Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration Chapter 19: Dual Disposition (Part 8), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 2: Dual Disposition (Deadly Life Part 3)

Warning: This is a Danganronpa fic. There's going to be a good amount of blood, violence, gore, and a little more intense subject matter. You have been warned properly.

It was another normal morning today.

Just a boy, making his way to school. While most kids at this age started to dislike school, Michael was a bit different.

To him, it beat staying at home alone. After all, all his friends attended school.

And boy did he have a lot of friends.

As soon as he stepped into the school, he was stopped in his tracks by a small group of girls. The girl in the front waved at him, a bright smile on her face. "Morning Michael!" Followed by everyone behind her repeating the same thing.

"Ah… Morning." Michael offered the same innocent smile as the others. He had grown used to his rising popularity at school. It wasn't too problematic, but sometimes it began to feel like much.

As he made his way to class, Michael had someone stopping him every couple of seconds to try and talk to him, or even offer him something.

For the most part, Michael kept conversations short, and tried to decline whatever was offered to him. Most people would have been glad to be in this position. But to Michael? Ah, he didn't want to be treated special.

He just wanted to be treated like any normal person.

When he finally made it to class, Michael found a few people hanging around his table. Letting out a small sigh, he began to walk towards them.

However, before he could even get there, a boy stepped up to the group. "Excuse me, that's my friend's seat. Can you clear away? He should be here soon."

As soon as the other students saw Michael walking towards his desk, they all cleared away, allowing him access to sit down.

While he had grown used to it… It still felt unnerving at times. "Ah… Thank you, Jerry." Michael took his seat, while his friend sat down next to him.

Out of everyone he had met, Jerry treated him slightly differently, so he felt like the only true person he could call a friend here.

"Anytime!" Jerry hummed out to himself as he looked towards the front of class. After deliberating in his head for a few more seconds, he turned to look at Michael. "Hey… What are you doing tonight?"

"Um…" Well, Michael knew that he didn't have anything planned, and Jerry hadn't led him wrong yet. "Nothing, really. Why? Do you have something in mind tonight?"

Jerry nodded his head excitedly. "My parents got a new game for me, so I want to try it out with you!"

For a moment, Michael had to think. He had never gone to someone else's house before. Hell, he rarely even had friends over himself.

It would be nice to have someone else besides his parents to talk to after school. "Yeah, I'll go to your place."

"Alright!" Jerry was happy to hear that.

…

It wasn't until the two of them were walking towards Jerry's house that Michael realised a minor mistake he made. "Oh… I forgot to tell my parents I was going to be somewhere else tonight." They were probably going to worry the entire time. "Maybe I should try and call them." But he didn't exactly have a phone yet. However, he knew Jerry got one rather early. "Hey, can I have your-"

Jerry patted his pocket, shaking his head. "It died last period. I used it too much today." He let out a small laugh. "On the bright side, the teachers never catch me, so I take that as an accomplishment." Although, the issue Michael was talking about was serious. "You can just use the phone at my house. My parents won't mind."

There wasn't a reason to say no to that, so Michael slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, I'll use that phone."

Soon, they finally approached the house, which didn't look in the best conditions. "Oh…" Michael let out, not intending to sound so disappointed.

Jerry glanced away. "Yeah…! I know… It's not the best! But it's what I have." He ran up to the door, stopping just outside. "I'll go let my parents know you'll be here. Enter in after a minute."

"W-wait!" Michael reached over to stop him, but Jerry was quicker. Quickly, the boy disappeared beyond the door.

There he was, forced to wait outside. He didn't have a phone, or a watch, so he couldn't accurately tell the time.

When he felt enough time had passed, Michael slowly turned the handle and stepped into the house.

He didn't want to make any noise, so he slowly closed the door behind him. But when he turned around to see nobody there, he began to grow worried. "Jerry…?" He called out, taking a few steps forward.

No answer.

Not to mention the inside of this house seemed to be in a rough state. "You should… clean more often…" Michael mumbled out, taking a few steps forward.

There was this uneasy feeling with each step he took. The only sound he could hear was the creaking of the floor as he ventured further into the house.

"Jerry…?" Michael called again softly, his panic growing every second he spent in this house.

"I'm over here!" Jerry called out from a different room.

That put Michael at ease, hearing his friend's voice.

Stepping away from the room he was about to enter, he finally found the room his friend was in. "There you are Jerry… Sorry… I almost got lost."

As he stepped into the room, he heard a strange sound behind him. Quickly, turning to look around, the door behind him had closed. "H-huh?"

What had just- "Jerry?" When he looked back over at where Jerry was… He was no longer there. Here he found himself, standing in an empty room.

Feeling his nerves crawl across his body, Michael quickly turned towards the door, trying to get it to open. "H-hello!? Jerry!?" He called out urgently.

But nobody answered.

With each second, the feeling of abandonment and panic crept up into his mind as he looked for any way out. "Jerry!?" There weren't any other doors.

How did he manage to escape? The windows were barred… which were their own red flag.

But he wasn't imagining things, was he? Michael knew what he saw.

And finally… A clicking noise.

The sound of a door unlocking.

"What?" Michael turned to look at who it was, and before him stood a man.

At first, the two stood there, only staring at each other.

When finally… The man broke the silence. "Hello there, Michael."

Having no idea who this was only sent him further into a panic. "How… How do you know…?" Michael took a few steps back, hitting his back against the wall.

Slowly… Menacingly… The man approached. "I've been watching you for some time. We all have?"

" We?" Michael repeated, before his eyes landed on the scene behind the man. It wasn't just him… There were a few other adults, as well as Jerry there, who didn't seem to be panicking in the slightest. In fact… He was humming to himself. To Jerry… None of this was strange…

"J-Jerry!? Help me-"

The boy let out a small laugh. "But we are helping you!" He had seriously lost his mind.

As the man continued walking, he began to speak nonsense. "You are needed for a higher purpose." A step forward. "For you are the vessel to a higher being." Another step forward. "And for that, we will be taking you. That way you can fulfil the purpose you've always needed in life."

While Michael was trying his best to keep his distance between himself and the man… He began to feel rather week.

He hadn't noticed because he was too focused on the strange man… But he had just inhaled some weird gas. To the point where he began to cough, and his vision began to blur. "W-what…?"

"That's enough… We don't want to kill him." The man said softly.

Despite his best efforts to fight whatever he had inhaled, Michael's body grew weak, and his vision began to fade away. "Stop…" He said weakly.

But, his legs couldn't hold forever, and he found himself collapsing to the ground.

The last thing he saw were the legs of the man as he slowly approached Michael.

And then…

Darkness.

Now everything at the trial had resumed. Everyone was staring down at Ian, who Michael had just accused of the murder.

Ian 's facial expression hadn't changed much, only sporting a small smirk. "You're really going to believe his words?" His eyes turned towards one of the cards he had pulled from his pocket.

Gennosuke shrugged, tilting his head to the side. "It's the only other thing we have to go off of."

Finally, Ian frowned, looking at all the other eyes on him. "Really? All of you?" He flicked the card to the side.

Laki shrugged. "It's worth the effort of going down this route."

Gemini let out a sigh. "Hey, for now, this is the only other thing we have. We've already proven that there was room for doubt for Michael being the killer. If there's room for doubt, we have to explore every other route."

Placing his hands into his pockets, Ian shrugged. "Still, it feels like such a leap for someone who was literally being accused of murder. And all for what? Because you believe he was locked up in the shed?"

Michael began to speak up, but someone else began to speak before he could.

Gigi had her arms crossed. "I still don't trust him one bit, but a lot of evidence was brought up that it might not have been him. So, I have no choice but to follow through with his thoughts."

Shaking his head, Ian changed his focus towards the ground. "I see… So that's how it's going to be…" His focus shifted over to Michael. "Michael, the Ultimate Cult Leader… I had no idea until now. And yet he claims I blackmailed him."

"You-" Michael had begun to say, but he was quickly cut off.

"I'm talking here." Ian's expression had morphed back to a neutral one. "There isn't exactly an easy way for me to find out, isn't there? You say I knew and blackmailed him, but everything that happens seems like it was today. If I was the killer, do you really think I'd bank on Michael having a talent I could blackmail him with?"

Now, he was back to smirking, as Ian placed his hand on his podium. "All of it is fabrication."

Gennosuke played around with a lollipop in his hands, flashing a smile towards the gambler. "I wouldn't say you needed to find out today. You could have found out at any time."

"Oh?" Now Ian was interested in hearing this. "And how would I have done that? It's not like Michael would have told me, the motive would have killed him." Now he had a poker chip in his hand, which he began to flip.

Michael glanced off to the side, grimacing slightly.

Monokawa let out a small laugh. "Isn't this secondary motive just great?"

Not caring about what was going on around him, Gennosuke shook his head. "It would have been simple if you had one tool at your disposal…"

…

"The mimic app."

"Huh?" Laki tilted her head. "I thought you said you didn't remember what was at the prize corner."

"As if I'd forget." Gennosuke was doing an advanced technique called lying. "When I went to check the prizes remaining, it was no longer there."

Gemini went wide-eyed. "What? But that's worth five thousand coins. How would…?"

Gennosuke shrugged. "It doesn't matter how he got it yet, all that matters is with it… Ian would have been able to check Michael's profile. Remember, all information on us was there, including Michael's last name, and his talent."

Hae-Won nodded her head along. "He wouldn't have needed to bank on anything. He could have seen what Michael really was, and acted on that."

Ian crossed his arms, glancing off to the side. "That's a pretty heavy accusation. And a heavy price as well. Five thousand coins is no laughing matter." Despite all of this, he didn't seem to be nervous or anything. In fact, it almost looked like he enjoyed it. "But I don't care about that app right now. I feel like there's other stuff I can shut down right now."

"Oh really?" Laki couldn't help but laugh at that. "Then go on, try and shut some things down." There couldn't possibly be any holes in their arguments (she didn't bother to check).

Seeing how things were turning out this way, it seems like Ian would have no other choice.

"Alright." Ian shrugged, not really caring for their reasoning. "How about it, then, Michael. How about the rest of you figure out how I played my part in this murder. You're insistent that I attacked you, but you haven't really given any solid evidence. How did I do it? Why did I do it? Those are all important, you know."

Michael turned his eyes away. He was going to say something, but the gambler cut him off.

"Woah there, before you say anything, let me just point out that you can make up whatever you want." Ian leaned forward on his podium. "How about everyone else pitches in for a change." Turning his back to the trial, he hummed out. "How would I have trapped you in the shed in the first place? What? You mean you just stood there and let me break the handles off the door? There's no way you wouldn't have at least tried something."

"I-" Michael really wanted to defend himself here, but Ian was giving him no room to do so.

Slamming his hand onto his podium, Ian continued what he was saying. "If you can give me some proof that Michael wouldn't have been able to stop what I was doing, then maybe we can actually start arguing like proper people."

"Haha!" Tatiana let out a laugh. "You might have been trying to investigate the shed to avoid people finding evidence, and yet I found it anyway! There was one thing left in the shed that could prove how you restrained him."

"Oh?" That was an interesting thought, and Ian was curious to see where she would take it. "Go ahead, what did I use to restrain Michael."

"You used…"

…

"The resistance band!" Tatiana answered. "It was left behind in the shed, and to this point, it made absolutely no sense for it to be there!"

Ian let out a little laugh. "How silly, but why would I have needed that in the first place?" He grabbed onto his podium loosely. "Especially since according to you guys, it never happened to Benoit."

May hummed out. "Benoit was knocked out by the drug…" Something she was still regretting.

Ian shrugged. "And? What was stopping me from using that same strat with Michael? This seems more like Michael abusing the motive against Benoit, and then setting it to look like he himself had been restrained too." He was going to fight this accusation to the very end.

Dae-Hyun shook his head, realising something. "No. You wouldn't have been able to use the same method as you did with Benoit."

"Oh?" Ian was interested in hearing what this deranged theory would be. "Go ahead, then. I'm eagerly awaiting your thoughts."

Dae-Hyun knew he was right. "The reason why you couldn't use the drug to knock Michael out was because…"

…

"He was your partner."

"My…" Michael began to mumble. "Is that why…?"

Dae-Hyun slowly nodded his head. "Because Ian and Michael were partners, there would have been no way to knock him out… Thus, you'd have to rely on a completely different method."

This got a small frown from Ian. "Oh really now?" Was that the best he could muster up? "You think that Michael and I were partners? Is there any proof of that?"

"I… Well…" Dae-Hyun held back a response. Because besides what was brought up, he couldn't think of any proof that they were partners.

"Thought so." Ian rolled his eyes. "How about if you accuse me of something, you come backing me up with real evidence."

"I've got real evidence." May hummed out between a yawn. "I'm smarter than you think, after all…" She tilted her head to the side. "Evidence that would make Michael your partner…"

Of course May of all people would be the one to step in and stop his fun. "And what evidence would that be?"

May leaned forward on her podium a bit. "There's no grand reveal or anything, but it's common sense, don't you think?" She tapped her chin. "And the soccer game reveals it, no?"

"The soccer game?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow. "How does that reveal anything?"

Would she need to explain everything? Oh well… "The people who attended the soccer game were… Atlas, Hae-Won, Benjamin, Ian, Laki, Gigi, and Melody…"

Hae-Won was beginning to see where May was taking this. "Right. And the game went on for a rather long time. Which meant that anyone attending the game must have been partners with someone, less they fainted."

Melody slowly nodded her head. "Right, like what happened to me! My partner wasn't in the Psi Sector, so I crashed to the ground."

May decided to continue with her explanation. "We know Gigi and Gemini are partners."

Gemini slowly nodded his head. "I stayed in the Ultimate Gambler Station while Gigi was doing her job. I didn't want to get in the way, and I wanted to at least try and raise my coins total."

Gigi slowly nodded her head. "Besides, after the soccer game, we had a planned meet up in my station, so it was convenient."

"Next, Laki and Benjamin were partners."

Dolly lifted her hands up in the air. "Yup! It was the only reason I joined!" There was a slight pause in her voice. "Alright, one of the reasons I joined. I couldn't just leave Laki there to faint! Talk about bad luck."

A small smile crept onto May's face. "Which means the only three people who are unaccounted for are Atlas, Hae-Won… And you, Ian."

However, Ian shrugged. "And let me guess, you're going to suggest that Atlas and Hae-Won were partners, leaving me with nobody."

"Yes, actually." Great! He already knew where this was going.

