers who get to leave this place and out of my sight! But at the cost of killing all the children we're keeping here!"

Monoyena leaned forward, his jagged red eye glowing bright enough to show just how maliciously content he was about all this.

"That's the Gambit!" Monoyena laughed. "Bwa… Bwahahahahaha!"


"...Was to commit the Ultimate Sacrifice..." Yukihiko folded his arms, finishing Manon's thought. "Kill every single child locked up here at the park to get everyone out of here. That damn… coward…"

"Ah heh heh," Beauté smirked. "Ohhh, I was so waiting for someone here to actually go through with that part of the Gambit. So…"

Beauté leaned forward, her smile creepily widening.

"Who was it?" Beauté questioned. "Who of us here decided to ruin my fun and try to end the game early, I wonder...?"

"I-It wasn't me!" Daisuke shook his head. "I w-would never harm children! N-Never!"

"Don't look at Isolde," Issac covered Isolde's antennae. "I know she can be harsh but she's not vile…"

"It wasn't me either darn it!" Yumi shook her head as well. "Y'all already had enough kicks tryin to accuse me of murder dammit!"

"But are we absolutely certain that this is what the killer was truly plotting?" Kikuko questioned. "To commit what is essentially mass genocide and kill all the children just to get ourselves out…?"

"Of course it is, sweetie," Yukihiko scoffed, glancing at his nails once more. "Let's not forget that other part of the mystery we have yet to solve…

the person who activated the Brother's and Sister's buttons."


"...Not just you…" Yukihiko pointed to Alisa and then to Kazuki. "Both of you… one job. Just one. Protect the monitor and keep anyone from touching it. And what do I see? Whatever this is!"

He directed his finger toward the monitors, showing the new results of the Hangman's Gambit Playtime Event:

The Boy (3) ~ Red

[]A[]A[]I[]E

The Girl (4) ~ Green

FISHERMAN

The Brother (3) ~ Green

TREEHOUSE

The Sister (4) ~ Green

PRIESTESS

"...And on the day of the deadline, no less!" Yukihiko exclaimed.


"I thought that was Kazuki, wasn't it?!" Aidan widened his eyes.

"Far from it…" Kazuki shook his head. "...Miss Zachary was with me at all times. She can corroborate that no matter how good I was at Hangman… I would have never activated the buttons on my own accord…"

"Indeed, I can…" Alisa simply nodded.

"But then the question now lies…" Kikuko gripped her hakama tightly. "If that was the killer's true goal, then why didn't they simply do just that…?"

"Huh?" Manon blinked. "What do you mean, Madame Unmei?"

"The killer's original plan was to keep all buttons on Red, was it not…?" Kikuko tilted her head. "And yet, what do we know so far…?"

Kikuko took out an ofuda and let the winds of the Spirit Realm carry it to wherever they sought fit to let it travel.

"...We know that the killer managed to mark one child to death, ended up in Paradise by accident and was confronted by Riku…" Kikuko answered. "...From there, they shot him in the hip and spent the next half hour or so chasing him down."

Kikuko shook her head.

"Couldn't the killer have simply continued their mission of marking all the children to death?" Kikuko frowned.

"Well, maybe the killer was an idiot?" Beauté shrugged, before smirking at Aidan. "Hey, wouldn't that make Aidan the killer?!"

"S-Screw off, it's not me!" Aidan shook his head, wildly. "You know I'm the guy who wants all of us to get out, including the children!"

Kikuko simply shook her head over Beauté and Aidan's antics.

"Even then, it still makes no sense," Kikuko sighed. "That the killer would rather hunt down and finish off someone who had escaped their grasp instead of finishing their mission. I mean, the whole point of marking all the children for death was to get all of us out alive, wasn't it?"

This was a strong point made by Kikuko.

The killer's actions were really damn strange. They were supposedly trying to make the Ultimate Sacrifice. Mark all of the kids for death in order to allow everyone else to escape and leave this cruel Killing Game. That was the Gambit they were trying to go through. And yet, once Riku confronted them, that mission turned into a mission to silence Riku.

Whether or not this was a killer's mistake or lust for blood…

It just made no sense.

Not to Kikuko, and now to Alisa, who simply held her glasses up in thought over what was going on. Why did the killer focus more on finishing off Riku instead of finishing their mission?

"The only reason for the killer to change their objectives like that is if Riku did something that they didn't like…" Alisa suggested. "If they felt like they had to kill Riku…"

"Zey felt like zey had to?" Manon blinked. "But what could've been so bad zat Monsieur Arakawa deserved to be killed like zat…?"

Alisa rubbed her chin.

That was the question, wasn't it?

Whatever Riku did was so bad, the killer felt like they had to kill him… There was an answer here that could only be reached if she did a little deep dive. It may be a little early for this, but this is absolutely needed to understand the killer's motives and movements.

Why did the killer switch their plans at the last second?

Why did they choose to kill Riku?

Why not just focus on the mission?

What did Riku do that was so bad it required him to be killed?

Come on Alisa.

Think! Think! Think!


I only have four minutes, 23 seconds before everyone starts to notice how silent I am. I will have to be quick if I am to make my deductions.

Alisa closed her eyes.

The question we have to answer here is why the killer thought it was more important to kill Riku than it was to finish their mission of getting everyone out of here…

Alisa took a deep breath.

Hmmm… well, to start, we will need to ask ourselves some easy questions first before we can unravel the meat of the matter. Let's start with… this question…

Alisa folded her arms.

Why was the victim at Kikuko's Attraction in the first place? Well, simple…

they were guarding the Sister's Button.

Indeed. That was the reason why Riku was there in the first place. He was tasked with guarding the Sister's Button with Beauté. Only problem was that apparently, Beauté went to the bathroom and left him alone...

Alisa shook her head for a moment.

Whether she was telling the truth or not, doesn't matter. What matters is the killer's movements. According to Kazuki, the killer would've arrived by the roller coaster to get into the Exit. So...

Alisa pushed her glasses up.

Why was the killer at Kikuko's Attraction? Well, this one is also simple…

...they wanted to push the Sister's Button.

Indeed. The killer's ultimate goal here was to make the Ultimate Sacrifice. They wanted to sacrifice all the children in return for our freedom. That was the Gambit they were aiming for.

Alisa rubbed her chin.

But then, what happened next? Riku and the killer would've been around the same place at the same time. And if the killer came in and pushed the button, what would Riku have done?

Alisa furrowed her eyebrows.

Realistically, I believe he would've...

...followed the killer.

Indeed. Riku followed behind the killer after noticing them do what they did to the Sister's Button. This brought him to Paradise, where he ultimately confronted the killer and got shot.

Alisa kept her eyes closed.

But here's a question no one thought to consider. Why on Earth did Riku get shot? If I was the killer, it'd be easy to just play it off instead of resorting to violence. But then again, someone like Riku would've understood immediately what was happening...

Alisa bit her lip as she pondered the next question at hand:

Therefore, what happened between Riku and the killer in this case? Could it be…

a fight broke out.

Ah, indeed. If a fight broke out between Riku and the killer, then that would definitely lead to someone getting hurt. In this case, it led to Riku getting shot and the first gunshot to be heard throughout most of the Jungle.

Alisa blinked.

But then, we have to ask: Why exactly did this fight start? Well, the only logical answer here would be…

...

...

...

...

...

...

one of them felt threatened.

Indeed. Threatened. I can see why that would be a valid reason for this whole case to get violent. But…

Alisa fixed her glasses.

What exactly caused one of them to feel threatened? The only logical thing it could be would be…

...

...

...

...

...

the gun.

Yes indeed! It had to be the gun! Anyone who would have a gun pointed directly at them would freak out. That is basic human nature.

Alisa paused.

Wait. But… that doesn't exactly match what we know of Riku now is it?

Alisa tightened her grip on her arms.

Yes or no? Would Riku be the type to freak out over a gun? The answer…

...

...

...

...

...

No.

Indeed. Riku is a cherished member of the yakuza. Not just any yakuza, but the Arakawa Family, the 2nd most powerful crime family in the world. Not only that, but he loves all things death and despair. Thinking about him panicking over a gun makes no sense.

Alisa slowly felt an idea coming to her head.

Wait… But wouldn't that…

Alisa shook her head.

Next question: If Riku wasn't the one who panicked over the gun, who did? The answer…

...

...

...

...

...

the killer.

Indeed. By process of elimination, only the killer remains. But hang on, why would the killer panic over seeing a gun if they had the gun in the first place…?

Alisa slowly widened her eyes.

Unless…

Alisa bit her lip.

Who really had the gun in the first place? Could it be…

...

...

...

...

...

Riku?

No! Th-This can't be! But if that's true…

Alisa shifted uncomfortably at her podium.

What exactly did all of us get wrong? That would be…

...

...

...

...

...

the killer's role and Riku's role.

Indeed. All this time, we mistakenly believed that Riku was the victim who confronted the killer and the killer to be the person who tried to commit the Ultimate Sacrifice. But if the roles were reversed this entire time…

Alisa fixed her glasses even though she had her eyes closed.

Then who was the person who really tried to commit the Ultimate Sacrifice? It was…

...

...

...

...

...

Riku.

Indeed. It's the only explanation. So, now the reason the killer switched objectives makes sense, doesn't it? The reason the killer wanted to kill Riku… No. The reason the killer had to kill Riku...

Alisa grimaced.

The true reason Riku died... What is my final conclusion?!

...

...

...

...

...


Alisa slammed both fists onto her podium as she opened her eyes. The conclusion she had reached. How had she not seen this before?! She glanced at her watch. 4 minutes and 59 seconds. She made it just barely. She could feel the concerned glances she was getting, but none of that really changed just how frustrated she was about this.

"Miss Zachary…" Kazuki blinked. "What's wrong…?"

"...I figured out why the killer wanted to kill Riku…" Alisa muttered. "No. I suppose the correct way to phrase this is… I figured out why the killer had to kill Riku!"

"Q-Quoi?!" Manon widened her eyes.

Alisa didn't say anything for a moment. She wasn't sure if she was right about this but she literally did go through an entire Think! Think! Think! section just to reach this truth. She fixed her glasses and frowned.

"The reason why the killer had to kill Riku…" Alisa began. "The reason why the killer did everything they could to make sure Riku was dead. It was because…

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Riku was trying to sacrifice the children!"

"W-What?!" Aidan widened his eyes.

"W-What did ye say?!" Roderick exclaimed.

"S-SACRE BLEU?!" Manon screamed.

"Hold on!" Yukihiko slammed his squeezable milk bottle onto his podium, glaring at Alisa. "What are you talking about?! Riku was the one who tried to stop the killer from sacrificing the children, how could it be the other way around?!"

"Because we made a terrible error in our deductions," Alisa explained.

"A-An error?!" Yukihiko blinked. "W-What error?!"

"Simple…" Alisa folded her arms. "We completely messed up…

the roles of the killer and victim!"

"W-What are you saying?!" Yukihiko gritted his teeth. "Riku was the victim, and the killer was the one who shot him!"

"That was exactly how it ended up, indeed," Alisa nodded. "But that was not how this case ultimately started out as…"

Alisa swung her pocket watch in Yukihiko's direction.

"Think about this case but switch the roles…" Alisa declared. "This case started out with Riku being the one who pressed the Sister's Button. He wanted to sacrifice all of the children in order to get him and the rest of us out of this Killing Game! He wanted to make the Ultimate Sacrifice…"

Alisa pushed her glasses up, allowing the light to reflect off of her lens.

"The killer witnesses him doing this and follows behind him," Alisa continued. "Together, they both end up in Paradise. That was when the roles switched…"

"S-Switched?!" Yumi widened her eyes.

