Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration Chapter 29: Misalignment in the Stars (Part 9), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 3: Misalignment in the Stars (Deadly Life Part 3)

Warning: This is a Danganronpa fic. Things can be pretty bad, especially regarding gore and the foul language used. Although, if you've made it this far, I don't think that kind of stuff bothers you anyways, sooooo…

Today was another sunny day. No clouds in the sky, and the sun was at its highest peak. It was about noon right now.

The Yagami family had set up shop outside a rather busy district. A lot of people passing by, meant that a lot of people would see just what they were selling.

Which in turn, meant a lot of customers.

A lot of gullible customers, that is.

Looking over some of the things that were for sale, even a young Gennosuke knew that they were all worthless.

Cheaply made, and meant to break.

Something he quickly grew used to, given the lifestyle that his parents lived. Isamu, and Aiko were his parents, and they had been doing this for years.

Honestly, at this rate, it's a miracle they hadn't been caught, but that's how the family earned their income.

However, today felt different to Gennosuke. Looking at the faces of the people who passed by, he saw a lot of gullible people, but for some reason his parents weren't calling out to them.

All these poor fools, and they were missing almost every single one of them.

"Who should we talk to next?" Isamu was a bit sceptical about today. There had been talks about operations just like theirs getting taken down, so he didn't want the same thing to happen.

"I don't really know, they all just look like wallets to me." Aiko, his mom, had grown so accustomed to viewing other people like that.

Almost to the point that it sort of rubbed off on Gennosuke. Still, his eyes were fixated on the entire crowd.

"Oh! What about that guy?" Isamu pointed over towards a guy who was walking down the sidewalk.

At first, he was rather unassuming. Just a guy walking, with nothing too special about him.

However, the more Gennosuke looked at him, the more things began to feel off. His facial expression was slightly off, and his eyes seemed to be looking around.

Almost as if to keep a close eye on things around.

Not to mention the clothes that was being worn, it almost felt like they were wearing an outfit they wouldn't be used to.

The more Gennosuke looked at them, the more he was certain this wasn't a normal guy.

The demeanor, the expression, the clothes…

It all screamed like they were someone undercover.

And that's when Gennosuke noticed in the distance, a parked police car.

Quickly, he turned towards his parents, tugging away at his father's sleeve.

"What is it?" Isamu didn't normally ignore his son, even if he felt like he should.

Pointing discreetly towards the man, Gennosuke spoke up. "That man is a cop!"

At first, Isamu didn't want to believe his son…

But he had said it with such confidence, that something definitely felt off.

Looking at the man a bit longer, Isamu stood up, and began closing off shop.

"Are you going to believe him?" Aiko felt like this was a bad idea, but her husband did also have better intuition than he did.

"Better safe than sorry…" If Gennosuke was wrong, he could scold him later. It was better than being arrested.

Not that all the things were put away, the trio quickly faded away into the crowd.

Of course, Aiko was still a bit sceptical about what her son said, so she kept an eye on the person in question.

Just when it felt like Gennosuke was wrong, the supposed cop stopped at another stand just like theirs.

The conversation was impossible to hear, but it quickly became apparent that an arrest was happening.

Letting out a sigh of relief was Isamu. "See?" It was a good call. "How did you know that, Gen?"

Gennosuke didn't have an answer ready, so he just shrugged. "He just… looked like one. The way he walked…"

Looking at each other, ideas began to spin around in their head.

If he could see that better than he could, what else was he able to do?

…

Given their recent discovery, they wanted to try something new. Something a little more risky, but hardly traceable as a scam.

Business like this existed everywhere, so if anyone fell for it, it was their own fault.

Isamu was putting up the last touch to their new business. "Child Psychic."
Clearly Gennosuke could notice things others couldn't, so that could be played off as him being a psychic.

Which in turn, would earn the family lots of money.

At first, Gennosuke wasn't sure about the idea, but it's not like he had much of a choice. Besides, he liked the life they lived, and having stuff was nice, so he eventually agreed to it.

However, it eventually became a bore for someone like him.

Everyday, multiple people would come in to see him, all wanting to know the same things. Stuff about their future, about what was on their mind. Most only came to see if he really was a psychic.

Of course he wasn't…

But people were so stupid and gullible that they'd believe anything he really said.

In fact, this customer was no different.

As the man sat down, he looked out at Gennosuke with a bit of scepticism in their face.

Well, that wasn't entirely the truth, in fact, they had a rather happy face on them. "You know, when they said child psychic, I didn't think they'd mean someone so young. How old are you."

"Seven." Gennosuke didn't really put much emotion into his sentence.

After all, he didn't really put much of any effort into anything.

"They say you are the real deal!" The man sounded excited.

Except, he wasn't.

That's something Gennosuke could easily tell, even if he tried to hide it. The slight twitch in his face gave it away. He was trying to put on an act.

"Honestly, I was hoping to find a real psychic around here-"

"You don't believe I am, don't you." Gennosuke looked him in the eyes.

The man was quickly caught off guard. "W-what? Of course I believe you! If I didn't, why would I be here-"

The longer Gennosuke looked at them, the more he was certain.

He was snobby, and clearly wasn't here for an actual psychic reading. "You aren't trying to get us closed down, are you?"

For a moment, the man felt himself freeze up. "Now- Now why would I be-"

He was shocked… Because Gennosuke got it right on the nail. Nobody dressed like him would actually want to go to a child psychic, so he was clearly here for other reasons.

Every single detail he noticed about this person told him that, from the fake facial expressions, all the way to the annoying way he speaks.

"If you're trying to do that, I suggest you leave." Gennosuke glanced down at the table.

Slowly the man stood up, ready to leave.

However, before he could, Gennosuke made sure to stop him. "Hey, I performed my service as a psychic… Make sure you pay as well."

"Shit…" The man wasn't content with that, but that kid actually read his mind, so he didn't want to fuck around and find out. After paying, the man quickly left.

Leaving Gennosuke along again.

That's how most days for him went by. Sometimes it would be a few seconds for him to get a customer, sometimes it could take an hour.

After all, they had just started, so word hadn't completely spread around the city.

And yet, the days had already grown so dull.

The people he had meant were all stupid. How could they fall for someone like this? There was no way an actual psychic would exist. "Stupid…" Gennosuke mumbled out, looking down at the table.

And the most annoying part of all was the range of emotions they all seemed to have.

Emotions…

He could understand them. He could point them out. He could even name them…

But when it came to feeling them, he was left out of the loop. That's been a problem for a while. Not that Gennosuke ever saw it as a problem, but it was there nonetheless.

Maybe he too, could one day feel something…

Trial Ground

Here they all were, at a rather large standstill. All eyes were mostly still on Gennosuke.

Looking around, he shook his head. "What? Are you just going to spend the entire time staring at me?"

"Well…" Hae-Won trailed off. "Why wouldn't I stare at you? You're the killer, after all."

Letting out another chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "Are you still hung up about that? Please, it's starting to get old now."

"But… We don't have any other suspects." Seira was pretty quick in saying. "Why can't it be you?"

"Well, honestly, there's a lot of reasons it can't be me, don't you think?" Gennosuke let out a laugh. "You think I acted alone? All I really did was knockout Atlas, and send Dae-Hyun that letter."

Freezing for a moment, Melody looked over at him. "W-wait… You sent that to him."

"I mean, someone had to… So… Yeah." Removing his lollipop from his mouth, Gennosuke shrugged. "I wrote it out, and left it where I knew he'd see it."

"You…" Melody held onto her podium, trying to process all the information she'd just received.

"Actually…" Seira spoke up. "I don't want to derail this trial any further than it's already been."

"Then don't fucking say anything." Atlas looked over in her direction.

Ignoring him, Seira continued. "But it's about that letter you wrote to Dae-Hyun."

"Ah? That?" Gennosuke flashed a smile. "What about it?"
"In it… You mentioned an asteroid… But there shouldn't have been any." Seira was going to be firm on that belief.

She read all the papers. She knew there should be one. How did one sneak in?

"Oh? You mean you still haven't figured that part out?" Gennosuke let out a small laugh. "Maybe the killer didn't need any help in the first place."

"I know why it failed!" Edison began swirling around his flask, as it began to form a purple liquid. "Seira, I know you pride yourself on your talent, but it's very obvious that you made a mistake."

"Will you quit it!" She narrowed her eyes at him. "I know what I'm doing, so there's no way I could have made a mistake."

"And yet…" Hae-Won hummed out, coming to Edison's aid. "There was still an asteroid that hit. How odd."

"Alright, you should stop arguing before Monokawa gets a scrum debate going." Tatiana let out a sigh. "Can't we figure out what happened without arguing?"

Frowning slightly, Seira looked at the ground.

She knows she didn't fail at her own talent… Which meant something had to go wrong. The paper she had said a later time. "Actually… I think I know what happened!"

"Go on!" Edison was happy to see it. "What was it?"

"The reason I missed an asteroid was because…"

…

"Someone took a paper."

However, before anything else could happen, Edison was quick to shut this down. "That would be… Incorrect. You see, when I entered the room with you yesterday."

When Edison finally walked into the door, he was greeted with…

"Seira?" He blinked a few times, taking in the state of the room. "Theoretically speaking… Are you wasting paper?"

Compared to yesterday, there was more paper scattered everywhere.

Quickly, Seira moved most of it to the side. "No! These were all printed by the machine."

