Chapter 1: Early Graduation or Early Grave? Part 7 (Deadly Life)

Remaining Students: 17(?)

Yūgo Hachiken (Silver Spoon): Ultimate Tutor

Reyn (Xenoblade Chronicles): Ultimate Tank

Pietro Maximoff "Quicksilver" (Marvel Cinematic Universe): Ultimate Speedster

Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic The Hedgehog): Ultimate Pilot

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (Fire Emblem: Three Houses): Ultimate Prince

Satou Kazuma (Konosuba) Ultimate Thief

Bede (Pokémon): Ultimate Gym Leader

Ray (The Promised Neverland): Ultimate Strategist

Finn (Star Wars): Ultimate Rebel

Sayori (Doki Doki Literature Club): Ultimate Poet

Konata Izumi (Lucky Star): Ultimate Otaku

Saki Nikaido (Zombie Land Saga): Ultimate Biker Gang Leader

Tsuyu Asui (My Hero Academia) Ultimate Amphibian

Kokomi Teruhashi (The Disastrous Life of Saiki K): Ultimate Beauty

Minori Ichinose(Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure): Ultimate Bookworm

Sora Takenouchi (Digimon Adventure Original): Ultimate Love

Kale (Dragon Ball Super): Ultimate ?

Sakaki (Azumanga Daioh): Ultimate Animal Lover

Hachiken's POV

Insert Song: Box 15 (Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc)

"Well, this just seems useless then.. Damn, this could have been important!"

Ray shakes his head at the broken handbook we had discovered. Sayori is still pressing the side buttons and tapping the screen to make it work, although I think that would make things worse…

"I guess we will have to move on until we find a way to switch it back on again." Minori says as she ponders to herself.

Yeah, a broken handbook doesn't really get us anywhere. Although… I would say that's still a clue worth keeping a record of.

"Broken e-Handbook" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

I inspect the floor to see if we're missing anything and I see some kind of liquid on the floor, and it looks like someone slipped on it too…

"What is this…?" I place my finger on its surface to check.

"Candle wax? It has to be from the candles we were given by Monokuma, but how could it have melted that quickly?"

Sayori takes out her candle and looks at it until she spots something, "Look at the label!"

Minori reads it aloud, "'Wick-ed Melting Candles, please candle with care…', These are quick melting candles. To think that we were lent these when the power was about to go out…"

"Ugh, that would have been a disaster if we didn't build a generator. Freaking Monokuma, wanting to leave us in the dark… In any case, it melted pretty fast and someone slipped on it. The fire could have spread because of the flame landing on a wood floor, though I doubt that's the only reason."

"Good deduction, Hachiken. Let's carry on now.

"Candle Wax" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

Ray looks over by the exit door to find a couple more pieces of evidence, and they are definitely not worth missing.

"Here's a lighter and multiple empty fuel canisters, looks like we've found the cause of the fire. Though the fact that they're so close to the body has me thinking up a few scenarios…" Ray explains.

I walk over to the items and unsurprisingly the canister is a lot less heavy compared to what I saw Sayori try to lift earlier on tonight. No wonder they tried to get something to carry all of them, although I doubt that the cart wouldn't be heavy to push as well.

"I still can't believe someone here would want to kill someone, not just that, kill someone by burning them alive…" Sayori's head slumped down as she thought about it.

Minori addresses her concerns, "Agreed, it really is haunting. Even if the killer has their own reasons for doing so…"

"...Or even if it's an accident. Whoever that is is still burned alive, and there's no changing that." Ray brings up.

All true. No matter what happened, one of us is dead and all we can do is find out who did it to them. I don't even know if I could forgive the murderer for this, just looking at the corpse is making me disgusted and horrified. Most importantly though, we have to win and survive.

"Lighter" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Empty Fuel Canisters" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

It looks like that's all there is in the gym, at least I hope that is. Missing just one thing could cause this trial to go sour for us, so I pray that we found all we could here. I think we have to talk to a few people before we head to the trial room though.

First one up, Tails. He could help us figure out the timing on both the blackout and when the generator powered on.

I raised up my hand to let him know that we're here, he was busy unplugging the generator cords since the power had already returned.

"Hey, guys… did you see who it was? That died I mean…"

The four of us shook our heads at him before we explained the situation.