"Indeed," Alisa nodded. "Because Riku was the one who had been going around pressing buttons, I imagine that the person who started out with Roderick's gun…"

"...was Monsieur Arakawa?" Manon looked at Alisa, incredulously.

"N-Nonsense!" Yukihiko shook his head in disbelief. "If Riku had the gun, then how on Earth did he get shot by the gun in the first place?! Poor gun mishandling skills?!"

"Far from it," Alisa shook her head. "Because this is where the role switching came into play. Since Riku had the gun, our killer would've freaked out. Anyone would if their own life was being threatened…"

"...Can confirm… yes…" Kazuki had experience.

"But that was Riku's mistake because the killer attacked and fought Riku for the gun," Alisa folded her arms. "As you can imagine the result, the killer succeeded and Riku was shot in the hip. That would prompt Riku to try to escape and the killer to chase after him and get a new gun…"

Alisa swung her pocket watch toward Yukihiko.

"...just so they can stop Riku!" Alisa exclaimed.

"Big words for such a small child-like imagination," Yukihiko still didn't believe a lick of what she was saying. "How about we see some evidence then?"

Yukihiko leaned forward, his eyes narrowing.

"Evidence that the killer and Riku really did fight as you said!" Yukihiko exclaimed.

Alisa opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out of it. She knew she was right on the money about this. This was the only way the killer changing objectives had to make sense… Because quite literally, the killer themselves had changed in their respectful scenarios. But how should she go about proving that…?

"Aye," Roderick jumped in, slowly realizing. "I think I be havin the answer to yer conundrum…"

"Roderick?" Alisa blinked.

"Roderick, honey, you really believe that you have the evidence she needs to prove this outlandish theory?" Yukihiko scoffed. "Please step aside and let the mature adults speak, okay?"

"N-Nay!" Roderick shook his head. "I be not the one who needs to keep quiet, lassie! I have the evidence, I say!"

Yukihiko looked at him, surprised and yet also annoyed that Roderick was rebelling against him like this.

"Oh really?" Yukihiko frowned. "And what exactly is the evidence that you propose?"

"Simple!" Roderick folded his arms. "The evidence I be proposin is…

the dirt on Riku's back!"

"A-Agh!" Yukihiko widened his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Th-That's right!"


During his moment of frisking, or let's be real, touching a dead body, Roderick had noticed that there was something on the doctor's back. Gently, he tipped Riku over in order to give him a better look. To his surprise…

…there was a large amount of what seemed to be dirt on the back of his shirt.

"Ugh, ew," Yukihiko recoiled in disgust, besides not being the one to frisk the corpse. "What on Earth is that doing on his back?"

"Aye, could that be dirt or… dried mud?" Roderick slowly retracted his hands, furrowing his eyebrows. "I be terrible at differentiating the two."


"Aye, Capt'n!" Roderick growled. "We found dirt on the back of Riku's shirt, remember?! We didn't know how he got it and maybe it be what the lassie said! Riku and his mutineer fought one another for the gun and that be how Riku got the back of his shirt dirty!"

"W-Well, he could've gotten it dirty anywhere," Yukihiko folded his arms. "It doesn't have to be from Paradise."

"Unfortunately, that's far from true, Yuno," Issac gave the child caretaker a sly smile. "You know it. I know you do. Because we all saw what Paradise was like, remember…?"


Just as Marcus said in that introductory video, Paradise was an oasis with a large pond in the middle and surrounded by fauna of all kinds, including banana trees. With the trees no longer shading the scenery, the sun was free to reflect onto the surface of the pond. It was... a beautiful sight. Walking further in across the dried up yet soggy ground of dirt terrain...


"The ground was soggy," Alisa nodded. "Most definitely because of the inclement weather we've been having recently. With that in mind, if the killer and Riku fought for the gun…"

"Both of them would've gotten dirty from the fight," Fábio figured. "Including Riku…"

"Th-That's–" Yukihiko tried to deny it, but the facts were right there.

The back of Riku's shirt was dirty and if it wasn't from the grounds of Paradise then where else could it have been? It wasn't like the entire Jungle of Joy was made from mud and dirt now was it? Whatever the case was, Yukihiko wasn't happy that all this time they've been following the wrong conclusion here…

That Riku was the one who initiated all of this.

That the killer was the one trying to stop him.

What the heck was going on in this case?!

"Hey, wait a minute," Aidan folded his arms with a thought. "If Riku got dirtied up from the tussle at Paradise, then… Wouldn't the killer have gotten dirty as well?"

"That is a good point, Brighton," Issac smiled at the track star. "Nicely done!"

"Den, dat is how we're gonna be tryin to find our killer!" Yumi noted. "Yea! Everyone! Start strippin! We're gonna figure out who's da killer based on whose clothes are the dirtiest!"

"Non… I do not zink we need to…" Manon was about to say before she started to trail off.

Given the fact that the 'th' had switched to 'z', it was obvious that Manon had a clear suspect in mind. Her eyes had widened. Her body was shaking. The thought didn't even occur to her right then and there but the killer.

No…

It can't be…

Could it?

"M-Manon?" Yumi blinked. "E-Erm, what's da matter?"

"I zink… I zink I know who ze killer is…" Manon widened her eyes.

"W-Who?!" Aidan exclaimed, tightening his fist. "W-Who's the perp that did this to Riku?!"

"I zink…" Manon gulped, hoping to dear God that this wasn't true. "I zink it's…

Monsieur Daisuke Kido…?"

Everyone slowly turned to the big sack of meat known as Daisuke Kido. As Candle would probably be cheering and screaming right about now through the silence, it didn't take long before the noticeably nervous Ultimate Fast Food Employee started to squeak at being accused.

"E-Eep!" was all Daisuke had to say as he kept his mouth shut.

His face turned a nasty shade of blue and his eyes had grown white in fear. He hugged himself tightly, clutching his shoulder harder than ever to the point where he was quite literally wincing in pain.

"H-Hey now…" Aidan blinked, looking surprised that Manon would accuse Daisuke of all people. "...Now isn't the time to joke about stuff like this, y'know. Accusing Daisuke of murder? Of all people? Like come on!"

Aidan started to laugh at the obscurity (disgrace) of it. But noticing Manon's pained expression, that instantly told him she wasn't kidding around.

"W-Wait… come on…" Aidan's laugh faltered. "T-Tell me you're joking."

Aidan held up his wavering thumb that was neither up nor down but instead to the side. Sweat was pouring from his face as he gritted his teeth.

"Come on!" Aidan shook. "Just say it! It's two words: 'Just Kidding!' That's it! You can even say in French for all I care! But–"

"...Je suis désolée, Monsieur Brighton…" Manon looked down. "Zis is no joke on my part. I… I am… very… very… sorry…"

"W-W-What…?" Aidan shuddered.

"Hang on, for the first time ever, I'm with Aidan on this one," Yukihiko folded his arms. "Why exactly do you think it's Daisuke?"

"Parce que…" Manon glanced away, thinking back to the one thing that tipped her off.


"Oh la la~!" Manon gasped. "Monsieur Kido! Your pants! Did you–"

On Daisuke's pants were what seemed to be a brown stain of some sort. Obviously, the implication here was that he had soiled himself straight after seeing Riku's corpse. Very fitting for someone as squeamish as Daisuke would do. Ugh. Gross. What would Aidan think about you now–

"W-What?!" Daisuke gulped, glancing down before shaking his head, profusely. "N-NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo! I just tripped on my way to the park! I didn't– I didn't– Please don't tell–"


"...Ze evidence is on his pants," Manon hugged herself. "You all said ze killer and Riku had a fight and both of zem got dirty. And ze only person I know zat did have dirt all over him was…"

"N-Nay…" Roderick turned to Daisuke, widening his eyes.

"N-No, you guys it can't…" Aidan gritted his teeth.

"Hey, now that you mention it," Beauté jumped in, having enjoyed every minute of this succulent dramafest. "Alisa made the point that Riku had the gun. If he had used that to threaten Daisuke…"

Beauté covered her eyes, her right eye sparking a red flare.

"Ah heh heh heh!" she slowly started to cackle. "I can totally see Daisuke going absolutely crazy enough to fight an armed person! Ah hah hah hah hah hah! W-What a plot twist!"

Almost immediately, Beauté folded her arms and sighed.

"Though, I expect readers at home to have already figured this out," Beauté frowned. "Unless they let their Yukihiko hate boner get the better of them. Then, what a welcome surprise! Ah hah hah hah hah!"

"H-Hang on!" Aidan exclaimed. "The only evidence you got against Daisuke is because his pants are dirty?! What kind of lame proof is that?! Look, maybe it's someone else here! They would've had plenty of time to clean up after themselves, right?!"

Aidan thrusted his thumb down.

"So, if that's the only thing you got, then you can't just confidently say that Daisuke's the killer!" Aidan exclaimed. "Right D?!"

Silence.

"D…?" Aidan turned to Daisuke, who had oddly been quiet all this time.

When he spotted the larger male stand in his podium, he saw Daisuke's head completely tip down. His hands were clutching his shoulder as he stayed virtually quiet. Aidan knew how timid Daisuke was when it came to stressful situations like these. He could see the poor guy paralyzed in fear. No. Aidan tightened his fist. He wasn't going to let them do this to him!

"...I-If he's the killer as you say," Aidan grimaced. "Th-Then I have something that can prove his innocence!"

"W-What?" Alisa blinked. "Y-You do?!"

"Y-Yeah!" Aidan nodded. "It's right here…

the pictures from the Photo Machine!"

"Pictures from the Photo Machine?!" Fábio widened his eyes.

"Daisuke!" Aidan turned to his friend. "Show them the two images you saved! Show them, the truth behind the case!"

"H-Huh?!" Daisuke widened his eyes. "O-Oh! O-Okay..."

Daisuke took out his eTicket, his hands practically shaking, and scrolled directly to the Pictures application. Once there, he pulled up the pictures he had saved and handed it down the podium for all to see. And every time he watched the group pass his own eTicket around, the more the sweat started to pour down his head.

Now, everyone knows what these pictures look like, given the fact that I showed them during the Investigation. But since this is the first time most of these characters are seeing it, it's time for a good ol refresher:


The first image Daisuke saved showed Riku riding the ride as it dropped down the final drop. He sat in the first row and his jacket blew against the rushing winds of the drop. Not only that, but his black hair also covered his face as well. Fitting as it also seemed like his hair was completely drenched.


"Oh!" Manon widened her eyes when she glanced at the picture. "Zat is Riku! Riding ze ride!"

"Yo, Kido…" Issac sighed as he rubbed Isolde's neck. "Brighton said you saved... two photos?"

"Y-Yeah, only two," Daisuke informed him. "A-Aidan can agree with me on that! H-He saw me save these photos!"

"Y-Yeah, that's right!" Aidan slowly seemed relieved that this was heading in a more positive direction. "I saw him save those Photos so there's no foul play here!"

Most of the playmates wanted to challenge what Daisuke and Aidan were saying, but more specifically Daisuke, just to see if there was some hidden truth behind the pictures. So far though, it certainly did seem like he was telling the truth about there being three pictures.

As for Picture #2, it definitely garnered a little more reaction. A classic reminder:


The second image Daisuke saved showed Riku riding the ride as it dropped down the final drop. He sat in the fourth row and seemed to be bracing himself as the ride slid down. With one hand, he was clutching his shirt tightly while the other hand was clutching the side bars. Just like the last image, he was completely drenched as well.


"T-That was–" Fábio widened his eyes

"See, proof that Daisuke is innocent!" Aidan exclaimed with his thumb pointing up and a grin on his face.