Taking the first page that was available to him, Edison examined it. "Wait… Are these all asteroids?" Picking up another, he began to panic more.

Swirling around his flask, and examining it, Edison continued it. "Am I correct in assuming that amongst those papers, was the paper that you spoke of?"

"Well…" Seira glanced the other way. "Yes… You're right… But still, there shouldn't have been any mistakes! All the other ones hit when they said they would!"

"Interesting." Gennosuke let out a small laugh.

Crossing his arm, Gemini had to think for a moment…

Something was clearly off, he just couldn't figure out what it was. "Seira, you swear that your star chart is correct?"

"Y-Yes! Of course!" Please don't start to doubt her too.

"And Nova." Gemini turned to look at her. "The times on the chart were accurate."

"Absolutely!" She clapped her hands together.

Now, if Gemini was going to believe both of them… He had to think of a reason why they would both be right while having an asteroid hit sooner than it should.

And then it hit him…

It only took this long because it hadn't ever been brought up since they first explored the new areas. "I think I know what was wrong in all of this… It wasn't the time, or the star chart… Actually, what was wrong was…"

…

"The station's location."

For a moment, he seemed to lose everyone.

"What?" Tatiana finally spoke up.

Crossing his arms, Gemini decided to continue on. "It was something brought up only once when we first explored, but I'm sure it would make the most sense…"

Given that nobody else was talking, Nova decided to continue with what she was saying. "This is the navigation room. Or more precisely, the front of the station."

"Is this…" Gemini began to think a bit, before an idea popped in his head. "Is this how we control the station?"

Clapping her hands together, Nova nodded. "Yes! Exactly! This is how to control the station. More specifically, it's how you move the station."

"Woah woah woah!" Seira's eyes' lit up. "So we can move this wherever we want?" She got closer to the controls, ready to-

"Hold on there." Nova shook her head. "It doesn't work quite as you would expect it. Yes, you are able to move the station, however, you can't remove it from its pre-existing orbit."

"Wait a second!" Seira was finally beginning to understand just what he meant. "So the star chart wasn't wrong!" That's not the issue here.

"What!?" Edison took a step back? So he was wrong and she was right?

THAT'S NOT THE ISSUE HERE!

Gemini nodded his head along. "If the killer was able to stop the ship, it would give the illusion that we were fine with time. In actuality, that asteroid we were expecting to hit two hours later, was actually set to hit only minutes after we boarded the repair ship."

"Gasp!" Dolly called out! "Are you telling me this is a misalignment in the stars?"

The entire room went silent.

A single cough could be heard.

From Monokawa.

"I didn't know robots could cough..." Nova hummed out.

Quickly, Monokawa flew over to her. "Shut up, bitch!"

Ignoring that, it was time to resume the trial.

"See." Edison adjusted his goggles. "This is why we can't rely on a star chart."

Seira quickly took a step back. "Well! How else were we supposed to keep track of time? None of us have an internal clock!"

"I don't know about you, but I kept the time pretty well." Gennosuke shrugged.

Narrowing her eyes at him, Seira responded a bit rudely. "Shut up."

The Gemini Squad was completely falling apart.

First, Laki was involved in a murder.

Then, Gennosuke was involved in a murder.

Watch out for May!

What would happen nex- That was bad to think about.

Now that was dealt with, Hae-Won couldn't help but feel like it was a massive waste of time that had just happened. "Is this really what we wanted to do with our time?" There went fifteen minutes they'd never get back.

"I say it was time well spent!" Edison called out, despite the fact he was wrong. He just would mark it down as both of them being right.

Shrugging, Gennosuke pulled out the lollipop from his mouth. "Why do you have a problem with what just happened?"

"As of yet, you haven't presented yourself with any evidence that you actually aren't the killer." Hae-Won hummed out, shaking her head. "For all we know, you're just trying to put the blame elsewhere."

And yet, Gennosuke couldn't help but laugh. "That doesn't change the fact that I'm not the killer. Do you think I would have left that much evidence if I was the killer?"

"Heh…" Hae-Won put her hands in her pockets. "I don't have to listen to any of the bullshit you spout. I know what I'm saying is the truth. You can't dig yourself of this fucking hole."

"But…" Seira started to say, having a bit of second thoughts. "There's a chance he isn't the killer."

"Ah, of course you'd disagree with her." Edison jumped in to save Hae-Won.

"W-what?" Seira blurted out, taking off guard. "Why are you always against me!?"

"I agree with Seira." At least Gemini was there. "There's no way to know for sure if he's the killer, so we should eliminate all other possibilities first."

"I think it would be wise to discuss this beforehand." Gigi was going with him for this one.

Dolly crossed her arms. "There's absolutely no reason to do that! Guilty! Guilty!"

"Hey…" Monokawa said softly, turning towards the large seat.

"Hmm?" Nova was resting her head on her hand. "What is it?"

Leaning his body back, Monokawa let out a sigh. "They're fighting again."

The visor on Nova quickly turned to a sad expression. "They've been living together for so long, you'd think they'd get along."

"I think a moment like this calls for a scrum debate." Monokawa slowly rose up.

Clapping her hands together, Nova nodded her head. "Yes! I would like that a lot!"

Floating over towards everyone, Monokawa looked down at everyone. "It seems you all can't reach a consensus!"

"Ugh…" Lorelei leaned their head back. "Do we have to do this?"

"Shut up!" Monokawa pointed at her, exploding her in his mind. Only in his mind. Sorry Candle.

Turning towards everyone else, he raised his paw up. "Whoever thinks that Gennosuke is the killer, raise your hand."

The people who lifted up their hands were Michael, Edison, Benjamin, Laki, and Hae-Won. Also Atlas, who lifted up as much as he could.

"Do I get a say in this?" Gennosuke raised an eyebrow.

"Nope!" Monokawa was quick to let him down. "And all who think he isn't the killer, raise your hand."

This time, it was Seira, Tatiana, Gemini, May, Gigi, Winter, and Lorelei.

"Let's get this scrum debate on the way!" Monokawa called out, as the thirteen podiums slowly began to rise up.

This left two people alone like last time.

This time, it was Gennosuke and Melody.

"Ugh… Why didn't you raise your hand for me being the killer?" Gennosuke let out a small laugh.

For a moment, Melody didn't answer. Instead, she was staring at the ground.

"Heh…" Gennosuke let out a chuckle, shaking his head. "Don't talk to me. That's fine by me."

But it didn't take a genius to understand exactly why Melody didn't vote.

She wanted to force a situation like with Winter and Michael last time.

After a bit of silence, her voice could finally be heard. "The letter." Melody finally said, still not looking at him.

Of course, that lovely silence was quickly ruined. "What about it?"

"What about the part pertaining to me?" Melody's expression quickly turned to a frown as she looked up at him.

In the letter, it was either her life or Dae-Hyun's.

"Eh… As much as you make me want to vomit, I had no plans to kill you." Gennosuke looked the other way.

"W-What…?" Melody froze up again.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Gennosuke leaned his head back. "I said you make me sick. I thought I was pretty clear. Your unending optimism is sickening. I can't stand people like you." He had a small grimace on his face. "So, it's fun to see someone like you act like this."

Clenching her fist, Melody was resisting the urge to cry again. "I… I didn't do anything to you… So why hate me?"

"Don't you fucking listen?" Gennosuke was already getting annoyed by this entire time. "How can someone ever be as optimistic as you? Especially here, of all places? People are going to die, so I fail to see how you can keep a smile in times like these."

The reason Melody was like that, was because that's how she grew up to be. She always wanted to be the bright smile on someone's day. And, to have that turned against her here… "Ya know… I always thought there was good in everyone…" Wiping away one of the tears from her cheek. "But you really are a grifter… A horrible… awful grifter…"

Letting out a small chuckle, Gennosuke didn't seem to mind this approach at all. "See, you're already growing as a person. One step closer to facing reality, instead of your idealistic bullshit."

Honestly, Melody had so much more she wanted to say, but it all just wouldn't come out.

She just couldn't bring herself to say it…

Once again, the podiums reached the peak of the trial ground, with all thirteen participants still standing on them.

"That isn't the right decision to make…" Gigi was looking over at Hae-Won, who simply shrugged.

"Honestly, I just want him out of the game, so let's hope I'm right."

Scrum Debate: Is Gennosuke not the killer?

The first podium to move up would belong to Seira, who wasn't exactly ready for an opening statement, but she was going to try anyway. "I know a lot of evidence is pointing towards him, but accusing him of it without looking at the full picture isn't right. With the evidence we have right now, we can't prove that he's the killer, especially if there's an accomplice at play here."

…

Next podium to move up would be Atlas, who seemed pretty angry. "Does it look like I give a shit if we don't have the full evidence?" If he had the room to take a step back, he would. "That fucker attacked me, and after that, he went off and killed Dae-Hyun when I was unconscious."

…

Now that he was gone, the next podium belonged to Tatiana, who opened up with her iconic laugh. "Silly silly Atlas. How could you forget about the things you just said? Your own account can be used as a counter. Sure Gennosuke was there, but according to you there was a second person there."