"I can't believe I was too late… if I worked harder on the generator then maybe—"

"No!", I interrupted him, "It's not your fault, it's whoever killed them."

Ray stepped forward, "He's right, blaming yourself isn't going to help us get far. What we need to do now is figure out how this happened so that we can live."

Tails struggled to let the words out, "But I…"

"Tails, we have to work together. So can you tell us more about the timing of both the blackout and the generator's activation?" Ray asks him.

Tails took a moment to collect his thoughts and recall when exactly everything took place.

"The Monokuma File mentions that the victim died at 11:00 pm, correct?" He poses a question to us.

Sayori nods her head, "Yeah. That's… almost an hour ago."

Tails looks at his handbook as he talks, "Now when did you all find the… body?"

He shuddered as he mentioned that word.

"It was around 11:30. We had to wait outside for a bit until the sprinklers came on to douse the fire and for the people inside to get into the gym. About ten minutes for us to get to the recreation center, twenty more to wait for the fires to die down, and a few extra minutes for the shock to end." Ray answered.

I'm surprised he managed to keep track of the time. I hadn't even checked the time all that much, and I couldn't memorize all of that without forgetting something at least. He's definitely got a strong mind.

"Wait, um… huh?" Sayori tried memorizing all the times herself and got confused.

"I see… so I remember that it was around 10:48pm when the blackout happened, but I lost track when we were fumbling around in the dark for a few minutes." Tails's eyebrows lowered.

"Yeah, Hachiken really took his sweet time figuring out how to turn this thing on." Ray joked as I grumbled.

"You try figuring out which button to press with barely any light! Plus there were four of them!" I yelled.

"Calm down…" Minori spoke up as I began to cool my head.

"Ha ha, anyways back to the matter at hand. I think the generator activated at 10:56pm, so only four minutes before the victim was… killed, ugh sorry everyone. I can't stand these types of words in this kind of context." Tails apologized.

"No worries, I can't either ehehe~..." Sayori unenthusiastically chuckled as she looked to the side depressingly.

Glad that we've managed to get more information, this will definitely be useful during the trial.

"Blackout" has been updated in the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Generator Activation" has been updated in the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"I really do wish that I could be of more help, yet I've exerted all my energy on building this thing and it turns out it was pointless…" Tails sighed as he patted the generator.

"It wasn't! I'm sure this generator will be useful for something else, don't sell yourself short, Tails!" Sayori encouraged him.

"Y-You really think so?" His eyes widened.

"I know so!" She replied with a smile.

Tails's head slowly began to rise up"... Ok, I'll see what else I can do with this generator once we're done. I could use some help with unplugging it though…"

"Then I'll help you then! I wouldn't want you to do all of this yourself, and I don't think I could help much more with the investigation." Sayori volunteered.

Minori adjusted her glasses before joining them, "I'll assist too, there are a lot of cords to unplug so disconnecting all of them will need more hands."

"Thank you, you two! I'll try to pull my own weight as well!" Tails thanked them as the began getting to work.

Sayori really knows how to make a person feel better, even if she can't manage to do the same for herself. I sure do hope that the rest of us can help her as much as she's been trying to do for us.

"Good luck, we'll be sure to share more information at the trial." Ray tells them.

I nodded in agreement, "Yeah, don't strain yourselves. We'll need you to help us out later on!"

Ray and I waved farewell to them as we went to the infirmary to go see some more people. We need some more alibis in order to figure out who was where at the time of the murder.

As we open the door we're greeted to a loud back and forth argument between Reyn and Pietro.

Insert Song: Riki the Legendary Heropon (Xenoblade Chronicles)

"I'm telling you man, I didn't do it!" Reyn shouted.

"A likely story, big man…" Pietro scowled at him.

"You serious?! I wasn't anywhere near that gym when the fire went off!" Reyn bit back.

Pietro continued to not believe him, "Bullshit, you were inside the recreation center around the time the fire started and the power went out! You were doing something in there that you said was 'business', aka burning two girls alive!"

Reyn meanwhile was getting too heated at this, "Them's fightin' words, don't call me a murderer ya joka!"

"Then where were you?!" Pietro demanded an answer.

Reyn couldn't answer clearly, "I..um…I was…"

Ray had finally had enough, "Can you two can it?! We're trying to solve a murder case here."

