Typing…

Rather loud typing as Lance found himself at a computer. It wasn't his home computer. Wherever he was, he was clearly working on… Something…

But like usual, he was also alone. Alone with no sound beside the typing he was doing. He didn't even have music to keep himself entertained. "Let's see…" He hummed to himself, pressing enter to execute the code.

On screen, an otter began to float around, almost like it was in water… But it looks slightly janky.

"No…" Lance hummed out, shaking his head. "That's not it… Animation is still off." He was a programmer, not a damn animator.

However, the sound of a door slowly sliding open alerted Lance of someone else. "Hmm?" He swiveled in his chair to face the person.

"Oh…!" Paige stopped for a few seconds, looking at him. "What are you still doing here? Don't you have other stuff to do?"

Seeing that it was only her, Lance swiveled his chair back towards his computer. "No… Not really… I'm trying to get this Monomascot working…"

"Mono…" Paige trailed off, looking at his computer. "Are we really making one of those…? Isn't it in bad taste?"

"..." At first, Lance didn't say anything. He just kept typing away. After a bit, he let out a sigh. "It's kind of what I thought as well, but it might be necessary… We aren't sure what to expect besides what we've seen so far." Vague, but only to the readers. After thinking about it a bit longer, he turned to look over at her. "Why are you here?"

"H-huh?" Paige took a step back, before looking the other way. "I came here… To visit…"

"Me? How thoughtful?" Lance let out a small laugh.

Quickly, this got a frown out of Paige. "You know it's not for you. I didn't even know you were here."

Of course Lance knew that… After a bit, he spoke up. "How are you doing, all things considered…?"

Paige was going to respond almost right away, but she held off a bit longer. "... It could be worse… I could be in Danny's shoes right now…"

For once, Lance got an actual frown on his face. "Yeah… You could be…" Once the silence had returned, he began typing again. "Do you think the otter model is nice?"

"Huh?" Paige looked back at the screen. "Oh… Well… It's cute! I'm more partial to cats, but an otter works well…" Besides that, she wasn't sure what to say.

Leaning back in his chair, Lance began to think. "Since we're using the same location, I was thinking it would have this thing where it floats around like it's in zero gravity."

"Oh… That's actually really cute." Paige pulled up a chair to sit next to him. She wanted to leave, but she also didn't want to leave him alone. "What else do you have?"

"Hmm…" Lance wasn't exactly sure. "For now, I have basic code set up, and how he moves… The only problem is that I haven't exactly figured out what kind of personality I want to give him… Or a name…"

"Hmm…" Paige glanced off to the side. "What kind of otter is it?"

"I… Don't see how that matters… But a river otter, probably." Lance didn't really bother to check before he made the model.

After thinking it over a bit more, Paige had an idea. "We should give it a similar naming scheme as the ones that came before… So… Maybe Monokawa? Kawa means river, so…"

After thinking it over a bit, Lance slowly nodded his head. "Honestly, that doesn't sound so bad." A small smile appeared on his face. "It actually sounds pretty cute. That just leaves me with personality…"

"Well since…" Paige trailed off, but stopped herself. "Why not just have the personality match yours."

"I can assure you, I have no grasp over my own personality." Lance leaned on his hand, looking at the monitor with boredom behind his eyes. "The only thing I've got going for me is that I'm a little shit."

Well… That was true… He could be annoying, especially when it came to games. "Well… Maybe incorporate that?" Paige shrugged. "I'm not really sure how to make any of this work, so it's all you, honestly…"

Tapping his finger on the desk, Lance let out a sigh. "Besides… I already have one based on myself. Having a second one seems a bit redundant…"

"You… do?" This was the first Paige ever heard of it. "Why haven't you shown it to us?"

Moving his mouse around, Lance opened up a new program. "Because I didn't feel the need to… It's not perfect anyways, so there's no reason to show it off."

After a few seconds, a Lance appeared on the screen. "Oh? Do you need me to do something today?"

"Not really… Just showing you off." Lance let out a small yawn.

"... I figured as much." Then the program closed itself.

"..." Lance blinked a few times. "Well, I didn't teach him how to do that, but I suppose he learns like I do." He switched back over towards the program for Monokawa. "So, yeah… I don't really feel like making another program off myself. Besides, I'm not vicious like a monomascot would need to be."

"Ah…" Paige hummed out rather sadly, looking around. "Then… Why not just tweak the program a bit? It could be similar… Having your boredom, but also, making it more insulting or something."

Tapping his finger on the desk, Lance let out a sigh. "If I can't think of something, I might just do that. But until then…" He stretched his arms a bit. "I see no point in going down a similar route." After a few seconds, he glanced over at the time. Just past midnight… Which reminded him of something… "Didn't you say you were here for a visit? Shouldn't you be doing that right now?"

"Well… They wouldn't know even if I did visit… So…" Paige glanced off to the side. "I suppose it's probably best if I keep you company for the night. Besides… How long have you been working at this computer for?"

Oh! That was an easy answer. "Only two hours." Lance shrugged.

After a few seconds, Paige realised her mistake, and corrected it with the next question. "How long have you been working, period?"

"..." That one took a bit longer to answer, as Lance ran the numbers in his head. "For the last… ten hours, I'd say…"

Frowning slightly, Paige crossed her legs. "You should really take a break. I don't even work that long."

A break… Yeah… That's just not something Lance could afford to do right now. "I think I'm fine with doing this. I can go on for another six hours." To prove a point, he removed one of his energy drinks from under the desk and cracked it open.

"We're getting too old for drinks like that…" Paige shook her head. But there really was no stopping him.

Taking a sip, Lance placed it to the side, far away from the edge. "I've been living this life for a while now… No need to change it."

"Is that why Caroline says you're never home?" Paige now had her arms crossed. She wasn't happy with him.

For a moment, Lance paused. "Yeah, I know… I should have spent more time at home, but it would just cause trouble with half the work I end up doing anyways." And the life he lived by trying to stay off the radar. Paranoid fuck. "I've been around a lot more now, especially with how things have gone bad here…"

Paige frowned upon hearing that… Hope's Peak… It was supposed to be the start of a new generation of hope… all turned to shit because of one incident… "Yes… But you shouldn't let it affect every aspect of your life…"

"... A bit too late for that." Lance leaned back in his chair. "It's a way of life I can't simply get rid of…"

Still seeing him act like this all the time only made Paige worry. "What's the real reason you're like this…?"

"..." Lance tilted his head to the side, still leaning his head back. "You know, living with a talent like mine, you tend to piss people off… I'm just worried one day, something like that will come back to bite me in the ass. Besides…" He leaned forward now, typing again. "It's always nice to have a backup plan in case something goes wrong."

"And… you believe something will go wrong with this plan?" Paige let out a small sigh… She was hoping the answer would be no… If something else went wrong, she wasn't sure she could handle it.

"Always…" Lance trailed off. He moved his mouse over to a different program, called Lancaster. "I also have a program running for our current plan… In case anything goes wrong. There's pretty much code everywhere I can think…"

At least he was… Thorough… That was the only thought on Paige's mind at the moment. Slowly, she stood up from her chair. "Well, if you think it will help minimise the risk, I can't really say anything against it…" Even if she felt it was a bit absurd at times. "I should probably start that visit I was talking about, so I'm going to let you be for now."

"It was nice talking to you." Lance didn't bother to look at her, but his words were true. Even if he was hard to approach, he still did appreciate the talks he had with those he considered close.

After watching him a bit longer, Paige turned away and left the area. It had gotten way late now, but it was rare that she got to talk to him when nobody was around. She didn't really know too much about him, despite being in the same class.

And off she walked off, eventually reaching her destination…


Trial Ground Gamma

Having just finished setting up all the pictures, Monokawa floated over towards the throne that Nova would normally sit on. "Ha! My throne now." He crossed his arms, a rather cocky grin on his face. "And nobody can take it away from me!" However, after a few seconds of waiting, his arms fell to the side. "This is boring…"

Normally he could banter with Nova, but there was nothing to do right now. Not to mention he would need to wait for Lorelei to actually show up, and who knew how long all of that would take. They weren't exactly someone who was in a rush.

"Well…" Monokawa hummed out, floating around, looking for something to do. Part of him was tempted to scribble on the pictures, but he decided against that. Mostly because he didn't want his art to get destroyed.

Oh, but then he could just do it on the pictures of confirmed dead people…! … Nah…

Once again, Monokawa was left with silence, which only really gave him time to think. Every so often, his vision would stutter, as his eye briefly went out. "Wow… She really did do a number on me… And I can't get repaired until after this trial." He crossed his arms. "What kind of shitty service is this…? I should be getting treated immediately! Nova can't hope to run this game on her own!"

Monokawa began to rub the spot on his forehead. "Ugh… So annoying… My head always feels fuzzy now…" But something else felt weird about it… "I feel like I've been doing something I shouldn't be doing…" But he couldn't exactly figure out what…

Nova did mention gaps in his memory, so maybe that was to blame? Not to mention he was missing memories from before the start? What could that even mean? There shouldn't be any memories there in the first place…!

Once again, Monokawa's eye blinked out for a moment, before coming back. "I'm lucky this doesn't affect my vision, or else I'd be more annoyed…" He crossed his arms.

The more he thought about it, the more he was worried about something related to his code. "I wish he made me able to check my own code… But I can't…" That damn Lance…

However, he could at least attempt to look back at his memory banks. "Hmm… Those memories all seem to be missing around night time… Every so often. Don't know why, though." Maybe it was a glitch from what Tatiana did?

But that was probably going to be unlikely… So it had to be something else entirely. Monokawa rose up from the throne, before spinning around it, deep in thought. After going through the various parts of his code, he stopped when he happened across one. "Lancaster? What the hell is that…? Why's it part of my code?" He had never seen that part before, but it was tucked away neatly in the back of his head. "I mean obviously Lance made this, but why…?" Unlike him, he didn't inherit his paranoia. "Whatever, don't need it." Although, not like he could delete it either, he couldn't edit the code.

Not that he would delete it… If Lance put it there, it had to be for a reason. It's just not one Monokawa understood. "Whatever…"

After floating around a bit more, his mind slowly came back to normal. "Oh… It's all gone." Now he didn't feel the need to worry anymore.

However, the original problem had returned! He's fucking BORED! Maybe he should have chosen to kidnap Lorelei, and leave someone else to solve the trial…

The only problem with that is that Lorelei was probably the only one who could solo any of this, so it raised its own set of issues. "Eh, she should be here soon-"

Quickly, Monokawa was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of an elevator moving. "Oh goody!" It's like he hadn't been worrying about anything. "Now the fun can really begin…"


Chapter 4: Abandoned Principles (Deadly Life Part 2)


Come on guys, do you still need a warning for this story? You literally saw what happened to Tatiana, it shouldn't get much worse than that. Or it might… Either way, I'm warning you. Seriously.


Trial Ground Gamma

"..."

Lorelei spent some time looking at all the picture frames around her. For each person, there was one. Even the ones she knew were alive. "Nice display you've got here, any reason for it?"

Sitting on the chair normally reserved for Nova, Monokawa shrugged. "Well, I thought I'd spice things for this trial. It's not very often that we get an unknown victim, so I'm riding this high until the very end."

Lorelei didn't really understand it, but she also didn't care. "Aright, then let's ask a more pressing question…" Once again, they scanned the room, taken in just how barren it all was. "Why am I the only person here? Clearly there can't really be a trial if there's no one to argue against." She began examining her nails. "And, if I'm the killer, what's stopping me from voting someone now and getting away with it."

"Because it doesn't really work that easily." Monokawa shrugged, floating over towards the podiums. "See, you're the only one here, because we needed some tension… So you have a very special job."

"Ugh…" Lorelei wasn't having any of this. "And tell me… Why does it have to be me?"

Placing his paws behind his back, Monokawa leaned back a bit. "Because you're one of only two people with a gun. And unfortunately, the other one is currently locked in the Zeta Sector."

Winter… Lorelei already knew she was alive. "What does having a gun have to do with this?" Still, they took it out. Mostly to aim at him.

Monokawa wasn't too disturbed by any of it. "Well, you see! I have a fun game in mind… You still don't know who died-"

"Gigi." Zero hesitation.

"..." Monokawa let his hands droop down to the side. "W-Well! You don't know who the second victim is."

Ugh… That was true, and Winter's messages had been blocked off, so she wasn't even able to confirm who was alive. "Yeah, yeah… Just get on with the point. You have something planned for this, don't you?"

"It's quite simple honestly." Monokawa floated over towards the photo of Winter. "All you have to do is shoot out the picture of whoever you can confirm isn't the victim-"

However, before he could finish, the Winter picture was blasted out of existence.

"Woah! Woah!" Monokawa flew away quickly, panic visible on his face. "What the hell was that for?"

Twirling around the blaster, Lorelei shrugged. "You told me to shoot the pictures of the people who can't be the victims… So I did. I don't see a problem."