…

Next up, was Michael, who held onto the podium as it moved closer. "There could have been a second person… But we don't have any actual proof of that… Nobody seems hurt, and a kick from Atlas would have left a mark… I should know. Atlas probably didn't even hit a person…"

…

The next person was Gemini, and he wasn't sure where to take this. He hadn't exactly explored the crime scene, but Michael brought up a good point. Atlas wasn't going to kick lightly, if he thought he was going to die. "Then let's talk about something else. Something that can't be fought if it's true. I'm talking about Gennosuke being part of the body discovery announcement. So far, only Edison and Gigi have claimed to be part of it."

…

As soon as Edison's podium moved forward, he seemed rather excited for this. "Haha! I can easily disprove that. Because the body discovery went off when Dae-Hyun was still wearing the suit, then we can assume that anyone who saw him dead in it would count. That means that the first person to discover the body was actually May."

…

Almost as if fate was having a laugh, May was the next person to go up. "Huh…" This felt like Monokawa trolling. "Speaking of discovering the body…" Letting out a yawn, she continued. "We never figured out what the decoy body… It couldn't have been anyone else but a person… But it obviously couldn't be Gennosuke… Given he was busy with Atlas at the time…"

…

Next podium to move up was Benjamin's. However, the unfortunate part was that… Dolly had no arguments. She wasn't the one equipped to talk about the decoy body. "Well, maybe it wasn't Gennosuke, but maybe the decoy body was Atlas."

Long pause.

"That's stupid, you know." Monokawa sighed, making the duo fall off their podium with another Wilhelm scream.

…

Next up was Gigi, who was embarrassed on Dolly's part. "Atlas couldn't have gone into the suit because he was distracted by Gennosuke. However, even if he was the person in the suit, we would have known it was him. The suit shapes itself to your body, so it would have had no arms."

…

Swaying her head from side to side, Laki was seemingly rocking her own podium as it inched forward. "Well, if it's not Atlas or Gennosuke, then doesn't that raise a question? Who was the decoy body?" Then she swayed her podium all the way back to where it was.

…

As Winter's podium grew closer, she twirled a finger around a strand of hair. "With everything that's been discussed, wouldn't it be obvious just who the decoy body is? It would be the true killer of this case." Tea sip. Ah wait, she doesn't have any-

…

Now, it was Hae-Won's turn, and she had a rather confident look on her face. "So what? You think any of that bullshit means anything? You're all talking about the fact that there could have been a second person there, but that doesn't change the fact that you haven't actually given me any evidence to prove Gennosuke's innocence."

…

Now, it had finally reached the last person, who seemed pretty annoyed that they were last. Lorelei rolled their eyes as their podium moved forward. "Actually, we've already been over why it can't be Gennosuke, just not directly. It was when we were talking about Dae-Hyun's movement. The reason Gennosuke isn't the killer is because…"

…

"He left the kitchen before Dae-Hyun entered."

Slowly, the podiums lowered down, allowing the room to finally be silent again.

That is until Monokawa spoke up. "I think these scrum debates are getting better! Compared to the first one, it's night and day." This is the writer feeling proud for once. Don't squander it.

Ignoring him, the rest of the trial continued on.

"Fuck…" Hae-Won gripped onto her own podium.

The logic made sense…

How could Gennosuke be the killer if he was gone long before Dae-Hyun even showed up?

"Like I said…" Gennosuke flashed a smile her way. "I wouldn't be stupid enough to kill anyone unless it guaranteed my safety."

"You're a real fucking asshole, you know." And this was coming from Atlas of all people. "That thing you said to me before…"

"Hardly?" Gennosuke hummed out, putting the lollipop back in his mouth. "Now I wonder why you think that… If people catered to me all the time, I'd be delighted."

"That's because you're fucking lazy." Atlas stopped outside his Ultimate Station.

Shrugging to the response, Gennosuke turned to lean on the wall. "That may be true, but why exert yourself when someone else can do all the work? Sure, they'll get all the credit for it, but I don't really care about that."

"You've said it before… You're fine if someone else takes all the fucking credit." Atlas narrowed his eyes.

"Ah, there we go…" Gennosuke chuckled, leaning forward on his podium. "Someone finally gets it. I didn't think you remembered that conversation. It was so long ago." It was like… Four days ago. Calm down.

If you wanted to factor in when I posted it, I'd tell you to go kill yourself.

"Hold on." Gigi called out, crossing her arms. "There even being a decoy body doesn't make much sense to me."

"Oh?" Gennosuke turned to look at her. "Would you mind elaborating what you mean by that?"

Not moving her eyes off him, Gigi continued. "If someone had to be the decoy body, it's impossible because…"

…

"Everyone should have been accounted for."

Taking a deep breath, Gigi continued. "Myself, Edison, May, Dae-Hyun, and Michael were all on board the station when the decoy body was first witnessed."

"So it can't be us!" Edison hummed out.

"Laki, Seira, and Hae-Won were all outside together." Gigi continued. "You and Atlas were fighting. Lorelei and Winter are each other's alibis. Melody was trapped on the upper floor. Gemini was found by us."

The more she listed off, the more uncertain this entire case became.

"And lastly, Tatiana and Benjamin were locked in their own corner."

"Interesting, isn't it?" Genonsuke flashed a smile.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Hae-Won looked around the room. "Then maybe we're missing something."

But they had pretty much gone over everything they needed to go over.

"Then…" Lorelei spoke up. "Maybe it's less that we've forgotten something, and more so that we're being lied to."

"Ah, there we go." Gennosuke flashed them a smile. "Look at you guys using your brain for once."

"But, then who lied to us?" Seira looked around the room.

Placing her hands on her hips, Dolly gave the answer rather proudly. "Obviously the killer!"

"OK, but can we get a more specific answer?" Seira let out a sigh.

Thinking about it some more, an idea finally appeared in Edison's head. "Sure thing!" He called out. "The person who is lying to us is…"

…

"Benjamin!"

"Master?" Dolly quickly turned to look at him. "And you didn't tell me about this!?"

"Haha!" Tatiana let out a laugh. "To think you'd be out of your mind." She took out her knife, pointing it over at Edison.

"Put that knife down." Hae-Won was very quick to say.

Adjusting his goggles, Edison wasn't going to be phased this time. "If we can't find a candidate, wouldn't it make sense to go after him?"

Letting out another laugh, Tatiana shook her head. "To me, it sounds like you can't find a culprit, so you are just throwing names around until you land on something. Benjamin would never do something like that."

"Yeah!" Dolly raised her arms in the air. "Master would never!" Long pause. "Don't accuse me, specifically, though."

"Why do you even want to accuse Benjamin of this crime?" Tatiana twirled around her knife, almost as if she was getting ready to throw it. "You only accused him and didn't provide any reasons. So, choose your answers carefully."

Narrowing his eyes, Edison was choosing to stand his ground. He knew he was right, so there would be no hesitation from him. "The killer has to be Benjamin because…"

…

"He had access to the vent buttons."

Hearing this, Tatiana almost dropped her knife. "Well-"

"Gasp! Master!" Dolly turned towards him, placing her hands on her hips. "Don't tell me you forgot to hit the button!"

"Take this seriously, will you?" At this point, Gennosuke had exhausted all of Hae-Won's patience, and she just wanted to get this trial done with.

"But I am!" Dolly raised her arms in the air. "It's just as I told you earlier! Master hit all the buttons he needed to!"

Letting out another laugh, was Tatiana. "This error is a spectacle! You say that Benjamin is the killer, and yet something doesn't add up, now does it?"

"And what would that be?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow.

"The time frame is too low, don't you think?" Tatiana shrugged. "Benjamin would have needed to hit the buttons, and make his way all the way towards the airlock on the other side of the ship."

Soon, May began to understand what was being told. "There was only about a twenty second window for Benjamin to move from the control room to the airlock… Not to mention put the suit on."

"Putting the suit on doesn't take too long." Gigi jumped in. "You just press a button and the suit forms around you." However, that was a solid argument. "That's still too little time to do everything else. How big are the vents?"

Being one of the only people who checked the vents, and would be willing to give the answer, was May. "There's a lot of room… The problem becomes that the control room vent only passes towards the right most kitchen vent…. So the killer would need to get out to enter the other vent…"

This case felt more impossible with each second.

Almost everyone had an out of some kind… So then… Who was the killer?

Still, May wasn't done talking.

She had noticed something, but up to this point, she didn't really put much thought into it. "There's something I noticed when I was watching the repair ship from navigation…"

It was part two of a trial, which meant it was finally time for May to provide some information she had been sitting on for a while.

Claaaaaasssic May.

"You… noticed something?" Michael hummed out. It was the first time he had heard something about this.

The reason May hadn't mentioned it, was because in her mind, she thought the implication was obvious. "I'm talking about when the body decoy switched into Dae-Hyun's body…"

"Right. You never mentioned that." Edison swirled around his flask as it changed to an orange, before becoming purple. "Wait, why didn't you mention it?"

"At the time it seemed insignificant…" May tapped the bottom of her chin. "But I think I just realised something… During the body swap… I never saw the decoy move in the suit."

"What's so significant about that?" Atlas was a bit lost, but it's OK, two of us still love him.

Tilting her head to the side, May let out a yawn. "Well… if the decoy never moved… Then that raised a question…"

…

"How did the decoy get back on the ship?"

That wasn't something anyone had really considered, but it was definitely a problem.

"Couldn't they just fucking pull themselves back onto that ship?" Atlas suggested a bit of bitterness in his voice.

