It was dead silent in the courtroom. Everyone glared at the baseball prodigy who looked extremely nervous.
"Wh–!? What the hell are you talking about? I-It's just a coincidence! It's just a bunch of random squiggles that happen to look like my name!" Leon aggressively defended himself.
"No, it's not random at all. She wrote that message on the wall behind her as she was leaning up against it," Kyoko said calmly. "In that position, she couldn't move to write normally and had to write upside down, as it were. And as a result, when you look at it standing in front of her, it ends up getting flipped. Try it for yourself, if you want. Write something sitting like her, and the letters will be inverted."
"Th-That sounds like one hell of a stretch to me…" Leon slammed his hands on his podium and growled. "I'm the killer!? You can't just go and say shit like that!"
"If you're not the killer, then why did you try to destroy the evidence?" Kyoko retorted, making Leon choke on his words. "You know what I'm talking about, right Takeru? The evidence Leon tried to get rid of?"
"Are you talking about the burnt shirt piece?" TK questioned and Kyoko nodded.
"As the killer stabbed Sayaka, they must have gotten some of her blood on them. And to dispose of the shirt covered in the victim's blood, they threw it into the incinerator," Kyoko deduced.
"But one piece burned off and got left behind…" Celeste highlighted.
"And the killer didn't notice. If they had, they most certainly would have panicked," Kyoko finished for the gambler, before turning to Leon. "Isn't that right, Leon?"
Words became lodged in Leon's throat as he became paler. He was sweating so much that some of the others began to assume that there was a puddle of sweat forming at the baseball player's feet. Leon looked around the room, silently pleading with anyone to help him.
"But is one scrap of fabric enough to conclude Leon is guilty?" Sakura raised and TK saw Leon ease up a little.
"Yeah… I mean, Leon's not the only one wearing a white button-up…" Chihiro pointed out.
"Th-That's right! There are plenty of other people here with shirts like mine!" Leon agreed ferociously. "With just that one little charred piece, there's no way you can say for sure who it belongs to!"
"You're right. One piece of fabric isn't enough, especially if multiple people are wearing white button-ups. But there are some things that may reveal the truth," TK said, causing Leon to flinch slightly.
"Are you finally starting to understand? The answer to all the riddles are right here," Kyoko said proudly.
"Yeah, I'm starting to get it. If we examine how the shirt was destroyed, we should be able to figure out who the killer is," TK brought attention to what everyone hoped was the final topic.
"O-Oh, yeah… that's a good point. I think I know what you're gonna say…" Leon took a few breaths to calm himself down. "You can't reach the incinerator without opening the gate in front of the trash room, right? And obviously, you wouldn't be able to hit the switch to turn it on either. You'd need the key to get in. And the one with the key was… the person on cleaning duty! So the killer had to be whoever was in charge of taking care of the trash! Right!?"
"Interesting…" Hifumi chuckled while stroking his chin. He then quickly realized what Leon said, causing him to panic.
"Calm down, Hifumi. I think I know someone who could get rid of the evidence without using the trash room key!" TK said to prevent Hifumi from freaking out.
"But if you can't get past the gate, you couldn't possibly turn on the incinerator, could you?" Sakura question.
"It's possible if you use this," TK held up the sandwich bag filled with glass shards from earlier. He decided to hold on to it just in case it became important later on.
"What is it, some kinda glass ball? It's busted to hell…" Mondo commented after getting a good look at the evidence.
"Actually, it was supposed to be a crystal ball. But, uh…" Hiro said quietly that almost no one heard him.
"But… how would you use it?" Chihiro asked.
"If I had to guess, the killer aimed for the incinerator switch and threw it through the gaps in the gate. All they would have to do is hit the switch and the incinerator would roar to life," TK informed everyone.
"Someone threw that… through a gap in the gate!?" Hifumi exclaimed with disbelief.
"Hifumi, remember what you told me. You said the last time you checked the incinerator was off," TK not only reminded the fanfic creator but also informed everyone. "Since Hifumi had the key, the only way for the incinerator to be turned on without him knowing is if someone were able to hit the switch without opening the gate. If the killer was able to do that, all they had to do was ball up the shirt and toss it in.