Ian stood up straight, letting out a small laugh as he placed his hands in his pockets. After his laughter stopped, the smile was wiped from his face, and frowned in May's direction. "Good idea, but once again, you can't prove that with certainty, can you? You can make as many assumptions as you can, but there's nothing concrete."

"Can I…" May tapped her chin, looking up. "I think I actually can…"

Hearing that, Ian had no choice but to frown. "Then go ahead… Prove it."

"You can prove it if you take into account how many coins Hae-Won lost." May pointed out. " She lost two hundred and forty coins this morning. Which equals about four minutes of coins."

Slowly, Hae-Won nodded her head. "And I'm pretty sure I lost those coins when Atlas went off to his own station."

"Tsk, don't pin the blame on me for that one." Atlas narrowed his eyes, completely missing the conversation that was going on.

Ian tilted his head to the side. "What? I also went over there, and I also spent some time away from Hae-Won. That doesn't prove anything."

Gigi shook her head. "No. At first you came down with us to the cafeteria, and then excused yourself to go upstairs to fetch them."

"Not to mention…" Hae-Won trailed off, a smile forming on her face. "Atlas and I went back down after. I would have spent more than four minutes away from you."

Looks like Ian was running out of avenues to escape from. "And so? You think just because the two of them are partners, that it automatically makes me Michael's partner?"

Humming to herself, May thought back. "There's something that struck me as odd… And it was your coin total. When I checked it during the investigation… You had lost a significant amount of coins."

Michael nodded his head. "It probably meant I was out of range of my partner."

"No." Well that was a cold answer from May. "That would be impossible."

Gigi was inclined to agree. "You would have not been able to survive the entire soccer game if Michael wasn't your partner." She wasn't sure how many coins Michael had, be she was damn sure it wasn't enough to survive fifty five minutes.

"Your coin total this morning was only 1,587 coins… At best… It would have only lasted close to twenty seven minutes…" May pointed out, letting out a small yawn.

Seems like even now, every escape route was being closed off for Ian- Wait I should totally save that line for when Gemini becomes the killer.

Anyways.

"Then my partner could have joined up on the floor at one point, and then left, which caused my coin total to lower." Ian pointed out, sticking his hands in his pockets. "It's not rocket science."

Nova hummed out. "Actually, we are in space. It's very fair to assume anything that happens on this station is rocket science."

"Oh." Gemini formed an idea in his head. "If that's the case… I think I know who could have been his partner, if not Michael."

Ian let out a small sigh. Hey! Finally! At least someone was willing to fight for him.

"That person being…"

…

"Tatiana."

"Me?" Tatiana raised her eyebrow. "I mean! I have never discovered my partner, so it's entirely likely he and I were paired up."

Now, Ian had a confident smile on his face. "See? She and I were partners."

"Is that really the truth, though?" Hae-Won felt the need to butt in, before turning to look over at Tatiana. "Tatiana, tell us about what you were doing today."

"Oh!" Well Tatiana loved talking about herself, so she wasn't going to turn this down. "Don't mind if I do!" This could be fun. "So, it all started when I woke up-"

"Skip ahead." Hae-Won didn't feel like she needed to specify. "Where were you as the day progressed?"

"Oh!" Well that was boring. Tatiana wanted to tell the story from the start. "I started off in the cafeteria, I had a talk with Dae-Hyun, then I left to go to the gambling station. There, I gambled until I spoke to Gemini. Once Edison and Seira arrived, I left to head back down to the ground floor. Good enough for you?"

"Heh… Yeah, that's good enough." Hae-Won nodded her head along, before looking at the others. "I think while there's a chance the two of them were partners, there's a higher chance that Tatiana had a different partner."

"Oh? And I don't suppose you know who that person is, do you?" Ian frowned slightly, resting his head on his arm.

Grinning to herself, Hae-Won nodded her head. "I wouldn't make this sort of accusation unless I was confident in myself. I think Tatiana's partner was someone different entirely. Namely… I think her partner was…"

…

"Melody."

Melody herself was shocked to hear that. "M-Me?"

Thinking for a moment, May slowly nodded her head. "Yes… That makes sense… At one point, Melody's partner would have needed to be on the top floor. She only started the day off with 623 coins, that would only last a little over ten minutes."

Ian raised an eyebrow. "But Tatiana wasn't there the entire time." He pointed out. "I don't think that coins would have been enough, especially considering that Melody was on the second floor long before Tatiana was. Not to mention she only collapsed about twenty minutes into the game."

All excellent points.

However, it was once again Hae-Won who was going to shut it down. "That would be true. Although, it falls apart when you forget to consider one thing."

"What's that?" Ian frowned, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Melody had been gambling that morning." Hae-Won said with a grin on her face. "Although, saying gambling isn't entirely true. Instead, she was playing the soccer minigame, which raised her score long enough for her to survive without Tatiana."

Melody nodded her head. "I was getting ready for the game today!" Who knew that it saved her, if only for a bit.

So they were just going to take Tatiana away from Ian, huh. "That's fine. Two more people were brought up as potential partners. Edison or Seira could have been my partners. They showed up eventually, and it would have saved my coin total from going down anymore."

Edison adjusted his goggles, shaking his head. "Nope! I have a good reason why neither of us could have been your partner." He seemed happy to be involved again.

Why was everyone trying to get in his way? "And what would your reason be?" Ian was starting to get bored.

"It's simple…" Edison swirled around his flask.

…

"Seira was my partner."

"Why…?" Seira was not excited to hear that idea. "Monokawa, you did that on purpose."

Monokawa shrugged. "Hey, I said I hit random, none of this is my fault."

Nova clapped her hands together. "That was the only one I knew because I thought it would be funny for you two to stick together."

"N-Nova?" Seira took a step back. Why were people doing this to her?

Either way, Edison didn't seem to care. He just wanted to solve a murder case. "Our coin totals never went down, and we went up to the second floor together. Which means that it's the only possibility."

"How do you know mine didn't go down?" Seira glanced over at him.

Adjusting his goggles, it did that anime thing with the glasses. "Deduction. That's all."

"Which leaves Ian…" Gigi looked over at him. "With nobody to be his partner."

Tilting his head to the side, Ian frowned. "And what's stopping me from being able to gamble like Tatiana did?"

"Huh… Me?" Gemini raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't have been able to raise your total that quickly before I appeared in the casino."

Which left Ian with nothing. No avenues to go down.

"Then, I must ask you… Where did my coins go?" However, Ian was far from being done.

Gennosuke let out a chuckle. "Clearly you bought something at the prize corner. I think one of the limited prizes cost a thousand coins."

"Huh?" Monokawa tilted his head to the side. "But I didn't sell anything today-" He covered his mouth.

"Monokawa…" Nova said softly, slowly turning her head to look at him. "We aren't allowed to give them information like that." Her visor turned to red as she said this, but her voice remained calm.

Trying to think of a way out of this, Monokawa had to come up with an excuse. "It's not in the rules, so I didn't do anything wrong."

"... Oh you are so right!" Nova's expression turned back to joy. "Carry on."

Well, that threw out Gennosuke's theory right out of the water. "Wait… Then where did his coins go?"

To his rescue, was May. "Now it all makes sense… I know exactly where Ian's coins went. And if it's true, that only incriminates him more."

Getting tired of all these accusations being thrown around, Ian slammed his fist onto his podium. "Well, what are you waiting for? Tell me."

"Ian got rid of his money by…"

…

"Transferring it to Michael."

"That's…" Michael narrowed his eyes. "When I woke up… He was doing something to my watch…"

"Shut up." Ian didn't even bother to look at him to say that. "You still aren't off the hook as the killer. You're just making up whatever you want." Then his focus changed to May. "But can you prove that?" This was getting ridiculous.

Letting out a small yawn, May nodded her head. "Of course I can… Using math." She had been doing some calculations for a bit, and she finally got the answer she wanted. "And I even know how many coins you transferred to him this morning…"

However, instead of reacting like normal, Ian kept a poker face. "Go on. Tell me."

He was bringing out the poker face now? Oh yeah, he was worried. "You transferred eight hundred coins to him."

"How do you figure that?" Gemini wasn't sure what the hell was going on in her head.

"Because if we make that change, we'll notice something interesting." May also easily remembered their coin total. "If we remove eight hundred coins from Michael's current coin total, he ends up with 784, and if we add eight hundred coins to Ian, he gets 1247." Turning her head to the side, she ran the numbers again. "If we compare that to the totals from this morning…" Yup. The answer was right there. "We'd notice that both numbers have a 340 coin different from their starting number."

Ian rolled his eyes, pulling out a deck of cards. "You can just choose a random number and call it a day. Of course if you do that, you can easily find a number that works." He began to shuffle his cards around, before pulling one out.

"Except it wasn't some random number. It was exactly eight hundred. What are the odds of that?"

Now that was a hard fact to argue. Something Ian knew he probably couldn't do, so he dropped that aspect entirely. Instead…

Ian couldn't help but let out a laugh, flicking the card in his hand away from his podium. "That's a neat deduction you've got there. But there's just one hole in your theory… How did I discover that?"

"Huh…" Well… May actually didn't know this answer. "That's…"

"Did anyone see myself or Michael passed out from the drug?" Ian brought up an excellent point.

Gigi closed one eye, trying to recall it. "No… Not that I can remember. After we had the incident with Benjamin, we stayed together as a group yesterday."

Ian slowly nodded his head. "And Michael, did you ever get knocked out by the drug today?"

Michael glanced to the side, a pained expression on his face. "N-no… But I know what I saw-"

Ian shook his head. "Doesn't matter, now does it? There would have been no way for me to know Michael was my partner, so all of that still falls through, doesn't it?"

"Um…" Seira spoke up, having just thought of an idea. "There would have been one way you could find out that Michael was your partner…"

Here was another crazy idea. "And how would that work?" Ian had already picked up on how nervous she sounded when she said this. It's entirely possible that she had no idea.

"It's simple… You found out Michael was your partner by using…"

…

"The mimic bracelet!"

For a moment, Ian seemed dumbfounded. Was it because she had discovered his trick? However, not before long, he began to laugh. "Oh, nice one! I needed a good laugh." He wiped away a non-existent tear, before regaining his composure. "How would that have helped me figure out who my partner was?"

Seira knew she was right about this line of thinking. "It's simple. We were all gathered together yesterday. Thus, it would have been next to impossible for anyone to lose coins unless it was through gambling."

"I fail to see your point…" Ian rolled his eyes.

"However, if Michael was to be out of range of himself… twice, what would happen?" Seira continued with her thought process.

Edison adjusted his goggles. "Hypothetically speaking, he would lose coins twice as fast."

"Wait…" May mumbled out. "Michael did lose a lot of coins that day."

"H-huh? But I didn't even gamble yesterday…" Michael mumbled out.

Ian shook his head. "And what? You think I was able to somehow keep track of what everyone was doing?" He crossed his arms. "There were three separate stations where you could gain coins. I'd have to walk back and forth to keep track of what everyone earned. That doesn't seem very possible."

Gigi shook her head. "Yes, walking back and forth amongst the three stations would have been impossible. Luckily, you didn't have to do anything like that." She pointed her black glove at him. "In fact, you didn't even have to move. All you had to do was use…"

…

"The camera station in my Ultimate Station." The referee tilted her head down after she said that. "In fact… I saw you doing just that yesterday."

The group of five set themselves up at the table, however… Edison spoke up about something else entirely. "Um… Ian." He called out to the gambler, who had set himself up with a chair on the other end of the room.

Ian glanced over at him. "Hmm? What's up?" He was playing solitaire on the camera console. He wasn't doing too bad.

"You don't want to join us?" Edison asked him.

Ian gave it an ounce of thought before shaking his head. "Not really. From what I heard, it sounds like a large commitment." Besides, he didn't want to play a game hosted by Gigi. His focus shifted back over to the screen he was sitting by.

Gigi placed a hand on her hip. "You had set yourself there all day. It wouldn't be out of the question that you'd be able to keep track of everything that was going on."

"Besides…" Gemini trailed off. "Our group wasn't playing any games for coins. Which meant one less room to worry about."

Ian shrugged, placing his hands in his pockets. "Still, that's quite the challenge, isn't it? I would have to keep track of so many different numbers. I'm a gambler. My memory isn't solid gold."

Then, someone bursted out in laughter. "HAHA!" Tatiana pointed at him. "You are guilty by your own admission!" A cocky smile had invaded her face. "Two days ago, you admitted this much to me…"

"How can one be so good at such a game?" Tatiana had a bit of doubts. Ian seemed to be winning way more than a normal person should.

Ian had to hold back a smile. "You want to know a secret?"

Quickly glancing around to make sure nobody was listening, Tatiana took a step forward. "Lay it on me!"

"Counting cards." Ian quickly revealed, which should have been obvious. "Casino's don't want you doing that, but it's so easy to do."

Tatiana furrowed her brows, trying to piece together just how he could do that. "But aren't there so many cards to keep track of? How does one man do such a thing?" Her memory wasn't exactly the best.

Ian shrugged, taking a look at his cards. Odds were in his favour, so he took one more card, putting him at a nice twenty. "It's a skill you need to learn if you want to become a gambler. I didn't become an Ultimate through pure luck alone. There's a lot of skill involved. Keeping track of many different cards, it's child's play. "

Tatiana kept pointing at him. "In your own words, keeping track of so many different things was child's play!"

"Yup…" May hummed out. "And if something like that was so easy… It would explain why you'd want to set yourself up right in front of the cameras." To think the cameras would be relevant. AGAIN. Maybe next time there won't be any.

Now, it was time for Seira to take control again. "Because of that, you noticed something was off when it came to Michael. He had a lower coin total than he should have. But… He was the only one. From that, you could only pull one conclusion. You were his partner."

Still, it didn't seem like Ian was going to back down any time soon. "You really still think that?" They were all so keen on accusing him, but he wasn't going to let that happen. "Then when. When did I purchase the mimic app? You say I had to have done it, but did anyone see me do it?"

"More than likely not…" Dae-Hyun shook his head. "It would have needed to be at nighttime."

"But look at this, you remember how much it cost? It cost five thousand coins. The closest my total has ever been was when it was around a thousand six hundred. When would I have been able to get the money for it?"

May hummed out, resting her head on the podium. "There's only one time you would have been able to do it… I think. You only had one chance, and then we'd be onto you after that…"

"Really?" Melody tilted her head to the side. "When would that chance have been?"

"Only time I can think of…" May mumbled out, looking absentmindedly at the stars below her.

…

"The night before the motive started."

