TK was met face to face with his dorm room door. He knew what was waiting for him on the other side of the door. He didn't want to do it but he knew he had no other choice. If he wanted to prove his innocence and save everyone's life then he had to do this.
Taking a deep breath and gathering all his courage, TK opened the door and entered his room. Everything was the same since the last time he was there, scratches on the walls, the floor, and his bed. He then noticed something that he didn't see earlier, the gold-coated sword was unsheathed and on the ground. It was missing some of its gold paint on the handle and part of the blade too, and the sheath had some scratches on it as well.
He caught two things in the corner of his eye. One was his room key, reminding him that he switched rooms with Sayaka the night prior. He felt his heart ache thinking about it, but it also made him wonder.
'How did the killer get into the room in the first place? We agreed to not open our doors to anyone.'
The other was the lint roller that he found in his room on the first day. TK didn't really think much of it since it didn't look important until he got a better look at it. Even though he never touched the lint roller it appears that someone used it. Did Sayaka use it to clean his room after he left or has it always looked like that?
Or could it have been the killer covering their tracks?
TK made a mental note about it before moving on to look for more clues. He wasn't going to check the bathroom yet, he didn't have the courage for it yet. He walked over to his desk to see if there was anything stolen, though he wouldn't know why anyone would take anything since he had nothing important. He opened his drawer to find his toolkit, which still appears to be left untouched.
"Makes sense, it's mine and I had no reason to use it for anything," TK said to himself. If he remembers correctly the note Monokuma left for them said that all the boys got a toolkit and all the girls got a sewing kit. It wouldn't make sense for one of the guys to borrow his when they had one of their own and he couldn't think of any reason why any of the girls would need a toolkit.
"Yeah, seriously!" Mondo said after overhearing what TK said to himself. "We ain't exactly in the mood to be buildin' fuckin' furniture, right?"
"You haven't used yours either, then?" TK asked and Mondo shook his head.
"Not just me. Nobody's busted theirs out yet, far as I know," Mondo revealed. "Actually, we were talkin' about it yesterday. None of the guys have opened their toolkits yet. Cuz like, why the hell would we?"
TK closed his drawer after finding nothing else important. He moved on to see what Kyoko was doing. She was in the corner of the room diagonal from the bathroom. She was crouched over dragging her finger across the carpet.
"What are you doing?" TK asked.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Not really," TK said while shaking his.
"I'm searching," Kyoko said bluntly.
"For what, exactly," TK said before mentally slapping himself. It's obvious what she was doing, looking for clues. It's exactly what he was doing, but he didn't understand why she was in the spot in the room furthest away from the crime scene.
Kyoko didn't answer him, she was too engrossed with what she was doing. A few seconds later she stood up and dusted herself off. "Are you a clean freak?"
"I mean, I like to keep my room clean but I wouldn't consider myself a clean freak," TK answered, slightly taken back by her question. Kyoko nodded as she glanced around his room again.
"Interesting…" Kyoko hummed. "Just as I suspected, there's something very unusual about your room."
"What do you mean?"
"I've searched your floor from one corner to another and I didn't find one single strand of hair," Kyoko said.
"Really…?" TK asked.
"Not one hair from the victim, and not one hair from you, even though you've been living in here," Kyoko revealed, surprising TK a little. Sure, he never paid attention to every single small strand of hair that would fall from his head, but he knew that he had to be leaving some behind whenever he scratched his head or ran his fingers through his hair.
"Now that you mention it… I noticed the lint roller in my room has been used even though I never touched it," TK told her and she nodded as she scratched her chin.
"Very interesting. Your room didn't have a single strand of hair in it, and someone used your lint roller without your knowledge" Kyoko recounted. "In other words… someone other than you came in and scrubbed your room clean."
"Do you think it was Sayaka… Or the killer?"
"That's the question, isn't it?" Kyoko said before moving to another part of the room.