"I fail to see how this proves he is innocent," Kikuko folded her arms.

"Well, according to you guys, you think Daisuke fought with Riku at Paradise and chased him around just to kill him," Aidan pointed his finger toward his fellow peers. "And the reason you think that is because you think Riku was the one trying to make the Ultimate Sacrifice!"

"Indeed," Alisa pushed her glasses up. "My deductions led me to that very conclusion…"

"But look at the pictures and compare them to one another!" Daisuke blurted out. "A-And then you'll see why what you're saying is completely wrong!"

"Look at the pictures and compare them to one another…?" Kazuki hummed to himself.

"Oh, how fun and elegant!" Beauté giggled. "A game of Spot The Difference!"

When it was Kazuki's turn to hold onto Daisuke's eTicket, he glanced between Picture #1 and then Picture #2. He was usually good at these games. As Beauté referred to it, Spot the Difference was no… well… different.

"Oh… I see what you're trying to say now…" Kazuki chuckled to himself. "So… That's your guys' argument…?"

"W-What is his argument?" Yumi blinked.

Kazuki understood the task quite instantly.

Daisuke's way of combating the accusations against him was through proving the fact that Riku could not have been the one to press the buttons and commit the Ultimate Sacrifice. If he could prove that, that would get him off the hook. Because if Riku was the one who tried to press all the buttons, that would mean that Riku had the gun and Daisuke would have to fight him. But if Riku wasn't the one who tried to play with the Gambit, then that would mean it would be the killer who had it, and no one would necessarily want to fight for anything.

"Mister Kido thinks that Mister Arakawa could not have been the one who pushed the button…" Kazuki smiled. "Based on the Pictures… It's because…

he was already on the boat before he went to Paradise."

"N-Nay?!" Roderick widened his eyes. "He be on me boat way earlier than that?! While I was on duty?!"

"Yeah, shit job you did, guarding yer own Attraction, mermaid fucker!" Monoyena called out from the sidelines. "Bwa… Bwahahahahahaha!"

"B-But how can ya go and say dat?!" Yumi furrowed her eyebrows.

"...Because of two things…" Kazuki began to say.

He held up the Pictures for all to see, specifically Pictures #1 and #2, since they held the most and obvious differences. (For those trying to actually solve this, best place your answer here now instead of trying to solve it one by one because you might be out of order!) Anyway…

"The first is obvious…" Kazuki began. "Take a look between both pictures and you'll see…

Riku's seating arrangement is different."


The first image Daisuke saved showed Riku riding the ride as it dropped down the final drop. He sat in the first row and his jacket blew against the rushing winds of the drop. Not only that, but his black hair also covered his face as well. Fitting as it also seemed like his hair was completely drenched.


The second image Daisuke saved showed Riku riding the ride as it dropped down the final drop. He sat in the fourth row and seemed to be bracing himself as the ride slid down. With one hand, he was clutching his shirt tightly while the other hand was clutching the side bars. Just like the last image, he was completely drenched as well.


"Indeed, in the first image, Riku is seated in the first row but in the second image…" Alisa noted.

"...He's seated in the fourth row…" Kazuki nodded. "Right…"

"But he could have switched seats for some odd reason, non?" Manon blinked.

"I knew someone would say that…" Kazuki chuckled. "...Which is why I wanted to bring up the second thing odd with this picture."

Once again, he held up the Pictures for all to see.

"...The second is a little hard to see but when you see it… you'll understand…" Kazuki continued. "You should see that…

Riku's outfit is different as well…"


The first image Daisuke saved showed Riku riding the ride as it dropped down the final drop. He sat in the first row and his jacket blew against the rushing winds of the drop. Not only that, but his black hair also covered his face as well. Fitting as it also seemed like his hair was completely drenched.


The second image Daisuke saved showed Riku riding the ride as it dropped down the final drop. He sat in the fourth row and seemed to be bracing himself as the ride slid down. With one hand, he was clutching his shirt tightly while the other hand was clutching the side bars. Just like the last image, he was completely drenched as well.


"Yeah, that's right," Issac nodded. "In the first picture, Arakawa is wearing his signature jacket. But in the other one… He's wearing a shirt. Shirts and jackets are two completely different clothing pieces."

"Thank you for stating the obvious, Issac," Yukihiko folded his arms.

"Ohhhhhhh, so that was what was different..." Aidan blinked, finally understanding why Daisuke hesitated during the Investigation.

He took a moment to think about this before giving everyone a thumbs up.

"So!" Aidan grinned. "Now can you see why you guys are all wrong?! Riku was riding the ride and if he really was the person who wanted to mark all the children to Red, he would've done it here at Roderick's Attraction first!"

Aidan slammed his fist into the palm of his hands.

"Thanks to these photos..." Aidan began to declare. "All that stuff about him being the guy who threatened Daisuke goes out the window!"

He gave him a thumbs-up, but the fast-food employee didn't spare him a look. There was a look of anticipation on his face. Anticipation that this would help get them off of his back and prove his innocence!

"Well, dammit," Yumi shook her head. "What do we do now?"

"The only thing we can do," Fábio folded his arms. "Try to find a reason why Riku didn't just press the button the first time around."

They knew for a fact that Riku had to have been the main instigator behind all of this. There was actual proof and everything. But the evidence that Aidan and Daisuke presented just blew a hole through everything. To fix that hole, they needed to figure this out.

Why did Riku not press that button when he managed to get on Roderick's Attraction the first time around?

"Come on, guys, the reason why Riku didn't do it is because of what I said!" Aidan exclaimed. He pointed his finger toward his peers. "Riku wasn't the person who was going around pressing buttons!"

"But we already have plenty of evidence suggesting otherwise…" Kazuki shook his head. "...If Riku wasn't the main instigator of the crime…"

Kazuki sighed, before continuing.

"...Then… where did all that dirt on him come from…?" Kazuki questioned.

"Well, as soon as you announce Daisuke innocent, I think we can go through that together, can't we?" Aidan said, propping up another thumbs-up.

"But Paradise is the only place where Riku would've gotten dirty like that," Issac noted.

He paused.

"...At the same time, Isolde is also right," Issac shook his head. "With evidence of Riku riding the ride in Picture #1, it's kind of hard to say what his movements are after all of this."

"Well, maybe Monsieur Arakawa rode ze ride and just forgot to press ze button?" Manon suggested.

"Nay," Roderick frowned. "Anyone wanting to sacrifice the kiddies wouldn't be forgetting such an important task at hand, arrrrgh!"

"Ah heh heh heh…" Beauté smirked. "Then perhaps the photos were doctored?"

"There is literally no way to doctor the photos," Fábio shook his head.

"Den, what if da Riku in Picture #1 ain't actually Riku?!" Yumi suggested.

"Oh, and I suppose it was Riku's twin brother who just happened to be on the ride?" Yukihiko folded his arms with a scoff.

"I'll have to strike an agreement with that…" Mara consented.

Mara flashed across the screen, her arms folded and eyes ablaze over what Yumi had suggested. Though her expression wasn't as flashy or as cool as others, the simple fact that Mara did agree with what Yumi said was good enough for the cowgirl.

Mara had bowed her head, planting a fist onto the palm of her hands.

"Lao Shi says that no matter what, the clearest truth will always prevail," Mara recited. "And I think what Yumi said is no different."

"Ha!" Yumi grinned. "Ah tip mah hat to ya, bambina!"

And Yumi ruined it.

"...Nevermind," Mara muttered.

"Oh please," Yukihiko rolled his eyes. "The picture in here clearly shows that it's Riku. So, if it's not him, then who else could it be?!"

Mara wouldn't have agreed with Yumi if she didn't clearly have some form of idea of who the Riku in the picture was.

She thought about it closely. Again, they knew that Riku was the one going around pushing buttons, but this photo completely contradicts that fact. If Riku was on the ride, he should've pressed the button for the Girl's, but he didn't. So, if that was the case, then who was the Riku in Picture #1? Mara already had a good idea on who it was…

This was the only person it could be…

"The identity of the Riku in Picture #1…" Mara folded her arms. "The only person it could be is…

Kenshiro!"

"K-Kenshiro?!" Aidan widened his eyes in shock… before blankly looking at the karate master. "Erm, who's Kenshiro?"

"Hang on!" Yukihiko gritted his teeth. "You don't actually expect us to believe the Riku in Picture #1 was actually that… that toy in your Attraction?!"


Because surrounding the ring were tables and chairs for guests to sit and enjoy their meals. Why they had this at a children's amusement park was uncertain, but it seemed like great entertainment for anyone who was really into fighting. For Mara, well, it definitely did pique her interest.

Standing inside the ring was what seemed to be a humanoid animatronic, resembling a strong Japanese man. He was muscular, tanned, and had short, black hair. He wore a white gi and a red bandana on his left arm as well as a black belt, indicating that this animatronic was some sort of martial arts master. In fact, this person was someone Mara recognized all too well…

"Kenshiro…?"

"Who is that?" Riku folded his arms. "Your old master or something?"


"Hey now, let's not call that thing a toy," Issac seemed offended. "It's nowhere near as cool as Isolde, I'll give you that much!"

Issac paused before glancing toward Mara.

"Wait, hold on, both Isolde and I are confused…" Issac tried to wrap his head around that. "How could that thing be Arakawa? It's way… bulkier than him, isn't it?"

"Normally, yes," Mara folded her arms. "But not until you account for the fact that…

I broke it."

"Y-You what?!" this time it was Stanczyk who screamed out from the sidelines.


When Mara stepped out of the ring, her clothes were smeared with a black substance.

She tossed what seemed to be a long strip of Kenshiro's hair back toward the fallen animatronic.

Its legs were practically dislocated.

Its arm was twisted.

The rubber covering over Kenshiro's animatronic face was peeling…

But Mara didn't care.

She needed a moment to vent out her frustrations against the whole world…

So, she ripped an animatronic apart to do it.

Ripped it apart…


"H-How could you break such a sweet and defenseless animatronic?!" Stanczyk's mask quivered, close to breaking into tears. "I thought you were my best friend!"

"It was too easy," Mara remarked, unfazed. "But that's not the point. The point is, when I broke it, I left it in the fighting ring. When I went there today, it was missing. Issac and Yumi can attest to that."


"Well, other than the fact that it's just gone," Issac chuckled. "No reason…"

Yumi glanced toward the MMA fighting ring where the Kenshiro animatronic was supposed to be. She… wasn't too familiar with Mara's restaurant funnily enough. Never really paid the details of the inside any mind until now. So, when she ran up toward the MMA fighting ring, all that was really left was…

"Well, ah'll be!" Yumi scratched her head underneath her Stetson hat. "It be as da toymaker says! Da animatronic is gone! Left with some gunk on da floor but…"


"Right..." Issac nodded. "The working theory was that Stanczyk took it away to repair it but judging by his reaction earlier…"

Issac turned to Stanczyk, who looked confused. The toymaker also took note at Monoyena's annoyed expression. Not too surprising that the hyena was irritated at someone practically giving them free hints out of stupidity.

"...I think it's safe to say that the animatronic's disappearance had nothing to do with Stanczyk," Issac chuckled.

"Yeah," Mara nodded. "Therefore, Riku in Picture #1 has to be the animatronic–"

"You're getting off track, here!" Aidan interjected.

Two Aidan interjections in one chapter? Dear God.

Nevertheless, Aidan gave Mara a thumbs-down. As the winds of interjection allowed him to slide across the screen, his look of determination turned into a look of desperation. In his other hand, that same water bottle was still firmly grasped in his right hand.