Clearly pissed off, Monokawa pressed a button. "Well, I was going to give you a full explanation, and then start the two hour timer… But it looks like you want it to start early." With a single press of the button, the two hour timer behind him started.

Looking around, Lorelei also shot at Gemini and May's pictures. "No way they became marked for death…" That was one of the only hints she got… Because in the station report image, the watch was visible. "So, what happens if I get this wrong?"

"Well…" Monokawa let out a small laugh. "Then you lose an hour off the timer. And remember, you need that time to solve the rest of the case."

"Ugh… So needlessly complicated…" Still, it somehow fell on Lorelei to do this. "And what if I shot Gigi's picture?"

Letting out a small sigh, Monokawa shook his head. "Well, she's also dead, so you'd probably lose an hour."

So many rules… Lorelei was starting to get annoyed. "Anything else I need to know?"

"Oh! Right! There's one more thing! Currently only six people are trapped in the Zeta Sector… The other five are trapped below, waiting. If you manage to confirm that one of them isn't the victim, they can join you."

"Good to know…" Lorelei knew she wouldn't have all the information available. She missed the morning meeting earlier today, so she didn't get a good look at what everyone else's watch looked like.

"There is one thing I can confirm right now, though…" Lorelei moved to aim at a specific picture. "There's no way they're the victim." With a pull of the trigger, they had completely blasted the picture of…

Atlas…

As soon as the picture was destroyed, a panel opened up, and the boy was flung out of the ground. "Shit!" He called out, trying his best to land on his legs. And hey, it worked! It did seem to hurt a bit, though. "What the hell was that?"

"Oh, neat." Lorelei hadn't expected anyone to come out, but at least she wasn't alone now. "Hey, asshole. Help me out, will you?"

"Fuck out of here!" Atlas had to take a moment to recover. "Asshole kidnaps me after the first body discovery went out… I don't even know who's dead…"

"Wow, amazing you should say that." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "Neither do I… Well… At least one of them."

Glancing to the ground, Atlas shook his head. "Fuck… You're right, there was a second one. But what do you mean you don't know the first one?"

"The body was unrecognizable, according to Winter, and the station report. The second body belonged to Gigi."

Hearing that, Atlas' face shifts ever so slightly. "W-what? What the hell do you mean- You're fucking with me, aren't you?"

From what she could gage, he literally had no idea. "She was found in the infirmary." Lorelei placed a hand on her hip. "But now doesn't really seem the time to get sentimental, after all."

Atlas glanced at the ground, shaking a bit. "What the hell…?" There was a bit of pain in his voice, and had anyone else been here, they might have comforted him.

Unfortunately, Lorelei wasn't a kind person. "Hey, aren't you listening to me? I need your help in figuring this out."

"Shut the hell up…" Atlas shook his head. "You bitch… Always so god damn uncaring."

"Ugh!" Lorelei leaned her head back. "This isn't time for this. We don't even know who the first victim is yet."

After a few seconds, Atlas slowly began to calm down. "And what do you want me to do about that?"

"I wasn't there when everyone met up in the morning, so I'm not sure who's safe or not." Lorelei crossed their arms. "If you could at least give me some leads, I could start making some decisions. The victim was marked for death…"

Thinking back, Atlas slowly nodded his head along. "Yeah… I can help you… I remember two people, actually…" He had remembered two people it couldn't be. "The victim can't be…"

"Laki and Gennosuke…"

As soon as Lorelei heard that, she aimed at both pictures, blasting them each once

A few seconds later, Laki came flying out of the ground. However, she didn't seem to panic. Instead, she yelled out in glee. Perfectly, she landed on the ground. "Again! Again!" She bounced up and down.

"Alright… Making progress…" Lorelei nodded their head along. That's already half of the people she could gather. She also noticed that Gennosuke didn't pop out.

"So…!" Laki looked around, a smile on her face. "What are we doing?"

Leaning her head back, Lorelei let out an annoyed sound. "You couldn't have at least told everyone what we were doing so I didn't have to explain it every time?"

Shrugging, Monokawa didn't seem to care. "Why would that become my problem?"

"So, is everyone under the floor?" Atlas looked around.

Slowly, Lorelei shook their head. "No… Winter, Gemini, Gennosuke, and May are currently trapped in the Zeta Sector." There were two more there that she knew of…

"Hmm!" Laki let out a hum. "So, we're trying to figure out who the victim is, right?" At least she quickly understood. Taking the time, she looked over at the station report. "Oh… Gigi's dead… And someone else."

"Did none of you take the time to look at the station report?" Lorelei realised she might be dealing with idiots. Could someone like Gennosuke or May be here? She hates them, but at least they can put in the work… When they feel like it.

"How much more information do we even have to go off of?" Atlas looked around the room.

Taking a deep breath, Lorelei glanced down at her watch. "We have our own totals… I'm marked for death, but I still have eight points. That means anyone with eight points or lower could be the victim." They turned to look at Atlas. "How many do you have?"

"Tsk, not like it really matters, but I only have six points…" He mumbled out.

Counting in her head, Lorelei nodded along. "You lost two points then, since yesterday?"

"Yeah, Hae-Won dropped two votes on me last night." Atlas sort of just weakly kicked his podium.

"Oh! Oh!" Laki raised her hand up. "I put two votes on Hae-Won last night as well!" Pause. "If that helps."

"It doesn't… At least not now." Lorelei glanced off to the side. This could be useful in the future. "How many points do you have?"

"Oh!" Laki hummed out, thinking for a moment. "Huh… Well, nobody voted for me last night… So nine!"

That was good information to know. "That means that anyone who currently has nine points is safe."

"Well…" Atlas trailed off. "We didn't really get to see any of the points…" Then, he remembered something. "Hey… You're the one shooting, aren't you."

"Well, you don't have hands to shoot, and I'd rather shoot myself, than trust Laki with a gun." Lorelei waved around her blaster like it was nothing. "So yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm the one who will shoot."

Slowly nodding his head along, Atlas let out a small sigh. "Then I want you to shoot a picture… Specifically…"

"Melody's…"

Hearing that, Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "You really think she managed to be safe? She didn't vote a single time-"

"Um… Not true." Laki quickly countered. "She had nine points last time, so wouldn't that mean that she had to vote at least once…?"

For a moment, Lorelei remained silent. Not because it was a dumb argument or anything, but because she had completely missed that. "But then you'd have to assume that Melody voted this round…"

Narrowing his eyes, Atlas was sure he was right. "I think she did vote… I'm not sure who… But the way she was acting…"


"Well…" Melody wanted to say something, but instead chose to remain silent. Nobody could see her watch, however, given that it was hidden under the table.


Letting out a sigh, Melody knew she probably shouldn't get closer, and yet she did. "Atlas… Is everything alright?"

For a moment, he stopped kicking the ball. "Tell me… What do you think…?" Then, he turned to face her. The display on his watch became very apparent… MARKED FOR DEATH.

"Oh…" At this time, Melody was still covering her own watch, so her own result was unknown.


"She was hiding her own results…" Atlas continued his explanation. "She wouldn't do that if she didn't have a reason."

"But, wouldn't she have a reason to hide it no matter what?" Lorelei crossed her arms. "Either she'd hide it because she was safe, and didn't want to rub it in, or she was marked for death, and she didn't want people to worry."

"Hmm…!" Laki hummed out, tapping her chin. "I guess both work…"

"Yeah, but… Why would she hide it around me?" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "If she was marked for death, she wouldn't have attempted to hide it from me of all people. She would have shown me it to at least try and empathise. The fact that she didn't is pretty fucking telling."

Hearing his argument, Lorelei eventually let out a sigh. "Fine… I'll take your word for it. But if you're wrong, I'm voting to execute you." They aimed at Melody's picture, and blasted it off the podium…

After a few seconds, Melody rose up from the ground. Like… Normally. She didn't get flung.

"Wait, why did she not get flung?" Laki pointed over at her.

Monokawa shrugged. "Preferential treatment."

"U-Um." Melody was a bit confused as she looked around her. "Where is everyone else?"

"Not doing this anymore!" Lorelei began to pull at her hair. "Fuck it, I'm going to try a more effective strategy. You three assholes talk to yourself."

Looking around, Melody didn't have much to go off. "There's… So many of us are missing."

"Oh! Yeah!" Laki nodded her head along. "We don't know who the victim is, so we're trying to figure that out!"

Hearing that, Melody quickly moved over to the station report, checking both of them. "I…" Her face paled up slightly. "I thought there being two announcements was a load of baloney…" Her eyes were focused on the unknown victim… Looking around, she spotted the missing pictures, before her eyes landed on Michael's picture. "Where… Where is he…?"

"We don't know…" Atlas broke the news. "And unless Lorelei starts helping us out." He turned to look at her, but she was busy working on her watch. "Then there's not much we can fucking do."

"The victim was marked for death, but pretty much everyone else left was marked for death." However, saying this, his mind began to think. "What's on your watch?"

"I…" Melody glanced away with a guilty look on her face. However, she didn't fight this, and quickly showed off her watch. The word SAFE was on it. "I thought it was in bad taste to parade this around like some of the others…"

"Oh!" Laki began to think. "So that meant you voted, right? Or else you'd be at seven points."

Another reason Melody didn't want to admit that she was safe. "Yes, I did vote last night."

Since Lorelei wasn't doing any work, Laki decided she would put in the work instead. "So! Who did you vote for? This could help us figure out who might be safe from being the victim!"

"Tsk!" Atlas scoffed, shaking his head. "How the fuck would that happen? Unless we have an idea of how many points the victim had, this is all pointless."

"Yeah, yeah." Lorelei called out, still messing with their watch. "I'm trying to get that ready. Keep entertaining yourselves."

Standing up straighter, Atlas turned to look at them. "What the hell do you mean you're working on that?"

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Lorelei lowered her watch. "I mean, I'm trying to figure out what the total is. Sure, it might not display the number right now, but I can still figure it out."

"Huh?" Laki tilted her head to the side. "Do you have the watch of the victim?"

Bringing a finger to the bridge of her nose, Lorelei let out a sigh. "So, here's the deal. Currently, I'm talking to Winter. She has the watch with her."

"Can't she just check who it belongs to?" Melody mumbled out.

Lorelei crossed their arms. "No… It's not that simple. Nova made it so that nobody could check the watch."

"..." Atlas shook his head. "So how does that help us? If we can't even use the watch-"

"Ugh!" Lorelei tilted their head back. "Fuck off, just let me go back to work."

After a few seconds, the room slowly fell to silence. Only broken by Laki, of course. "So… Who do you think died?"

"Fuck if I know…" Atlas shook his head. "Do we even have to worry about this? Can't we just focus on who killed Gigi?"

"Oh, right!" Monokawa floated over towards the center. "I forgot to mention it to you guys, but a new rule has been added. Since it's the first time two bodies have dropped… You only have to focus on the victim who died first."

"Died first-" Atlas blurted out. "Which one died first?"

"The unknown victim…" Laki mumbled out, looking at her watch. "So… Are you saying Gigi's death doesn't matter for the trial."

"Fuck you mean it doesn't matter." Atlas turned to look at the otter. "Why is the rule like that?"

Monokawa, on the other hand, was being pretty lax about all of this. "Because I would hate to have someone show up and steal my thunder. If I killed first, I don't want some lunatic to show up and ruin everything."

"That is a very twisted way to think of that…" Melody frowned. "Are you saying we are only allowed to talk about the first body?"

"It's your time." Monokawa shrugged. "You can spend all the time talking about Gigi if you wanted. As long as you figure out who the first blackened is, it doesn't really matter."

"Are there two blackens?" Laki asking the good questions here. "Was that a slip of the tongue?"

Floating back over to the throne, Monokawa lowered himself down. "There could only be one. It's very hard to tell without any evidence."

"But I think you just slipped up!" Laki quickly countered, bouncing around a bit. "I got you!"

Monokawa raised his paws in the air. "You didn't catch anything!"

"This isn't going anywhere…" Melody let out a small sigh. "He's just trying to mess with us."

"Tsk…" Atlas shook his head, looking at the ground. "This entire trial is a mess…"

"Oh. Hey." Lorelei had been reading through all the messages that Winter had sent to her over the course of the day. Without even looking, they raised their blaster and shot one of the pictures.

"Watch where you're firing that thing!" Atlas blurted out, taking a step back.

"Do it again! Do it again!" Laki was on a different side for this.

Looking around, Melody had forgotten who's picture was there. "Who did you shoot…?"

"Oh… I was reading something Winter sent to me when shit hit the fan… And she mentioned one name to me. Using that, I can conclude that they aren't the victim. That person being…"

"Seira. They were with Winter looking for the body. I guess they forgot to censor that name."

For a moment, Monokawa began to sweat, which was amazing given he's a robot. "Well… You see! You sometimes forget to account for certain things…"

"Yeah, yeah…" Lorelei turned their focus back to the watch. "Alright, go back to what you were doing… I'm still trying to solve this issue."

"Well…" Laki trailed off, looking around. "We were mostly just messing around…"

"Then…" Lorelei trailed off. "Keep doing that."