TK mulled over what he has gathered so far. Someone managed to force their way into his room and attack Sayaka. The scratches all over his room indicate that they used the golden katana and forced Sayaka into the bathroom where they… killed her. TK looked over at the bathroom door as an image of Sayaka's corpse flashed in his mind. He knew what was waiting for him in the bathroom, but he still wasn't sure he could handle it.
TK quickly shook away any negative thoughts. He can't be afraid, not when everyone's lives are at stake. He took a deep breath and cleared any second thoughts he had from his mind and took a step into the bathroom.
Looking at her made it clear that he didn't dream about what he saw earlier. She almost didn't seem recognizable to him, almost as if she lost everything that made her "her." He felt dizzy and nauseous looking at her. He wanted to leave and let someone else look over her body but he won't do that, he owes everyone and especially Sayaka to find the killer.
TK took out the Monokuma File to verify what it said about her body.
"It looks like a knife was thrust into her stomach which is most likely the killing blow. The killer most likely got it from the kitchen. I should check the kitchen next," TK remembered the file said that Sayaka's right wrist was broken.
TK looked at her wrist and it did look swollen and bloody, but he noticed something else. There was a small drop of golden paint on her wrist, confirming that the killer did attack her with the katana. He saw some blood on her left index finger, but that was it. Both of her palms were spotless, so he didn't know why there was only blood on her left finger.
He soon got his answer when he looked at the wall behind Sayaka. The numbers 11037 were written in blood behind her.
"What do they mean? Are they from some type of program?" TK whispered to himself before running his hand through his hair. "I wish Izzy, Yolie, or Ken were here. They were always good with computer programming… Oh right, Chihiro would probably know what they mean. I should make sure to talk to her later."
After checking over Sayaka's body one last time to make sure he didn't miss anything, he left the bathroom where he saw Kyoko staring at him through the door frame.
"It looks like you found it, right Takeru? The bloody numbers… That's most likely Sayaka's dying message."
"But they're numbers… What do you think she meant when she wrote them?" TK asked. "11037… Why would she write them down during her final moments?"
"The way she wrote the numbers makes me think she wanted to use her body to block them. If she wrote them in that location, while she was sitting the way we found her… It means she must have wrote them by turning only her hand towards the wall," Kyoko said. "If you were to write something in that position, do you know what the result would be?"
"The result…?"
"Think about it," Kyoko told him.
"You're not going to tell me?" TK asked.
"You need to uncover the mystery of this case yourself. Otherwise, the case will end and you'll remain unconvinced," Kyoko responded, which annoyed TK. Sure, him figuring out a mystery and being filled with accomplishment and fulfillment sounds nice, but since everyone's lives are on the line he can't afford someone being ambiguous about something that could help them.
"There's one other thing I wanted to ask you about," Kyoko said and she looked at the bathroom door. "Do you know how the door to your bathroom got broken?"
"Broken?" TK repeated, unsure what the girl was talking about before he remembered that his bathroom door doesn't fit in its frame. "Oh, you mean how it gets stuck?"
"Gets stuck?" Kyoko repeated, stunned.
"Yeah, the door doesn't fit in the frame so it gets stuck. I actually thought it was locked when I first tried to use it. But once you learn the trick, it opens with no problems," TK explained.
"So the door doesn't quite fit the frame, huh? But actually, I'm referring to the broken doorknob," Kyoko revealed and it was TK's turn to be stunned.
"The doorknob?"
"You didn't notice? Well, just try closing the bathroom door. I'm sure you'll see right away what I'm talking about," Kyoko explained and Tk did exactly what she told him to do.
TK closed the door and when he did he saw the doorknob was crooked and barely hanging onto the door.
"What the?! The doorknob looks like it's gonna fall off!" TK exclaimed. "How did it get like this?"
"Someone must've used a screwdriver or something similar to unscrew it," Kyoko presumed. "Whatever it was, it's obvious this was intentional."
"But why!? Why would anyone want to do that!?"
"I guess maybe they were trying to get the door unlocked and ended up breaking the whole thing," Kyoko hypothesized.