Slowly, May shook her head. "No… I would have seen it, had it been the case. However, I never once saw them move…"

"Then… How did the figure get back on the ship." Dolly put her hands on her head. "Master! Master! They're magicians!"

"Hmm…" Hae-Won thought for a moment, before a small smile appeared on her face. "I know exactly how the killer got back onto the ship."

"So? Spit it out, then." Lorelei was losing patience.

Nodding her head, Hae-Won turned to look at Benjamin. "The killer got back on the ship using…"

…

"The hook recall button."

"Oh right." Seira seemed to recall that one. "That's when it reels the hooks back in, right?"

"Exactly." Hae-Won nodded her head.

Thinking for a moment, Seira thought back to her time outside. "If not, someone would have to manually reel in the hook, but that's not too difficult either. But I doubt anyone would still be in the airlock."

"But wasn't that button…" Edison began to trail off.

Hae-Won let out a small chuckle as she nodded her head. "Exactly, that button was in the control room. Which sets us right back to zero with Benjamin. If he's not the killer, he sure as hell was involved in the kill."

"Master is innocent!" Dolly raised her hands in the air. "Stop accusing him of so many things!"

"It's the only explanation." Gigi quickly said. "You had to have hit the button to recall the killler, right?"

"Does that mean we're dealing with two accomplices, and a killer?" Gemini crossed his arms. Wow, was every trial going to add an accomplice?

Wild.

"Nononono!" Dolly looked around frantically. "I'm not involved in this! I swear! Master!" Dolly began shaking Benjamin. "Say something!"

"I refuse to believe it as well." Tatiana said rather firmly. "I don't think Benjamin would be the type to be involved in murder, ever."

"Ever is a strong word-" Dolly began to say before realising now wasn't the time.

Taking a deep breath, Hae-Won looked around. She had already spoken to Dolly earlier, and for the most part, she believed what she had to say.

However, this new idea should change how she thinks…

And yet, part of her still wanted to believe Dolly. They didn't seem like a great liar, and for them to be this insistent.

Something else had to be up…

Soon… Hae-Won closed her eyes…

So, Dolly is adamant that she didn't hit any of the buttons that would have recalled the killer… And oddly enough, I'm inclined to believe her in this situation… What would Dolly hope to gain from any of this, and Gennosuke already had an important role in all of this…

But then how did it happen? May says that she didn't see the body move themselves at all, so it means that the hook would have needed to be pulled…

In that case… Who pressed the button to recall the cords?

…

Benjamin…

Even if they deny it, they were the only people in the room at the time. They've made no mention of there even being someone else. So there's no way around any of this… But if they claim to have not hit the buttons, and yet they were the only people who could have hit the button… How did they do it…?

How did they hit the button?

…

They hit it by accident…

Yeah, they might not have meant to hit the button, but they certainly did it by accident…

But… That doesn't make any sense with what was spoken about earlier… Dolly mentions only having hit the three buttons. I'm sure she would have noticed that a fourth button was hit in the process…

Wait, before that… I should try and figure out how many buttons were actually hit… How many did Dolly press?

…

Only three…

Dolly has no reason to lie about that. She mentioned never hitting a fourth button, which means that somehow… Someway… Dolly must have hit the recall button without realising it… But that doesn't make much sense…

How would Dolly have hit the recall button?

…

The buttons were switched…

Right… When I went to check the buttons, I noticed that they seemed to have screws on them. It's not completely out of the question that the killer could have switched around the buttons…

That… However… Raises its own issues…

What button was switched…?

…

The vent button…

We can confirm that the other two buttons were pressed… The emergency lights turned on, and all the doors closed…

However, nobody was able to prove the vents were closed at all. Given nobody tried to go through them…

Wait a second…

Doesn't that mean-

…

Finally… Hae-Won opened her eyes, a frown on her face. "... Heh…"

"What?" Atlas glared at her. "Did you finally fucking think of something?"

Nodding her head along, Hae-Won glanced over at Dolly. "I think she's telling the truth. To her knowledge… She was pressing the three buttons that she was told to push…"

Her expression grew more serious.

"However… The buttons were switched."

"What?!" Dolly raised her hands in the air. "Was someone trying to pull a fast one on me!?"

"Wait wait…" Gemini closed one of his eyes, crossing his arms. "One of the buttons was switched? Do you know which one?"

Soon, a smile formed on Hae-Won's face. "Not only do I know which one… It also means we've been thinking about something completely wrong…" The smile quickly faded away, replaced with the same frown as earlier. "Namely…"

…

"The vents had been opened the entire time."

The vents had been… "What?" Edison called out, realising that he had been wrong earlier. "Nononono… They couldn't have been opened…"

"If the vents were open…" Gigi trailed off… "That changes so much, doesn't it?"

"In fact…" May hummed out, tapping her chin. "It changes something we thought about Dae-Hyun drastically…"

"It does?" Tatiana raised an eyebrow. "What specifically?"

Letting out a small yawn, May continued. "I'm talking about…"

…

"His movements."

Not wanting to leave them lost, May began to explain herself. "We all thought he had to hide in the shuttle… But wouldn't it make more sense that he moved via the vents…?"

"Wait!" Laki took a look at her map again. "Oh! That's why all the lines are straight, despite passing the circular hallway."

Given nobody else really had a view of the map, this was more on her than anything. "These were telling Dae-Hyun what vents he should use."

"So while we were struggling at the door…" Michael hummed out. "Dae-Hyun was moving under us."

"Then that means…" Edison trailed off, thinking for a moment. "He likely arrived in the kitchen before us, since we had to wait a while."

"FUCK!" Atlas slammed his leg down onto his podium, realising what that meant. "That means… The person I knocked out was Dae-Hyun!"

"Haha…" Gennosuke let out a small laugh. "You guys are almost there!"

"Shut your fucking mouth." Hae-Won glared at him. "I don't want to hear another word from you…"

"Mkay." Gennosuke clearly didn't have a problem with that.

"But where does that leave us?" Gemini ran a hand through his hair. "The vents were open, right? What exactly does that…"

A pause.

A frown…

Grabbing onto his own hair lightly, Gemini looked around the room.

He knew… He figured it out…

But how did that make him feel at this moment? Not great. "I know who it is…"

That caused the room to grow silent. "You… Do?" Seira had a smile on her face. Of course he would be the one to figure it out.

Placing both his hands on his hips, Gemini took a deep breath. "Yes, I do…"

"Then what's taking so long?" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Just yell it out already!"

"Right, right." Actually accusing someone with all of this knowledge felt rough. He accused Lorelei earlier, but he wasn't completely certain then.

Now, for this person, there was no doubt in his mind.

Closing his eyes, Gemini took a deep breath. "The killer is…"

…

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Almost as if catching on to what was being said, a voice erupted, causing Gemini to stop what he was saying.

However, it wasn't because someone shouted that he stopped…

It was because he didn't recognise the voice that spoke.

"W-what?" Quickly looking around the room, it didn't take too long to figure out just who had spoken up.

And that's when his eyes landed on…

…

Benjamin…

For once, he had lowered Dolly out of view, making him the center focus as he stared at Gemini, actual emotion on his face.

Panic.

However, as soon as Benjamin realised that all eyes were on him, he quickly raised Dolly back up. "You're just lying!" She called out. "There's no way you know who the killer is."

"Isn't this an odd reaction…" Gennosuke chuckled. "This should make for a good show…"

"Benjamin…" Gemini trailed off. "Why did you scream like that?"

Crossing her arms, Dolly pouted slightly. "Because obviously you are wrong!"

If Benjamin of all people were jumping in to counter him, it made Gemini realise he was definitely on the right track… "I'm sorry… But the evidence is overwhelming. You can't escape from this truth."

Turning towards Benjamin, Dolly began yelling at him. "Master! Master! We have to prove him wrong!"

And for once… Benjamin's facial expression changed. No longer was he remaining neutral. Not while something like this was at stake. Giving a nod back to Dolly, the latter turned to look at everyone else.

"Master! It's time for our duo debut! Get ready!"

Now, the two of them had challenged Gemini. Not something he had expected, but there would be no way around this. "Fine…" He placed a hand on his hips. "What do you want me to prove? You won't even let me accuse someone."

Raising her fist in the air, Dolly was the first one to speak. "Well, first of all! There's no way to narrow it down to one person like that!"

Gemini could just say who he had in mind, but it was probably better this way anyways. "Is that so? Well, if you don't like the process of elimination, then how about I back it up by actual evidence?"
"Haha…" Benjamin let out a nervous laugh. "There's no way something like that exists."

"Yeah! You tell him, master!" Dolly cheered him on.

Gemini really did have a long road ahead of himself. "There is something that's been bothering me about this entire button switching thing."

"And why's that?" Benjamin frowned slightly, changing his standing stance slightly.

"I could give you the full answer…" Gemini began to say. "But then I'd spend too much explaining myself, so I'll walk you there… First of all, to change the buttons, the killer would have needed something. More specifically…"

…

"A screwdriver!"

Hearing this, Benjamin let out a laugh, placing a hand on his hips. "That's it?"

"Yeah!" Dolly did the same pose as he did. "What's the problem with that? They could have gotten that anywhere."

Gemini slowly shook his head. "I doubt that's the case."

"There's one in master's station!" Dolly raised her hands in the air.

For a brief moment, Benjamin had a slight confused look on his face. "No it doesn't…"

"Shh! Master! You're supposed to lie-" Dolly cut herself off. "I mean, wow! Crazy!"