"Tsk…" Atlas had run out of information, so there wasn't much he could even do to help out anymore. "Do you have anything to work with?"

Seeing that she was being addressed, Melody slowly shook her head. "I don't know from nothing."

Atlas was going to assume that was an elaborate no. "Then can you hurry up already-"

"Finally…" Lorelei let out a small hum cutting him off. She lowered her watch for only a moment. "I've finished working on what I needed to."

"Which is…?" Melody hummed out. They hadn't really made any progress since she appeared… And she was still very much worried for Michael.

Raising up their watch again, Lorelei began to speak to it. "Winter, I need you to stare at the victim's watch. In a few seconds, a number will flash on it. I need you to tell me the number."

It took a few seconds, but soon a response was sent back. "Alright. I can do that."

Now that Lorelei had confirmation, they moved their hand on their watch. "Alright… Let's see if this works…"

After pressing something on the watch, there was a period of silence… Until…

The text on everyone's watch was briefly replaced by a number. Atlas had a six, Lorelei had an eight, and both Laki and Melody had a nine.

"Hey…" Atlas mumbled out, glancing down at his watch. "Our totals…?"

While all of that was going on, Lorelei was still pretty much glued to her watch. Waiting…

After a few more seconds, only one word was sent back…

"Seven."

"Hmm…" Lorelei lowered her watch down. "The victim had a total of seven points left."

"That… doesn't really help narrow it down, you know…" Atlas narrowed his eyes.

"Actually…" Laki trailed off. "I think that should be able to free one person from being the victim…"

For a moment, Melody was pretty hopeful. "Who would be freed up?"

Hesitating only slightly, Laki turned to look away. "The person who wouldn't be the victim, is…"

"Benjamin…"

Lorelei raised the blaster, but stopped for a second. "And why's that." She wasn't sure how much she wanted to believe those words.

"Well…" Laki hummed out. "Benjamin was at eight points yesterday."

"OK…?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "I should mention that if I shoot the picture of the victim… Then we lose an hour of our time…" And they had already wasted some time.

Crossing her arms, Laki decided to return the energy. "And I'm saying I'm confident! Benjamin has abstained from every vote, hasn't he?"

"You… Would be right." Melody nodded her head along, remembering his total always going down by two.

Listening to the evidence, Lorelei slowly nodded their head. "And you're certain he did the same this time?"

"Well…" Atlas trailed off. "Not only has he skipped every vote… he's never been voted for."

"The only points he's lost so far has been from himself." Laki continued. "Wouldn't it be hard to believe that the last day, he decided to vote for someone and someone voted for him."

"I agree with this argument." Melody held her hands together. "It would be rather impossible for Benjamin to have seven points right now."

Letting out a sigh, Lorelei steadied their aim again. "Alright, I'm going to trust you all on this…" With a single blast, they managed to destroy the image of Benjamin…

And out came Benjamin, flung out of the floor.

"AHHH!" He let out a scream, holding on tightly to Tatiana.

"It's just like an amusement park! Haha!" She seemed rather unbothered as the two crashed onto the ground.

Slowly, Benjamin got to his feet. "What's… What's going on?"

"Hey, welcome to the club, loser." Lorelei placed a hand on her hip. "That means we only have three people who could be the victim…"

It was down to Edison, which the readers already knew was safe, Hae-Won, and Michael…

"How many points did Edison have yesterday?" Atlas wanted to get to the bottom of this.

"Ten points." Laki was pretty quick at answering. "But now he was marked for death… So he had to have at least received two votes."

"And he did…" Lorelei crossed her arms. "Winter put two votes on him."

"H-huh?" Laki took a step back. "Why would she do that?"

"Tsk, why wouldn't she?" Atlas shook his head. "It's a motive about making sure you have more points than the others… Of course you'd want to lower anyone who had a similar total to yours."

"But that would only put him at eight points." Melody pointed out, resting her head on her hand. "That isn't the seven we would need."

"But…" Lorelei trailed off. "We can't discount the possibility that someone else would vote for him." However, even then, she felt like this would easily be countered.

"Well…" Benjamin trailed off, having gotten the gist of what was going on. "How did everyone else vote? It was the final round, so would anyone have voted once?"

"See! That's what we need to think of!" Tatiana crossed her arms, before striking a pose. "With no worry about consequences, most people would have put down two votes!"

"I did…" Atlas mumbled out, kicking his podium lightly.

Laki nodded her head along. "As did I."

Waiting a few seconds, Lorelei eventually let out a sigh. "I put two votes on Seira. So anyone who voted last night put two votes down."

"I only put one vote down." Melody showed up just to ruin this theory.

Letting out an annoyed sound, Lorelei shook their head. "Well… Whatever. Anyone who wanted to survive this motive would have put down at least two votes." Pause. "Except the two assholes who voted for me. Whiiich if I had to guess was probably Gemini and Seira."

"Haha!" Tatiana exclaimed. "Then doesn't that at least confirm two of the votes?"

"Oh!" Laki's eyes light up. "If we can figure out everyone's votes, we can try and narrow down who voted for what! Like how I voted for Hae-Won!" Even if she said it earlier.

"That would have taken the dame down to seven points…" Melody pointed out. "But would she have received more votes?"

"Tsk…" Atlas shook his head. "I didn't vote for her this time, so you don't have to worry about that. What you do need to worry about is who Gennosuke voted for."

"Woah, woah!" Benjamin called out. "Who did you vote for?"

This only seemed to frustrate Atlas. "It doesn't fucking matter!"

Suddenly, a shot flew past his head, almost killing him on the spot. "Whoops, my hand slipped." It was from Lorelei.

"Tsk- Fine!" Atlas kicked his podium, a frown forming on his face. "If you want to know so bad… I…"

"Placed two votes on Gigi…"

"You… what?" Melody didn't seem to like that one bit. "You didn't mention that when we spoke."

"Didn't seem relevant…" Based on Atlas' facial expression, he wasn't exactly proud. "I…" He turned away, refusing to let himself get sad over the fact.

"So…" Lorelei had to try her best and keep track of all this information. "We know Hae-Won should at maximum have seven points, and Edison should have at maximum eight points… What about Michael?"

"Um…" Melody trailed off, unsure. "Well… He had seven points last night…"

"Didn't the fucker spend the entire time abstaining as well?" Atlas pointed out, now that his mind was focused again.

"Not true!" Benjamin countered quickly. "I know for a fact he had to have voted once."

Melody nodded her head along. "Him and I had a discussion about that… I wanted him to vote once to save himself…"

"And, he likely did." Lorelei waved the blaster around. "The vote part, not the save himself part."

"But wait…" Melody tilted her head to the side. "Someone voted for him every single day… He always lost a point."

"Oh right!" Laki had a bright smile on her face. "The first vote was mine."

Long pause.

Slowly, Melody turned to look at her. "W-why would you…?"

"Um… Well!" Laki didn't really have an excuse ready. "I felt like if I voted for Hae-Won, she'd kill me… And I was just voting for who Ian likely would have voted for."

"Stop trying to do what he does!" Atlas felt himself getting frustrated. "Whatever, where does that even leave us?"

Lorelei was starting to get a headache. "So far, both candidates are likely to-" She stopped herself. "Fuck it, let's just made a guest right now." She aimed her blaster, and took a shot at…

Edison's picture.

"Huh?" Laki tilted her head to the side. "We weren't even talking about him."

Glancing over to the timer, it remained unchanged. "Yeah… But it felt it was most difficult for it to be Edison… He would have needed to receive three votes, which is already unlikely…"

"So…" Melody had a rather sad tone. "These are our two choices…"

It was down to Hae-Won and Michael…

"I…" Benjamin trailed off, looking to the side. "I wouldn't want it to be…"

Well, everyone already had their opinions on the matter, but none wanted to say it.

"So…" Lorelei turned towards Monokawa. "I've shot six pictures, and nobody has appeared from them. Does that mean that we've finally figured out the six people who investigated?"

Crossing his arms, he didn't seem too happy. "What do you think? Yes! Edison, Gemini, Gennosuke, May, Seira, and Winter are all currently trapped in the Zeta Sector! Now… It just depends on whether Michael or Hae-Won is the victim!"

"Why does that matter?" Atlas shook his head. "Who cares about that?"

Slowly, a grin appeared on Lorelei's face. "It means that they can't stop me from receiving information." Bringing the watch over to her mouth, she spoke into it. "I need you to tell me exactly who Gennosuke voted for."

"What good will that do?" Atlas glanced to the side.

However, Laki seemed to understand it. "Well… Gennosuke is the only one who's unpredictable, right? Seira and Gemini voted for Lorelei, May wouldn't vote for either, and Edison…" She trailed off. "Probably wouldn't vote for either."

"So… If Gennosuke voted for someone other than Hae-Won…" Melody trailed off. "Then that would mean that Hae-Won is the victim, right?"

"The only uncertain votes are Michael's, Gigi's, and Gennosuke." Lorelei rambled on. "I doubt the former two would vote for Hae-Won."

At the end of the day… It really did depend on Gennosuke… What a terrible fate. Slowly, Melody closed her eyes, silently praying that Michael was fine.

"Oh, there we go." Lorelei called out, looking at their watch. "Hmm…" Once looking at the results, they changed their focus. "I think I have our answer…"

"What is it?" Melody's heart was beating a bit too much now. She already lost Dae-Hyun… She couldn't lose Michael.

Twirling the blaster around, Lorelei eyed both of her options. "Who can really say, you know?"

"Don't turn this into a dumb fucking game!" Atlas barked out.

Melody found herself closer to losing composure… "Please… Just tell me Michael is still alive." Tears threatened to leave her eyes.

"Yeah…" Benjamin trailed off, a frown on his face. "We need to know who died for the trial to continue." Then, he sent Melody a glance. "And you're just toying with her at this point."

"Ugh, fine." Lorelei was getting tired of this anyway. Slowly, she shifted her aim ever so slightly, and fired one single shot…

Breaking the picture frame, there was a moment of silence, before someone rose up from the ground, flying a bit…

And then, they landed on the ground, barely managing to grab onto the podium so they didn't fall completely…

Lowering the blaster, Lorelei tilted her head to the side, a fake smile on her face. "Congrats, you get to live…"

"Michael…"

He had been a bit dizzy, and his eyes were taking a moment to get used to the light. "What…?" Just as confused as everyone else.

Quickly, however, Melody ran over to him, hugging him. "You're alive!" She felt ready to cry.

"I-" Michael was so confused… "Was I supposed to die?"

Laki shrugged. "Not as of yet." Thanks.

After a few seconds, Melody stepped away from the hug, returning to her own podium. "Sorry…" Maybe she had just gotten a bit clingy after Dae-Hyun…

Using his podium to lean on, Michael looked around, noticing that there were now two pictures compared to last time. He saw Hae-Won first, but the one that really made him hesitate was Gigi's. "She's…?" He was a bit confused.

"Tsk, don't act like you care." Atlas was just being bitter without any reason. "At least Hae-Won is also dead."

This got a gasp from Melody. "You shouldn't speak ill of the dead."

"I don't want to hear it from you." Atlas took a step forward. "You were hoping she was dead so Michael would be alive."

"I-" Melody's expression dropped, and she glanced away… He was right, she had been doing that, even if she didn't want to…

"Leave her alone…" Michael mumbled out. After a few more seconds, he asked the same question everyone else did. "Where's everyone else?"

Placing the blaster against her own skull, Lorelei had a deadpanned look. "Ask one more goddamn thing, and I pull the trigger."

"Where's everyone else?" Laki did NOT hesitate.

"Ugh!" Why the hell did they have to be stuck with this nightmare group? She'd willingly switch places with someone from the other group. "Fuck off… We're discussing the murder of Hae-Won. She died first, so we only really need to worry about her murder."

"But…" Benjamin trailed off, a frown on his face. "We don't have any of the evidence, do we? We didn't even investigate."

Waving around their watch, Lorelei placed a hand on their hip. "No, we didn't. But Winter has so neatly provided me with most of what they found. Still, we could probably cover a lot of ground even without this information."

"But… We know nothing." Melody mumbled out.

Actually taking the initiative, was Benjamin. "We know Hae-Won's cause of death was blood loss."

Pointing to him, Lorelei had a smile. "See! That's a man who can think."

Continuing on, Benjamin examined the image. "And we know she was found in…" He trailed off… He didn't recognise that place.

Taking a look herself, Laki began to bounce around. "The Laboratory!"

"Tsk… Weren't there a limited number of people who could even access that place?"

"Yeah…" Michael nodded his head. "It was only Edison, Hae-Won…" That's what he remembered. "However… Wasn't there a monorail system that led directly into it?"

"I thought Gigi closed that off." Melody pointed out with a frown. "She said she would, and I doubt that she would lie about something like that. Especially after…" She trailed off, glancing away.

"Well…" Lorelei trailed off. "That means that if we trust her words, only three people had access to the Laboratory. So, doesn't that mean we have three suspects?"