"But my bathroom doesn't have a lock on it. Only the girls' bathrooms have locks on them, right?" TK said. Kyoko stood silently lost in thought. Then, struck with a sudden realization, she shot a question at him.
"I have one more question for you. You mentioned earlier that your bathroom door would get stuck, right? Did you tell anyone about that?"
"I only told Sayaka when we switched rooms last night, but other than her I never told anyone else," TK answered and Kyoko nodded her head.
"So what you're saying is, only you and Sayaka knew about it… Interesting…" Kyoko hummed to herself as she smirked. "Then that clears that up."
"Clears what up?" TK asked, but Kyoko turned her back to him.
"Well… see you later," he heard her say as she left the room. TK shook his head and sighed, he doesn't think he'll ever understand that girl.
TK looked over his room once again to make sure he didn't miss anything. After he finished doing that he made a list of what he needed to do.
'I should go check out the kitchen first because that's most likely where the murder weapon came from. I need to also find Chihiro and ask her about those numbers and see if they mean anything. It would also be a good idea to search around the school to find if there are any more clues that could help us. But above all else, I need to see what was on Sayaka's DVD and what got her so spooked.'
With his plan in mind, TK moved to leave. On his way to the exit, he heard Mondo and Sakura talking to each other.
"Ya know, I realized something while we were on guard duty," Mondo said. "The killer could've already destroyed some evidence, right? Before anyone found the body, I mean. There's a trash room here in the dorms, right? They coulda tossed some stuff in there."
"That does seem like a possibility," Sakura responded.
"That dirty bastard…!" Mondo yelled. "Anyone who raises their hand to a woman is scum that deserves death. That's what my brother taught me. So if I ever find the son of a bitch that did this, I'm gonna pound his goddamn face in."
"And what if it was a girl that did this?" Sakura said, silencing Mondo.
"That'll all get sorted out when the time comes," Mondo said after finding his words.
TK thought about what Mondo said. 'Trash room. If the killer tried to get rid of some evidence then that would be the place to go. I should go check it out to see if they left anything behind.'
TK walked out of his room to find Byakuya standing across the hall with his arms crossed. TK didn't acknowledge him, choosing to continue his objective and search the trash room. He took a few steps down the hallway when he heard Byakuya speak up.
"So, why was Sayaka in your room when she was killed? Could it be because… you are the culprit?"
"No, Sayaka and I switched rooms last night," TK defended himself. Byakuya didn't even try to hide the suspicion on his face as he eyed TK.
"Even if what you say is the absolute truth, you're still responsible for her death, wouldn't you say?" Byakuya said.
"What?"
"After all, she wouldn't have died if she hadn't switched rooms with you, right?" Byakuya said pompously.
TK didn't believe what Byakuya was telling him. Sayaka didn't die because he switched rooms with her, if he knew what would have happened then he wouldn't have even suggested the idea. Then a thought ran through his head, if he and Sayaka didn't switch rooms then would he have been the one to be murdered?
"Well, all we can say right now is that it's a possibility," Byakuya smirked.
TK frowned at what the rich student said. He knew that he wasn't the cause of Sayaka's death. He only offered to switch rooms with her because he wanted her to feel safe, not for her to die. TK sighed, he couldn't be thinking about that stuff right now.
TK walked past Leon and Hifumi on his way to the trash room. He didn't pay them any attention because he wasn't in the mood for talking at the moment. He heard Leon mention something about a nameplate but he didn't care at the moment.
He soon came across a green door with an image of a garbage can on it. With all signs pointing to this being the trash room, TK walked in. He was met with a sturdy gate blocking his path.
"It's the end of the line," Monokuma popped up out of nowhere causing TK to jump a little. "The trash room. This is where all the trash in the school eventually winds up."
"How do you open the gate?" TK asked, annoyed by the bear's sudden appearance.
"No no no! No entry beyond this point! Only the person on cleaning duty is allowed in!" Monokuma explained in a somewhat robotic voice.
