Danganronpa: Hope for the Hopeless/Chapter 5 - Class Trial

## Story

The elevator continued to descend for what felt like forever as thoughts about the events of the day and several theories flashed in my mind. But of course, it wasn’t going to last forever. Even though it was too dark to look around and see what everyone else was thinking, I already knew that we all waited in anticipation of what was to come. In the best-case scenario, we would all leave the class trial room alive. More realistically however, someone would die and Wakuni would get his vengeance. Assuming we guessed correctly of course.

*(Let’s try not to think about the alternative.)*

I suppressed the thought as the brakes came to life and the elevator began to slow with a shrill screech that pierced the air. Sparks flew like always, of course, but as the elevator once again entered the light, their presence was diminished to barely noticeable. It probably helped of course that we all had more important matters to worry about. So, when the elevator made a grinding halt and the doors hissed open, there was barely any reaction from us other than stepping off the elevator and pouring into the area just before the class trial room.

“Our fifth class trial,” Senji remarked with a tone of mild disgust as he gazed at the door that loomed before us. “I know the investigation was cut short but I do hope that everyone is ready for this unfortunate occasion.”

“We aren’t going to know until we start,” Wakuni muttered as he narrowed his eyes at the door and clenched his fists. Furthermore, after a brief pause he walked over to the left door and reached out with his right hand. “I will say for one that I refuse to let the culprit get away with what they did. Now please, come inside and do everything in your power to help kill- I mean find the culprit.”

“I-uh,” Sanda swallowed as he looked at the double doors. If I had to guess, he still wasn’t too comfortable with how unprepared we were. As if to confirm, he continued. “I’m really not looking forward to this, especially not after the investigation we just had, but I suppose we don’t have a choice. Lead the way Wakuni.”

Wakuni just nodded and pulled the door open for the rest of us to follow inside. And of course, that’s what we all did. For what felt like the first time ever, I was the first to head inside. Then after me was Senji, then Tanabe, then Sanda, then Sama, and then finally Machi shuffled her way into the class trial room. It was then, and only then that Wakuni made his way into the room and shut the door behind us.

I heard the door lock behind the rest of us. But I barely paid attention to it because there honestly wasn’t anything I could do about it. Instead, I looked around the room to see what changes Monokuma made to it. And sure enough, Monokuma made several changes. There were now greyed out portraits with red X’s over them meaning I was going to be stuck between Yakawa and Yasui’s portraits, but as unnerving as it was, it paled in comparison to the overall grandiose atmosphere that was the rest of the room.

The room itself was fairly well lit despite what seemed to be the common practice for the class trial rooms, but I still noticed that the center circle of the floor where the podiums were was a metallic black. The rest of it was glass that contained three giant gears that encompased the entire circle in the center, several smaller gears, and what had to be enough red wire to encompass the entire lodge ten times over. Beyond that was a void that was too dark for me to see any other objects.

As for the rest of the room, the walls appeared to be made of dark grey metal reinforced bars as if the area were a cylindrical cage with a solid dark grey wall beyond that. For the ceiling, I noticed a series of stage lights and cameras that poured in from beyond the bars, sixteen of each in fact with the cameras in the corners and the lights attached to the middle of the walls just below the roof, what appeared to be red wires buried into a series of white bags across the outer ring of the area inside the cylindrical bars, and a structure in the center between the podiums that hung down and flashed a dark green screen on its face with the number 00:00:32 flashing on and off of it in bright neon green. In spite of all of this however, the room was somewhat quiet.

“Come right in!” Monokuma cheered from his chair as he beckoned for us to come with his right arm and stood up. “Do you like what I’ve done with the place? I figured it was a special occasion so I added a few extra cameras. Anyways, take your places and I’ll explain the rules.”

We all complied. I noticed a few people fighting back shivers as we did, but we all took our places. Yet, even as we did, Tanabe narrowed his eyes and Monokuma and spoke up. “Monokuma, we already know the rules. We need to find the blackened or we all die except for him or her.”

“Ah but in case you’ve forgotten, there are special rules for this class trial,” Monokuma insisted as he plopped down in his chair. “Someone went and killed Wakuni’s brother, Yakawa Shoda! So, as members of his class, it's up to you lot to decide who did him in and settle it by majority vote! If most of you manage to figure out who killed him and vote for the right person, then the blackened, and only the blackened, will be punished. But if the majority votes for the wrong guy or gal, everyone except for the blackened including everyone from the other three classes will be punished and he or she will win the right to leave! So, is everybody ready for round five?! If not then too bad because it’s happening!!”

Not too surprisingly, the ominously cheerful ring in Monokuma’s tone towards the end of Monokuma’s explanation provoked a reaction from Wakuni who simply clenched his teeth and shook his right fist at the bear. In fact, from the looks of things, it almost appeared as though he were struggling to maintain his composure.

Tanabe must have noticed this because he motioned for Wakuni to calm down and spoke up himself. “Wakuni, he isn’t worth it. You said you wanted us to focus on the task at hand right? Let's just focus.”

“Well-” Wakuni growled back at Tanabe before he caught himself, sighed, and lowered his hand. “Alright. You’re right. We need to find the monster that murdered Yakawa. Let's start with- uh,” Wakuni paused for a moment. “Well we always start with the cause and time of death but that seems kind of obvious and to be honest, I don’t want to dwell on them.”

“We don’t need to go into too much detail about it. We all heard what happened and saw the damage. Even without the Monokuma file, we can make a good estimate about when and how he died. There were two explosions, one that broke through the floor and one that killed him. And they both happened around 10:29 pm,” I assured Wakuni as best as I could in spite of everything. “Unless anyone wants to contest what I said or unless you found anything while you were guarding him, we can move on to whatever comes next.”