"Not necessarily…" Michael trailed off, thinking. "Sure, only three people would have been able to access the Laboratory… But that's only to open the door. Anyone could have followed them in."

Laki began nodding her head. "Right! Edison let me in a lot while he was making bombs!"

The room quickly fell silent, only broken by Atlas talking. "Why the fuck would he do that?"

Tapping her chin, Laki glanced over to the side. "I… Don't know." That was confusing.

"That's… not important…" Michael slowly shook his head, even if it would be a conversation for after the trial. "Unless we have the pictures of the Laboratory entrance… We won't really be able to confirm anything…"

"Um… Lorelei." Melody turned to look at her. "Would you be able to provide us with more information?"

Meanwhile, they were already doing that. "Winter sent me a lot of messages, so I'm trying my best to go through them. So far, the only thing I'm certain about is that there was a struggle in May's station."

"Huh?" Michael hummed out. "Why would there be a fight there…?" All that was there were books… Hardly felt like a place for a fight.

"Because…" Lorelei trailed off, placing a hand on their hip. "Apparently someone took the time to look up a book on poisons… And then cut out a page from the book."

"What poisons?" Laki was interested for some unknown reason. Don't read into it.

Looking back at their watch, Lorelei read off some things. "A liquid poison that turns into a gas if it becomes too hot, and then an acid."

"Well…" Benjamin didn't want to do it, but he looked over at Gigi's station report. "Wouldn't Gigi have been affected by the acid?"

"And…" Michael trailed off, looking at Hae-Won's body. "The air quality in the Laboratory was low… Wouldn't that be from the gas?"

Lorelei nodded her head along, still focused on the watch. "That seems to be what the general consensus is, yeah."

"Shouldn't this tell us how many killers we have?" Benjamin pointed out, a small confident smile on his face.

"Does it?" Melody tapped her chin.

Nodding his head along. "Yeah… With just that information, I believe there to be…"

"One killer…" Benjamin raised the Tatiana doll.

"Well! It would be highly unlikely for two killers to both use stuff from the same book, let alone the same page." She crossed her arms.

"Makes sense to me!" Laki bounced her head around. "But then they killed Hae-Won, and then went to kill Gigi right after?"

Letting out a small hum, Michael glanced away. "That… Does seem to be the case."

"But this raises another question…" Lorelei placed a hand on their hip. "For one, the killer would have needed to make those substances… Which means they would have to have had access to the Laboratory at any time."

"Or take the chemicals when nobody was looking." Laki said rather nonchalantly.

"..." Benjamin slowly looked over at her. "Did… Did you?"

"No!" Laki quickly defended herself. "... I mean, the thought did cross my mind-"

Letting out a sigh, Michael shook his head. "That's… Possible, but wouldn't Edison notice that a bunch of his chemicals went missing?"

"Possibly?" Lorelei shrugged, not really caring. "It doesn't really matter to me, but wasn't he too busy with another project? Did you notice anything was missing?"

Tapping her chin, Laki only shrugged in response.

"Tsk!" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Isn't that the worst person to ask? She'd be the most likely candidate to take something, if it's not one of the three who had access."

"Wouldn't it be better to figure out who even went into the Laboratory?" Melody tilted her head to the side.

Laki nodded her head along. "I can confirm that myself, Edison, Michael, May, Hae-Won, Gemini, and… I'm not sure who else. But Gigi would have had access…" They all forgot about Seira ): But that's because nobody knew she went there.

"At any point, any of them could have taken the chemicals." Lorelei crossed her arms. "Even if it's a bit risky to do it around people." This was getting a bit too annoying already… "Can't we just assume that Edison is the killer, and call it a day?"

"He's not even here to defend himself! How cowardly of you!" Tatiana crossed her arms.

Nodding his head along, Benjamin also agreed that it seemed a bit unjust. "We can't just start accusing him over something like this."

"Tsk…" Atlas was unsure on this entire thing. "Edison is the most likely candidate…"

"But… Would he have really needed the book to make the poison and acid…?" Michael mumbled out, crossing his arms.

Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "Are you just saying that Edison can naturally make those things without help? That's concerning."

Quickly realising the implication, Michael tried to take it back, but the conversation had already moved along.

"Besides…" Lorelei placed a hand on her hips. "He would be one of the only people who could access the Laboratory. In fact, he's the only person still alive that can do that. So if we're going with the one killer theory, then he would have to be the killer."

"This doesn't feel right…" Michael slowly shook his head. "Edison is smart… He wouldn't do something like that if he knew he would easily be caught."

"Yeah!" Laki raised a fist up. "I'm not going to let you accuse Edison! He's definitely not the killer! Even if he did mess around with explosives."

Long pause.

"He fucking WHAT?" Atlas turned towards her. "You dumbass! There was an explosion during the murder!"

Tapping her chin, Laki had to think back a bit. "Oh, right! There was!"

Frowning slightly, Michael shook his head. "But that seems even more unlikely it was Edison, right? Why would he do two things that are associated with himself?"

Lorelei shrugged. "Look, I don't try to understand the mind of that weirdo… It saves me a lot of effort."

"Wow, they're arguing." Monokawa began to talk to himself. "This is the perfect time for a scrum deb- WOAH!" He had to quickly duck behind the throne to avoid the blaster shot. "That's against the rules!"

Lorelei only shrugged. "It's only actually against the rules if I hit you. Luckily, I haven't managed to do that yet." She stuck her tongue out. "Now, I think we should pursue the avenue that Edison is the killer."

Atlas slowly nodded his head along. "It seems like a pretty easy avenue to go down."

Still, Michael was having some reservations about thinking like this. "Do we even know about what he was doing during the time of the murder?"

Once again, Lorelei had to consult her watch. "He was with May until he had to split off because he heard some sound coming from her station."

That was… a bit odd admittedly. "What kind of noise, exactly?" Benjamin raised an eyebrow.

"Oh! You said there was a struggle there right?" Laki quickly looked over at the hacker.

Lowering her watch, Lorelei let out a small sigh. "Yeah, there was… Now personally, I believe Edison was part of that struggle."

"Shouldn't we focus on that, then?" Melody tilted her head to the side.

"Ugh…" This meant Lorelei had to read through MORE messages. So messy…

Michael still wasn't sure about any of this, but for the time being, it seemed like he was outweighed. "Still… It just feels weird…"

Looking over at him, Melody would be the only one to give him the time of day. "Why so?"

"I…" Well, Michael didn't fully know if this would be the case, but he could at least take a guess. "Personally… I don't think Edison would…"

"Kill Hae-Won…"

After blinking a few times, Laki slowly nodded her head along. "Wait! You're right! Edison and Hae-Won were like a duo! Even when I tried to tell him how-" She cut herself off, realising it wasn't really applicable anymore. "He would disagree with anything bad said about her…"

"So… What?" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Just because of that, you don't think Edison would kill her?"

Benjamin looked down at the podium. "It would be pretty unbelievable for him to do that… There are only a few people who would want to kill her…"

"I don't think we should be using that logic." Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "Tatiana killed Dae-Hyun, which seemed a bit out of nowhere."

"I had my reasons." Tatiana crossed her arms. "Which I will never fully give."

After lowering the doll, Benjamin was just staring at the ground. "I… Wish she would say more about why." There was just something off about it.

"Alright, now we're talking about a past trial…" Lorelei placed a hand on their hips. "The point is… We can't just use that as an excuse. We're going to fall into a trap eventually when someone reveals their true colours."

"Like Gennosuke!" Laki hummed out.

Not the example Lorelei was going for, but it somewhat worked. "Yeah… Sure."

Michael shook his head, still in disagreement. "I still doubt Edison had anything to do with the murder… At best, he might have made the mixtures, but I don't think he's the killer we're after."

Seeing that they would continue to go against her, Lorelei let out a defeated sigh. "Fine… Whatever." This wouldn't be a winnable fight anyways. "But don't we still need a suspect?"

"Not… really…" Melody didn't seem to believe that. "We've never operated like that before."

"Yeah!" Benjamin nodded his head. "Normally we just talk about a vague killer until we figure it out."

"Oh! Oh!" Monokawa floated towards the group. "Make me the killer for the time being! I've always wanted to be a killer!"

"Don't you execute people every week." Michael didn't hesitate to say this right away.

Letting his arms fall to the side, Monokawa now had a disappointed look on his face. "Yeah… But it's not the same…"

Michael didn't say anything, but he had a really confused look on his face.

"So… All we know right now is that the killer would have needed to make the mixtures… Either from stealing them when nobody was looking, or by personally going there themselves…" Lorelei was just reiterating the information. "You all seem to think that Edison would never kill Hae-Won, so let's just run with that idea, even if I think it's stupid."

"But… If it isn't Edison…" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "That doesn't leave us with anything, since the other two likely candidates are the victims."

"Yeah, that's the part that pisses me off." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "You're all so quick to discount Edison, but then you won't offer a solution that works!"

Thinking for a moment, Michael shook his head. "I'm going to stand firm on my belief… But I also think that there's an avenue that everyone is forgetting.

"Pfft?" Lorelei held in a laugh. "And what would that be?"

Glancing off to the side, Michael looked over at Benjamin. "Sorry… But I think what you said earlier was wrong… That's because for this case… We're dealing with…"

"Two killers…"

"Oh…" Benjamin felt a bit disappointed that his point from earlier was denied already. "How so…?"

"Because." Michael was trying to figure out the best way to phrase it. "If Edison can't be the killer because it would be too obvious, and he also wouldn't kill Hae-Won, then there's one person we're forgetting about who would fit all the criteria…"

Narrowing his eyes, Atlas took a step forward. "You want to finish that thought, asshole?"

For a moment, Michael felt a bit of fear, but quickly calmed down. "I'm confident in my answer… I believe the killer to be…"

"Gigi…"

"Yeah, but she's dead. Moving on." Lorelei wasn't even going to humour that with a response.

"But why can't she be a possibility?" Laki tilted her head to the side. "She can access the Laboratory via the Monorail, and she died after Hae-Won!" Clenching her fist, she had a bright smile on her face. "It works out perfectly!"

"Tsk…" Atlas shook his head. "How low is your opinion on her… She wouldn't go ahead and kill someone."

"But, they bring up a good point…" Benjamin lowered Tatiana. "If there were only three people who could enter the Laboratory, it would have to be either Gigi or Edison…"

"But doesn't that ruin what was spoken about earlier?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "It ruins your own theory, too! We said there could only be one killer because both mixtures were used in the murder. It's statistically impossible for two separate people to use the same mixtures on the same page."

Slowly thinking about it more, Michael slowly nodded his head. "I think there might actually be a work around it…" He wasn't sure how likely it was… But it would make the most sense. "I think the reason why two separate killers would have ended up with the chemicals is because…"

"One of the victims had them both…"

For a moment, Lorelei remained silent. She wanted to counter it… But… "Fuck… You might actually be right."

"Why do you sound so condescending when you say that…?" Michael mumbled out, shaking his head.

"But then…" Benjamin looked over at Tatiana. "Which of the two would likely have the mixtures on them?"

"Well…" Michael trailed off. "Out of the two, I think the one who is more likely to have had the mixtures is…"

"Gigi…"

"Fuck right off!" Atlas narrowed his eyes at him. "Stop trying to make her out to be a killer of some kind!"

Meanwhile, Melody was ignoring all of that. "Why do you think so?"

"Because…" Taking a moment to get his thoughts in order, Michael continued. "If Hae-Won had the mixtures, then that would mean Gigi or the second killer would have had to grab it. When I think it's much more likely the second killer got it from Gigi directly."

"So… You're saying Gigi killed Hae-Won, and then the second killer killed Gigi, and used the acid on her?" Atlas was finding it hard to believe. "I know the two didn't get along, but I doubt she'd go that far."

"Well…" Michael trailed off. "Something has definitely been off for Gigi these past few days." Honestly, ever since that conversation he had with her, things had started to feel weird. "You remember how Gigi was always the one who would force us to meet up in the morning to make sure everyone was still alive? Well… in the last couple of days…"

"She's missed two morning meetings…" Michael turned to look the other way. "It seems unlike her, and it's like that during those times, she was planning this murder."

"Tsk!" Atlas slammed his foot down onto the podium. "But what's her motive in all of this? She had a secret that nobody cared about!"

"Hey…" Benjamin said softly. "Don't say that. Her secret could have been anything. You don't know."

"I do." Atlas said rather softly. "I know exactly what her secret is… and there'd be no reason to kill because she already told me about it."

"Huh?" Melody paled up slightly. "But wouldn't she die?"

"Tsk…" Atlas shook his head, not figuring it was worth mentioning to them. "That doesn't matter right now… The point is, that there'd be no reason for her to kill to keep a secret. She told the one person she shouldn't have told…" And look at how he lashed out… And now he'd never be able to talk to her again… That thought lingered in his mind for a second, before quickly shaking it out. "Not only that, but she was safe. She had twelve points, and nobody else voted for her! What other motive could she have had?"

