Chapter 2: Toxic Words, Venomous Actions (Trial Part 2)

Warning!

This is a Danganronpa Fic, so expect dark and serious themes! And also expect some choice words that might upset people - thanks to a certain Gas Station Manager! But expect fun and whimsical themes as well! I hope you enjoy!

[Pheme's Room]

"Number four... number four..." Pheme chanted something to herself.

"I'm sorry, Miss Pheme?" The Figure wasn't sure what she was even chanting.

"Is it not clear?" Pheme leaned back in her chair. "We're onto the fourth person for the Killing Game! And I think I know who I want that to be!" She threw a form into the air.

And The Figure caught it with ease. "Who do we have here?" He read it over. "Ayaka Naganohara, the Ultimate Violinist? Oh... she already seems rather fascinating."

"Doesn't she?" Pheme already started to pull up a video that The Contact provided for them.

"Yes... yes she does..." The Figure quietly waited for the video to start...

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[Naganohara Residence]

"Papa? Welcome home!" A young Ayaka Naganohara currently stood right in front of her front door. She had been eagerly awaiting her father to come home from an event.

"Ah! Ayaka!" Ayaka's father, Yuu Naganohara, set down his things, picked up his daughter, and hugged her. "Oh... it's so good to see you!"

"Papa! Papa! Quit it!" Ayaka acted like she was embarrassed, but her blush and laugh clearly gave away that she didn't hate it.

"Alright alright!" Yuu set his daughter down. "How was your day, Ayaka?" He hadn't been able to see his daughter all day due to he plans he had for this evening, so he was eager to learn how she was doing.

"It was really good! School was lots of fun! My friends were lots of fun! It was just... fun!" Ayaka was still young enough to where she didn't have the biggest vocabulary in the world.

"I see! I see!" Yuu listened intently. "And what about your-"

"Yuu! It's good to see you!"

"Ah! Mai!" Yuu left his daughter to go hug his wife and Ayaka's mother, Mai Naganohara.

"Hi Mama!" Ayaka waved to her mother from the couch.

"And a "hi" to you too, Ayaka!" Mai giggled as she waved to her daughter. "Alrighty then." She brushed off her apron, then sat down next to her daughter. "Yuu. How was the event?"

"Right..." Yuu went to pick up a case he had set down, and move it closer to the couch. "I'll explain it in a minute. First, how's your business doing, Mai?"

"Oh, thanks for asking!" Mai giggled. Mai, along with being a stay-at-home-wife, was the owner of a small online business known as SupremeSyrene. The business specialized in shipped out the supremest of Syrenes around the globe, whatever the hell that meant. "It's going well! My sales have almost doubled since last month! I'm guessing due to the holiday season! I'm predicting my profits will raise even higher within the coming months... so all in all, it's going very well!"

"Really? That's great!" Yuu smiled.

Ayaka admittedly had no clue what the business lingo meant, but she was just enjoying herself anyway.

"But that's enough about me! Back to you!" Mai pointed to her husband. "Tell me, how was the event?"

"Well..." Yuu opened up the case he had brought over. Inside of it was a violin. He set it on his lap. "Honestly? It went great! The turn out was better than I would've expected!"

Yuu Naganohara was a professional violinist, with a lot of local renown. He had just returned home from a holiday recital with a few fellow violinists that they put on at the local church.

"I'm not surprised! You've always been a savant with a violinist!" Mai glazed her husband.

"Please, Mai..." Yuu blushed a little at the glazing.

"Mama? What's a "savant?"" Ayaka, again, wasn't really old enough to understand too much yet.

"Ah... it's a person with great skill in a subject." Mai gave her own definition of the word. "Does that make sense?"

"Oh! Yeah it does!" Ayaka eagerly nodded. "Papa, you really are a savant with the violin!" She still didn't have the fullest grasp on what her father did, but she knew that he played that instrument really well. And that's all she needed to know.

"Oh, well thank you Ayaka!" Yuu wasn't going to object at getting complimented by his own daughter.

"Hey, Papa?" Ayaka tilted her head.

"Yes, Ayaka?" Yuu was curious to see what his daughter was going to ask.

"The... violin, right?" Ayaka pointed to the instrument on her father's lap.

"Hm?" Yuu picked up the violin. "What about it, Ayaka?"

"Can I... do what you do? Can I play it?" Ayaka had a curious look on her face.

Yuu blinked. "You... want to play it?"

"Really, Ayaka?" Mai wasn't expecting to hear that.

"Yeah!" Ayaka nodded her head back and forth.

"Well... of course!" Yuu didn't have a reason to deny his daughter, after all. And truthfully, both Yuu and Mai kind of wanted this to happen. It was always a thought in the back of their minds... what if their daughter inherited her father's musical talents? And now... the opportunity was here, it seems.

"Really! Cool!" Ayaka stood up.

"Uh... yes. Right!" Yuu took the violin and stood up as well.

"What's first, Papa?" Ayaka tilted her head.

"First..." Yuu didn't actually expect to jump right into it, but he had no choice now. "First, I'll show you how to hold the violin." Luckily, the violin that Yuu used was small and light enough so that even a kid like Ayaka could use it. So, he helped his daughter and got her to hold the violin.

"Hm... okay!" Ayaka got comfortable enough with it. "What now? How do I get it to play music?"

"Well, to get it to play music, you have to utilize the bow." Yuu helped guide his daughter in using the bow. "You hold it like this!"

"O...kay!" Ayaka already felt natural doing this. "Now what?"

"Well... you put your fingers up here, next." Yuu guided the budding violinist's fingers up to the top of the violin. "Then, you move the bow back and forth across the strings." He took a step back. "Try it out!"

"Okay!" Ayaka, as eager as ever, slowly moved the bow across the strings of her father's violin. And, it might not've been fast or complex... but she made music! She did it! "Oh wow!" She yelled out excitedly while she continued to slowly play.

"You're... doing it!" Yuu widened his eyes. He knew it might've been premature to say this... but he trusted his intuition. And his intuition told him that his daughter was a natural at this!

"Oh my gosh! You're doing great, honey!" It's not like Mai herself has ever played the violin, but she knew that her daughter was doing better than she ever could!

"Mama! Papa! This is so much fun!" Ayaka began to slowly pick up the pace of her playing. It was still just random notes... but it didn't sound horrible!

Yuu and Mai couldn't believe their eyes. Their daughter... she was doing it! She was playing the violin like a natural! Maybe... maybe this can be turmed into a legacy! Would they be able to achieve their pipe dream...?

"Ah... alright!" Ayaka gently set the violin down on the floor. She might've been a natural, but she was also a novice. It wasn't like she could play forever. "Mama? Papa? Can I play more? Can I get... uh... lessons?" She had to think of the word.

"Of course you can, honey!" Yuu and Mai were overjoyed. This... is great. Yeah... this'll go great!

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"Good job Ayaka! The performance went great!" Nobara, a good friend of Ayaka's clapped after witnessing her friends's performance.

"T-Thank you, Nobara." A now older Ayaka bowed her head and adjusted her mask. "It went pretty good, didn't it?" When she first randomly chose to pickup the violin, she really never thought she'd reach this stage of fame. But especially with what happened to her... it's not surprising.

"No problem!" Nobara set her hands on her hips. "Anyway, I gotta let you know something." She leaned in a little closer.

Sensing that this wasn't going to be about her performance itself, Ayaka got a little nervous. "W-What is it?"

"I saw a guy in a fancy suit looking you up and down during your performance. He looked shady." Nobara warned her.

"Oh... r-really?" Ayaka started to look around the backstage, almost expecting this shady guy to pop up out of nowhere. But that wouldn't happen right? Surely?

"Hello! Are you... Ms. Ayaka Naganohara?" Without even a single ellipses, the aforementioned shady guy suddenly popped up behind Ayaka.

"KYA!" Ayaka jumped up in the air and immediately turned around. "What the-" The violinist's anxiety disappeared in almost an instant when saw what the shady guy was holding. "What is...?" He was holding a business card in his hands. One that said...

"Hello! I am a talent scout from Hope's Peak Academy!" The talent scout showed no concern over clearly scaring the girl. "I have come to offer something to Ayaka Naganohara!"

"I'm Ayaka. You want t-to o-offer what?" Ayaka blinked, not sure what to feel right now.

"An ultimate title of course!" The talent scout shoved the business card into Ayaka's hands. "The Ultimate Violinist! What say you?" He offered incredibly aggressively.

"Uh..." Ayaka blinked. How the hell did this happen in the span of like 30 seconds? And Nobara wasn't even saying anything! What the hell?

But... the more thought she gave to it... this is kind of what she's always wanted. An ultimate title. It's what her parents had wanted from her... and it's what she has wanted from herself. She... felt like she deserves fame... in a way. Not someone like him. He didn't deserve it. He didn't deserve the benefits that came with fame. But... did she? Did she deserve it herself...?

"That... uh... s-sounds goods!" Ayaka lightly smiled as she took the talent scout's hand.

[Pheme's Room]

The video cut off.

"Hm?" Pheme crossed her arms.

"Miss Pheme?" The Figure noticed the look on Pheme's face.

"Nozomi wasn't even in the video!" Pheme apparently wasn't pleased with the video she chose.

"Ah. I see." The Figure chuckled. "Put that out of your mind, Miss Pheme."

"Okay!" Pheme instantly forgot what she was annoyed by. "Anyway...! Ayaka Naganohara! What say you?" She looked over her shoulder. "I mean... a girl like her? Filled to the brim with paranoia, yet she has the gall to claim that she deserves fame? She still wishes for fame, despite what happened with him? A girl like her... she doesn't deserve the gift that is life!"

"Yes... I get it." The Figure had heard enough of thise speeches already, despite this only being the fourth person. "Honestly... she sounds like she'd be a wonderful addition. Yes... Ayaka Naganohara shall be the fourth person to be a part of the Killing Game!"

"Wonderful!" Pheme tossed Ayaka's form up in the air again. "Ayaka... Nozomi... yes! She's going to be an amazing addition..."

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[Grand Court]

"Allow me to reiterate. I am not Ayaka. I am Nozomi. I haven't had the pleasure of properly meeting you all yet. Forgive my late introduction." Nozomi bowed her head.

"You are... Nozomi?" Damien slowly blinked.

"That is what I said. I am Nozomi." Nozomi repeated herself.

"I see... Nozomi..." Ji-hoon narrowed his eyes while he looked over some of his earlier notes.

"What's up Ji-hoon? You got something?" Kei acted surprisingly unfazed.

"Well... maybe." Ji-hoon kept eyeing his notes. "I had heard rumors and theories about the Ultimate Violinist having another side to her. It's fascinating to see it proved."

"Respectfully Jo, I'm not here to fascinate you. I exist to aid Ayaka however I can." Nozomi took off her mask. "I've never liked wearing this mask though..."

"Wha-?" Yoshino was still speechless about this. "How are more of y'all not being freaked out by this?" She looked around the room.

"No... I'm freaked the fuck out." Joji reassured her. "I'm just... what... no. Who are you... Nozomi?" It felt weird calling Ayaka a different name.

"I'd like to know that too..." Lake was more curious than freaked out.

"..." And Rival didn't have much to say.

"Well..." Nozomi sighed. "I'd like to focus on who killed Mashimoto, but I see that we won't be moving on until I explain myself."

"Looks to be that way." It didn't seem like Darren cared that much. Or if he did care, he wasn't showing it.

"Nyahaha! To think there are two sides to the violinist human! How interesting!" Cathy was more amused than anything.

"Ah, I need to correct you there Munchkin." Nozomi swiftly shook her head. "I wouldn't associate being a "violinist" with myself."

"Hm? Whatever do you mean my dear Nozomi?" Damien tilted his head, eager to learn more about this other side of his dear Ayaka.

"Don't call me that." Nozomi looked up at Damien with a stone-faced expression.

Damien blinked. "Don't call you... what?"

"Lux, I must ask you to not call me "my dear" or anything similar. I am not "your dear" Nozomi. Just call me Nozomi." Nozomi said firmly.

"Ah, then-"

"I wasn't finished." Nozomi cut Damien off. "I must ask you to dispense with calling Ayaka "my dear" as well. Though... I'm assuming she slapped you? Considering that, I believe it was a given. Thank you for listening." She bowed her head.

"I... see." Damien hadn't gotten such blatant disapproval of how he refers to the girls of the cast. "If that is your wish... then I can do that. Nozomi." For once, Damien didn't call a girl "my dear." Character development!

"This is still... fucking crazy." Yoshino's mouth was slightly agape. "But uh- can you explain yourself, please? Aya- no. Um... Zomi?" She had to think of a nickname on the spot.

"Zomi... that's acceptable." Nozomi nodded in approval. "But yes, I'll explain myself now Akiyama. Don't worry. Normally I wouldn't share so much, but I sense I have no choice."

"Yeah... you kinda don't." Rival had no idea what to think about all of this.

"Very well then." Nozomi cleared her voice. "I am Nozomi. I am... another side of Ayaka. You see, Ayaka suffers from D.I.D."

"What?! She does?!" That was the last thing Joji expected to hear.

"Wait... what's D.I.D.?" Lake wanted to make sure they didn't get more lost than they already were.

Kei suddenly chuckled. "I can explain it." He offered. "D.I.D. stands for Dissociative Identity Disorder. It's when a person has a split personality... like another version of themselves inside of them. A good example of it is Toko Fukawa and her other personality, Genocide Jack."

"Ohhh! I've heard of her before! Though it was a long time ago!" It wasn't like Lake had any reason to know about someone like her off the top of their head.

"Genocide Jack is a good example of it." Ji-hoon also hadn't thought of them in a while. "I'm assuming you're nothing like her, Nozomi?"

"That's correct." Nozomi nodded. "Getting back to my explanation... after a certain incident, Ayaka... developed me, let's say. Ever since then, I have been with Ayaka as another side... or how Lux might say it, a specter." She chose to not acknowledge Damien's reaction to that, if he had any. "My primary interest is making sure Ayaka doesn't get hurt again. I sensed she was getting hurt, so I chose to come out and protect her."

"Yeah! Getting hurt by the beautician human! Nyahaha!" Cathy pointed and laughed at Damien. "Or maybe the other way around? The violinist human did slap the beautician human after all!"

"Right..." That almost slipped Damien's mind. His cheek still stung a little!

"Ah yes, allow me to apologize for that much." Nozomi turned and bowed her head. "Ayaka and I don't share memories, so I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure what was going through her mind while she was."

"Really?" That drew Damien's attention away from his stinging cheek. "Could you explain that more?"

"I'd like to know that too." Considering Ji-hoon's position of responsibility in the group, even if one could argue he kinda fumbled as a leader for this case, it was important for him to learn more about Nozomi.

"Certainly." Nozomi cordially nodded. "Ayaka has been leaving me notes explaining what has happened throughout this Killing Game. So I am up-to-date on Yuto, Nakata, Yamamoto, Celani, and now Mashimoto. Though I am not aware of what has been discussed as of yet."

"That's... wild." Joji, like most of the others, had no idea how to react.

"...Hold on. That's... strange." Something about these notes sounded weird to Rival.

"Hm? What's strange, Seizon?" Nozomi turned to face Rival with an expressionless look.

"Well..." Being called by his last name was a strangely weird feeling to Rival... but he ignored it. "I've... been in Ayaka's room before. For the motive...? Where were those notes?"

Fucking finally. Rival may not of minded this talk, but he was about to pass out. "Yeah... sure. Should we... go to your room or my room? Which would be more comfortable for you?" He wanted to be respectful.

"Ah!" Ayaka hadn't thought of that yet. Which would be more comfortable for her? Probably... "I think my room would be better." Maybe it's a weird word to use... but she felt a little better in her "home base" so to speak.

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"O-Oh wow, that's a lot of people." Ayaka and Rival stepped out of Ayaka's room, cutting off the narration in the process.

"Ah. That's easily explainable." Nozomi firmly shook her head. "Whenever Ayaka leaves her room, she always hides those notes away somewhere. I will not disclose why. But when you, Seizon, went into her room, the notes she left for me were hidden. That's why you did not see them."

"Oh... okay." Rival was a little thrown off hearing such a solid and straightforward rebuttal.

"So there's the notes... the D.I.D..." Ji-hoon spoke out loud while he jotted down his notes. "Say, Nozomi? What was it you said to Cathy earlier? About not wanting to be associated with the "violinist" talent?" He removed the need for a flashback by just explaining what the flashback would've been himself.

"Ah. That." Nozomi brushed her hand over her shoulder and adjusted her posture. "Ayaka is the Ultimate Violinist. I have no Ultimate Talent. I have no particular talents, much less any skill with a violin. That is what I meant."

"Nyohoho! Wonder how that works?" Cathy leaned over her podium, getting honestly interested in this development. "Talentless human... you're rather interesting!"

"I don't exist to be interesting, Munchkin." Nozomi swiftly shook her head. "Now, I believe I've explained everything vital about who I am. Could someone please get me up to speed on the happenings of the Studio Trial?"

"I can do that." Ji-hoon had been jotting down what they'd already discussed on a notepad, so he threw it Nozomi's way. "Here!"

Nozomi caught it with ease. "Warn me before you throw next time, Jo!" She stated as she looked over the notes. "I see... Reinhardt... Mashimoto and Alpha... Adenosine... poisoned rum... ah yes. Thank you, Jo. Here you are!" She warned him before she threw it back to him. "I believe I am caught up now, and I'm ready to debate. I'll take Ayaka's place for the rest of the trial."

"Will you now?" Darren finally decided to say something. "We were accusing Ayaka of poisoning Genjiro."

"Indeed..." Damien still had to collect himself from the sudden Nozomi. "The fact that my-" He stopped himself. "The fact that Ayaka was so perturbed that her other identity took over for her... that's rather suspicious no?" In a surreal moment, Damien didn't call Ayaka his dear! Gold finally won!

"So Ayaka was being suspected of poisoning Mashimoto? And there was the fact that she had access to Mashimoto's rum. Very well. Allow me to explain what I know." Nozomi took a deep breath as she recalled what Ayaka had written to her regarding the party. "First off. According to Ayaka, the party was not her idea." She already dropped some interesting information.

"What?! Really?! But she- she never said it wasn't her idea!" That was certainly news to Joji.

"Yeah... why would she say that? Whose idea was it?" Lake tilted their head.

Nozomi turned to look at a certain someone. "The person who truly had the idea was...

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"Lux. He suggested the idea of a drinking party to Ayaka." Nozomi stood firm with her accusation.

"...Really?" Darren slightly raised his eyebrows.

"It was Damien's idea?!" Yoshino knew something was up with the guy.

"Nyahaha! I'm not surprised!" Cathy smirked while she shook her head.

"Are you serious?!" Joji looked bewildered.

"Is that true Damien?" Ji-hoon wanted to ask before he jumped to any conclusions.

Damien... merely chuckled. "Is that true you ask?" He kept chuckling, not showing any concern or worry at the sudden accusation. "Possibly. But Nozomi? Do you simply believe everything that Ayaka tells you?"

"Ayaka has no reason to lie to me. So I believe her." Nozomi kept her belief in Ayaka.

"Is that so?" Damien raised an eyebrow, with a smirk still across his face. "Very well then. It's true. The party was my idea." He admitted.

"That's... weird." Rival was starting to get more sussed out by Damien than usual. "If it's your idea... then why did Ayaka claim it was... her idea?"

"Okay. My idea." Ayaka mentally collected herself. "Yesterday... I t-thought about Bessie and Aelia. Or... mainly Bessie actually. And... I got an idea."

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"I think w-we should have a gathering. Or... no. A party. To help build the bonds between us... or something." Ayaka held her breath as she awaited people to react.

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"W-Well... it's because I want it to be a... drinking party." Ayaka revealed. "It might be a fun way for us all to grow closer, I thought."

"Yeah... why would Aya hide that?" Yoshino didn't get it.

"My dear Yoshino, that's simple." Damien casually shook his head. "It's because I told her to claim it was her idea."

"Oh? And why would you do that?" Kei was interested in where this was going.

"Well... let me explain what happened when I initially brought it up with Ayaka." Damien adjusted his clothes so that the upcoming flashback would look great.

Joji, Lake, and everyone else slowly started to filter out of the cafeteria and go get some good sleep. But... not everyone had left yet.

Damien and Ayaka were still there.

"My dear Ayaka? How are you feeling?" Damien wanted to check on his dear.

"I'm f-fine." Ayaka bluntly answered. The fact that Cathy was watching them that whole time was still messing with her head. But... she tried not to linger on it. "I'm g-going to go to sleep now." She got up and headed to the door.

"Ah! My dear Ayaka!" Damien got up as well. "Can you hold on for a moment?"

"W-What is it?" Ayaka turned around.

"It's nothing major." Damien ran his hand through his hair. "I just wanted to tell you something..." He walked up to her. "Or... no. More like I want to suggest something. Will you hear me out?"

"Um... sure." Ayaka had no reason not to.

"Very good! I'll try to make this quick so you can get your rest." Damien smiled a gentle smile. "For my suggestion... first off, you of course recall the show that Rival and our dear Bessie weren't able to perform yes?"

"I d-do." Ayaka shakily nodded. "How couldn't I remember?"

"Yes yes... indeed." Damien sighed. "Well, I always thought it was a shame that it couldn't come to fruition. So... I thought of another... form of that show. Something to raise our group's morale and spirits."

"Okay...?" Ayaka wasn't sure where he was going with this. "What d-did you think of?"

"I thought of... a drinking party." Damien looked at a random bottle of alcohol that was left behind in the cafeteria. "I'm not the biggest indulger in alcohol myself, but I feel like it's a good idea... to help the group raise their spirits, literally and figuratively."

"I see... alcohol." Ayaka wasn't old enough to drink, but she always wondered if booze would help her... chill out. "That... might be a good idea. But what about-"

"You think it's good? Wonderful!" Damien put both hands on his dear Ayaka's shoulders. "In that case, I now move on to my main point." He got a bit more serious. "If you think it's a good idea, I'd like for you to suggest and take credit for it."

"M-Me?!" Ayaka didn't expect that. "But why?"

"My dear Ayaka..." Damien kept his hands on his dear Ayaka's shoulders. "I've seen you... and the way you act. The way of how paranoid you are of others. Like you have a specter spouting confusing things in your ear. Everyone ignores you and focuses on their own problems... which you can't exactly blame given the situation we find ourselves in, but it doesn't make it any less unfortunate. And that builds that reclusive personality of yours. Fear."

"W-Wow..." Ayaka had no idea how to react to that.

"Perhaps I got carried away with that..." Damien admitted. "That was a bit long-winded, so allow me to shorten my thoughts." He cleared his voice. "I wish to aid you in getting out of that fear of yours. That specter of yours. As a first step, I say suggesting an idea like that to the group is a good one. If you were to take charge, it would put you in a new environment for you, and that's the first step. Stepping outside of your comfort zone. And I will be with you. After all is said and done and the idea succeeds... you'll be one step closer to getting past that fear of yours." He most certainly did not shorten his thoughts. "I know that was a lot... but what say you?"

"I..." Ayaka had to think about that. A... drinking party? Taking charge? Fear? A lot of what Damien was saying was resonating with her... it felt strange... but maybe... just maybe... it would be alright. If the idea gets rejected, she could probably just go with a different one. Huh... thinking optimistically came... oddly natural to her. That's... hm.

"My dear Ayaka?" Damien didn't want to rush her, but he at least wanted to know what his dear Ayaka was thinking.

"I'll do it. I like the idea." Ayaka's mouth moved faster than her brain. But... she didn't feel as much sudden regret over spouting that out as she thought she would've.

"Is that so? Wonderful!" Damien was beaming with joy. "I'm glad you liked my idea. Trust me my dear Ayaka... it'll go very... very well."

Damien finished recounting his memory of when he suggested the party idea. "There. It was merely an idea to help my-" He stopped himself. "To help Ayaka grow to be more outgoing... what a shame."

"You... cared about her that much?" Lake was a little touched by that.

"Yeah... that's..." Joji wasn't sure exactly what to think about that.

"Indeed my dear Lake. I helped her out of the kindness of my heart..." Damien held his hand over his heart. "To think that my trust would be betrayed like this... I'm hurt."

"Huh? Fuck you mean you're hurt?" Yoshino, like everyone else, was pretty fucking confused by how this was developing. But... she was slightly more on the side of being suspicious of Damien here. Something didn't seem right.

"Your trust... was betrayed...?" Rival shook his head, showing that he didn't trust that, but without any words.

"Yes..." Damien had a downtrodden look on his face. "I don't mean to jump to conclusions... but it seems as if Ayaka is the killer. To think she'd use the idea I suggested to her as grounds to poison Genjiro... what a tragedy."

"I will protect Ayaka!"

Nozomi suddenly slammed her hand down on her podium, sending a sharp yet strong gust of wind adjacent to her.

It hit Damien with full force, causing him to use both arms to shield his face. "Gah! N-Nozomi?!" He tried to speak while making sure his clothes stayed pristine. "What is it?!"

"Don't act like that, Lux." Nozomi didn't appreciate Damien acting dumb. "You know why I countered. It's because your accusation of Ayaka is ridiculously hasty. You haven't even heard her side of the story yet."

"Yeah... what happened to always defending her, Damien?" Rival didn't consider himself a vindictive type. But there was Aelia... and now Ayaka. It was just...

"Ah... pardon me. Perhaps I did get too hasty there. Forgive me Nozomi." Damien bowed his head in forgiveness while ignoring what Rival said completely.

"I don't need an apology." Nozomi turned away from the beautician to face the rest of the group. "What I need... is to explain Ayaka's story. Then you will see that she is not suspicious in the slightest."

"Right. Can you get on with it already?" Ji-hoon was curious about Nozomi and Damien here... but he still wanted actual trial progress. And to progress, they needed a rundown of what Ayaka did.

"I'd love to see more drama between you two..." Kei shifted between pointing at Damien and Nozomi. "But let's get going." He got a little serious.

"No need to be impatient Jo. Aikawa. I'll explain posthaste." Nozomi didn't appreciate the rushing, yet she did understand it. "But there is not much to explain... but I'll explain what Ayaka informed me through the notes anyway. Regarding Mashimoto's drink... Ayaka did do something to it."

"The way you sound, I'm assuming it ain't poisoning it?" Joji doubted Nozomi would just confess to her other half's crimes like that.

