Chapter 1: New Hope and New Despair

Deadly Life

The others arrive shortly after and gasp "So its true..." Hinata says

"Kubo..no..." Sakura says in shock

"DAMMIT!" Cho shouts "We were so careful! How could something like this..."

"...theres nothing for it now" Hiroto says

"huh?" Sakura looks at him

"Hey! Have some respect! One of our friends is dead!" Ohana shouts "And your acting like you don't care!"

"Believe me. If I acted how I am feeling right now, I wouldn't even be standing here" Hiroto says as he clenches his fist. "But the fact is: Kubo is dead. And one of us killed him. So, if we want to honor him...make good of his death, we need to find out who it was."

"..." Sakura stands up as she nods "He's right...sitting her crying wont help anyone. We need to avenge Kubo. First, we should-" Before she could continue, a certain bear appears

"Hey hey hey! No one is starting yet!" Monokuma shouts

"Ah!" Futaba shouts, hiding behind Momo

"Oh no! Alas, poor Kubo!" Monokuma says, faking tears "Pu hu hu...why did someone have to take you from us! Our dear friend!"

"This is all your fault you dumb bear!" Ohana shouts

"What do you want...aren't we suppose to investigate?" Hiroto asks

"...oh yeah!" He chuckles as he holds up a stack of devices "Da dada da! Its the Monokuma File!"

"Monokuma file? What's that?" Riku asks

"Its a file containing the details about the victim! Think of it like...a special autopsy report! And its always accurate! I would NEVER lie!" Monokuma shouts as he hands them out "Well! Good luck!" He vanishes as everyone was silent

"...what do you think?" Hiroto asks Sakura

"huh?" She responds

"This file. Can we believe any of what it says?"

"...I don't think we have any choice here" She says as she opens the file and reads

"The Victim is Kubo Mizu, the Ultimate Fisherman. Time of Death was 10:50 PM. The victim was found in his room with a fishing wire wrapped around his neck"

"..." Sakura looks down at the file 'Kubo...I promise we'll find who did this'

-Monokuma File #1 has been added to Truth Bullets!

"So he was killed during nighttime...we all should have been asleep" Hiroto says

"Yeah. I doubt we can trust anyone's alibis in that case." Sakura walks over to Kubo's body but stops when she sees the water on the floor 'Was Kubo drinking this when he died?'

"Hm..." Ren says as he looks at the puddle "Its weird..."

"What? Isn't it normal for water to spill?" Sakura asks

"Yeah but...the water should be far more spread out then this. Hand on...give me a hand with something" Ren says

"Okay?" She says as she helps Ren soak up the water with towels. And when they were done... "Ah! A hole!"

"The water spilled into a hole in the ground?" Hiroto asks

'This hole doesn't look like it was cut by hand. It looks way to...natural' Sakura thinks

-Spilled Water has been added to Truth Bullets!

"Hey. Come take a look at this" Hiroto says, gazing down into a trash can. Sakura walks over and looks inside seeing

"Glass? Did the killer break something when they killed Kubo?"

"If it was just an accident, I don't think they would have gone through the effort to throw it out"

"Then it has something to do with the case?" Sakura thinks

-Broken Glass has been added to Truth Bullets!

"...Ren" Hiroto looks over

"Yeah?" Ren asks

"Think I can ask you to look at these glass pieces? See what they were?"

"Sure, I can try. Might take a bit though, so I'll let you know when i'm done" Ren says as he dumps the glass out and sits down

'He can figure out what they were? Guess it must come with being the Ultimate Architect' Sakura thinks as she looks around. Cho and Kiyomi walk up.

"Nothin of note in the bathroom" Cho says

"I checked the door" Kiyomi says.

"The door?" Sakura asks as the bookworm nods

"The door was unlocked when we showed up" Hiroto says. Once again, Kirumi nods

"Yes. But isn't that strange...?" She asks "Does that mean it was unlocked when the murder happened?"