All those things did seem quite unlikely, but Michael still had an idea. "It wasn't because she was in danger of dying, or because of her secret…" Glancing to the side, he thought a bit longer about it. "It's because she…"

"Wanted to end the motive." That's where Michael's mind was at. "With so little time, if nothing was done, half of us would die without a second thought."

"Kind of disappointing it didn't happen…" Monokawa said with a sad tone, still lying down on the throne. "Honestly, next time there's a motive like that, you should just let it kill you."

"She…" Atlas trailed off, narrowing his eyes. "She…" He couldn't even deny it. If Gigi was going to end the motive, that did feel in character for her to do… "Fuck…" Of course, this presented its own set of problems… But… That was something for later…

"And in the process…" Melody frowned slightly. "She lost her own life…" She held her hands together, looking the other way.

This also got Michael to frown. "I feel partially at fault, if that's what she ended up doing." After all, he's the one who had that conversation with her the other day… Was that what caused this to happen?

"Tsk!" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "So you're to blame!"

"Woah!" Benjamin quickly spoke up. "Let's not go pointing fingers around at each other."

Hearing that, Atlas seemed to calm down a bit.

"I have a question!" Laki raised her hand up. "Where does that even leave us? If Gigi killed Hae-Won, doesn't that mean we just have to vote Gigi as the blackened, or do we have to figure out who killed Gigi?"

Lorelei shrugged. "All I was told was that we had to find out who killed Hae-Won. If it's Gigi, then that's the end of the story."

Floating over, Monokawa nodded his head along. "As long as you found out who killed the person who died first, it doesn't really matter. Unless Nova decides to add a rule, but I don't feel like calling her."

"Hold on…" Melody trailed off, holding her hands together. "This might be the conclusion we've reached, but doesn't it seem a bit too soon to reach a verdict right now?"

"Yeah… I was going to say the same…" Benjamin glanced at the ground. "We haven't even discussed how the murder happened. We just talked about who the most likely killer is. We might find evidence that goes against what we think."

"I'm fine with keeping this going." Michael slowly nodded his head.

Remaining silent, Atlas slowly nodded his head. "Fine… I also do want to figure out who killed Gigi if we can."

"Ugh…" Lorelei was a bit annoyed, but she couldn't go against the crowd. "But what is there to talk about?"

"Well!" Benjamin had to think back. "We can try and figure out where the two people met…"

"It's likely May's station, right?" Laki tilted her head to the side. "That's the only location where there was evidence of stuff happening, right? That isn't where the victims died."

Looking at her watch, Lorelei slowly nodded their head. "Yeah, pretty much. There was a large fight there. All the bookshelves were overturned, and there were even slashes around the room."

"But why there of all places…?" Michael mumbled out. "It's a very weird place to start trying to kill someone…"

Melody nodded her head along. "Yes. It feels a bit unusual."

Swaying her head from side to side, Laki tried her best to think of an answer. "Well, one of them had to have a reason to go there…"

"I think I know the reason…" Benjamin trailed off, trying his best to think. "Well, first of all, the person who would have had a reason to go there would be…"

"Gigi…" Benjamin attempted to cross his arms, but holding the Tatiana doll made it difficult. "After all, if she made the mixtures, she'd have a reason to return."

"But why?" Lorelei placed a hand on their hip. "Gigi would have already had what she needed…"

"It's… Something you said earlier…" Benjamin looked away. "You said that someone cut a page out of the book. The reason is… Why would you do that?"

"Maybe they only needed that page." Atlas shrugged. He didn't really care much for the reason.

Letting out a small sigh, it seemed only Benjamin was thinking of something. "I think the reason they cut out the page from the book was because…"

"They didn't want to be seen with the book…" That was the only reason Benjamin could think of. "If they cut out the page, they could hide the book in May's station, and walk around freely with the page after.

"But then why come back now?" Laki tilted her head to the side.

That part, Benjamin was a little unsure of. "I don't have an idea right now… But it would make sense why you'd want to cut that part out. It would make it so that you had it on you at all times, and nobody would ask questions when they saw you."

"But…" Lorelei crossed her arms. "Why not just bring the book with you to the incinerator right away?"

"Hmm!" Laki let out a small hum. "Oh! It's possible that they were worried about going there so soon. It's likely that they didn't want to be found out by someone who was in the Laboratory the entire time. Edison spent a lot of time there."

"And?" Lorelei still wasn't getting the point. "Just go back there at night and-" They paused. "May was always in her goddamn station."

Michael slowly nodded his head. "It's likely that Gigi didn't have the chance to grab the book, and guarantee that the Laboratory would be empty. The only time she could be sure that she'd have a chance to sneak by would be today, when everyone was in their final moments."

There were some parts Lorelei still didn't understand, but it seemed to mostly make sense. "Alright, alright… Anything else to add?"

"Um…" Benjamin wasn't exactly sure. "We went over why Gigi was there, but we never bothered to say why Hae-Won was there…"

Then, the room slowly fell to silence.

"I don't know." Laki shrugged.

Great teamwork, guys.

Letting out a sigh, Lorelei brought a hand to her head. "It could honestly be something really simple… It could literally be that Hae-Won followed her.

"Wait a second!" Laki exclaimed out of fucking nowhere, scaring everyone around her.

"W-What?" Michael took a step back.

Humming to herself, she seemed to be in a good mood again. "Maybe we should focus less on why Hae-Won went to May's station, and more how she ended up in the Laboratory!"

"Oh! Right!" Monokawa floated over towards everyone else. "Nova wanted me to show you all the photos from the camera, given that Edison's station was blocked off from the investigation.

"..." Atlas slowly turned his head over towards them. "Then what took you so fucking long to bring it up?"

"Eh." Monokawa shrugged. "It was much more fun seeing you all come to your own conclusions." Floating away, he stopped at the large monitor. "Just give me a moment, and I'll be able to show you all the pictures!"

"We're all in agreement that he held off the photos because we were right, right?" Benjamin looked around.

"Yeah… No shit…" Atlas weakly kicked his podium. "He made us waste our time… Fucker had the answers the entire time…"

"There's no way to prove that!" Monokawa covered his mouth to hide a laugh. "Just give me a few more seconds…"

"Ugh!" Lorelei leaned her head back. "So fucking complicated!"

For a moment, Benjamin was just trying to piece things together. "What exactly are we trying to prove here?"

Laki shrugged, a sheepish smile on her face. "I was hoping we could get some ideas on how Hae-Won actually died."

"These pictures should help…" Michael trailed off. "Because of the nature of the hallway, we'd see if Hae-Won let anyone inside with her. If she's alone… Then that would mean Gigi had to take the Monorail…"

"And who knows." Laki began bouncing around. "Maybe we'll find more than we bargained for!"

"It's ready!" Monokawa floated over towards everyone else. "Sorry it took a bit, but there were a few more pictures than I thought there'd be!"

"Well!" Laki kept bouncing around. "What are you waiting for? Go on! Show us!"

"I'm getting there!" Monokawa yelled back, floating towards the monitor. "I'll show you them in order."

The first image showed Hae-Won, scanning her watch, with a number on it.

The second image showed Edison, Gemini, and Laki in it, with Edison scanning his watch. There were words on their watch.

The third image showed someone in a lab coat, wearing a gas mask. They had something in the coat pocket, as well as them looking behind themselves. Words were visible on the watch.

The last three images were a variation of the six people, with Edison being the one to scan his watch every time. Every time, words were visible on the watch.

"That's…" Benjamin trailed off, looking at the images. "Quite a lot…" More than he thought there'd be.

"Yeah, no shit you held this off!" Lorelei was annoyed now. "I can see the six people stuck in the Zeta Sector."

To that accusation, Monokawa crossed his arms. "You have zero proof that it was my intention!"

"Tsk… Are these all from today?" Atlas kept looking at all of them.

"No…" Michael was quick to spot something. "Actually… The first one is from yesterday…"

Atlas raised an eyebrow. "How can you even tell?"

Michael couldn't believe he even had to explain that, but here they were. "You just have to look at…"

"The watch…" Michael glanced to the side. "The first image is the only watch that had a number, which meant that Hae-Won visited the Laboratory sometime yesterday…"

"Not to mention…" Laki trailed off. "Those images only last twenty four hours…" She checked her own watch. "It's around four in the afternoon right now… Which means that she went there after four yesterday!"

While it was nice to know it was yesterday, Atlas didn't really care about the time. "So…? Whatever! That means the rest of the images are from today."

"Yeah!" Laki looked at the second one. "That one is from when Gemini, Edison, and I were getting ready to set up bombs!"

"I still can't believe you fellas would do that…" Melody glanced off to the side. "That was dangerous."

"Everything turned out fine." Laki crossed her arms. "Nobody got hurt."

"Wait… Didn't Seira-" Benjamin had started to say before being cut off by a look from Laki. "Nevermind…"

Taking a moment to look at the images, the only one that really confused him was… "Hey… I want to focus on the person wearing the lab coat and gas mask…"

"Yeah, that's the one that's bugging me too." Lorelei placed a hand on their hip. "Why wear all that getup?"

"Probably to hide their identity…" That was Atlas' best guest. "Especially with the camera system."

"But…" Michael trailed off, glancing to the side. "We already know only two people can access that door… so it doesn't really mean much…?"

Atlas wanted to say something else, but he didn't see a way to counter the argument. "Yeah… You're right…" He looked down.

Swaying her head from side to side, Laki already had an idea. "Are we all in agreement that this is Hae-Won? Probably running away from Gigi."

"She is looking behind her, making sure nobody is following her…" Melody held her hands together. "It is highly likely."

"Tsk…" Atlas narrowed his eyes, looking at the image. "She's doing something fishy, if she wanted to hide her identity as well…"

"Maybe…" Michael couldn't really be sure. "But remember, Gigi was the one who was trying to kill her, so…"

However… The more Benjamin looked at this image, the more something struck him as odd… These images sure twisted a different narrative that they've been discussing. Slowly, he closed his eyes…


So far, the narrative has been that Gigi wanted to kill Hae-Won, and succeeded in doing so. Of course, that didn't happen without a hitch. From this image alone, we can see that Hae-Won managed to escape briefly before dying in the Laboratory…

First of all, we should show what this image portrays… At that moment, Hae-Won is entering the Laboratory to…

Escape Gigi…

That much is obvious… The way Hae-Won looks behind her shows a bit of paranoia. Compared to the first image, where she doesn't even bother to look behind her… Someone is clearly after her. Then, that brings me to my second question… More so about the outfit… Was its purpose to hide her identity?

No…

If she was being chased, she wouldn't go out of her way to find a disguise to hide herself from the camera, that would just waste time for herself, and then Gigi would be able to catch up to her. But then why…? Why grab the lab coat? Or even the gas mask?

Actually, the gas mask is the more important one to focus on. Why did Hae-Won grab the gas mask?

To protect herself from gas…

Right… If there was no reason to hide her identity… Then the next logical conclusion was that she used the gas mask to protect herself… But… I'm struggling to understand… I mean… I can understand wanting to protect yourself from gas… But…

What gas would she even protect herself from?

The poison…

That's right! Lorelei briefly went over the poison, and mentioned that when it reaches high temperatures, it turns into a toxic gas! Then that means that Hae-Won's plan was to protect herself from the gas…!

Wait… But…

That seems to imply something… This implies…

That Hae-Won knew what poison Gigi would use…

It would be the only explanation on why you'd want to bring a gas mask to the confrontation… Or maybe… There's a different angle that I'm failing to see here… If I take a look at the image again, maybe I'll be able to understand something more- What- Hold on, there's something in her pocket that I failed to notice before, but I can't make out what it is… But I can at least make an educated guess… I think the object in Hae-Won's coat pocket is…

A vial…

Right… That's the only thing Hae-Won would have been able to have. I'm not sure what specifically is in the vial, but there can only really be two options. But that raises a different question entirely… If that is a vial, then that means…

Wait… No… It would mean… That this entire time…

Opening his eyes, a frown soon consumed Benjamin's face. He didn't like the conclusion he had reached, and he was hoping to be wrong… But he knew he wasn't.

Looking around, he noticed that they were still talking about why Hae-Won wanted to disguise herself, even though he had already figured out the answer. "Hey…" At first, he said rather softly, hoping to slowly bring the conversation to an end.

But nobody heard him… Instead they just kept going on.

"Hey." This time, it was a bit louder, but Benjamin was left with the same results.

Letting out a deep breath, he clutched the Tatiana doll and…

A tiny knife flew across the trial ground, landing directly in Lorelei's podium. "What the shit-" She instinctively took a step back, before realising what had happened. "Where the hell did you get tiny knives?" That was clearly the most pressing question right now.

Given that it worked, Benjamin lowered the Tatiana doll. "I'm talking right now… I think I figured out something about those pictures… That goes against what we've figured out up to this point."

"You're changing the victim?" Melody blinked a few times.