"That's correct Kaneshiro." Nozomi nodded. "Ayaka never added poison to the rum. All she added was some pineapple liqueur."

"Pineapple liquor? Uh... what's that?" Lake didn't exactly understand bartending terms.

"It's liqueur, not liquor." Darren corrected them. "Liqueur has a few general uses, but one of them is being added to a drink, to give it more flavor." Of course, he gets more talkative when alcohol gets brought up.

"That's correct Taylor. According to Ayaka, she added some pineapple liqueur to Mashimoto's drink. That's all she did." Nozomi stated her defense with poise.

"I mean... if that's all she did then...?" Yoshino didn't think that sounded inherently suspicious. "After all, it ain't like the liqueur itself was poisoned right?"

"Right. It's hard to call that suspicious without any proof of any poison in it. If that was truly all Ayaka did." Ji-hoon didn't want to immediately dismiss this line of questioning, but...

"Hold on. It was pineapple liqueur right?" Darren wanted to confirm.

"Correct." Nozomi swiftly nodded.

"Huh... okay." Darren slowly turned his head up to Pheme. "Hey Pheme? Got a question."

"...Oh? What is it, Mr. Taylor?" Pheme had been so engrossed in Nozomi finally revealing herself, that it took her a second to realize that Darren was talking to her.

"Yeah... how do you do that wind thing? I remember Cathy shouting something earlier and Joji got a gust of wind sent at him. How do I do that?" Darren drank some sort of alcoholic beverage as he spoke.

"The wind... ah! You mean an interjection?" Pheme blinked.

"Yeah. I think so. What do I do for that again?" The whole room fell into an awkward silence as Darren apparently needed a lesson on how to interject.

"Well, that's simple Mr. Taylor! All you must do is raise your voice with a counter directed towards someone, and that's how you interject!" Pheme nodded in satisfaction as she still didn't explain where the wind came from.

"Raise my voice? Nah. I'm good." Darren turned away from Pheme and towards Nozomi. "I'll still do it though."

"I'll cut off your logic."

Darren interjected with a deadpan tone.

"Excuse me, Taylor?" Nozomi chose to ignore what just happened there. "What's the problem?"

"The problem is the pineapple liqueur." Darren pulled out a bottle of pineapple liqueur that was notably not from the Comedy Studio. "You were saying that it was hard to call it suspicious without there being any poison in it, right Ji-hoon?" He didn't even look at the celebrity detective.

"Uh... yeah. That's what I said. What of it?" Ji-hoon recalled what he said a few lines ago.

"Well... poison or not, the bottle is still strange." Darren shook around whatever bottle of alcohol he had now. "You remember Damien?" He pointed his bottle at the beautician. "When we investigated the Comedy Studio earlier...

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"There was no pineapple liqueur. No such bottle was there. It exists... but it was missing." And given who he was, you could trust Darren about this.

"Right... I can't believe I almost forgot that!" Damien wasn't surprised that Darren remembered that.

"And you're sure- never mind. You're sure." Joji realized he shouldn't question Darren when it comes to alcohol.

"But... it just wasn't there? What does that even mean? Someone took it?" Yoshino wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Or..." Kei clicked his tongue. "Say it was filled with poison... perhaps someone tried to get rid of evidence?" He smirked at Nozomi.

"No. I did not do that." Nozomi stoutly refuted that. "Ayaka used nearly the entire bottle three days ago, and that was all the contact she had with it. She didn't see it after that."

"Hm? And the violinist human supplied you with all of this information through some notes? Just how much does she jot down for you?" Cathy couldn't believe that Nozomi just knew all of this.

"A lot. She jots down a lot. Here." Nozomi took a half-written note out of her pocket. "Ayaka was writing to me regarding a private matter. But look." She showed it off to everyone from a distance. And yes, there was a lot of writing.

"Holy! That's a lot!" Lake widened their eyes. "What does that say? It looks like a list of scents! Vanilla, Pineapp-" They tried to read what was on the note from a distance, but the note suddenly disappeared.

Nozomi pocketed the note. "Indeed Beaumont." "So trust me that I know plenty regarding Ayaka's testimony. And what I state is the truth. The fact that the bottle itself wasn't in there... I have no clue. Someone else must've taken it for some reason."

"Heh... alright." Kei was a little amused to see her staying so defensive about it. But there was probably no pushing it.

"Forgive me Nozomi... but I must say something." Damien decided to push it just a little bit more.

"What is it, Lux?" Nozomi was getting tired of him, but she humored him anyway.

"Well... is it not simply possible that Ayaka didn't tell you about any other actions she might've done with the bottle, such as poisoning?" Damien raised an eyebrow.

"No. Ayaka wouldn't hide anything from me. She wouldn't do that." Nozomi shook her head.

"Nyahaha! The beautician makes a good point!" Cathy cackled as she whipped out one of Darren's rings to play with it. "If the violinist human were to kill one of us, she'd likely do whatever she'd have to do to hide it... including hiding it from you, talentless human! Can you truly deny it?"

"That's... wrong. She wouldn't." Nozomi tried her best to uphold her faith in Ayaka.

"I don't like agreeing with Cathy..." Joji crossed his arms with a sigh. "But I can't completely discount that either. Is there a way we can... talk to Ayaka right now?" He still didn't know how to work around D.I.D.

"I'm afraid not. Due to whatever shook her up, Ayaka is currently not mentally available to debate." Even if she was well enough, Nozomi would be fine with taking Ayaka's place anyway.

"Well damn. Can't figure shit out without her." Yoshino spat.

"Well... what do we do now? Did we hit a... deadlock? Is that what it's called?" Lake was getting concerned.

"Don't jump to conclusions, Lake." Ji-hoon groaned. "For now... Nozomi is staying stout that Ayaka hasn't done anything. I'm not saying I immediately believe her, but we need to change topics if we're going to get anywhere now. Especially without Ayaka herself here."

"Okay..." Lake tried their best to think of another topic. "Well... we're sure the liqueur itself was poisoned... right? Could they have just... poisoned the drink itself?"

"Hm... nah." Since the conversation was still about alcohol, Darren was still legally obliged to be a part of it. "The bottle of liqueur being missing heavily points to it being important. If the killer poisoned the drink itself, there'd be no reason for the liqueur to be missing."

"Oh... I see." Lake was a little disheartened after getting shot down like that, but they weren't going to give up! "So we're sure that the liqueur was poisoned... and we can't get Ayaka's testimony. So..."

"Hold on!" Cathy cut off Lake with a graceful snap, likely causing Kadachi to dislike her even more. "Aren't you humans forgetting another solution to this?"

"Ugh... what is it, Cathy?" Joji just wanted the cat burglar to get it over with.

"Nyahaha! You say the violinist could've been the one to have poisoned the wrestler human's drink! And I believe that! But..." Cathy started to slowly and smugly stare at a certain someone. "Let's not forget another person who is just as likely to have done the deed!"

"Stop drawing it out for god's sake!" Yoshino was so sick of it.

"Nyaha! Fine then!" Cathy suddenly pointed at someone. "You are just as likely a suspect...

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bartender human!" It was hard to tell if Cathy legitimately meant this, or if she was having fun. Maybe both.

"Oh ho? Back to Darren are we?" Kei raised an eyebrow.

"Ah... I see." That had never occurred to Damien. "Darren is indeed just as likely as Ayaka in this case... as they both spent a considerable amount of time in the Comedy Studio."

"So? Do you have anything to say, Darren? Was it you?" Ji-hoon, like most possibilities, wasn't immediately going to deny this one. But he wanted to see what the bartender had to say.

"No." Darren didn't even blink.

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"Uh... what?" That even caught Cathy off guard.

"It's not me." Darren took another sip of whatever drink he had now.

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No one knew how to respond to that.

"Um... why is it not you?" They needed him to explain more, and Joji decided to vocalize that.

"There's no way I can prove it. It's just my word. No one can back it up." Darren was honest. "...I didn't do a lot of prep for it. Ayaka was excited about it... so I let her do most of the prep. I never touched a single liqueur bottle for the party. In the past I have, but not ever since the party idea came out." He sounded ever-so-slightly concerned over implicating Ayaka, but he said it anyway.

"That sounds right." Nozomi wasn't bothered though. "Ayaka said that she did a lot of the prep for it. So I believe Taylor."

"Wha- really?!" Lake seemed shocked. "But... if it's not him, it's..."

"Ayaka? It's not her. She didn't do it." A classic Nozomi response. Funny considering this is the first chapter she's in.

"Alright, she's just repeating herself." Yoshino didn't hate Nozomi, but she was getting a little tired of this.

"Yeah. I feel alright trusting Nozomi in regards to Darren. Ayaka wouldn't have a reason to lie about that specifically. We need to shift topics to keep progressing." Ji-hoon was getting annoyed by them repeating themselves.

"Yes... let us move on for now." Damien eyed Nozomi for a moment.

"To... what?" Rival wasn't sure where to go from here. "Oh wait... I have an idea." Nevermind! He does know where to go!

"What's up, Val?" Yoshino was willing to go anywhere from here.

"Well... we're sure about the poison being in the liqueur bottle... right?" Rival scratched the back of his head. "If we are... where did that poison come from?"

"Right..." Joji narrowed his eyes. "Damien, Ji-hoon, Kei, and I got the shit from Damien's Studio and hid it away."

"Yep. And by the time the liqueur was poisoned, the big ol' box wasn't broken." Kei was mulling this over for a while, but he wasn't super sure about anything yet. "So where did Genjiro's cause of death come from?"

"There probably... wasn't anything hidden anywhere right?" Lake wasn't sure what to say about this.

"Doubtful." Ji-hoon shook his head. "That'd be too convenient. And we know that it couldn't have come from the box in my room. So..." He glared at Damien. In his mind, considering his Ultimate Studio, he felt like Damien might know something here.

Damien noticed the celebrity detective glaring at him, but he pretended to ignore it, as he was concentrating on where this poison could've come from. It's too presumptuous to assume that there was just convenient poison sitting somewhere. So... did it come from his own Ultimate Studio? But they collected the poisons... right? What were the scents again...

"Orange, Citrus, Orange Citrus, Grapefruit, Vanilla, and... Lavender." Ji-hoon read the scents out loud before taking one of them.

Right. Orange, Citrus, Orange Citrus, Grapefruit, Vanilla- oh. Oh dear. He might've...

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"I believe I know where the poison that ended Genjiro's life came from." Damien cleared the confused air of the trial room.

"Do you now?" Ji-hoon wasn't necessarily suspicious of Damien, but he felt like he had to know something.

"Yeah... do you now?" Rival was kinda just in general suspicious of Damien. Ever since what happened with Aelia, he just didn't like the beautician.

"Really? From where?" Lake wished they weren't excited to learn about poison, but stuff happens.

"...Forgive me. But I believe I suffered a lapse in my memory." Damien seemed downtrodden. "But a certain something from earlier in this trial caused me to recall what I have lost."

"Nyaha! Awfully convenient beautician human!" Cathy didn't believe that Damien just so happened to remember whatever this was just now.

"Eh, who gives a shit about convenient." I mean, Yoshino did give a shit about it. But answers were more important right now. "What is it, Damien?"

"Well... I first wish to make sure that I am remembering correctly." Damien turned to look at a certain someone. "So I need the aid of the person who unintentionally jogged my memory a few moments ago...

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"I need your aid, Nozomi." In an unlikely event, Damien called on his latest hater for help.

"Really? And what do you need from me, Lux?" Nozomi seemed unbothered by Damien needing her help.

Damien was silently grateful that Nozomi was willing to aid him. "Earlier in this trial... you pulled out a note and showed it to us. And when you did, I recall my dear Lake reading something off of it."

"A lot. She jots down a lot. Here." Nozomi took a half-written note out of her pocket. "Ayaka was writing to me regarding a private matter. But look." She showed it off to everyone from a distance. And yes, there was a lot of writing.

"Holy! That's a lot!" Lake widened their eyes. "What does that say? It looks like a list of scents! Vanilla, Pineapp-"

"My dear Lake said, "Vanilla, Pineapp-" the got cut off. Nozomi, may I see that note?" Damien held out his hand.

"...Yes you may." Nozomi realized what Damien was onto, so she pulled out the note from earlier and gave it to him.

"Thank you." Damien quietly thanked her as he read over the note.

"What does it say?" Lake impatiently asked, eager to know the rest of the note.

"Hm..." Most of the note was just various details about Damien's Ultimate Studio. It seemed to have been written just after he and Ayaka had explored it for the first time. It was Ayaka listing everything they found... including the poisons. He skipped ahead to the latter part of the note.

There were both nail polish poisons and perfume poisons in Damien's Ultimate Studio. The nail polish is laced with atroquinine and the perfumes are laced with belladonna berries. There was one bottle of nail polish but there were multiple scents for the perfume. The scents were Orange, Citrus, Orange Citrus, Grapefruit, Lavender, Vanilla, and Pineapple.

Damien didn't need to read anymore. "I see." He handed the note back to Nozomi. "Everyone. The poison that killed Genjiro did indeed come from me Ultimate Studio. And I must thank my dear Lake for jogging my memory!"

"Knew it..." Ji-hoon muttered under his breath.

"R-Really?! You're welcome!" Lake was just happy to be of help.

"Okay...? You need to tell us more than that." Rival didn't have any patience for him.

"You may judge me if you wish." Damien lowered his head. "But I forgot about one of the poisonous perfumes. After I read the note Nozomi had, I recalled it. It was a Pineapple Perfume."

"I see..." It was admittedly a little interesting to Ayaka to learn about beautician lore. "What other ones are there?" The violinist spoke aloud as she began to look through the other scents. "Vanilla, Orange, Pineapple, Citrus, Orange Citrus, Grapefruit, and Lavender. It's c-certainly... fruity."

"Ayaka's note to Nozomi helped me remember its existence. By the time Ji-hoon, Kei, Joji, and I got to my Ultimate Studio, the pineapple perfume was gone. They can all attest to that." Damien sighed.

"What?! How in the fuck could you forget that?! That's fucking important!" Joji wasn't holding back his anger here.

"Seriously dude?!" Yoshino slammed her palm down on her podium.

"Hey now... at least we know what poisoned Genjiro. It's gotta be the pineapple perfume. Clever to hide it in a pineapple drink." Kei tried to look on the bright side.

"I regret not remembering this earlier. Forgive me everyone, and forgive me Ji-hoon." Damien bowed his head.

"Ugh... nothing can be done about it now." Ji-hoon disappointedly shook his head. "Besides... that's really good to know. Knowing the existence of the pineapple perfume just gave us another possibility."

"And what possibility is that, Jo?" If it was anything that could help definitively prove Ayaka's innocence, Nozomi would take it.

"Well... at first, the situation painted Ayaka as the only suspect. And she still is one." Ji-hoon wanted to emphasize that. "But... we now have another possible suspect."

"Who would that be then?" Kei already knew what his former motive partner was about to say, but he just wanted to give him the spotlight.

"I'll tell you." Ji-hoon looked the other suspect in the eye. "In addition to Ayaka, this person is also a suspect in the poisoning now...

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"You... Damien." Ji-hoon spoke with no hesitation.

"Heh." Nozomi lightly chuckled. She was confident from day one that he was suspicious.

"...Wha- Damien?! Why?!" Lake didn't get it.

"...Yeah... why him?" Rival wasn't mad at that accusation in the slightest, he just didn't get why it was Damien.

"Tell 'em Ji-hoon." Kei kept paving the way for his former motive partner.

"Indeed. Tell us Ji-hoon. Why am I a suspect now?" Damien smirked at the accusation, seeming completely unbothered.

"It's simple." Ji-hoon spoke slowly and confidently, keeping his eyes set on Damien. "Ayaka and Damien are the only ones who knew of the existence of Genjiro's murder weapon. So, both of them are suspects."

"Oh... I get it." It took a second for it to click with Rival. "Ayaka's note proves she knew about the perfume... and Damien admitted himself that he knew about the perfume... and it was taken before Ji-hoon and them went to take the perfumes... so..."

"It's Damien or Ayaka." Joji scowled.

"I... see." Damien slowly looked away from Ji-hoon's gaze. "I can see where your suspicion comes from then. But in that case, the answer is unfortunately rather easy. The killer is Ayaka." He kept looking away.

"No. That's not possible. Ayaka is not the killer." No way Nozomi was going to go down that easy. "But I agree that the answer is rather easy. The killer is Lux."

"I'm saddened to hear you say that Nozomi. And I'm saddened that Ayaka did this." Damien hung his head low. "To think that she'd use the one thing that heavily implicates me... I'm hurt. I wish I could've prevented this."

"Don't try to garner pity like tha- oh." Nozomi cut herself off. "I now realize what caused Ayaka to freak out like she did. The killer is indeed you Lux." She realized Ayaka's realization. "I knew I was right for never trusting you. You set all of this up to blame Ayaka didn't you?"

"Are you insinuating that I purposely poisoned Genjiro's drink as a way to pin in on Ayaka? What hogwash! I'd never!" Damien seemed offended.

"Don't give me that. You're a manipulative man through and through. You never cared an ounce about Ayaka." Nozomi didn't care about Damien being offended.

"What? How dare you! Of course I cared about her!" Damien defended himself.

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The two of them continued to bicker.

"They're... just going at each other." Lake didn't like watching it.

"Wonder if they even remember we're here?" Yoshino crossed her arms.

"We've been pretty keen on hitting roadblocks haven't we?" Kei chuckled. "We gotta snap 'em out of this."

"Right-"

"Nyahaha!"

Utilizing however the hell interjections work here, Cathy suddenly chortled, cutting off Ji-hoon. "Beautician human! Talentless human? Over heeeeere!" She suddenly pulled out a black studded earring and a silver locket. For those who are too lazy to look back at Damien and Nozomi's (Ayaka's) appearances, those are both accessories that they wear. "The celebrity detective human demands your attention!" She snapped her fingers, causing a gust of wind to get sent Damien and Nozomi's way. Damn, those two have been getting the bulk of the gusts this trial huh?

"Wha-" Damien held up his arms to his face. "My dear Catherine?! Is that-" He then held his hand up to his ear. "My earring? How in the-"

"Munchkin! Give it! Back!" Nozomi raw-dogged the wind and held out her hand.

"Nyaha! Fine fine!" Cathy tossed her earnings back at Damien and Ayaka. "You owe me celebrity detective human!" She gave Ji-hoon the side-eye.

"Sure." Ji-hoon didn't want to pay Cathy any attention, so he quickly moved on. "Damien! Nozomi! Talk to us, not each other!"

"Ah-" Damien didn't realize how engrossed he had gotten in bickering with Nozomi. "My apologies!"

"Right." Nozomi didn't apologize and just turned to face everyone else. "What would you like us to say?"

"Well, it's less about you Nozomi." Ji-hoon was grateful the talentless human had gotten back on track quickly. "It's more about Damien. We need to hear your testimony. Tell us why it's not you."

"Yeah! You can do it, Damien! Defend yourself!" Lake hopped up and down, eagerly wanting their friend to defend themselves.

"Yeah... go for it, Damien." Rival, like always, didn't particularly care.

"Yes... I shall. Thank you, my dear Lake!" Damien, like usual, ignored Rival. "Very well then. We are fairly that the pineapple liqueur itself was poisoned. Yet I could not have done that. I may have given Ayaka the idea for the drinking party, but I didn't help with the preparations. So I had no time to poison the liqueur. Both Darren and Ayaka should be able to confirm that I did not tamper with the drinks in the slightest."

"Well, Darren? Did Damien ever do anything? And Nozomi? Did Ayaka ever say anything about Damien messing with the drinks?" Joji, like everyone else, wanted to know the tea.

"He's right." Darren instantly confirmed. "When we were handcuffed together, he didn't do anything. And before that, I never saw him do anything." And considering how much time Darren spends in the Comedy Studio, they knew he could be trusted here.

"Well... yes. Ayaka never said she saw you do anything with the drinks." Nozomi begrudgingly admitted. "You could've gone during nighttime when we weren't there though."

"Is that so...? In that case..." A smirk slowly started to grow across Damien's face.

"Beauty is fleeting, as is your logic!"

In Damien's fourth overall interjection in the story, he elegantly slammed his palm down on his podium, causing a quick tempest to blow in to shut Nozomi up. "I'd advise you to slow down Nozomi." Damien wagged his finger, a smug look growing across his face.

"You're looking pretty confident for someone being accused of murder Damien." Kei was interested in this confidence. "Lots of smirks and interjections you got."

"..." Rival didn't like the look on Damien's face.

"W-Well Lux?" Nozomi tried to act unperturbed by the wind.

"Nozomi... and Ji-hoon. I have two things. Two things I likely should've brought up earlier." Damien kept smirking. "I acknowledge why you assume I am a suspect. But... you seem to have forgotten something."

"And what was it I forgot?" Ji-hoon wasn't sure where this was going.

"Yes... enlighten us, Lux." Nozomi was still trying her best to stay confident.

"...Oh fuck." Yoshino muttered. "I think I know what he's going to say."

"Ah! It's good to see someone else remember!" Damien was happy his dear Yoshino's memory was capable.

"Yoshino? What is it? What's he on about?" Joji's memory, on the other hand, wasn't so capable.

"It feels like we've said this shit so many times now... but the poison was in the liqueur bottle yeah?" Yosnino just needed to make sure.

"Yeah. It was. ...Pretty sure." It's not like they could know for sure, considering the bottle was MIA, but Darren was confident enough.

"I think it was too. Pineapple perfume... In pineapple liqueur. And it had to have been either Ayaka or Damien... that used it." And Rival was decently confident.

"Shit." Ji-hoon mouthed, barely audible. He realized what Damien's point was. "We've wasted time." He stomped his foot down on the ground.

"Hm? Can someone fill me in? What is happening?" Nozomi was lost.

"I can happily do that." Damien took a page out of his dear Catherine's book and absolutely radiated smugness. "They all say that it's either Ayaka or myself that poisoned the liqueur that was put into Genjiro's drink. But... we know which one of us is the poisoner."

"W-What?! Explain!" Nozomi truly didn't get it.

Damien smugly sighed. "Happily! Nozomi... it seems you don't remember. You don't remember that earlier in this trial...

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"You admitted it! You admitted that Ayaka put the poisoned liqueur in Genjiro's drink! It was one of the first things you said!" If you thought that Damien couldn't get more smug, you're wrong. He somehow got even smugger.

"That's correct Kaneshiro." Nozomi nodded. "Ayaka never added poison to the rum. All she added was some pineapple liqueur."

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"That's correct Taylor. According to Ayaka, she added some pineapple liqueur to Mashimoto's drink. That's all she did." Nozomi stated her defense with poise.

Nozomi clenched her teeth. "Shit." She muttered.

"Ugh... god damnit!" Yoshino swore. "So... bringing up Damien as a suspect really was worthless huh?"

"She... did admit to that." Rival grighed.

"And before you say anything else Nozomi..." Damien held up his finger, as a motion for her to shush. "Ayaka would have zero reason to lie about that. And I'm sure we could find the note itself in Ayaka's room. That really would prove it wouldn't it?"

"..." Nozomi stayed silent, drops of sweat starting to drip down her face as she tried to keep her composure.

"So... was Ayaka trying to make sure Nozomi was complicit in the plan by telling her?" Joji wasn't in the hot seat like how Nozomi was, but he was still trying to stay calm.

"No! That's not at all what... n-no!" Nozomi still tried her best to defend Ayaka, but even her own will was being shaken.

"Perhaps the note was a confession of sorts? When was it written?" Kei was honestly interested in that.

"T-That doesn't matter! And that's not even true!" Nozomi desperately slammed her fist down on her podium, more drops of sweat dripping down her forehead.

"This... is that it then...?" Lake started to shake a little. "Ayaka... poisoned Genjiro? That's... what it sounds like..." They widened her eyes.

"I'm afraid so my dear Lake." Damien shook his head, an air of sadness overtaking his smugness. "To think that she truly did utilize the plan I so graciously gave her for murder... oh how I wish my judgment was better placed. What a shame."

"That's- no! There has to be some other p-possibility!" Nozomi started to curse herself for what she said earlier. It didn't even occur to her that it might lead to this. "This can't be r-right! There's no way!" She clenched her mask firmly in her fist.

"Nyahaha! Well, what do you know?" Cathy found Nozomi's breakdown rather amusing. "It looks like the violinist human did betray your trust! And we don't even need her here to know! You ratted yourself out!" She snickered. "What an idiotic human!" She said rather sincerely.

"I'm not..." Nozomi was running out of defenses. She truly had no idea what to do here. She hated that she couldn't deny the possibility that Ayaka did do something. She... she couldn't have. There's... no way!

Darren closed his eyes. "Is that it then?" He said with the slightest bit of regret in his voice.

"It appears so Darren. It appears so." Damien took out his Star-Phone and placed it on his podium. "I never thought I'd have to say this. And I truly do loathe to say it. But... Ayaka is the killer. And I believe I am ready to vote."

"Oh? Did I hear vote?" Pheme perked up at the word "vote." "Is it voting time? Have you all reached a consensus?"

"We have." Damien spoke on behalf of the entire group. "We are ready to vote. Let us get this over with." He steeled himself.

"..." Nobody else had anything else to say. Was... was this the end of the second trial? Ayaka poisoned Genjiro. Was that the conclusion they've reached? There were still unanswered questions though. Alpha, Rosalind, Aurora, Kuroko, and a lot of other things. There are still things unexplained. But... Genjiro did die from poison. And... Ayaka admitted to poisoning the drink, albeit unintentionally. So... she's the killer. Right...?

"Very well then! I'm a bit disappointed there's no Stardom Finale, but that's alright! We'll just be under the budget for the Studio Trial!" Pheme giggled. "Alright, my glamorous stars... I think... it's Voting Time!" She snapped her fingers.

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"There's no escape for you!/Move that reasoning to the background!"

In a rare double interjection, both Ji-hoon and Rival slammed their hands down on their podiums, sending the strongest gust of wind yet Damien's way.

"Wha- GAH!" Damien attempted to defend himself from the wind, but it was to little avail. He felt his hair get messed up and his clothes get ruffled as he stared down Ji-hoon and Rival. "J-Ji-hoon? Rival? What's the meaning of t-this?!" He tried his best to keep his composure.

"Yes... what's the meaning of this Mr. Jo? Mr. Seizon? I was right about to commence voting time!" Pheme pouted a little.