Choosing to ignore their antics, Gemini continued on. "No, I don't think there would be a screwdriver anywhere else in this place."

"You don't know that." Benjamin tilted his hat down, a smile appearing on his face. "Are you sure you can say that with certainty?"

Letting out a small laugh, Gemini nodded his head. "Yes, the only place that the killer could have found a screwdriver is…"

…

"The Pi garden."

"I could go for a pie now, master." Dolly turned to look at Benjamin.

Quickly, he shook his head. "Maybe after this trial, we kind of have a job to do."

"But there's an entire garden just for pie!" Dolly raised her fist in the air.

"What…" Gemini looked at the two of them. "What are the two of you doing?"

Trying to be more serious, Benjamin turned to look at him. "That's not the only garden we've found. What's stopping them from being in the other one?"

Michael was the one who came in to counter this one. "The other garden didn't have any screwdrivers."

"Master! Master! They're breaking our argument!" Dolly called out.

However, Benjamin wasn't going to back down anytime soon. "Oh yeah? But what does that have to do with anything?"

That's the thing that had been bugging Gemini since the start. "I'm glad you asked, actually. Because this is the entire reason I suspect who I do…"

Taking a brief pause, he shook his head. "Something felt off since I found out that the buttons were switched… That thing being…"

…

"The timing…"

It was obvious that not everyone was catching on to what he said. "What's wrong with the timing?" Edison swirled around the flask in his hand. "Are you saying it's impossible for the killer to do it?"

Almost as if what he had just said earlier was ignored, Gemini shook his head. "No, that's not what I mean at all. I meant… The timing of the killer having to switch around the labels doesn't make sense…"

"That doesn't mean anything!" Benjamin was quick to call out. "So what's wrong with the timing?"

So, Gemini would simply need to prove his line of thinking? He could do that. "Very well… The reason I think that none of it makes sense is simple because of the knowledge the killer would have needed to have."

"What?" Dolly seemed annoyed. "That's all you're worrying about? What proves that they are the killer with that?"

"What knowledge…" Benjamin frowned when he said this.

"Yeah! What knowledge!?" Dolly slammed her tiny hands on the podiums.

Did they want the answer that badly? Then sure, he'd provide the answer to them. "The knowledge that the killer would have needed to know is…"

…

"The safety precautions…"

Hearing that, Dolly let out a laugh. "Well! Guess what! That doesn't narrow it down at all! Many people saw the safety meeting! You were there too, so does that mean that you are the killer?"

"No, that's not at all what I mean." Gemini knew that Benjamin was better than this… Were they intentionally doing this? Or did they just believe in this person that much?

No matter… They'd prove them wrong.

"No, that's not the case. Sure, a lot of people could have heard the safety meeting…" Gemini avoided eye contact, instead, choosing to stare directly at his podium. "However, that wasn't the point… The killer would have needed to get the screwdriver today."

"I don't see a problem with that." Benjamin let out a small laugh. "But continue."

"There was a rather big problem with that…" Placing a hand on his hip, Gemini continued. "Because I checked out the shed log."

"Oh wow! There's logs in the shed. What are you planning on building?" Dolly tried to distract Gemini with a pun.

Unfortunately, he wasn't having any of that. "Now, the interesting thing about that log is that…"

…

"Nobody entered the shed today."

Opening his eyes, Gemini looked over at Benjamin. "Michael and I checked it out today on a whim, and the results were much different than what you might be expecting."

Well, there was no harm in checking it out. Gemini decided to check the logs. As soon as he opened it up, nine different times opened up.

November 25th, 2045, 2:12pm

November 25th, 2045, 2:16pm

November 27th, 2045, 10:02pm

November 28th, 2045, 7:05am

November 29th, 2045, 2:46pm

November 29th, 2045, 2:48pm

November 29th, 2045, 6:31pm

November 29th, 2045: 6:33pm

November 30th, 2045: 11:32am

"The only time the garden was opened today was when Michael and I checked it out." Gemini was finally getting the points he wanted to get across.

Frowning slightly, Benjamin shook his head. "So what? That doesn't really mean anything." He placed Dolly in front of himself.

"Yeah! They could have just never returned the screwdriver! Easy solution." She called out.

But that wasn't what happened at all. Michael knew this for a fact. "No… The killer couldn't have the screwdriver on them…"

Now that someone else was here, Dolly turned to look at her. "Hey! Who said you were allowed to tag team us?"

"Dolly, I think we're the ones who started the tag team first." Benjamin pointed out, looking at her.

Hitting her hand on his head, she screamed out. "Oh! Shush it! We're trying to stop them! Don't bring logic into this." Back towards Seira, Dolly crossed her arms. "And how can you be so sure?"

"Because… When we checked the shed…"

…

"None of the tools were missing…"

Looking around inside, Gemini didn't seem to find anything of value. "Ah, it's what I thought… A bust." Everything was still here.

"Gah!" Dolly seemed to take physical damage from the rebuttal. "Master! Master! Say something!"

Moving Dolly out of the way, it was time for Benjamin to take the frontstage again. "You think that means there were no options left?"

"Yeah." Seira said with zero hesitation. "That's… That's kind of exactly what that means."

"..."

"…"

"Well!" Benjamin had no counter to that specifically.

"Master!" Dolly called out, glancing over at him. "Are you just going to let them win like that?"

Out of nowhere, Gennosuke spoke up, wanting to have some fun. "You know, I heard Atlas can open doors with his voice. Maybe he bypassed the system."

Hearing that, Dolly jumped on that right away. "See! There's always options left! Atlas could have done it!"

"Why the fuck would I open the door for the killer?" He narrowed his eyes.

Shrugging with a laugh, Lorelei shook their head. "Wouldn't be the first time you did it."

"One fucking time." Atlas scowled at her. "One fucking time!"

"If you ask me, that's one too many." Lorelei placed a hand on their hip.

But from the looks of it, Benjamin and Dolly no longer had any grounds to argue on.

Now that they were at the disadvantage, Gemini decided to take this moment to take charge again. "With everything we know, the killer would have needed to acquire the screwdriver yesterday, and returned it yesterday. Because of that… And the addition of the safety meeting… They needed to know the contents of the meeting prior to today."

"Stop-" Benjamin tried to stop Gemini, but he wasn't having any of it.

Closing his eyes, and taking a deep breath, Gemini let out a sigh. "The killer of this case… Is…"

…

"Tatiana."

"Stop it!" Benjamin called out, putting Dolly down on the podium. "She wouldn't do this, so you're wrong." He tipped his hat down, to obscure his eyes a bit.

"Stop it." However, a voice called out to him. After a few moments, Tatiana let out a sigh. "You think I'm the killer of this case?" From her facial expression, she didn't seem worried a bit. "As if I would have committed a crime like this."

Gemini frowned at her reaction. "It makes sense for it to be you… You were the one who came up with the safety precautions in case something went wrong. That way you could cause Benjamin to pull you back in, and it would leave the vents open."

"Nonsense, clearly!" Tatiana let out a laugh, before shaking her head. "And that's all you have for me? No way I could have committed the crime? You would have to try harder than that if you wish to let false claims stick."

Now… Gemini wasn't entirely sure he could prove how she did it. He hadn't done as much investigation as he would have hoped.

"I'll take over…" Gigi called out, her eyes fixated on Tatiana. "If Gemini believes that you have to be the killer, I'll follow his logic."

Ah, someone slightly more intimidating. Nonetheless, Tatiana wasn't about to back down. "Haha! You think you can prove me as the killer? I'd love to see you try. Because no such evidence exists."

"I'm sure the evidence will present itself in a nice little bow." Gigi kept her neutral expression as she examined Tatiana.

If she was the killer, the question was… How? Something had to make her the killer, but as of now, Gigi couldn't find a reason to accuse her.

Seeing that Gigi couldn't really say anything else, Tatiana let out another laugh. "As I expected! Nothing comes to mind, now does it? You don't even have a way I could have arrived at the scene of crime without being spotted. Not to mention, I was trapped in communications"

As expected, Tatiana loved talking, even if it meant giving Gigi a way to destroy her argument. "You'd like to think so, but there was an easy way you could have easily accessed the scene of the crime."

Twirling around a knife, Tatiana pointed the tip towards Gigi. "Oh? You wish to continue talking? And how would that have been?"

Easy… They had just proven that they had to be used several minutes ago. "To get to the scene of the crime and back, you simply used…"

…

"The vents…"

Placing a hand on her hip, Gigi continued. "We just concluded that the vents had to be opened. And the reason for that was so that you, the killer could have used them to traverse the repair ship without detection."

For a moment, Tatiana reacted with a grimace, but it was soon replaced with a smile. "Ah! What a fantastic tale you've weaved. Surely one to be told in front of an audience. But is there even a way to prove that the vents would have connected?"

Twirling her knife around, she almost got prepared to throw it towards Gigi, but she held back. "There was a vent in communication, but as far as I know, it only led to the control room. Haha, far away from where you claim it leads to."

From the looks of it, Tatiana was going to continue playing coy, but Gigi wasn't going to let her get away from it. "Yes, it's true that the vent in communication led to the control room."

"Haha! You admit it then? I couldn't have used it to get to wherever I needed to be." Tatiana struck a small pose, almost out of confidence.