'It was unlocked when the murder happened?' Sakura thinks

-Unlocked Door has been added to Truth Bullets!

"Anything else note worthy about this room?" Hiroto asks

"Can't see anything. It doesn't even look like their was a struggle." Sakura says "Lets see if there are clues anywhere else"

"Then I recommend Kuma Stree-" Hiroto starts

"Hey look!" Cho says as he holds a deck of cards "Its Kubo's Ultimates Quest deck."

"Is that relevant to the-" Sakura starts before being cut off

"Hell yeah its relevant! Kubo was one of the makers of this game, maybe whoever killed him wanted some of his sweet Creator cards!"

"...i highly doubt that's the case Cho. But we can keep it in mind...hm?" Sakura looked at the deck in Cho's hand and noticed one of the cards looked different. But before she could ask to see them, Cho promptly stashed them away and continued to investigate. 'Damnit Cho! Well...I should keep that part in mind...might come in handy later'

-Odd Card Out has been added to the Truth Bullets!

"As I was saying" Hiroto says "We may want to head to Kumastreet. There's something I want to check"

"Kumastreet it is. I don't think theres much else here to see or discuss"

Kumastreet

The two arrive at Kumastreet, seeing Hibiki and Hana looking around. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to look at the motive board" Hibiki explains

"The Motives?" Sakura says shocked

"Well a killing happened. So we figured someone must have read their motive" Hibiki says "And I have a good idea I know who..."

'He has an idea?' Sakura thinks "Who?"

"Last night I heard a loud sound that woke me up." Hibiki says, folding his arms "I looked outside to see what it was and who should I see walking around but our own Riku"

'Riku was walking around outside last night?'

"What time would this have been?" Hiroto asks

"Lets see...I think i had only been sleeping for maybe an hour so...it should have been about 11'o'clock"

"10 minutes after Kubo died...better make note of this. Thanks Hibiki" Sakura says

"See? Just cause I'm funny doesn't mean I'm dumb!" He gives a thumbs up

'...is he trying to say smart people aren't funny?'

-Hibiki's Account has been added to Truth Bullets!

"Now lets look at the motive board" Sakura says as she walks over. "Monokuma put these motives here for us to take. He said there should be one for each of us. I already got mine hand delivered to me so in total 15 Motive Notes should be here" Sakura counts "Sure enough there's 15...huh?" She takes one of the envelopes down "Hiroto look. This envelope is open"

"Someone took their motive slip after all and left the envelope behind" Hiroto says. "There's no name on it though..." Suddenly, Monokuma appears

"Well duh! This is suppose to be a mystery solving game! What good is a mystery if killers can be caught so easily! Why do you think fingerprints don't exist here?" The bear laughs before vanishing

'...I choose to forget that just happened' Sakura thinks "Even still, we should remember this"

"Agreed" Hiroto nods

-Missing Motive Slip has been added to Truth Bullets!

"Hmmmmm" Hana thinks outloud

"Hana? You okay?" Sakura asks

"What would Kubo say in this case..." She thinks before making her voice sound like Kubo "Even the smallest fish can be a real fighter!" She says before her voice goes back to normal "No that doesn't fit here..."

"...I take it to mean your thinking about something?" Hiroto says

"Well its just that. Yesterday before we all met up I went to the drug store to buy some cough drops. Doing these voices can really hurt, you know. But when I went in there wasn't a cashier."

"No one was there?" Sakura asks

"Nope! The only thing I saw at the counter was some kind of stick. Luckily, Monokuma appeared and let me buy the medicine so I didn't have to steal!"

'First time I think anyone was lucky to see Monokuma...but that did sound important'

-Hana's Account has been added to Truth Bullets!

"So the drug store was missing its cashier..." Hiroto says "I think we should go check"

"Eh? What would the drug store have to do with-" Sakura begins to ask

"Not the store. The Special Room"

"The Special Room? But Monokuma said only the person working there could-"

"Someone wasn't at their station. And the very next day someone is dead. I think that gives us probable cause to search. Plus, Monokuma wants a fair trial so he should have no problem with it"

"I...guess that's true. Alright lets go"

Drugstore - Special Room

Upon entering the special room, the duo were met with shelves upon shelves of various chemicals. "This looks like something out of a mad scientist's lab!" Sakura shouts.