Letting out a small yawn, May continued on. "I spent every night and morning of this motive checking out the coin total, figuring that something like that would be important. And, the day Nova told us about the motive…"

While everyone else had gone to bed, it was quite odd to see May still up. Had she forgotten to leave the room?

No. She had been awake the entire time, with a few yawns here and there. Her eyes were fixated on the monitor in front of her. True to Nova's words, the total was now frozen, showing the same results that it had shown earlier.

"Hmm…" May felt like she needed to make note of this every time it was updated. Especially with the threat of a murder now looming over, it was going to be a good thing for information. "Alright…" Once she had made a good enough mental note, she walked away, leaving the room. Glancing to the side, she felt like she saw someone heading towards Psi Sector, but she didn't make an attempt to follow them. Instead, she moved over to her own room, heading inside…

"That night, you must have gone out of your way and gambled as much as you could to get enough to have five thousand coins." May concluded, putting her hands in her pockets.

Slowly, Ian's eyes shifted over the entire trial grounds. All eyes were on him. That was fun. "I know I'm the Ultimate Gambler, but even that seems absurd. After an entire two days of gambling, I hadn't even achieved two thousand coins. And yet, you think I was able to make three thousand in only nine hours?"

Admittedly, that was a bit absurd, so May decided to quiet down a bit. Maybe someone else had a solution to this problem.

"Ian, you don't take me for stupid, do you?" This time, Gigi had decided to take control of the trial. "You of all people would have easily been able to do it. And… I know exactly what strategy you used to do it… Or more so… WHAT you used…"

…

"The double or nothing."

Gigi crossed her arms. "While I don't know exactly what is available at the prize corner, I do know one thing. Because Ian told me…"

Standing at the very table she was intending on using, was Ian. Of note, Gigi noticed that he had purchased three different items with him. "Hmm?" Ever curious, she approached him. "Ian, what are you doing?"

Turning to look at her, Ian didn't seem too annoyed by the interruption. "Oh? Me?" He turned his attention back towards the table. "Just spending my time here. There's not much else to do, after all."

Gigi had a few things she could have listed off that he could do, but it was a question of whether Ian would even find something like that interesting. "What did you buy?" Her eyes drifted over towards the stack he had.

Ian had no reason to lie to her, so might as well tell the truth. "These are Double or Nothing . You make back double the money you bet." He explained.

For a moment, it made sense to have something like that… until Gigi realised it didn't in the slightest. "Wait. That doesn't make sense. If you lose, you're already losing the money you bet. Besides, most of the time the amount you bet is minimal." She had taken a glance on her way here, and the max for the slots was only five coins. And in poker, you were already making more than double your money.

"Ah." Ian smiled at her. "It seems you've caught on to what this item is like." He eyed the roulette table he was standing in front of. "This is the only place where you can get any real value." From the looks of it, he bet all his money on the colour red. "See, normally the return for this table is much less, but if I just so happen to double the money I bet, then it gives a great return."

Placing a hand on her hip, Gigi shook her head. "But that's still a fifty percent chance you get nothing."

A chance he didn't seem to care about. "But if I win, I get to double everything I have. Do that a few times, and…" Ian trailed off.

Gigi shook her head. "Like I said. Meaningless if you lose. You'd have nothing left, and thus can't bet anymore."

"You just have to get lucky a few times." Gigi pointed out, crossing her arms. "And then you'd have enough money to buy the mimic bracelet."

Ian placed his hands in his pockets, looking at the ground. After enough silence had passed, he spoke up. "You know, a solution like that comes with its own set of problems."

It didn't take long for May to understand what he meant. "Right… At one point, he'd have too much money."

Ian glanced the other way. "I'd have too much money, and no reliable way to get rid of it. And yet, my coin total didn't change overnight."

May glanced away, frowning slightly. She knew it would come to this, and she hadn't figured out the way it happened.

Ian let out a small chuckle, shaking his head. "You have no idea, do you? You're just making this up as you go. Sure, I could have gotten the money, but you think somehow I was able to lose the money without any problem. Not only that, but I was able to do it quickly? I never once seemed sleep deprived, didn't I?"

However, not everyone was having a hard time thinking about this. "Isn't it the same as last time…?" Seira mumbled out, searching in the back of her brain. "We brought it up earlier… But… couldn't Ian have…"

…

"Transferred his coins to Michael?"

Almost all at once, every instance where Michael woke up began to make sense. "Wait… My coins?" He held onto his podium.

However, when Michael opened up his own transfer app, he was confused. "H-huh…?" He stared at his coin total for a bit before shaking his head. He didn't make another comment while he transferred his coins over to Winter.

This got a faint smile from Michael, not that anyone could see it. Back to looking at Winter, he continued what he was saying. "Don't worry about the amount… I managed to get a lot today."

Something Winter knew wasn't true. "You barely touched the slots, so that can't be it."

Michael quickly glanced the other way. "No, I guess it can't be…" He was honestly pretty confused about the entire thing. "When I went to transfer money to you, I realised that I almost had a thousand coins saved up."

That got Winter to raise an eyebrow. "And you didn't collect any of those coins yourself…?"

Slowly, Michael shook his head. "Nope. I don't understand where all the coins came from…" It's not like he had gambled in his sleep or anything.

Humming in thought, Winter shook her head. "Maybe somebody transferred coins to you?"

"They would have needed to be really close. I would have felt something had they done that… Even if I was sleeping."

Slowly, Michael made his way over to the audience, standing besides Benoit. "I'm… not really into it… But I thought it would be fun to watch." He had nothing better to do today. He had just checked his total and he had a shit ton of coins. If anything, he didn't need to raise it anymore.

Every single one of those times… It had been Ian, hadn't it?

However, even after all of that, Ian still kept his calm demeanour. "Oh? You think I did that? That's a pretty clever solution actually, but not correct."

"N-Not correct?" How could that even be? Seira narrowed her eyes at him. "It's the only way that makes sense."

"I agree…" Michael slowly nodded his head. He wasn't sure how, but it had to be the way.

Slowly nodding his head, Ian couldn't help but find humour in it. "Tell me Michael… Are you a light sleeper?"

"I…" Michael glanced away, avoiding eye contact. Just as quickly did he realise that Ian had to do it… The idea threw itself out of his head. "No… Ian couldn't have transferred coins to me." As much as he wanted to believe it… It was impossible. "If he tried, I would have known."

"What…?" Seira had come this far, only for it to be turned down like this. "How… Then…"

"See? All of that thinking just to read a dead end." Ian sighed sadly, shaking his head. "And here I was, rooting for the underdog."

"No." Gemini said rather calmly. "There was still a way, right?" Was this really going to be the answer again? "A way for you to transfer money to Michael without him knowing."

They were still going after him about this? Did they not know when to quit? Did they know how to have a fucking break. "You know what, at this point I can't stop any of you from coming up with easily debunked theories. So hit me with it."

Oh really? Ian was just going to let him? Well he wasn't going to say no to such a thing. "You were able to transfer money to Michael using…"

…

"The mimic app!"

"Wow, this is like the third time you've used that as an answer." Ian was starting to get bored. "But, no. Not at all." He was confident with his answer too. "Tell me, who can spot a problem with that?"

"Um…" Melody hummed out for a moment. "Oh! You can't have both of them at the same time."

"At least someone can see that." Ian shook his head, placing his hands in his pockets. "Even if everything up to this point was true, I can only have my watch set to one way."

"Hmm?" Gennosuke raised an eyebrow. "You say that like you know it's a possibility."

Ian didn't even bother to look in Gennosuke's direction. He didn't have time for him. Yet, he still replied. "I'm making an educated guess."

"He would be right, though." Monokawa said, not caring about Nova's wrath. "You can only be in one watch state at a time, so transferring between the two would be impossible."

Gemini didn't seem too bothered. "Who said anything about him transferring to himself?" Oh, boy had an idea COOKING. "No, he still used the mimic app to transfer the money to Michael."

Soon, a frown appeared on Ian's face. "You said I did that, but the question is… How?" Looks like Ian wasn't going to enjoy this answer.

Gemini smiled, a confident look on his face. "Easy, all you would need is…"

…

"A third party."

Let's see his reasoning behind this. "It wouldn't matter if you could just transfer the coins to someone else, and then have them transfer the money to you after you've switched over to Michael's bracelet."

There it was again… An accomplice. May was about to say something, but she got cut off by Ian.

Who was… laughing…? "Wow, amazing. Almost every single angle was completely destroyed. You've really left me with no means of escape, huh?"

"Are you ready to admit your guilt?" Tatiana placed her hands on her hips. "Admit defeat!"

However, he didn't seem ready to do that. Instead, Ian began to play on his watch, humming to himself. "You know, you could have just continued to be wrong, and yet, you keep going after me…" Suddenly, he switched his watch over to show everyone else… Only to reveal…

…

Michael's profile.

He had done exactly as the others had said.

"You…" Michael mumbled out.

Gigi narrowed her eyes, pointing her black glove at Ian. "So, you admit it?"

"Yup." Ian switched his watch back over. He felt no reason to keep it open. "Not only that, but Michael was also my partner."

Now all of the cards were truly on the table. Everyone was right.

And yet…

"Why?" Gennosuke frowned. "You seem to be taking this rather well…"

Ian shrugged. "I'm taking this as well as anyone in my position would. If you understood the way I do, you'd see there's nothing to be worried about."

Gigi couldn't help but frown. She knew it was going to come to this… "That's right… All things considered… Ian…"

…

"Can't be the killer."

"W-what?" Edison took a step back. "But all of that work!"

Dolly raised her fists in the air. "So many words wasted! That's like seven and a half thousand words wasted! How can he not be the killer?"

Atlas seemed pretty frustrated. "Because he was at the fucking game during the time of death. He couldn't throw that molotov to kill Benoit."

Michael grew more frustrated, hearing that. "He… He has to be…" After everything that happened, for Ian to not be the killer… What was going on?

Now that things were in the open, Ian smiled slightly. "Hey, you guys want to know what I did, right? To Benoit and Michael?"

"Tell us." Hae-Won narrowed his eyes. "What the hell did you do to him?"

"You want to know how it went down, do you? I'll tell you exactly what happened in the Ultimate Physiotherapist Station…"

Suddenly, Benoit let out a soft sound. A sound Michael couldn't quite make out. "Hmm…?" The hooded boy turned to look at him. "What was that?"

"O-Oh… It's… It's nothing." Benoit quickly shook his head. "Sorry about concerning you…" He was rubbing his arm.

Michael let out a small sigh. Maybe he was losing his mind. "Thank you… For talking with me. I think I know what I have to do now."

"A-any time… I'm always here to give advice…"

Seems like the two grew closer together.

However, before anything else could happen, Benoit spoke up again. "I- I think…" He had barely felt it this time, but his legs grew weaker. "I've been injected…"

Hearing that, Michael quickly turned to look at him. "W-what?" He couldn't possibly stop him from falling without going with him. "W-wait."

But before he could do anything, Benoit collapsed to the ground, almost hitting his head on the wall. Thankfully he missed it by a few feet.

Quickly, Michael moved closer to see if he was alright at the very least. Letting out a sigh of relief that he didn't injure himself in the fall.

However, after a few seconds, he heard the door to the station open, looking over at who it was, he saw Ian.

"Is everything alright? I heard something falling inside the room." Ian had a neutral expression on his face. That's when his eyes landed on Benoit. "Oh, did his watch run out of coins?"

Michael slowly nodded his head, getting up from the ground. "We should try and find who his partner is…"

Ian covered his mouth, thinking. "Hmm… That could prove difficult. Not that moving him would be any easier." He didn't see Michael as the strong type. He walked further into the room, closer to the resistance bands. He eyed them briefly before turning towards Michael. "You should go get help, I'll keep an eye on him to make sure he's fine."

At first, Michael was sceptical. He turned to face the door. "You aren't going to do anything to him?"

Ian didn't give an answer right away. Instead, he turned to look at the door. "In ten minutes, he will wake up. If his partner isn't in range, he will go under again." He reached over, grabbing the band while Michael had his back turned.

True… "Fine, I'll-" He never got the chance to finish his response as he felt something wrapping around his body. "W-what?" When he was finally pushed to the ground, he finally realised what it was. The resistance band. Ian had used it to wrap it around himself. "What are you-" He never got to finish his sentence as his head hit the side of the adjustable table. He wasn't knocked out, but his mind was dazed.

Ian's neutral expression had changed to a frown. "Just stay here, alright? I'll be right back."

Nothing happened for a while. He was all alone, stuck in a daze.

Eventually, Michael felt himself being lifted up and transported…

…

When Michael would finally gain some clarity, he would be in the shed for the garden. He tried to move around, but was unable to move. "Wait…" The band was still around him. He took a look around the shed, before spying Ian in the room, seemingly doing something to Michael's watch.

When Ian noticed he was awake, he took a few steps back. "Ah, you're finally awake." Alright there- Slowly standing up, Ian moved over to him. "It was a bit more problematic than I would have wanted. Didn't think you two would be in the same room together, so I wasn't able to get the drop on you."

"What… What are you doing…?" Michael continued to struggle.

Ian shrugged, frowning slightly. "It doesn't really matter in the long term. But I need you to be here for my plan to work."

Was Michael going to be killed? No… If Ian was going to kill him, he would have done it already. "Where's… Where's Benoit…?"

"In the garden." He made no mention if he was still alive or not.

This didn't look good for Michael… "Then…" He was kept alive. Was it for a purpose…? Either way it didn't seem like Ian was going to kill him. "You know I'll just tell everyone, right?"

"You know, I figured you'd say that, Michael." Ian didn't seem too bothered. "Or should I call you Michael Astrophel, the Ultimate Cult Leader? "

Michael felt his heart drop upon hearing that. "W-what?" He felt his voice getting stuck in his throat. He had so much more to say, but none of it came out.

Ian showed off his own watch, revealing that it now had Michael's profile. "It's amazing what you can do with the mimic app… Honestly, I was hoping it would tell me all I needed to know about you. Honestly, who would have imagined the Ultimate Cult Leader. Personally, I should just do everyone a favour."

Standing up, Ian began to pace around the room. "Unfortunately, I need you alive. You're going to take the fall for it."

"I… Why…?" Michael continued to struggle, but his limbs wouldn't cooperate.

" Why?" Ian raised an eyebrow. It felt like an obvious answer. Then again, he thought differently than everyone else. "How about I give you an answer that you'd understand." Crouching down, he looked into Michael's eyes. "The blame is going to be pinned on you. Simple as that." Before he could answer, Ian stood back up, looking away from his eyes.