The boys got lost in the moment for a... well, moment. They didn't even realize that they both interjected at the same time. They shared an understanding look. They weren't mind readers... but it felt like they had the same idea. "Let's... slow down here. Immediately calling Ayaka the killer... isn't right." Rival went first.

"W-What?" Nozomi was still freaking out, so those words were very comforting for her. "What do you mean, Seizon?"

"You got some other idea, Val?" Yoshino still wasn't 100% on board for voting for Ayaka, so she was glad that there might be some other possibility.

"Yes. While Ayaka is suspicious... this is moving too fast." Ji-hoon took off his glasses. "It feels as if you're a bit too eager to condemn Ayaka as the killer... Damien." He gave the beautician an icy-cold glare.

"Oh really?" Damien seemed unbothered. "In what way am I eager? The truth of Ayaka being Genjiro's killer is a difficult pill to swallow... and I am forcing myself to accept it. What's the problem?"

"The problem is... you were way too smug about it." Rival faced Damien head-on. "Like... this is your plan."

"I'm sorry?" Damien gave an amused chuckle. "My plan?"

"Might be an over-the-top way to describe it, but yes." Ji-hoon took over. "We have no definitive proof, but I believe I might know your plan, Damien."

"A... plan?" Nozomi said breathlessly, regaining a bit of her composure back.

"Yes... please do explain the plan Rival. Ji-hoon." Damien still stayed surprisingly smug.

"Heh. Happily." Copying a word Damien used, Rival lightly chuckled. "So... only Damien and Ayaka knew about the pineapple poison."

"Right. That's something we've established. No one else could've known about it. So either you or Ayaka could've done something." Ji-hoon took back over. "Or... maybe it'd be better to say that you both did something."

"Darren... question for you." Rival turned to the bartender, who was currently on his Xth drink of the trial. "Was there anything in the Comedy Studio that was... like a funnel?"

"A funnel? What are you on about?" Damien didn't understand where this was going.

"A funnel? Yeah." Darren answered immediately.

Some of the booze had already been mixed with some stuff. He had Ayaka do that. He wasn't sure why Ayaka of all people would request something like this... maybe she was more bold than he thought. "Huh. Was this always here?" Brushing past his thoughts of Ayaka, Darren picked up a funnel. "Hm. Maybe it was." It probably wasn't important.

"There was a funnel lying in the sink." Darren continued his answer.

"Okay... so we know that Ayaka poured the liqueur into Genjiro's drink. We know the bottle is missing. And we are confident the liqueur was poisoned." Ji-hoon tapped a pen against his podium. "A question that came to my mind from all of this... is why?"

"Why... what?" Lake was both scared and on the edge of their seat. They had no clue what was happening now.

"Why utilize... the liqueur like that?" Rival answered the question. "We know there was a funnel there... so if Ayaka wanted to poison Genjiro's drink...

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"Why not pour the poison itself into the bottle...?" Rival posed a valid question. "Why bother with the liqueur? Why bother... with that risk?"

"Oh hey! I kinda see the point!" Joji widened his eyes in realization. "It's kinda just adding another step in the process!"

"That's... true." Nozomi felt herself regain some hope. "All Ayaka wrote was that she used the pineapple liqueur in Genjiro's drink. She never mentioned anything about pouring the perfume bottle into the drink itself. Nor into the liqueur!"

"Oh please." Damien rolled his eyes. "Ayaka was simply hiding it from you. And using the liqueur as a mask for the poison is playing it safe, not a risk." He shook his head. "And as for you Rival. Ji-hoon. What's the point here?" An air of annoyance started to overtake the smugness.

"I'll tell you." Ji-hoon faced Damien down. "We know that Ayaka used the liqueur. But I propose that you had a part in this Damien. Namely...

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"I say you poured the poison into the liqueur. Not Ayaka." Ji-hoon made a bold accusation.

"No shit?! You think Damien poisoned Genjiro?" Yoshino widened her eyes.

"Oh man... things getting interesting aren't they?" Kei leaned back against the side of his podium. The idea of Damien having something to do with this did cross his mind, but he didn't have any proof. So he's curious to see what Ji-hoon and Rival say.

"N-No way! Seriously?!" Lake was in disbelief.

"I see... I see!" Nozomi slammed her podium. "I get it! I didn't see the full scope of Ayaka's realization earlier... but I do now! It... It must be Lux!" She gave Damien an accusatory point.

"Heh. Heheheheh." Damien kept chuckling. "How interesting...!" A smile started to creep across his face.

"Nyaha! I'm the one who laughs, not you beautician human! What's the deal?" Cathy didn't appreciate someone else laughing instead of her.

"Ah. Forgive me, my dear Catherine. That's just... an amusing accusation." Damien collected himself, then turned to Rival. "I'm assuming you two have proof for this ridiculous accusation?" A sly smirk stayed on his face.

"...No. We don't." Rival was honest.

"What?! You don't have proof?!" Yoshino was a little outraged.

"No proof? It's a waste of time then!" Cathy sighed and shook her head.

Kei sighed. He thought so.

"Indeed. I thought so." Damien copied Kei's narration.

"You don't have anything more to say about the accusation?" Ji-hoon wasn't immediately backing down.

"Not much." Damien didn't even shake his head. "The very idea of this is, like I said, ridiculous."

"...Are you going to offer an actual defense instead of hollow words?" Rival wasn't backing down either.

"Rival...?" Lake sensed a strange amount of animosity from the backing vocalist.

"Hm? I sense a strange amount of animosity from you Rival." Damien once again plagiarized from the narration. "I haven't a clue why, but I'll offer an actual defense, like you ask." He bowed his head in a debatably mocking manner. "There are no witnesses to me poisoning the liqueur. And in the scenario that I did, I'd be heavily pining to pin the crime on my dear Ayaka." Nozomi glared at the beautician upon hearing what he said, but Damien ignored her. "That'd be such an illogical plan." He spoke like Rival and Ji-hoon had suggested an Aidan Brighton-level plan.

"Um... I kind of can't see it either?" Lake slowly raised their hand. "That'd be... really nasty of Damien to do something like that. And he's not that type of person." They believed in the beautician.

"...Gotta admit, I can't see it either. Especially without proof." Joji defended Damien as well.

"Thank you, my dear Lake. Joji." Damien gave them a satisfied nod. "You see, this is nonsense. What's your plan, accusing me like this? Ayaka is the killer here, plain and simple."

"Ayaka isn't- hold on." Nozomi was about to give her usual defense, but she stopped. "Pheme? A question."

"Oh? What is it, Ms. Nozomi?" Pheme was getting so engrossed in this trial! She's comparatively had very few lines!

"If what Jo and Seizon suggested is the truth... who would be the blackened in that case?" Nozomi narrowed her eyes, very interested to learn the answer here.

Pheme blinked. "In the case of- ah... I see." She stood up. "Say Mr. Lux poured the poison into the liqueur, then Ms. Naganohara poured the liqueur into Mr. Mashimoto's drink. Then assuming he died from the drink... you ask who his killer is?"

"That's... a good question. I... didn't think of that." Rival kinda just got the idea to accuse Damien because he didn't trust him. He didn't think of any other details like that.

"So Pheme? Who would be the blackened in that case?" Ji-hoon had honestly suggested the accusation as a way to continue the trial. He didn't like ending it so early. But an answer to this might be an unexpected bonus.

"It has to be Lux." Nozomi didn't even need the answer.

"Please." Damien rolled his eyes. "It's simply and unfortunately Ayaka."

"Settle settle Mr. Lux. Ms. Nozomi." Pheme urged them to calm down. "In that hypothetical case... Mr. Mashimoto's hypothetical killer... would be...

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"I won't tell you!" Pheme blue-balled the boys.

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"...What?" Rival said with a very deadpan tone.

"You... won't tell us? And why not?" Nozomi didn't sound pleased.

"Do you seriously mean that Ms. Nozomi?" Pheme feigned shock. "If I did, it'd ruin the suspense! The surprise! So I'm afraid that, if that theory is the one you wish to go with, you'll just have to vote with your guts! Or with your hearts! Or with your minds! Whatever you prefer!"

Insert AA Chapter 2 joke here.

"The fuck?! That's not fair!" Joji didn't slam his podium, instead, he slammed the side of his podium. Big difference!

"Might have to rethink the accusation then..." Kei muttered.

"Yeah... it's not a fair trial if we aren't getting all of the rules!" Lake frowned.

"You'll just have to deal with it Mx. Beaumont! That's just how it goes!" Pheme shrugged. "Besides, seeing you all argue over who to go with in that case sounds rather enticing! So no worries you all! Just vote with your spirits!" She made it sound like it wasn't a life-or-death situation they were in.

"Well isn't that something?" Damien smiled. "With Pheme refusing to tell us the answer, it appears that the status of blackened has circled back around to Ayaka! Did you truly just do this to waste our time Ji-hoon?"

"Hmph." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "Not at all. In fact, this might be good."

"Good? What nonsensical nonsense are you talking about celebrity detective human?" Cathy played with her cat ears.

"Yes... how is the good Ji-hoon?" Damien was in a plagiarizing mood, so he crossed his arms as well.

"It's good in that this makes it risky to vote. Pheme refusing to answer gives us some unknown variables." Ji-hoon finally put his glasses back on. "And as long as we have unknown variables, it's illogical to vote. With the possibility of you being the blackened and not Ayaka, we need to dig deeper to uncover more details."

"Are you serious?" Damien sounded the slightest bit annoyed.

"...Very." Rival still legitimately believed in the accusation, and it wasn't a way to just extend the trial. But he wasn't going to object to the trial going on for longer.

"This is agreeable." Nozomi set her hands behind her back. "There are still mysteries surrounding Mashimoto, Alpha, Beaufort, Reinhardt, and Kurobara. Let us continue." Fair enough she was eager to keep going.

"It wouldn't feel right leaving things unsolved. I'm a thorough man." Kei shrugged. "I'm alright with continuing."

"Yeah... no way. I can't just vote for Aya/Zomi yet. It doesn't feel right." Yoshino firmly shook her head.

"I'd feel better if we didn't vote for Ayaka yet." Lake didn't want to vote for anyone in general, so they were fine with putting it off.

"It feels like it's Ayaka... but I getcha Lake. Let's keep going." Joji joined the "keep going" squad.

"Nyaha! I'm alright with anything that bothers the beautician human! So let's keep going!" Cathy truly didn't care either way.

And Darren had nothing to say.

"...I see. If you all feel that say, then let's keep going." Damien graciously bowed his head. "Let us find more evidence. Perhaps there is another truth here." No one could tell what he was feeling at the moment. Was he annoyed? Relieved? Outraged? No one could tell.

"Aw... No early conclusion then..." Pheme shook her head and sunk back into her throne.

Nozomi slightly smirked. "Yes... there's much more for us to discuss here. Let us continue."

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"Um... everyone?" Nozomi didn't expect complete silence. Was everyone still wary of Ayaka being the killer? "Does no one have anything to say?"

"It ain't that... but where do we go from here?" Joji shrugged. "I'm not sure..."

"...Shit... Jojo has a point." Yoshino sighed. "Ideas anyone?"

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"Looks like that's a-"

"I have an idea." Darren of all people interjected, lightly slamming his drink down on his podium as he did so.

"You Taylor?" Nozomi asked in disbelief. "You have an idea?"

"Yeah. Taylor does have an idea." Darren spoke in third person as he took a sip of his drink. "...Unless anyone else has an idea?"

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"Guess not." Darren shrugged.

"Just say it, Darren." Ji-hoon was impatient like he usually was. "What's the idea?

"Alright." Darren set his drink back down on his podium. "I want to circle back to Genjiro and Alpha breaking into the Ultimate EMT's Studio."

"Right... that was discussed wasn't it?" Nozomi wasn't there for that discussion, so she couldn't remember it properly.

"Indeed. That point was something we agreed on earlier in the trial." Damien spoke plainly.

"It's unlikely that Genjiro and my dear Alpha used the nail gun to break down the boards that covered up the room. They could've used their brute strength for that. We agree that it was Genjiro and my dear Alpha that broke into the Ultimate EMT's Studio, yes?"

"I mean... yeah?" Yoshino shrugged. "Nobody else would be stupid enough to actually break one of Pheme's rules like that. Only Genjiro would be enough of a dumbass to do that."

"Interesting thing to circle back to Darren. What's the idea?" Kei was intrigued.

"Well... I'm curious why they did that." Darren took another sip.

"Why they did that? Wasn't it just to..." Lake subtly eyed Pheme. "Mess with Pheme?"

"Maybe." Darren shrugged. "But... those two should've known it'd kill them. So why risk it? That's what I want to know." He then metaphorically sunk back into the background, where he belongs.

"That's a good point Taylor." Nozomi nodded in agreement. "From what Ayaka has told me, Mashimoto and Alpha weren't that ignorant."

"Uh... nah. They kinda were." Yoshino refuted that. "But I still get what Darren means here. Genjiro isn't the type to risk his life willy-nilly. And I don't have a fucking clue what Alpha was thinking."

"So... Genjiro must've had another reason for breaking in there... besides for messing with Pheme." Rival... well, reasoned. "A reason to make him not fear... death."

"Genjiro seemed like a very... sturdy man. It seems hard to scare him. Perhaps he simply did just break it down to mess with Pheme?" Damien offered his opinion.

"No one asked beautician human!" Cathy heel turned at Damien. "The wrestler human was dumb... but smart. He's stupid... yet intelligent. Humans like him always think things through. Especially when it involves risking their lives."

"Sounds like you got something Cathy?" Darren emerged from the background to address Cathy, then immediately faded back into the background.

"Nyaha! I thought did cross my mind!" Cathy stated proudly. "As to what would drive the wrestler human to do what he did! In fact, I'm surprised you humans haven't brought it up yet!" And of course she'd turn her idea into a way to insult everyone.

"Haven't brought what up yet?" Lake tilted their head, making the rookie mistake of buying into Cathy's usual nonsense.

"Hm... hm... hm... I'll tell you! The stink of the wrestler human disappearing has me in a good mood! Nyahaha!" Cathy did another synonym for laughing. "I believe the answer is quite simple here. The wrestler human went and broke into the Ultimate EMT's Studio because...

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"He knew he was dying! He could sense his end coming!"

"Oh... interesting." Ji-hoon was legitimately interested in Cathy's idea. "I'm no toxicologist, but I suppose Genjiro could've sensed the poison in his body."

"But... hold on." Joji held his hand forward. "If Cathy is right, that means Genjiro knew he was dying from the poison. But he didn't try and get help, he instead used the fact that he was dying to not be afraid of Pheme's rules. Sort of, "Who gives a shit about her rules, I'm dying anyway! Ha ha!"" He gave his best impression of Genjiro.

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"Yeah, I could see it." Literally everyone in the room spoke in unison.

"Well damn. Good idea Cathy." Joji didn't exactly like complimenting the cat burglar, but what do you do?

"Nyaha Nyaha!" Cathy changed up her laugh. "I don't need your thanks!"

"Well you know, I can see Genjiro doing some stupid shit like that." Yoshino's opinion of the wrestler was going to stay low no matter what. "But... really? He just gives up his life to fuck with Pheme like that? He's a scumbag who lives for fame. He can't garner that fame he loves so much if he's dead."

"That's... also a good point." Joji sighed in frustration. "The fuck was my man thinking..." He found it hard to really call himself "friends" with Genjiro anymore... but that didn't mean whatever connection they had just disappeared. But the Genjoji ship did disappear, so you better change your name already Grandma.

"There is another thing that personally bothers me." Nozomi chimed in. "From what I've learned, Mashimoto is the type of man to never give less than 200% to what he does. So... breaking into the room was it? That was all? If he had nothing to lose, I feel as if he'd do more than just that."

"And what do you propose that is Nozomi?" Damien gave her a bombastic side eye.

"I'm not sure." Nozomi swiftly shook her head. "We've already established that Mashimoto and Alpha were involved in the destruction of your Ultimate Studio and Kaneshiro's Ultimate Studio correct? Perhaps something connected to that?"

"Well it definitely wasn't my Ultimate Studio." Yoshino crossed her arms. "Not enough was destroyed for those brutes to have torn through the place."

"And breaking down Damien and Joji's Ultimate Studio's isn't... breaking rules though. Right?" Lake quickly checked through the rules. "Wait... Rule 5."

5. Breaking or Destroying any cameras or studio property present in the studio is strictly forbidden and will result in immediate punishment from Pheme.

"Pheme? Would what happened to Damien and Joji's Ultimate Studios count as breaking Rule 5?" Lake rather innocently asked.

"Oh fuck... that hadn't crossed my mind." Joji had admittedly half-forgotten the rules Pheme set.

Pheme stood from her throne. "Well... it's a case-by-case basis Mx. Beaumont. I again won't tell you, as it might contain spoilers! So just move along now!" The goddess urged the ballet dancer along as she sat back down.

"Um... okay." Lake shrugged as they pocketed their Star-Phone. "Guess that's a bust?" They looked a disappointed.

"Maybe not Lake." Ji-hoon shook his head. "If we're talking about breaking rules and destroyed studios... we should talk about Bessie's Ultimate Studio. We haven't brought it up yet. And besides, I think I know a potential other rule that Genjiro broke."

Rival was proud of himself for not flinching or reacting too much at the mention of Bessie's name. "You... think you know?"

"So was I correct then? If so, get to explaining Jo." Nozomi said surprisingly forcefully.

"Very well. Adam investigated Bessie's Studio and Genjiro's body with me, but as he is not here, I'll do it myself." Ji-hoon firmly nodded. "One thing I neglected to bring up earlier was that Genjiro was very brusied and bloodied. Stab wounds, puncture wounds, a lot. Whoever he fought with, be it the killer, or maybe even Alpha, he got really roughed up. Judging from his wounds, his neck might've been broken too. Though his cause of death still seemed to be poison."

"Yeah... that type of shit is what we all saw from a distance. What else?" Yoshino wasn't fiending to know more, but she thought she should keep it going anyway.

"Aside from him, the spotlights were bloody, and they seemed shaky. Don't think they were damaged. Hard to imagine how they would be." Ji-hoon tapped his foot on the ground as he explained. "Then I know everyone saw this, but I'll explain it again anyway. The seats were destroyed, slashed and punctured by something. Blood was everywhere. Shards of glass in the audience too."

"Geez... I still wonder what happened there..." Lake was morbidly curious about it, even if they didn't like imaging it.

"You said you had an idea Ji-hoon?" Kei called back to a few lines ago. "An idea for another rule Genjiro broke?"

"I do." Ji-hoon pulled something out of his pocket. "And the idea has something to do with another thing Adam and I found in Bessie's Ultimate Studio. It's this...

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"Slab of metal." Ji-hoon showed it off to everyone.

And he barely had to walk a few steps before he found something else of note. "W-What is this?" Adam bent down to his knees to get a closer look. "A... slab of metal?" The slab of metal was admittedly heavier than he thought, but he still managed to pick it up. This... seemed familiar to him.

"Huh? Metal?" Joji seemed baffled. "The fuck did that come from?"

"I'm... not sure either." Damien narrowed his eyes. "I don't recall a slab of metal like that being present in any room here."

"Ayaka has never mentioned something like that to me." Nozomi shook her head.

"Oh hey..." Kei muttered. "Metal huh?" He felt like he knew what Ji-hoon's idea was.

"No way..." Yoshino shifted her eyes to look at something. "Jiji...? Are you suggesting that...?"

"Yeah. I am." Ji-hoon set the slab of metal down on his podium. "I'm confident Genjiro broke another rule."

"Well what is it? Don't leave us in suspense!" I'm not saying that Lake is dumb, but they were just fairly confused this trial. But they are curious to learn what happened, even though they don't like imagining it. So they're a mixed bag of emotions right now.

"Yes Mr. Jo! Don't leave us in suspense!" Pheme of all people said surprisingly eagerly.

"I was going to say it. Don't act like I wasn't going to." Ji-hoon was more talking to Lake here, as he was confident Pheme knew exactly what he was going to say. "I think this slab of metal proves what other rule Genjiro broke. As for the rule itself, I say..."

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"He fought Pheme." Ji-hoon looked the goddess dead in the eye.

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And what the celebrity detective received... was a surprisingly mute reaction. From Pheme and the rest of the group.

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"...Guys?" Ji-hoon wasn't sure what to say. "No one has anything to say?"

"Honestly... yeah." Joji shrugged. "I can see it."

"That dumbass would try to fight Pheme. I'm not surprised." Yoshino groaned.

"If he didn't care about death, I feel like he'd tear Pheme apart." Kei could see it.

"Genjiro was that type of man." Damien chuckled.

Yeah, nobody was surprised by that claim. Everyone could see it. "Yeah... Genjiro is a bold and brash type. He'd probably do something like that." Lake nodded. "But uh- why do you think he fought Pheme?"

Oh yeah, Ji-hoon hadn't even proven it yet. "Well... it's because of this slab of metal." He showed it off to everyone again. "I believe I know where it came from. And to help prove it, I'll need the help of a certain someone..."

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"I need your help, Pheme." Ji-hoon called upon the goddess. "Come down here for a second?"

"Oh?!" Pheme excitedly stood up. "My help Mr. Jo? Why, of course!" She agreed with hesitation, and started to head down to the celebrity detective's podium.

"Pheme's help... oh." Rival got it. "I get it."

"Ah... yep. Fair enough." Kei hasn't been doing much this trial, but he's enjoyed just watching it all unfold.

"Alright Mr. Jo! What is it?" Pheme stood right next to Ji-hoon's podium.

"Just stand there. It'll be quick." Ji-hoon held the slab of metal up to Pheme's mask. "Yeah. The same. Thought so."

"Correct Mr. Jo! They are the same!" Pheme snatched the slab of metal out of his hands.

"Hey!" Ji-hoon tried to snatch it back, but Pheme quickly retreated to her throne.

"Ah ah ah!" Pheme wagged her finger. "This isn't for you to keep! This is mine!" She stashed it away. "And I don't have an infinite supply of these beauties!" She sensually caressed her mask. "Mr. Mashimoto busted this off of my mask and broke it! He even got to see what's under my mask! The one I'm currently wearing is a spare, but I'm afraid I need this slab back!"

"Huh... so Genjiro did try and fight you?!" Joji didn't expect Pheme to be so casual about it.

"That's correct Mr. Kaneshiro! In Ms. Yamamoto's Ultimate Studio, Mr. Mashimoto did try and fight me. Well actually, try isn't the right word. He did fight me! You all saw the aftermath didn't you?" Pheme still acted weirdly casual about the whole thing.

"Hm... and I assume the wrestler human lost?" Cathy never had much faith or belief in the wrestler human, and it wasn't about to change now.

"...That... I will not confirm." Pheme shook her head. "But he did quite the number on me I'll say! In hindsight, perhaps I should've been more careful when bringing in a man like him to my Killing Game." She rubbed her arm.

"You seem fine to me." Darren's voice echoed out from somewhere in the background.

"Yes, how did Genjiro do a number on you? You don't seem injured to me." Damien didn't necessarily have perfect vision, but even he could see that Pheme's skin and complexion was as perfect as shining as always.

"Hm? How ironic it is that you ask me that question Mr. Lux!" Pheme giggled to herself.

"Oh? What am I missing?" It didn't click for Damien.

"I'm assuming she's talking about makeup." It clicked immediately for Nozomi though! "Considering your talent, it is quite ironic that you couldn't get that Lux." Ayaka's other personality was totally fine with dissing Damien, even if subtly.

"Hmph." Damien rolled his eyes, ignoring the girl he was still confident was the blackened. "So you used makeup to hide what Genjiro did to you, Pheme? None from my Ultimate Studio I assume?"

"Of course not! I, as the Goddess of Fame, have my own supply of makeup!" Pheme pulled out a small bottle of something that read "Goddess-Brand Makeup Product."

"For a goddess, that's a rather tacky design." Damien didn't see the vision.

"Well I'm afraid I wasn't asking for your opinion Mr. Lux!" Pheme took a little of the makeup out of the bottle, and rubbed it on her arm. And as she did, it revealed a big and nasty bruise on her arm. "See? I had to hide what Mr. Mashimoto did to me, so I'd still look my best for the Studio Trial!"

"Woah! Are you okay?" Lake didn't know why they were asking Pheme of all people about their wellbeing.

"My whole body still quite hurts! But the show must go on!" Pheme concealed the bruise. "And what a show Mr. Mashimoto himself put on!"

"Right..." Ji-hoon started to sort out this information. "Pheme?" But he needed a little more. "Why did you go to go Bessie's Studio? Because Genjiro and Alpha's handcuffs unlocked early?" He wanted to get the reason for this.

"Ah! Good question!" Pheme clapped her hands, funnily enough causing her to flinch from the pain. "You all know that the handcuffs were unlocked at different times, so I won't skirt around that!" She got up from her throne. "Yes, the fact that their handcuffs unlocked earlier than expected was one of the reasons. But I had another! Care to take a guess?" She opened the floor to her stars.

"Not this nonsense..." Nozomi rolled her eyes.

"Really Pheme?" Ji-hoon wasn't in the mood for this.

"C'mon, relax you two!" Kei had no problems. "It's not like the answer is hard. It's pretty obvious."

"Yeah... damn right it's obvious." Yoshino found herself once again having to talk about Genjiro's nonsense. Every damn time. "Her other reason is...

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"The rule those idiots broke. Breaking into the Ultimate EMT's Studio." Don't need a flashback for that one! "So what? After you realized you fucked up the handcuffs, you had to go and punish them?" Yoshino glared at the goddess.

"Essentially!" Pheme happily nodded. "After I got there, Mr. Mashimoto and I shared a few words, he jumped and attacked me! And carnage insued! Also, the carnage in Mr. Lux's and Mr. Kaneshiro's Ultimate Studios were not inflicted by me, just so you know!" She gave the short version of the story.

"That guy..." Rival slowly shook his head. He half-wished he had balls as big as Genjiro's. Only half-wished though.

"Well damn... I wonder if..." Joji pulled out the bottle of Adenosine Alpha had on her. "You know, I think I can see the bigger picture on part of Genjiro and Alpha's crazy plan."

"The Adenosine?" Lake stood on their tippy-toes to glance at the bottle. "What about it?"

"Oh fuck me... I get it too." Yoshino didn't even want to mention this damned wrestler in her narration. "We're assuming Alpha took the medicine. Then with the handcuffs broken off early... the broken rules... I get it."