"H-Hey, come on… what the hell is this?" Leon cried out but no one listened to him.
"All you have to do is look at the scene to know that the killer never actually went inside the trash room," Kyoko raised a finger after every piece of evidence she listed. "The shards of broken glass, the incinerator left running, the piece of shirt that escaped the fire. If the killer had been on cleaning duty, the evidence would have been taken care of much more thoroughly."
"W-Wait, no… just hold on!" Leon protested with desperation heard clearly in his voice.
"But the distance from the gate to the incinerator has to be at least… thirty feet, right?" Chihiro deduced. "The pinpoint accuracy you'd need to throw a glass ball that far and hit something that small… Could someone really do that?"
"Th-That's right! There's no way! It'd be impossible!" Leon quickly agreed with her.
"It would be an impossible feat for one of us. But I would assume it would be easy if the killer was a baseball prodigy. Right, Leon?" TK stated, draining all the color on Leon's face.
"D-Do you have any idea how stupid you sound right now!?" Leon managed to say.
"A target thirty feet away would surely be little challenge for the Ultimate Baseball Star," Celeste concurred.
"Y-Y-Y-You can't be serious! I…! I…!" Leon's face suddenly turned red as veins started to pop on his forehead. "I'm not the killer! These goddamn shit-for-brains have got it all wrong, I'm telling you!"
"You still won't admit it? Okay then…" Kyoko turned to TK with a stern expression. "Takeru, go ahead and review the incident one more time to make his crime perfectly clear. And with that, we can end this…"
"Listen to me! What the hell do you mean, end this!?" Leon's screams fell on deaf ears as no one paid him the time of day.
"You can scream all you want but it won't change anything. This is what happened…" TK exclaimed.
"Let's start from the beginning. Last night, the killer went to the room Sayaka was in, my room. From what we discovered, Sayaka invited them over with the intent to kill. She attacked them with the knife she took from the kitchen, but the killer managed to defend themself with the fake sword and fight back. They managed to break Sayaka's right wrist, causing her to drop the knife," TK relayed and the others were starting to get a clear picture of what happened.
"After losing her only form of defense, she panicked and ran into the bathroom. The killer tried to go after her, but they couldn't get the door to open. They didn't know that my bathroom door gets stuck easily and that there's a trick to opening it. Only me and Sayaka knew how to open it, so the killer forced the door open, took the kitchen knife… and stabbed Sayaka," TK said sullenly. Mondo and Sakura glared at the killer, causing the killer to go deathly pale. "She used her remaining strength to write a dying message on the wall behind her so the killer couldn't see it. Shortly after, she was gone."
"After she died, the killer quickly began destroying evidence. First, they took off their shirt which was covered in the victim's blood. They used the lint roller in my room to clean up the area. They wanted to erase any evidence of them being there," TK continued and one by one the others stared at the killer with looks of disgust and disdain.
"The killer then headed to the trash room to destroy their bloody shirt. They wanted to use the incinerator to destroy it but there was a sturdy gate in their way, preventing them from reaching the incinerator. They thought up a plan to use Hiro's crystal ball, which he'd left in the laundry room. The killer threw the ball through the gaps in the gate and hit the incinerator's switch. For anyone else, it would've been an impossible throw, but the killer had the confidence to take the shot. That's because the killer is the Ultimate Baseball Star," the killer swallowed loudly as their legs shook sporadically underneath everyone's gaze.
"The crystal ball hit the switch on the incinerator which quickly roared to life. The killer then balled up their shirt and tossed it into the flames. After destroying the final piece of evidence, they left the trash room with a sigh of relief. But there was one thing they failed to notice. Part of their shirt burnt off and fell out of the incinerator, which left behind a piece of indisputable evidence," TK placed his hat back on his head and glared at the killer who looked about ready to collapse. "Isn't that right… Leon!?"
TK could tell that Leon was crumbling underneath everyone's glares. The reality of the situation must've hit the baseball player like a truck when he realized he has nowhere left to turn. It won't be long now until the trial is over.
"It's best to assume that Hiro forgot his crystal ball in the laundry room. You went there first to get the blood out of your shirt, and that's where you saw it, right? You thought of a way to take care of everything."