“Well, I didn’t find anything,” Wakuni replied as he looked away and grit his teeth unfortably. “I don’t believe I missed anything either because we found all the clues that there are to find. If you ask me, it's for the best since looking at what was left of- my brother- made me sick.”

“I can’t blame you for that. And either way, we probably weren’t going to find anything that wasn’t on the Monokuma File. Not without an X-ray or chemical scan,” Machi remarked as she put her right hand to her chin in thought. “That file was pretty conclusive.”

“Speaking of which, what’s up with that?” Sanda asked as he scratched his head with his left hand. He still appeared to be somewhat tense, but he was taking a few deep breaths. “That file had everything we wanted to know and several things we didn’t.”

“Tsk, there’s no satisfying you guys, is there?” Monokuma said with a dismissive wave of his left hand. “First they have too much information, then they aren’t specific enough, and now they have too much information again. Make up your minds.”

That comment caused the entirety of us to glare in Monokuma’s direction. Although it appeared to have irritated Wakuni most of all because he looked as though he were about to open his mouth to say something. To be honest, I couldn’t blame him. The Monokuma Files were always misleading at best and downright sadistic at worst. To make things worse, this was the latter case.

Nonetheless, I still interrupted him when he opened his mouth. “Everyone, ignore him. He’s just trying to cause trouble and the sooner we finish, the sooner we get a short reprieve from him.”

“I believe Nishi is right,” Tanabe concurred with a brief nod after he averted his eyes from Monokuma and looked back at the rest of the group. “Indulging his antics isn’t going to help us anyway.”

After that, I thought for a brief moment that I heard Tanabe mutter something about Monokuma being compared to a flea, but I didn’t bother to mention it. And regardless, Tanabe’s comment drew everyone back to the conversation one by one until even Wakuni just shook his head and looked away.

“Alright then,” Wakuni grumbled as he gripped the podium and rested both hands on it with what was almost a slam. “Does anyone disagree with what Nishi said earlier? I remember hearing two explosions myself and I definitely remember when they happened.”

Everyone else more or less just shook their heads with varying amounts of delay of course, but nobody contested what I had to say luckily enough. Not even the culprit though he or she wouldn’t have been able to do so without making the risk of exposing themselves anyway. Nonetheless, I continued.

“It looks like we can move on then. Now, does anyone have any ideas on what to talk about?” I asked as I looked around the room. “How about we talk about alibis? I want to know where everyone was when this occurred and it always seems to be the best way to narrow down the list of suspects.”

*(It also usually leads to premature accusations but it has to happen or we won’t get anywhere.)*

“That is actually a bit of a problem,” Senji surmised calmly enough. “Normally, we could discuss our alibis but the bombs could have been placed at any time today. Therefore, someone may still be the culprit even if they had an alibi at the time of the murder.”

“That is definitely a problem,” Sama said as she visibly winced at Senji’s statement. “Does anyone have any ideas on how to narrow down the culprit’s window of opportunity?”

Senji shook his head but as soon as Sama made the remark, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and thought back to something that may have prevented the culprit from setting up the bomb to kill Yakawa. At first, as silence filled the room, my mind returned and blank and I frowned. But seconds after that, as I thought back to today’s events, something did come to the front of my mind.

*(Wait. There was a time where the culprit didn’t have the information necessary to kill Yakawa.)*

Machi, who was oblivious to my thoughts, just put her hands on her hips and looked at the ground in what had to be disappointment as I opened my eyes. After that, she spoke. “Well, this is bad and it sounds like we’re going to have a rough time proving our alibis. Though with that said, I can vouch for someone who absolutely couldn’t have set up the bomb today.”

“Hold that thought Machi, I think I remember something that might help us,” I interrupted as I made a stop motion with my right hand. Surprisingly enough, any irritation that Machi had immediately subsided and I was allowed to continue. “If you recall, the bombs went off relatively closely to the night time announcement. But Yakawa isn’t usually in his room at that time because he usually checks the first aid station or makes final checkups on the other students. Which means the culprit would have had to have known about the suggestion to go to our rooms and wait for the motive to lapse.”

“Oh, I get it,” Wakuni grumbled as he clenched his right fist and looked in Sanda’s direction. “Sanda is the only person who knew about the plan before he told us at dinner. So either he’s the culprit or someone else acted after dinner. I swear though Sanda, if it turns out that it was you-”

“That won’t be necessary,” Sanda defended as he visibly flinched and put his arms up. “I actually have an alibi. I was with Machi the entire time today. Well the entire time after breakfast and before dinner anyways but we were all at breakfast so you know I couldn’t have done it then. And after dinner, you saw me go straight to my room.”

I briefly pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed at what looked like it was about to be Wakuni’s burst of anger. This particular accusation was easy enough for him, Machi, or myself to refute, but my pulse picked up slightly at knowing that anger clouded his judgement and that there were going to be much more suspicious people like Machi later on.

*(This does not bode well at all.)*

Luckily enough, Machi seemed to know that the accusation was false as well because she was the first to lean forward and interject before I could even open my mouth. “Actually, Sanda was the person that I was going to vouch for. Aside from a few times where we split up for what had to be less than a minute, I’ve been with him all day before we went and got your guys. There is absolutely no way that either of us could have done it before dinner. If you don’t believe us, remember that we acquired that clue and then showed you all at dinner.”