"And you think that Daisuke was the one who dragged the robot out of the Attraction and what just plopped it in a boat?" Aidan glanced at Mara incredulously. "How the heck would he have done it? Because news flash…"

Aidan stuck his thumb down.

"Roderick was blocking the entrance to his own Attraction, remember?!" Aidan argued.

"Clearly, you've forgotten what we already established," Mara folded her arms. "Daisuke would've done it the same way Riku had gotten into the boats…"

Mara punched her fist into the palm of her hands.

"He didn't take it to the entrance of Roderick's Attraction…" Mara frowned. "He took it to…

the Bridge!"

"G-Grk!" Aidan recoiled, squeezing his water bottle tightly.


"Precisely," Kikuko nodded. "In the middle of Roderick's ride, the river streams the boats travel on overlap with a Bridge connecting the Ruins to Stanczyk's Secret Clubhouse. This is the only other route Riku could've used to hide on Roderick's ride."


"Just as Riku simply hopped off the Bridge to snag a boat, all Daisuke would've needed to do was take the Kenshiro animatronic and plop it into an oncoming boat!" Mara argued.

"But why on Earth would he want to do that?!" Aidan gritted his teeth. "Taking an animatronic to the Bridge just to have it sit down in a boat seems too unnecessary to do, doesn't it?!"

"He did it for the whole reason why we're even tackling this subject in the first place!" Mara exclaimed. "To absolve him of guilt!"

"To absolve him of shooting Riku?!" Aidan gritted his teeth. "You're saying that he did this after he killed him?!"

"Yeah!" Mara nodded.

"That's where you messed up, Mara!" Aidan frowned. "There's no way he did that after he killed him. Why? Because the picture was first in the lineup! We all saw it for ourselves. This meant that Daisuke put the animatronic in before Riku jumped into the ride!"

"W-What are you–" Mara frowned.

"I had that talk with Stanczyk about how the Photo Machines worked!" Aidan exclaimed.


"W-Wait, so you mean…" Daisuke did. "...The pictures I have saved right now are in chronological order? Like, this picture here…"

He showed the first image of Riku that he saved.

"...This was taken by the camera first…" Daisuke concluded. "And this picture here…"

He showed the second image of Riku that he saved.

"...This was taken by the camera second?" Daisuke asked.

"That's right!" Stanczyk happily exclaimed. "Isn't that neat?!"


"The Photo Machine takes pictures of each boat that drops down that final drop!" Aidan explained. "But not only that, whatever picture does get saved, it gets saved in the order that it was taken in!"

"W-What?!" this was news to Mara.

"Yeah, so if you remember, we established the timeline of events as this: Riku gets attacked by the killer, Riku jumps into the Attraction via Bridge, Riku is then killed," Aidan continued.

Aidan held out a thumbs-down.

"Then, you come along and say that Daisuke shot Riku and then put the animatronic in?" Aidan folded his arms. "Yeah, no. As long as the pictures D saved are in that order, that was the order of events it happened in!"

Mara folded her arms.

What did this mean now?

If Picture #1 was in fact Picture #1, then did that mean that the Kenshiro animatronic was put in before Riku even jumped in it? If that was so, then why? Why would Daisuke want to do something like that? Unless…?

"See?" Aidan shook his head. "Even you can't come up with an answer to counter that! Riku was in that boat before the entire case even began. He was the one who grew suspicious of what the killer was doing, not the other way around. That makes Daisuke out as innocent. Because there's no way he would be the person who would do this to anyone!"

"Y-Yeah!" Daisuke nodded, surprised at how much Aidan was sticking up for him.

"Wrong," Mara suddenly, her eyes narrowed. "I'll concede that the pictures are in the right order. But I won't stop believing that the Riku in Picture #1 is Kenshiro."

"S-Seriously?!" Aidan widened his eyes. "I'll say it again! There's no way that Daisuke would've wasted time putting in Kenshiro after shooting Riku!"

"I'll concede that too," Mara nodded.

"H-Huh?!" Aidan's hand started to clench onto the water bottle a little too tightly.

Mara knew the truth all too well now. She can agree that Daisuke wouldn't have wasted time putting Kenshiro in a boat. The evidence of the pictures proved it. But what if she considered a different option. First thing's first, when was Kenshiro really placed into Roderick's Attraction?

"I'll concede it," Mara repeated. "Because in reality…

Kenshiro was placed in before shooting Riku..."

"H-Ha!" Aidan laughed. "Th-That's your argument?! Did you forget?! According to your scenario, Daisuke followed Riku after he saw him acting suspicious. Do you really think he'll have the time to your Ultimate Attraction, take the animatronic to the Bridge, plop him in, and run all the way back over to the Exit?!"

"Not at all," Mara shook her head. "That's why we need to figure out who it was that really put Kenshiro in the boat…"

"W-What?!" Aidan widened his eyes.

Yes.

Now this made sense. As Aidan mentioned, there was no way that Daisuke could've been the one to put an animatronic in a boat ride. He didn't have the time to. So, really all that was left was one other person.

"The person who really planted Kenshiro in the boat…" Mara folded her arms. "It was…

Riku."

"R-Riku?!" Aidan exclaimed. "W-What the heck?! W-Why him?!"

"Because he's the only other person with the time and reason to do it," Mara narrowed her eyes. "We know he was the person who was responsible for trying to enact the Ultimate Sacrifice. He could've easily have done this as a set-up. As for time, he had more time than Daisuke to actually carry my broken animatronic to the Bridge."

"But it's still too damn weak!" Aidan gave her a thumbs-down. "For what reason would he even want to set it up this way?! It makes no sense! There's no reason as to why Riku would want to put in the extra effort to do something like this!"

No reason?

No. There had to be a reason. Aidan was on the right track when he said that. What reason did Riku have to even bother with this fake Riku act? To understand that, Mara thought back to what they knew about Riku's movements. He had a plan to ultimately sacrifice all the children. He was armed with Roderick's gun. How does setting up fake Riku correlate to that…?

Mara widened her eyes, an answer popping into her head.

"No, there is a reason why…" Mara frowned.

"W-What?!" Aidan squeezed his water bottle tightly. "W-Why can't you just leave this alone?! This isn't the truth! This isn't–"

"The reason why Riku set up the animatronic…" Mara looked down. "It could only be…

a precaution."

"A what?!" Aidan blinked. "A precaution for what?!"

"A precaution… in the case of if he actually killed someone before even finishing his plan," Mara revealed.

"W-What are you talking about?!" Aidan ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. "Why would he… What would he…?"

"Think about it," Mara narrowed her eyes. "In his plans to commit the Ultimate Sacrifice, why on Earth did he carry around Roderick's gun along with him? Do you really think it was so he could threaten someone to keep quiet?!"

"I– I–" Aidan gritted his teeth.

"No," Mara shook her head. "He brought that gun to kill. That's where we were all wrong about Riku. We all thought he was trying to commit the Ultimate Sacrifice to get us all out. But think about that again slowly? Do you really think Riku is the type of person to care about everyone else?"

"Y-You mean?!" Aidan widened his eyes.

"That's right," Mara slammed her fist into the palm of her hands. "The real reason Riku wanted to commit the Ultimate Sacrifice…

it was for his sake, not everyone else's!"

"Th-Then the animatronic?!" Aidan widened his eyes.

"Was a precaution in case his plan got messed up somewhere down the line," Mara explained. "His ultimate goal was to sacrifice the children to get himself out. Us getting out with him was just a bonus. But he knew it wasn't going to be easy. That's why he had Roderick's gun on him. He knew that someone would stop him. If it came to it, Riku would've undoubtedly killed whoever stood in his way–"

Mara's eyes flared.

"Exactly what happened between Daisuke and Riku when they fought each other at Paradise!" Mara declared. "By putting an animatronic in Roderick's Attraction, he would've ensured himself an alibi should it come time to accuse him of murder!"

Mara slammed both hands onto the podium.

"Riku thought about all of this in meticulous detail!" Mara exclaimed. "What he didn't expect was Daisuke to come along and shoot him in the hip!"

"N-No!" Aidan shook his head, stubbornly. "P-Proof! E-Evidence! you don't have evidence! Show me evidence that this really was his plan!"

Mara recoiled.

She was so invested in her explanations that she had forgotten that she needed to go and prove her explanations correct. But what exactly could help prove that everything she said was true. Specifically, how could she prove that Riku did have this all planned out from the very beginning. Was there something she had…

"Seize yer victory, lassie!" Roderick intervened.

Roderick flashed across the screen, his hand extended out as a gesture of good faith and assistance. He kept his other hand over his beanie, tucking it down as he gave a stern yet supportive glance toward Mara.

"Aye, I be havin the evidence yer looking for, Aidan!" Roderick declared. "Ye needed evidence proving that Riku had planned this out from the very beginning! Me thinks I got just the thing!"

"Y-You do?" Mara was surprised that even Roderick, second-in-command of Yukihiko, was helping her out.

Speaking of Yukihiko, she could see that he was a little annoyed by this act. Eh, who cares? This was Roderick helping her fight against Aidan's wild and stubborn stance that there was no way Daisuke could be guilty for such a crime.

"N-No, no no no no no!" Aidan widened his eyes, shaking his head wildly. "No he doesn't! No he doesn't!"

Roderick folded his arms.

There was more truth to Aidan's statement that meets the eye. Because the evidence he had could very well prove that Riku was the person who planned this out from the very beginning. And the evidence for that was…

"...Aye," Roderick nodded. "The evidence…

be missing."

"W-Wat?" Mara turned to Roderick, clearly annoyed that the build-up to his assistance led to this. "S-Seriously? You call this helping?"

"H-Ha, so you don't even have the evidence," Aidan ran his hands through his hair. "W-What exactly is that supposed–"

"The fact that it be missing is the evidence," Roderick folded his arms. "Because Capt'n Yukihiko and I…"


"Well, of course, honey," he turned back toward the deep-sea fisherman before frowning. "He has a gaping hole in his head. Of course something would seem off about him."

"Nay," Roderick shook his head. "I be meaning that Riku be… missing something. Something that he normally be having. Something is… off…"

Roderick grimaced as he tried his best to figure out what exactly Riku was missing. Yukihiko… didn't see what Roderick was talking about at first but the more he looked at Riku, the more he realized just how on point Roderick was.


"Aye, we noticed something be missing from Riku," Roderick nodded. "And now, I think I got the answer right here in me noggin'."

Roderick tapped the side of his head for good measure.

"The thing that be missing from Riku…" Roderick gruffly said. "I be thinking we already know what it is a long time ago…

Riku's jacket!"

"G-Grk!" Aidan clenched his water bottle tightly.

"Right!" Mara widened her eyes. "That was one of the key differences between Pictures #1 and #2 and we never did find out why!"


His hair, shirt, and pants were wet. One could say that Riku Arakawa was wet but that seemed like it was in poor taste, so we will not be doing this time. Of course, to note was that gaping hole in Riku's head, still dripping that cold mixture of blood and water. That was the obvious Cause of Death. Similarly, upon closer examination was the thing near his hip. Yep.


"Exactly," Roderick nodded. "Which be why I think the missing jacket be crucial to yer theory. If Riku did plan out all of this from the very beginning, then it be highly likely…"

"...That he dressed the animatronic up as himself," Mara nodded. "Right! He disguised the Kenshiro animatronic as himself to fool anyone looking into the Photo Machine!"

"That be why Riku looked so different when Capt'n Yukihiko and I investigated him," Roderick agreed. "Because the lad had taken off his jacket."

"My guess is that Riku's original plan was to go back and fish the animatronic out of the boat using the Bridge, just so he could get it back later," Mara nodded. "Thus, this really helps out my case in saying that Riku really did plan this out on purpose!"