"So, Leon… do you object to anything that's been said?" Kyoko asked, but it didn't matter what the baseball player would say, everyone already had their answer.
"Do I object…?" Leon repeated. He was silent for a minute before his face turned into a dark shade of red as veins started popping all around his face. "Hell yes I object! Of course I do! I object, I object, I object! I mean, all of this is just a bunch of stupid theories! You need evidence! Where's the evidence!? Without evidence, it's all bullshit! It's bullshit and I refuse to acknowledge it!"
"Well then, I guess this is as good a time to present the evidence that proves you did it," Kyoko sighed before turning to TK. "Takeru… I believe you're in possession of that evidence?"
'I have it?' TK thought in disbelief. If he had the evidence to prove Leon did it then the trial should've been done an hour ago.
"When the killer removed the screws from the doorknob, they didn't use anything from your room to do it. Instead, they must have used something that belonged to them," Kyoko hinted.
"I refuse to acknowledge you! You're stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupid!" TK ignored Leon's outburst and thought about what Kyoko told him.
'He managed to remove the screws but he didn't use anything from my room. Kyoko said I also have the evidence, but the only thing in my room that could remove the screws is the toolkit… I got it!'
"The killer used a tool to remove the screws!" TK declared.
"I mean… it had to be a screwdriver, right?" Mondo added.
"Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure the toolkits we got each had one inside," Hiro remembered.
"Then that must be what he used! There aren't any other tools anywhere," Hifumi concluded.
"The toolkit in my room was never used," TK told everyone and Mondo nodded in agreement because he did get a good look at the blond's toolkit.
"That's because the culprit didn't know it was your room! They thought they were in Sayaka's room!" Taka deduced.
"Only the boys got toolkits, so the killer naturally assumed there wouldn't be one in there…" Chihiro said, remembering the note in her room.
"Then whose toolkit did they use?" TK said quietly to himself.
"Stupidstupidstupid!" Leon shouted.
"It had to be their own toolkit!" TK concluded after Leon's outburst.
"Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupid!"
"Leon, show us your toolkit. If I'm right, then the screwdriver will show some evidence of it being used!" TK demanded and pointed an accusatory finger at the baseball player.
"Stupidstupidstu… uh, huh?" Leon's anger was suppressed and replaced by confusion.
"And if you say you used it for something else, you'll have to explain exactly when, where, and why…" Byakuya demanded.
"And let me say this right now, 'I lost it' isn't an excuse at this point," Kyoko told him.
"Stu… pid. Stu… pid," The color in Leon's face drained. All that was left was a look of defeat, horror, and despair. It got eerily quiet with no one knowing what to say.
"So, you have no rebuttal?" Byakuya asked with a sly grin.
"Then it would seem… we are finished here," Celeste said while twirling her hair. Leon remained silent and TK almost felt bad for him, but he quickly reminded himself of the boy's crime. Monokuma's laugh rang out through the room, almost startling everyone.
"Looks like you've reached your verdict! Then are we ready to cast our votes?" A screen and a level raised from the ground in front of each of them. The screen had a picture of each of them, but only Junko's and Sayaka's pictures were in black and white. "You all have a lever in front of you. Use it to make your selection! Oh, just to remind you all, make triple sure you vote for someone! You wouldn't want to be punished for something so minor, right?"
Everyone quietly grabbed their lever and scrolled through the screen until they came upon Leon's picture. They solemnly confirmed their vote and both the screen and the lever returned to the ground.
"Okay! Then let's get excited! Who will be chosen as the blackened? Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? What's it gonna be? What's it gonna beeee!?" Monokuma morbidly cheered.
A video of a slot machine appeared on the screen above Monokuma with each of the students' faces in the slots. The slots spun with rapid acceleration that it was almost impossible to see the faces. Soon, one by one, each slot stopped with Leon's face on them. There were flashing lights and the sound of a crowd cheering playing from the machine.
"Uh-oh! Looks like you got it right on the money!" Monokuma cheered with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "The blackened in this case, the one that killed Sayaka was none other than Leon Kuwata!"