“Machi and Sanda are both right,” I concluded with a nod of my own as my thoughts went back to the picture. Once again, I frowned at the prospect that Makoto was at least a suspect and at most the mastermind of this spree of killing games. But regardless, I continued my next statement a little too quickly. “I’m afraid we can’t discuss the clue or the next person will be punished for sharing information about the nature of the killing games with other classes-”

“I almost forgot about that-,” Sama trailed off as she gripped the podium and a bead of sweat appeared on her forehead.

“Well, whether you remember or not, It's still there,” Monokuma mockingly pretended to chastise. “Ignorance means nothing to a bear like me.”

“-anyways,” I cut in insistently as I stepped forward closer to the edge of my podium. “Because Machi and Sanda presented us with that clue, they had to have been with each other for a least a large part of the day. Moreover, I’m inclined to believe Machi, and by extension Sanda, are telling the truth.”

*(Aside from the fact that Sanda and Machi don’t get along well enough for me to seriously think one of them would be an accomplice to the other, Machi would have no reason to tell me what happened if that were the case.)*

After that, a brief silence followed as Wakuni visibly relented, shook his head, and relaxed. I, meanwhile, took the time to run through my logic one more time. It was possible that I was wrong of course, but Machi would be operating counterintuitively if I was. Besides that, I had no reason as of yet to assume that there were any accomplices and that wasn’t a rabbit hole that I was too eager to go down unless there was evidence of it.

“You started with Machi,” Sanda interrupted as he dropped his arms and put his right hand to his chin in what must have been thought. “Do you trust her more than me right now for some reason Nishi?”

“Not particularly,” I replied as I consciously maintained my neutral expression. It took some minor effort to avoid giving Machi’s secret away, but I managed regardless. “I guess I just spent a little more time with her during the investigation. The point is that you both have an alibi unless we find definitive proof that one of you is lying.”

The group agreed with that. Some, like Wakuni, were a little hesitant at first. But after a few seconds, he joined in as well. And with that, Sanda appeared to be cleared. After all, he couldn’t have operated in the morning or afternoon without Machi knowing and he couldn’t have operated in the evening without Wakuni knowing.

“Alright,” Wakuni finally said out loud. “Sanda was with Machi all day before dinner and in his room under my watch after dinner, so Sanda is innocent. I can’t think of any way or time where he could have set up the bombs that were used to murder my brother.”

“In that case, we can presume that the culprit had a much more narrow window of opportunity to act,” Senji concurred as he motioned towards Sanda with his free hand. “Assuming that Sanda hadn’t told anyone about the plan prior to dinner.”

Sanda crossed his arms and shook his head. “The only person I told before everybody else was Machi and she was with me the entire time before dinner anyways so she has the same window of opportunity as the rest of us.”

“Speaking of which, I think some more of us might have alibis for that time,” Sama interjected. “I know for a fact that I was in my room at the time as well.”

I took a deep breath at what was about to come. Namely, Wakuni explaining that everyone except for myself, Tanabe, and Machi were in their rooms, Tanabe clearing me as well as himself of suspicion, and the blame falling on either Wakuni or Machi. Most likely the latter. To be fair, I didn’t know for sure that she was innocent, but I also didn’t know for sure that she was guilty either. The one thing I knew was that I was going to have to make a decision fast.

*(Here goes nothing.)*

“Sama is right. I saw her head into her room along with Senji, Sanda, and Yakawa,” Wakuni grumbled before he looked away from the group. “So I think it goes to say that none of them could have killed the latter. And to be frank, I shouldn’t even have to list my brother for obvious reasons.”

“That leaves myself, Nishi, Machi, and technically Wakuni in the pool of suspects,” Tanabe concurred calmly enough though with some hint of irritation. More or less, exactly as I predicted, though it wasn’t reassuring in the slightest.

What I didn’t quite predict however, was Wakuni’s reaction to being on the list of suspects. For a brief second, he looked as if he had been hurt. Almost as if he had been wounded by something in fact. But after that second, he seethed and narrowed his eyes at Tanabe. After that, I didn’t have to guess that what came next wasn’t going to be pleasant. That much was already completely obvious and it didn’t even require my talent to predict.

“Are you seriously saying I would kill my own brother?!” Wakuni growled at him as he raised his head and shook his right fist. It was enough for even Tanabe to flinch. “You have no right to be pointing fingers towards me!”

“Mr. Shoda, Tanabe is merely stating facts,” Senji defended as he crossed his arms and Wakuni glared at him in turn. “We know that it is unlikely that you did it but we just wish to make sure. Now if you calm down, you will likely be one of the next few people to be acquitted.”

I took another quick glance at Wakuni and sighed internally. It was sad really, but I had a feeling that he wasn’t going to listen to any attempts to calm him. I’ve seen this before in therapy as well and he was blinded by rage.

*(I’m just going to have to present evidence and hope he accepts it. If not, the trial might have to continue without his input.)*

“Where do you even get off spouting about me being a suspect?” Wakuni growled as he pointed towards Tanabe with his right pointer finger. “You, Nishi, and Machi were one of the three people that left. How do I know it wasn’t you?!”

“Because I happened to have been with Nishi at the time,” Tanabe replied as he dismissed the accusation with his right hand and almost clench his teeth before he gave a fairly quiet sigh and continued. “Ask Nishi and she’ll verify it.”

“Tanabe was with me most of the time.” I acknowledged somewhat reluctantly. “I remember you telling me that he left a few minutes after me. And I can confirm that he met not long after that in the kitchen. Does that really sound like enough time for either of us to have put together two bombs?”