"I- What? No?" Benjamin was confused by this entire thing. "I mean how Gigi and Hae-Won are involved."

Hearing that, Atlas narrowed his eyes. "You better not be trying to say anything bad."

Slowly, Benjamin shook his head. "Not anything like that… This entire time…" He trailed off. "We had assumed that Gigi was the one who set everything up, when really…"

"It had been Hae-Won…"

"Always knew it." Laki didn't sound too bothered.

This got a harsh reaction from Benjamin. "Take this seriously, will you?"

"Wait… Slow down." Michael brought a hand to his head. "So this entire time, everything we said Gigi was doing, it was actually Hae-Won?"

Slowly, Benjamin nodded his head. "Right… We thought Gigi had gone to make the two mixtures, but in actuality, it had been Hae-Won the entire time."

"Then what the fuck was her motive." Atlas narrowed his eyes.

"Wouldn't it be the same?" Melody let out a small hum, tapping her foot on the ground. "I can see the dame doing the deed for the same reason."

"I doubt it…" Laki crossed her arms, a frown on her face.

"Well, for whatever reason it may be…" Lorelei ran a hand through her hair. "She still ended up dead." Pause. "Or, I mean, they both did… but that's not the point!"

"Doesn't that mean Gigi was trying to stop her from doing it?" Atlas said rather calmly.

"That does seem likely." Melody held her hands together before tapping her chin. "But what does that change for us exactly…"

Long pause.

"Not… really much…" Lorelei seemed a bit annoyed. "We're still stuck with nothing else but Gigi probably killing Hae-Won…"

Suddenly, a sound played out that would put a smile on everyone's face…

"Air quality in Laboratory has reached a safe level. Unlocking the Zeta Sector."

"Oh!" Melody seemed rather happy to hear that. "Does that mean the others will be able to join us soon?"

"Exactly!" Monokawa was lying down on the throne. "I can't wait to find out their reaction to who died."

"Wait…" Michael slowly turned to look at Lorelei. "You didn't tell them who died?"

To that, they only shrugged. "It must have slipped my mind while I was busy carrying the trial."

"Hey…" Benjamin said rather sadly. "I put a lot of effort into this trial as well."

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Lorelei didn't feel like giving anyone else credit at the moment. "At least we didn't get too far, so we don't have to catch them up on much."

"Tsk… It feels like we made a lot of progress…" Atlas weakly kicked his podium.

Then, the room slowly got silent, which only seemed to tick off Monokawa. "You know the timer is still running, right? Why have you stopped?" The timer had about an hour and twenty minutes left.

"I doubt there's much of a point to keep talking until they arrive." Michael pointed out. "We've done our part, so we should wait for the last few people."

"..." Monokawa quickly realised there wasn't any winning with these people, so he floated over towards the timer.

"Don't!" Lorelei pointed at him. "If you lower the timer by even a second!"

Slowly, Monokawa reached over, staring at them the entire time.

"Stop!" Lorelei placed a hand on her hip.

Then, ever so slightly, Monokawa touched the timer display- "WOAH!" He quickly ducked to avoid a blaster shot. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"Maybe." Lorelei shrugged, still pointing the blaster at him. "Sit your ass down!"

Defeated, Monokawa slowly flew back over to his throne, sliding down on it.

"..." Michael had remained silent during the entire interaction. "What was any of that?"

Thankfully, a sound would alert everyone, tearing them away from this entire scene. The elevator was on its way!

Soon, the elevator could be seen lowering down into the ceiling. Once it had reached the right height, the doors opened up, allowing the seven people to slowly descend.

The first one down was Seira, who had her hair float behind her.

Followed by Gemini, who was just doing some spins while he was falling.

After him, was Gennosuke, who was somehow in his normal pose, with his hands in his pockets.

May slowly lowered down, sleeping the entire time, because of course she was.

After her, was Winter, who similar to Gennosuke, wasn't really moving much, so she was just lowering. However, unlike him, she wasn't static. Her legs moved around as she descended.

Out of the six participants, Edison was the last one to lower down. However, unfortunately, the zero gravity seemed to run out just as he was about two thirds of the way down, causing him to plummet the rest of the way.

Luckily, when he landed, it didn't sound too painful, so he probably didn't break anything important. "Why…?"

"Funny." Monokawa shrugged.

Nova, on the other hand, used her jetpack as soon as the zero gravity ran out. "That wasn't very nice of you. You should have at least waited until everyone was at their podium." Once she was at her throne, she lifted up the otter, chucking him to the side.

"Hey! Hey!" Monokawa began to float away. "You could have asked!"

Now that Nova was back on her throne, she seemed rather content with herself. "Don't let us get in the way of you solving the trial. Continue."

However, even with this, the trial ground remained silent for a bit, as some of the people slowly realised just who the unknown body belonged to.

"Missed us?" Gennosuke was the first person to talk, given he didn't really care that Hae-Won was dead.

"Pfft, not really." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "We already had most things handled."

"Did you?" Gennosuke raised an eyebrow. "I can't imagine the information Winter was able to share was really enough to last the entire trial."

"Hey now…" The love guru closed her eyes. "The information I provided was enough. She was able to figure out who the victim was."

"Who was it, by the way?" Edison began to look around, until his eyes landed on one picture…

"Why is there a Dolly picture?" Edison asked, having not seen the actual picture he should be worried about yet.

"Funny." Monokawa shrugged again.

However, after spending a bit more time looking around, Edison's eyes finally landed on Hae-Won's picture. "W-what?" His face became pale. "She-"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, I guess." Lorelei placed a hand on her hip. "But yeah, she's the burnt up corpse in the Laboratory… Deal with it."

Edison had so much he wanted to say, but none of the sounds were leaving his mouth. Instead… He just shakingly held the flask in his hands. "..."

Wanting to get things back on track, Winter moved over to her own podium. "How far have you all gotten into the trial? I know you figured out the victim, but…"

"Well…" Lorelei placed a hand on her hip. "We figured out she was trying to kill Gigi, but Gigi ended up being the one to do it."

"Hmm…" Winter had to think for a moment, but none of the evidence she found countered that immediately. "That's an interesting avenue to go down… Have you figured anything else yet?"

"..." The silence from everyone spoke volumes.

"To be fair…" Melody trailed off. "It is very difficult to have a trial when Lorelei is the only one with the information."

The hacker let out a lazy shrug. "Sue me."

"Is that an option?" Winter twirled a finger around a strand of hair, reusing a joke from chapter 1. "You've probably got plenty of money."

"Ugh…" Lorelei couldn't even be mad. "Whatever… We did what we could."

"What rooms have you talked about…?" May let out a small hum. She hoped her room had been left out of it for the time being, since she wanted to be here to talk about it.

Then a long silence overcame the room, broken only by Melody. "Well, in terms of rooms…" She trailed off. "We only briefly touched upon them, so we don't know anything that happened…"

"Great!" Gennosuke shook his head. "So what was that about having the trial under control?"

Letting out a yawn, Lorelei didn't really seem to care about what he had to say. "Listen, I spent most of the time trying to figure out who the victim was. I started this trial alone. And then, we were able to conclude Gigi killed Hae-Won. Isn't that good enough for you, fucker?"

"Congratulations." Winter didn't bother to look at them, so it was impossible to tell if it was condescending.

"Can we talk about my station, then…" May hummed out, letting out a small yawn. "I'd like to find out what happened with it…"

Edison nodded his head along. "Same here! I believe that's where this entire case began, after all!"

"What kind of things did you find in there…?" Michael mumbled out.

"Well…" May trailed off, leaning her head back. "We already told everything to Lorelei…"

"Yeah? And?" Atlas wasn't seeing the point. "All she told us was that it was trashed, and about the mixtures."

"..." For a moment, May remained silent, mostly out of disbelief. "Figured…" She leaned her head to the side. "We found evidence of a fight, with a dent mark near the scanner, and some slashes everywhere… Made from a pair of scissors…"

"H-huh?" Benjamin paled up hearing that, and he was suddenly reminded of something from yesterday…


Benjamin slowly lowered the knife he had to use as a pair of makeshift scissors. He had misplaced them, so he was forced to do it like this.


"Those…" Benjamin trailed off, gripping onto his podium with one hand. "Those scissors are from my station…"

But that's when he remembered something else entirely… When he had that conversation with Hae-Won two days ago…


"I thought you didn't need a doll anymore." Hae-Won pointed out, looking around at the desk, before her eyes landed on a pair of scissors.

"Oh, well, I don't need one anymore…" Benjamin trailed off, before looking at her again. "I'm doing this because… It feels weird not having a doll anymore."

"Oh?" Placing her hands in her pockets, Hae-Won tilted her head to the side. "In what way?"


How could he miss something like that…? Slowly, Benjamin shook his head. "I… Hae-Won took those scissors from my station… In front of me, all while keeping me distracted with a conversation…"

"But why even grab the scissors that long ago? What purpose?" Seira mumbled out.

Placing a hand on their hip, Lorelei had this one covered. "We discussed that she had to cut a page out of the book on poisons. Hae-Won probably just kept the scissors with her."

"Where did you find the scissors?" Benjamin wanted to get that sorted out.

Letting out a yawn, May was the best person to answer this question. "We found it lodged inside my desk… Besides that, it was the only damage to it…"

"Like, it was stabbed?" Michael mumbled out.

Slowly, Edison shook his head, trying to think of the best words. "More like it sort of flew there. It wasn't lodged too deeply, so it wasn't intentionally stabbed. Might have just fallen there, too."

"I think this is definitely the point we should focus on." Gennosuke knew that there was something about the entire scene that didn't quite make sense in his eyes, but he couldn't figure it out yet.

"We've discussed that this is where the fight probably began…" Michael trailed off. "After fighting, Hae-Won ran off towards the Laboratory, while Gigi cut her off using the Monorail…"

"That… Mostly makes sense." Gemini crossed his arms. "But that's all you really discussed?"

Before anyone could insult Lorelei, she got the jump this time. "Yeah, yeah. I'm a horrible person. Can we just get on with talking about the room itself?"

"So…" Laki trailed off. "We know that Hae-Won and Gigi met up in the room, Hae-Won would have had to have the two mixtures, and the pair of scissors."

Melody nodded her head along. "Yes… Gigi was trying to stop whatever Hae-Won's plan seemed to be… But how exactly did the fight start… Or more so… Where…"

"Well…" May trailed off, letting out a yawn. "We know where the fight ended mostly… Or at least one of the last spots…"

"Oh?" Michael hummed out. "And where would that be?"

"Well… It would have to be…"

"My desk…" May hummed out. "That's where the pair of scissors were found… Most of the other spots have scissors slashes, so they would have needed to happen before…"

Benjamin slowly nodded his head along. "Yeah, that makes sense…"

"But that doesn't answer the question about where it started." Laki pointed out. "It could be anywhere!"

That was the difficult part… Michael let out a sigh. "How much damage was there again…?"

"All my bookshelves were turned over, so there was definitely a large fight… Or at least someone pretending there's one."

"Woah!" Monokawa called out, covering his mouth with his paws. "That almost sounds like a twist in itself."

"Well, since it's revealed like that, we can assume it's not, right?" Benjamin blinked a few times.

"Wait…" Michael trailed off. "Can you rename the locations where there were scissor marks?"

May felt a bit annoyed, but she didn't really have a reason to say no. After a quick yawn, she spoke up. "My desk, one of the bookshelves, and next to the scanner where there was also a dent in the wall…"

Slowly nodding his head along, Michael seemed to have realised something. "Isn't it weird that…"

"The door wasn't the last location…?" Michael crossed his arms, trying to think about what it meant.

"Really?" Melody hummed out, tapping her chin. "I don't see anything odd about that."

Keeping his arms crossed, Michael was having some difficulty coming up with the next part of his argument. "It just feels weird that it wouldn't be the last location… Wouldn't you expect whoever it was to leave the room to try and escape…?"

Slowly catching his drift, Winter nodded her head. "Yes, I do think it feels a bit off…" Wow, for the first time since the chapter two trial, she was helping him in a trial. How far these characters have come. "No matter who started the fight, it was clear someone was trying to leave…" She twirled a finger around a strand of hair.

"OK? And?" Atlas wasn't really getting the point. "Why would that matter?"

"Because…" Michael trailed off. "If she were trying to leave… Something must have prevented her from doing so."

Atlas shrugged, still not getting the point. "Someone probably just blocked her escape route."

Laki tilted her head to the side. "If someone did that, Hae-Won wouldn't have run at the door in the first place!"

So… something had to stop Hae-Won in her tracks, without it being a person… That wasn't really making much sense. Michael crossed his arms, trying to run the thoughts in his head. "It can't be a person who blocked her path, but something clearly blocked her path long enough for it to be a problem…"

"But if nobody was there…" Benjamin trailed off, glancing to the side. "Then wouldn't she have been able to open the door without an issue? She had the scissors, so it's not like someone could have thrown it at her."

Almost as if struck by an idea, Gennosuke began to laugh a little. "I see how it is… Clever…"

"Huh?" Melody looked over at him, confused. "Did you figure something out, or are you just yapping?"