"You… You monster…" Michael mumbled out, trying to move around on the floor.

"Ironic, coming from the cult leader, don't you think?" Ian made his way over to the hatchet that was hung up. "Not that I would expect anything from you."

Seeing his actions, Michael began to panic slightly. "What… What are you doing?"

Turning to look back at Michael, Ian slowly began to approach him with the hatchet in hand. "Don't worry, I promise it won't hurt." With a rather quick motion, Ian placed his foot on Michael's stomach, to stop him from squirming around.

Leaning down, Ian grabbed part of Michael's hair. "I'll be needing this. You know, to damn you and all."

"Stop! Don't do that!" Michael cried out.

And for a moment… Ian hesitated. "W-what… What are you?" He found himself struggling to even go againsts Michael's words. But his will was far stronger. He let the hatchet cut through Michael's hair, cutting it right off.

Quickly, Ian had to take a few steps back, trying to regain his composure. "You just… Is that what makes you a cult leader?" He had never seen anything like this. Someone who could almost make people do whatever they wanted. "I need to be careful about you. Hopefully you're one of them."

What… What did Ian even mean by that? It was so vague… "What are you… planning on doing?"

Ian had turned towards the door, kicking off the handle after opening the door. "Wow. These come off rather easily." Turning to look back at him, he shook his head. "As if I'd tell you any of my plans." He tossed the hatchet down on the ground next to Michael. "If you ever break free, you might need this to escape."

Michael tried to reach for it, but it wouldn't do him any good with the way he was. "Dammit…"

"Don't worry, you won't be alone forever. Benoit should be waking up soon."

However, before Michael could say anything else, Ian disappeared behind the other door. He'd hear the same breaking noise before the door closed.

Dammit! Not only was Michael helpless, he couldn't even stop whatever plan Ian had… And Benoit was still alive. Was there any chance he could save him…? He just had to break out… He just had to break out… He just had to…

Ian kept his eyes closed after telling the story, leaving the rest of the room in silence.

The one person to break that silence was Michael. "That's… That's exactly what happened…"

"So what? He fucking knocked you out?" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Shouldn't have let him do that."

Michael looked away, trying to refrain himself from saying anything.

"How underhanded." Tatiana frowned, looking over at Ian. "You would use someone in that way?"

Ian shrugged, not really caring. "So what if I did?"

"What was your motive?" Gigi crossed her arms.

Gennosuke placed his hands in his pockets, shaking his head. "He had a secret for his motive… What was so important that you had to kill for it?"

Ian let out a small laugh, shaking his head. "Oh, no. The secret almost had nothing to do with it."

"H-huh?" Wait, so did Ian just do it for the hell of it? Melody couldn't seem to understand. "So you just bumped someone off because you felt like it?"

"More or less." Ian raised an eyebrow. "Didn't think you needed a reason."

Hae-Won felt like one of her blood vessels was about to pop at this point. Slowly, she turned to look at Ian. "So… You had absolutely no fucking reason to even target Benoit? And yet that's who you choose as your target?"

"Woah, woah." Ian took a step back, feeling a murderous gaze aimed at him. "I wouldn't say there was no reason. There was a reason. He had zero coins." A grin slowly formed on his face. "In fact, if you want to aim your blame at anyone… It should be…"

…

"May!"

"What did she have to do with this?" Edison turned over to look at her.

All while she remained silent. After spending a few seconds looking at Ian, she turned away.

"She doesn't want to admit it." Ian shook his head. He was going to have fun with this. "Did none of you think of why Benoit had zero coins to begin with? Sure, he never gambled, but he always stayed with the group."

"Wait…" Hae-Won mumbled out.

Good, she knew exactly where Ian was going with this. "However, every morning and night, May would leave the group to go check out the total. After a few instances of that, Benoit had his coins completely drained to zero."

"And…" Hae-Won looked over at May. "You knew this, right? You knew he had zero coins?"

Ian shrugged, a cocky smile on his face. "Not only did she know he was drained to zero, she probably knew she was the one who did it. After all, didn't you raise your own total after you saw that?"

Again, May remained silent. In fact, her eyes were closed. Not because she was sleeping or anything, but because Ian wasn't entirely wrong.

"I figured Benoit would attempt to raise his own total, so…" May trailed off, before trying to avoid any eye contact.

"Well, it made the perfect person to target." Ian shrugged. "Especially since I could easily get you to go anywhere else."

However, as May passed by the hallway, she ran into Ian, who seemingly had just come back from the Ultimate Soccer Player Station. "Oh, May." He called out, stopping in front of her.

May spent a few seconds looking at him before even bothering to respond. "What is it?" She let out a yawn. He was getting in the way of her plans, and she didn't like that.

Judging from her attitude, Ian knew what he was about to ask had a low percentage chance, but he asked anyway. "If you aren't doing anything, do you think you could go get Benjamin and Laki? The game is going to start soon, and I want them to be there for it."

Really? He was going to ask her to do that? Couldn't Ian just do it himself? Then again, May didn't really have anything else to do today. "Hmm…" She hummed out, tapping her chin. "Sure…" At this point in time, she didn't have too much problem with Ian. She saw no reason to turn it down. "I recall they were in the cafeteria anyway… Not too far from here…"

Ian offered her a smile. "Thank you. Then you can do whatever you want." He turned back around, heading back towards the Ultimate Soccer Player Station.

Watching him leave, May let out a small sigh, turning back to look down the hallway she just came down. "Maybe I should have said no… That would have been easier."

"You sent me away…" May mumbled out.

"Guilty as charged." Ian shrugged, not really seeming to care in the slightest. "As soon as you were out of range, I knew Benoit would faint."

"But wait." Tatiana still hadn't figured out something. "When did you find out that Benoit was May's partner."

Gigi narrowed her eyes, finally piecing two pieces together. "I know exactly when he figured it out." If she was right, then that starts to make sense. "Ian figured it out…"

…

"Yesterday morning."

"What… happened yesterday morning?" Edison hadn't remembered anything out of the usual. Maybe Gigi was making things up.

Gigi's frown increased. "Because something different happened that morning involving Benoit."

Hearing that same knocking sound, for a second May just assumed that Gigi was knocking on her door again. Had she not learned from last time?

However, upon finally reaching the turn off, it wasn't her room she was knocking on. "Hmm?"

"Benoit?" Gigi called out again, letting out a small sigh in annoyance. When she finally turned to the side, she noticed that May was here now. "Figured as much."

Approaching the group, May looked around. "What's going on?"

Letting out a sigh, Gemini was the one to respond. "Seems Benoit slept in or something." Or worse… But he didn't want his mind wandering that direction.

Soon, the door quickly opened up, and Benoit stepped out with a small yawn. "S-sorry… I must have slept through my alarm."

It was the first time he had slept in, but that still annoyed Gigi. "We can't leave unless everyone is with us." She pointed at him. "Please don't do this again."

"Sorry…" Benoit held his hands together, looking at the ground.

Letting out a small sigh, Gigi moved over towards the elevator. "It's fine."

"Oh!" Gemini hummed out, looking over at her. "Then that would explain why he never came out. But you think he'd make a comment about it."

Hae-Won shook her head. "It's entirely likely that it happened while he was sleeping."

"Wait!" Laki tilted her head to the side. "The motive doesn't stop while you're sleeping?"

Gigi shook her head. "Nope, in fact, that was specified in the rules."

Rule #4: This is also active when you go to sleep voluntarily. Please be mindful of where you sleep.

Gemini nodded his head. "With that, Benoit could have been asleep, and he wouldn't have noticed that he was injected."

"It also took him a few seconds to even realise he was injected…" Michael pointed out, remembering their encounter together.

"That's cool and all." Lorelei rolled her eyes. "But I don't give a shit about any of this."

Hae-Won narrowed her eyes, glaring at them. "What the hell do you mean you don't care?"

"Are you retarded?" Lorelei placed a hand on their hips. "You're just falling exactly for what Ian wants you to do." She pointed over at the countdown. "We only have about thirty five minutes left to figure out who the killer is, and it sure as hell isn't Ian."

Looking at the timer, Edison began to sweat. "Woah woah…" He adjusted his glasses nervously. "What were we even talking about?"

May frowned, realising just what happened. "We were talking… About the third party Ian would have needed to transfer the coins to."

"Ah! Misdirection! An age-old trick in shows." Tatiana pointed out. "We had discovered the truth, and he intended on straying us away from it!"

Ian tilted his head to the side, laughing a bit. "Think what you want."

"Wait." Dae-Hyun decided to chime in. "Is there even a way to tell who the accomplice is? Did they leave any evidence?"

"Tsk, as if they did." Atlas narrowed his eyes. "They let us get this far, but they aren't going to let us gain any further ground."

"There has to be something!" Or was just Melody just doing some wishful thinking. They had tons of things they hadn't gone over. Something had to be important.

"It might actually be easier than you think…" May mumbled out, tilting her head to the side. "If Ian had to buy it the night before the motive started… Then there was one other thing that was weird about the number change."

"Huh?" Michael mumbled out, looking in her direction. "You mean besides my total jumping up…?"

Slowly, May nodded her head. "Yes… Though I wouldn't expect anyone to remember. There were a lot of people to remember."

"Wait, you also know who this person is." Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Then fucking spit it out already!"

Taking a deep breath, May felt off. Not because of the person it was…

But because an error like that even happened… Something just… Didn't make sense.

Taking another deep breath, May opened her eyes. "That person in question is…"

…

"Laki."

"Hey that's me!" Laki stole Gemini's line.

"Hey, that's mine." He noticed.

Given these two weren't being serious, Seira decided she had to be the voice of reason. Again. She doesn't get paid enough for this, or at all. "Why do you assume Laki is the third party?"

That was the more difficult part. Proving anything. Still, May felt like she was on the right track. "While I didn't think about it much at the time. Laki's coin total changed by one. She lost a coin between nights."

Laki was confused, tilting her head. "What? Why would that mean anything? I lost that coin from gambling."

That didn't seem true in the slightest. Something Gennosuke seemed to pick up on. "Just one? You went gambling, and eventually retired after you lost one coin? What kind of gambling were you doing?" He's seen how most gambling went down, and it wasn't like that.

"Wait a second…" Gemini trailed off. "I went gambling once and only gained five coins after the entire period."

Letting out a small chuckle, Gennosuke continued. "But someone like Laki? You really think she'd stop after losing? I don't think she knows the meaning of giving up."

"Yeah, I agree here." Ian said, not helping anyone.

Better to get rid of the problem now. "You stay the hell out of this!" Atlas barked at him. "You don't get a single say in what's happening."

Humming out. May continued her line of thinking. "I think that one coin difference must have happened during the transfer process. There must have been an error. Either Ian must have told her the wrong amount, or Laki transferred the wrong amount back over to Ian."

"Nuh-huh!" Laki crossed her arms. "I told you, I went gambling that night."

"Did you see her?" Gemini glanced over at Ian.

However, he didn't answer, only giving a neutral stare. When enough people turned to look at him, he tilted his head to the side. "Oh, sorry. Atlas told me not to talk, and he looks scary."

"Jesus fucking Christ." Maybe Atlas should kick his ass now. "Just fucking tell me! Did you ever see her?"

"Not once. She's lying." Thank you Ian.

No, this wasn't going to work. "Wait, why are we even listening to Ian?" Hae-Won pointed out. "No matter what, he's going to be lying.

"You can't prove that." Ian was a master at this.

"Hey!" Dolly raised her hands in the air. "I think they totally worked together! They seem to get along pretty well!"

" Yellow flag, five minutes for leading us astray." Gigi called out, pulling out a yellow card. "That's great and all, but have you forgotten the very fact we've already established earlier. The same reason Ian can't be the killer. " Laki was at the soccer game the entire time." The fact she even had to point this out…

"Are you sure you didn't let anyone out of your sight?" Tatiana let out a humorous laugh. "It's a soccer field, it's pretty big."

The fact that Tatiana would even suggest such a thing. "What kind of referee would I be if I wasn't attentive the entire time? At no point did Laki or Ian ever leave my sight."

This time, it was Dolly that jumped in to deliver a counter. "That's not exactly true!" She seemed happy to be able to give evidence again.

"What?" Gigi placed the whistle in her mouth, and she had a yellow card ready. "Don't make me give you another one. Like I said, they were always in my sight."

Dolly covered her mouth, laughing a bit. "Nope! There was one time they would have been out of sight… That being…!"

…

"When Laki was in the penalty box!"

This was getting ridiculous. "Alright, by a technicality, she wasn't always in my sight." Gigi could admit that. "But what? She was still in the penalty box. She wouldn't have been able to do anything."

Oh! Well Dolly was about to blow this entire thing out of the water. "Oh! Oh! You don't know then!"

"Wait…" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Do you know something we don't?"

"Well!" The short answer was no, but Dolly was going to give the long answer. "I'm making an educated guess on the matter!"

Ian slammed his fist on his podium, getting everyone's attention. "An educated guess isn't going to cut it. Either provide me with evidence, or leave us alone."

Gigi did not want to agree with Ian here, but she had no choice. "First, tell us what you are thinking, and then we'll worry about evidence later." It was clear Dolly had something in mind. Something Gigi had no clue about.

"Alright! Alright! The truth is, the penalty box actually has…"

…

"A secret passage!"

"Fucking bullshit!" Atlas had decided to listen, and he already knew she was lying. "I went in there, and I didn't see any fucking invisible passage. You're making this up."

"H-Huh?" Dolly was a bit caught off guard. Especially since she believed this to be the truth. "But then what about that weird draft I felt?"

"Weird draft? Are you fucking kidding-" Atlas knew exactly what she was talking about.

"This is unfair!" Dolly called out as the two made their way towards the penalty box. Once it closed up, there was silence.

"Tsk. How does it feel there?" Once again, ruining the game. At least this time, Atlas felt better that they got punished.

"Wow! It sure is breezy!" Dolly joked out.

This only pissed Atlas off, who decided to kick the penalty box. "Oh, shut up there!" He walked away, getting himself into a better position.

"I thought that was a fucking joke!" Atlas was seriously getting pissed off. Why would she only bring this up now.

Dolly raised her hands in the air. "I know the narration said I joked about it! But I was being serious!" Why didn't anyone believe her when she said this?

Gigi crossed her arms, still not ready to give up. "So? Being breezy doesn't prove anything right away." Sure, it was alarming, but there was no use to a secret passage if it didn't lead anywhere.