All the while, my mind raced as I glanced between Wakuni and Machi. Once more, things were going as expected and I wracked my brain to decide who to trust. I didn’t recall finding any definitive evidence that Machi was or wasn’t the culprit, but as soon as Tanabe and I had our names cleared, he was going to go into a spiral of rage and I would have to decide.

“Wait a moment,” Senji interrupted as he formed a stopping motion with his left hand. “As unlikely as it may be, how do we know that one of you is not an accomplice and the other is not the culprit?”

*(Oh sure. You’re trusting what Machi and Sanda but you’re questioning me and Tanabe?)*

Aside from that thought, I did hesitate for a brief moment. The accusation was easy enough to refute of course and an obvious answer came to mind immediately. But nonetheless, it was the first time that someone seriously accused me of being the culprit or an accomplice. Sasori deflected suspicion as a last ditch effort of course, but this accusation, while incorrect, felt plausible.

“You mean like you and Koike last trial?” Sama butted in as she folded her arms.

“Yes, like me and Koike last trial. You do not need to keep bringing it up you know,” Senji responded with clear irritation in his voice as his facial expression switched to an evident frown. “Anyways, Tanabe, Nishi, do you have any explanations as to why it could not have been either of you?”

“I might actually. Well, I can’t prove that we didn’t do it, but I can prove that we would have no reason to be here if we did do it,” Tanabe spoke up before I could respond. After that, he gave me a quick nervous glance. “Nishi, can I tell them about the thing you gave me?”

As the group turned their eyes towards me, I put my right hand to my chin in thought. It wasn’t ideal and it was definitely going to alarm everyone, but it was the solution that I thought of as well. The only question was whether or not I was allowed to discuss it without breaking one of Monokuma’s new rules.

I thought about it for a few more seconds just to double check everything. It was a feature in our killing game but it didn’t tell the other classes the objective of the killing games or anything about their nature. So, in the end, I lowered my hand, and took a deep breath.

“I’ll tell them,” I finally replied. After that, I took a deep breath hoping that I was right and hoping that the rest of the group wouldn’t panic. “The thing is, Tanabe and I were both in possession of these tickets that would allow us to graduate without a class trial if we killed someone and presented them to Monokuma. There are only two in existence and I gave mine to Tanabe who now has both of them. But the point is, we wouldn’t have a reason to conduct this class trial if either of us were the culprit. Tanabe, do you have them with you?”

Tanabe nodded. And with that, he slowly but surely pulled out the two offending golden tickets that promised survival to their owner but death to everyone else in the unfortunate event that they were ever used.

‘**Last Blood:**

* Usable once upon committing a murder.
* If the owner of this perk becomes blackened, then they can show this ticket to their headmaster, Monokuma, and they will graduate. No class trial, no fuss. All remaining spotless will be punished upon use of this perk.’

Everyone who saw them except for Tanabe and myself visibly flinched or reacted when they saw the perk. Machi crossed her arms and winced, Sanda just winced, Sama turned a shade paler, Wakuni broke free of a gaze and blinked twice, and Senji visibly flinched.

“We wanted to get rid of them. In fact, Nishi was actively in the process of getting rid of hers when I found her,” Tanabe felt the need to add for some reason. To be honest, the recognition did leave a warm feeling with me. “But Monokuma informed us that he would replenish them if we did. We figured it was best if they stayed with someone we both knew.”

“And- and you didn’t just give it to Nishi because why?” Sanda started to say after he shook his head as if he were breaking free of a daze. Although to be fair, the existence of the last blood perk was a pretty shocking revelation when I first found out about it as well.

“Because I didn’t trust Nishi,” Tanabe lied flawlessly on my behalf. “I know that I should have been able to, but I was just worried about this perk. I know I can come across as a bit morbid sometimes but I have a life I want to live just like the rest of you guys.”

“Yeah, I can’t exactly blame you for that,” Machi readily agreed as she uncrossed her arms, took a deep breath, and looked up at Monokuma. “Is this for real? If somebody killed someone and presented that golden ticket, would you let them graduate and kill everyone else?”

“Well, you know,” Monokuma replied nonchalantly with a shrug. “I am a bear of my word and my word is on those tickets. So if someone killed a classmate and presented me with the golden ticket, yes I would.”

“Gee thanks,” Sama sarcastically remarked as she snapped out of what looked like a stupor. “It wasn’t like I needed to get any sleep tonight anyways.”

With that, the rest of the group did their best to shrug off the weight of the last blood perk. Nonetheless, the tension remained more or less palpable within the atmosphere of the class trial room and the look on everyone’s faces made that more than evident as most members of the group took deep breaths in an attempt to calm themselves down.

*(At least Monokuma didn’t say anything about me breaking a rule so it looks like I’m in the clear.)*

Nonetheless, everyone managed to recover from the initial shock alarmingly well. And from there, he proceeded to narrow his eyes at Machi and clench his fists. If I had to guess, Tanabe and I had our names cleared as far as he was concerned which made Wakuni and Machi the only possible suspects left.

“I suppose Machi and Wakuni are the only suspects left,” Senji finally said after he managed to recover. “I am not inclined to believe that Wakuni murdered his own brother, but I presume there must be a way to narrow the pool of suspects down. Just to be safe.”

“We could try peeling away parts of Machi’s skin until she confesses,” Wakuni suggested. All the while, he barely contained his evidently bristling anger. But in spite of it, his tone of voice gave away his blatant hatred for Machi. Honestly, I felt a cold chill creep down my spine when he suggested it.