"Cleaning duty?"
"No no no! No entry beyond this point! Only the person on cleaning duty is allowed in!" Monokuma repeated with the same robotic voice.
"Who's on cleaning duty?" TK asked.
"No no no! No entry beyond this point! Only the person on cleaning duty is allowed in!" Monokuma repeated with the same robotic voice. TK groaned and turned to leave, deciding that it would be faster if he asked everyone.
"No no no! No entry beyond this point! Only the person on cleaning duty is allowed in!" TK heard Monokuma repeat as he slammed the door behind him.
TK circled back to his room, where he at least knew Hifumi, Leon, and Byakuya were. He decided to ask Hifumi first because he didn't believe cleaning duty would be something that Leon or Byakuya would do unless they were forced to do it.
"Hey, Hifumi, I'm looking for the person who is on cleaning duty. Do you know who they are?"
"Cleaning duty? As a matter of fact, that's me. Why do you ask?" Hifumi revealed, making TK feel lucky that he didn't have to run around the school. "It just so happens Monokuma talked to me yesterday and asked me to take care of it. Without someone on cleaning duty, the school would be flooded with trash in no time. So I formally applied for the position! I was gonna start this morning, but after what happened, I haven't had a chance to get started."
"So, you're able to open the gate in the trash room," TK said after slightly tuning Hifumi out.
"Of course! It's my job to gather up all the garbage and toss it into the trash room. And to do that, they gave me the key for the trash room gate! But we're supposed to rotate once a week, so eventually, you'll be in charge," Hifumi said, but TK tuned him out again after he said, "Of course!"
"Wait, hold on," Byakuya spoke up after overhearing their conversation. "You need a key to get into the trash room? And only the person on cleaning duty has access to the key? What's the point of going through all that trouble? Why not just leave the trash room open all the time so we can all throw things out whenever we want?"
"That does seem more convenient," TK agreed.
"Actually, if you look at rule six in the e-Handbook then that would explain why. If anyone could go in and out of the trash room whenever they wanted, then destroying evidence would be easy," Byakuya explained while smirking.
TK had to agree with his reasoning, if the trash room was freely opened to everyone then what's stopping the killer from getting rid of evidence or even the body.
"The thrill would disappear, and things would become boring," Byakuya said, which raised some eyebrows.
"Boring!?" TK repeated
"Anyway, more important than that," Leon said, completely ignoring what Byakuya had said. "Hey fatty! Why'd you want the cleaning duty gig, anyway!?"
"I-I just decided to volunteer for something I knew no one else would wanna do. What's the big deal!?" Hifumi stuttered, trying his best to defend himself.
"Liar! I know why you did it," Leon said and TK started to understand what Leon was implying. "You wanna dig through all the girls' trash! Looking for… y'know… and poking around at it!"
"What are you talking about!? All my love is for 2D!" Hifumi revealed. TK, Leon, and even Byakuya awkwardly looked at each other, completely baffled by what the fanfic creator said.
"But there's all kinds of trash diggers like that! Maybe you'll get tired of 2D, and then turn to–"
"I would NEVER get tired of 2D!" Hifumi shouted to the heavens, interrupting Leon. "After spending a significant amount of time comparing 2D and 3D, I voluntarily chose 2D! The only thing 3D is good for is to shower love and affection on 2D!... Oh, and PVC figures!"
"How are you not totally embarrassed to say stuff like that!?" Leon asked. TK hoped that Hifumi wouldn't answer the question, he didn't know how much longer he could take hearing Hifumi's interests.
"If you're so worried about Hifumi's questionable morality, there's a very easy solution. Whenever a guy has cleaning duty, Sakura can accompany them, from picking up the trash to disposing of it," Byakuya suggested.
"Whaaat!?" Hifumi squealed.
"If you're as innocent as you claim, where's the harm in it?" Hifumi squirmed under the pressure of Byakuya's intense stare.
"Kh-! That's not how it's supposed to-!"