"Tch, big man is just jealous that he lost the eating contest so he's pissed off at me. He's too proud to admit he killed them." Pietro scoffed.

"Ugh, don't remind me of that contest…" Reyn groaned.

"Can we just focus here, today preferably?" I asked them.

"What do you kids want anyway?" Pietro asks us.

"We just wanted to know the alibis of you two so we can narrow down suspects." Ray crossed his arms.

"Hmph, is that all? I was outside of the recreation center, waiting for this clown to finish with whatever 'business' he claims he had." Pietro gave his side.

I asked him a different question then, "Remind me, who else was inside the recreation center when you were there?"

"The orange-haired girl, the long-haired tall girl, the girl with the bow, and the glowing blue-haired girl." He listed them out for us.

I memorized the descriptions and figured out who he was referring to, "Sora, Sakaki, Sayori, and Teruhashi. That's all? No one else?"

"During the wait, I went for a jog around the building. No sign of the boy with the pink jacket or girl with the ponytail in red."

He must be referring to Kale and Bede, with them being so distant from us that's not surprising. Makes me wonder what they were up to, but that would mean having to put up with Bede's attitude when he's investigating too. But wait…

"If you're able to run around the recreation center in seconds, how come you didn't rush into the gym when it was on fire?" Ray asks him a question I had on my mind.

"The door was blocked by something heavy, took forever to open it and the smoke made it hard to find the body. Found blue haired-girl passed out because of it." Pietro explained.

"I see… that's all Pietro. Please don't pick fights again when we have no clue who's 100% suspicious." I warned him.

He just sighed before running off on his own again. He really just wants to get this over with quickly. I do too, but rushing through this won't help us in the long run… pun not intended.

"Pietro's Account" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Now Reyn, we're not gonna get mad. Just tell us where you were at the time of the murder." Ray said to ease his worries.

"Well…" Reyn still hesitated for some reason.

"You don't have to explain it in detail if you don't want to either. Keep it short if you prefer." I told him.

"I know! I know! Let me just… fine, I'll tell you."

Reyn walked forward to us and whispered in both of our ears. His alibi was… baffling to say the least.

"Do you have proof?" Ray asked with an exasperated expression on his face.

"Uh… no. It's what happened though…" Reyn stated.

"We can't rely on only your word for it, you could be lying just to—"

"Ray, he's telling the truth." I interrupted the kid.

"Eh?" He let out in response.

I nonchalantly pointed at Reyn's boot, "Look right there. That's your proof."

He looks at where I'm pointing at before he places the palm of his hand onto his face in disbelief. It was a piece of toilet paper stuck to his boot.

Ray shakes his head at the sight, "You're kidding me…"

"Wait, you saw that? I thought I got rid of… damn it."

Reyn groans as he peels it off to our disgust and places it in a nearby trash bin.

"Thanks for your cooperation Reyn… let's just try to forget that and move on."

Ray pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance as he approaches Teruhashi's room in the infirmary.

"Wait for me." I told him.

No wonder he didn't want to talk about the food eating contest they had…

"Reyn's Account" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Toilet Paper" has been added to the Truth Bullet section of your handbook.

"Hold on a minute, you two. She's still knocked out after the smoke got to her. Don't try to wake her up for too long, alright?" Reyn warned us.

"We'll keep that in mind. Won't try to do anything that'll make her condition worse." I nodded in response.

When we opened the door she was out cold on the bed. She still looked quite beautiful, but that warm golden glow that seemed to radiate off of her has disappeared. Her face is blackened a bit, yet not burned, though I would assume all the damage is all internal.

"Teruhashi-san? It's Ray and Hachiken. Can you hear us?" I greet her softly so that she wouldn't be disturbed by the noise.

She coughs before I see her eyes beginning to open up slightly, "Hi…".

Ray walks up to the right side of the bed, "We just wanted to see if you remembered things about the fire. It would really help out in the trial so… anything helps."

She looked like she was having trouble even speaking a single word, I felt bad.

"T-Take your time." I said quietly.

She finally manages to let out something, "We had… a lot of trouble carrying the gas containers… we got a cart but it was too heavy… we ended up dropping a lot of them… And right when we picked the cart back up, the blackout happened and I bumped into someone."