*(Wakuni, I know you’re suffering. But lashing out at your friends isn’t going to make you feel better.)*

“Don’t- don’t do that,” Machi managed to say to the rest of us as a bead of sweat appeared on her forehead. “I don’t believe for a second that Wakuni is the culprit but I know for a fact that I didn’t kill Yakawa.”

“Relax, nobody is getting tortured to make a confession while I’m here to stop it.” Sanda interjected with a rather dead serious tone. “Do we have any other ideas?”

“We could approach this whole thing from a different angle,” I suggested a little too eagerly. If only to get off this train of thought before things got out of hand. “If we look at the things that the culprit needed to do, it might narrow down our list of suspects.”

There was a slight pause after that as most of the group looked over in my direction. But luckily enough, everyone more or less relented and agreed to that proposal as some of them nodded their heads and the rest gave some gesture of agreement.

“Very well,” Senji concurred with a quick nod of his own. “I believe that it would first be fitting to discuss the bombs first. As Nishi and I both discussed during the investigation, it was a timer based device, involved fertilizer, and most importantly of all, whoever constructed it had extensive knowledge in bomb making as they managed to place everything perfectly to avoid breaking any rules. Nishi, I noticed that you took a large number of pictures regarding the bomb. Would you care to show them to the class?”

I nodded, pulled out my ElectroID, tapped the screen, pulled up the pictures, turned my ElectroID around, and swiped my way through them for the rest of the class to see. Sure enough, most of the class leaned in and observed intently. All except for Machi and Wakuni who watched each other.

“Additionally, the culprit would have had to-” Senji began only to be interrupted.

“I knew it! This proves that Machi is the culprit,” Wakuni interjected with too much fervor for his own good despite the fact that he was seething. All the while, I put my ElectroID away. “She had her coat, so it would be a lot less risky for her to go and get the materials she needs for the bomb. And lets not forget the bomb itself. Machi is the only one with the talent for constructing things.”

“Wakuni, this is a frameup, honest. I was outside the entire time. I went to the shed to see if there was any way of getting past that locked door without forcing it open,” Machi said as she visibly flinched from Wakuni lashing out at her. “Besides that, I build robots, not bombs! I’ve never-”

“You don’t have any proof Machi,” Wakuni jeered as he pointed his right pointer finger at Machi. “Everyone here has an alibi except for you Machi. And besides that, we’re not idiots Machi. We saw you fix the lift and you yourself admit to completing Monokuma’s game of trust. You are the only person who could have made this bomb.”

“Wakuni, calm down, we are doing everything we can to find the culprit but lashing out at every suspect isn’t going to help,” Tanabe warned sternly. “Need I remind you that despite what Machi says about you, you lack an alibi as well?”

That earned a glare that made Tanabe visibly flinch as Wakuni chastised him. “Do you seriously put me on the same level as Machi? Do you seriously think that I killed the best person here? Because as I would like to remind you all, I was standing guard to protect you all. Except of course, for you, Nishi, and Machi.”

“Well, since you insist on accusing Machi, you ought to know that you have no way to account for your whereabouts either,” Sama remarked as she put her hands on her hips. “Nobody can verify that you stayed at your post after the others left.”

At that, Wakuni opened his mouth to make a retort but nothing came out. I meanwhile almost impulsively opened mine. But before I said anything. I thought about what I was about to do. It didn’t take me too long to think of a reason why Wakuni could not have left his post, but the implications of explaining it weighed on me. Namely, the fact that I would be making Machi the sole suspect and I didn’t know whether or not I wanted to support her argument yet.

*(Well, I know for a fact that Wakuni is innocent so I have to acquit him. Otherwise we’re dead for sure. So, here goes nothing I guess.)*

“I don’t agree with what Wakuni is doing right now but he’s right about not being able to make the bomb,” I intervened with a clear and audible sigh. “Not only would it be too risky for him to gather all the materials such as the fertilizer, but he would have had to have left his post for an extensive period of time which he couldn’t have done because Tanabe, Machi, and myself could have returned to our rooms at any time. And if he were away and we came back, it would expose him immediately.”

It didn’t take anyone long at all for them to agree with my statement. Partially because over half the people knew it was true including Wakuni, myself, Machi, and Tanabe. But of course, once they took their attention away from Wakuni, I could practically feel them shift their focus on the remaining suspect, Machi Satu, just as I predicted they would.

“I didn’t seriously think it was Wakuni anyways,” Tanabe admitted with some degree of reluctance in his tone but still easily enough. “You do need to calm down though. Like I said, we are already doing everything we can.”

“Hmm, whatever Tanabe,” Wakuni replied with a dismissive wave of his right hand before glaring once more at Machi. “Let's just focus on finishing up this nightmare so that Machi can pay for what she’s done. Because as I understand it, she is the only person who can’t prove their alibi, she’s planned out our deaths since day one, and obviously is the only person who could have made those bombs.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, I didn’t blow up your brother,” Machi replied after swallowing. “I’m telling you this is a frameup. If you vote for me, the only person who’s going to walk away from this is the person who killed him.”

“Although she is suspicious Machi does deserve the chance to defend herself,” Senji warned Wakuni with a sigh of his own and then turned to face Machi herself. “Machi, if you were indeed framed as you claim to have been, can you think of anyone else who might have murdered Yakawa?”

Machi hesitated, grit her teeth, and looked around the room. Silence fell on everyone as she did. But with each passing second that she failed to open her mouth, suspicion almost tangibly grew. That said, she obviously couldn’t accuse anyone because everyone else could account for their whereabouts at the time where the culprit could have set up the bombs. No matter what she said, it was going to be refuted.