"Huh? H-Hold on a second…" Leon broke out from his state and finally said something sensible. Everyone was either disgusted or angry after Monokuma confirmed his crime.
"Leon, you killed Sayaka," TK said in disbelief.
"I don't believe it," Hina said while covering her mouth. She looked like she was gonna pass out at any moment.
"Son of a bitch…! What the hell is wrong with you!?" Mondo growled while cracking his knuckles.
"I-I didn't have a choice… It was kill or be killed! S-So that's why… I killed her first," Leon tried to defend himself but when he saw his defense falling on deaf ears, he got angry. "None of you are any different! One wrong step and you'd be the one standing here! It was complete chance that I wound up like this! I was just… unlucky! That's all…"
Mondo growled and took a step toward the baseball player but Sakura placed a stern hand on his shoulder. She gave him a look telling him that it wasn't worth it. Mondo bowed his head and moved away from Leon.
"H-Hey, come on…! You expect me to just accept my death!?" Leon exclaimed, trying to get anyone on his side. It didn't work and instead of glares, everyone gave him impassive looks. It didn't matter what Leon said, no one would care or listen.
'We were right, but I don't feel good about it. I don't like that we had to single out Leon or that we had a trial in the first place! I hated that I had to find out that my closest friend in this school tried to frame me. But I can't fully blame her for it,' TK thought back to the video he saw.
"Her dreams, her friends, everything she worked hard for and cherished gone in an instant. She betrayed me to make sure everything she cherished was fine," TK said sadly to himself. He then started thinking more about what Sayaka told him.
'So when she told me to always be there for her, was she using me the entire time? Is that why she talked to me in the first place? I guess I'll never know.'
"Boy howdy! The entertainment industry must sure be terrifying, huh!?" Monokuma spoke up as if he heard TK's thoughts."I mean, to try and kill someone just because of those relationships! She seemed so nice and lovely on the outside, but inside… she'd descended into pure madness!"
"Huh?"
"I understand, really I do. Yup yup! You're in utter despair thanks to Sayaka's betrayal, right?" Monokuma prodded, trying to get a reaction out of the blond. "Compassion, intimacy, love… The stronger those feelings, the stronger the despair when they collapse!"
"Oh shut up!" TK exclaimed, getting the attention of everyone in the room. "Everything is your fault! Trapping us in here… Sayaka doing what she did… It's all your fault!"
He felt someone grab his arm and he saw that it was Hina, who looked really worried. Kyoko came up to him as well with a disappointed look on her face.
"That's enough. If you really want to make her enemies pay for what they've done, you need to let it go for now," Kyoko said sternly. TK wanted to protest but after one look into Hina's pleading eyes, he decided against it. TK scowled as he walked away from the bear.
"Ahh, that was a close one! I thought for sure you were gonna give me a good walloping! I would've had to punish you if you did!" Monokuma said in a threatening voice before his tone changed to excitement. "Now then! Since you magnificently revealed the identity of the killer during the class trial… the blackened, Leon Kuwata, will receive his punishment!"
"P-Punishment? You mean… e-execution?" Leon screamed in horror. Everyone flinched from his scream. They were the ones to sentence him to this fate. They had no choice, it was either him or them.
"W-Wait a second! I didn't have a choice! I HAD to kill her! Y-Yeah, that's it! I was just protecting myself in the heat of the moment! It was self-defense!" Leon tried to justify his actions but no one felt pity for him.
"How, exactly, was it self-defense?" Celeste's question and demeanor caused Leon to flinch. "When you forced your way into the bathroom, did you or did you not use your very own toolkit? After she'd shut herself in the bathroom, you went out of your way to head back to your own room. Then you came all the way back, broke into the bathroom, and killed her. Am I wrong?"
Leon felt his words get stuck in his throat, but it wouldn't matter if he could speak or not because Celeste didn't give him the chance to breathe.
"You had any number of chances to stop what you were doing. But you chose not to. Is it not because you had an unclouded intent to commit murder?"
"N-No! That's not…!" Leon tried to argue.
"That's enough! You're only making it worse!" TK put an end to the argument. He was angry at Leon for what he did but he didn't like Celeste twisting the knife deeper.