"It was just the three of you there, right? You, Sakaki, and Sora?" Ray brings up another question.

She slowly nods, "I smelt something burning and I saw a big wall of fire blocking the door…. And that's all I can remember."

So when the blackout happened, the three of them fumbled about and that's when the fire started. With the lights out you couldn't see who could have caused it either…

"I guess that's all we need. Thank you Teruhashi, we'll win the trial for your sake and everyone else's." I thanked her as Ray and I got up from our chairs.

"Wait…" She suddenly stopped us.

"What?" We both asked.

Insert Song: Because I'm a Perfect Girl (The Disastrous Life of Saiki K)

"Am I… still perfect?" Her golden glow briefly returned as she asked that.

"Oh wow… I mean y-yeah of course!" I reassured her.

"Oh brother…" Ray sighed as we closed the door.

*Ding dong bing bong*

"Uh oh, it looks like we are out of time! It's time for the first class trial at Kuma-versity, and don't think you could skip it, even if I don't show up after fifteen minutes! Head over to the fountain in the plaza NOW students!"

Crap, do we really have enough evidence to handle everything? This is our first trial so it's already difficult without knowing how everything works. If it all goes sour… it could also be our last trial too. And I don't mean that in a positive way.

"Hachiken, we need to focus. Don't let your mind wander too much, or you'll end up forgetting the information we just got." Ray scolded me.

"Yeah, I know… I'll try not to hold you guys back." I replied.

I messaged Sayori and she told me that they finished unplugging the generator. By the time Ray and I reached the fountain in the plaza, everyone who could be here was here. That excludes both Sakaki and Sora since neither are confirmed as alive and Teruhashi who is still recovering in the infirmary.

"Are you… ready for this, Hachiken?" Sayori asked me, fidgeting back and forth.

I answered as honestly as possible, "Nope, not at all. My heart feels like it's about to burst out of my chest."

"Y-Yeah, me too… I hate that we have to do this, even if we have to…"

I nodded my head to agree with her as I looked at everyone else to see how they felt about it.

Tails and Konata were visibly sweating and their fists were clenched tightly, definitely nervous like we are.

Bede was just as serious as usual, and he was eyeing everyone in the crowd as if we're all hostile, Ray stared right back at him with suspicion of his own.

Saki and Pietro were impatient, the former gritting her teeth and crossing her arms and the latter was tapping his foot and waiting for things to get started.

Dimitri had a conflicted look on his face, clearly mad but trying to keep himself calm.

Kale was completely silent, looking around at us in clear distress.

Reyn, Finn, and Kazuma were looking at the evidence collected on their e-Handbooks, trying to figure out how everything fits together and from the look of things, failing.

Minori and Tsuyu looked the most calm out of all of us, but even they looked like they had some doubts in their heads.

"What the hell?!" Kazuma shouted in surprise as a tremor shook the plaza.

"Stay strong everyone…" Dimitri stood his ground despite said ground shaking like crazy.

The stone walkway beneath the fountain began to shift and to our surprise an elevator rose up from underground!

"Just who could have created this kind of machinery…?" Tails questioned.

Bede just stepped on first and sighed as he waited for everyone else to join him. He really doesn't want to be here right now, feeling's mutual pal.

The fifteen of us managed to fit inside of it, where we descended towards the bottom of the entire campus. For a moment I thought it was a trick and we're all just being sent on a field trip to the lowest circle of hell, since at this point I expected to go through in a school like this.

*Ding*

When the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, I took one look at the "courtroom" and thought to myself…

"Man, I thought hell would look a lot nicer than this."

I'M SORRY THIS TOOK A WHILE. But the trial is finally coming next time! I hope you found this part interesting and that you look forward to the next chapter! Although, I have an important announcement to make… After the first trial, I'm going to shift focus entirely to Fictional Guardians. I apologize for anyone enjoying the story and characters so far, but I can only focus on one story at the moment. My schedule is very rough at the moment, and even when I have free time it's difficult for me to even write. This story will be on hiatus until Guardians is finished, so it's not canceled thankfully. Just please bear with me for now, I should have known better than to write two big stories at the same time. Rest assured though, the next part will have the ENTIRE trial plus the execution/aftermath. I'll see you all then and in the next chapter of Fictional Guardians. Later peeps! - Renegade