"Sorry Gigi, but this time I have to be the one to tear down your argument." It was Gemini, who had his hands in his pockets. "Especially since I know a thing or two about escaping."

That didn't put Gigi at ease, especially since it was him. "Sorry, I hate to break it to you, but there isn't always an escape."

That only got a small laugh from him. Gemini placed his hands on his hips, and looked at the ground for a moment, before locking eyes with Gigi again. "There is always an escape. It's a guarantee. Not only is there always an escape, I know exactly where it led to as well." It all made sense now. Why it was like that. "The penalty box led to…"

…

"The Ultimate Referee Station."

After a moment, Gemini felt the need to add something to that. "Specifically the hatch that we found."

"Wait-" May looked over at him. "That was finally opened?"

Gemini nodded his head. "We discovered it during the investigation."

Seira slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, it might be… Did you find anything?"

Gemini had left to go back to the area he was looking. "No, not really… Only checked the water dispenser so far. Nothing else really stand- Huh?" He quickly knelt down to investigate something. "Seira, get over here."

Quickly, Seira ran up to him. "What's wrong?" He knelt beside the hatch.

Without any restraints, Gemini opened the hatch .

"H-huh?" Seira looked around, eventually spotting the lock discarded to the side. " When was this done?"

"I'm not sure…" Gemini trailed off, looking into the hatch. "But it must have been sometime today, because I feel we would have noticed it any other time."

"Wait…" That could hold up, but Gigi had to continue asking questions. "What did you find down there?"

That was the part Gemini was less than happy to talk about. "That's the thing, I didn't find anything."

Gemini continued further down the hallway. He had to use his watch to give any form of light. However, he was unable to find anything. "It… It just ends…" He hit his hand against the wall, sliding it along to see if there was something hidden. But he found nothing. Letting out a heavy sigh, he walked back the way he came. "It's just a dead end… There's nothing interesting here."

Reaching a hand out to him, Seira frowned. "Then what's the point of this?"

Grabbing her hand, Gemini used it to help himself out of the hole. "Who knows…" However, he wasn't ready to discount it yet. "It had to be used for… something…" Thinking about it now wouldn't help them, however. "Let's just keep it in mind."

"I have failed as an escapist." Gemini let out a heavy sigh. "I have failed to do the one thing I should have done… Look up."

"You will not be remembered in the history books." Lorelei rolled her eyes, before looking over at Laki. "What do you have to say about that?"

However, Laki didn't seem to mind the accusation at all. Instead, she was just humming a tune to herself. "Oh? That? Well, maybe it does exist, but you have no way to prove I actually used it."

Ian nodded his head. "Sure, it was unlocked, but it doesn't mean anything."

Hae-Won was not letting these fucks get away with it. "The fact that it was even set up must mean something."

Laki swayed her head from side to side. "But I was there the entire time! I never left!"

"Bullshit, you little piece of shit." Atlas turned to look at her.

Oh! Atlas wanted to talk to her. "You think it's bullshit?" Laki didn't believe it to be so. "Then explain to me why you think so."

"It's bullshit, because you acted pretty out of character while you were in there." That's right, he hadn't realised it at the time… But it all makes sense… "You…"

…

"You fucking shut up for once."

Slamming his heel down onto the podium to make a slamming noise, Atlas continued. "Not once during the entire time did you say anything."

"Not to mention…" Melody wanted to add some evidence of our own. "When you came out of the penalty box, you seemed like a lost sap."

Laki bounced out of the penalty box. "Put me in coach! Are we winning?"
Atlas narrowed his eyes. "No! We're fucking losing!"

Laki stood there for a few seconds, that smile still on her face. Slowly, she tilted her head to look at Atlas. "I thought you were the Ultimate Socc-"

"Get on the fucking field."

Laughing to herself, Laki joined up with the rest of the team. "Alright, this is where we make our comeback!" She cheered.

"Actually, we're tied." Melody felt the need to point out.

Laki slowly turned to look at Atlas. "I thought you said we were losing."

"Might as well fucking be." He grumbled as he got closer to the ball.

Now Melody was confident in herself. "You didn't even know who was winning?"

Gigi realised immediately what was happening. "Because you missed out on the goals that were scored. You couldn't even tell who was winning."

"That's why she believed my lie…" Atlas tilted his head towards the ground. How could he not fucking see that?

However, Laki didn't seem ready to give up yet. In fact… She seemed to be having fun? "So, just because I wasn't paying attention, you think I had to be the killer! But what about even getting into the penalty box. I couldn't have known I'd even get there."

"Don't make me laugh." Gigi closed one of her eyes. "You knew damn well I would have been there, and you knew what I would have done."

"Not to mention…" Hae-Won crossed her arms. "You specifically attacked Ian, who was your accomplice. Someone who wouldn't even bother to get out of the way."

Ian didn't respond, only smiling in return.

From the looks of it, Laki seemed damn well the killer now. A potential way out of the Ultimate Soccer Player Station, and access to kill Benoit.

And yet, once again, she didn't seem to be panicking. Instead, she remained calm.

It was almost eerie.

Instead, Laki spoke up. "Then what about the hatch? Wasn't it locked or something?"

Gennosuke let out a laugh. "And the key was purchased at the prize corner. We've already figured this out."

"Is that so?" Now Ian was going to be the one to jump in. "I don't quite think so. See, remember what Monokawa just said?"

"Then, I must ask you… Where did my coins go?" However, Ian was far from being done.

Gennosuke let out a chuckle. "Clearly you bought something at the prize corner. I think one of the limited prizes cost a thousand coins."

"Huh?" Monokawa tilted his head to the side. " But I didn't sell anything today-" He covered his mouth.

"Monokawa…" Nova said softly, slowly turning her head to look at him. "We aren't allowed to give them information like that." Her visor turned to red as she said this, but her voice remained calm.

Trying to think of a way out of this, Monokawa had to come up with an excuse. "It's not in the rules, so I didn't do anything wrong."

"So, the question is… When did I buy it?" Ian wasn't going to let them win that easily, after all.

As if that was even a difficult question to answer. "You bought it along with the mimic bracelet before the motive started."

"Wrong, asshole!" Lorelei felt the need to jump in. "Nope! Those were purchased at two separate times. And I know this to be a fact." She wouldn't let anyone else prove her otherwise.

"Big mouth you got there." Gennosuke raised an eyebrow, but he wasn't entirely surprised.

"Of course I have one." Lorelei crossed her arms. "But that isn't important right now. What is important is that I've seen only the mimic app missing before. The key got taken recently."

"Wait…" Michael mumbled out. "How… How many limited prizes are there?"

"Five. For both, actually." Ian offered an honest answer.

Well, nobody else said anything, so Michael had no choice but to accept that it was the truth. "Dammit… Then…"

Michael turned to look at who they belonged to, only to see it was Tatiana. "Come to take a look at the prizes too?"

Honestly, Tatiana had completely forgotten about the fact that there were prizes in the first place. "Of course!" He didn't need to know that. "Anything catches your attention?"

Slowly, Michael shook his head. None of the nine items really interested him. " The teddy bear is cute." He eventually reasoned.

"The mimic app was the only thing that disappeared two days ago…" Michael glanced off to the side. He should have known something was off, and yet it didn't even register.

Laki hummed to herself. "Then it couldn't have been taken at the same time."
"Isn't the answer obvious?" Dae-Hyun felt like this was pointless. "It could have just been bought during the daytime on any other day, or during the nighttime."

"There's a slight problem with that." May felt the need to point out. "Ian's total rarely shifted at night. Only by a few dozen coins at best. It never jumped by as much as a thousand."

"Then he did the same fucking thing he did for the mimic app." Atlas couldn't believe they weren't thinking like he was. "Get enough coins, and off-shoot the rest to Michael so nobody would be suspicious."

However, even this had a flaw in it. "How would Ian offset the motive disadvantage?" Hae-Won pointed out, glancing away. "Every second, he would lose one point. So gambling would be near impossible."

"That's not the only thing." May pointed out. "He wouldn't be able to accurately keep track of his potential money he'd need to transfer to make sure he kept the right amount."

Of course, he never gave the correct amount, but the fact he even got close is amazing.

While everyone else was trying to figure things out, Seira had been spending time staring at the stars below her, trying to recall something. Anything… And then it hit her. "Wait…" She looked over at everyone else.

"There's a way for Ian to avoid the motive entirely at night, and still be able to gamble." It felt weird even coming up with this, but she knew it had to work. "Ian would have needed to make use of…"

…

" The vacant rooms."

Before anyone doubted her idea, she wanted to get the jump on it now. "There's two vacant rooms in the Psi Sector, one of them located above the Ultimate Gambler Station. All it would take is for Ian to use the mimic app to call Michael's room over to the Psi Sector, then he'd be in range the entire time."

A genius idea. Unfortunately, Atlas seemed to have a problem with this. "And what, you're telling me Michael never woke up from that? I think I'd wake up if my entire room changed."

"Hmm…" Winter hummed out, deep in thought. "Not really. We tested the rooms out ourselves, and something stood out to me…"

Still, Michael took a few steps forward. "But we should try and see if it works." He brought his watch over to scan it. Soon, the display that said "VACANT" switched over to saying his name. Then, he rescanned the watch, which allowed the door to open.

Stepping inside, he noticed something rather distinct. "It's… The same."

"Well duh!" Dolly rolled her eyes. "Why would you expect to get a different room than us?"

Quickly, the hooded figure shook his head. "No… I mean. This is exactly the state I left my room in." His attention was on his bed, which hadn't been made. "That's… weird."

"So it actually moves the room." Winter mumbled out, looking around.

"It must be silent too." Tatiana pointed out. "I didn't hear anything of the sort." Not this again.

"The room moves silently enough, and doesn't seem to displace anything as it does." Winter pointed out, shaking her head. "So it's entirely possible Michael didn't even know his room had been transported."

"Wow, that mimic app sure has some mileage." Gemini raised an eyebrow. "I should have gotten myself one."

"Gemini!" Seira took a step back. "Look how it's being used right now!"

"Oh! Right!"

Laki didn't seem to mind that the argument had pretty much been blown open. "Oh well! There's still a few other points that need to be contested."

"Why are you wasting so much time?" Gennosuke mumbled out, getting annoyed.

"Huh?" Laki looked at him, a bit confused. "Am I not allowed to defend myself?" That wasn't very nice.

Seira glanced over at the time, seeing it drain more and more. "We are running low on time…" Only about twenty eight minutes left.

Still wanting to defend herself, Laki continued on. "Then, how was I able to move the body?"

"Huh?" Seira knew they already went over that. "With the cart in the Ultimate Referee Station."

"But the cart didn't originate from there, didn't it?" Ian pointed out, a confident smile on his face.

"Fuck!" Atlas knew exactly where this was going. "He's right! That damn cart is actually from…"

…

"My storage room!"

"Fuck…" Hae-Won mumbled out, remembering correctly.

Finally, someone understood what Atlas was talking about. "It was there when I first explored my station."

If they didn't need them, then there was no point in having them. Atlas kept moving down, passing the rest of the lockers, until eventually he reached an area with an assortment of equipment. He saw things like a ladder, a large cart, air pumps, all just various things. "Nothing much of interest here…" He noted, stepping away from them. "Is that all?" Because now he was starting to feel like he wasted his time. Nothing here really screamed useful to him.

Nova shrugged. "Hey, not everything needs to be used in a murder. Is that what you are trying to figure out?"

"Wait…" That's when Hae-Won clued into something else. " How did they get it out?"

Laki shrugged, glancing off to the side. "I guess that someone who had a job there must have done the crime, then."

"As fucking if, I was playing soccer the entire time." Atlas chose that as a defense, instead of his handicap. Good on you, Atlas.

Hae-Won let out a small chuckle. "Same reason as myself. Besides, that cart wasn't there this morning when I went to check for gear." At least she didn't remember that it was there.

"Still, we couldn't have gotten in there without having the job right." Laki pointed out, humming to herself. "So that clears us from being the killer."

"Unless one of two let them in." Gigi pointed out.

Hae-Won shrugged, shaking her head. "I let Ian in today, but I would have noticed if he took out a cart. That's it."

"And I didn't-" Atlas was about to say before realising something. "F-fuck!" He looked like he wanted to headbutt his own podium, but he had some restraints. "I know how he fucking got in!" Seems he was referring to Ian. "He got in because…"

…

"I let him in."

"How uncharacteristic." Hae-Won shook her head. "When the hell did you let him into your storage room?"

Atlas turned to face her, almost barking out his response. "You think I wanted to let him in! It was completely an accident!"

Ian had just shown up to see what was going on. "Was hoping for more whining. Unfortunately I seem to arrive just as things ended."

Step by step, Atlas closed the gap between the two of them. "I am not in a good mood. I'd prefer it if you left my station."

Was Atlas trying to intimidate him? Ian couldn't help but laugh a bit. "Maybe what she was talking about was righ-" Quickly, he had to move his head to the side as Atlas slammed his foot against the wall next to his head, causing a small beeping sound to play out, and the storage door to open.

Atlas spent a few seconds looking at him, before calming down. "Whatever…" He moved his foot off the wall, heading towards the exit of the room.

Watching him walk off, Ian couldn't stop himself from frowning, shaking his head.

Now it was back to Ian, who didn't seem to mind. "Oh? And I just walked right in? Are you out of your mind?" This was easy to argue against. "If I slipped in right after, you would have noticed. Not to mention the door doesn't stay open for a while."

Atlas had to turn his head away to the side. It was true he didn't know how Ian snuck into the storage room without him noticing.

However, someone did know how. "I've got it!" Dolly called out, turning to look at Benjamin. "We found it during the investigation!"

"We did?" Atlas was shocked to hear that, he didn't think they found anything of note during the investigation.

Letting out a small laugh, Dolly was glad to be helping out! "Ian used…"

…

"The dented soccer ball!"

"What the fuc-"

Alright, time to explain. "Atlas and I found a soccer ball that was dented! Couldn't Ian have just used that to keep the door open?"

Would that be useful to know? Dolly had no idea! But she was going to mark it down anyway. However, she quickly noticed something. "Oh! Atlas! Look!"

Getting his attention, Atlas glanced over in the direction that Dolly was pointing. What he noticed was a soccer ball . However, that wasn't the important part. The important part was that it was dented on top . "What the hell…? Who the fuck did this?" Who would go out of their way to destroy a soccer ball?

Upon further inspection, the dent seemed to be rectangular in shape , extending past the ball. "Whatever it was, it was thinner than the ball, but longer than it." Not that his mind could come up with many ideas on how it was done.