"Ha, so what's a jacket going to prove?!" Aidan was still not giving up the fight. "Does it prove that Riku really did put the animatronic in Roderick's Attraction?"

Aidan gave them a thumbs-down.

"Heck no it doesn't!" Aidan frowned. "All it really proves is that Riku played dress-up with the Kenshiro animatronic. A mental image that I didn't think I really needed to have, so thank you guys for that!"

"N-Nay!" Roderick exclaimed. "Ye still have some fight left?!"

"Of course I do!" Aidan growled. "Because until you guys' present evidence that actually proves without a shadow of a doubt that Riku did all of this, I'm never giving up on Daisuke! He is innocent and you guys have failed to prove his guilt!"

Daisuke notably widened his eyes to hear that from Aidan. Really? Even after what he did… He still didn't…

"You have more things you can present, Roderick," Mara raised an eyebrow toward the fisherman.

"Nay…" Roderick shook his head. "The only thing we be havin is some black paint on Riku's hands but…"

Black paint?


That's when the peculiarity exposed itself in full light.

Black stains on Riku's hand that had long been smeared and were definitely fading away. Like black paint.

"N-Nay, what be this?!" Roderick blinked. "Black paint?!"

"Black paint…?" Yukihiko joined Roderick in pondering over what was on Riku's hands. "Huh. I suppose it could be. But that is strange."


"W-Wait… black paint… what if…" Mara widened her eyes.

"What?" Aidan clearly heard Mara. "You really think that black paint Roderick mentioned means anything? It's just paint! There's no way this connects at all with whatever the heck you think Riku was trying to do here!"

No.

It clearly did connect.

That black paint is the nail in the coffin for the battle against Aidan's logic and reasoning. All Mara needed to do was figure out how it ties into Riku. To the animatronic. To anything in general. That black paint is key. How did it tie in… Or rather… what was it really…?

"No, it does," Mara folded her arms, glancing at Aidan with a serious expression. "It absolutely does. Because that black paint isn't actually black paint."

"W-What?!" Aidan widened his eyes.

The fighting spirit was still well within her. Her eyes flared and the aura she gave off was as intense as ever. She knew exactly what that black paint was and it was going to finally take down Aidan.

"That black paint Roderick mentioned…" Mara shook her head. "It's actually…

oil."

"Oil?!" Aidan widened his eyes. "From where?!"

"Where else?" Mara seemed really content with herself here. "Kenshiro."


Mara stared down at the palms of her hands.

What was once physically clean was now covered in a black substance. Most likely oil from the animatronic's machinery. She looked at it in disgust. But whether the disgust was for the substance or for the fact that her own hands were capable of doing such damage was unknown to her.

All she knew was that she was disgusted.


"That day, when I broke it, one of the liquids that seeped out was a black substance," Mara explained. "Yukihiko and Roderick may have mistaken it for paint because it may have dried by then, but in reality, it was oil. And only the Kenshiro animatronic would have oil seeping out of it."

"Aye!" Roderick realized. "And if Riku be carrying the animatronic…"

"Oil would've undoubtedly gotten on him, yes," Mara nodded.

"No way!" Aidan shook his head. "Riku wouldn't have let that nasty stuff stay on him the entire time! He's a germaphobe, remember?! He would've cleaned it the first chance he got!"

That is true! As the resident germaphobe, Riku would've undoubtedly found it so filthy that he would've tried to clean his hands. However, he didn't. So what could the reason for his strange out-of-character be…?

"He would've yes, but I'm afraid that wouldn't be possible either," Mara shook her head, knowing full well what the answer was. "Because…

oil stains won't come off."

Mara folded her arms.

"I should know," Mara narrowed her eyes. "I tried it myself."

"G-Grk!" Aidan squeezed his water bottle tightly.


"Wipe it a hundred times, a stain like that isn't going to go away unless you have a good laundry machine, laundry detergent, and fabric softener…" Riku muttered, sitting across from Mara as she tried desperately to wipe off the oil staining her navy blue gi.

He scoffed.

"Tch, look at what you did," he shook his head. "Now, it's part of your clothes…"

Mara noted how smudged the oily substance was on her gi now. All that wiping and instead, she made it worse.

Frustrated, Mara balled up the wet wipe and smacked it onto the corner of the table.


"Arrrgh!" Roderick exclaimed. "There we be! Are ye content now?! The animatronic in Picture #1 be that of the Kenshiro animatronic that Riku placed before he went on his button-pushing spree."

"Which means that Daisuke's argument of Riku not being the one who tried to initiate the Ultimate Sacrifice is invalidated," Alisa nodded. "There's no doubt about it now. Daisuke is undoubtedly our number one suspect. Quite possibly… the real culprit of this case."

"Mmmm," Daisuke glanced away, his face growing bluer by the minute and his eyes growing white in fear.

"What do you have to say about that now, Aidan?!" Mara exclaimed.

"A-A-..." Aidan started to squeeze his water bottle a little tighter than usual and…

…the water bursted out, shooting the cap directly at his head.

"A-ACK!" Aidan gritted his teeth, rubbing his head in pain.

...

"Ah heh heh heh…"

That chuckle meant two things. One, Beauté had something to say. Usually, it's something to flame someone. In this case, probably, Aidan. Two, it was a really nice transition from an otherwise longass battle between Aidan and Mara. And it wasn't even a Last Stand!

"Oh, that was a fun battle of logic between such fun people!" Beauté seemed to be turned on by such displays of determination. "I have to say. I'm very surprised. To hear Aidan Brighton of all people put up a fight for so long…"

Beauté leaned forward.

"And to think he was an idiot," she smirked. "Oh Aidan, where have you been hiding this version of you these past two Trials?"

Aidan didn't say anything as he kept his hands on the side of his podium. At this point, it just looked like Beauté was bullying him for the sake of bullying him.

"Pardon me," Kikuko frowned at Beauté in disapproval. "But I think it is best if you leave Aidan alone at this time. I do not blame his defensive behavior. After all, it is the person who he is arguably the closest with that's on the line here."

"Speaking of this giant elephant in the room…" Issac turned to Daisuke, brushing his pink hair to the side with a sly chuckle. "...Haha. That was Isolde saying that, not me, by the way."

He cleared his throat.

"Kido," Issac rubbed the back of Isolde's neck. "If it's really you, I think you'd be doing everyone here a huge favor if you confessed right now, don't you think?"

Daisuke glanced away.

He didn't say anything. He had kept quiet for a long time, allowing Aidan to fight for him. He struggled to formulate a response. He struggled to say anything noteworthy. God. He didn't know what to do. He felt so weak and helpless. So pathetic…

What the hell should he do in this instance?

"I…" Daisuke shuddered. "I… I…"

Daisuke tried to hide his face, but no matter how much he tried to cover his eyes, his temptation to peek through his fingers would always prevail. He could see everyone's look. Disapproval. Disbelief. Shock. Some of them were even outraged and even disgusted. All expressions he was used to, unfortunately.

He…

He didn't even know what to say…

"I…" Daisuke felt like crying. "I… I… I…"

"You don't have to say anything, D."

Daisuke widened his eyes and turned to see Aidan, having glanced up to his own peers with still a sliver of strength left in him. A sliver of strength. That was all this guy really needed to keep going. Determination seeped through his face as he slammed his water bottle onto his podium. He gripped it tightly, never learning from his previous mistakes.

"Ugh, you again?!" Yukihiko rolled his eyes.

"Oooh…" Beauté was definitely enjoying this. "Twice the pride, the sweeter the fall. Ohhh, I just can't wait!"

"A-Aidan, you can't…" Daisuke widened his eyes. "Y-You'll…"

"Hey man…" Aidan turned to Daisuke. "Don't worry about it. I got this."

There was a softer smile on his face. He gave Daisuke a thumbs-up, assuring him that everything was going to be alright. Honestly, it was a surprise that Aidan would still stick up for him after what happened. After his stupid mistake… After he…

"W-Why?" Daisuke shuddered. "Why Aidan…? Why are you so…?"

Tears started to form at the corners of his eyes.

"Even after what I did, why are you so–" Daisuke was close to actually sobbing.

He didn't understand it. He made a mistake, didn't he? He ruined everything and yet this guy. This really good guy was still sticking up for him to the end. He was still fighting so hard for him. For a pathetic loser that just… couldn't keep his feelings in check. It was so goddamn frustrating!

"A-Aidan why–" Daisuke tried to say but Aidan shook his head.

"I… I can't lose someone else again," Aidan frowned, placing a hand over his hips. "Not after Alina. Not after everything… I can't lose you."

Daisuke blinked.

He didn't mean it like that, did he?

"That's why..." Aidan gave Daisuke a thumbs-up with a stern yet determined look unlike anything ever before. "...I'm going to fight for your innocence! That's why I have to keep fighting!"

"A-Aidan…" Daisuke widened his eyes, watching as the track star pointed his fingers toward Mara.

"Mara!" Aidan glared. "We're still not done over here!"

Mara raised an eyebrow.

Of course, of all the people he chose to fight with, it had to be her. Mara was used to beating people in fights but those were more physical fights. This time around… This time it was going to be yet another battle of logic and wit. And although Aidan was still an idiot with little brains to work with, this battle wasn't going to be easy. Because Mara wasn't fighting Aidan's intelligence….

She was fighting his stubbornness.

"You want to challenge me?" Mara frowned. "You might come to sorely regret that."

"Whatever it takes!" Aidan gritted his teeth. "Daisuke is innocent! He has to be! I will not lose someone else I care about! Not now, not ever!"

Aidan slammed his water bottle against his podium.

"So, come on, Mara!" Aidan shouted.

He held out his thumb, but this time, it was pointed to the side. A sign that the winner and the loser had yet to be cast. Aidan was fighting for Daisuke's innocence. But Mara knew she was fighting for the truth. She took a stance and held her breath, ready to derail whatever Aidan wanted to say.

"RACE ME TO THE FINISH! YOU AND ME!"


[LAST STAND]


Aidan popped his water bottle cap open and chugged it down in one gulp. And like he was the Incredible Hulk, Aidan's appearance completely changed for only Mara to see.

His last stand form consisted of a superhero suit, very reminiscent of a cross between the Flash and A-Train from the Boys. His sports jersey and shorts was now replaced by a single padded blue superhero suit with yellow stripes running down from his arms to his legs. The yellow stripes exerted some sort of electrical frequency while a blue lightning-like trail seeped from the bottom of his running shoes.

In the middle of his chest was a blue lightning symbol, much like the Flash. On his shoulders were shoulder pads each with the number '11' endorned into them, much like the A-Train. Over his eyes were a pair of goggles meant to shield his eyes from whatever speed they were going in. On both sides of the goggles' temples were lightning bolt insignias.

Overall, it really was like another parody of the Flash. Fitting for a track star with a big heart of gold. But that heart of gold was due to be challenged as Mara found herself standing next to him.

In front of them was a Starting Line and glancing at one another, Mara understood where this was going.

Their little battle of logic and wits…

Their Fanfiction-reduction of a Bullet Time Battle

It was essentially one big marathon

A Last Stand.

The sound of a starting pistol fired at Aidan had immediately dashed off. Mara, having been taken aback by the suddenness of it all, quickly dashed behind him. As Mara tried to catch up to the otherwise, incredibly fast Aidan, she watched Aidan turn around, running backwards with little ease as he announced his opening statement:

"Face it, Mara!" Aidan exclaimed. "You're in my track, now! You say that Riku went ahead and placed the animatronic on Roderick's ride! But if that animatronic was placed before everything happened, that meant that the animatronic was on it for a really long time!"