"Yep." Joji set the bottle down. "It looks like Genjiro and Alpha's plan from the beginning was...

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"To fight Pheme. That was their plan from the start. Or maybe Genjiro's plan from the start." Joji sighed.

"That sounds right." Kei chuckled. "It sounds like it was all bait for Pheme. When he knew he was screwed, Genjiro's first idea was to... well, I won't mince words. His first idea was to kill Pheme."

"That's what I thought too." Ji-hoon nodded in agreement. "Though they probably got the idea to try and kill Pheme after they broke into the EMT's Studio. They had Alpha take the Adenosine to hopefully bait the handcuffs into unlocking, then when Pheme went down to assess her mistake, Genjiro jumped on her and tried to kill her. Makes sense."

"Damn it... I hate that I can't even be mad at that plan." Yoshino groaned. "I doubt he gave a shit about any of us, but... it's... admirable..." She gagged using that word to describe Genjiro. "It's admirable he at least tried to kill our psycho tormentor with his last breaths."

"Nyahaha! But it was for nothing!" Cathy casually mocked the dead. "The wrestler human lost the brawl! He had one job and he screwed it up! Bah, of course he would!"

"Yes... and if this is connected to the past Killing Games... I doubt killing Pheme would've accomplished much besides for relieving some frustration for Genjiro." Damien shook his head.

"Of course!" Pheme shot her hands up in the air. "Even if he had accomplished the impossible task of killing this..." She ran her hand down the side of her body. "This Killing Game would keep going! Rest assured!"

"Tch." Rival hated how Pheme glamorized these things. "Hey... so Genjiro did lose... right?" He suddenly asked.

Kei chuckled. "The man is dead, so I assume so. Why do you ask?"

"It's just..." Rival looked right up at Pheme. "I know he was poisoned and weak and whatever... but he lost to Pheme? He has eight inches on her, and... at least 100 more pounds on her too."

"Mr. Seizon?!" Pheme seemed offended. "I am not 174 pounds! It's closer to him having 150 pounds on me!" She aggressively corrected. "I am 5'9 though! So the first thing you said was correct!"

"That just proves my point..." Rival muttered, both confused and annoyed. "Pheme really managed to win?"

Damien channeled his dear Rosalind, and coughed. "Well... in my eyes, I wouldn't put anything past Pheme. She's clearly a capable woman." He leaned in a little. "And she's rather insane as well." He whispered.

"Right. I wouldn't think too hard about it Rival." Ji-hoon shook his head while he glared at the goddess. "Like you said, he was weakened by the poison. That's probably a big reason why. And you saw the bruise on Pheme's arm. It was probably closer than we think."

"...Guess so." Rival wasn't fully satisfied with that answer, but he decided to just take it. He knew that Pheme wouldn't share anymore details about the fight anyway. So he dropped it.

"Hey guys...?" Lake piped up.

"What's up Lake?" Joji was always open to hearing what Lake had to say.

"Um... not to repeat Rival..." Lake gave the backing vocalist a small smile. "But Genjiro... lost the fight. Right?"

Kei chuckled. "The man is dead, so I assume so. Why do you ask?" He repeated his previous answer.

"Okay." Lake narrowed their eyes. "I don't want to jump to conclusions, but that gives us another possibility for... the killer. I think."

"Hm? Go on Beaumont." Nozomi would hear anything that could possibly prove Ayaka's innocence.

"Yes! What is it Mx. Beaumont?" Pheme leaned forward in her throne.

"Right... okay!" Lake really hated talking about this stuff, but they wanted to be helpful too. "Given that Genjiro lost that fight... could the killer be...

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"Pheme?" Lake wasn't confident, so they didn't give the goddess an accusatory point or anything.

"The goddess of fame scoffs at your logic!"

But Pheme sure gave Lake an accusatory point! It caused a tempest to get sent the ballet dancer's way as well!

"Kya!" Lake sharply yelped as they shielded themselves as much as they could.

"Lake!" Joji couldn't really shield the ballet dancer from where he was, but he sure tried his best. "Pheme! What the fuck is it?!" He slammed his fist into the side of his podium.

"Ha!" Pheme crossed her arms. "What it is... is that I'm offended Mx. Beaumont would accuse me!"

"I'm sorry...! I just thought..." It wasn't like the wind hurt or anything, but Lake still tried to shrink back a little.

"You don't gotta shoot wind at them!" Joji got pretty protective of them.

"Ha!" Cathy removed the first part of her laugh. "I can't blame the goddess! Haven't we already established how foolish it'd be for the goddess to kill one of us?"

"Thank you Ms. Munchkin!" Pheme was glad to see one of her stars had some common sense.

"Well hold on." Nozomi shook her head. "Mashimoto broke rules. So Pheme killing him would be understandable."

"Thank you Nozomi. That was my train of thought." Lake gave the alternate personality a grateful smile.

"Oh! I see!" Pheme seemed surprised. "That's your point? I apologize!" Pheme figuratively retracted the wind.

"So? What do you have to say to Nozomi and my dear Lake's comments?" Funnily enough, Damien not calling Nozomi "my dear" now kind of sounds like he's purposely doing it as an insult of sorts, considering he still using the naming convention for the others.

"Well, Mx. Beaumont and Ms. Nozomi bring up a valid point, no matter if it's wrong!"

"It's wrong?" Nozomi blinked.

"Mm hm!" Phene eagerly nodded. "I swear on my life and honor as a goddess... I did not kill Genjiro Mashimoto. Even if I did, like Ms. Nozomi said, it would've been justified! He broke a rule! I'd have no reason to hide it!"

"Okay..." Yoshino started to think about it. "Guess you're probably not lying about that. But... that does make one thing pretty fucking weird."

"Yeah!" Joji threw his hand up into the air in confusion. "Pheme. You claim you didn't kill him. And... I guess I believe you." He begrudgingly said. "But if you didn't... that makes Genjiro's death really weird. You two fight and fight and fight... then the man just drops dead from the poison? That... doesn't seem right. How could you even determine it was poison in that case? Maybe it was a wound you inflicted?"

Joji raised some valid points. Pheme's confession did make the circumstances of Genjiro's death a little strange.

But Pheme merely giggled in response. "I see your point Mr. Kaneshiro. But... trust me. I know what killed Mr. Mashimoto. And it was not me." She stated with the utmost confidence.

"...Fuck. If you say so." Joji huffed. It pained him to have to listen to Pheme like this, but the reasonable side of him couldn't deny that the goddess wouldn't have a reason to lie then.

"It's certainly a strange death, I'll give you that." Damien could see where Joji was coming from. "We've learned more... and painted the whole picture more. But... that leads us back to one place does it not?"

"And where would that be?" Nozomi crossed her arms. Admittedly, she was starting find Damien's voice more and more annoying.

"Need you ask?" Damien smirked. "The matter of Ayaka being the blackened. She who poisoned Genjiro. We've established that fact already have we not? Is it not time to vote?"

"Huh? Voting Time?" Pheme piped up like a chihuahua.

"No! Sit down!" Joji disciplined the goddess like she was a dog. "And Damien-"

"I ain't scared of that logic!"

All of a sudden, Yoshino slammed both of her palms down on her podium, causing Damien to get assaulted by another tempest of wind. Poor guy does nothing wrong and he gets assaulted by wind. "Slow down Damien!" The horror novelist slammed her podium once again, causing another gust to be blown the beautician's way.

"Gah! What in the the- damn it!" Damien felt his perfectly prepared look getting messed up, and he can't do anything about it. "My dear-"

"You know what? Again!" Yoshino treated her podium like a wind generator and slammed it again, causing another gust to be blown Damien's way.

"What the-!" Damien kept trying to shield himself, but to little avail.

"You can calm down Yoshino!" Joji tried to deter her from getting wind-power hungry.

"Ah- oh. Fuck, my bad." Yoshino stopped abusing poor Damien. Though she didn't really feel that bad. "Damien! Two things!"

"W-What are they?!" Damien couldn't help but get a little perturbed by the assault of the zephyr. He heard Nozomi chuckle next to him.

"One!" Yoshino slammed her podium again, but out of habit. No wind appeared. "If you do it for Zomi and Aya, do it for me too! Stop with the "my dear" shit. It's weird!"

"Well-"

"Two!" Yoshino wasn't sure where this surge of energy came from, but she sure wasn't objecting. "Calm the fuck down on trying to burn Zomi! We got plenty of shit to talk about still!" Nobody was objecting against that.

"My dear-" Damien stopped himself. "Very well... Yoshino. What is it?" He felt like he had no choice but to hear the girl out.

"Yeah, what do you suggest Yoshino?" Ji-hoon was frankly a little impressed by the burst of energy from her. He had definitely underestimated her.

"It's one of the things I've been the most curious about for the case." Yoshino crossed her arms. "Damien mentioned poison, and it made me think of it. I wanna talk about what happened to Roro. And how she got poisoned."

"Gah!" Aurora suddenly held her hand over her mouth.

"Wha- bestie? Are you feeling sick?" Raiha didn't think that Aurora drank enough to be sick, but she thought she may as well ask.

"...Aurora?" Rival actually seemed a little concerned.

"...What's wrong?" Darren eyed the starlet.

"It..." Aurora spoke shakily as she removed her hand from her mouth. Blood covered her entire hand.

*BLERGH*

Aurora threw up blood all over the floor.

"Aurora?!" Raiha widened her eyes.

"Yeah... I could never forget that." Lake hugged themsleves as they thought back to that moment.

"...Right." It wasn't like Rival was particularly close to Aurora, but it still was a disturbing experience.

"Fuck man..." Joji balled his hand into a fist. "With all this talk about Genjiro... Aurora slipped my mind for a second. God... someone really did try to poison her."

"A correction, carpenter human! Someone did not try to poison her! Someone did poison her!" Cathy wagged her finger.

"Fucking whatever." Joji rolled his eyes. He didn't have the energy to deal with Cathy's nonsense. "How do we want to start with this? And no one better say some shit about it not being relevant! Whether or not Aurora's poisoner and Genjiro's killer are the same, we're gonna figure this shit out."

Kei looked around. "Don't think anyone was objecting here Joji." He chuckled. "But how about... you Yoshino? You shifted the topic, so how should we start?" He casually handed the metaphorical talking stick to the horror novelist.

"Where to start... where to start..." Yoshino looked around the room as she tried to think... before her eyes landed on Darren. Oh yeah! That made her remember! A certain something about Aurora's drink. "You know what...? There is someone I want to question first." She turned and glared at a certain someone. "Even if they ain't the poisoner, I'm confident they should have something useful to say here... considering the party. Yeah..."

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"I'm talking about you... Pheme." Yoshino perpetuated her glare.

And Pheme lit up with excitement, after she herself was the answer twice in a row. "Me?! What do I have to say?" She gave a very extra(meme) response.

"Don't play stupid." Yoshino was done with BS in general right now. "You know well why we need some sort of testimony from you...

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"You and Roro had the same drink. Aya told us about the list, and we all saw you and Roro drinking the same drink. So don't deny it." Yoshino made sure Pheme knew she was caught in 4k.

"Indeed." Nozomi nodded and pulled out the aforementioned note.

Pheme (Me! :D) - Okukik Wine

Mr. Mashimoto - Four Seasons Rum: Winter

Ms. Beaufort - Okukik Wine

Ms. Kurobara - Gundo Sake

Mr. Taylor - Four Seasons Whisky: Summers

Ms. Naganohara - Laki-Laki Vodka

"You yourself wrote the note, Pheme." Nozomi reminded the goddess.

"Well well! No need to be like that, Ms. Akiyama and Ms. Nozomi! I'm well aware that Ms. Beaufort and I indulged in the same wine at the party." Pheme was amused seeing them attack her like that.

"Well that's good. What do you know then?" Yoshino didn't necessarily think Pheme poisoned Aurora, but she was confident the neurotic goddess knew something here.

"What do I know?" Pheme held her hand over her chest. "Hm... not much! Mr. Taylor poured a drink for both me and Ms. Beaufort at the same time! She was sitting to the right of me. And not that it matters, but Ms. Alpha was to the left of me." Pheme finished her testimony at a strange spot.

"...Is that all?" And Joji noticed that. "What happened when you drank it?"

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Silence. Pheme just stared at Yoshino for a couple seconds, before seemingly smirking and leaning back in her throne and crossing her legs.

"I think she wants us to figure out the rest on out own." Lake inferred.

"Of course she does..." Joji groaned.

"Well whether it finishes Pheme's testimony or not, I personally have a suggestion on where to go from here." Nozomi decided to chime in.

"And where would that be Nozomi?" Damien gave her an expectant look.

"Something we've neglected to mention as of yet. The poison itself. What poison did the poisoner use on Beaufort?" Nozomi stared Damien in the eye. She didn't necessarily think he had anything to do with it, but she just stared anyway.

"Ah... a valid point." Damien complimented someone he believed was a murderer.

"Yeah... I've been thinking about that too Nozomi." Ji-hoon scrolled through his Star-Phone. "It can't be any of the perfumes. The grapefruit was taken after Aurora actually got poisoned. And the pineapple perfume would just be strange."

"Strange in, why would the poisoner utilize the pineapple poison by poisoning Aurora's drink at the party itself, instead of doing it before the party, like with Genjiro's drink, you mean?" Kei wanted to be sure.

"Exactly. That's a strange and risky MO switch, so I think that can be knocked off the possibility list." Ji-hoon knocked the perfumes off of the list in his mind.

"Well... what other poison could've been used then? Wasn't it just the perfumes that were poisoned in Damien's studio?" Yoshino was baffled.

"Incorrect." Nozomi immediately corrected her. "There were poisonous perfumes yes. But according to Ayaka...

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"There was some poisonous nail polish as well." Nozomi called back to the other referential poison.

"Ah, you have such a good eye my dear Ayaka." Damien took the product from her. "This is... Ariadoney nail polish? It's pink. Hm." He examined it. "Ariadoney is a fairly popular brand. Though it's fairly infamous."

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Damien shook his head. "Not usually. But the nail polish that poisoned that father and daughter was laced with atroquinine, which usually isn't in nail polish. And..." He sighed. "This nail polish is also laced with antroquinine. So this is poisonous if consumed."

"That's correct Nozomi." Damien nodded. "There was poisonous nail polish in my Ultimate Studio..." He trailed off for some reason.

"Did we take that?" Joji couldn't recall.

"We did. Damien gave it to me after you and Kei left." Ji-hoon let him know.

"So... that's another thing off the list of poison then? What now?" Lake couldn't imagine there was more poison in this place. Surely not right?

"We are in a rut, that's where we are!" Cathy was amused by them reaching a dead end. "No more poison... hm, perhaps the starlet human was poisoned by fate?" She suggested a clear joke answer.

"Whatever Cathy." Yoshino rolled her eyes. "But shit... maybe there's something with the perfume and nail polish we're missing?"

Ji-hoon stared expectantly at Damien. Considering what happened with the pineapple poison, he was more than expecting the beautician to magically remember something important again. And...

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"Ah... I wonder if..." Damien muttered, right on cue.

"Whatcha got Damien?" Kei raised an eyebrow. He wasn't about to miss that mutter.

"Another thing you're gonna... conveniently remember?" Rival threw a little snark into his voice.

But Damien deflected the snark with a narrow of his eyes. "I think I might know what poisoned my dear Aurora."

"Do you now?" Nozomi crossed her arms.

"I indeed do." Damien also deflected Nozomi's glare. "There was something back when Ji-hoon, Kei, Joji, and myself investigated my studio that caught my eye. I didn't think much of it at the time... but it might tell... a particular story."

"And what does that mean?" Nozomi deepened her glare.

"Let's hear it Damien." Ji-hoon expected something like this, but he wasn't in the mood to be annoyed with the beautician.

Damien cleared his voice. "The thing that caught my eye back then. It was..."

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"Some small pink splotches around the bottle itself." Damien started to regret not bringing this up earlier.

"Forgive me Ji-hoon, but I nearly forgot about something!" Damien called out back. "And... here it is." He grabbed the Ariadoney nail polish. "Hm? Did I spill a little when I moved it yesterday?" He whispered to himself. Small splotches of the nail polish appeared to have been spilled around the bottle itself. That was strange... but Damien decided to not worry about it and walked back over to Ji-hoon.

"Small pink splotches? The Ariadoney nail polish was pink." Nozomi immediately added.

"Pink splotches...?" Ji-hoon started to think about that.

"It was surrounding the bottle you grabbed? Like the splotches were on the shelf itself?" Yoshino could cut a teensy bit of slack here, but it's still pretty strange.

"Oh hey..." Lake slightly widened their eyes. "I think I remember seeing some pink splotches on one of the broken shelves in Damien's Studio!"

"That's correct Yoshino. My dear Lake." Damien nodded. "I wasn't sure what to make of it at first... but now, I think I know what happened."

"What... can you infer from something like that...?" Rival slowly shook his head.

"I think I know what you're getting at Damien." Kei could sure infer something from that. "So the poisonous nail polish spilled then? If it spilled, that means someone opened it up to do something. And what is that something...?"

"That "something" can only be one thing." Damien said solemnly. "I believe the nail polishes were...

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"Switched." Damien had an unreadable expression on his face.

"Woah... fuck you mean switched?!" Joji, as per usual, slammed his hand down on his podium.

"Yeah... switched with... what?" Rival didn't get this.

"Nozomi can confirm this if you do not believe me." Damien motioned next to him. "But there were plenty of nail polishes on that shelf. To me, it seems like the poisonous one was poured into another bottle, while the original bottle of the poison held mere normal nail polish."

"Hm... I could see it." Ji-hoon grimaced. "Can't think of anything else that might mean. But that does mean that we took some harmless nail polish." He looked over at the beautician. "The mistake could've been remedied if you had told me this earlier." The amount of people who just hide important things like that absolutely astounds Ji-hoon sometimes.

"Forgive me Ji-hoon, I did not imagine it to be relevant at the time." Damien bowed his head.

"Let's not worry about any fucking apologies right now." It was hardly the time for that sort of thing, Yoshino thought. "But if we wanna go with what Damien said... that means someone took the poison that was switched and used it on Roro."

"Hold... on." Rival gave a very half-hearted interjection. "Let's go there in a moment... but something else first."

"What is it Rival?" Darren reappeared to say one line, then disappeared.

Rival pulled the hood of hid hoodie up over his head all Holland Delaney-like. "Who switched them then? It... can only be two people... right?"

"Good question Rival. But ah..." Kei smirked at the two people. "Well... that's how the cookie crumbles for us ain't it?"

"Damn it..." Joji balled both his hands up into fists. The moment Rival said it, the revelation came to his mind. "We go back to where we were before then. Only two people could've switched them..."

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"Ayaka... and Damien." As Joji said, they go right back to this now broken duo.

"Hm?" Damien had an unbreakable smirk on his face.

"Ayaka and Lux again?" Nozomi crossed her arms.

"Using what I said earlier..." Ji-hoon decided to explain. "You two are the only ones who would've known the existence of the nail polish. You might've mentioned it at the meeting, but no one knew the specifics, or what it even looked like."

"Ah... I see." Nozomi slowly nodded in understanding. "Though that may be, it's not like switching the nail polishes would've helped with the murder. So is this truly relevant?"

"My thoughts exactly Nozomi." Damien agreed with a person that hated him. "It's a strange act, yet it wouldn't be of aid to any killing correct? Even if one of us did poison my dear Aurora, switching the nail polishes is a wholly unnecessary step. There's no point."

"Woah... seeing those two agree with each other like that is strange." Lake didn't know what to think about that.

"Nyaha! It is rather strange!" Seeing the beautician human and talentless human come together for this was an amusing sight. "So much so that... I believe them! Those humans are telling the truth!"

"Oh...?" Kei raised an eyebrow. "That's unlike you Cathy. What's the occasion?"

"Well, I believe them because... there is another suspect to the switching that everyone has seemingly forgotten!" Cathy tried to hold in a laugh while she dropped that reveal.

"I'm sorry? Another suspect?" Damien wasn't sure what she was talking about.

"Nah Cathy... Jiji made sense. I don't think anyone else could've done it." And Yoshino just straight up disagreed with her.

"Wait a second..." Nozomi said with a very tired tone. "Munchkin is right. Someone else could've switched them." She sounded very done for some reason.

"Want to... enlighten us?" Rival rubbed his eyes.

"Yes..." Nozomi glared at a certain someone. "There is another, more likely suspect here. It's you... isn't it...?"

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"Munchkin." The talentless human stared daggers at the cat burglar.

"What the hell? How is it Cathy?" Joji didn't see that coming at all.

"Oh. I see." Darren might've seen it coming though!

"I almost forgot about it... but Ayaka wrote me a note about it." Nozomi sighed. "Munchkin was in the Ultimate Beautician's Studio while Lux and Ayaka were exploring it for the first time." She reminded the readers.

"Nya ha ha! You don't know? You're such a fool violinist human! You didn't notice I was in there as well?" Cathy gave a smug look.

"I'm sorry my dear Catherine? You were?" Damien didn't realize she was in there.

"Yep!" Cathy nodded. "I was there initially, and when I heard you two humans enter, I hid myself to watch you." She giggled. "And wow, you sure moved on from the puppeteer human quick, didn't you beautician human? You got to flirting with the violinist human pretty quick!"

"So she is a suspect for the switching as well." Nozomi continued her thought.

"Wait... if that's the case..." Rival narrowed his eyes. "Wouldn't Cathy be a suspect... for having something to do with the pineapple poison...?"

"Have you stolen your own brain?"

Cathy whipped out a heavy bag full of stolen goods out of nowhere and slammed it down on her podium, causing a rather frigid gust of wind to get sent Rival's way.

Rival fully submerged himself in his hoodie, tanking the wind in the process. "...What?" That was all he said, not very audible from within his hoodie.

"Backing vocalist human! You're rather presumptious aren't you?" Cathy put her hands on her hips. "Just because I switched the nail polishes doesn't mean I had anything to do with the pineapple perfume! Has the cat gotten your brain instead of your tongue?" She taunted him.

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"Did... you just admit to switching the nail polishes?" Rival blinked as he reemerged from his hoodie.

"Mm hm! What, has the cat gotten your ears now?" Cathy had to start taking count of what all the cat had taken from Rival now.

"My dear Catherine..." Damien sighed and shook his head.

"Are you fucking serious Cathy?!" Yoshino wasn't pleased to hear that.

"Nyahaha! Of course I am!" Cathy stated proudly.

"Let me guess. Was it for fun?" For some reason, Darren was the only one not outwardly mad at the cat burglar. I mean, it's like he'd ever be outwardly mad at anyone, but still.

"Bingo! Looks like the cat hasn't taken your brain bartender human!" Cathy gave something that could possibly be considered a compliment.

"That's good." Darren was happy he allegedly still had his brain.

"You seriously switched the poisonous nail polish with a normal nail polish... for fun?" Ayaka had told Nozomi about Cathy's antics, but seeing them for herself was a different experience.

"I'm not going to keep repeating myself, talentless human!" Cathy wagger her finger. "Anyway, it sounded like fun to do so! And what do you know, one of you humans actually saw through the ruse somehow! Nyahaha!" Cathy possessed no remorse for her action. "Also, I had nothing to do with the pineapple poison! Thieves honor!"

"We can trust that." Darren chose to trust the least trustworthy person here.

"That's not very fun though..." To Lake, being an indirect cause of someone almost dying didn't sound appealing. A hot take, I know.

"Despite how ridiculous this is..." Ji-hoon made a mental note to talk to Cathy eventually about her behavior. "Her testimony is weirdly trustworthy. She's capricious, annoying, yet strangely trustworthy."

"Well... that's a mystery solved then...?" Rival definitely wasn't expecting that as an answer. "It's still Damien or Ayaka for the poison... and Cathy switched the nail polishes... for fun."

"I fucking guess so." Yoshino wished that the people in here were actually normal, but that was too much to ask for.

"Rival, I again must say that I had nothing to do with that." Damien didn't appreciate the false accusations. "But... let's move on. We were talking about who might've stolen the switched poison yes?"

"Yep. And who might've seen through Cathy's ruse too." Joji rolled his eyes at the thought of the cat burglar.

"Not just any human can do that! Nyahaha!" Cathy cackled proudly.

"Any ideas... guys?" Lake looked around.

"Guys...?" Kei looked around in unison with Lake. "Anyone seen... what? Some broken glass with pink splotches maybe? Someone carrying around nail polish? Someone with well manicured nails?" He kept throwing out ideas while he checked his own nails. They could use some work, but there's time for that later.

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"Oh... my god." Ji-hoon grimaced.

"What is it, Ji-hoon?" The celebrity detective's tone scared Lake a little.

"I know who took it." Ji-hoon boldly claimed. "It didn't connect immediately, but factoring everything together... only one person makes sense."

"Who is it Jiji? Who's the bastard that poisoned Roro?!" Yoshino was ready to throw hands.

Ji-hoon let out a light chuckle. "You may not like the answer Yoshino. And Adam can back me up on this too. The person who stole the switched poison... it was..."

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"Genjiro. I'm sure of it." Ji-hoon a small shard of glass out of his pocket.

"Are... you... fucking... SERIOUS?!" Yoshino slammed down on her podium with all of her strength, nearly causing it to completely break. "You're fucking lying! You're saying that motherfucker did that?!"

"Yeah... Genjiro did?!" Joji was a mix of confused and angry.

"No way..." It wasn't like Lake was close to the wrestler, but they just didn't see how that was the case.

"...What's that shard of glass?" Kei noticed what Ji-hoon pulled out of his pocket.

"It's my proof." Ji-hoon set the shard down. "The broken glass in the audience of Bessie's Studio had pink splotches on them."

"Why? What's wrong?" Adam's tone didn't really sound too urgent to Ji-hoon, so he just slowly turned around to took at the academic.

"It's... there's s-something at your feet!" Adam adjusted his glasses and went forward to get a better look. "Y-Yes... there's something there."

"Hey... you're right." Ji-hoon knelt down to get a better look. "It's... small glass shards?" He picked up one of the shards with his gloved hand. "There's some pink dots on all of them. Weird."

"So, I believe Genjiro had the switched nail polish. As for how he knew of it..." Ji-hoon had no answer for that.

"Another fucking thing that guy mysteriously knows?!" Yoshino threw her hands up in the air. "What the hell?!"

"Nyahaha! The wrestler human seems to be sneakier than me!" Cathy seemed almost impressed.