Moving one hand over to his podium, Gennosuke gripped onto it. "Yes… I think it was honestly very simple… Hae-Won scanned her watch to open the door, so it must have opened… And yet, she didn't leave…" He glanced off to the side. "I don't think she was stopped physically by Gigi to leave… Instead, I propose something a little out there…"

"Well!" Laki was growing a bit impatient. "Say it! Say it!"

The grin enveloping his face, Gennosuke continued. "What I'm proposing is that the door…"

"Closed before she could leave…"

"Huh?" Gemini was a bit confused. "But that shouldn't be possible… Doors close after a certain amount of time. That time is pretty consistent."

"Well…" Nova trailed off, thinking to herself. "Not entirely true. Doors have a minimum time they must wait before closing, however, they can be extended if they detect a person is in the way."

"Still…" Benjamin trailed off.

"That doesn't explain how the door would close so suddenly." Tatiana crossed her arms. "Speak up now, and give us the answer!"

This got a small chuckle from Gennosuke. "Right… None of you would even know about this… I suppose I was the only one there when I witnessed it happen for the first time…"

"Ugh…" Lorelei was starting to get annoyed. "Stop beating around the bush!"

Seeing that everyone seemed to hate his guts, he might as well just let the answer slip. "All Gigi… Or… Should I say… The real killer only had one thing they needed to do…"

Before he could even give his answer, his words caught the attention of several people.

"Woah woah woah-" Gemini lifted his hand up.

"Are you saying… Gigi isn't the killer?" Michael mumbled out. "But who else would be able to kill Hae-Won and go undetected?"

Taking his lollipop out of his mouth, Gennosuke examined it. "You all need to learn some patience around here, the answer I'll give should clear out the air… All the killer would need to do to close the door…"

"Speak it into existence."

"So what…?" Lorelei placed a hand on her hip. "The killer would just have to yell at the door to close, and it would? You know how dumb you sound?"

"Sounds like a load of bullshit to me." Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Are you just making shit up as you go?"

Bringing out his lighter, Gennosuke lit the tip of his lollipop on fire. "It may seem that way, but you really shouldn't be one to talk." Putting his lighter away, he let the smoke fly up.

"But…" Michael glanced away. "Are you sure you can say this with confidence? Not only that… But you ruled out Gigi… Why?"

Letting out another chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "Because there's only one person who would be able to accomplish any of this. Sure, it might seem like it eliminates the method the killer used to get to Hae-Won… But honestly, it opens up a whole new possibility…" Taking the lollipop stick out of his mouth, he waved it around, causing the smoke to follow it. "I'm confident in saying who the killer is for Hae-Won…" That smile was now gone from his face.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Winter glanced over towards him, a serious look on her face. "Spit it out."

Letting the silence stay for a bit longer, Gennosuke let out another laugh. "With pleasure… The killer of this case is none other than…"

"Atlas…"

"Fuck off!" He quickly called out, slamming his foot onto his podium. "You just don't like me, so you're willing to accuse me."

Shaking his head slowly, the grin was back on Gennosuke's face. "Oh, don't kid yourself with something like that. We both know what you're capable of…"

"Tsk… I don't know what the fuck you are talking about." Atlas removed his foot from the podium. "You're just making shit up…"

"It… Seems a bit unlikely…" Benjamin came to his aid. "How would Atlas be able to do half of the things that would have needed to happen?"

"Let's not worry about any of that for now…" Gennosuke shook his head. "What I want to focus on is what happened in May's station… Namely, about the door."

For a moment, Atlas got really quiet… Not saying anything.

Noticing his silence, Gennosuke turned to look at someone else. "Isn't that right, Monokawa?"

"Huh?" He had only loosely been paying attention, so he was forced out of his thoughts. Floating over, he stopped right in front of him. "What do you want?"

"Nothing…" Gennosuke shook his head, before looking back at everyone else. "Honestly, for Atlas… Closing doors was rather easy… All he had to do was say…"

"Close Sesame…"

"That's… Fucking stupid…" Lorelei was understandably confused. "Why they fuck would he have to say that?"

"Right…" Melody frowned, holding her own hands. "I've never seen him do that…"

Benjamin slowly nodded his head. "Yeah! He's even approached me in my own station before… And not once did I ever hear him say anything like that!"

This got a nice laugh from Gennosuke. "I see how it is…" Then, he turned to Atlas. "Didn't even bother showing it to anyone, I see…"

"I have no idea what you are talking about…" No swear words this time, but Atlas was still denying the claim.

"Hmm… I remember it like it was a week ago…" Gennosuke stuck his hand in his pocket. "You remember when we had that talk… And what Monokawa did for you…?"


After messing around with the scanner a bit, Monokawa moved back. "Alright, I think it should work now. But to get it to work, you have to say the secret word."

Now, it was Atlas' turn for the smug look on his face to go away. "What… What fucking secret word is there?"

"Open sesame!"

"That's two words, asshole." God, this made it easier, but now it felt almost humiliating.

"Surprised you waited this long…." Gennosuke took the lollipop out of his mouth. "You were doing fine, why change it all of a sudden."

"Because it was getting annoying…" Atlas walked over to the door. "Open sesame." He felt like an embarrassment. But… Like he wanted…

The door opened.

"Now, you can only have one door open like this at a time." Monokawa crossed his arms.

Which came with its own realisation. Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Wait, if I open a door with my voice, it stays open."

"..." Monokawa was beginning to understand a flaw in the system here. "Well… I mean! The secret word to close the door is "close sesame". Shouldn't be too hard."

Deciding it was best to test it out, Atlas took a deep breath. "Close sesame."

As told, the door closed.

"Heh…" Gennosuke chuckled. "Guess you won't be able to sneak up on anyone like that."


"So…" Gennosuke turned to look back at Monokawa. "You just never mentioned he could use it on doors he never opened…"

Shrugging, the otter slowly flew back. "Do I really need to specify everything around here?"

Now that he was gone, Gennosuke could turn his attention back to Atlas. "Anything else to say?"

This only got a sneer from him. "So what? You think that's what I did? If that's what I can do, then Hae-Won would never have been able to leave the room, which she clearly has."

"Ah…" May hummed out, letting out a yawn. "I see… So that's why…"

"Tsk!" Atlas turned to look at her. "And what do you want to say?"

Resting her head on her podium, May tilted her head ever so slightly. "I'm just saying, if that's the case… I know why the battle moved towards the back of my station…"

For a moment, Atlas seemed slightly worried, but his rage persisted. "Oh yeah? You think you know everything?"

"Yeah… kind of…" May nodded her head along. "The reason the struggle moved to the back of my station was because Hae-Won was trying…"

"Lure you away from the door…" That's at least the answer May was most confident in.

Atlas narrowed his eyes. "And what good would that have done?"

"Well…" May trailed off, slowly raising her head off her podium. "If she could create some distance between you and the door, all she would have to do is keep you distracted just long enough to make another break for the door…" Now was that really what happened? She had no way of knowing… But it seemed like the most likely scenario.

"And how would that help?" Atlas shook his head. "There's no way I would have fallen for such obvious trap-"

"Don't fucking kid yourself." Lorelei interjected. "You would have just attacked her, not even caring about what she planned. Not like you had any options, the only thing you can really do is kick."

"Shut up…" Atlas shook his head. "That doesn't matter… All I would need to do is speak the special word, and she'd be trapped again."

"Not if she created enough distance…" Winter let out a small hum, before turning her attention to the side. "We have no way to know how your command works, but… We do know how Nova said it worked…"


"Well…" Nova trailed off, thinking to herself. "Not entirely true. Doors have a minimum time they must wait before closing, however, they can be extended if they detect a person is in the way."


"I would assume that also includes something like this, right?" Winter tilted her head to the side. "I'd appreciate it if Nova or Monokawa would help."

Seeing that she was being called upon, Nova stood up. "Well, I'm not sure how Monokawa did it, but unless we lose power, doors aren't supposed to close on people." Slowly, she turned to look at him.

Seeing he was now being pressured, Monokawa let out a heavy sigh. "I used the same code for the function. The only thing the code does is make the timer reach zero. Normal rules still apply."

"Oh!" Laki nodded her head along. "So without even knowing that, Hae-Won took on a risk, opening the door, and trying to leave right away!"

Gennosuke now had a grin on his face. "And it seemed to work… Because she was able to escape Atlas, even if briefly…"

"Hmm…" Edison thought back. "Now that I think about it… Atlas opening and closing the doors had to be what I heard… Because by the time I went to explore May's station… Nobody was there…"

"Why didn't you specify that sooner…?" May slowly turned her head towards him.

Taking a step back, Edison was looking for an excuse. "I didn't know it was a voice! It was muffled behind our own door!"

Wanting to get the conversation back on track, Michael spoke up. "So then after that… Atlas followed Hae-Won to the Laboratory… right?"

"You're forgetting one thing…" Atlas shook his head. "As long as Hae-Won got into the Laboratory… There was nothing I could do about it. She was completely out of reach. And unlike Gigi, I wouldn't have been able to use the Monorail to get there."

"Hmm… No… I suppose you couldn't use the Monorail…" For once, Gennosuke seemed to be agreeing with him. "However…" Nevermind… "That's because you wouldn't need to use it. All you had to do was use the regular door to get in."

"What the fuck are you talking about? How would I have been able to do that?"

Placing his hands in his pockets, Gennosuke shook his head. "That's because…"

"No door is locked to you…"

"But…" Michael trailed off. "How would that be possible?"

Tilting his head to the side, Gennosuke looked back towards Monokawa. "Because Monokawa accidentally said way more than he should have when he allowed Atlas this ability…"

The otter began to sweat a bit. "W-what are you talking about?"

Letting out a low chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "Mainly, I'm talking about a question Atlas had asked when he was given this ability…"


"Sneaking is for cowards." However, a question popped up in his head. He glanced over at Monokawa. "Does this work on my room scanner?"

"It works on all doors, yes." Monokawa said, nodding his head.


"Now… From my understanding… He quite literally meant all doors." Gennosuke leaned on his podium a bit. "So… Would that include doors that would normally be locked to you?"

"Tsk…" Atlas narrowed his eyes at him. "I've already tried that! And it didn't work at all… So you're making shit up…"

That was true… There was no way to prove anything… "I suppose you're right…" Gennosuke decided to mostly relent for now. "For now, it only exists as a possibility, but I don't have all the answers to completely accuse you…"

Sure, he may not have all the answers, but someone else surely did…

"Say…" Gemini finally spoke up… "Let's not give up on this route just yet… There's some stuff that doesn't make sense to me about what happened around the area…"

"Oh?" Seira was a bit confused, but clearly he had to have a good idea. "Like what?"

Placing a hand on his hip, Gemini closed his eyes. "Namely the glass shards we kept seeing… That's what confused me the most, and I think I'm starting to get the answer for this… In fact… I think I know what the glass from the Laboratory is from… It's from…"

"The vial of poison…"

"Not… acid?" Benjamin raised an eyebrow. "I guess the poison makes sense too."

"So?" Atlas scoffed, shaking his head. "Why does that matter what it's from? That's almost too obvious, so there's no point in even talking about it."

"Well…" Edison wasn't so sure about that. "There should always be a reason to talk about it, right?"

"Right…" Michael nodded his head along. "Why was it broken in the first place…?"

Humming to herself, Laki thought of an idea. "Wouldn't Hae-Won have just thrown it at the killer?"

"No, she would have thrown the acid." Winter jumped in, shaking her head. "Throwing the poison makes no sense."

"Um… What colours were these mixtures…?" Melody thought for a moment. "There's the possibility that she could have gotten them mixed up."

"Unlikely…" May hummed out, thinking for a moment. "The image I was given had different colours for the mixtures… She would have been able to tell them apart."

"Or she's colour blind." Benjamin blinked a few times. "Would be weird to be a colour blind tattoo artist…"

"I'm a blind knife thrower, so don't start discrediting me too!" Tatiana crossed her arms.

Benjamin glanced over at the doll. "Alright, but you aren't completely blind."

Ignoring those antics, Gemini shook his head. "I don't think Hae-Won threw the vial of acid… That was used elsewhere…"

"Then… What did she end up doing?" Melody hummed out with a tilt of the head.

This time, May was the one to provide commentary. "Well… it's likely that at that moment… Hae-Won would have likely changed plans… She probably wasn't expecting Atlas to follow her, so she had to think quickly…" Letting out a small yawn, she then continued. "I think… It's likely her plan with the poison was to…"

"Engulf the room in gas…" May trailed off. "The poison has a unique property that it turns into a gas form at above 200F… A fire is… Well… Way above that…"

"But we never found the glass shards near the incinerator…" Seira pointed out.

"No…" May tilted her head to the side. She was going to trust their words for it. "So then… Why was it broken on the ground."

"Tsk… Obviously because she was just going to let the temperature in the room do its job… Why the fuck does it matter?" Atlas took a step back. "How does that prove it's me?"