Mara sped up… or rather, Aidan slowed down just enough for Mara to catch up allowing them to speak face to face.

"You know what that would mean?!" Aidan narrowed his eyes through his goggles. "It would mean that the Photo Machine should've had more pictures of that animatronic!"

In both of their lanes, two hurdles had popped out of nowhere, both of whom were closing in by the minute.

"Answer me Mara," Aidan frowned. "Why were there no other pictures of that animatronic?!"

If Mara had to successfully jump that hurdle, she needed to answer fast.

She thought about it closely, feeling time slow down for her as she did. Aidan was absolutely right. If Riku had placed the animatronic there this entire time, just based on the timing of things, that animatronic would've been well on its way to complete a rough third loop through the ride.

So, why weren't there more pictures of that animatronic?

Could it be because…

Mara dashed forward, feeling a little confident with her answer.

"No, there absolutely were pictures of that animatronic at least a few more times," Mara exclaimed. "The reason you probably didn't know about it…

because Daisuke hid them from you!"

Mara leapt over her hurdle.

"H-Huh?!" Aidan on the other hand was so surprised by that answer that he crashed into his hurdle, severely slowing down by a few meters. "G-Gah!"


"O-Okay, so this means that we should get an image of Riku on the ride, right?" Aidan asked.

"Y-Yeah," Daisuke nodded, taking out his eTicket and raising it up for the track star to see. "Th-There were only two pictures with Riku, so I saved them both…"


"Tell me the truth Aidan," Mara frowned. "Did you actually see all of the pictures on the Photo Machine, or did you leave that up to Daisuke?!"

"I… I…" Aidan started to lag behind. "W-Why does that matter?!"

"Aidan!" Mara continued to speak as she ran. "If Daisuke is the culprit and you left him in charge of saving the pictures that he would find in the Photo Machine, what exactly do you think he would do? Show you every single unique picture in Machine… or purposefully hide evidence that he knows would damn him in the long run?!"

"I… I…" Aidan slowed down. "I… Arrrrgh!"

Aidan sped up, catching up to Mara with ease. Two more hurdles popped up in front of them for Aidan and Mara to jump over.

"Do you even have evidence that he did that?!" Aidan growled. "Of course you don't, because you didn't investigate with us! There's no way you would have any proof that he did anything like that!"

"Yeah, but the evidence I need to prove isn't what I found, it's what all of us should've logically had from the very beginning!" Mara argued.

"W-What are you talking about?!" Aidan glared. "What? Was there a picture from the Photo Machine that you guys needed?! If so, then what was it?! What was the missing picture that proves Daisuke was hiding pictures from us?!"

Time slowed down once more for Mara to recollect her thoughts.

If Daisuke wasn't the killer, the most notable thing he would've done was save all of the pictures that had Riku in it, fake or not. But in the end, Daisuke only saved two. Notably, those two were the most important ones but there was one more. Out of all of the pictures the Photo Machine would've had lined up, there was one more that anyone should've realistically saved…

"The picture that Daisuke didn't bother to save…" Mara frowned. "It was…

a picture of Riku's corpse!"

Mara jumped over the hurdle.

"W-What?!" Aidan widened his eyes as he crashed into the hurdle once more. "U-Uah!"

"Remember, Riku's corpse was found at the entrance of the ride," Mara explained as she watched the flabbergasted Aidan try to catch. "If I'm not mistaken, the final big drop leads to the exit which then, theoretically, leads to the entrance of the ride. That would be the path Riku's corpse would've realistically took. So, I should be asking you this…"

Mara narrowed her eyes as she sped up.

"Why didn't we get a picture of Riku's corpse sliding down that final drop?!" Mara declared.

"N-No!" Aidan clutched his head as he slowed down. Shaking his head and trying to fight Mara's attempt to persuade, Aidan sped up and caught right back up to Mara. "Arrrrrgh!"

"Face it Aidan!" Mara frowned. "Daisuke was hiding evidence right in front of you! That should be enough to admit that he has to be the culprit!"

"No!" Aidan exclaimed. "No he's not! Stop saying that! Graaaagh!"

Three hurdles in succession popped up for Aidan.

"What about the animatronic then?!" Aidan exclaimed. "We apparently only saw it through the Pictures, but that thing is still missing, isn't it?!"

Aidan jumped over one hurdle.

"Do you think Daisuke just found it and hid it elsewhere?!" Aidan asked.

He jumped over the second one.

"How do you think Daisuke even fished it out?!" Aidan frowned. "Or rather…"

He jumped over the last one with ease.

"...Where did he hide that animatronic from all of us?!" Aidan questioned.

Three hurdles in succession popped up for Mara this time and she was expected to jump through all of those. But Mara knew better. She was ready to counter Aidan's statements.

"No!" Mara shook her head. "I don't think Daisuke found it at all!"

Mara jumped over the first hurdle.

"I don't even think Daisuke knew that was an animatronic!" Mara exclaimed. "I think he just used Riku's own fake alibi to try to fake his own alibi!"

Mara jumped over the second.

"Therefore, there was no need for him to hide that animatronic from any of us," Mara shook her head.

The third hurdle approached.

"Then, what the heck happened to that animatronic, huh?!" Aidan asked. "Where is it hiding now?!"

Good point.

That animatronic was still missing. None of them ever found it during their investigation. Riku sure as hell didn't have the time to retrieve it. And there was no way Daisuke had the time to retrieve it either. But Mara knew that it had to be in the Park somewhere. And the only logical place it could be is…

"There is only one place where it could be hiding," Mara exclaimed. "And that's…

Roderick's Attraction!"

Mara successfully jumped over the third hurdle.

"W-What?!" Aidan widened his eyes, noticing Mara start to overtake him. "Oh no you don't! I'm not finished! If you're saying that it was at Roderick's Attraction this entire time, then someone should've found it during the Investigation!"

A surprising fourth hurdle appeared.

"Answer me!" Aidan yelled. "Why didn't anyone who searched Roderick's Attraction find that animatronic?!"

Indeed, Roderick's Attraction was the only place the animatronic could be in. But the reason why no one found it… Well, Mara had an idea as to why. She had this idea since the moment she suggested it was in Roderick's Attraction.

"The answer is simple…" Mara noticed the fourth hurdle approaching. "The reason no one found it was because…

Roderick's Attraction was shut down!"

Mara successfully jumped over the fourth hurdle.

"G-Grk!" Aidan felt himself nearly tripping.

"Remember what happens when the Investigation period starts?!" Mara frowned.


"What's with the Parade?" Fábio asked. "Why is it–"

"Ah, I suppose I'll have to explain that to everyone here as well!" Stanczyk boasted. "What you're looking at is the 6:00 Parade getting ready to come out for its last showing today! But with Emmeline Swan's death…"

Stanczyk wiped away a stray tear.

"...All rides and attractions have been deactivated for the time being until this case gets resolved!" Stanczyk declared, throwing his hands up in the air in celebration.


"All rides and attractions are deactivated allowing us to solve the case," Mara explained. "That was pretty much the reason why we couldn't even find Paradise during the Investigation. Therefore, the reason why no one found the animatronic was because it's literally sitting stranded in the middle of Roderick's Attraction!"

"N-NO!" Aidan felt himself slow down in anguish.

"Face it Aidan," Mara frowned. "Daisuke lied to you. He tried to use Riku's fake alibi to absolve his guilt. There is literally no one it could be other than Daisuke!"

"You're wrong!" Aidan caught back up to Mara.

"You don't know when to quit!" Mara widened her eyes.

"And I can do this all day!" wrong superhero Aidan. "You might've figured out the events leading to Paradise, the mishaps with the guns, the stuff that happened with Riku's plotting but here's one thing you completely forgot about!"

A set of speed hurdles came up.

"Where exactly did Daisuke shoot Riku?!" Aidan questioned. "Because if it was when the guy made his last drop down, that would be entirely impossible for someone like Daisuke!"

Aidan skipped through the speed hurdles flawlessly.

"Well, luckily Daisuke didn't shoot Riku when he exited the drop," Mara shook her head, noticing the speed hurdles in her lane pop out.

Time slowed down as Mara thought about the answer. Didn't need to slow anything down since the answer was obvious.

"There is literally only one place Daisuke could've shot Riku…" Mara was sure of your answer. "That place would've been…

the Bridge!"

Mara skipped through the speed hurdles flawlessly as well.

"You keep forgetting that the boats move at an incredibly slow pace when they aren't dropping!" Mara frowned. "That's why the only place Daisuke could've shot Riku was at the Bridge!"

"And how on Earth did he do that?!" Aidan questioned.

"W-What?!" Mara blinked. "You mean, shoot him?!"

Mara noticed a larger speed hurdle pop in her direction, but this time, the only way to bypass this one was to slide underneath it. Because this speed hurdle was built completely to that she wouldn't be able to jump over it. Whether she could slide through it in time all depended on one thing...

"Yeah!" Aidan exclaimed as he started to sprint a little faster. "Remember! There were only three gunshots! That third gunshot was apparently Daisuke hitting Riku on the head. He not only shot Riku square in the head, but he did also it with one bullet! You really think Daisuke would be capable of pulling that off?! You'd have to be the Ultimate Gunslinger to do that! Like Yumi!"

Aidan turned back toward Mara.

"Let's hear it, Mara!" Aidan declared. "How was Daisuke able to easily shoot Riku in the head?!"

The track slowed down as Mara thought about this. Riku ended up with a bullet through his head. And while she did believe that Aidan was right about Daisuke's capabilities of shooting a gun, what she also believed was that Daisuke was able to pull it off by doing something. Doing one simple thing. If Daisuke was on the Bridge when he shot Riku, the easiest way to shoot Riku was to make him...

"There's only one thing Daisuke would've done to make sure he pulled the shot off," Mara revealed. "And that's by...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...making Riku look up!"

Mara successfully slid underneath the hurdle, got back up, and started sprinting, attempting to catch up to Aidan.

"W-What?!" Aidan nearly tripped.

"The boats pass directly underneath the Bridge," Mara explained. "If Daisuke wanted a clear shot at his head, the only way he'd get that, is if he made Riku look straight up at him. All Daisuke had to do then, was position his gun down and fire as soon as he looked up!"

"Then, tell me this!" Aidan gritted his teeth. "How did Daisuke make Riku look up?!"

The two were practically neck and neck now. Aidan had every chance in the world to overtake her. But Mara didn't need time to slow down for this. She had this covered. Because there was only one thing at the Bridge that Daisuke could've used to get Riku to look up.

"Easy..." Mara declared. "Daisuke used...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...the water guns!"


Aidan moved over to the stationary water guns pointed directly down at the river stream.

The water guns were adjustable. The movement of where to point the gun— whether it be up, down, left, and right —was smooth enough for anyone to use with little problem. Pointing it to himself was not something he could do, but what he could do was point it at the boats. On each gun's right side was a wheel with a handle.

When Aidan spun the handle, water streamed out of it, and since he had been pointing the gun downward, the water made sure to shoot downward. In other words, it was like those water guns you'd use to get someone wet in Legoland or that Popeye ride in Island of Adventure.

Assuming people know what I'm talking about, that is.


Mara sped past him, leaving him in the dust.

"G-GAH!" Aidan exclaimed, coughing.

"There were stationary water guns at the Bridge, weren't there?!" Mara explained. "If Daisuke wanted Riku to look up, all he needed to do was spray the boat he was in with the water! In his confusion, Riku would've instinctively looked up. That's how Daisuke pulled it off!"

"And then?!" Aidan sped through his lane, catching up to Mara like it was nothing.

More speed hurdles showed up on his lane.