"Well Monokuma doesn't seem like one to care for subtlety. See if you can find some clues. I'll look over here" The two split up. Sakura looks around the shelves and stops as her eyes notice something

'It looks like there's an empty spot here on the shelf...' She reaches and picks up one of the other bottles on the shelf and reads it

"Monokuma's Special Poison! When acidity and poison live in harmony! Just apply a few drops to dissolve anything-or anyone-you want! Those after a more subtle death? Simply dilute with water!"

"What!? How can poison like this even..." Sakura stutters but shakes her head "What am I saying...Monokuma's existence alone is enough to make me not question things. Better make a note of this"

-Missing Poison has been added to Truth Bullets!

"Hiroto how are things on your end?" Sakura asks

"I found this" Hiroto walks over with a clipboard "Its a shipment list for this room. Apparently supplies in this room are restocked and changed every week. So its possible that the items available are different every time"

"Restocked and Changed every week...we should remember that"

-Special Room Shipment List has been added to Truth Bullets!

"Now what? It doesn't seem like anything is-" Sakura begins when

Bing Bing Bing Bong!

The TV screens spring to life as Monokuma sits on his chair "Attention everyone! Your time is now up! Please make your way to the elevator and prepare for the class trial!"

"Looks like we're out of time" Hiroto says

"And I feel like we're no closer to the truth..." Sakura sighs as Hiroto puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Between the two of us, I'm sure we can solve this" He gives her a rare smile.

'Hiroto...' Sakura thinks to herself as the two leave for the elevator.

Upon arriving, the 13 others were already waiting. "There you two are! We're you making out or something?" Bakubaku laughs as Aijin smacks his head

"Idiot! now is not the time for jokes! I expect that from Hibiki, not you!"

"Yeah-hey!" Hibiki says

"We were just finishing our investigation" Hiroto says

'speaking of which..' Sakura thinks "Ren. Did you manage to figure out what that glass was?"

"Oh! Yes, i managed to piece it together and figured it out. Those glass shards belonged to a vase!"

"A vase? That's it?" Sakura says

"Yep! Though..." Ren says "There were some glass pieces that didn't fit the others. They were completly different, but I didn't have time to put them together"

'Different shards were mixed in...? I wonder...'

-Broken Glass has been updated!

-Miscellaneous Shards has been added to Truth Bullets!

"Well we're here...I guess we just get into the elevator" Kiyomi says. The students all get on.

"What floor are we suppose to-ah!" Futaba jumps as the elevator shakes. The normal floor buttons all close as a big button labeled 'TRIAL GROUNDS' take their place

"..."

'Without thinking, I pressed the button. And our decent started...'

'Kubo Mizu, The Ultimate Fisherman. He was strong and brave. He was an anchor to all of us, keeping us calm in such a drastic situation. And now...he's gone. And the culprit...'

'Is one of us'

Sakura Masayoshi: Ultimate Lawyer

Hiroto Eto: Ultimate Debater

Hibiki Yabe: Ultimate Comedian

Hiko Seiko: Ultimate Sharpshooter

Kubo Mizu: Ultimate Fisherman: Dead

Ren Kesseki: Ultimate Architect

Cho Sukoshi: Ultimate Football Player

Aijin Tsukuyomi: Ultimate Ninja

Hana Watanabe: Ultimate Impressionist

Hinata Yasai: Ultimate Poet

Riku Yamamoto: Ultimate Contestant

Bakubaku Hakai: Ultimate Demolitions Expert

Kiyomi Kadokawa: Ultimate Bookworm

Futaba Zenigata: Ultimate Puppeteer

Ohana Ichimaru: Ultimate Hiker

Arthur Mogami: Ultimate Mythology Fanatic