From the looks of it, Tatiana was aiming to waste valuable time. It would probably be best for Gigi to not let her. "No, that's only one of the locations that it led to."

"Haha? And can you prove that now?" Tatiana twirled her knife around, before pointing the tip at her. "We aren't on the repair ship, so that cannot be verified."

"Yes, that would be true." Gigi's eyes slowly trailed over towards someone. "However, someone here has what I need to prove my point."

Noticing that she was being stared at, May pulled out the chart for the vent that she had. "Yes… While communication connected to the control room… It is also connected to the kitchen."

"That's where I was…" Atlas narrowed his eyes.

But then, something became all too clear.

Turning his head towards Gennosuke, Atlas barked out some words. "You were only there to make sure Tatiana could slip by unnoticed?"

Pulling out his lollipop, Gennosuke simply shrugged. "Maybe I was?"

Wasting time…

Gigi frowned, staring at Tatiana. "So, you had everything you needed to make it to the lower airlock and back. You can no longer use that as a defense."

Letting another iconic laugh, Tatiana shook her head. "That may be true, but besides that, there's no way to know for sure that I'm the killer."

Something that tied Tatiana to the murder… Did something like that even exist?

Something only Tatiana could do…

Wait…

Something like that…?

"There's something we never figured out…" Gigi mumbled out, staring intensely at the ground. "Mostly because we couldn't figure out how it was done, we decided to ignore it."

"Oh? And you think accusing me might help you out?" Tatiana shook her head. "Well, whatever reason it may be, you would be wrong!"

No… She couldn't be…

If it was Tatiana, that entire section begins to make sense…

They discussed it way earlier, but now, they actually had a solid answer to it.

"Namely, I'm talking about how…"

…

"The killer was able to eject Dae-Hyun."

Hearing that, Tatiana had a brief nervous expression, before she disguised it with laughter. "Haha, my my! Delusional aren't you? How would that lead back to me? I'm no expert at closing doors."

Now, more than ever, Gigi was confident with the answer she had acquired. "No. Closing the door while avoiding being ejected yourself would normally be impossible for anyone… Taking you into consideration, it would be possible…"

"Oh yeah?" Dolly raised her hands in the air to get everyone's attention.

Benjamin had a frown on his face as he looked over at Gigi. "You're just spouting nonsense. How could Tatiana do something that nobody else could do?"

Something only Tatiana could do… That was the entire thing that was fueling this argument.

Letting out a small sigh, Gigi's eyes focused back at Tatiana. "Because, unlike everyone else, you had one thing you could do better than everyone else."

"Haha! Splendid! Do tell! I'm sure you'll soon realise the errors of your ways!" Tatiana didn't seem nervous at all about what Gigi was talking about.

For a moment, she was a bit hesitant… Until she determined that it could be nothing else. "You were able to open the door, because…"

…

"You threw something at the button."

Hearing that response, Tatiana couldn't help but laugh a bit. "Really? That's your big conclusion? I threw something at a button?"

Quickly, a knife flew past Gigi's head, missing her by a foot.

"Don't make me laugh." Now Tatiana was growing serious. "How would that have activated the button? A button normally requires a person to press it. I may be the Ultimate Knife Thrower, but I don't believe I can throw an object with that much force."

That was true… But Gigi knew that there was something… She had very rare interactions with the button. The one time-

"What's that flashing button over there?" Atlas was the first to notice it, given Gigi was facing away from it.

When she finally turned around to look at it, she spotted it. "Hmm…" Soon, the red lights from earlier faintly illuminated the room.

Still, Atlas was still interested in the button that lit up. Once the lights faded out again, the button glowed red once more. "What does this even do?" Given how big it was, he would have no problem pressing it.

"Wait, we really shouldn't-" Gigi had begun to say, but it was too late.

All it took was a rather light press from Atlas…

Right… "The button did not take much to push… I saw it happen when Atlas and I were exploring the airlock for the first time."

Shaking her head, Tatiana wasn't about to let that be an argument. "I'm only allowed to take your word for it?"

"Not just her…" Seira spoke up. "Because when I tested it out with…" She hesitated for a moment. "When I tested it out with Dae-Hyun, something similar happened while we used the upper floor one…"

Once the two of them were hooked up, Seira looked around the various buttons. There were several, all identical… But the ones she was pressing didn't seem to do anything.

"Huh…" Why was it like that?

Moving closer, Dae-Hyun attempted to get a better look. "Don't know why there's multiple buttons." Slowly, he brushed his hands against all the buttons, until…

By barely touching one of them…

The airlock opened, and they were ejected out into space.

"Ah! Finally! A more reputable source." Tatiana nodded her head, before extending a hand out to Gigi. "Something like that is much better. Seira has no reason to lie right now."

Frowning, Gigi shook her head. "That doesn't help your case. Even if she used the one on the upper floor, nothing changes. The button can still be pressed without much force."

"Nonsense!" Tatiana raised her hands in the air. "Because that was from the upper floor, we can surmise that it was faulty."

"That would be… Incorrect!" Edison called out, adjusting his goggles. "Because, someone already brought this up."

"I suppose not, but there are actually two airlocks." Nova hummed out. "Although, nobody actually explored the second one. It's located directly above us."

"Oh…" May hummed out, realising that it was partially her fault. "I assumed that Hae-Won and Edison might have explored that side of the ship already…"

That reminded Dae-Hyun that he had to return to Tatiana's station to finish exploration there. "Is there a reason to explore this second airlock?"

"Nope!" Nova was very eager to say. "They are both identical."

Nova stood up from her chair. "Yes, the two airlocks were the exact same. Anything you find with one, you'll find with the other."

That was one less avenue Tatiana could use to escape, but she wasn't going to let it bring her down. "Alright, maybe it was possible to throw something. But what did I even throw-"

Atlas wasn't going to let her finish that sentence. "Isn't it obvious? You threw…"

…

"Your knife."

Yeah! Atlas doing something. "What else would you have fucking thrown? You have a million of them, so it's not like we'd ever find any missing."

Unfortunately, this idea was going to get shut down. Not by Tatiana herself… No…

Instead, by Seira. "We explored outside the airlock, and we found no such knife. Anything that was found was directly related to the murder."

Now that Gigi was able to catch her breath, her eyes focused back on Tatiana. "I know exactly what was used to hit the button." There could be no other thing.

If it couldn't be her knife…

It would have to be the next best thing.

"Oh really?" Tatiana sported a very content smile on her face. "Then go ahead, I'm all ears!" She bowed down, almost inviting the argument.

Either Gigi was thinking of the wrong thing, or Tatiana was simply playing an act. Either way, it wasn't going to change her answer. "To close the button, you used…"

…

"The tattoo needle…"

While Tatiana stayed in her bow, it was apparent that she felt herself freeze up. After a few more seconds, she slowly rose up. "A tattoo needle? You think I could throw something like that with such accuracy?"

"Wait…" Gemini raised an eyebrow, before remembering something. "Yes, I'm certain you could… Because I've seen you throw more than just knives before…"

"Heh." This got a laugh out of Tatiana, before she realised that it wasn't appropriate. Coughing a few times. "Monokawa, you aren't invited to my station. Please leave immediately."

"Oh yeah!?" He crossed his arms, a smug aura around him. "And what will you do to make me leave?"

Twirling around the broom, she managed to give it a good throw, almost decking Monokawa.

"H-hey!" He called out, covering his head. "What the hell do you think the big idea is? Do you know what would happen if you hit me?"

"Yeah." Tatiana didn't particularly seem too bothered.

Now the counters were getting to be a little too much. "Still!" Tatiana raised up a hand to strike a pose. "That means nothing, because you can't prove that it was actually used in the murder. All you have is speculations."

Proof that it was actually used?

"That's not true!" Laki called out, looking over at Tatiana. "I saw something while I was exploring the airlock."

"Haha, how amusing! Proof at the last second." Tatiana shook her head, as if she still had the upper hand. "And what could that even be?"

A confident grin appeared on Laki's face. "Oh? You might not have seen it, then."

Hearing that, a frown overtook Tatiana's face. "Just tell me what you think you found."

"On the button, there was…"

…

"A small amount of blood."

Hearing that, Tatiana scoffed. "And how does that prove that the tattoo needle was used? So what if there was a bit of blood? That could have been from anything."

"No…" Gigi said, but the moment those words left her mouth, a knife lodged itself into the podium she was standing at. "..." She wasn't really caught by surprise.

Now, holding several knives, Tatiana's confidence only seemed to boost. "Oh? You're back for me? Have something you would like to share?"

Frowning slightly at the hostility, Gigi continued what she was going to say. "The reason that the blood proves the needle was used, was because the tattoo needle was used to puncture Dae-Hyun's suit, as well as stab him in the shoulder."

Pulling the knife out, Gigi let it clatter to the ground.

"Because of that, when you threw it at the button, it caused a trace amount of blood to transfer over to it."

Taking a step back, Tatiana began twirling another knife around, ready to throw it.

She was going to need to pull a card she wouldn't normally pull out.

"So, let me get this straight. You presume I took the tattoo needle, and managed to throw it perfectly at the eject button."

How was that difficult to understand? "Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying." Gigi frowned… She had to be trying something didn't she?

"However, do you know how many buttons there were that were identical?" Tatiana pointed the tip of the knife at her.

"Ugh…" Seira knew exactly what she meant. "Right, there were so many of them, it was hard to actually know which one to press."