"...What happened next?!" Aidan questioned. "Because remember, the moment the third gunshot sounded out, you, Kikuko, and Fábio went to check the left side of the Jungle of Joy! Where the heck did Daisuke go then?! He was literally at a dead end!"

Aidan managed to skip through the hurdles, easily.

"Far from it, no," Mara shook her head. "There was one place Daisuke could've gone to escape to avoid being caught by the others…"

She noticed more speed hurdles pop up for her.

Time slowed down for her as she thought about her answer. There was literally only one place Daisuke could go to avoid being seen by other people and being immediately discovered as the true murderer.

"The place that Daisuke escaped to…" Mara sped forward. "It was definitely…

Kikuko's Attraction!"

Mara skipped through her speed hurdles just as efficiently as Aidan did.

"Remember!" Mara frowned. "Kikuko's Attraction was a roller coaster that could literally take you to the other side of the Jungle. If Daisuke wanted to go somewhere to avoid detection and be seen as a suspect, the most obvious place he would go is that!"

"But you know Daisuke's character!" Aidan was by her side once more. "There is no way someone like him would want to ride a roller coaster of all things!"

"Under normal circumstances, you have a point," Mara shook her head. "But in the case of trying to get away with murder, he would have all the reason in the world to do it, regardless of how much of a pussy he is to ride a coaster! Getting away from the crime scene would be his top priority!"

"Q-Quit saying stuff like that!" Aidan growled as he sped up further.

They could see the Finish far into the distance. The only problem now was the subsequent number of hurdles they needed to go through in order to fully finish this intense race of logic and wits.

"What about the guns then?!" Aidan exclaimed. "If you really think Daisuke is the killer, then he should have the guns on him right at this very moment! But I'm going to bet you right now he's not gonna have any on him!"

Hurdles coming up.

"Well obviously, he would've disposed of them!" Mara jumped over hers.

"And where do you think he did this?!" Aidan asked, jumping over his hurdle.

"Well, the Bridge, right?!" Mara exclaimed. "There was water so that'd be the– AGH!"

Mara crashed into a hurdle that she didn't see coming, allowing Aidan to take the lead. Flustered, Mara quickly snapped to her senses and tried to catch up.

"Did you forget?" Aidan grinned. "It was you who said that getting away from the crime scene was his top priority!"

Curse her and say such things! But if Daisuke focused more on trying to leave the scene instead of disposing of the guns right then and there, that would mean he would have had to have disposed of them elsewhere. But… where…?

Hurdle coming up and just when it hit Mara.

"No, there is another place Daisuke could've gotten rid of them!" Mara exclaimed. "And that place is…

Kikuko's Attraction!"

Mara jumped over her hurdle, nearly crashing that time, however, but nevertheless, she was still catching up to Aidan.

"N-No!" Aidan gritted his teeth as a hurdle popped up for his lane. "Evidence! Give me evidence that he did do it right then and there!"

"If that's what you want, then so be it," Mara frowned. "The evidence that proves that Daisuke did in fact dispose of the guns at Kikuko's Attraction is…

what Issac saw!"

"W-WHAT?!" Aidan crashed into his next hurdle, significantly slowing him down a bit.


"Hey, I may have a keen eye for observation but Isolde is just as good…" Issac chuckled. "If not, better. Anyway, when we watched the coaster reach the top of the peak, it kind of looked like something had fallen out of it."

"Some thang had fallen out?" Yumi blinked. "Like… what was it?"

"If we had any clue on what it was, we'd probably would've told you two by now," Issac shrugged. "But from what we could see, it looked like two pieces of something. I didn't know if maybe the ride was coming off, but I think it's something to note regardless."


"When Issac was at the Village, he said that he saw some things fly out of the coaster when it reached its highest peak!" Mara explained. "I declare that to be the moment in which Daisuke disposed of the guns!"

"But you forget one important thing!" Aidan exclaimed. "Remember what Yumi said about guns?"


"H-Hold on there, Nelly!" Yumi lowered her white Stetson hat. "T-There's a perfectly good reason why dat gun didn't discharge!"

Alisa folded her arms.

"Do tell," she said.

"It depends on da model and year," Yumi explained. "Newer guns nowadays tend to have protection when it comes to dat sort of ding. Safey precautions. All dat stuff. Roderick's gun be one of those newer models! But if it were mah golden gun... Dat gun would've discharged for sure, because it was made when dat sorta ding wasn't accounted for!"


"When someone drops a loaded gun, that gun will discharge and fire a shot!" Aidan explained. "Roderick's gun wouldn't have done so anyway, bullets or no bullets. But Yumi's golden gun? That would've for sure discharged a shot. So, if Daisuke really did drop that gun from such a tall height, there would've been another gunshot noise and yet, no one reported anything like that!"

Aidan jumped through another hurdle.

"Why was there no fourth gunshot?!" he asked.

Mara narrowly missed one but succeeded in the other.

She needed a moment to think about this. Three sounds of gunshots rang out throughout the Jungle. If what Mara was saying was actually correct, that would mean that a fourth one should've been heard as well. But no one reported anything like that. Or rather… Mara considered the question.

Why didn't anyone hear the fourth gunshot?

Mara widened her eyes as she spotted the next hurdle coming her way.

"...The reason no one heard the fourth gunshot…" Mara considered her options before coming to a conclusion. "No way! There was a fourth gunshot! But the reason no one heard it was because of…

the Body Discovery Jingle!"


Hey everybody!

Someone is dead! Someone is dead!

And they're bleeding red!

Hey everybody!

It's time to play! It's time to play!

Find the killer and make them pay!

BANG!

(Yaaaaaay!)


"Th-That's right!" Mara jumped over the hurdle. "The gunshot! It rang out during the Body Discovery Jingle! That was the reason no one noticed it!"

"W-What?!" Aidan widened his eyes before crashing into a hurdle. "G-Gah!"

And another.

"N-No– Agh!" Aidan tried to lessen the blow of these metaphorical hurdles.

No.

This wasn't over. This wasn't over by a long shot. He growled and charged forward, jumping over hurdle after hurdle. The Finish was well within his grasp, and he wasn't going to lose! Not now! Not ever! He had to win! He had to win for Daisuke's sake!

"Grrrrraaaaaaaaghhhhh!" Aidan put on a warrior scream as he dashed forward.

Through his warrior rage, more hurdles showed up for Mara to jump through, to a point where even she was having trouble keeping up with Aidan. And all the while, she could hear Aidan's frustrated cries as he tried so hard to fight for his best friend.

"It's not Daisuke!" Aidan yelled as Mara felt herself crashing through hurdles after hurdles after hurdles. "You're wrong! You're all wrong! Graaaaaagh!"

Aidan jumped through another hurdle and

"You figured out that someone shot the display case to steal the golden!" Aidan continued. "You figured out that the killer and Riku met at Paradise! You figured out that Riku planned the whole thing and even prepared a fake alibi using an animatronic! But here's the thing Mara!"

A brick wall was placed directly in front of Mara and she was running right into it. She widened her eyes, unable to stop herself. All the while, she heard Aidan's voice scream out one final time:

"YOU STILL HAVE NO EVIDENCE THAT DAISUKE IS THE CULPRIT!"

Shit.

What the hell could she do here? She couldn't jump over this or slide over this or even cross over to Aidan's lane.

She felt herself slowing down, but no matter how slow she was gonna go, she was for sure going to crash through it. That was the price of being in a Last Stand, fighting for the truth that could quite literally save your life.

But…

…was this really the end? Was Aidan really going to have his way? Was Daisuke really going to get away with this scot-free? Was that truth never going to get found…?

Mara needed to think.

She needed to think back to Daisuke's actions. Was there anything that seemed off? Was there anything that he did that seemed odd? She wasn't exactly Daisuke's best friend here so she couldn't exactly say if anything about him was off except…

Except one thing…

To fight for the truth is a warrior's greatest honor!" Mara declared in realization, smashing through the brick wall with her bare hands. "That is what Lao Shi dictates! And I have the damning evidence that will prove once and for all that Daisuke is the one who killed Riku!"

"W-What?!" Aidan widened his eyes. "H-How did you–?!"

"Think back to Daisuke's actions during the Investigation, Aidan, and then you'll finally see…" Mara narrowed her eyes. "That the evidence we were looking for was right in front of us the whole time! The evidence that proves that Daisuke is the culprit, it's…

his shoulder!"

"No– No no no no no no no no!" Aidan started to fumble and crash into the last few hurdles. "A-Agh! Oof! Grk! Ugh! Agh! ARRRRRGHHHHHHH!"

The moment Aidan crashed into the last hurdle was the moment he fell to the ground. Mara on the other hand had overtaken him and practically given up on jumping over hurdles. Instead, she had opted to chop through each hurdle eventually stopping a few inches away from the Finish.

Before she could even dare to cross it, she glanced back toward Aidan who was practically crawling on the floor at this point. He reached out his hand, his voice practically pleading Mara not to do this.

"P-Please…" Aidan begged. "P-Please Mara… I don't want to…"

Mara folded her arms and bit her lip.

She had every reason to go and cross that Finish line right now. End this Last Stand and go back to the real world where they can finally finish this Trial. But seeing Aidan in such a state… Helpless… Beaten down… Pleading for a change…

Goddamnit.

She squatted down, held his hand, and helped him back up. She noticed his confused gaze but that didn't stop her from explaining the truth that she had uncovered.

"Think back to all of the times Daisuke referred to his shoulder…" Mara spoke.


So, Aidan walked up to Daisuke and placed his hand on his shoulder–

"WAGH!" Daisuke screamed in fright, hugging his shoulders in fear.

"W-Whoa, sorry!" Aidan widened his eyes. "Sorry! For freaking you out!"

Daisuke shivered, glancing away. He grasped onto his shoulders tightly, clearly not feeling up to conversing with Aidan. Not like this at least. His face was blue, and he looked close to crying. Just seeing Aidan up close like this since that day… since that incident… It was overwhelming. He really wanted to leave.


Daisuke tried to inch closer to the flames. Especially since he was scared of the darker corners of this slow-moving elevator. Unfortunately, the moment he did so, he bumped his shoulder into Mara's. He paled, squeaking as he recoiled and hugged himself. He clutched his shoulders in fear, shuddering.

"I– I'm sorry!" Daisuke exclaimed. "I– I didn't mean to–"

"...Don't worry about it," Mara simply said.


"E-Eep!" was all Daisuke had to say as he kept his mouth shut.

His face turned a nasty shade of blue and his eyes had grown white in fear. He hugged himself tightly, clutching his shoulder harder than ever to the point where he was quite literally wincing in pain.


"...The reason he flinched whenever one of us would touch his shoulder…" Mara frowned. "It wasn't because he was scared or anything…

it was because he was shot."

Aidan didn't say anything.

"...When Daisuke dropped that golden gun from a height, the impact of the fall caused it to discharge and…" Mara folded her arms. "...through some really terrible luck, or miracle or whatever... the bullet struck him in the shoulder as he went through the ride. He hid his wound well but… I guarantee you if we ask Daisuke to show us his shoulder…"

"...We'll find a bullet wound…" Aidan tightened his fist.

Mara simply nodded.

"You ready?" she asked him.

Wordlessly, Aidan nodded back…

…and together they stepped over the Finish line, stepping out of the battle arena that they were racing in and out back into the real world…


…Back to reality, Aidan was no longer in his superhero suit but mentally, he was just as miserable as he was when he had lost that virtual race against Mara. He kept his hand tightened around that water bottle as he felt all eyes move toward Daisuke.

"Is this true Daisuke?" Alisa questioned, glancing away. "Did you really…?"