"Hey, can we get back on topic…" TK butted in. They only had a limited time to collect evidence and he also didn't want to learn more about Hifumi than he already did. "Hifumi, could you please do me a favor?"
"What, so now you suddenly want to join my party? Sorry, but you haven't triggered that flag yet," Hifumi said. At that moment TK was contemplating stealing the key off of Hifumi because he wanted to be as far away from the fanfic creator as possible. "I mean, you haven't helped me recover from past trauma, or save a village, or beat a boss…"
"I just wanted to get into the trash room and look around," TK sighed, he could feel his brain decaying just listening to Hifumi.
"Oh, okay!" Hifumi cheered and TK eternally screamed.
'I could've prevented that whole conversation if I just asked after he told me he was on cleaning duty!'
After a short quiet walk to the trash room, the two boys were standing in front of the locked gate.
"You'd like me to open the gate, wouldn't you?" Hifumi asked with a chuckle and TK nodded his head vigorously. Hifumi moved to unlock the gate before placing a hand on it. "You know, when I look at it, it makes me think… They say he killed his wife. He learned how to get by on the inside, but he never stopped dreaming. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin', he said. So him and Rita, they found themselves a way out…"
"Please, open the gate!" TK demanded.
"Okie dokie! Leave it to me!" Hifumi cheered. He pulled a key out of his pocket and used it to flip the switch next to the gate. Shortly after, the gate opened and the two boys walked further into the trash room.
"However, Mr. Takaishi, surely you aren't planning to use the trash room to destroy evidence, are you!?" Hifumi exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at TK. "Y-You fiend…! You planned this all along!"
"You waited until after you opened the gate to accuse me of trying to destroy evidence," TK said softly while slapping his head. "No, I wanted to see if the actual killer tried to destroy some evidence!"
"But the 'actual killer' is YOU, isn't it!? You want to see if you left anything behind!" Hifumi accused him. "Wait… Maybe a parallel world…?"
'If I hurry then I might be able to leave here with my sanity!" TK thought to himself and he started to look around the room.
It wasn't that long of a search because the room wasn't that big. TK only found three things that could be considered evidence, a burnt white sleeve with some blood on it, some broken glass that looks like it used to be a glass ball, and the incinerator was also on. Hifumi made jokes after every piece of evidence that TK found and he ignored most of the jokes, except for two.
Hifumi said that you could find glass balls on any big-city street corner and that if you look in it will show you a glimpse of the future. TK didn't believe that a glass ball would be able to do something like that, but he did know someone in the school who would.
The second one was about the incinerator. He told TK about the on and off buttons that start and stop the machine, but then he noticed something that had him spooked.
"Huh!? Someone turned the incinerator on!" Hifumi cried. "Very strange… I'm quite certain it was off last time I was down here. Perhaps it was the work of a fairy…"
"Hifumi! Repeat what you just said!" TK exclaimed.
"Huh? The fairy…?" Hifumi said and TK sighed.
"No. You said the last time you were here, the incinerator was off."
"Ah, yes. About that there can be no mistake. If I've got one thing going for me, it's my memory!" Hifumi said pridefully. "Yesterday, as soon as I was appointed, I came down to check the place out. It definitely wasn't on then. I haven't been back to the trash room since then. And since I'm the only one who has a key to open the gate, it should be impossible for the incinerator to be on. And yet…"
'Someone must've been able to switch on the incinerator without opening the gate. But that doesn't seem possible,' TK thought as he looked over the evidence he found in the room.
"This whole thing is quite strange, indeed. When I was here last, the incinerator was off, and those glass shards and burnt clothes weren't," Hifumi spoke up before pointing another accusing finger at TK. "What does it mean, Mr. Takaishi? Will you be confessing soon!?"
TK groaned. He knew it was pointless to try and convince Hifumi that he was innocent, and he also didn't want to talk with him anymore.
"Everyone already knows you did it! All the mysteries are being solved one by one!" TK heard Hifumi say as he closed the trash room door behind him.