"And here I was, under a time crunch, forced to hit the right one." Tatiana crossed her arms, tilting her head to the side. "I would have only one shot at this."

What point was she trying to make? "You still would have known-"

Gigi had been cut off by Tatiana, who continued her argument. "Sure. if I'm the killer, I might have pressed the button before. But don't forget, my vision is awful. The buttons would have blended together."

"I-"

Once again, Gigi wasn't even given the chance to speak, as Tatiana continued what she had to say. "Not to mention, the lights were out. It would have been near impossible for me to even see what I had to aim at."

Every point that was being brought up was true, but…

No… It had to be Tatiana. She was the only person who had everything required to commit this crime.

And yet, in the end, Gigi was running out of evidence.

…

"Tsk." Atlas scoffed, narrowing his eyes at Tatiana. "You thought that would be enough to fool us?"

What? Gigi found herself looking at Atlas. Although, based on her facial expression, you wouldn't even be able to know what she was thinking.

What did Atlas know that she didn-

"What's that - - over there?"

Right… How could Gigi forget something like that.

Finally looking back at Tatiana, making sure to keep her eyes locked on her. "The emergency lights wouldn't have been a hindrance."

As soon as those words left her mouth, she witnessed a knife bouncing off the floor, before lodging itself right into the podium she was standing at.

Still… Unphased…

Tatiana's expression had slowly shifted; She was beginning to lose her patience. "Oh? What's that? You think you've found an answer?"

Everything had a purpose…

Closing the doors to give herself a fake alibi.

Switching the vent and hook button to not only give the illusion of isolation, but to also help her get back into the repair ship.

And lastly…

The emergency button…

"There's a special property to the button that you needed to press." Gigi spoke with such confidence as she stared down Tatiana, refusing to let her evade her sight.

Faltering slightly, Tatiana twirled around another knife, getting ready to throw this one. "Oh? Is that so? Then tell me! What was it!"

This was it. Almost at the end…

"The eject button, it…"

…

"It glows in the dark."

Hearing that, Tatiana almost dropped the knife. "W-what." She was hoping that nobody else had known that, and yet…

"Yeah." Atlas barked out. "It's why I hit it the first time we encountered it."

"What's that flashing button over there?" Atlas was the first to notice it, given Gigi was facing away from it.

When she finally turned around to look at it, she spotted it. "Hmm…" Soon, the red lights from earlier faintly illuminated the room.

"Wait, we really shouldn't-" Gigi had begun to say, but it was too late.

All it took was a rather light press from Atlas…

And…

In a single moment…

All the air, including them, were quickly ejected out of the room.

Gripping onto her podium, Gigi was certain with the answer she had arrived at. "All of this, it could have only been you, Tatiana."

Suddenly, without expecting it, a knife flew towards Gigi, missing her face by only an inch, and cutting a few strands of hair as flew by her.

And yet, her focus did get shaken.

Instead, Gigi continued to stare directly at Tatiana, like an eagle that had found its prey.

"You say all of that, but…" Tatiana's iconic smile had long faded away, left only with a frown as she glared over at Gigi. "And yet, nothing here is conclusive. You just listed ways anyone could have killed Dae-Hyun."

Digging her knife into her own podium, Tatiana shook her head. "And yet, not a single thing has directly pointed to me. Are you saying I'm the only one who can throw things?"

Besides Atlas, anyone could have thrown something and gotten lucky…

But that wasn't the point. Too much of it pointed towards Tatiana.

And yet, she wasn't content with all the evidence they pointed out.

What more did she want?

Letting out a laugh, Tatiana managed to jump onto her own podium, now having the height advantage over everyone.

Twirling her signature knife around, she pointed the tip towards Gigi one more time. "Give me something more concrete, and I might be willing to accept defeat. Unfortunately, so far, nothing has warranted such a thing."

Still…

Even after all this? Tatiana was going to deny it…

And yet, that was all the evidence that Gigi knew of. And nobody else was speaking up, so they couldn't have found anything else.

…

"I-Is that… -?"

A very simple sentence just played out in her head.

And with that, Gigi realised something that hadn't made sense in context.

When they first saw it, they could rationalise it, but with everything they've learned now, it just… didn't.

"Actually…" Gigi took a deep breath. "There's one thing that's been bothering me this entire time."

Tatiana's nervous expression was back. How was she still able to keep going? What the hell- "Oh? And what would that be?"

Placing a hand on her hip, Gigi frowned slightly. "It's when the navigation crew first saw the body…"

Edison adjusted his goggles, trying to think. "Um… Was there anything that was off?"

For someone smart, she didn't expect him to make such a mistake, but Gigi already knew the answer, so it didn't matter. "When we first saw you floating in space, there's something that makes absolutely zero sense when we take into account that it was you, and not Dae-Hyun."

Hearing those words, Tatiana was visibly sweating, as the truth grew closer and closer…

"What made zero sense was…"

…

"The blood on the visor."

Gripping onto her podium, Gigi continued. "When we first saw the body floating in space. We had assumed that it was blood belonging to the victim. However, the victim was still with us."

"Stop it…" Tatiana narrowed her eye. "You're just misremembering things-"

"No…" May hummed out, leaning her head back. "Not at all… I remember it too."

Edison lifted up his hand. "As do I."

Now there was more than one witness, meaning Tatiana couldn't talk her way out of this.

"It was a misconception from the start. The blood did not belong to the victim. It belonged to the killer."

"Haha!" Tatiana posed on her podium, twirling around a knife. "And how does it tie to me? You'd have to be a bit more specific than that!"

Was she really stalling for time right now? Still, only a few more things and Gigi would prove without a reason of a doubt that Tatiana had committed this crime. "Because, for the killer to easily have access to blood without attracting the attention of anyone, they would have needed…"

…

"To already have an injury."

Quickly, Tatiana's hand went over to her cut she had received only yesterday. "What about it?" She frowned.

"Nobody else has appeared with an injury, so it's safe to say that yours is the only one that the blood could have come from." Gigi pointed at her, closing one eye.

Gripping onto her knife tightly, Tatiana could see her defense slipping away.

However, that didn't mean she was done fighting yet. "That's cute and all, but how do you suppose I would have been able to transfer the blood over to the visor?" Quickly, she unwrapped her gauze. "See, perfectly clean."

"Exactly…" Benjamin nodded his head. "If she wiped it on with her arm or clothes, there would be evidence of blood left."

Winter slowly nodded her head. "Hate to say it, but there was no way to clean yourself. If she had wiped the visor with her arm, the blood would still have been there."

Slowly by slowly, it was all slipping away. This felt like the longest match of Gigi's life, and definitely felt like it would have been perfect for a Last Stand.

Unfortunately we didn't have a budget, so get fucked.

No…

There had to be a way. "However, she could have easily used something else to wipe the blood onto, to transfer it to the visor." Gigi pointed out, not letting Tatiana out of her sights.

"Haha!" Still standing on the podium, Tatiana had to balance herself as she laughed. "You come up with some rather absurd ideas. First of all, I wouldn't have been able to, because we run into a different problem… I wouldn't have been able to hide the object."

Edison frowned slightly. "We looked everywhere, but we didn't find anything."

"Then, she must have found a way to get rid of it." Gigi narrowed her eyes.

Luckily, someone did come to her aid. "Actually." Winter hummed out, thinking for a moment. "I did find something odd while investigating the top floor of the repair ship…"

Hearing that, a grin appeared on Gennosuke's face. "Oh? And what would that be? Find anything of interest?"

Not even bothering to look at him, Winter had her own smile on her face. "Oh? I thought you'd know something like this. Especially since it was around your area."

But enough about that… "What I did find was a bit of remnants of a dark fabric"

"Oh?" Gennosuke hummed out. "You mean the purple fabric?"

"You aren't helping!" Tatiana quickly pointed a knife at him.

"Ha!" Benjamin called out. "There's cloths in the storage area for Tatiana's Station, so there could have been- Purple?" There hadn't been any purple ones.

"And yet…" Gennosuke began flickering his lighter, attempting to light the tip of the lollipop stick on fire. "How were they able to get rid of the fabric, in such a way that only a small amount of fabric remained…"

Once again, not even bothering to look at him, Winter shook her head. "The reason is a plain as day… The way the fabric was gotten rid of was…"

…

"By burning it."

Nodding his head along, Gennosuke let out a small chuckle. "Oh? By burning it… There's so many ways that could have been done. Hard to tell-"

For the first time, Winter actually looked over at him. "I would appreciate it if you stop playing dumb with me. Tatiana handed it over for you to then burn." She twirled a finger around a strand of hair. "That's why it was found on the upper floor, and not the lower floor."

Slowly nodding his head, Gennosuke took a step back. "So, that's what it looks like." He twirled around his lighter a bit, before grinning in her direction. "You know, I do remember burning something, actually. I just can't quite remember… What it was…"

Now they just had to figure out what was used to wipe the blood off… And Gigi had a pretty good idea. "Tatiana would have had to bring something on that wouldn't have really been detected. Nothing was found on the ship prior to boarding, and yet, it couldn't have been a cloth from her station…"

No, it had to be something else entirely…

But something purple?

Wait, there's one thing that she could have used, but was it really that…?

"I know exactly what was used…" Gigi declared with confidence. "And after this, all the evidence will be laid out flat, and you won't be able to avoid the verdict anymore."