“Alright, I don’t like the way Wakuni is acting,” Sama eventually interjected as she put her hands on her hips. “But he makes several good points. You can’t prove your alibi, you have a talent that would at least help you pull this murder off, and you can’t even think of anyone who could have framed you.”

I meanwhile, closed my eyes and sighed and acknowledged that it really did suck to be right sometimes. This was it. Virtually everyone suspected Machi of being the culprit and if I didn’t intervene, they were going to vote for her. The only question in the front of my mind was whether or not I should intervene. On one hand, the current evidence pointed towards Machi, but she helped in the investigation, she seemed genuine about changing even before that, and there were several unanswered questions about the case. At the end of it all, I opened my eyes.

*(I never thought that I’d want to believe that Machi was innocent but here we are. All the evidence points to her but I don’t want to vote yet. At the very least, there are several questions that we need answered before we vote on who killed Yakawa. I don’t have evidence to support Machi but I’m not comfortable with ending this trial like this so I guess the only safe option is to lie and recuse myself later if it turns out that I’m wrong.)*

“I don’t want to rush anything, and it seems pretty early to ask this,” Sanda began as he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. “But if Machi can’t even defend herself anymore, does that mean we’re ready to vote?”

“We are not. I didn’t want to say this earlier but Machi hasn’t told you everything. She actually does have an alibi,” I lied through my teeth. “I went to the cafeteria and saw her on my way there when I passed by the first aid station. I actually went in there to get some spare bandages for myself but I couldn’t find any and I digress. I saw her in the pharmacy area on the ground pilfering through vials, and screaming about- well- I don’t want to go into the exact details because it's pretty humiliating. Nothing too personal but- well- I digress. I didn’t speak up sooner because I wanted to save her the embarrassment, but this is getting out of hand.”

Everyone more or less paused at that. Senji looked at me with some degree of skepticism, Machi grit her teeth and looked away, and Tanabe just looked me in the eyes for a brief moment. The silence didn’t last too long though because he spoke up after that.

“Nishi is telling the truth,” Tanabe chimed in with a completely straight face. “Machi made a bit of a scene of it all and she was pretty embarrassed that we saw her acting that way so I promised not to mention it. Anyways, Machi made a pretty big mess and I do remember the place being cleaned up during investigation so she must have spent the rest of the time putting everything back. Trust me, she didn’t have the time to do what you’re accusing her of.”

There was another pause after that, and another silence that followed as the tension in the room dropped. Machi opened her mouth as if she were going to deny the alibi but she appeared to be unable to fortunately enough. With that, I visibly relaxed because we were in the clear.

*(Thank you so much Tanabe!)*

“Machi, I do not know what you were trying to hide to such an extent,” Senji interrupted with a visible frown. “But you should have told us earlier. As you are aware, the majority of us nearly decided to vote for you.”

“Senji is right,” Tanabe concurred with a thumbs up for support. “I remember back before I told Yakawa about my condition. It caused quite a bit of trouble for him and complicated the first class trial. I- the point I am trying to say is, keeping secrets like this isn’t going to help anyone. And so far, almost everyone has been supportive. Don’t be afraid to open up more Machi.”

“It wasn’t so much the situation as how I acted,” Machi falsely admitted to the group before she glared at me and Tanabe with a stare that could have sent a chill down my spine in most other situations. “I- I really didn’t want them to talk about this but I guess the cat’s out of the bag now.”

Another momentary silence followed as Wakuni brought both hands up to cover his face, took several deep breaths, and sighed as the revelation came to him. As he did, Tanabe and I both looked over in his direction to see how he would respond. And of course, a new stinging thought floated around in my mind.

*(If I’m wrong and I have to admit that I lied, he’s going to be furious.)*

Nonetheless, it was worth being safe. I knew that much even before Wakuni lowered his hands a minute later and spoke in a much calmer but melancholy manner. “Alright. I- uh. I’m sorry Machi. I wanted the culprit to suffer and I- well I thought it was you because of everything that pointed towards you killing my brother. I know I shouldn’t misdirect my anger but-”

“We forgive you Wakuni, you just lost your brother and we understand that. But you really do need to quit,” Tanabe interrupted. Naturally, nobody contested that on either account. “You know that we can’t afford to lash out at every suspect.”

“Right,” Wakuni almost trailed off as he looked away from the group. “So now what? We don’t have any suspects left. Who needs to die- I mean. Who could have done it?”

“I was going to mention earlier before I was interrupted,” Senji put emphasis on that last word. “There is another thing the culprit needed to do. If we can determine the method in which the killer set up the explosives in the library despite the door being locked shut, it may shed light on how the culprit set up the murder. And more importantly, who murdered your brother, Wakuni. Now with that said, does anyone have any explanations as to how it happened?”

There was a brief period of silence after that. During which, I wracked my brain to come up with answers as to how the culprit might have done it, but instead, I only debunked several possibilities one at a time until nothing was left except for one obviously incorrect one.

*(Alright, I refuse to believe that the culprit set everything up before the door was locked so I guess I’m going to have to wait to see what everyone else has to say.)*

The first person to speak up, surprisingly enough, was Wakuni himself. He was still breathing heavier than normal, but he was much calmer than before nonetheless. “Maybe it was the mastermind? They could order Monokuma to open the door. Or even set up the bomb while he or she had an alibi.”

“I thought about that possibility myself, but I think the mastermind is bound to the rules of the game as well,” I refuted with more than enough reluctance in my tone. It would be amazing if we could pin the mastermind to the crime, but I doubted it. Nonetheless, I asked just to be safe. “Monokuma, I know you’re not allowed to participate or intervene in murder. Does that apply to helping the mastermind?”