"Wait are you-" Atlas would never get the time to finish his sentences. Given that he just remembered what Ian was even doing when he entered the room the first time. "You son of a bitch…"

Suddenly, the door opened up, and Ian stepped in. "What are you two doing here?" He frowned, looking at the two of them. Looks like it was some kind of fight. Ian glanced on the ground, noticing the soccer ball. He began to kick that around towards the wall.

"Whatever." Hae-Won took a step back. She had no reason to fight with Atlas.

Ian moved over towards the wall, standing right next to the storage door. "Don't tell me you lost an argument against him." Almost embarrassing.

"Good idea you've managed to come up with." Ian shrugged, not really seeing a point to humour it as the truth. "But you really think that's what my plan relied on?"

"What do you-" Haha, Atlas gets cut off again.

Laki laughed a bit, drowning out his voice. "What are the odds you even open the door for him? Wouldn't Ian have a more reliable strategy?"

Now, something just clicked in Hae-Won's head, and that conversation between the two finally began to make sense. "Dammit… It makes sense now…" Something Ian said to her… "I know exactly how he was planning on getting in originally… He was going to use…"

…

"The mimic app."

Ian shook his head. "The mimic app only allows the use of one user. And Michael didn't have the storage room job, so it wouldn't have worked." Damn! He already tore down her argument. Get better!

However, Hae-Won knew he'd go for that approach. "That would be true, if you knew that two people were already assigned to the job."

"I remember seeing them, so I can go get them." Hae-Won stepped forward.

Behind her was Ian.

However, Hae-Won didn't really seem to mind. "Are you here to help me?"

"Might as well." Ian shrugged. "Save you the time."

Hae-Won moved closer to the door, using her bracelet to unlock the door.

"Hmm." Ian tilted his head to the side. " I thought only Atlas had access to it."

Shaking her head, Hae-Won snickered a bit. "As if I'd let that uncooperative asshole have the only access to this room." She stepped through the door. "There was a spot available for two people, so I took the second one."

"Until Ian saw me open the door… He thought only Atlas had access to the storage room." Hae-Won was confident in the answer she just gave. "To him, there was a slot open to him. And because of how jobs worked, he was going to sign up Michael for it."

"More ammo to frame him…" Melody mumbled out, looking over at him.

"Then how did you want me to get out? I would have needed to remove the soccer ball to pass the cart through, but once again, I wasn't assigned to the job." Ian was going to continue fighting this.

"Tsk." Atlas knew this one very well. "As if you'd even have any problems with that. All you had to do was rely on…"

…

"The safety feature."

"That's right!" Dolly had completely forgotten about it. "There's a safety feature for doors like that! Monokawa told us during the investigation!"

However, Atlas had other business. If Monokawa was here, that means that he could ask him some questions. "What's the deal with this door? I thought you needed to be registered to the job to open it."

Monokawa shook his head. "You need to be registered to open it from the outside . As a safety feature, all watches can open the door from the inside. It's to prevent anyone from being trapped inside in case of an emergency!"

"What the hell?" That was the first time he was hearing that. "Are all doors like this?"

"Yup! Even the vacant rooms work like that! You can't trap someone that easily, after all." Monokawa crossed his arms. "Alright, I think I told you everything I needed to." He lowered out of frame again.

"It didn't fucking matter if the door closed while you were on the inside." Atlas pointed out, stomping his foot on the ground. "You could have easily opened it after. You probably didn't know about it, but you could have at least tested it out."

Ian frowned, tilting his head to the side. "Seems a lot to gamble with little to no reward. Not really my style. If there's a high risk, there better be a high reward."

Gemini shook his head. "There'd be no need for risk. All you had to do was scan your watch before removing the soccer ball. In which case you would have noticed that the door had opened from the inside."

To this, Ian had no response, only glancing over at Laki, to see what she would say.

True to nature, Laki wouldn't let them get any more ground with their deductions. "Ian seems far more suspicious than me, so why am I being the one targeted?"

"We aren't reexplaining ourselves." Gemini knew she was only trying to waste time. "You left during the game and killed Benoit with the molotov."

Of course they'd still believe that. "You're so right! I threw the molotov in, and then waited until he died. After that, I ran into the water as well, and then stuck my hand in the water to unclog the drain-" Laki stopped for a moment, glancing to the side. "Oh wait, I would have died too." How lucky of her to survive all of that!

Grimacing, Dae-Hyun knew exactly what she was trying to say. "She would have been electrocuted if she even attempted any of that…"

That's when something else clicked for Hae-Won. "Normally, yes… But Laki had something different on her this morning. Something that would have made it possible to do what needed to be done."

Oh! A solution? Laki was interested in hearing that! "Tell me! Tell me!"

Hae-Won wasn't a fan of how excited she was, but still went ahead with it. "You used…"

…

"Rubber gloves."

Gigi glanced off to the side. "I did find it odd that she had them, but I wasn't going to question it."

Hae-Won nodded her head along. "When I went to get gear for the game, I found rubber gloves instead of a fifth potential pair of normal gloves. And it was Ian of all people who said we should give it to Laki."

"Don't really care." Hae-Won reached into the last locker, pulling out five pairs of gloves. "Huh…" She frowned slightly, before actually only pulling out four pairs. "Well…"

However, Hae-Won knew she felt another pair in there. It just felt… off. She put her hands in it again, pulling out some rubber gloves that seemed like they went up to the elbow. "How did this get in there?"

Ian raised an eyebrow. "Should we just take it anyways?"

Hae-Won didn't really care, so she just shrugged. "Whatever." She moved over towards the door. "I'm sure one player won't mind wearing this.

"Give it to Laki or something, she'd probably be happy to have something different." Ian moved through the door after Hae-Won opened it.

"Of course, he was right." Hae-Won let out a small chuckle. "But that's only because the plan was for her to take it all along…"

Ian dropped the boxes on the ground, looking around. "Just come take whatever pair works for you."

Quickly, everyone was able to find a pair of shoes that worked for them, as well as a jersey.

"Now…" Ian grabbed the rubber gloves. "So we didn't have enough-"

Laki nabbed them without hearing any other questions. "Mine."

"..." Ian stood there, not surprised in the slightest. "Alrighty, then." He grabbed a pair of gloves for himself.

Edison adjusted his goggles. "Yup! And with the rubber gloves, Laki could have easily removed the clogging, or the battery itself. Although, scientifically speaking, it probably would have been best to remove the battery. That way to avoid anything unexpected."

However, Laki wasn't done yet. "That's good and all, but this is if I was somehow able to make it to the battery or the drain. The garden was pretty big."

Tatiana frowned slightly. "Right, making your way to the battery would have been a bit difficult. Laki wouldn't have been able to jump around the area without risking getting electrocuted."

"Hmm…" Gennosuke hummed out, inspecting the lollipop he had. "Curious… Isn't it?" From the looks of it, he might have found the answer.

His gaze moved over towards Laki. "I always wondered why you did that, and now I know the answer. However, with it, it only brings more questions. But they won't remain questions for long."

Gigi already had to deal with May being vague, she also didn't want to have to deal with Gennosuke doing the same thing. "Just spill it ou-"

"We go at my own pace." Gennosuke wasn't going to reveal his hand right away. Not when going up against an opponent like Ian and Laki. "However, I know how Laki could have avoided being electrocuted. She simply had to…"

…

"Do a handstand."

Now Gennosuke had completely lost his mind.

"Haha!" Tatiana let out a laugh. "As if that'd work! Laki's hands would then be in the water- Oh wait the gloves-"

Edison was writing some things down. "With the gloves, she could safely pass by the water, avoiding any electrocution. After that, all she would need to do is drain the water so she could walk like normal!" It was almost brilliant! However he wasn't going to say that to Laki.

"That sounds pretty demanding." Dae-Hyun pointed out, crossing his arms. "Are you sure she could do something like that?"

"Maybe not…" Gennosuke pulled the lollipop out of his mouth. "But I know she can do a handstand… She did it today in front of me."

Gennosuke didn't have any reasons for that, he was just being an asshole. "Thank you." He stood up from the seat he was sitting at. "Let's get back to investigating."

"Wait! Hold on!" Laki wasn't out for the count yet. "Maybe it only reacts when someone walks in!" Quickly, she began to do a handstand. " I'll just go in like that!"

Gennosuke was probably a bit dumbfounded, but he was very good at not letting it show on his face. "Go right ahead, I won't stop you."

As Laki made her way there, she didn't seem to struggle in the slightest. Once she finally crossed the bar, however, the same result would happen, with her getting shoved to the ground, with the robot yelling at her.

"Impressive." Gennosuke was still going to offer a compliment. "I could never do something like that." Mostly in part to how lazy he was.

Gennosuke shrugged, not really seeing a counter to his argument. "Laki showed me she could do it, so I know for a fact that she could easily do it through water."

"And… Um…" Edison adjusted his goggles nervously. "Theoretically speaking… Laki likes danger, I think." He did not feel like verifying.

"I don't doubt it…" Gemini shook his head. "We saw what she did when it came to the motive. She willingly allowed herself to be injected with the drug just to see how it was."

"I guess I did do that!" Laki nodded her head along. "But on the bright side, we were able to find out who my partner was!" She seemed to be ignoring the greater issue here.

"Hey, girl." Dae-Hyun called out towards her. "Are you forgetting the part where we are accusing you of murder."

Laki hadn't forgotten. How could she forget something as exciting as that? "No, I remember. But does that not mean I'm allowed to express myself? You all keep coming at me with attacks left and right."

"Yeah, for good reasons." Dae-Hyun felt like he was talking to somebody who wasn't actually there. "You and Ian conspired to kill Benoit."

And yet, still… Laki showed no concern on her face.

Instead.

She laughed. "Oh! You think I'm the killer?" Laki had to hold onto her podium just so she didn't fall down from laughing so hard. "Did you forget a fact that might have been brought up?"

"A fact that…?" Gigi had started to say before her neutral expression was broken, and she quickly realised what Laki meant. "Are you…?" She blew on her whistle, getting everyone's attention.

She seemed frustrated to say the least… Despite getting everyone's attention, she had nothing to say. "Laki… Laki can't be the killer… Because of…"

…

"The time of death."

"What was the time of death again?" Laki swayed her head from side to side, humming.

"4:30…?" Gemini mumbled out, not realising what was wrong with it right away.

Gigi, however, knew exactly what was wrong. "If Laki went over to kill Benoit, she would have been two minutes late."

4:32 : Laki attacks Ian, and is forced to take a ten minute penalty.

"Wait…" Seira realised what she meant. "Then that means… Laki only moved the body?"

"Yup!" Wait Laki was just going to admit it.

Frantically adjusting his goggles, Edison wasn't sure what to do with the information he was just given. "What… What are you doing?"

Ian shrugged, flipping a poker chip into the air before catching it. "What is there to fight against now? You've broken through all of our arguments. There's not much we can do."

"No way in hell!" Lorelei narrowed her eyes. "You thought we'd fall for something like that? There's something else you don't want to tell us."

Laki hummed out, tapping her podium with her finger. "What else is there to tell? You figured out everything!"

"Nonononono!" Edison kept shaking his head. "None of this makes any logical sense! It's all madness! With no reason!"

Hearing that last part got a frown from Ian. "Hey, you can't just say there's no reason for it all. There's a method to what I do. Nothing I've done has been useless." He leaned forward on his podium, putting on a cocky expression. "Although, they've only been useful for those involved."

With every ticking second, it was becoming even more obvious just what was happening.

They were wasting time.

"Just tell us how you did it!" Atlas barked out, growing worried with every second.

"Guys…" Gemini said softly. "I think we're ignoring the very real possibility here… This case…"

…

"Has another accomplice."

"Three!?" Now Edison was truly losing his mind here. How was this even possible?

Gigi crossed her arms, looking over at Gemini. "That's even more ridiculous. One person was enough, but a second accomplice? Nobody would agree to that."

"But wouldn't it make sense?" Ian had a confident smile on his face. " One person to set up the murder scene." Him.

Next, Laki decided to speak up. " A second person to move the body." Her.

And lastly…

" A third person to commit the murder…" Gennosuke mumbled out, a frown on his face. He discarded the lollipop stick on the ground. "What kind of stunt are you trying to pull here?"

Slamming his heel onto his podium, Atlas sent a glare towards Ian. "What the hell are you doing? If we vote wrong, you'll die too! So you better fucking tell us who it is!"

"Wait!" Edison called out, looking at some of his notes. "Can't we try and narrow it down? We know a few people it can't be, right?"

From the sounds of it, Gemini, Seira, Edison, Winter, Gennosuke, and Lorelei were out of the ques-

"Wait…" May hummed out, looking over at Lorelei. "You never showed me your total…" And there had to be a reason for that.

"Pfft." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "As if I'd tell you my total. What point would it serve?"

"It would serve the purpose of you lying-"

"Enough." Dae-Hyun jumped in, crossing his arms. "Earlier, we discussed that Winter's partner had to either be Gennosuke or Lorelei, because they claimed their total never went down, and they stayed on the ground floor. I, too, stayed on the ground floor." He glanced off to the side. "So that makes us a group of four…"

So that eliminated four other people. "Wait… Who's even left at this point?" Seira looked around.

Slowly, May lifted her hand up. "I'm technically back on the suspect list, since my reason for being innocent no longer exists."

"There's also… Tatiana." Gemini added.

"H-huh?" She took a step back, looking over at him. "I didn't do the murder! I swear!" However, she quickly recovered, extending her arm out. "And there must be proof somewhere!"

May shook her head. "If she was the killer, she'd have such a tight window to work with."

Dae-Hyun crossed his arms. He didn't think Tatiana was the killer, but he still wanted to know what he was working with. "How much time are we talking about?"

Thinking back, May was able to come up with an answer. "I just need to know what time Melody woke up at."

"Oh." Gigi had looked at that. "She woke up at the time of death."

That was good enough for May to figure things out from here. "If that's the case, and the motive ended at 4:45, then Melody would have been losing a coin every second if Tatiana was on the same floor as her after her grace period ended. So, from 3:31 to 4:45, that's fourteen minutes, which means she should have lost around… 840 coins."

Melody took a look at her own watch. "Why, that's exactly how much I lost." She showed off her total, which now only had 160 coins. "So that means the dame wasn't on the top floor after I woke up."

Gemini thought for a moment, shaking his head. "Tatiana would only have about two minutes to kill Benoit and then get out of range."