"Oh? Are you sure? You were closer to her than anyone, were you not? He killed your precious Sayaka. Do you understand?" Celeste said and TK sighed.
"Leon isn't solely to blame, and neither is Sayaka," TK pointed at Monokuma who was enjoying the scene playing out in front of him. "You're the one to blame in all of this!"
"S-waaah!?" Monokuma said in disbelief.
"If it wasn't for you, none of this would've happened and Sayaka would still be alive!" TK said angrily before turning to the others. "We should be fighting the one behind all this! The mastermind!"
"Uh-oh! Did you awaken your sense of justice!?" Monokuma chuckled, clearly unaffected by TK's declaration. "Well, it just so happens that there's nothing more unethical than an unwavering sense of justice. After all, it's people with that sort of mentality that perpetuate war all over the world. Is that the kind of justice that's awakened within you!?"
"Do you ever shut up!?" TK growled. Monokuma laughed at his frustration.
"Okay, well, anyway. More importantly…! Let's hurry up and get to what everyone's been waiting for! The punishment!" Monokuma cheered.
"I'm begging you…! Please, don't do this!" Leon pleaded. He looked around the room, trying to find a way out.
"No more begging! No more excuses! You must pay the penalty for breaking the rules! Society demands it!" Monokuma's red eye shined brightly and everyone felt a shiver go down their spine.
"S-Stop, please…!" Leon ran to the elevator and tried to pry the doors open, but they wouldn't budge. It didn't help that Monokuma was laughing at his flimsy attempts.
"Now then, I've prepared a very special punishment for Leon Kuwata, the Ultimate Baseball Star!"
"No no no no no no no!" Leon ran around the room, begging anyone who would listen to save him. He ran up to TK with tears in his eyes and grabbed onto his vest. "Please, you gotta save me!"
TK felt bad for him. He was upset that he killed Sayaka but he did want him to die either. He wanted to do something but he was just as trapped as anyone else here. There was nothing that he could do to save Leon.
"Let's give it everything we've got! It's… PUNISHMENT TIIIME!"
"NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!" Leon's screams echoed throughout the trial room. It was too late to save the baseball prodigy.
Monokuma pulled out a gavel and hit the big red button that raised in front of him. The screen above him said GAME OVER and a pixelated version of Leon was dragged away by his neck by Monokuma.
The atmosphere in the room changed. Everyone stared at Leon who was still pleading with TK to save him. Suddenly, a chain latched around his neck causing him to loosen his grip. He gave TK one last pleading look before he was dragged away.
Everyone watched in horror as they saw him being dragged down a long hallway. They thought it would never end until Leon was brought into a makeshift baseball field. He was chained up to the pole in the center of the field. Suddenly, everyone was moved closer to the field until a fence stopped them from getting closer.
They watched as a pitching machine was loaded up with baseballs. Monokum popped up next to the machine dressed up as a baseball player. He aimed his baseball bat at Leon.
THE 1,000 BLOWS
It started off slow. The pitching machine shot a couple of baseballs that hit Leon's body. Then it got faster. The pitching machine shot multiple baseballs at Leon's body causing him to cough up blood.
The pitching machine quickly rotated around Leon as his gargled screams of pain filled the room. Monokuma didn't make matters better by hitting back any baseballs that came his way. Some of them looked away, not able to withstand the horror that was happening in front of them.
When they thought it couldn't get worse, the pitching machine aimed up toward Leon's head. The speed didn't let up as he was bombarded by baseballs. Time seem to have slowed down as multiple baseballs flew at his face. Those who braved the horror watched Leon open his eyes one last time before the baseballs pelted his face.
The fence opened up, allowing everyone a clear view of the carnage. Baseballs littered the field but they paid that no heed. In the center of the field was Leon's limp body hanging on the pole.
TK heard some people crying, others were pleading with any deity to get them out of the school. TK felt numb. He wanted to scream, cry, maybe even throw up but he felt numb. He didn't know what to feel.
He felt a ball bump into his foot and saw Leon's blood smeared all over it. It then hit him, he just saw one of his friends die. Not only that, they went from 15 students to 12.