“Hmm,” Monokuma crossed his arms. “I don’t like giving out information but I suppose it is necessary this one time. I am not allowed to directly assist or interfere with murder no matter who the culprit or victim is.”

*(Directly?... Well, at least Wakuni’s theory is debunked assuming he’s telling the truth. And he probably is since he could kill us all anyway without the class trial if he wanted.)*

“How do we know he’s telling the truth?” Sanda remarked as he crossed his arms and eyed the stuffed teddy bear with what looked like suspicion.

“As much as I hate to say it, he most likely is,” I responded before Monokuma could interrupt the class trial. “If he wanted to, he could kill us all without the class trial. So there is no reason for him or the mastermind to go through all of these extra steps.”

Sanda bit his lip but he stepped down from his accusation anyways. Moreover, nobody else argued with what I had to say either. It was certainly unfortunate and I felt a small wave of disappointment, but it was the truth and we all knew it.

“Well,” Machi cut through the silence in what must have been an attempt to keep the trial going. “Could the culprit have hidden parts of the bombs in the ventilation shafts or somewhere else in the library? They might have dropped it onto the floor ready to go.”

“That couldn’t have happened,” I answered almost immediately. “Sama, Senji, and I have searched the library thoroughly and we didn’t find any sort of contraption to move the bombs. On top of that, the grates of the ventilation shafts are still there. I don’t think anyone could remotely unscrew them, remove them, take parts of the bomb out, and then screw them back on.”

“Hmm,” Sama bit her lip and hesitated. At the same time, I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear. “I really don’t want to say this right now but could someone have sent one of Machi’s drones to assemble the thing? The window was broken after all.”

I was right. I sighed as Machi and Wakuni both tensed up a bit. In the latter’s case, it looked like he was trying to restrain himself. That was fortunate enough but some degree of doubt hung in the air as everyone looked over at Machi with what had to be suspicion.

“I did not order any of my drones to put those bombs together,” Machi defended vehemently as she crossed her arms. “Nor did anyone else for that matter. All of my drones are under my complete control.”

“That really doesn’t help your case Machi,” Wakuni interjected as he gripped the podium with both hands and shook his head.

Meanwhile, I thought about the crime scene and what Sama said to see whether or not there was anything to prove Machi’s innocence or lack thereof. The current accusation ran on the assumption that her drone broke the window and flew through it. That made sense because that was the only means of entering the library that only her drones could do. So, I took a deep breath and thought about the area to determine if Machi’s drones could have entered the library through it.

That was when I remembered. There was almost no glass on the ground near the window. Not on the inside anyways. My previous assumption was that most of the glass fell outside the window. And then, it hit me. If that was the case, then machi could not have used her drones to circumvent the lock.

*(I just need to know for sure.)*

“Senji, Sama, Wakuni,” I interjected a little faster than necessary. “I have an important question for you. Did any of you happen to notice how much of the glass fell to the ground outside of the lodge?”

There was a brief pause after that, but Senji nodded and spoke up easily enough. “I did re-examine the window after you left Nishi. And I do believe that the majority of the glass landed outside the win- oh, excellent find Nishi.”

“Can someone explain what is going on?” Sanda said as he scratched the back of his head with his right hand in what looked like confusion.

“Of course,” I replied as I visibly relaxed and exhaled a sigh of relief. “Machi could not have used her drones to circumvent the lock because the window wasn’t broken from the outside. If it were, there would be more glass on the floor inside the lodge. There is hardly any glass inside the lodge though so the window to the library, and probably Yakawa’s room as well, were shattered from the shockwaves that were produced by the bomb explosions.”

At that, Machi and Wakuni both visibly relaxed though they did take one last glance at each other and around the room as I waited to see if somebody would contest what I found. Fortunately enough, nobody did.

*(Well, it looks like Machi is in the clear for now. I just need to find out how the culprit managed to do this.)*

That objective proved to be an issue however, because silence once again fell upon the room as people looked around and apparently waited for other people to speak up. Nobody did however. Once or twice, people opened their mouths, but nobody actually spoke until Sanda did.

“Alright, I believe we’re stumped,” Sanda sighed and then shook his head in what must have been disappointment. “Nishi, you’ve rebutted every argument as to how the culprit did it up to this point. Is there any particular theory that you think is correct?”

“Well- uh,” I began. A few beads a sweat formed on my head as I thought back to my own attempts to figure out how the culprit did it. “I did think of something but up until now I refused to believe that it was true. In fact, I still don’t think it's the answer. The only thing I could think of was that the culprit didn’t circumvent the lock. That they set everything up before the library door was locked. But of course, it’s an absurd theory.”

A cold chill rushed over me as I looked around the room and saw everyone else’s reaction. Senji didn’t so much as blink which was problematic in of itself, but Tanabe flinched, Sanda winced, Wakuni bit his lip, Sama looked away and turned a shade paler, and Machi brought her right hand up to her forehead. Overall, none of them looked as though they were ready to dismiss the idea.

“Your idea is not as ridiculous as you make it sound,” Senji spoke up. I swallowed as he did. “As you are aware, we have just ruled out all means of entry into the library while the door was locked but there are other means of setting up the crime in an inaccessible environment.”

“And- uh, those would be?” Wakuni managed to say offhandedly. He spoke calmly enough, but a few beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead as well.