For a moment, Tatiana stuttered her own laugh, before regaining some confidence. "Haha! I'd like to see you try! Surely, I will knock down whatever you have!" Twirling around the Luna knife, she got ready to throw it towards Gigi.

"No, I'm certain what you used was…"

…

"Your own clothes."

"Haha!" Tatiana let out a laugh before growing serious. "You seriously don't know what you are talking about."

"No, I do-"

Gigi had begun to say, before a knife flew right over her head, almost nailing her in the forehead.

And yet, she didn't stop talking… "- know what I'm talking about. You used part of your skirt."

"Haha! As you can plainly see, I'm still wearing this skirt, so that's obviously false."

"Yes, that skirt, but you had access to another one." Gigi wasn't letting her get away with this.

However, this time, Benjamin was the one who jumped in. "How would she have gotten access to more of her clothes? Don't you remember? We were locked out of our rooms."

Gigi was very much aware of that. "While that is true, Tatiana didn't need to go to her room to pick up another set of clothes… In fact, the only place she needed to go was…"

…

"Her own Ultimate Station…"

Hearing that, Tatiana almost fell off her podium. "J-Just because it's my Ultimate Station doesn't mean-"

"No, I saw it." Gigi narrowed her eyes. "While you were taking a break for your show, I decided to take a look myself."

Given that there was nothing to do but wait, Gigi moved away from the audience seating, instead, decided to check out what was nearby.

However, the only other thing they could even check out was the knife rack, and some racks of clothes. Notably, all the knives were missing, but Tatiana was getting ready for her own show.

"Getting bored?" A voice called out from behind, but when Gigi turned to look at who it was, it was only Winter.

"Yeah, I don't want to spend too much time here than is necessary." Especially with the motive now active. However, Tatiana assured everyone that she had checked the asteroid forecast, and there wasn't going to be any during her show.

Winter began sorting through the clothes. "Nice collection here. Must be all the outfits she's worn to her performance." Then, she pulled out her regular outfit. "Oh, and I guess spare clothes."

Winter hummed out, nodding her head. "I can attest to that, and I'm sure someone else would be able to as well." Her eyes trailed over towards someone in specific.

That person being Benjamin, who just kept shaking her head. "No… It can't be her…" It couldn't be the one person he had formed an actual connection with.

Quickly, Dolly rose up. "Master! Master! You can't give up! If you do! Tatiana will-"

"And what a deserved fate it would be!" A voice called out, stopping Dolly mid sentence.

In a panic, Benjamin turned to see who had said that, only to be staring at Tatiana, who had dropped down from her podium, a small smile on her face.

"All my arguments are gone, so there's no point in fighting it anymore." Pulling out the knife from her own podium, she twirled it around. "You have bested me! I admit defeat."

It's finally over…?

Gigi let out a sigh of relief, still keeping her eyes locked on Tatiana. "Then shall I go over everything from the start?"

"Proceed." Tatiana had no objections…

"..." Let's take it from the top…

"Act 1: The first part of this plan that had to be achieved was switching the buttons in the control room. So, the culprit collected a screwdriver from the garden, and joined up with the group that was going on the repair ship yesterday. Under the guise of staying with Benjamin, the culprit switched out the buttons the first chance they got.

Act 2: Which led to last night, where the culprit stopped the ship until the star charts Seira made were two hours late. While this was happening, Gennosuke was writing the letter for Dae-Hyun., and making sure to collect the things he'd need for his part of the plan, like the candles, and the rope from the Ultimate Knife Thrower's Attraction.

Act 3: This morning, when it came time to gather up in the cafetera, the culprit made sure that an emergency plan was now in effect. They explained to Benjamin that if something wrong happened, they should hit the emergency lights, and then close the doors and vents. Dae-Hyun missed this meeting, meaning he didn't know anything about this when he eventually showed up later.

Act 4: Once on board the ship, everyone split off to go wherever, with Atlas heading towards the kitchen. This wasn't part of the original plan, but I'm sure Gennosuke had a backup. He tied the rope on the railing of the circular hallway, and placed candles to help guide him. And when the moment was right, he dropped down to fight Atlas.

Act 5: Atlas was obviously taken off guard, given Gennosuke came out of nowhere, but before he could react to anything, the ship was hit by an asteroid. Immediately, the emergency lights went on, followed shortly by the doors. This made it impossible for Atlas to know who his attacker was, nor did Gennosuke want to actually fight Atlas, given he was just a distraction.

Act 6: While that was happening, the culprit had been waiting in the vent leading from the communication room to the kitchen. Once Gennosuke dropped down, they used the distraction to move over to the vent leading to the airlock. Time was limited for them, as they needed to smear blood on the visor, put on the suit, and launch themselves out the airlock, all before Benjamin had the time to recall the hook.

Act 7: Meanwhile, on the station, that's when the five of us first saw the impact of the asteroid. Once we saw the decoy body floating around in space, we all acted quickly, leaving navigation to head towards the shuttle. May decided to stay behind and be a witness in case something happened.

Act 8: When we finally made it to the repair ship, Dae-Hyun said he'd stay behind for a bit. Not wanting to waste time, I moved on with Edison and Michael. However, our path was interrupted when we ran into an issue with the scanner. The system was being rebooted, thanks to Lorelei, who was messing around on the other end of the ship.

.Act 9: While things were happening on the lower floor of the ship, Lorelei and Winter were fighting each other, seemingly trying to kill each other in self defense. Lorelei, concerned for her life, ran away to the upper airlock. In doing so, not only did she stop all of the other locked doors, she also managed to cut Hae-Won, Laki, and Seira loose, sending them pointlessly in space, and wasting time for us.

Act 10: While we were losing time, Dae-Hyun was still moving. Having snuck into the vent in the docking zone, he made his way over to the kitchen, just as the letter had instructed. He had plans to murder whoever had sent the letter out. However, things didn't quite work out the way he would have wanted to. Gennosuke and Atlas were still locked into the fight, and the moment Dae-Hyun appeared, Atlas quickly took care of it, without really realising. Noticing the golden opportunity, Gennosuke took out Atlas with the metal hook.

Act 11: With the culprit having been pulled back by Benjamin, they met back up with Gennosuke. The culprit put a space suit and hook on Dae-Hyun, to make reeling him over to the airlock easier. In this brief exchange, the culprit also gave Gennosuke the bloodied skirt they had used to smear the blood on the visor.

Act 12: Now that the culprit had Dae-Hyun with them, there was only one thing left to do. Actually kill him. Stabbing the tattoo needle through Dae-Hyun's left shoulder, they left a hole in the suit. Moving them over towards the airlock, they threw the tattoo needle when the lights went off, leaving them with a very clear glowing red button to hit. When the tattoo needle hit the button, the doors opened up, but it also left trace amounts of blood on the button itself.

Act 13: It was around this time that my group was closing in on the kitchen. We met up with Gemini, spoke a bit, and then moved over towards the kitchen. When we opened the door, we unknowingly let out Gennosuke, who was only noticed by Gemini. Using his escape plan, Gennosuke managed to use the rope he had left to climb back up onto the upper floor.

Act 14: Following the three candles he had left just for this moment, Gennosuke returned to the supply room. Not only to open the door, but to also cover the vent for later. Then, he ditched the rope and candles off the circular hallway, and joined up with the others, as if nothing had happened.

Act 15: Now that we had discovered Atlas unconscious on the floor, Michael and Gemini brought him back, while Edison and I continued on our way. However, I quickly realised there was no way to get the body without cutting it loose, so we had to backtrack towards the control room to reel Dae-Hyun back in.

Act 16: When we got to communication, we were met by the culprit, who was pretending to be busy, when in reality, they had just committed murder. When we told them what was going on, they were the first to run in to hit the buttons, that way they didn't break the illusion they had set up much earlier.

"This is a crime that could have only been committed by you Tatiana Novak, the Ultimate Knife Thrower!"

And that concludes part two of the trial! Holy shit what a ride! Sure it wasn't as good as the chapter two trial, but my goal was never to beat it.

How the hell could I beat something like that?

Either way, I think this was a pretty good trial nonetheless. Fun fact! I came up with a decent portion of this before I had even finished the cast! The space body discovery switch out was the first thing I considered when coming up with this case, to the point I HAD to make it no matter what. I didn't exactly know who I wanted to have to die, but the moment I got Tatiana, the idea of her throwing something at the button to eject the body could NOT escape my head, so I had to make her the killer.

Oh? And then there's Benjamin finally talking, so that was something else I was looking forward to. Honestly! There were a lot of things for characters in this trial, but I think I want to talk about all of that AFTER the epilogue, so I can go over everything I want to.

Hope you all enjoyed this trial as much as I did writing it, and I'll see you next part when we finish up chapter 3! Holy fuck… One part away… I can't believe I pretty much did it…

Participants Remaining: 15

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

Giustina "Gigi" Giulio - The Ultimate Referee [Nekoja]

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Computer Security Specialist [CandleFire45]

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin]

Melody Eleanor Hopkins - The Ultimate Tap Dancer [Prince PokePersona]

Lakshmi "Laki" Krishna - The Ultimate Lucky Student [Sempi]

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Tatiana Novak - The Ultimate Knife Thrower [ExtraMeme]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]

Kim Hae-Won - The Ultimate Tattoo Artist [Weekaro]