"He's one crazy guy..." Kei wasn't annoyed or mad at Genjiro here... if anything, he was curious. Honestly, he had his own theory, but it's a theory that's more fitting to bring up at the end of the trial. "But Ji-hoon... the glass just being in the audience doesn't automatically prove in was the big guy."

"Good point." Ji-hoon nodded. "I guess I should say it also could've been Alpha as well. But considering the timeline... I can't imagine anyone else being the nail polish thief. The only ones who could've in theory had it would've been Genjiro/Alpha or Pheme. We have to remember that it ended up busted in Bessie's Studio. Pheme having it would just be weird... and no pairs have a reason to cover for each other if they had involvement with the nail polish. That's why I say it has to be Genjiro." He explained his reasoning.

"Okay... so that is weird..." Lake furrowed their brow. "But guys...? That means that... Genjiro... poisoned Aurora... right?"

"He better not of..." Yoshino gritted her teeth.

"Lake... is right... technically speaking." Rival accidentally channeled Adam for a second. "But that seems... random. Why would Genjiro want to poison... Aurora of all people?"

"Indeed Seizon. Along with that, Genjiro would've had to have reached over two people to even get to Beaufort's drink." Nozomi sensed something weird here as well. "He would've had to have reached over both Alpha and Pheme for that."

"Uh, I am? See?" Genjiro cocked his head towards Pheme, who was sitting next to Alpha, so she was one seat away from Genjiro.

"Hi Ms. Akiyama!" Pheme waved. "I hope you're having a good time!" Pheme giggled as she sat next to Aurora. But the starlet and her bestie were trying their best to ignore the goddess's stifling presence.

"He would've had to evaded the gaze of my dear Raiha as well." Damien could only wonder how the brutish wrestler managed to do all of this. "My dear Raiha wouldn't have let him poison her friend's drink."

"Huh... you all make... really good points." Lake was starting to feel embarrassed. "Did Genjiro not poison Aurora then? It sounds really difficult for him to have done so."

"No. He did." Ji-hoon had borderline proved that after all. "And as for how and when, well, he just needed an opportune time to slip some poison into Pheme's drink."

"Opportune time to... son of bitch." Yoshino gave an annoyed slam of podium.

"It seems you got an opportune time in mind Yoshino?" Kei gave the horror novelist an expectant look.

"Damn right an opportune time." Yoshino groaned. "Big guy would've had the perfect moment to poison Roro's drink. It was when..."

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"Roko had her seizure." Yoshino looked back on it with a grimace.

"Yo Kuroko!" Genjiro yelled out. "Good you're here! I think you dropped this shit earlier?" He pulled something out of his pocket.

"Wait... huh-nya?" Hearing that threw Kuroko off of her train of thought. "What is it-nya?"

"Here!" Genjiro tossed the thing over to the hypnotist. He wasn't sitting too far from the entrance, so it was a fairly short toss.

Cathy was tempted to intercept it, but she for once decided to not intervene.

Kuroko caught it with surprising ease. "What is... this...?"

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"A... letter opener...?"

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"I... I... I... I... I-I-I-I-I-I-" Kuroko's whole body started to shake. Blood started to trickle out of her nose.

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"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-" Kuroko's eyes started to roll up into the back of her head.

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"What in the- hypnotist human! What's wrong with you?!" Cathy attempted to get through to her partner with words.

"Is she having a seizure?!" Joji was no medical expert, but he stood up and rushed over to her. "Kuroko? Kuroko?! Can you hear me?!"

"Everyone got distracted by it. So that was that bastard's chance to poison Roro." Yoshino really hoped that both Aurora and Kuroko were okay.

"Genjiro threw that letter opener to Kuroko right? You think he... planned that shit somehow?" Joji didn't have any idea how that'd be possible, but...

"I don't know of I'd say he planned it..." Ji-hoon crossed his arms. "It's more of a... he'd know what happens if he shows Kuroko a letter opener."

"What are you trying to say Ji-hoon?" Damien wasn't following.

"It's not important... not right now at least." Ji-hoon shook his head. "It's not something I want to talk about, but believe me when I say... he didn't plan for her to have a seizure, or forced her to have one. He just knew what would happen if she saw a letter opener." He had his own knowledge about Kuroko's past, and he had his own thoughts about her seizure, but that itself isn't relevant right now. "I'm more curious on where he got the letter opener from. Given what we know, there's no way he just happened to pick it up somewhere."

"Hm... I'm drawing a blank. Pheme?" Kei boldly expected their tormentor to answer the question.

Pheme wagged her finger.

"Damn." Kei chuckled.

"My first thought was my own Studio..." Yoshino remembered the infinitie paper in there. "It wasn't in there."

"My studio doesn't have tools like that." And Joji knew his tools.

While everyone was sharing thoughts and ideas about this mysterious letter opener... Lake sudden remembered something they saw a few days ago. "Guys?" They tried to get everyone's attention.

"Hm? What is it, little human?" Cathy changed up her naming scheme for fun.

"You got an idea Lake?" Joji was a bit hopeful.

"Yeah... well, more than an idea." Lake corrected him. "I think I know where the letter opener came from. And... I know when Genjiro stole it too." They hated that they didn't realize what Genjiro was doing then... but they tried to not dwell on it.

"Speak Beaumont. Please tell us." Nozomi, like everyone else, wanted to know the truth. This is also drawing attention away from Ayaka, who is innocent in her mind, so she wasn't objecting.

"Right. I will." Lake gave a determined nod. "Genjiro... he stole the letter opener from..."

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"Kuroko's Ultimate Studio." Lake said with confidence.

"Huh... I guess I can see it...?" Yoshino thought back to what Ji-hoon had said again. "You're sure though?"

"I am." Lake nodded. "Because... I think I saw him steal it..." They were a little ashamed to say that.

Genjiro focused... then with one last mighty heave... "There we go! Fuck you bitch!" He managed to break the lock into pieces, and it scattered on the ground.

"Now what do we got..." Genjiro was eager to pull open the drawer... but...

"Hm? Genjiro? What are you doing here?" Lake of all people walked into the Ultimate Studio.

"Oh fuck! Lake?!" Genjiro quickly closed the drawer and used his feet to hide the lock pieces. "What the... what the fuck are you doing here?" This was a strange place for them to be after all.

"I didn't think much of it at the time... but that'd make sense right? The broken drawer... Genjiro... right? I'm sorry!" Lake felt bad for not connecting the dots in their head earlier.

"It's okay Lake! That's alright!" Joji was quick to reassure.

"Yeah... you're good Lake." Rival yawned. He could kinda see not connecting dots immediately for that.

"That's that mystery solved then..." Ji-hoon muttered. "Thank you for telling us Lake. It's good to know." He nodded.

Lake still felt a little bad, but they were relieved to see people weren't too angry. They smiled.

"So it's good that we know that..." Joji moved on. "But the whole two person thing still gets me. Even with everyone being distracted by Kuroko, he still had to reach over two people to poison Aurora's drink." That part still nagged at him.

"He's not the most subtle fellow too." Kei kept staying casual. "But you know, there is a possibility that Alpha was complicit in the poisoning." He suggested. "If she was, that'd make Genjiro's job a bit easier."

"Ugh... I hate that I can see it." Yoshino sighed.

"I'd say that Alpha wouldn't have a motive to want Beaufort dead... but she might not even need a motive. She's a rather aggressive lady yes? And apathetic to an extent? Perhaps she didn't even need a reason." Nozomi hadn't even met Alpha and she already had zero faith in her.

"That's disconcerting... but fair." Damien tried to uphold faith in his dear Alpha.

"Mm... I don't know." Darren shrugged. "Alpha isn't the type to kill someone for no reason. And she wouldn't kill Aurora just because of some irrational hatred." He said with a surprising amount of confidence.

"...Is it weird that I kind of agree with Darren?" Rival narrowed his eyes. "I... kind of got those vibes too. Alpha is agressive... mean... rude... nasty... unpleasant... but she's not dumb."

"So... maybe Alpha wasn't complicit then?" Lake wasn't naive enough to view Alpha in a completely good light, but the thought of her not being complicit was oddly comforting.

"You know..." Cathy smugly tapped her foot on the ground. How she made that smug is beyond me. "I just got a funny little idea... for how the gas station manager might've been complicit in the wrestler humans plan. And the idea paints the motive in a very clear picture! I'm not gonna share though! Nyahaha!" She had been charitable enough this trial, so she decided to keep this to herself.

"Ah c'mon!" Joji admittedly got a litte hopeful after how much Cathy had been sharing this trial, but nope. "Cathy don't-"

Ji-hoon cut the carpenter off with a snap of his fingers. "Joji, don't let her rile you up." He could see some rage starting to brew. "Besides, she doesn't need to say anything. Because I think I know what she means."

"Nyaha? Is that so, celebrity detective human?" Cathy was intrigued.

"Yeah, do you?!" Joji was grateful Ji-hoon stopped him.

"Think about it." Ji-hoon commanded everyone. "Genjiro's plan becomes a lot easier if Alpha was complicit. But neither have a motive to want to kill Aurora. It's too random. Both of them are aggressive people, but they're not stupid people either. So if we think about that... there's a clear answer here. Considering what we know... their goal wasn't to poison Aurora...

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"It was to poison Pheme." Ji-hoon pointed at the goddess. "It makes a lot more sense... doesn't it?"

"Nyaha! Exactly!" Cathy acted like that was the idea she had, but it's debatable if she actually had it or not.

"Holy shit..." Yoshino muttered. "That'd make so much more sense. Those two idiots don't have a reason to kill Roro... but both wouldn't be opposed to killing Pheme. And Pheme was closer to where those idiots were sitting too. It'd be easier for them."

"Funny, isn't Yoshino?" Kei smirked. "One of the first things you brought up for the whole poisoning Aurora thing was that she and Pheme had the same drink. Looks like you were on the right track."

Yoshino wasn't sure how she felt about getting a compliment from someone as shady as Kei, but she took it anyway. "Right... it looks like Pheme is suspicious as hell."

"Even if she is, we have to think about who switched the drinks no?" Damien realized how much switching has gone on in this case. "Someone not wanting Pheme dead?"

"Your words call to mind a traitor, Lux. But Yamamoto was already the traitor, I believe." Nozomi shook her head. "So you are wrong, Lux." She liked saying that.

"Who else would've switched them though?" Lake was confused.

"There's an easy answer to that Lake." Kei thought this was pretty easy. "If we aren't considering a traitor who wanted to protect Pheme's life, then there's just one other person who'd want to protect Pheme's life. The person who switched Pheme's poisoned drink over to Aurora must be...

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"Pheme herself. Who else?" Kei looked around the room, curious if anyone would counter that.

And no one did. In a shocking show of unity in the group, everyone starting to glare at the goddess.

"No way...!" Joji looked up at the goddess in disbelief. I mean, he could see it. But it's still crazy to hear.

"I see..." Nozomi nodded in understanding. "Considering her and Beaufort had the same drink, it'd be easy for her to switch them- ah. Hold on. Taylor?" She specifically avoided asking Damien this question.

"Hm?" Darren was there.

"Jo brought up the broken glass with pink splotches in Yamamoto's Ultimate Studio." She motioned to the shard of glass that was still out. "Did the drink in Beaufort's seat have any pink splotches?"

Given his Library of Alexandria-level knowledge of alcohol, Darren didn't even have to think about that. "Yeah. The drink at Aurora's seat did have a little pink to it."

"Anything?" Darren watched the beautician move the glass around in his hands. "Well... it seems that it's under the halfway point. My dear Aurora nearly finished the whole glass."

"I see." Darren made a mental note about Aurora enjoying her wine. "Anything else?"

"Yes..." Damien spotted something along the rim of the glass. "There is.. a streak of pink here. You see?" He pointed it out to the bartender.

"Pheme would've known her drink was messed with then." The bartender continued Nozomi's thought.

"So to avoid being poisoned... she gave it to my dear Aurora, and hoped for the best." Damien thought the theory made sense.

"So Pheme? Any comments?" Ji-hoon crossed his arms, curious to know what the goddess thought of the accusation. "Did you switch your drink with Aurora's?"

"I did!" Pheme admitted with no fanfare or buildup.

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"Just... just like that?" Lake expected the goddess to be a bit more flamboyant regarding an accusation like this.

"Indeed! Just like that!" Pheme stood up. "You see, I couldn't let Mr. Mashimoto kill me! That wouldn't be good! So when I saw that my drink had been poisoned, I switched it with Ms. Beaufort's drink following the chaos of Ms. Kurobara's breakdown! So yes, I was technically the cause of Ms. Beaufort's poisoning!"

"You fucking bitch!" Joji nearly broke his podium. "The hell did Aurora do to you?!"

"Ha! Mr. Kaneshiro, did you not hear me?" Pheme wagged her finger. "I couldn't let Mr. Mashimoto kill me! The Killing Game wouldn't stop if that happened, but I personally would rather not die! So I had no choice!"

"Seeing you act so fucking casual about putting one of our friends in life-threatening danger is just..." Yoshino balled up her hand into a fist. "So what if Roro died?! What would you have done?!"

A single drop of sweat dripped down Pheme's forehead. "Admittedly, Ms. Akiyama, that wouldn't have been good for me! I must follow the rules, just like you. So if Ms. Beaufort would've died as a result of that, I would technically be the blackened! And if I would've killed her without her having broken a rule... let's just say it wouldn't be pretty!" Pheme flipped her hair.

"Ridiculous..." Yoshino muttered.

"That's pretty interesting." Kei seemed unperturbed by the whole thing. "So Genjiro tried killing Pheme twice throughout this whole case? Damn, he's bolder than I thought."

"Both attempts failed though." Nozomi said what everyone was thinking. "It might've been bold, but both were failures in the end. Unfortunately."

"So... if Adam didn't save Aurora... then..." Rival let the intrusive thoughts win.

"Don't bring that up!" Lake suddenly raised their voice. "I-I don't want to think about that!" Even if it would've gotten Pheme in trouble or something, they hated the thought of Aurora dying in such a gruesome way.

"Sorry..." Rival didn't mean to upset them.

"Ah, excuse me?" Damien tried to get everyone's attention. "We have now solved the mystery of what happened to my dear Aurora, and I'm grateful for it. But... do we have anything else to discuss? If not, I'd be more than happy to bring up the next topic." An almost creepy smirk appeared across Damien's face.

"I don't think so. What's up?" Darren for some reason spoke for the rest of the group.

"Hold on Darren-" Yoshino didn't like being spoken for, but she was too late.

"Very well." Damien nodded. "In that case... let us discuss the killer."

"Lux...?" Nozomi had a very annoyed tone to her voice.

"Are you just gonna accuse Ayaka... again?" Rival was tired of this.

"Hold on." Kei was expecting the same thing, but he still wanted to let the guy talk. "What's on your mind Damien?"

Damien chuckled. "For what is on my mind... I am now confident on who the killer is. And I now have definitive evidence as well." He dropped ominously. "Genjiro's killer has to be...

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"Ayaka. I am confident." Damien accused his former dear Ayaka again. I mean, who else would he accuse?"

Nozomi rolled her eyes. "I will repeat this ad nauseam if I must. Ayaka is not the killer-"

"Your outdated logic fits your outdated look!"

What is this? Damien's fifth interjection? His sixth? And they're all unique! God this guy needs to stop interjecting already.

Anyway, Damien pointed a powerful finger directly next to him, sending an incredibly powerful gust of wind Nozomi's way.

"GAH-" Nozomi struggled out as she essentially got headshot by the zephyr. "Lux?! What. Is. It?!" They lost their temper a little.

"Damien..." Rival was still tired of this.

"You really have evidence Damien? Definitive evidence of Ayaka's guilt?" Ji-hoon was morbidly curious.

"I do!" Damien gave an open-mouthed smirk, his white teeth perfectly shining against the spotlights in the Grand Court. "We need not extend the trial any longer. As this person has just provided the evidence we needed to pin Ayaka as the killer! This person is..."

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"Pheme! Her testimony proves that Ayaka is the killer!" Damien pointed at the goddess.

"W-What?!" Nozomi felt herself start to slowly lose her composure again.

"Hm? I did?" Pheme honestly had no idea what Damien was talking about. "Please explain, Mr. Lux!"

"Yeah... I want to hear this too." Ji-hoon didn't know where this was going.

"Well... allow me to repeat something you said a moment ago Pheme." Damien triggered a flashback.

A single drop of sweat dripped down Pheme's forehead. "Admittedly, Ms. Akiyama, that wouldn't have been good for me! I must follow the rules, just like you. So if Ms. Beaufort would've died as a result of that, I would technically be the blackened! And if I would've killed her without her having broken a rule... let's just say it wouldn't be pretty!"

"What you said about you being the blackened in that case is fascinating Pheme." Damien took a little joy in Pheme not recognizing her mistake.

"In what way?" Pheme still didn't get it.

"Shit...!" Ji-hoon muttered under his breath. He realized it. The mistake Pheme made. "I see where you're going Damien."

"Ji-hoon?! Damien?! The hell is going on?!" Yoshino was still lost though.

"Yes! Jo! Lux! What is this?!" Nozomi was definitely starting to lose her composure.

Damien chuckled once again. "I'll spell it out for you Nozomi. As well for everyone else who may be lost." He extended his smug explanation to everyone else. "So... in the case of Pheme's story, even though Genjiro was the one who poisoned the drink, Pheme would've been the blackened. And since the goddess herself confirmed that fact, we can assume it to be true."

"Damn it..." Rival muttered. He saw where this was going.

"Oh no..." Lake did too.

"Get to the damn point!" Nozomi didn't yet though, as slammed her palm down on her podium.

Damien gave another chuckle as he continued. "So, following Pheme's logic here. If we do live in Ji-hoon and Rival's fantasy world where I poisoned the liqueur itself, that doesn't matter. Since you are the one who poured the poison into the drink... since you are the one prepared the deadly beverage... and since you were the one who gave Genjiro the drink in the end..."

"Well... I-I think he's probably fine." Darren didn't seem harmful... so Ayaka decided to hold a modicum of trust in him. "Do you w-want to help him?" She was probably the second most skilled bartender here now.

"...Fine." Rival saw no reason why not, so he went with Ayaka to help hand out drinks.

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"Ha ha! Here you go!" Genjiro handed Adam a shot glass full of rum. "Darren and Damien took their sweet fucking time preparing this shit, so Ayaka gave this shit to me instead. So c'mon!"

"Nozomi... Ayaka is the killer. She is the one who committed the heinous act of murder." Damien dropped with a flat tone.

"T-That's-" Nozomi felt herself start to sweat.

"No more running..." Damien shook his head.

"S-Shut up!" Nozomi started to shake.

"There's no more looking away..." Damien kept shaking his head.

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" Nozomi started to repeat Ayaka pre-switch.

"Nozomi... you must face the truth!" Damien took on a lawyer like pose, biting Kei's style in the process. He pointed an accusatory finger at his former dear, now confident that there is no way she isn't the killer.

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"No... no... no...!" Now Nozomi was the one having a mental breakdown. "This can't be possible! I refuse to believe it!" She clutched her head in her hands, starting to shake violently. She never knew she could feel like this.

"You... you! Damien Lux! You souless sociopathic scoundrel! You set this up! You never gave a shit about Ayaka!" Nozomi started to cry as the truth set in... the truth that she failed Ayaka.

"You just wanted to make her suffer! Fuck you! You monster! No... no... no!" Nozomi suddenly stopped.

"AAAAYYYYYAAAAKKAAAA!" Nozomi let out a shrill scream that almost seemed to have come from both personalities.

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"Are you done?" Damien said, surprisingly impatient.

"My god... Damien..." Yoshino was appalled by the way Damien acted there, Ayaka the killer or not.

"This can't be..." Lake had started crying ever since Nozomi started to cry. "It really is Ayaka...?"

"That's such a stupid fucking rule! No way!" Joji actually managed to break off a small chunk of his podium with another slam.

"That's coming out of your salary, Mr. Kaneshiro!" Pheme jokingly said. "But about what you said... that's too bad! That's how rules go!" She was still standing, so she continued to stand. "I'll word it like this. If one person were to load a gun, and another were shoot it, the person who shot it is the killer yes? In Ms. Beaufort's case, Mr. Mashimoto loaded the gun, and I shot it! And in Mr. Mashimoto's own case, Mr. Lux hypothetically prepared the bullet. Then Ms. Naganohara then loaded the bullet and shot the gun! Simple as that!"

"God DAMNIT!" Joji still had trouble accepting it, so he slammed the broken portion of his podium again.

"Dang... that's how it goes huh?" Kei still acted casual, despite this development.

"Indeed Kei. Indeed." It was still impossible to tell how Damien truly felt here. "We shouldn't dely any longer. All the mysteries have been solved. I say it's time to vote."

"Oh? Voting time?" Pheme perked up like she was a cat getting a treat.

"..." Ji-hoon stayed frustratingly silent. In a normal situation, he'd be fine with voting Ayaka. She murdered Genjiro, and that was that. But... this was different. This reeked of them falling into Damien's narrative. To repeat something Rival said earlier, it felt like they were falling into Damien's trap. But... what could he say here? The idea of Damien being involved initially was just an idea to keep the trial going... but now what could he say? His mind was drawing a blank.

And without waiting for anyone else to actual consent with voting time..."Very well then!" Pheme clapped her hands. "Alright my glamorous stars... I think.. it's Voting Time!" She snapped her fingers.

All of sudden, everyone got a notification on their Star-Phone. As soon as everybody pulled theirs out, they saw a familiar Voting App. When they opened it up, twenty pictures appeared. One of those pictures was merely Pheme at the top, winking. The other nineteen pictures were of the glamourous stars. The pictures were in alphabetical order, with a red X over Bessie's, Aelia's, and Genjiro's faces.

The room was eerily silent, besides for Nozomi still losing her mind. Damien was probably the only person who voted immediately. Everyone else voted with some hesitation. But after a few minutes...

"Okay! It looks like everyone has voted!" Pheme cheered. "Now... let's see the results shall we?" With another snap of her fingers, Pheme caused a monitor to descend from the ceiling behind her. A monitor that showed the votes. The votes...

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Ayaka: 6

Damien: 4

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"Your brains are running on fucking empty!"

Everyone, including Pheme, got suddenly caught off guard by an echoing voice. "What the-?!" Pheme looked around. "Who was that?!"

"Me. You fucking slut." Yes... Alpha just hobbled into the Grand Court, still clearly not recovered from her injuries. And right behind her...

"A-Alpha! Slow down! Y-You aren't well yet!" Adam chased after her.

"We're sorry to have missed the bulk of the trial everyone!" Aurora was behind Adam. The starlet seemed to have essentially fully recovered.

"Forgive *cough* us for our late entrance." And Rosalind was right next to Aurora.

"Oh... I see!" Pheme quickly canceled the voting procedures as she saw four more of her glamorous stars enter and go to their respective empty podiums. She had no qualms with interrupting voting time if it meant for an entertaining plot twist!

"Alpha! Ade! Roro! Rosa! You're all okay!" Yoshino was overjoyed.

"Everyone!" Lake was grateful to see four more of their friends here. Yes, they even counted Alpha in that.

"Ah... you've arrived." Damien said plainly.

"You all made it huh?" Kei smirked.

"Fuck yeah we're *cough* here!" Alpha actually coughed.

"...Are you okay Alpha?" Yoshino showed a little concern for the gas station manager.

"N-No! She's n-not!" Adam was surprisingly forceful. "Her injuries are still-"

"Shut the fuck up you twink! I don't g-give a shit!" If even Alpha was stuttering, you knew she wasn't okay. "Don't pay attention to him! I'll recover or some shit after this BS! I'm here... cause the anorexia bitch and I got stuff to say!"

"You do?" Damien sounded strangely annoyed.

"First off..." Ji-hoon was happy enough to see them, but there's something he needed to know first. "Where is Raiha and Kuroko?" The two girls were noticeably not there. "And Aurora? Rosalind? Are you okay?"

"I'm... not worst off than I have been *cough* before." Rosalind dryly chuckled. "I'm fine."

"And I'm okay too!" A gentle smiled spread across Aurora's face. "The medicine Adam gave me helped me feel a lot better." She then looked down with an uneasy look. "It made me feel a little better knowing that no one was actually out to poison me too." She avoided Pheme's gaze as she tried to look on the bright side. "And, for Raiha and Kuroko, both of them are still in the infirmary. Kuroko was still shaky... so Raiha volunteered to stay behind and watch her. A really kind gesture." She smiled as she thought of Raiha.

"Yeah, those two sluts are fine!" Alpha slammed her podium. "Onto more important shit! Why we are here!"

"Well you humans seem to have nearly recovered I assume? Is that the reason?" It was hard to tell if Cathy had any concern for them or not.

"We've recovered enough! That's a-all that fucking matters!" Alpha staggered a little from her injuries. "I've been knocked the fuck out for while now. But I woke up like half an hour ago. The girls explained to me what happened so far while the fucking geek "cared for me" by feeling me up. As soon as I saw you idiots were about to prematurely end this shit, I charged down here. Adam chased after me, and I guess Aurora and Rosalind were lucid enough to come with too!"

"I s-suppose so..." Adam still couldn't get over how Alpha managed to make every single thing she says into an insult.

"Yes. We wanted to join in." Aurora gave a determined nod. "Alpha was especially gung-ho, but Rosalind and myself just felt bad about missing everything."

"...I guess you could *cough* say that." Rosalind more so came just so she could explain her story.

"Well... it's good to see you here." Rival seemed to be the littlest bit happy at their arrival.

"It is damn good to see you here!" Joji slammed his podium, but jovially for once. "Aurora's story with the poisoning has been pretty much told... so now we gotta hear Rosalind's and Alpha's stories!"

"That's right!" Lake perked up a little. "We can't end the trial yet!"

"...Wha-?" Nozomi finally said something since her breakdown.

"You... are Nozomi, yes?" Aurora wanted to be sure. "It's... good to meet you. We saw what was happening down here... but you shouldn't have to worry. We... might have new evidence to share!" She actually had no idea if Rosalind's or Alpha's stories would change anything, considering she didn't know them herself. But she just wanted to comfort the girl who was clearly going through a lot.

"...New evidence?" Nozomi felt some hope get restored.

"New evidence...?" Damien's expression nor tone showed any specific emotion.

"I've said that crap already!" Alpha was officially joining the podium slammers with how much she slammed her own podium. "But yeah! So shut the fuck up Damien and speak- FUCK!" The gas station manager accidentally fell to the floor.