Now it was back to Gemini. "Because I think that the killer would have done something very simple… Hae-Won didn't break the vial… The killer did… by…"

"Smashing it with their foot."

"Tsk…" Atlas didn't bother saying anything else, though.

"Oh…" Michael let out a hum. "Are you saying that Atlas moved closer the moment she pulled out the vial, and kicked it before she could do anything…?"

Slowly, Gemini nodded his head. "That's exactly what I think happened…"

"But then what? You think I was somehow able to kill her anyways? With fucking what?"

There were really any weapons Atlas could use around him… And that was something that most people were fine with giving him.

"None of the causes of death are from bludgeoning…" Laki crossed her arms. "But… This is blood loss…"

"Yeah… How would I have caused blood loss." Atlas sneered as he narrowed his eyes. "You're asking a bit too much from me…!"

"Actually…" Winter hummed out, twirling her finger around a strand of hair. "There's one thing that would have caused the blood loss… And it's likely the murder weapon…"

Now, Atlas had turned to face her. "Oh yeah? And what the hell would that be?"

Smiling so sweetly, Winter let out a little giggle. "Oh look at you, trying to be all intimidating! Unfortunately that doesn't work with me… Namely, I think the weapon that was used to kill her was…"

"The incinerator itself…"


Gennosuke took a step away from the incinerator, however… something caught his eyes. "Hmm?" He hummed out, getting a better look. A lot of the sharp edges of the incinerator seemed to be coated in… blood…

Moving his hand over to the jagged edge, he poked his finger on it. "Oh, this is definitely enough to stab someone… Should be careful."

"Do you think this is how they died?" Winter got closer to investigate.

Letting out a small hum, Gennosuke could only shrug. "More than likely, but there's no way to tell if we can't compare to the wound." Granted, this thing would have caused immense blood loss. "I still think it's a safe assumption."


"It's highly likely that you killed Hae-Won using the jagged edge." Winter concluded, keeping her eyes closed.

"With enough force…" Laki trailed off.

"Hold on…" Lorelei loaded up the image of the Station Report. "Oh, yeah! That's definitely sharp enough to kill someone. Honestly, you probably wouldn't need much force."

"You just kicked her onto it…" Michael mumbled out.

"Tsk…" Atlas shook his head, before taking a step back. But that was only to give him more room to raise his foot up and slam it down onto his podium. "You say that's what happened…" He shook his head again. "But you have no proof that I even kicked the vial… You have no proof that I kicked her into the sharp edges…" He wasn't about to give up with such lousy evidence. "You're just making up whatever you want to try and pin this on me!"

"That's true…" Gemini let out a sigh. "We might not have any proof that you kicked Hae-Won into the incinerator…"

"Then back off." Atlas slammed his foot down onto his podium. "You've got nothing to prove only I could do this. Anyone could have kicked that stuff! What? Just because I'm some fucking soccer player?"

However, Gemini had a different idea in mind. "How about we take a different approach. We can be vague here, and say anyone could have done this…" He had one thing in mind, after all… "I want to talk about stuff that happened after… Mainly…"

"The killer's escape route…"

"There weren't really many ways to get out…" May hummed out.

"Wouldn't it just be the Monorail and the doors?" Melody tilted her head to the side.

"Yeah…" Seira trailed off. "But not only was the Monorail locked, but the stairs up had been reduced to ashes…"

"So…" Michael trailed off. "The only way to leave is the front door… Why is that a problem? I thought doors like that would let you leave even if you're trapped inside… This was a topic during the Ian trial…"

Slowly, Gemini shook his head. "That's not the issue I'm talking about…" He placed a hand on his hips. "The Zeta Sector was one continuous hallway, and there weren't many places to hide…"

"In fact, I was in the garden." Gennosuke felt the need to add.

Letting out a small sigh, Gemini shook his head. "Especially with everyone narrowing down on the Zeta Sector, the killer wouldn't have been able to go many places…"

"Tsk…" Atlas looked around. "Well, isn't it obvious where the killer hid? Wouldn't they have just hidden behind the door leading to the dead end?"

"Huh?" Laki let out a hum, tilting her head to the side, before laughing a bit. "That would have been impossible!" She clenched her fist. "Because…"

"Gemini blew that door right off!"

Hearing that, the escapist had a rather sour expression on his face. "You don't need to remind me…"

"Tsk…" Atlas back off again. "Then where did the killer hide?"

Oh, Gemini was so glad he asked! Because he already had an answer ready. "Well, you see-"

However, this time, he was cut off… Not even by Atlas! But by Seira. "Oh! I know where!" She wanted in on the trial action. The escapist can't have all the screentime, go away. "There's only one place the killer could have hidden… Well… That's a bit misleading, but I know where the killer hid… They hid in…"

"My Ultimate Station!"

Atlas sneered at the mention. "Why would the killer go somewhere boring like that?"

"Haha!" Edison let out a laugh, swirling around his flask. "We have a winner! And it's me!"

Seira decided to ignore him completely. "I think it's less that they chose to hide there, and more so they were forced. At the time, people were starting to arrive in the Zeta Sector… It's possible you- I mean they-"

"Why are we doing this dumb bit?" Lorelei asked, placing a hand on their hip. "Just keep calling him the killer, and call it a day."

Letting out a sigh, Seira continued on. "You would have needed to hide in the closest room, which would just so happen to be my station."

"And? Do you even have any proof that I was actually there?" Atlas shook his head.

For a moment, a very small smile appeared on Seira. Content with the idea of telling someone they were wrong. "Actually, something was left in my station… Namely…"

"Glass shards…" The smile then turned into a frown. "It would be weird for there to be any glass shards in the first place, but this also isn't the first place we saw them.

"Or the last…" May let out a small hum.

"And what does that have to do with me?" Atlas would have pointed at himself if he could…

"I see what she's saying." Laki began to bounce around. "The glass shards… They're the one from the vial of poison, aren't they?" Then her mind raced with a few more ideas. "It's possible that when you kicked the vial, you got some glass shards embedded in your shoe."

"And then your only solution was to get rid of them before making your escape…" Michael continued on. "If any of us saw you with that, you would be questioned…"

Slowly, Atlas began to shake his head. "Nice argument… But why would I get rid of them in Seira's station? Wouldn't I try to get rid of them in the Laboratory?"

"No." Winter hummed out, looking away from the trial ground. "You wouldn't have been able to do that…"

"And why not?" Atlas barked in her direction.

Slowly, Winter shifted her focus to look directly at him. "It's rather simple, honestly… You wouldn't have been able to remove them in the Laboratory because…"

"You would have been forced to leave…"

"I see what you mean…" A grin appeared on Gennosuke's face. "You remember the state of the Laboratory, right…? There was even an announcement for it."


"Air quality in the Laboratory is reaching critical levels! Blocking the Zeta and Sigma Sector off from the rest of the station. Scanners will be disabled, and all doors will remain locked."


"Right…" Michael trailed off. "Because of the poison Hae-Won had, the gas started spreading everywhere in the room while you were killing her…"

"And unlike Hae-Won, you wouldn't have been able to put on the mask." Winter pointed out. "Which meant, right after she died, you would have been forced to leave the room."

"Tsk!" Atlas was running out of things to say. "So what? I went ahead and got rid of the glass shards in Seira's station? That doesn't mean anything, because you all checked that room. Then… Where did I go?"

"You… aren't seriously trying to argue this, are you…?" Lorelei couldn't believe her eyes, so she just let out a heavy sigh. "Whatever… We're doing this. You would have simply…"

"Left the Sector."

"Tsk! Tough luck with that." Atlas countered. "I wouldn't have been able to leave the sector because of the lockdown, remember. All the doors were locked."

"Hmm…" Lorelei let out a small hum. "You would be right, that the doors were locked… But let's be more specific here, shall we? The scanners were the ones that were turned off."


"Air quality in the Laboratory is reaching critical levels! Blocking the Zeta and Sigma Sector off from the rest of the station. Scanners will be disabled, and all doors will remain locked."


"I'm correct in assuming this was for the door leading to the Tau Sector, right?" Lorelei turned to look at them.

"I know it said all doors, but yes, this was for the door connecting the Tau and Zeta Sector." Nova nodded her head along.

Good. Placing a hand on their hip, Lorelei continued. "And how were they locked?"

For a moment, Nova didn't answer… But after a few seconds, she let out a sigh. "Doors are locked by simply disabling the scanner… So I suppose if there was a way to bypass that, the doors could open…"

"So we've got him!" Laki seemed rather happy now. "He can't get away with it now!"

Slamming his foot on the podium, Atlas proved that he wasn't done just yet. "And? None of that means anything! Just because you think I would have been in the room doesn't prove anything, because there's one last thing you won't be able to figure out!"

May let out a yawn… Not because of her narcolepsy, but because this was dragging on for too long. "You keep saying that…"

Deciding to ignore her, Atlas sneered at everyone else. "Even if I had hid in that room, it would have been next to impossible to leave the room. I'd risk walking out on everyone. What kind of shitty plan would that be! And yet… Not a single person saw me, so clearly I must not have been there."

"Actually…" Michael trailed off, thinking of an idea. "There would have been one way you would have known nobody was in the area…" Placing his hands on his podium, he leaned forward. "Mainly, you would have used…"

"The body discovery announcement…!" Now that it was said, Michael moved himself away from the podium. "As soon as you heard that, you could confirm that people had seen Hae-Won's body… With that, you were confident enough to leave the Zeta Sector without being caught…"

"Fu-" Atlas started to say before slamming his foot against the podium again.

However, unlike all the other times… He had nothing else to say.

"Finally ready to admit it?" Gennosuke had a small grin on his face. "Honestly… It would be impossible for anyone to have killed Hae-Won." He stuck his hand in his pocket. "You would have gotten away with it too… If only you had waited for me to leave that one day."

"..." Still… Atlas said nothing. Instead, choosing to stare at the ground.

Laki tilted her head to the side. "Are you going to say something?"

"He doesn't deserve to say anything…" Edison adjusted his goggles, a light shining off it. "He killed Hae-Won after all… She didn't deserve what you did to her."

Then… A laugh… It started low, but slowly increased in volume. It was clear it was coming from Atlas. "You really think that…?"

"Huh?" Edison blinked a few times… his hand tightening on the flask he was holding. "Do you want to repeat yourself?"

Slowly, Atlas shook his head, still laughing. "You really crack me up… you fucking nerd." Then, he looked directly at him. "You don't think Hae-Won deserved what happened to her?"

For a moment, Edison almost froze in fear, but he quickly overcame it. "Of course not! Why would she ever deserve something like that! She was a good person."

"Um…" Laki wanted to say something, but chose not to.

This only seemed to make Atlas laugh even more. "How fucking stupid do you have to be… Have you already forgotten about this entire fucking trial? Everything that was spoken about? I'll give you a hint… Most of what was discussed was correct… Even the unpleasant parts…"

"The… Unpleasant parts?" Edison mumbled out, a bit unsure of what to take from this.

Slowly shaking his head, Atlas once again found himself laughing a bit. "You really are an idiot, aren't you? I'll tell you what… Hae-Won set up an entire murder, but her intention wasn't to end the motive for everyone… No… In actuality, Hae-Won…"

"Would have let you all die."

As the room slowly grew quiet in shock, the timer slowly continued to tick down, revealing they only had an hour left…


Well, how was that for Part 1 of the trial? :D Probably about average, but once again, I always love writing the trials. I just start typing, and I can't stop myself.

It was very funny seeing everyone say that Atlas couldn't possibly be a killer because he wouldn't be able to do half the shit the killer did… Except he didn't do that shit, Hae-Won did :D See what happens when you make assumptions? You end up losing!

Speaking of Hae-Won, because of the nature of the body, I wasn't able to thank Weekaro for allowing me to use her in my story. I don't think she went quite in the direction I expected when I first accepted her, and she did go a bit off the rail at one point. But I think it was natural for the stress of the game to get to someone. Especially after the fuckery Ian pulled off. I got to show a kinder side when it came to people like Benoit, Benjamin, and mostly Edison, while showing her more opinionated side when it came to people like Laki, and that one Lorelei free time event most people forgot about. She was a fun character to explore the deeper parts of, and I think she played a good role in the story. She really had an older sister vibe to her. She's also not one to trust people in leadership positions, which is why I had her go against Gigi at one point.

I hope everyone else enjoyed her just as much as I did, and it's sad to have to see her go… Although there's still a lot surrounding her about the case that hasn't been discussed quite yet, so we should hopefully get some of that in the epilogue!

Wait… There's another trial part? Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh that probably means nothing.

Speaking of which, that has decent progress as well… I'm sitting at 10k words, and I'm hoping for it to reach over 20k. Will that happen? We'll have to see, but here's hoping. I'll probably be writing the epilogue at the same time, so we'll see how long it actually takes to write.

Till next time!


Participants Remaining: 12


Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Hacker [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]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Mentalist [theotakureader101]