"However." Seira felt the need to jump in here. "I don't think Tatiana would have been able to know what Melody's coin total was. Especially since Melody ended up gaining more via soccer. It's unlikely she would have been safely able to kill."

Ah! Lovely! Tatiana was safe! "Yes. After I finished my gambling at the casino, I retreated to the lower floor. Had I known that Melody was my partner, I might have stayed on the top floor."

"Wait…" Edison ran some numbers in his head. "But then, that leaves us with nothing, right? Doesn't that account for every possibility? Tatiana was the only-"

"There's still May." Gennosuke shrugged. "We have no way to know what she did. She could have been sleeping, but she could have easily made her way up to the top floor after she initially passed out."

May let out a small sigh, shaking her head. "Why would I do that, and then do all of this to expose Ian and Laki?" There'd be no point in it all.

That was a fair point, but Gennosuke wasn't completely convinced. "You're right, but we can't always use logic in a place like this. Sometimes people will do stupid stuff." Like Laki and Ian working together, apparently. He couldn't fathom why one would do that unless they were going to rat out the other.

However, pushing this forward wouldn't get them anywhere, so for the time being, Gennosuke relented on May. "There's also Michael." He brought up. "We know he was at the scene of the crime, so he could have set himself up to look like someone who was attacked."

"Yeah, let's go with that!" Laki nodded her head along. "It was Michael!"

"Please…" Michael mumbled out, looking at the ground. "Leave me out of this…"

As all this conversation went on, Dae-Hyun found himself lost in thought. This trial wasn't going in the direction he thought of.

First of all, who would have thought an accomplice would have been involved, let alone the two people who were present for the game.

And yet, a part was nagging at the back of his brain.

Something didn't quite seem to add up.

Could they be making a wrong assumption here…?

Slowly, Dae-Hyun closed his eyes, and became deep in thought…

What the hell is even happening right now… Why am I putting so much thought into something like this?

Whatever, everyone else seems to be lost, so I might as well put in some effort. Maybe someone uninvolved with this entire case could help shed some new light…

Both Ian and Laki couldn't be the killer since they had a rock solid alibi at the time of death. Both were present in the soccer game, and Laki didn't leave through the secret passage until after Benoit had died…

Which meant that-

Ah, but that's jumping the gun a bit… First… I should figure it out.

Was there a third party?

…

No… It wouldn't make sense.

The nature of this game prevents there from even being a third party. It's already almost impossible that there'd be an accomplice, given only one person can escape in the chance of a killing. Roping a third person in just doesn't make sense. Whatever happened, it must only involve Ian and Laki somehow.

But then how? What was the trick they were able to pull? They couldn't have gotten the time of death changed, and they couldn't have changed all of our times. The time has to be right…

So then what was it?

They must have made use of the…

…

Location…

Yes… They must have used the location to aid them in the murder… Something has been bothering me for a while, though…

If they wanted water, there was more than just the garden that had access to water… So why? Why choose that as your specific location?

The only thing I can think of why they chose the garden is because they needed…

…

The sprinklers.

Right, the sprinklers did come up in the trial as what was used to fill up the room. But we never truly figured out the reason behind it. We concluded it was because the battery was already in there, but the battery could have been thrown in instead…

The killer deliberately made it this way for a reason… Why were the sprinklers used instead of any other method…

…

They activate automatically.

Right, unlike all the other methods, this is the only one that can be turned on automatically without the need of someone being there. So that's likely how they were able to pull off this trick.

The sprinklers must have gone off while they were both in the soccer game. But then, what would they have needed to use to activate the sprinklers?

…

The molotov bottle.

Right, we figured that the killer threw in the molotov bottle during the soccer game, but it's entirely likely that the molotov bottle was set up there before the game even started. That way neither of them would need to leave until the sprinklers went off. Then, all they would need to do is move the body.

But… How did they get the molotov to fall? I doubt that it was timed to fall at a certain time. So they had to use something else…

They must have used…

…

A trigger.

Yeah, if they could trigger the molotov to fall at any time, then Laki could leave after it was set off. The only question now is… What is that trigger? If I can figure that out… I'm sure…

Hmm…?

A trigger that can go off during the soccer game?

Wait… no…

It can't be-

…

..-

Now back in reality, Dae-Hyun was now clutching onto his podium tightly. A visible face of discomfort.

Nobody else was really paying attention, because they were still arguing about how Laki and Ian were even able to pull this off.

The only person who took notice of him was Melody, who's own face shifted to one of concern. "Dae-Hyun? What's wrong?" She had never seen him like this…

Slowly, Dae-Hyun glanced over at her. "Melody…" He called out, almost with a bit of urgency in his voice. "How many… How many…"

…

"How many goals did you score?"

That was an odd question, but Melody was fine with answering. "Only one. Why?"

Fuck! That's exactly what he didn't want to hear. "Dammit." Dae-Hyun's eyes were now shifted towards Ian. "Ian!" He yelled out, the first time since getting here.

"Hmm?" Ian tilted his head to the side, unsure where this aggression even came from. "What's wrong?"

"Don't play dumb with me. I know exactly how you activated the sprinklers."

"Oh?" What had Dae-Hyun been cooking up? To make this leap in steps so quickly? "Do tell." A small inviting grin appeared on Ian's face.

Placing both of his hands into his pockets, Dae-Hyun kept his gaze on him. "You triggered the sprinklers by using…"

…

"The goal sensors."

As soon as those words were said, the room was met with silence.

Silence… And horror from the people who had participated in that very soccer game. Nobody wanted to point out the obvious implication from something like this…

…

Until one voice yelled out to break the silence.

"W-what the HELL do you mean it was the goal sensor?" Atlas was right to be concerned, given he had scored more goals than anyone this morning. His eyes quickly turned to look at Ian.

Ian himself didn't seem too bothered by what was just revealed to the world. "What's wrong?" He turned to look at them. "Did you guys just figure something out?"

"What… the fuck…" Hae-Won gripped onto her podium. Quickly, she turned to look at Gigi. "Gigi! Who scored a goal before Benoit died?"

It took a moment to think, but Gigi was able to provide an answer. "It was Atlas, Melody, Ian, and lastly, Laki."

"Houray master!" Dolly cheered out. "Your incompetence has saved you yet again!"

"Wait!" Edison adjusted his goggles. "Who was the last person to score a goal?" That would help clear the air, wouldn't it. "Clearly, the last person should have been the one to set off the trap!"

Understanding where he was going, Gigi nodded her head. "The last person to score a goal was Laki, who scored it two minutes before Benoit died."

That sounded like a case close to Edison! "Then Laki is the killer!"

However, Hae-Won didn't seem so confident. "But… Laki was the third person to score that goal."

"Not to mention…" Melody had been too horrified to comment until now. "Hae-Won and I were scoring on the goals before the game started."

Ian let out a small laugh. "You think I'd go this far, only to have the entire trick be revealed that easily?"

Atlas, however, had a different idea in mind. "Stop being fooled by all this bullshit! Ian was the first person to score for his team, and then all of this bullshit happens? He's the killer, clear and cut as day!"

"Is there even any evidence that there was something like that?" Gemini didn't want to make more assumptions then they needed to.

"Of course." Lorelei decided to be helpful again. "We found exactly what you're looking for during the investigation." They pulled out the electrical components. "However, figuring out what it's supposed to be would be near impossible."

"Wait, so it could be anything." That didn't sound good to Edison, and he felt himself feeling a bit uneasy as he looked over at some of the others.

"Wait… can we not figure this out?" Melody mumbled out, realising she had a very good chance at being labelled the blackened right now.

" FUCK!" Atlas yelled out, kicking his podium. "What the hell are you trying to pull on us?"

"Vile." Gigi narrowed her eyes, looking at Ian. She blew her whistle, pulling out a red card. "To force someone else into a murder like that, how could you?"

However, Ian didn't really seem to phased. Instead, he only shrugged. "What? Don't tell me you expected something different from me." Leaning on his podium, a cocky smile grew on his face.

"Sorry, but I'm not like that at all."

Dae-Hyun ran a hand through his hair, trying to figure out what to do. They had a one and four chance of getting the killer right, and Melody was one of those people. "I…" Dammit why did it turn out like this?

"We're low on time." Seira had eyed the counter, and she was growing more nervous with each passing second. Only seventeen minutes left to figure out who the killer is.

Melody was resting her head on her own podium. None of this had to be real, right?

Was there a chance her life was just forfeit? All because she wanted to have fun with the others and scored a goal?

Even Atlas didn't deserve a fate like this…

The more Melody thought about it, the more she felt lost… She felt her emotions welling up with every passing second.

How could people be so horrid and do this?

"I…" Gemini didn't know what to say. He wanted to solve this case, but at this rate, it all seemed impossible. "We can't just vote randomly, can we?"

"Oh! Oh! I'm sure you can get lucky." Laki called out, holding her hands behind her back. "Think of it as a game."

Rolling a dice onto the top of his podium, Ian shrugged. "It's just a little gamble. Odds are pretty good. It's not like you're trying to win the lottery."

"That's so… Cruel…" Melody mumbled out, holding onto her podium. "Why… Why would you ever do this…?" She seemed ready to cry.

"Because!" Laki didn't seem to think anything was wrong. "It's fun, right?"

"It's not!" Melody looked over at them.

It's not fun… It's not fun…

Something like this can't possibly be the truth, can it?

"I refuse to believe such a thing…" Melody shook her head slowly.

What happened to the real fun they were having today? They just had to ignore everything and nothing would happen.

And yet Ian and Laki felt the need to do… that?

Dae-Hyun let out a sigh, looking away. "We should probably try and figure out what exactly the set up was like…" It was the only way he could hold out hope for a different outcome.

"No." Melody said softly, looking away.

Was she just holding out for a pointless dream at this point?

Was Melody just hoping that what everyhone had figured out wasn't the truth?\

She didn't know. She could only pray to be right.

Taking a deep breath, Melody continued with what she wanted to say. "No. I…"

…

"I don't think the goal was the trigger."

A dream. A wish.

Ian tilted his head to the side, trying to get a read on Melody. "Do you truly believe that?"

"Ab-so-lute-ly." It wasn't said like Melody had the first time. She wasn't saying it to be cheerful. She was saying it like her life depended on it.

Because it did.

Hearing that, Ian only frowned. "Are you trying to replace the truth with your own ideal? Just because you want something to be true, doesn't mean it is. It's a pointless dream."

That may be true.

Melody had already been told she was a dreamer. Always dreaming of things that might just be out of reach.

However, she never once stopped dreaming, no matter how out of reach it felt.

"I think this dream is a reality." Melody offered a smile, breaking the frown she had from earlier. "I don't propose this without any evidence." She didn't investigate much, but Dae-Hyun must have. "Dae-Hyun…" Melody turned to look at him, an almost pleading look in her eyes.

Of course, he couldn't turn down anything she said. "What is it?" Although, he wasn't sure how much help he was going to be.

Melody didn't know much, but she was around for every investigation involving the scoreboard, so she knew what she was talking about. "What was the state of the scoreboard…?"

Moving the ladder over, Dae-Hyun began to climb up, stopping at the buttons. "These still appear to be here. Melody, could you kick a ball through the goal…?"

She didn't need to be told twice. Melody eagerly made her way across the field, kicking the ball into the net with pretty good accuracy. She was really getting good at this!

As it passed the net, the usual happened. Fireworks!

However, the buttons weren't pushed down. " Huh…" That was odd. Why would it not work all of a sudden?

Melody came back to see what Dae-Hyun was doing. "It's just not working?" She placed a hand on her hip.

Well, this wasn't exactly Dae-Hyun's area of expertise, so he slowly got down the ladder. " No. Besides the one component that's missing, everything else seems to be fine. " But why would they even need that?

After a few seconds, Dae-Hyun realised where Melody was going with this. "You're right… It couldn't have been the goal sensors… If it was the goal sensors…"

…

"The device that pushes the buttons wouldn't be there."

With his hands in his pockets, Dae-Hyun was about to say something, but figured Melody might want to continue.

Nodding her head along, Melody continued her line of thinking. "Dae-Hyun said that only the battery had been taken from the scoreboard and nothing else." Now she was back in a good mood. Now she could tap her feet again.

"However, none of the components unique to the sensors were missing."

"Huh? But I know for sure it's the scoreboard!" Hard to tell if Laki was fucking with them or not.

After such a long trial, Melody wasn't going to fall for their tricks anymore. "You take me for a sap? Laki wouldn't have been able to replace the mechanism for the scoreboard since I never left the room." She would have seen it, if it were the case.

Since Laki wasn't able to keep defending, it was Ian's turn to jump in. "Then tell me…" He slammed his hand on his podium. " What triggered the molotov bottle to fall?"

"Oh- Well!" Melody stopped tapping her foot, looking away.

She had no way to know. She didn't investigate anywhere else, so she was hoping someone else had an answer.

"I…" Michael spoke up.

He had to. He had spent this entire trial defending himself. He didn't really get the chance to contribute. But now? He had a chance to put a nail in their coffins.

"I know what was used to make the mechanic for the trap."

Out of all the people Ian expected to fight, Michael wasn't them. "I thought we were just going to ignore you for the rest of the trial." He frowned.

No. Just because of his talent, he wasn't going to be ignored. Michael had to do this, for himself. "We found it while investigating… But I think you used…"

…

"The mechanism of the poker game…"

As soon as Michael said that, Gennosuke knew exactly what he was talking about. "Is that why-"

Michael wasn't going to let him talk. "When we investigated, we found a poker game in progress, and a damaged panel. Opening it up, we found some electrical components."

Lorelei pulled out what she had from earlier. "Like this?" Not that it was going to tell them anything.

Gennosuke slowly nodded his head along. "It matches." He had no idea if it did, but might as well continue on with this thought.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ian began twirling a poker chip between his fingers, before flipping it in the air. "That could be from someone else. Besides, how would I have even opened up a panel like that?"

Michael knew that it existed… So it was a better time than any to bring it up. "You removed the panel by using…"

…

"The crowbar."

"Haha!" Tatiana was in agreement. Yup! That was an agreement laugh. It's the exact same as her "you are so wrong" laugh.

She needs a new laugh.

"When investigating the shed, we found that the crowbar must have been recently used." However, that did make her think of something. "Wait, Ian. YOU pointed that out!"

He didn't seem too bothered by it. "Oh yeah, I guess I did."

That was weird, but Michael wasn't going to pay it any mind. "With that crowbar, you could have easily gotten into the panel and grabbed what you needed to grab."