"Alpha! You alright?!" Joji didn't exactly want to approach the chick right now. It was different story back when he found her in Bessie's Studio.

"I k-kept telling y-you that you aren't..." Adam didn't want to keep repeating himself, but he knew she wasn't well yet.

"I'm fine!" Alpha still didn't get why these idiots showed concern for her. "But uh... Rosalind! Go first!" She commanded the cinematographer as she slowly got to her feet.

"As you wish." Rosalind had no problem with that.

"Alright then..." Ji-hoon internalized his concern for Alpha and turned to the cinematographer. "Rosalind. You have a lot to explain. Bessie's Star-Phone, her remote, and how you were knocked out. Get to it." He pulled out his Star-Phone to start taking notes.

"Well... I'll begin." A metaphorical spotlight shined down on Rosalind. "Since I was not *cough* chained to anyone, I didn't have to worry about my freedom of movement. So I believe it was a little past *cough* the nighttime announcement when I heard sounds coming from Bessie's Ultimate Studio. I was walking up on the second floor at the time. And perhaps against my better judgment, I went to investigate the *cough* sounds. I was rather ignorant then... and that ignorance was what led me to discover the scene. Of Genjiro and Pheme fighting."

"Y-You were a witness to it?!" Lake widened their eyes.

"I unfortunately *cough* was. Heh." Rosalind chuckled at her own misfortune. "I only witnessed a few seconds of the brawl before I saw a piece of rubble flying towards me as an unfortunate side effect of the brawl. And due to my inept self, the rubble knocked me clean out on the floor. Knocking off my *cough* sunglasses too."

"S-So that's why Ji-hoon found those t-there..." Adam realized he should probably participate in the debate now.

He didn't know if there was a rule that said he can't properly investigate yet, but considering the celebrity detective spotted two interesting things at his feet... he couldn't help himself.

"W-What are these?" Adam followed his gaze.

"A wooden board. With a little blood on it." Ji-hoon had already put on gloves, so he picked up the board. "Also..." He picked up what was next to the board. "Rosalind's sunglasses." He had a bad feelint about this, considering they all saw Rosalind's parasol outside of the toom.

"Okay... you got knocked out there?" Besides for the whole murder thing, what happened to Rosalind was probably the thing that Rival was most curous about.

"Yes... and no." Rosalind gave a confusing response.

"...What?" Rival wasn't expecting that.

"You see... I got knocked out twice." Rosalind revealed. "Once, when I just said. Then... a few minutes *cough* later, I woke up. It was dead silent." She tried to make a dark joke, considering that she believes Genjiro was dead by the time she woke up again. "When I woke up again, I kept trying my best to *cough* stand up, but my useless body wasn't cooperating with me. And then, while I was trying to stand up... boom. I was *cough* knocked out again. From there, my next memory is being in the infirmary."

"The fuck? A second time?! And from someone different?!" Yoshino definitely wasn't expecting to hear that. "So... you were dragged to my studio after that?!"

"There... was a blood trail leading from Hana- no. Leading from Bessie's Ultimate Studio to... Yoshino's Ultimate Studio." Rival remembered. "So... that makes sense."

"That... is some new evidence." Nozomi felt like she was going through an emotional roller coaster this chapter, but she was glad that she was able to take all of this for Ayaka. "Reinhardt. Who do you propose knocked you out?" She felt a lot more hopeful now.

"I'm... not *cough* sure." Rosalind admitted. "I'm assuming it's the same person who planted Bessie's Star-Phone and Remote on me." She dropped that little fact on the group.

"Oh really?" That caught Kei's attention. "So you didn't steal Bessie's valuables?"

"No. I swear I *cough* didn't." Rosalind stood firm.

"For the record... I believe her." Aurora, the original owner of those aforementioned valuables spoke up. "When I heard Rosalind stole them... I didn't believe it. She had no reason too." Congrats Wolfie! Aurora and Rosalind are finally interacting!

"No shit? That's real interesting..." Yoshino started to think about something.

"That's crazy! So the true thief planted them on you... wait." Joji stopped his train of thought. "Why would they do that? Just to shift blame away from them for the theft?"

"Ha! A gormless thief! Nyahaha!" Cathy hated people who were without their gorms.

"I... have no idea. I haven't a *cough* clue why the thief would plant those on me." Rosalind slowly shook her head.

"That's already a whole new mystery to solve..." Ji-hoon, maybe ironically, was grateful to have another mystery here. "If we choose to believe her." But he also wasn't going to take that at face value.

"Before we proceed with my dear Rosalind... how about we listen to my dear Alpha now?" Damien would always hear out all of his dears, considering how good of a person he is.

"Hey! Damien!" Alpha slammed her podium as she got to her feet. "If you stopped doing it for Yoshino and the schizophrenic girl... do it for me too. I don't want that "my dear" shit."

"Duly noted." Damien wasn't sure where this antagonism towards him was coming from, but he chose not to worry about it.

"Don't pay attention to him Alpha." Nozomi couldn't help but notice how his previous attitude towards Ayaka and herself has essentially evaporated. Bleh. Despicable. "We've heard Reinhardt's story, now let's hear yours."

"What she said." Ji-hoon cocked his head towards Nozomi as he pulled out his Star-Phone once again. "When we get your story, we'll officially continue the debate."

"Yeah yeah... I was going do explain anyway." Alpha may of came in here yelling, but she was already a bit tired out. "Well... I'll say this shit first. All the stuff you said about Genjiro's plan was basically right. Poisoning Pheme, breaking into the whatever room, the Adenosine, trying to kill Pheme again, all of it. That fucker planned most of it. And I went along with it. He put up boards outside of the goth catgirl's Studio to delay their arrival so he could make sure his distraction would distract everyone... he grabbed some nail polish from Damien's Studio... yeah. We also found the body of the dead robot bitch... but we didn't do shit with it. The meds was a smarter plan."

"God that guy is such a... annoyingly clever idiot." Yoshino was ashamed to admit.

"Heh." Alpha never thought she'd agree with Yoshino of all people, but here she was. "But for what you don't know... first. What happened to me." She showed off her brusied and still bloodied body. But not too much, considering she isn't a slut.

"Yeah! Who the hell beat you up?!" This was one of the things Joji was the most curious about. "We know that Pheme was the one who beat Genjiro up... but you...?"

"Heh." Alpha chuckled again. "Funny you say that. Genjiro happened to me. He was the one who beat the shit out of *cough* me." She causally coughed up a little blood.

"Wait... really?" Aurora had no idea that was the case.

"Your own partner... beat you up?" That thoroughly baffled Lake.

"Yep. That rat bastard did." Alpha kept chuckling she shook her head. "It wasn't out of the blue though. It was part of the plan."

"In what world is Genjiro beating the shit out of part of your plan?!" Joji didn't see any sense in that.

"Were you not listening to the fucking debate, dumbass?" Alpha deadpanned. "I'll tell you why, since you're apparently stupid enough to not now. We fought each other..." She made sure to clarify that they fought each other. "Because..."

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"We had to sell that I was actually dead. Faking my death was part of the plan, you retard." Alpha thought that was obvious.

"Oh... right." Joji had honestly forgotten that.

"Were you not afraid Genjiro might actually kill you?" Aurora knew she'd be afraid if she was in Alpha's position.

"Fuck no!" Alpha spat out. "That brings me to the other reason he and I fought. Bitches like him are all talk. Wrestlers just do fake fights with fake everything. And for the longest time, I've been wanting to show that pedo in-the-making real strength." She cracked her bloodied knuckles. "So the whole thing was a 2-for-1 or some shit. Cause it felt damn good to tear through that fucker."

"Nyahaha!" Cathy couldn't help but be amused by that. "You spout that, yet it sounds like you lost! Unless you're about to claim you killed the wrestler human!"

"Alpha killed Genjiro? Surely not..." Damien personally didn't believe that.

"Tch. Fucking pussy." Alpha didn't even want to call Cathy by her name.

"Is she right? What all happened with your fight?" Thoughts were flying around Ji-hoon's brain as these testimonies started to paint a clearer picture of what happened.

Alpha groaned. "Fine. I lost." She shamefully admitted, then continued before Cathy could mock her again. "We tore through Joji's and Damien's Studios first. Yeah, we were the ones who broke your little goon chambers. Not sorry." She didn't wait for the alleged gooners to respond. "We broke the shit out of those places while we broke the shit out of each other. We eventually got to Bessie's Studio, tearing it up in there too. We ended on the stage... and... fuck it. I lost." She admitted again. "That fucker got me." She looked over her body again. "After that, I took the pill... and that's that."

"I want to be mad at you for my studio... but it ain't the time for that." Joji showed a little character development. "But hey, no shame in losing a fight like that. He may of been a wrestler, but dude was a beast." He decided to leave out how he won an arm wrestle with the guy.

"Man... I agree. No shame Alpha." Yoshino comforted her as well.

But Alpha just spat in their general direction. "Fuck off."

"Of course..." Yoshino wasn't sure why she expected anything else from her.

"So that's Alpha's injuries and the chaos in Lux's and Kaneshiro's Studios solved. Very good." Nozomi still wasn't closer to proving Ayaka's innocence though. But she thought of a question to ask that might help. "Alpha... another question. The end of Mashimoto's fight with Pheme had us puzzled. Can you elaborate on it?"

"Right. Good call Nozomi." Ji-hoon pointed a pen at the alternate personality, even though he was taking notes on his Star-Phone. "Alpha, even if you weren't full conscious at the time, tell us. How did Genjiro die? What do you know?"

"Y-Yeah... was it p-poison... like everyone said? That'd b-be logical... but..." Even Adam couldn't be sure.

"Yes... was it not poison?" Damien couldn't imagine anything else.

"How did he die? Fuck..." Alpha tried to rack her brain for what she remembered. "I think... I remember hearing Genjiro and Pheme beating the shit out of each other. I was laying on the fucking cold stage, so I didn't see shit. Then... I think I remember them making it up to the stage. They talked... Genjiro screamed some shit about being "eternal" or something... then... yeah. After that... I heard... a crashe."

Adam blinked. "C-Crash?" He didn't expect to hear that.

"What exactly does "crash" mean here?" Ji-hoon narrowed his eyes.

"How much more can I explain than that?!" Alpha slammed her fist down on her podium. "I heard some crashes! That's what my ears heard! A loud as fuck *CRASH*." She somehow voiced the sound effect. "

"Yes... I think I heard that *CRASH* *cough* sound as well." Rosalind also somehow managed to voice the sound effect.

"Could it just be... the sounds of Genjiro and Pheme fighting?" Lake didn't know what it meant.

"Genjiro falling to the floor from the poison perhaps?" Damien gave his best guess.

"That seems highly doubtful, Lux." Nozomi shook he head.

"Crashes... crashes... crashes..." Joji muttered the terms out loud like it would make it easier to think about.

Crashes... crashes... crashes. Rival personally preferred to internalize his thinking. A... crash. A... crash? A... crash! Hold on. Rival thought about the room again. No way... there's no way. Right?

"So do none of you fuckers have any ideas? Did I waste time revealing this shit?" Alpha impatiently crossed her arms.

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"No. You... didn't waste time." Rival slowly shook his head. "I... have an idea."

"You do?" Frankly, Alpha wasn't expecting the emo one to have a groundbreaking idea.

"Yeah. I think... I think I know how Genjiro actually died." Rival knew that this trial was about to get turned on its head. He also knew he might just be speaking out of his ass here, but he decided to just be bold.

"How he... actually died?" And judging by the slight twitch of Damien's eye, Rival knew he might be onto something.

"Yes... explain more!" Nozomi felt the best she's felt so far in this trial.

"You saying he didn't die from poison?!" Yoshino wasn't sure if she could handle another plot twist like this.

"Ah... I don't know for sure." Rival admitted. "But... I'm confident on what that crash was." He really was confident too. He also knew that two other people here should theoretically be confident on what the crashes are too...

"Oh ho... this really does flip the trial on its head a little doesn't it?" Kei smirked, like he usually does.

"...Wait! I think I get it too!" Lake suddenly blurted out.

Yep, Rival was right. Those other two figured it out.

"Lake? Kei? Rival? You wanna fill us in?!" Joji wished there wasn't so much dialogue before these big reveals.

Rival normally would've stayed in the background here, befitting his talent. But considering the question at hand, he decided to take the reins. "Yeah. Those crashes... they could only be one thing..."

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"The spotlights crashing down. I'm... sure of it." Rival sounded surprisingly confident.

"...Spotlights?" Damien blinked.

"The fucking spotlights?" Alpha was confused. "What the fuck are you on?"

"It very well *cough* could be those..." Rosalind thought about it. "But why do you say that, Rival?"

"That's simple... heh." Rival quietly laughed at his own misfortune. "I know because..."

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"I've heard that crash before." Rival alluded to the sound effect that Alpha and Rosalind somehow managed to mimic. "I heard it... when I was almost crushed by one."

Kei suddenly jumped up from out of his seat like he heard something. He looked up, and then back at Rival. "Rival! Move! Now!" He sounded completely serious for once.

"Huh?" Rival promptly looked up.

It was like slow motion. That agonizing slow motion... of seeing a spotlight falling... and it was falling directly... onto... Rival...

"Rival! No!" Lake screamed.

"Move-nya!" Kuroko screamed too.

But it was like... slow... motion...

Rival could only stare up in horror as...

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darkness suddenly fell around the four.

Right as the spotlight was about to fall upon Rival's head, the lights in the Grand Theater suddenly shut off. Or... no. It's probably more accurate to say it was a blackout. None of them could see the stage.

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*CRASH*

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the lights came back on.

"Oh! The lights are back on! Thank goodness!" Lake looked up, then they looked at the stage. "Rival? Are you-" Lake didn't finish their sentence. They couldn't finish their sentence... as they were forced to look upon a shocking sight...

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the shocking sight... of all four spotlights, having crashed onto the stage. And...

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"Ugh..." Rival slowly standing up from behind one. "What... the hell was that?" He was understandably a little ticked off.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot about that!" It wasn't like Yoshino was there for it after all.

"Yes... t-that did h-happen didn't it?" Adam remembered it due to his memory, but even he had to admit that it wasn't that important in the grand scheme of the first case.

"Yeah... I wouldn't be able to forget that." Lake was low-key a little traumatized by that.

"Yep." Kei nodded, signifying he thought the same. "Good that nothing bad happened to Rival. But that just begs the question... what's up with the spotlights falling this time?"

Aurora's mind immediately drifted to something. "My first thought is the small stage technician room in Bessie's Ultimate Studio. But... I'm not sure."

"You ain't sure? Fuck, are you just a pair of tits with legs h-huh? No brain in there?" Alpha may have been severely beaten, but she still found time to sling an insult or two.

"Jesus Christ Alpha..." Joji found it harder and harder to show concern for this woman.

"U-Um... Aurora isn't sure a-about those because, when we examined them, they didn't work." Adam covered for his crush.

"Yes... Adam nor I were able to uncover anything about the small room. So I believe... that may not be it." Aurora's goal was just to remove an idea from circulation.

"Okay then bitch. How else do you think they fell?" Alpha wanted more than just that.

"I... don't know." Aurora had to be honest.

"Useless..." Alpha rolled her eyes.

"Well... do y-you have any ideas Alpha?" Adam managed to stand up to one of hus bullies. In a way.

"..." Alpha just ignored him. "So we got no ideas for how the spotlights fell?! One of you should have something for gods sake!"

"I think that's a flawed way to think, Alpha." Damien shook his head. "Besides, if no one has any ideas for how the spotlights fell, perhaps Rival is just wrong-"

"Hold it!"

Channeling his inner spiky-haired lawyer, Kei suddenly pointed at Damien like he was cornering a culpirt. "Hold on a minute Damien!"

And that meant Damien got hit with another gust of wind! His outfit and look had already been ruined at this point, so he just took it. "Kei? What is it?" His impatient voice could barely be heard over the wind.

"Aikawa? Do you have something?" Nozomi never tired of seeing Damien being put in his place.

"I might." Kei stuck his hands in his pocket. "It's an idea for how the spotlights fell, by the way. What's the word... Occam's Razor? I think that's it. There's another explanation no one has brought up yet."

"Don't keep us in suspense! What is it?" The emotional whiplash that Lake was having this trial was insane. They'd go from worried and scared to interested and excited on where this was going. They were currently the latter.

Kei pulled something out of his pocket. "I'm talking about... this..."

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"Bessie's Remote. I mean, c'mon Rival. This little gadget caused them to fall in the first place!"

Bessie turned back to her audience of two. "...She then installed four spotlights above the stage! They're super sturdy though, so don't worry! And Pheme gave me a remote to control them with too~! It can turn the lights on and off, lower and raise them, and more!" Bessie took out the aforementioned remote for a split second, but she quickly pocketed it.

"Don't tell me you forgot, Rival!" Kei smirked for a second.

"Uh... I didn't." How could Rival forget that? "But..."

"Kei. Isn't the remote broken?" Ji-hoon finished Rival's thought. "It short circuited with Bessie's death. Is it not busted?" He brought up without any sensitivity for Rival.

"Maybe." Kei twirled it around in his hands. "To figure that out... we should ask Pheme." He looked to the goddess. "Pheme? Question for you, coming from your favorite. That little room in Bessie's Ultimate Studio. Is that normally supposed to control the spotlights and such in the room?" He asked what sounded like an unrelated question.

"W-Where are y-you going with this, Kei?" Adam of all people was confused.

"Patience, dear Adam." Kei unintentionally mocked Damien. "Pheme?"

Pheme closed her eyes and chuckled to herself. Well well... looks like they very well might be on the right track here. "To answer your question Mr. Aikawa... yes. They are normally supposed to work!"

"Hm... but they aren't working now then." Aurora frowned. "What do you propose happened... ah."

"You catching the drift, Aurora?" Kei kept twirling the remote around in his hand.

"I... think so." Aurora thought hard about it. Because... if that was right... then...

After Aurora, mostly everyone else seemed to have caught on to what Kei was throwing down. "So... following what Pheme has just told us..." Kei set the remote down. "For how the spotlights fell... I propose... that the true thief of Bessie's valuables used it to cause the spotlights to drop."

"You do, do you?" Damien raised an eyebrow.

"Again though Kei. Ain't it broken?" Yoshino couldn't just immediately believe this.

"I don't think it is." Kei boldly claimed. "We can't really test it here... but Pheme's statement made me think about how this remote actually works."

"How it works, huh?" Joji wasn't exactly a technology expert, but he also wasn't a stranger to the field.

"I'm unfortunately no savant with the new-fangled tech." Kei shook his head as he gazed at the remote. "But I luckily don't have to be a savant. Pheme said that the technician's room normally controls the spotlights and stuff. But for Bessie's cancelled show, no way the room would work for that."

"Phoenix Maybe, you're just spouting shit we know. Move it along!" Alpha didn't want a rehash of the first trial.

"Impatient aren't we? It'll be over with soon." Kei wasn't bothered by Alpha in the slightest. "So what I'm saying... is that maybe the spotlights got connected to this baby for Bessie's show." He patted the remote. "Pheme probably pulled some strings and got Bessie a little gadget like this for the show. But... that left the little room all alone... and not working. Because if they serve the same purpose, it'd be best to shut down one of the interfaces to prevent confusion. That's a thing right?" He was half talking out his ass at this point, because he didn't know much about modern tech. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

"In t-theory, yes." Adam, the resident technology expert confirmed for him.

"See?" Kei smirked. "So what I'm basically saying is... the remote controlled the spotlights the whole time... even after it allegedly broke. The proper control over the spotlights never got shifted back over to the technician room." He finally finished his theory.

"Huh... good theory." Ji-hoon was fairly impressed. "I appreciate you breaking down the reasoning like that. But do you really think that... what? Pheme forgot to transfer control back over to the technician's room after Bessie's trial?"

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Ji-hoon groaned. "She did forget to do that didn't she?"

"Gods sake, Pheme!" Yoshino threw her hands up in the air.

"For a BDSM goddess, you really are a fucking idiot." Alpha shook her head.

Yoshino and Alpha were the only ones with balls big enough to insult Pheme with apparently.

"So Pheme? Did that happen, like Aikawa and Jo claimed?" Nozomi really wanted to know the answer to this.

"...Yes. I did forget to transfer back control." Pheme admitted without a hint of emotion. She'd normally try to pass it off as part of the plan, but she'd been sitting here for 30k words. She's tired. So, she didn't say anything else.

"Good job solving that Kei!" Lake was eager to praise the lawyer.

"Nice job man." Since there were fourteen people here now, Darren could finally go back to making cameos. So here he is, making a cameo!"

"Hey hey... I ain't special." Kei brushed off the praise with a sly smirk. "But you know what this means right?" He suddenly turned deadly serious. "The remote... Rosalind... the crashes... it paints quite the picture. A picture... we've all been missing for this whole trial."

"A picture... we've been missing?" Damien slowly sounded it out, like he couldn't comprehend what Kei was saying.

"You finally got it Pheonix BS?" Alpha was very creative with her nicknames. "I was hoping one of you idiots could help prove it."

"P-Prove what?" Adam didn't know why he was so lost during this last leg of this trial.

"Isn't it obvious, Brooks?" Nozomi stood proud... and a little smug. Reinhardt and Alpha's testimonies... along with the remote's control... it proves one thing..."

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"Mashimoto... didn't die from poison. We've been wrong the whole trial." Nozomi said that with her chest.

"H-How do you figure?" Damien immediately responded, even stuttering a little while he did.

"Yeah... Nozomi's right. Their testimonies make that clear. We... were wrong." Ji-hoon admitted, clearly annoyed.

"No shit...? Are you guys implying Genjiro died from the spotlight?!" Yoshino wasn't expecting a twist like this.

"I get it." Joji's eyes widened. "Both Alpha and Rosalind heard the crash, and we have the remote too. If someone were to be aware that the remote was still connected to the spotlights... they could kill Genjiro remotely! Without even having to be in the room!"

"Peh. This killer is a real pussy." Alpha had no respect for a cowardly killing method like that.

"I-I see..." Damien still seemed oddly shaken up. "Very well then. So... are we saying the elusive thief is the killer we are looking for?" He quickly collected himself.

"It appears *cough* so." Rosalind nodded. "And also, if Genjiro did die from the spotlight falling on his head... that makes the end of his fight with *cough* Pheme make more sense. If he were to be suddenly hit by the spotlight instead of suddenly then and there dying from poison... that's more *cough* believable."

"Those spotlights were fairly big too, I believe." Aurora recalled. "I think... even a man like Genniro could die from something like that falling on his head. Or... perhaps his neck? He was significantly weakened as well."

"We're all in agreement then? Good." Ji-hoon gave a satisfied smile. He wouldn't pursue it anymore here... but he's going to have it talk with Damien about how he acted. But he's just grateful they're on the right track.

"W-Well then... if you are to p-pursue this logically..." Adam adjusted his glasses. "Should we not l-look to Rosalind as the t-thief? She did have the r-remote on her."

"Heh. That's to be *cough* expected." Rosalind wasn't surprised she was being accused of murder.

"Nah... no way." Rival slowly shook his head. "Rosalind... she did get knocked out. The first time was by... Pheme and Genjiro... and the second time was by... the real killer. They used the wooden board that was laying in Bessie's Studio... planted Bessie's things on her... then dragged her to Yoshino's Studio. The blood trail... proves that. So... I think she's innocent."

"I don't deserve that kind of defense..." Rosalind slowly shook her head.

"Val is right though, Rosa!" Yoshino slammed her fist down on her podium. "The killer must've planted the stuff on you... and it makes sense! He explained why! So you're innocent!" She wanted to make sure the cinematographer knew that.

"...If you say so." Rosalind looked away.

"But we gotta find the real thief now right? How the hell do we do that?" Joji didn't know where to start.

"Well we could ask the actual thief, couldn't we?" Kei raised an eyebrow at the actual thief in their midst.

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"Hm? Oh! Nyahaha!" Cathy purposely ignored everyone for a second to see their reaction.

"Hey, pussy!" Alpha starting using Genjiro's nickname for Cathy. "You've stolen shit right? How do we find a thief or whatever?!"

"You gonna help us out here?" Darren appeared one more time for his last line in the trial.

"...Fine! You humans owe me twice now! Nyahaha!" Cathy laughed fairly haughtily.

"Well then Cathy... do you have any insight?" Aurora tried to be as nice as possible with the cat burglar.

"You humans really need guidance for something like this? It's simple!" Cathy twirled one of Darren's rings around in her fingers. "You never start at the beginning. You start at the end! Follow the trail the thief left... backwards!"

"What are you implying, Cathy?" Lake didn't get it.

"Ugh! Humans!" Cathy rolled her eyes. "Think about who planted the valuables on the cinematographer human. So... following the chain of events, the real killer would've had to have been one of the first on the scene, right? They would've needed to move the cinematographer's body and plant the valuables on her before anyone else got there! The pesky handcuffs make this a bother, but who cares?" She gave the probably the most useful statement she's given this entire story.

"Oh... that's a good way to look at it! Thanks Cathy!" Lake cheerily thanked the antagonist.

"That's a good way to look at it, Munchkin. We appreciate you being useful." Nozomi bowed her head.

"Nyahaha!" And that was how Cathy responded.

"But that's... interesting. She makes a good point." Ji-hoon never thought he'd be agreeing with a statement Cathy made like this. "Huh..." If she is right... then...

"Whoever was... first... on the scene... is the killer?" Yoshino spoke slowly as she thought about that.

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Fuck. Fuck. No. Damn it! "Damn it!" Yoshino slammed both hands down on her podium. "Guys!" She slammed her hands down again.

"Yoshino? W-What is it?!" Joji has never seen her this agitated.

"...Yoshino? Do you... know?" Kei and presumably Ji-hoon figured it out.

"...I do. Fuck! Fuck!" Yoshino hated swearing this much... but she felt so frustrated with herself. If she was right... "I know who killed Genjiro."

The room fell into silence. Kei and Ji-hoon let the horror novelist take the lead here. Nobody else said anything as they waited for Yoshino to continue.

"It ain't Ayaka. It ain't Nozomi. It ain't Damien." Yoshino looked down at her podium while she gritted her teeth. "Genjiro's real killer... is..."

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"Adam." She ditched the nickname as she accused her former motive partner of murder.