Daisuke didn't say anything. He kept his mouth shut for a while, and let Aidan fight his battles for him. But when he had lost… God… Daisuke could see how distraught he was. He could see just how hard Aidan tried to fight for him and yet, he couldn't even do anything to help Aidan. He held onto his shoulder, wincing as he has been for a while.

"D…" Aidan grimaced at his podium. "Please say something… Argue… Fight back… Please tell them it's not true."

He kept his head down.

"I… I can't lose another…" Aidan shuddered. "I can't lose someone else that was by my side since day one… I can't lose my best friend…"

Aidan slowly raised his head, his eyes meeting Daisuke's. And for the first time, Daisuke could see the optimism in Aidan cracking. The optimism that he cherished so hard as that golden child. God. It hurt to see him like this. It hurt him so bad and yet…

"...I… I'm so sorry… Aidan…" Daisuke felt a tear trickle down his cheek.

"...So, we have our confession, I take it…?" Issac grimaced. "...The perp who killed Riku. It was you, right, Kido…?"

Daisuke just nodded as he silently weeped to himself. What right did he have to cry? He was a murderer? And what's worse, he also tried to get away with it. Tried to do it by using the one person in this place that he cared most. He keeps doing this…

Once again, a track star puts so much effort into helping him, only for him to ruin it. Because that was who Daisuke Kido was…

…a pathetic, stupid, loser who couldn't do anything right…

SLAM!

Everyone turned to Aidan, each person feeling the same weight of reality as Daisuke finally admitted to it. That he was the blackened of this Trial. That he was the culprit behind Riku's murder. And yet, despite the dark clouds forming everyone's head…

No one was more damaged than Aidan Brighton, he clenched his water bottle with the maximum peak of his strength.

"G-Grk…" Aidan trembled before… "A-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Aidan squeezed his water bottle tightly, but this time, the cap didn't even strike him in the head. Instead, a volcanic eruption of pure water exploded from that one water bottle, bursting into the air and completely drenching him. He didn't care how wet he got…

…because he knew then and there that he had lost another person he truly cared about…


DANGANRONPA: TWISTED TRAGEDY


Act 1: This tragic case began in Mara's Ultimate Attraction, the Crouching Tiger Cafe, where our victim, Riku Arakawa, had devised a devious plan: to make the Ultimate Sacrifice of killing all of the children in order to get himself out, with the inclusion of everyone else of course.

Act 2: To do this, Riku made sure to establish a fake alibi in the case that something went wrong. This was why Riku obtained the Kenshiro animatronic in the Crouching Tiger Cafe, which thankfully, he didn't need to fight due to Mara having broken it a few days prior.

Act 3: Carrying what was left of Kenshiro, Riku took him toward the Bridge. Taking off his jacket, he placed it around the Kenshiro animatronic, successfully disguising it as himself.

Act 4: The reason he took Kenshiro to the Bridge was because it was an alternative method of accessing Roderick's Attraction. You see, the Bridge overlaps with passing boats from Roderick's Attraction. This was essential for his falsified alibi.

Act 5: Given the slow-moving nature of this specific portion of the ride, Riku was able to slip the animatronic down onto a passing boat with no problem. As such, as time passed, the hidden camera located at the end of the final drop would snap a picture, thus showing "Riku" riding the ride. That was how Riku falsified his alibi.

Act 6: With his false alibi set in stone, Riku then met up at the Morning Meeting, where everyone was gathered to find the computer monitors being tampered with. Every button but the Boy's Button was now activated. An act most certainly done by Riku.

Act 7: Because of this, he along with Beautè were assigned to guard the Sister's Button, located at the Exit of Kikuko's Attraction. While a seemingly innocent assignment at first, what this really did was pit Riku closer to his objective.

Act 8: As soon as Beautè left to presumably go to the bathroom, Riku enacted his plan. He went and pressed the Sister's Button and climbed onto the coaster carts to ride back to the left side of the Jungle. His plan was probably to go press the Girl's button and then the Brother's button but unfortunately, he came across a slight hindrance to his plan…

Act 9: …That hindrance was the discovery of Paradise. As it turns out, the way to discover Paradise was by riding Kikuko's Attraction from the Exit, just as Riku did. And unfortunately, it was his curiosity of checking out Paradise that ultimately sealed his fate.

Act 10: Because unbeknownst to him, someone had witnessed Riku pressing the Sister's Button: the killer. Following behind him, as soon as Riku had made it to Paradise, the killer had called the cart back, effectively trapping Riku.

Act 11: The killer's intention was to find out what Riku was planning so when they rode the coaster to follow him, they too ended up in Paradise. That was where Riku and the killer met, face to face.

Act 12: It was at this point that Riku revealed his trump card: Roderick's gun. A few nights prior, Yumi had thrown out the gun due to personal reasons. In the end, it was Riku who was the one who found it.

Act 13: Now trapped in a standoff at Paradise, Riku's intention with the gun was to stop anyone from trying to stop his mission of escaping. But the revelation of the gun was enough to throw the killer into a panic. That was when they attacked and the two fought…

Act 14: …and eventually, Riku got shot in the hip. This was the first gunshot heard at the Jungle. And because Paradise was located right near Mara's Ultimate Attraction, Kikuko and Fábio mistakenly ran there to find out what had happened.

Act 15: Back in Paradise, Riku had grabbed one of Paradise's naturally growing banana leaves, an item he needed to tend to his wounds later, and escaped through the coaster, taking him to the left side of the Jungle. From there, Riku realized he needed to find a place to hide…

Act 16: …The place he chose was none other than Roderick's Attraction. Using the same method he used to plant his fake doppelganger, all Riku simply did was jump onto a passing boat. That would be where he spent the last moments of his life…

Act 17: Meanwhile, the killer, now in possession of Riku's gun, realized that Riku had to be stopped. Their intention now was to find him and kill him. But to do this they needed to do a little side quest first. Noticing that Roderick's gun only had one remaining bullet, the killer ran toward Yumi's Attraction…

Act 18: …and with Roderick's last remaining bullet, completely shattered the display case holding the golden gun, the prize that anyone would've won if they were able to beat Stanczyk's high score. All an elaborate attempt to reload their ammunition...

Act 19: Ultimately, that was the second gunshot that rang out, attracting the attention of Mara, Kikuko, and Fábio. Before they could find them however, the killer moved to the left side of the Jungle to hunt for Riku. Eventually, they did find him at the Bridge, passing by on a slow-moving boat.

Act 20: As Riku rode through the ride to continue to tend his wound, the killer laid in hiding on top of the Bridge. Then, once Riku passed by underneath, the killer made use of the stationary water guns by the Bridge to catch his attention.

Act 21: It worked. Because as soon as Riku instinctively looked up, the killer fired the shot, shooting Riku in the head...

Act 22: With a third gunshot being heard, the killer needed to escape, and the best place for them to do that was Kikuko's Attraction, which would be able to take them to the opposite side of Roderick's Attraction, allowing them to avoid detection.

Act 23: Once they were on the ride and at the tallest peak, the killer made sure to do one last thing to ensure they didn't get caught: they disposed of both Roderick's and Yumi's gun by simply dropping it from the coaster. That was the scene that Issac saw from afar.

Act 24: Unfortunately, this turned out to be a big mistake from the killer, because even though they had successfully disposed of the guns, Yumi's gun had discharged due to the impact of the fall. That discharge caused it to fire a bullet… and amazingly hit the killer on the shoulder. It was a miracle!

Act 25: While the gunshot wasn't heard due to the Body Discovery Jingle playing over it, the killer on the other hand had ended up with a damning piece of evidence lodged in their shoulder and forced to keep hidden throughout the entirety of this Investigation and Trial…

…And the only person here who has that very injury on their shoulder right now is you! Isn't that right…

Daisuke Kido, the Ultimate Fast-Food Employee?!


And there we go! Trial Part 2 of Chapter 2: Adventures in Paradise Gloom!

The killer has been revealed and it was in fact, Daisuke Kido! I bet Candle is cheering for that. Damn bastard wanting his own character to die like that :Tch: And I guess Nathan's happy, but this is collateral damage, so his opinion doesn't matter in this case. Everyone be guessing this was a case with like accomplices and stuff making me sweat like XE

Anyway, once again, just as Trial Part 1 had like 4 rewrites, Trial Part 2 had no rewrites. This was it. The most I had to rewrite was the first quarter of the chapter simply because Riku and Beautè being partnered up to guard the Sister's Button was something that was thought of during Daily Life 6 and it kinda screwed up that section of the Trial. So, if something seems weird there, that's why!

As you can see with the Last Stands, I've turned them into something more cinematic and... game-like, which was something I didn't see coming until I turned Aidan into the A-Train XE But regardless... HOLY CRAP IS MARA AND AIDAN RUNNING THROUGH A MARATHON OF DEDUCTIONS REALLY DAMN COOL! Like ugh, Last Stands are becoming one of my favorite gameplay mechanics I have ever implemented ;)

Speaking of mechanics, the secret fourth gunshot and the fact that Daisuke got hit in the shoulder was something that just came into my mind as a really cool thing to do. Now, while the secret fourth gunshot is... mwah *chef's kiss*! The Daisuke getting shot by a gun discharge is... like pretty insane and pretty damn unlucky. If you think about it logically, it might even be pretty impossible for that to happen too.

I figure someone might say something like that, which was why I made sure to foreshadow a miracle like that happening in an earlier Kazuki and Alisa FTE. Just to show that it CAN happen and well... it WILL happen. I guess... kinda like preparing you for something so mind-boggling impossible. Anyway, if you guys don't like that, fair enough D: But if you guys DO like that, well then... HOORAY :D

For some other concerns and confusions about this case... Time to resolve it:

"Um, ackshually, it's bullet, not bullet shell."

Fuck off, Oddly.

Yep. That is all.

Anyway! Once again, thank you to Nathan for beta-reading my work. Hope you enjoyed the Trial just as much as I enjoyed reading your Chapter 2 :D Creating a legacy of DR SYOC's we are! Oh, and I guess Extra too. Chop chop brother. I wanna see your Trial Part 1 immediately!

Regardless, this is it! Trial Part 2 and overall, the end of Trial 2. Chapter 2 is coming to an end and an Epilogue is set to come out soon enough. When? I dunno, but school sure is starting for me!

As always, tell me what you thought about the Trial overall? Love it? Hate it? As good as Chapter 1? Better than Chapter 1? Worse than Chapter 1? I always love to hear your thoughts!

(I am just glad the nightmare is over. This Trial was hell to write. Jungle of Joy, more like Jungle of Anguish and UGHH!)


Playmates Remaining: 13


Aidan Brighton - The Ultimate Track Star [Omakin]

Alisa Zachary - The Ultimate Clockmaker [ExtraMeme]

Beautè Morose - The Ultimate ? [Grandma Sue]

Daisuke Kido - The Ultimate Fast-Food Employee [CandleFire45]

Fábio Barbosa - The Ultimate Figure Skater [Rayy12]

Issac Santiago - The Ultimate Toymaker [oddlyillregular]

Kazuki Nobukatsu - The Ultimate Philanthropist [emberblitz321]

Kikuko Unmei - The Ultimate Shrine Priestess [WolfieRed23]

Manon Vivienne Levesque - The Ultimate Actress [Sempi]

Marabel "Mara" Garcia - The Ultimate Karate Master [Epifanio Therion]

Roderick Cutler - The Ultimate Deep Sea Fisherman [Orlando Butler]

Yukihiko Yuno - The Ultimate Child Caregiver [Weekaro]

Yumi Gundo - Ultimate Gunslinger [MrUtenaHolic]