"And what?" Ian raised an eyebrow. "How many people were at that poker game?"

"Two." Gennosuke happily answered.

Yeah, that's what he thought. "Laki wouldn't have been able to join me for it, so that means it couldn't-"

"No!" Dolly called out, raising her hands in the air. "It's already been an answer two or three times, we're not doing a segment like this again. You used your mimic app to get a second watch!"

Well there was that argument out the window.

And this time, Melody was ready to pick the pace back up. "That's why you said what you did before playing soccer today."

Placing the ball, she made her way over towards the scanner. "Are we playing for coins?"

"Obviously." Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Unless any of you fucks think otherwise."

Hae-Won shrugged. "I don't have any preference either way." She stepped towards the ball.

"Well…!" Dolly hummed out. "Master and I don't have many points, so we'd rather not have to bet on them."

Ian slowly nodded his head. "I have a lot of coins, but I'm willing to not bet them if it risks putting someone under."

"You chose not to bet." Melody pointed out,

It was such a strange thing for Ian to do.

There was no point in Ian trying to defend himself on that. Instead, he shifted over towards a different goal in mind. "Alright, cool. You say I used that to set up the mechanism, but then how did I activate it? You wouldn't have been able to-"

"It's easy." Michael mumbled out, cutting him off. "You used…"

…

"The poker clicker."

"Or whatever you actually call them…" Michael was unsure. "What you used to bet. It has a button on the end that you used to inform the table what you will do."

One hand? That was a bit underwhelming, but Gennosuke wasn't going to deny it. "Sure thing."

Once the game was started, two panels opened up, both with a clicker of some kind .

"Hmm?" From the looks of the object, it looked like a long stick with a button at the top, almost like a weird buzzer. "What's this for?"

Gennosuke had already figured out what it could be. "If you see here." He pointed over towards the display on the table. "This is how you call and bet. And fold, which you'll be doing."

Right, pressing the buttons a certain amount of times in a row would cause different effects to happen.

Gennosuke nodded his head along. "Which meant, with a few clicks of a button, you could have activated the molotov bottle."

"Atta-boy!" Melody called out. "With that, they could have activated it at any point during the soccer game."

Ian rolled his eyes. "I think someone would have noticed if we had snuck those into the game."

Gennosuke nodded his head along. "Yeah, they are a little under a foot."

"What?" Gemini was caught off guard by hearing that. "No… No they aren't." Moving his hands, he demonstrated the size. "They are only about six inches. Could easily be hidden out of sight."

Michael turned to look at Gennosuke. "You told me it was under a foot."

Shrugging, he didn't seem to care. "That's under a foot. I wasn't wrong." Not taking accountability.

Now, it was time for Melody to dance back into this argument. "Something like that could have easily been brought onto the field, and when none of us were looking, you clicked the button, sealing Benoit's fate." She said this to Laki.

Michael was looking at the ground for a few seconds, before turning his attention towards Ian. "All this effort, only for it to be you in the end…"

He glanced over to the podium beside him, where Melody seemed rather eager to go through every bit of evidence the group had collectively found.

Letting out a sigh, Michael turned to look back at Ian. "And this is how it was done…"

Melody pointed over to Laki, humming to herself. "We'll lay it all out in front of you!"

This would be a joint effort to expose the truth of this case, with both of them alternating as they explained just how it played out, starting with Michael.

"Act 1: This entire case started as soon as the main motive was given out… We were told the rules, and that coins were going to be an important factor in this entire motive. Hearing that… The culprit had already started to brew some plans… After everyone went to sleep, they made their way over to the Psi Sector. Not without being spotted by May, that is. Once there, they had only one plan in mind. Get as many coins as possible to buy some of the special items."

"Act 2: The only way Ian could even get that amount of dough was by using the double or nothin' items. With that, he was able to abuse the tables to his pump's content, quickly racking up enough dough to purchase the mimic app. With that purchase, he chose to use it to mimic Michael's watch. However, he had a problem, now he had too much dough, and anyone looking at him would be able to tell right away that something funny went on. Thus, he hatched a plan"

"Act 3: With the help of Laki… They were able to transfer most of their coins over to her, which she then used to transfer to my watch… However, Laki made a mistake, a mistake that was caught by May. She had miscounted the total, and left it off by one. Either way… it left May none the wiser that the culprit was the one to have gotten all that money. After that, nothing else happened that day, as they were still trying to get a feel of the motive. To hide how much they had gotten during the day… they were very eager to give off some of their coins to the people who had fallen…"

"Act 4: Yesterday, was when Ian decided to put a little more care into his thoughts. The first thing he noticed was that Benoit must have been injected with the drug in his room. Which clued him in that May must have been his partner the entire time. Not just that, but he now had Michael's watch, and had a good idea of what would happen. So he made sure everyone was gathered in the Psi Sector. He set himself up in the Ultimate Referee Station, hoping to keep track of everyone. With that, he would be able to determine who his partner was. However, when he went over to check the results, he quickly realised that his partner had to be Michael, which made things easier for him."

"Act 5: Next, they worked with Laki to get a bottle of alcohol from behind the bar. With two people… the robot couldn't hope to stop both of them. However… They still hadn't come up with a plan yet. That is until… Melody suggested a soccer game to Atlas. Seeing this, the culprit quickly jumped on board, ready to use that as part of their plan. Why wouldn't they? It gave them a free alibi. Last night, they managed to get enough coins to purchase two more items… the key to the hatch, and the lighter. They were lucky to find out I was their partner, which is how they could continue to gamble without worrying about their total from draining."

"Act 6: "After that, came the day of the game. Atlas and Hae-Won had gone off to the soccer field. With them, Ian followed. His plan was to use the app he had acquired to sign up Michael into the storage room job. However, that wasn't necessary, as Atlas seemingly had beef with Ian, and almost attacked him. That caused the door to open up, and Ian was able to freely use the storage room. To keep the door open, Ian slid a soccer ball under the door, jamming it!"

"Act 7: They were able to get the cart out, and managed to plant the rubber glove that Laki would need for later… After that, with the precious time they had left, they'd need to remove the battery from the scoreboard… They had a few more stops to make, namely, they had to set up a game of poker so they could utilise the mechanics. With the crowbar they grabbed from the shed, they removed the panel and took out the poker mechanism… Then, they could set up the garden the way they wanted to…"

"Act 8: However, something Ian couldn't plan for, but helped him out was Atlas knocking Michael down. With that, Benoit had to take Michael to the physiotherapy room. Once Ian caught wind of this, he sent May to the bottom floor so that Benoit would be out of range of her. This caused Benoit to go under due to the effect of the drugs, and Ian was able to make his grand entrance."

"Act 9: I didn't know what to do, and I thought the killer was there to help me out… so I let my guard down… A mistake I'll make sure not to repeat… The killer was able to get the jump on me and knock me out. With the cart, they probably moved the both of us to the garden. Once in there, they separated the two of us, leaving Benoit in the garden, and myself in the shed. They used the resistance band to prevent me from moving. No matter how much I struggled… There was no escaping… They even used my hair to clog the drain for later. Then… the killer broke off the door handles, and locked me in the shed…"

"Act 10: It was finally time for the game! Following Hae-Won in, Ian went over to collect the rubber gloves he had placed before. His intention was to give it to the culprit, so they could use it later. Once the game was in full swing, they played it like it was a normal game. However, at one point, while we were all distracted, they pushed the button, bumping off Benoit."

"Act 11: Meanwhile, in the garden… the molotov had finally dropped, causing the fire to start. As soon as the fire started, the room was drenched with water, thanks to the automatic sprinkler system… Because the drain was clogged, water began to fill up the room, causing water to reach the battery… I… I hope it was over quickly, and that Benoit didn't suffer a lot of pain… But he would have been electrocuted for a while, until the water was drained…"

"Act 12: With us none the wiser, the game continued on until the culprit had to make the next move of their plan. They willingly took a penalty, attacking Ian in the process. This caused Gigi to give them a red card, and send them away for ten minutes in the penalty box. In those ten minutes, the culprit had enough time to go move Benoit. Using the secret passage that Ian opened up earlier, the culprit was able to move through."

"Act 13: With the help of the rubber gloves that she was given, Laki was easily able to make it towards the battery, pulling it out of the water. She did this by doing a handstand towards the battery… before moving over towards the clog. After stuffing the hair down the drain, the room was easily able to drain without any problems… All Laki had to do now was destroy the evidence of the contraption, and move Benoit's body…"

"Act 14: Lastly, they transported Benoit's body over towards the Ultimate Referee Station, where they placed him near the hatch. The culprit spilt the water dispenser over him, to cover the ground in water, before placing the battery next to him. Then, the culprit escaped via the hatch, returning before their ten minutes were up. All of this was done in an effort to make Michael the fall guy of the murder, who was still trapped in the shed."

"This is a crime that could have been committed by…" Their voices were in sync when they yelled this out.

…

"Ian Santiago, the Ultimate Gambler!"

"Lakshmi Krishna, the Ultimate Lucky Student!"

But for that one moment, they had disagreeing ideas.

"Wait…" Atlas' eyes grew wide at the implication. "After all this time! After all this debating! Are you saying…"

…

"We still don't know who the killer is?"

Quickly, the clock began to run out, leaving them with only five minutes left on the timer.

Suddenly, a noise played out.

CLICK!

Looking at the source, Ian now had the poker button in his hand, and he was clicking it down. "Was it me…?"

As to make matters worse, another clicking sound could be heard.

CLICK! CLICK!

This time, coming from Laki. "Or was it me?"

"Ian!" Gigi called out, narrowing his eyes at her. "What is the meaning of this?"

However, Ian didn't seem too bothered by it. "What do you mean?" He leaned forward on his podium. "I thought you would have figured it out by now." All the while he kept clicking away.

"What do we do…?" Seira mumbled out. "If time runs out before we figure this out… then…"

Edison glanced around the room nervously, looking for an answer. "Um… Well… Then…" Think! Think! Think!

Even Gemini was at a loss on how to escape this. "Using luck to determine the killer? Why would you do that?" A situation like this felt hopeless.

"I'm… I'm sorry…" Melody mumbled out. She had taken charge near the end, but even she wasn't able to get any further than before.

Michael covered his face with his hood again. "I'm sorry as well…" He had been so quick to prove his innocence that he hadn't even realised just what was going on.

"W-wait!" Edison called out, a sparkle in his eyes. "The rule says that the blackened just needs to be executed right? Well then! Let's just tie the votes!"

A loud whistling sound could be heard, coming from Gigi. When all eyes were on her, she dropped the whistle. "We can't do that. Specifically because of the following rule. If anybody besides the blackened is executed, everyone will die."

"W-what…" The colour from Edison's face slowly faded away. "No way… Then!"

Hae-Won winced at the realisation. "So there's no loopholes we can use to get out of this…?"

Atlas raised his leg in the air, before having his heel slam down onto the podium. "Don't fuck with me!" He aimed that at Ian. "What the hell are you thinking!?"

Laki let out a little laugh. "It's a fun game of chance, isn't it?"

"This… This…" Edison quickly shook his head. "This isn't fun at all…"

"You're a piece of shit, you know that?" Dae-Hyun had turned his back to the trial. "You want me to vote you out?"

"H-hey!" Melody mumbled out. "Let's not act hastily right now!"

Atlas tilted his head downwards, a shadow obscuring his face. "No, I'm ready to vote the fucker!"

Tensions were rising with each passing second. With each tick of the clock.

Gigi was the only person who remained neutral on the entire matter. Her eyes focused solely on Ian. What was his game plan?

"Does this mean we have to vote for one of them and pray…?" Seira clutched her necklace, looking around the room. If they were wrong, everyone else but the killer would die.

"Truly despicable…" Hae-Won mumbled out. She had a few choice words she wanted to say, but for now, they needed to focus on how to prove one or the other as the killer.

Quickly, Edison pointed at Gennosuke. "Quick! You're a psychic! Which one is it?"

"Huh?" Gennosuke seemed confused. "I'm a psychic, not a seer." He shook his head. " They don't even know who the killer is, don't they?"

Ian let out an amused laugh. "I do not… We left it up to chance."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Edison quickly started making random concoctions with his chemicals, throwing whatever he had in Laki's direction..

Of course, Laki didn't move an inch, and he missed every single one. "Again! Again!" To have someone so indifferent about what was going on…

"Well…" Ian couldn't help but have his smile grow larger as he leaned forward on his podium. "Tell me…"

…

"Are you ready to gamble your life?"

…

Vote for:

[Ian]

[Laki]

Make your decision…

Hehehehehehehe… Oh brother, I've had this idea brewing for a while now. It was just a matter of getting to this point. And there was only one trial where an idea like this could happen.

Hope you've enjoyed this bumpy road of a trial. I felt like not only was it a better murder case, but the DRAMA was so much more real. I had a blast writing this trial.

Not only that, but it was nice to have a counter for the entire second part of the trial. Back in the first trial, Sakura was only brought forth as a potential suspect near the end, but here, Ian was the suspect for the entire part. A lot more time was spent on such a good section, I feel like.

And not to mention we FINALLY got some Michael backstory. How does it feel, characters who still don't have ANY backstories? Michael got his BEFORE you! Haha. You must be embarrassed.

Anyways.

I am 100% serious with that ending. You get to vote for this. Isn't that exciting? I will be giving everyone until the end of the 27th of August to make their decision. Of course, you must PM me your decision, and I don't want you talking about what you chose. Of course, you can still theorise on what the majority might have chosen.

You also don't need to have a character in the fic to make a decision. Anyone who I know has been regularly reading gets to vote!

I can't wait to find out who the killer is! I'm in the dark just as much as you are now D: I'm on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out who the killer is.

Also, Sin, if you read this after the voting is over…

Fuck you.

I warned you. You don't get to decide now if you read after the deadline!

Anyways, see you all next time!

Participants Remaining: 17

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Seira Nastume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

Giustina "Gigi" Giulio - The Ultimate Referee [Nekoja]

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Computer Security Specialist [CandleFire45]

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin]

Melody Eleanor Hopkins - The Ultimate Tap Dancer [Prince PokePersona]

Kim Dae-Hyun - The Ultimate Talent Manager [oddlyillregular]

Lakshmi "Laki" Krishna - The Ultimate Lucky Student [Sempi]

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Ian Santiago - The Ultimate Gambler [Animeboy15]

Tatiana Novak - The Ultimate Knife Thrower [Extrameme]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [CompleticatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakuereader101]

Kim Hae-Won - The Ultimate Tattoo Artist [Weekaro]