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"H-H-H-H-H-H-Huh?!" Adam set a personal record for stuttering. "M-Me?!" He shrunk back a little at his podium.

"A-Adam?!" Lake widened their eyes in shock.

"Adam... is the killer, you say?" Damien narrowed his eyes.

"He was the first on the scene." Yoshino admitted as she closed hey eyes.

"It's... Adam?" Alpha's mouth was agape. "This twink? This nerd? This gooner? This school-shooter? Fuck off... no way. This little shit doesn't have the balls." She didn't believe it.

Nozomi took a deep breath. She felt relieved, but she also felt shaky about this. "With all due respect Akiyama, it's hard to imagine Brooks as the killer. He's... not very muscular." She tried to word it in the nicest way possible.

"Yes... Adam wouldn't hurt a fly!" Aurora couldn't believe it either.

"The evidence doesn't lie, girls." Ji-hoon shook his head. "Cathy is right in saying that whoever was first on the scene has to be the killer. And... if you don't believe Yoshino, there's actual proof that he was."

"W-What proof?! This isn't l-l-logical at all!" Adam stomped his foot.

"You'll have to spout actual defenses, Adam." Kei wagged his finger. "Especially in this face of this evidence. The thing that proves that you were first on the scene is..."

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"The paper that Damien and Darren stole from Pheme. Remember what it said?" Kei, like usual, acted creepily casual as he accused a kid of murder.

A/G - 11:00 PM

Y/A - 11:10 PM

C/K - 11:12 PM

J/K - 11:14 PM

A/R - 11:15 PM

J/L - 11:15 PM

D/D - 11:16 PM

A/R - 11:17 PM

"Y/A is Yoshino and you Adam." Ji-hoon took over. "Besides, Kei and I ran into you up on the second floor. We explained that in the presence of everyone."

"That's a good question to ask, Lake." Ji-hoon never really expected someone like them to take any sort of initiative with these things. "When Kei and I's handcuffs unlocked, we were sitting in the Grand Lobby. As soon as they did, we rushed upstairs. We spotted the Ultimate EMT's Studio up there..." He was very curious about that place. "But we went into the Romance Studio first. There wasn't anything important in there. After we left, we saw Adam coming out of Joji's Studio."

"Yep." Yoshino backed the story up. "When me and Ade's handcuffs unlocked, we were right by the stairs. We split up when they did, with Ade going upstairs and me downstairs. He must've went right to Damien and Jojo's Studios then?"

"I guess I thought wrong in assuming you simply started with Joji's Ultimate Studio as a place to investigate." Ji-hoon dissprovingly shook his head.

"Jesus Christ! Did he actually kill Genjiro? He got taken down by this punk?!" Alpha was mad on Genjiro's behalf.

"I-I... that's n-not..." Adam started to sweat.

"I can't... no... Adam?" Aurora hated the thought of her treasured friend being a killer.

"That's... wow." Rival was happy that what he assumed to be Damien's plan had been fully stopped... but this wasn't a development he was expecting.

"C'mon Adam!" Joji punched another small hole in his podium. "Say something man! Give a defense! Stand up for yourself! Please!" Whether or not he was the killer... he just wanted to hear him say something.

"Stand up for m-myself..." Adam thought about Joji's words.

"Whether or not it's true... you gotta say something!" Joji enunciated each sentence with a slam of his podium. He thought back to his FTE with Adam. "Defend! Your! Self!"

"D-Defend myself... right." Adam took a deep breath. "O-Okay... here I go."

"T-That's not a l-logical conclusion!"

Adam mustered up his courage and pointed his finger at Yoshino, causing a gust of wind to be sent her way. But also the way of Kei and Ji-hoon. "Y-You know... I might've b-been the first person up there." He knew he couldn't deny that. "And e-even if that paints me as s-suspicious... you have no case if you can't prove I stole Bessie's Star-Phone and Remote!" He stood up for himself.

None of the three wind targets were particularly hurt or bothered by it. "Fair enough." Kei nodded.

"That's... a much more difficult thing to prove." Ji-hoon admitted.

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"Y-Yoshino?" Adam expected his former partner to say something... but she hadn't.

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"Yoshino? What's going on?" Joji noticed the horror novelist had an intense look on her face.

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"Adam..." Yoshino finally said something.

"W-What?" Adam didn't know what to expect.

Yoshino slowly looked up to face her former motive partner in the eye. "Adam..."

"The real horror here is your logic!"

In what was probably the fastest counter in the story yet, Yoshino slammed both of her palms down on her podium, causing a giant gust to be launched directly as the academic.

"Wha- AH!" Adam's weak constitution gave him difficulty in tanking the wind. He shielded his face the best he could as he felt his glasses get blown off. "Y-Y-Yoshino?!" He struggled to endure the end of the zephyr while he fetched his glasses.

"Yeah... what's going on Yoshino?" Joji... didn't really know how he felt right now.

"Adam... I think..." Yoshino balled her hands up into fists. "I think I can prove you're the thief." She boldly claimed.

"Y-You can?" Aurora had obviously wanted to know who the thief was... but not like this.

"Can that be proved?" Even Ji-hoon had no idea how this could be proved.

"I think so." Yoshino worded it like she wasn't sure, but her voice oozed with confidence. "I gotta ask Pheme a few questions though. To prove my theory."

"Oh? Me?" Pheme was on the edge of her seat watching this trial, even though she literally knew the killer. "Go for it Ms. Akiyama!" She was happy to answer questions.

Nobody, not even Adam, chose to interrupt Yoshino's moment. "Alright... good. First question." She didn't look at Pheme while she asked. "You admitted that the remote wasn't reset or whatever right?"

"...Yes. I did." Pheme was still little annoyed that she forgot to do that, but it did make for an interesting case, so she tried to not be too hard on herself. "What about it?"

"Well... I wanna know about something else." Yoshino finally looked up at Pheme. "If you didn't reset the remote because you forgot... I wonder if you forgot about a certain other related thing..."

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"Bess's Star-Phone. What about that?" Yoshino brought up the other stolen valuable.

"What... about it, Ms. Akiyama?" Pheme tilted her head.

"What I'm saying..." Yoshino gripped her podium tight. "I'm asking if you specifically forgot about..."

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"The motive apps. The camera, audio, and Map (T) apps. Were those still on Bess's Star-Phone?" Yoshino posed a fascinating question.

"What...?" Lake whispered. They didn't want to interrupt Yoshino's moment... but where was she going with this?

"The motive apps from Chapter One? Wow, how nostalgic!" Pheme looked back fondly on the gruesome deaths of Bessie and Aelia. "But... oh." She just then realized what the question was.

"So, Pheme? Were they still on there?" Yoshino was getting impatient.

"W-Where are you g-going with this?" Adam broke the moment.

"What would Raiha say here...?" Aurora muttered. "Yes! Let's... "Let her cook," Adam." She took from her bestie's lingo while she spoke to a murder suspect.

Yoshino didn't hear those two anyway. "Pheme." She knew it was risky being aggressive with Pheme like this, but frankly, she didn't care.

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Pheme sighed and rolled her eyes. She knew she had no choice here. "Fine. Ms. Akiyama... you're right. I never removed the first motive apps from Ms. Yamamoto's Star-Phone. It slipped my mind." Truthfully, she didn't think it was necessary to do so in the first place. It wasn't like someone was going to get access to it, right? Ha... she was wrong.

"You... what?" Damien was thoroughly flabbergasted.

"What the hell?" Ji-hoon couldn't believe this woman really was their tormentor. I mean... ugh! It's baffling.

"Dementia bitch..." Alpha rolled her eyes.

"Alright... good. Next question." Yoshino didn't spare time to insult Pheme or to explain her question. "This question ain't for you Pheme. It's for Alpha." She turned to the gas station manager.

"Huh? The fuck you want?" Ordinarily, Alpha would just ignore her, tell her to fuck off, and other various insults. But even Alpha could read a room. The horror bitch needed something from her, and she wasn't going to stop until she got it.

"Think hard about this." Yoshino warned her. "Tell me... where were you and Genjiro right before Pheme's special event a few days ago?"

"...What?" Alpha wasn't expecting that as the question.

"Alpha. Answer it." Yoshino was scarily serious.

"Fine, fucking whatever." Alpha had to think about that though. "Before the special event? The idiot and... we were... in the Comedy Studio. Fucking around with something." She managed to remember.

"Indeed! I can vouch for that!" Pheme of all people backed her up.

"Pheme? What if... no one *cough* attends?" It wasn't like it had been that long since the announcement, but Rosalind thought she may as well ask.

"Hm... I'd hope not!" Pheme frowned. "I saw a few pairs in the Comedy Studio prior to my arrival here. I believe it was Mr. Mashimoto and Ms. Alpha, Mr. Lux and Mr. Taylor, and Ms. Naganohara and Mr. Seizon! I hope one of them will show up..." She pouted.

"I didn't ask, bitch?" Alpha didn't want the schizo dementia slut to back her up.

"Okay... good." Yoshino just stayed concentrated on her moment. "Last question. For you Pheme." She turned back to the goddess. "Simple one. Not too hard. Are the rooms soundproof?"

"I-I still don't understand...?" Adam didn't know what to do or how to react.

Pheme giggled. "Oh wow, this is an easy one, isn't it? In case I haven't told you all this before... all rooms are almost soundproof. Most of the sound is blocked. Is that sufficient, Ms. Akiyama?"

"Yeah. It is. Thanks." Yoshino thanked the goddess before turning back to the murder suspect.

"Y-Yoshino?" Adam still didn't know what to do.

"Heh." Yoshino finally cracked a smile. "You want proof you're the thief, Adam?!" She finally raised her voice again. "I got proof for you!"

"W-Woah!" No wind was sent his way, but Adam was still thrown off.

"Adam!" Still, no one bothered Yoshino's moment. "A talk we had a few days ago felt really weird. I didn't know what it was at first... but now... now I know for sure! The little moment we had... it's proof that you're the thief and the real killer!"

"N-No way! There's n-no moment! How c-can you possibly prove that?!" Adam struggled to think of a logical defense.

"I can prove it" Yoshino energy was reaching its peak. "The proof... the moment we had... it was..."

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"Our talk in Jojo's Studio!" Yoshino called back to their FTE. "Something happened then... and it's the proof I need!"

"My Studio?!" Joji didn't expect to mentioned.

"Y-You're lying!" Adam held onto his podium.

"Oh really?!" Yoshino set her hands on her hips. "Let me recall a moment for you! The moment... that proves it!"

"Maybe it will be... or maybe it won't." Yoshino was honest. "But the end goal... is having you stand up for yourself! In general! Don't let them push you around anymore-"

Almost as if on cue...

"What is that little fucker doing...?"

"Probably playing with himself. Lord knows he can't..."

The muffled voices of Genjiro and Alpha could be heard.

"Huh? The hell? Are they seriously around?" Yoshino couldn't believe how perfectly timed that was.

"That is q-quite..." Adam shifted in his seat a bit as the pair listened in.

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The voices faded.

"Weird. Guess they fucked off. Good." Yoshino shrugged.

Adam grew pale. He didn't say a word.

"What... what the fuck?! You heard their voices all the way up in my studio?!" Joji never doubted Yoshino necessarily... but he didn't expect proof like this.

"Adam...?" Aurora was slowly coming to terms with the fact that her friend was the true thief.

"You want to know what I think Adam?" Yoshino felt the most focused she's ever felt in her life. "You had Bess's Star-Phone in your pocket then... and the audio app accidentally triggered, causing Genjiro's and Alpha's voices to suddenly appear. We know that they were far away at the time... and we know the rooms are mostly soundproof... and we know they ain't that loud! So you accidentally triggered the app... then you shifted in your seat to turn it off!" She summed her proof. "So, Adam? How right am I?" She gave an exhausted smirk.

"Did you really...?" Alpha was still in disbelief.

"Please tell me this isn't..." Aurora really didn't want this to be true.

"Adam? C'mon man!" Joji kept urging the academic to fight back, even if he was the killer.

"I..." Adam often took pride in his skills as the Ultimate Academic. But now, here he was. Absolutely clueless on what to say. So... he decided to do... the smart thing. "F-Fine. I'll admit it." It didn't take a lot, apparently.

"You... are?" Yoshino half-wanted Adam to fight it a little more... but she wasn't going to object if he admitted it easily. "Adam... I'm glad you-"

"I w-wasn't f-finished." Adam boldly cut her off. "I admit... I stole B-Bessie's Star-Phone. But... I didn't steal the remote."

Yoshino's mouth was agape. He... he didn't. That's how he's doing this? "Adam... c'mon."

"No." Adam shook his head. "I'm sorry I s-stole the Star-Phone, Aurora. I'll explain w-why l-later." He quickly apologized.

"It's okay! It's just..." Aurora didn't know what to think.

"Yoshino... I-I'm sorry you spent s-so much time on that logical explanation... b-but it's wrong." Adam felt a little confidence surge through him. "I stole the Star-Phone. But not the r-remote!"

Yoshino blinked. "Huh... fuck." She had no counter to that. Yeah... all she proved was that he stole the Star-Phone.

"Shit... wait. Now what?!" Joji didn't expect this line of questioning to abruptly end like this.

"Hm. Guess we gotta... prove who stole the remote now?" Rival scratched his head.

"Nyaha! That won't be easy!" Cathy said what everyone else was thinking.

"Yes... I can't imagine *cough* how we could..." Rosalind was stumped.

"I knew this bitch was wasting time. No way this geek could kill a man like Genjiro." Alpha rolled her eyes.

"This is... damn it." It wasn't like Yoshino wanted Adam to be the killer. But she was sure it was him! Was she... actually wrong?

Adam breathed a sigh of relief. "I t-think... we n-need to rethink our l-logic. I understand the point a-about the remote... but w-we need to consider the technician's room still, theoretically s-speaking. The remote and the console in the r-room have the same layout... s-so let's think about the r-room again." He offered the next topic.

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"What... did you just say... Adam?" Joji blinked.

"H-Huh?" Adam wasn't sure what the problem was.

"Huh." Ji-hoon dryly chuckled. "Adam. "The remote and the console in the technician's room have the same layout" is what you just said."

Adam felt thoroughly and utterly confused. "I... don't g-get it?"

"Adam." Yoshino was almost disappointed. "How would you know that? You didn't steal it... right? So how do you know they have the same layout?"

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"D-Damn it!" Adam cursed himself for messing up.

"Nyaho! That's sneaky, academic human!" Cathy was almost impressed.

"You fold so quickly? What a shame, Adam." Damien disapprovingly shook his head.

"N-N-No! That's just...!" Fuck! Why did Adam have to say that?!

"Should we treat that as a confession, Brooks?" Everyone, including Nozomi, was starting to gang up on him.

"Got nothing to say Adam?" Kei never liked suspects that folded like this.

"Your l-logic defies reason!"

Adam slammed his fist against his podium with as much force as he could muster. "W-Wait! Wait! R-Remember the f-first investigation? Ji-hoon! I was with y-you when you pulled Bessie's Remoteout of h-her pocket! I saw the layout of the remote then!" He managed to think of a defense. But...

"I will follow my ideals!"

Ji-hoon hit Adam with the quickest counter in yhe story yet. "I'm sorry Adam! That won't work!"

"B-But w-why?!" Adam was silently grateful for the lack of wind.

"Adam... you never saw the front of the remote." Ji-hoon was silently grateful he remembered this.

Anyway, the boys quickly got back to business. They were already finding some strange things about Bessie's body. "Alright..." And it looked like they were finding some more strange things! "Look at these Adam." Ji-hoon pulled out two things from Bessie's pocket.

"F-fasicinating..." Adam didn't have any gloves, so he chose to let the gloved-up one handle this. "That's Bessie's Star-Phone, and t-that's... a remote?" Judging from the back of it, it seemed like a remote at least.

"W-W-W-What?!" Adam had honestly forgotten that he didn't see it then... damn it!

"Nice memory, Ji-hoon." Kei was fairly impressed.

"Holy shit... he actually did kill Genjiro." It finally clicked for Alpha.

"You're losing ground Adam! You've fought a good fight... but you gotta admit it." Yoshino was proud that he properly stood up for himself... but he also had to know when to give up.

"Yoshino is right, Adam!" Joji yelled out. "It's time to tell the truth!"

Adam start to sweat even more. "I-I-I... can't! I can't! I c-can't-!"

"The goddess arrives at the climax of the show!"

Pheme suddenly snapped her fingers without another word, causing Adam, Yoshino, and Joji to all disappear in an instant.

"Woah! Where did they-?" Lake frantically looked around like they hadn't seen this trick before.

"It's that time, is it?" Ji-hoon was half-expecting himself to be dragged into this... but it seems like he lucked out.

"Oh... I see." Damien understood what was happening.

"Adam... Yoshino... Joji... please..." Aurora held her hand over her heart she watched monitor descend from the ceiling. She knew what was coming next.

[???]

It happened in an instant. One minute, Yoshino was arguing against someone she considered to be a good friend. And now... "Damn it... my head." She rubbed her sore temple as she opened her eyes. She seemed to be sitting down somewhere. "Wasn't I... just in the Grand Court? What the hell happened?" It took a second for her eyes to get used to his sudden new environment.

Because this new environment... was a classroom? Yoshino currently sat in a desk near the front of the room. The entire room was lined with educational posters about every school subject imaginable. Little tables and shelved lines the walls, all holding various school supplies. Then at the front of the room sat a teacher's desk, with two large bookcases to the left and right of it.

The reality slowly started to sink in for Yoshino. "This is... what did she call it? Stardom... something- wait what the fuck?" She just then realized that, in addition with the sudden room change, her clothes got suddenly changed as well.

Yoshino was now wearing a fairly generic white-colored girl's school uniform. Fit with a white dress shirt and blazer, a dark blue skirt, black pantyhose, and brown dress shoes. "...Huh?" She couldn't help but blush a little, considering these were clothes she never usually wears.

"So this is what Damien and Aurora went through?" A voice suddenly came from behind Yoshino, a voice she instantly recognized as Joji. "You alright, Yoshino?"

"Joji... I think I'm good." Yoshino stood up and brushed herself off. "You got brought into this too?"

"Seems so." Joji dryly chuckled. "Looks like I got a little makeover too." He motioned down to his own clothes.

Yeah... he was right. Joji's old carpenter clothes had been replaced with something akin to Yoshino's new look. Joji wore a white dress shirt with a white blazer, dark blue dress pants, and brown dress shoes. "We're proper schoolchildren aren't we?" He decided to use a little humor while me mentally prepared himself for what was about to happen.

"I guess so..." Yoshino shrugged. She honestly didn't really dig the outfits, but she'd just deal with them. "And now I gotta wonder... who our teacher is...?" She turned to face the front of the room.

"Yeah... let's see." Joji followed her gaze.

And almost as if on cue...

"Y-Yoshino! J-Joji!" With a voice unbefitting his grand entrance, Adam emerged from the ground behind the desk. "T-This is... this isn't..." He also emerged with a brand new look himself. He had on a white long sleeve dress shirt, blue dress pants with a brown leather belt attached to it, and brown dress shoes. All tied together with a lanyard around his neck, with a nametag saying "Mr. Brooks."

"There he is." Joji cracked his knuckles. "Adam! You still gonna fight?! We have you cornered, man!"

"Yeah, Adam! Give it up!" Yoshino stretch her arms and limbered up.

"N-N-No! I can't! I can't!" Adam slammed his hands against his desk. "I... can't!" As he slammed his hands down for the third time, all of a sudden, a blue barrier appeared around the academic. The barrier then drew in four books that were sitting on the shelf. "I'm n-not backing down! I refuse!"

You know, normally one would be freaked out by a person generating a random barrier like that. But Yoshino and Joji have seen enough weird stuff here... they weren't surprised. And given the nature of the Stardom Finale, they expected something like this.

"Well well... he's not backing down." Joji took a deep breath. "Good." He cocked a smile.

"Hell yeah." Yoshino took a deep breath herself. Adam really did need to know when to call it quits... but hey. If he's gonna finally stand up for himself like this... who is she to stop him? If he's gonna fight, all she has to do is fight back. "I'm glad he's defending himself!" She was completely genuine.

Adam felt his hands shaking. The cocky yet collected looks of his friends threw him off... but he knew what he had to do. He wasn't going to back down. "Yoshino! Joji! The accusation of m-me as Genjiro's killer..."

"Here it comes. Get ready Yoshino." Joji sensed an attack.

"I was born ready, Jojo." Yoshino steeled herself.

Adam slowly stuck one of his hands out. "This accusation... s-simply... isn't... LOGICAL!"

And then it happened. From his position behind the teacher's desk, Adam suddenly sent out a barrage of books, paper, pencils, and more at the duo.

"Get down!" Joji yelled out as he took Yoshino behind a toppled desk for cover.

"God damn... Thanks Jojo." She patted the carpenter on his back. "But man... he really is fighting back." Yoshino had to catch her breath still.

"Yeah... look." Joji turned Yoshino's attention to the room they were in. Compared to Aelia's Stardom Finale, it wasn't that big. Just an above average classroom. But Adam had already started destroying what was up in the room with his smart projectiles.

"I know I shouldn't be happy... but I am." Yoshino was glad to see this... in a way. "But you know what we gotta do Jojo!" She yelled out over the commotion. "If he's gonna bring on his best defense..."

"We gotta him with some offense." Joji finished the setence. "We're so close. He can only run so far and he can only give so many excuses. We got this, yeah?" He held out his fist.

"Fuck yeah we do." Yoshino returned the fist-bump. "Now... let's go." She peeked out from behind their cover. "I'll go first. I'll show em' what's what." Her entire being dripped with determination.

"Alright. Give em' hell Yoshino!" Joji prepared to do whatever he could to cover her.

"You know I will!" Yoshino cracked a quick toothy smile as she waited for her moment. Any second now... wait it out... wait it out...

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So... she went!

Yoshino lept out from behind the desk, grabbing notebook that was on the floor to use as shield. "Adam! You know we have you cornered! You can't fight back!" She decided to push on his emotions a little as she ran around the classroom. Despite what she thought, the classroom definitely was bigger than she realized.

"N-No! That's not true!" Unlike Aelia, Adam stayed in place. But he was relentless with his onslaught. He focused his efforts on Yoshino. "Y-Yoshino! You c-can't just assume I'm the k-killer based off of assumptions!" He launched a large pencil at the horror novelist, who easily deflected it with her notebook.

"Assumptions?! What?!" Yoshino kept trying to grt closer to Adam through the chaos. "What assumptions do you mean?!" The notebook shield proved to be much handier than she would've imagined.

"Y-You say that the remote is the cause of Genjiro's death?!" Adam threw a large manifestation of Bessie's remote at Yoshino, who dodged with grace. "That's f-flawed! Pheme explained h-how she forgot t-to transfer control back from the remote to the technician's r-room, right?!"

"Kei proved that, Adam! I know!" Yoshino managed to get a little closer. "What's your point?!"

"My point..." Adam started to charge up a big attack. "Pheme's word can't be trusted a-at all! It's one b-big assumption! The thing t-that caused the spotlights to f-fall... we can't know for sure that it wasn't t-the technician's room! And if it w-was... the killer can't be me! It c-can only be one p-person! The only person who could've used t-the room..."

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"Is Alpha! S-So... Alpha is the k-killer! She dropped the spotlight on Genjiro's h-head!" Adam unleashed all of his energy and launched a brutal attack of a giant ball of paper.

"Adam!" Yoshino knew she couldn't defend or deflect it, so ducked behind cover to tank it instead. So that's his first main defense then? Claiming Alpha is the killer. Honestly, fair enough point. Trusting absolutely everything Pheme says is foolish, and they technically don't have any proof that the technician's room wasn't working when Genjiro got murdered specifically.

"Yoshino! You alright?" Joji yelled out from across the room. "You got this?"

"I'm good, Jojo!" Yoshino returned the yell. "And... yeah! I got it!" She was stumped for a moment on how to counter this... but this is easy. All she has to do give definitive proof Alpha isn't the killer. And you know what? She had some.

"Yoshino! Look out!" Joji noticed the giant ball of paper approaching Yoshino's cover.

"Shit. Alright..." Yoshino peeked out from behind her cover. All she has to do... and shove that in Adam's face! Then he'll see for sure that Alpha isn't the killer. She counted down in her head. She needed to ditch the cover at just the right moment. Lucky for her, the ball of paper was moving pretty slowly. Okay... 3... 2... 1!

Yoshino lept out from her cover at just the right moment, only receiving a few paper cuts as damage. But the attack left Adam wide open. Now was her chance! "ADAM!" She ran right up to the academic and reeled up the most powerful punch she could.

"W-What?!" One of the four books protecting Adam moved to absorb Yoshino's punch. "Y-Yoshino! You can't prove anything!" He stayed defensive from the safety of his barrier.

"Oh yeah?!" Yoshino kept putting all of her strength into her punch. She was determined to break that book. "Adam! According to your logic, Alpha is the only one who could've used that room right?!"

"W-Well... Rosalind could've used it too!" Adam felt a rush of adrenaline.

"Ha!" Yoshino re-punched the book. She could feel her strength slowly making progress at destroying it. "Adam! I got proof that both Alpha and Rosa ain't the killers!"

"No! That's i-impossible! You can't p-possibly!" Adam focused all his mental efforts into defense.

"Nah... it's possible!" Yoshino gave the book another punch. It was time. "Adam! There's proof that everyone got that proves Alpha and Rosa are innocent! Hell, we got it before the investigation! It's..."

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"The Body Discovery Announcement!" Yoshino shouted with all of her voice as finally...

"AAAAAH! NOOOOOO!" Adam let out a cry as his first book was destroyed by Yoshino's raw strength.

"That's right! You ever think about it, Adam?!" Yoshino couldn't get in his face due to the barrier, but she got as close as she could. "Think about the BDA for a second! Who was a part of it?!"

"The... BDA..." Adam honestly had never even considered it.

"Nothing? Don't worry, I got you!" Yoshino smirked. "If we think about it... and consider everyone's testimonies... the BDA is clear! The first person has to be..."

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"Alpha!" Yoshino punched the barrier again. "We know she was still slightly conscious for Genjiro's fight with Pheme! And she heard the crash of the spotlight! All she would've had to do is turn her head just a little... and she'd be the first person for the BDA!" She imbued her fist with logic and punched again.

"Second!" Yoshino wasn't about to stop. "Again, considering what we have and what we know... the second person for the BDA is obvious! It's..."

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"Rosa!" Yoshino treated that barrier like a punching bag. "In her testimony, she said she regained consciousness for a few seconds before being knocked out again! And in those few seconds... what did she do? She stood up and saw Genjiro's body!" She backed up a little, sensing that Adam was regaining power. "And the third is clear! It's Monty! But you see, Adam? Because of the BDA, Alpha and Rosa can't be the killers!"

Adam felt his glasses crack under the sheer power of logic. "D-DAMN IT!" He scrambled while he dealt with his first defense being destroyed. "It still... it s-still isn't me!" He resumed his attack on the duo.

"Woah!" Yoshino dodged the attack in time and ran back behind cover with Joji.

"Good shit Yoshino! You really showed him!" Joji was getting pumped up.

"Yeah... it's kinda easy to get lost in your adrenaline during these things." Yoshino admitted with an exhausted smile.

"Maybe... but you still did good!" Joji peeked out over the cover. "Chipping away at the prime suspects is a smart way to corner him. So I wonder if...?" He had an idea as to where Adam was going next.

"Joji! Yoshino!" Adam wasn't done yet. "It m-may not be Alpha or Rosalind..." He was forced to admit. "B-But, don't forget! Don't forget about the poison! You can't p-prove the spotlight killed him! So the poison must've! And that means... the killer... is Ayaka!" He focused his onslaught on the duo's cover.

"Damn! He's fierce!" Joji had to duck a little lower.

"And he's got even more fight. Not bad!" Yoshino started to think. "Back to the poison now, huh? What do you think, Jojo?"

Adam's argument is that Ayaka is the killer... basically due to all the things Damien explain earlier. But... is that right? "Nah... he's wrong." Joji peeked out from over the cover again. "Yoshino. Stay back. Lemme take a crack at this." Confidence oozed from the carpenter as he limbered up.

"Hey... it's all you man!" Yoshino was in support. "Show Adam some logic and reason!" She patted the carpenter's back. "You got this! Show em' the power!" She started to hype him up.

"Hell yeah!" Joji was ready. And he knew Adam was wrong. So now... he just needed to show him proof. "Alright..." He calmly waited for his chance. He had to wait for... Adam to... slow down his attacks...

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There! Joji ran out from behind cover, grabbing a broken desk leg to defend himself with. "Adam! You really putting the blame on Ayaka now, huh?!" He batted away any projectiles coming his way with the broken leg. "You really think that's logical?!" He was gaining ground with ease.

"O-Of course it is! It's t-the only logical answer!" Adam built a blockade of pencil lead to stop Joji in his tracks.

But Joji destroyed like it was nothing. "Oh really? Nah... that ain't logical! That's some flawed-ass logic!" He destroyed whatever obstacles were in his way.

"W-W-What?! My l-logic is never flawed!" Adam seemed oddly offended by that as he launched another attack at the encroaching carpenter. But...

"That ain't enough to stop me!" Joji tossed the broken leg as hard as he could to the next attack, tearing through it with ease. He saw his path to Adam... and now he had to take it!

"ADAM!" Joji ran through the opening and roundhouse kicked at the barrier. One of the books moved to block him. "If you're still gonna claim the poison killed him... I gotta tell you two things!" He focused his energy into his kick, not breaking his stance.

"T-Two things?!" Adam had expected only one piece of evidence to be thrown at him, not two! "You're l-lying! There's no w-way!" He wasn't going to break though.

"Oh yeah?!" Joji re-roundhouse kicked the barrier. "Lemme tell you something! Alpha and Rosalind! Yoshino just established that they aren't the killer! They can't be!

"I-I-I know that!" Adam got frustrated. "You don't n-need to remind me!"

"Good! But because they ain't the killer..." Joji smirked. "They wouldn't lie, right? Both wouldn't lie about the crash they heard! It'd make no sense!"

"GAH!" Adam felt another crack form in his glasses as he had to face sheer logic. "L-Logically speaking... you're r-right. But what's y-your point?!" He still wasn't going down that easy.

"My point is... the crash happened!" Joji put more power into his kick. "So the spotlights falling... it happened! So Genjiro dying by the spotlight... it... happened!" He put all of his power into his kick... but it wasn't enough yet!

"B-B-But!" Adam felt himself get blown back a tad. "There's n-no proof he died from the spotlight!"

"Ha!" Joji immediately scoffed at that. "That's where your wrong Adam. Perfect you said that, as it brings me to my second point!" He kept a cocky smirk on his face the whole time. "I got proof for you! Proof that Genjiro died from the spotlight!" He knew the time was close... it was almost time to unleash every he had.

"Y-You're lying! No way!" If Joji could prove that... well...

"Adam! Think about it!" Joji's eyes flared with power. "Consider Pheme... consider Genjiro's injuries... and it's clear. C'mon, you investigated this, didn't you? The proof that Genjiro died from the spotlight..."

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"His neck was broken!" Joji unleashed absolutely everything he had into another kick... and he demolished another book.

"AAAAGGGHHH!" Adam got knocked back against his own barrier, causing his glasses to crack ever-so-slightly more.

"Adam!" Joji still had to hit the academic with more logic. "Pheme might be an enigma... but there's no way she could break his neck! But you know what? A spotlight could!"

"STOP IT! STOP!" Adam concentrated what energy he still had... and unleashed a wave of power that knocked Joji back.

"Damn it!" Joji felt himself get knocked away from Adam. As soon as he could, he ducked back behind cover.

"Jojo? You alright?" Yoshino immediately showed concern.

"All good here!" Joji wasn't worse for wear. "But don't falter now Yoshino. We're close. Two more books."

"Yeah..." Yoshino took a peek at Adam. He was clearly on his last legs. He couldn't have much left in him. "He put up a damn good fight. But we gotta end it. Right?"

"Exactly." Joji gave a determined nod. "This trial has went on long enough. Adam did good... but this has gotta end."

Yoshino and Joji both prepared themselves. They had to be ready... to end this.

"Yoshino... Joji... I'm... not..." Adam felt like his mind was melting. This was complete fight or flight for him now. Logically... he knew he was done. He knew he was out of proper defenses. But...

"Sure man..." Yoshino sighed. "So I get your story with your past bullies. What about Genjiro though? Alpha? What's stopping ya from telling them to shove off?"

"...I d-don't know." Adam answered honestly. Was it fear? His optimism? He really didn't know.

"That's the case huh?" Yoshino smirked. "Tell ya what. This motive gives us a decent opportunity then."

"O-Opportunity for what?" Adam had a feeling where this was going.

"No need to get scared Ade! Just whenever those two fuckers mess with you, if they do, just tell them off a little!" Yoshino acted like that was easy. "I hate seeing them trounce around like they do, and now that they're paired up, it'll likely get worse. So if they come up to you... be gentle about it. Like some "could you please stop messing with me?" type of thing." She knew Adam wasn't the type to fight back, so she didn't want to suggest that. Hell, if it came to it, she'd fight back for him.

"It's t-that simple?" Adam wasn't sure if he believed it.

"Maybe it will be... or maybe it won't." Yoshino was honest. "But the end goal... is having you stand up for yourself!"

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Adam adjusted his glasses. "W-well... yes." He admitted. "I don't hate how I am... but theoretically speaking, if I were to be a b-bit more built, that wouldn't be so b-bad."

Joji slowly nodded. "I see. If you don't mind me saying... this something about bullies?" He inquired, getting right to the heart of the matter.

Adam looked a little shocked. "Well, p-partially. W-was it that obvious?"

"Well I'm not a therapist or nothing." Joji leaned back a little in his chair. "It's just a common thing. But... hm." He started to concentrate on something.

"Joji?" Adam seemed confused.

"Well... ugh. Kinda hate saying this, but... wait!" Joji was having trouble wording his thought. "Hold up Adam. How about this? After we get out of here... I'll help you train and work out. Get you to teach those bullies a lesson! How about that? I'd offer to do it here, but you know what? We're gonna escape soon! So we're not gonna have time for that! Yeah!" Joji's motivation was welling back up.

Adam took a deep breath as thoughts of the FTEs he had with Yoshino and Joji rushed into his mind. "I'm sorry... but I'm not... done!" He unleashed a wave of brain power, knocking everything in the room to the side, leaving Joji and Yoshino wide open. "I'm... going to stand up for myself Yoshino! I'm going to do it Joji!" He managed to yell without a single stutter.

"There you go Adam! That's what I like to hear!" Joji jumped up to his feet.

"Your fight ain't drained yet? Good man." Yoshino nodded in approval.

Both of them did fully acknowledge that Adam killed Genjiro. They weren't ignoring that sin. But that's something to be addressed later. Right now... they just had to support their friend... in the only way they could. It was all they could do in order to avoid the harsh fate. So if acting like this made it easier for them... they'd do it.

"Yoshino! Joji! If you're correct... if you're correct that I k-killed Genjiro... it's still illogical!" Adam stood his ground. "How would I know he was in Bessie's S-Studio?! And... my motive. You have no case without a motive!"

Oh... that's his last line of defense. Heh... easy. Joji and Yoshino gave each other a knowing nod. They knew... exactly what they had to say. "I'm ready." Joji whispered.

"Yep." Yoshino whispered back.

Now... they just had to wait for the right moment. "Guys... Yoshino... Joji!" Adam revved up for a final attack.

Yoshino and Joji just had to wait... for the... right... time...

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Now!

Right as Adam unleashed a coordinated attack of school supplies on the duo, Yoshino and Joji ran forward. Yoshino grabbed the notebook, and Joji grabbed the broken desk leg.

Joji ran ahead. "Adam! You say you couldn't have known where he was?!" He batted away whatever projectiles were in his way. "Well I say that's nonsense!"

"Exactly!" Yoshino shielded Joji's flank. "There's a perfectly logical way you could've known where he was! There's a perfect logical way you could've known when to kill him!"

"There's... n-no way!" Adam prepared himself for the best defense he could give.

"Ha!" Joji ran closed to the academic. "Adam! Lemme tell you how you knew!" He tossed the broken leg behind him to Yoshino while he charged forth like a raging bull. "Let's remember... Genjiro died at night! So the whole damn place was dark! And in that darkness..." He was about to hit one of the two remaining books. "That darkness allowed you to see where Genjiro was! You did it using... "

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"The old motive apps!" Joji's charge couldn't be stopped as he hit Adam's barrier, destroying another one of the books in the process.

"DAMN IT!" Adam yelled as he was knocked back.

"Jojo has it right Adam!" Yoshino charged forth herself, wielding her makeshift weapons like a knight. "It's easy! You used Bess's Star-Phone and checked the old motive apps for Genjiro's signal, then when you saw he was in Bess's Studio... you killed him!"

"AGGH!" Being truly cornered was scarier than Adam thought. "M-Maybe that's right. But w-what about motive?! Huh?!" He brushed the bull that was Joji to the side, leaving Yoshino by herself out in the open.

"Damn! He's stronger than I thought!" Joji chuckled as he brushed himself off. He looked over to Yoshino... and saw the look of determination in her eyes. The sheer will. He knew what he had to so. "Yoshino! Finish this!" He yelled from the sidelines.

"I got it!" Yoshino was more than ready to finish this. She started to charge forward without any more fanfare. I mean... this one was the easiest one. "Adam!" She slashed away at the remaining logic projectiles being shot at her. "A motive? Are you kidding me?"

"W-What? What is it?!" Adam felt his strength start to drain.

"Heh... you know what?" Yoshino tossed away her gear and ran forth, joining her hands to where she was holding the fist of her other hand. "Your motive, Adam? It's simple!" She reached the barrier and slammed her joined fists against the final book. She saw it start to fall apart.

"Yoshino..." The truth and gravity of everything started to sink in for Adam. He felt himself start to cry.

"The reason why you killed Genjiro... the reason why you couldn't stand the sight of him..." Yoshino reeled up for her final attack. No fancy gear. Just raw strength and logic. "Your motive..."

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"You killed your bully! You were sick of being picked on... so you killed your bully!" Yoshino brough her hands down on the final book, breaking it and the barrier all apart.

Adam fell to the floor. Tears started to really flow. "I... I..."

"Let it out Adam! Let it out! Let it out... and I'll finish this thing." Yoshino was solemnly determined.

"I... I... I..." Adam shut his eyes tight.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH! GEEENNNJIIIRRROOOO!"

And he let out a scream... before collapsing back on the ground.

Yoshino sighed. "Yeah. And now... I'll finish this!" She was going to fufill her promise.

Act 1: This case, weirdly enough, didn't start with the motive. No… it started a mere day after the previous case. After the first case, Pheme never got Bess's Star-Phone or the remote Bess had back from Roro. I guess we all assumed both were just busted. But as we know now… they weren't. Roro, Rosa, and Val all explored the Ultimate Pop Star's Studio that day. And when they left, Roro accidentally left behind Bess's Star-Phone and the remote. And that following night… the killer found and took them both. Still got no clue why they were up there, but that doesn't really matter, because we know they took them. I was the one who ended up proving that they took them after all!

Act 2: That was the first move the killer made… but let's move onto some different people. Aya and Damien. Aya claims that Damien is at fault for this… and Damien vice-versa. But we got no proof. So for now, we gotta talk facts. The day after we explored the new floor, Aya gave the idea of a "drinking party" to all of us. It wasn't a horrible idea, though it was Damien's idea in reality. Just a party to raise the bond between us all. And it'd be on a smaller scale than Bess's show. But…

Act 3: We didn't know at the time that the act of murder was going to take place there. Since it's the only place in this uh… place, that has alcohol, we determined it was gonna be at the Comedy Studio. Some people were definitely more interested in it than others… but the most interested… was Genjiro. Our victim. He was a big drinker after all. So much so… that he picked out what drink he wanted for the day. Pheme got him a special bottle of rum for the occasion. Don't know why she's so fricken into these things… but whatever.

Act 4: The main thing is that Genjiro had that rum sitting in the Comedy Studio… unattended. It was then when Aya or Damien got a plan… to poison it. Jiji and some of the others got the idea to store away the dangerous items in Damien's and Joji's Ultimate Studios to be safe. And they did! But… the night before they could do that, Aya… or maybe Damien went and stole one of the poisonous perfumes bottles from Damien's studio. They had this premeditated for a while… god.

Act 5: Since Aya tasked herself with hosting and preparing the party, it gave her easy access to everyone's drinks, including Genjiro's rum. Either Aya or Damien used a funnel to perfectly get that poisonous perfume into some pineapple liqueur. Then from there, Aya poured the liqueur into the rum. Luckily for her, the rum was pineapple flavored… and the perfume was pineapple scented. So that way, Genjiro wouldn't notice anything wrong immediately. And she'd of course plan on getting rid of evidence and everything. Her plan seemed not too bad….

Act 6: But Pheme's motive got in the way of the plan slightly. After spinning a wheel and having us choosing people, that insane goddess paired us all off. The pairs were, in order:

-Cathy and Roko

-Roro and Rai-Rai

-Damien and Darren

-Jojo and Monty

-Aya and Val

-Kei and Jiji

-Alpha and Genjiro

For the last three, Pheme chose a person to be on their own, then the remaining two would be paired off. It ended up being Rosa on her own. And… that left me being paired off with the killer. Damn bad luck for me…

Act 7: The most important pairings were Genjiro and Alpha, Rosa herself, and me and the killer. But for the most part, the motive ended up being a big pain in the ass. We were handcuffed to each other until a body dropped. There were special rules too… especially regarding Rosa… but those didn't even matter in the end. But it made the drinking party a bit messier. People drinking, talking, and being handcuffed to each other was something alright. But none of us knew what the party was really for.

Act 8: Everyone besides for Roko and Cathy came to the party. Despite everyone being there, Aya's plan wasn't even difficult. Darren and Damien prepared Genjiro's rum, Aya herself gave it to him, then he'd drink it. Hate to say it, but it wasn't a bad plan. But little did she know... that Genjiro also had his own plans at that party. He was up to some fucking shenanigans.

Act 9: According to Alpha's word… they stopped by Damien's Ultimate Studio before the party. She didn't realize at the time that Genjiro snatched a vial of some poisonous nail polish that got left behind there. Why? He was eager to poison someone himself. And… it was Pheme. He was ballsy enough to plan out an actual murder for the chick keeping us trapped here. Honestly, if he succeeded, I would've congratulated him. But… he unfortunately didn't.

Act 10: Just like Aya, it looked like Genjiro was planning this for a while. A day after the new floor opened up, Monty found Genjiro doing something in Roko's Studio. What they didn't know at the time, was that Genjiro was breaking into a locked drawer in Roko's Studio, in order to steal a letter opener. As for why Genjiro knew it was there… we still don't know. Genjiro had known a lot of weird things in this case… but let's just move on.

Act 11: The poison that killed Genjiro was slow-acting, so he had time to still move around after drinking the rum. His goal was to slip some of the poison from Damien's studio into Pheme's wine. But it was hard to do that as it was… so that's where the next part of his plan comes in. Roko was eager to attend the party, but she was chained to Cathy, and she was late too. Why? Because some boards were put up to block them inside of Roko's Studio. Genjiro put them up to delay their arrival.

Act 12: And Cathy and Roko were the last ones to arrive. And once they did, Genjiro took out that letter opener, and quickly tossed it to Roko. Roko instinctively caught it… and it was then she had something like a seizure. She's still out of commission from that, so we don't know the truth about what the deal with that was. But everybody, including the killer and I, ran over to help her. Genjiro was lucky his partner was Alpha, as she couldn't give a shit about Roko. So when he got his chance, he got some of the poisonous nail polish into Pheme's drink. Alpha separated Genjiro and Pheme… but she went along with the plan too.

Act 13: Genjiro's plan seemed plausible on the surface… but Pheme wasn't that stupid. She noticed her drink had been poisoned and switched it with Roro's. They were having the same drink, so she was confident she could switch them and have it not be suspicious. And… she was right. Roro drank from Pheme's poisoned glass, and within minutes, she was throwing up blood. Everybody quickly noticed, and rushed over to help her and get her to the infirmary. But… not *everybody*. Genjiro and Alpha left with us… but not to the infirmary.

Act 14: The duo first went to Jiji's room. Genjiro somehow knew that was where they stashed the dangerous items… and Genjiro wanted to use them. For what? Well… he still wanted Pheme dead. Especially, because around this time, he'd feel the poison in him start to take effect. We're missing context here… but Genjiro and Alpha broke the box that contains the items, and took another bottle of poisonous perfume and a nail gun. The nail gun was gonna prove very important for their plan. But also...

Act 15: We actually don't know what happened with the poison they took. We don't even know if it was used. But utilizing the fact that everyone was still in the infirmary, they made their way to the second floor to use that nail gun. Genjiro, sensing that he was dying, still wanted to screw over Pheme. And his first idea… was to break into the boarded-up room on the second floor, which was a lot more closed off than the one on the first floor. And to him, that seemed like the perfect way to mess with our collective terrorizer.

Act 16: The duo used the nail gun to break any cameras surrounding the area of the boarded-up room. Then sensing they were safe enough, they broke in. And… they found an Ultimate EMT's Studio. The room itself is a whole different problem… so that doesn't matter for now. But what *does* matter is what they found in there. They found two important things. First, they found a secret passage in there that extended throughout the walls of this place. They couldn't open most of the doors… but the one place that was openable was to the boarded-up room on the first floor. Lord knows why. But down there in front of the door, they found Bess's charred body still lying there.

Act 17: They didn't do anything with it… as they got a better idea when they found some Adenosine in the studio. Adenosine is a medication that can stop a persons heart… so after leaving Bess's body behind, they used the medicine for a different plan. They wanted to fake Alpha's death. They'd have Alpha take the medicine, then Genjiro and Alpha, all while being handcuffed, would brawl and beat the shit out of each other to hell and back.

Act 18: The point was to actually make it look like Alpha could be dead. They wanted to bait Pheme in there, then Genjiro would catch her off guard, and try to kill her. Not the worst plan ever. They started in Jojo's Ultimate Studio. After that, it was Damien's Ultimate Studio. Just tearing up and breaking fucking everything in those rooms. Then… they'd end in Bess's Ultimate Studio.

Act 19: Genjiro and Alpha tore through the rest of Bess's Ultimate Studio, before stopping atop the stage. Satisfied that she was sufficiently bruised and beaten, Alpha took the medicine. It took effect rather quickly… and it was the perfect bait for Pheme, as their handcuffs got unlocked immediately, even though Alpha wasn't actually dead. Pheme realized her mistake and went down to Bess's Ultimate Studio to hopefully correct it, and to punish Genjiro for breaking into the EMT's Ultimate Studio. She went in there all smug… not expecting the next stage of Genjiro plan.

Act 20: As soon as he saw Pheme enter, Genjiro launched his attack. He wasn't playing around, he was out for Pheme's blood. Without a care for his own life, Genjiro and Pheme started to fight. It only added to the destruction in Bess's Ultimate Studio. A piece of Pheme's mask even got broken off. And to make it worse, Rosa walked into the room in the middle of their fight, and got knocked out immediately. They didn't notice her enter though. They were too engrossed in trying to kill each other.

Act 21: As far as we know, Genjiro lost the fight. But they both eventually moved up onto the stage, even waking up Alpha in the process. But she was too weak to do anything. She could only watch the sudden horror that was about to happen. And what was the sudden horror? Well… it was the real killer taking action. The real killer was downstairs with me at the time. It was nighttime… and both of us were restless. Taking advantage of the atmosphere… they pulled out Bess's Star-Phone, which they stole.

Act 22: Funny thing about Bess's Star-Phone… it still had the first motive apps on it. The audio, camera, and map (T) apps. And the killer used those. They tracked Genjiro and Alpha's signals, and saw they were in Bess's Ultimate Studio. After they saw that… they used the remote they stole. Now, funny thing about the remote, is that it was connected to the stuff in Bess's Ultimate Studio still. Like the spotlights. Knowing that, the killer pressed a button on the remote… and boom. That was it.

Act 23: Genjiro didn't see it coming. As his fight with Pheme reached its climax, he himself got hit with a spotlight on the side of his neck, snapping it and killing him instantly. Alpha had no choice but to watch her partner for the motive die. With that, Alpha was the first person for the BDA. And also with that, due to Genjiro's death, everyone's handcuffs snapped off, causing everyone to freak the fuck out. They got unlocked as different times though… due to Pheme… messing up, I guess. But it doesn't matter. The killer and I were standing right near the stairs when ours snapped off.

Act 24: And that was pretty lucky for the killer. Immediately, we knew we had to look for whoever died. The killer immediately suggested that I search the first floor and they'd go to the second floor. And… I agreed. Unfortunately. After they went upstairs, the killer naturally found the chaos that Genjiro, Pheme, and Alpha had caused. Pheme had obviously made her escape by that time. Following the chaos… they found the grisly scene. But not only that.. they also found Rosa lying in the entrance of Bess's Studio. It was there that they got a plan to pin the murder on her.

Act 25: The killer couldn't be sure if she was still conscious or not, so they quickly ran to Jojo's Studio and grabbed a broken off wooden board to knock her out. And I guess it's lucky they did, considering she was coming back to consciousness at the time. As she became lucid, she saw Genjiro's body, being the second person for the BDA. And in the next second, the killer hit Rosa in the head, assuring she was knocked out. After that, they dragged her body over to my Ultimate Studio. Something the killer didn't notice was her parasol getting left right outside Bess's Studio and her sunglasses getting left inside the studio. Lucky for us, as that helped us figure out what happened. Anyway, after they reached my studio, the killer planted Bess's Star-Phone and the remote on Rosa, and knocked some things over to try and mimic the destruction. But that wasn't enough. It made for a very suspicious scene… but we saw through it.

Act 26: After the killer did that, they heard Kei and Jiji get up to the second floor. To avoid being seen as suspicious, they went into Jojo's Studio, and went out the opposite way. It allowed them to see Kei and Jiji investigating the EMT's Studio… and it allowed a decent enough excuse for what the killer was doing. At the time, neither of them even saw it as strange. Shortly after that… I got up there… and a little after that, Jojo and Monty got up there. Monty ran immediately into the crime scene… triggering the BDA. I don't think much needs to be said after that. But who was the person who killed Genjiro in the end?

Well… it was my own partner for the motive! It was you all along, wasn't it?!

Adam Brooks, the Ultimate Academic!

AAAAAAA WHY IS THIS SO LONG AAAAAAAA

Anyway... it's finally Part 2 of the trial! And the killer is Adam Brooks! Were you surprised? Did you expect it? Do tell!

I'll save my thanks for Project until the epilogue. For now... for whenever you get around to reading this Project... just know that I enjoyed the little nerd a lot.

But man... I didn't realize just how much content I packed into this trial. I never meant for it to be so damn long. It's better than worrying about it being too short, I suppose. I didn't really have any trouble writing this trial itself thankfully... and the amazing Nozomi did help with that. I in general did have a lot of fun writing this, and I think it's infinitely better than the first trial. I really enjoyed giving Yoshino and Joji a big chance in the spotlight too.

I'm going to keep this short to prevent my word count from going even higher. So I'll save whatever else for the epilogue.

I guess... I hope you enjoyed! I hope you look forward to Adam fucking dying! And I'll see you next time!

Glamorous Stars Remaining: 16

Adam Brooks - Ultimate Academic [PROJECT DRAMA]

Alpha - Ultimate Gas Station Manager [Epifanio Therion]

Aurora Beaufort - Ultimate Starlet [WolfieRed23]

Ayaka Naganohara - Ultimate Violinist [Sempi]

Catherine Munchkin - Ultimate Cat Burglar [Nekoja]

Damien Lux - Ultimate Beautician [oddlyillregular]

Darren Taylor - Ultimate Bartender [Otterplay]

Ji-hoon Jo - Ultimate Celebrity Detective [TheRoseShadow21]

Joji Kaneshiro - Ultimate Carpenter [SureJahn]

Kei Aikawa - Ultimate Lawyer [theotakureader101]

Kuroko Kurobara - Ultimate Hypnotist [MrUtenaHolic]

Lake Beaumont - Ultimate Ballet Dancer [KadachiNova]

Raiha Miyahara - Ultimate Trendsetter [Prince PokePersona]

Rival Seizon - Ultimate Backing Vocalist [SinWriter7]

Rosalind Reinhardt - Ultimate Cinematographer [Orlando Butler]

Yoshino Akiyama - Ultimate Horror Novelist [DeathlyJazzHands55]