“Well, anyone who read Blue Ink, that book I wrote, knows there are several means of setting up a murder without needing to bypass a lock,” Senji recounted calmly enough. “There were five possibilities that I considered for this case however. The first two, that the culprit was in the room the whole time and that the culprit didn’t enter the room until after the door opened are impossible due to the order of events, the possibility of a secret passage is plausible but Sama informed me that there are no other passages that lead to the library-”

“I can confirm that. Back when we were first locked out of the library, Monokuma confirmed that there were no secret passages or anything like that which led in or out of the library,” Sama nodded vigorously and then sighed. “Although, you know referencing your book is suspicious right?”

“That book is available to everyone and I have been proven innocent anyways. Besides that, we are trying to find the culprit so I cannot afford to withhold information from you.” Senji dismissed with the wave of his left hand. “Now as I was saying, there are two theories left. The first is that Nishi is correct and the bombs were set up prior to the door locking. The second, without delving into too much detail because of Monokuma’s rule, someone from another class might have committed the murder.”

The whole group winced at both of those options. Honestly though, I definitely couldn’t blame them for that. We didn’t know anyone from the other classes and the prospect of trying to determine who set up a crime that far in advance was absolutely staggering. It even made me freeze in place for a moment. However, as I waited and thought about the matter, it didn’t take long for the answer as to which possibility was correct to come to me. With it, the cold harsh reality of the situation came crashing down on me and my heart skipped a beat.

I wracked my brain once more for answers about how the culprit could have circumvented the lock. This time, with an elevated pulse as I desperately tried to determine another way in which the culprit could have entered the library. But as I did, my efforts once again gave me nothing. The ventilation shaft, the window, and the door were the only means of entry and all of them were proven impossible to use, nobody could survive being in the library for the time it would take for someone to wait in there for all of this time to set up the bombs and they would have missed the class trials anyways, Yakawa died before the door was opened, Monokuma confirmed that Senji’s other two theories were wrong, and I couldn’t think of any other solution. So, I sighed and mentally braced myself to explain the horrifying truth to the class.

*(Of all the times that I am right, why did I have to be right about this?!)*

“G- guys,” I said weakly as I nervously placed twiddled my thumbs. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Monokuma himself admitted that it was impossible for the classes to contact each other back when we first received the motives. So uh- without going into further details about that, the other option is the only one left.”

*(This is going to suck.)*

“I agree with that,” Senji replied with a quick nod of his own before he visibly exhaled. If I had to guess, although he acted calm enough, he wasn’t too keen about the conclusion either. “I know this will make the trial more difficult but-”

“Wait just a second,” Sanda interrupted as he crossed her arms. “Just because it's a possibility doesn’t mean it's the only possibility. We can’t just assume that it happened when there might have been some other trick that the culprit used.”

“Agreed,” Wakuni remarked with a nod of his own. “This assumption is ridiculous anyways. The culprit didn’t receive the motive until this morning. So they wouldn’t have had any reason to murder my brother.”

“Motives aren’t everything,” Machi interjected as she grabbed her podium and leaned forward to get our attention. She sounded somewhat distraught when she spoke however. “The culprit may have just wanted to leave on his or her own.”

“This is still nothing but speculation,” Sama argued as her eyes darted around the room as if she were looking for agreement. Sure enough, Wakuni, Sanda, and even Tanabe agreed with her. She breathed a brief sigh of relief when she noticed and continued. “Nishi, you have no evidence to support that your theory is actually true.”

“Wait just a second!” Monokuma interrupted as he jumped up in his chair and raised both hands to grab our attention. “This is it isn’t it?! You guys are split down the middle again! In that case, I, your headmaster, am proud to present the one and only Newpoint Lodge’s very own Morphenominal Trial Grounds! For those tuning in, each participant needs to pick a side and debate each other to determine which argument is right! For those participating, you know the drill!”

*(Here we go again. Then again, I should have seen this coming.)*

This time, I resigned myself to the situation and didn’t even hesitate. Instead, I immediately looked down at the screen. Like the other four times that I participated, there were two side by side options. The question was ‘when was the murder set up?’ The rightward arrow to the left of the screen said ‘after the motive’ and the left arrow to the right of the screen said ‘before the door was locked’. Like always, I picked the latter. Though as I did, I took a deep breath and braced myself for the obvious understanding that neither option was good. The latter option was true, but Senji was right about the class trial getting much more complicated.

*(I only hope that we can still solve the case.)*

I didn’t have much time to think about that however, because within a few seconds after that, the mechanical whirl of the podiums kicked in. Like always, we held onto them as they moved and like usual, they aligned neatly into two rows that faced each other. And then, the only thing left was for the floor to descend which it did with a series of clicks until finally, it stopped and we were inside the chamber beneath the standard class trial room.

When we did, I took the opportunity to look around. Unlike last time, the room felt a few degrees warmer than it did in the main area. Aside from that, the walls appeared to be similar to the cage walls that surrounded the class trial room. Beyond them were dozens of brown and grey gears that cranked audibly together and would most likely have crushed us within moments if we touched them. At the far ends, the wall was solid grey to my left and to my right, it contained the same dark green circular countdown timer with a neon green 00:00:32 on its face just behind Monokuma’s throne.

Finally, I determined who chose which side. And sure enough, like always, I was outnumbered. Machi and Senji were the only living people to side with me and the portraits on our side were Yakawa’s, Koike’s, Saeki’s, Sasori’s, and Eto’s. Meanwhile, the other group had Sama, Tanabe, Sanda, and Wakuni, and the portraits of Naya, Yasui, Seno, and Shiro.

I didn’t have much time to ponder the situation however before the first person, Sanda, initiated the debate. “Like I said earlier, Nishi’s theory is just a theory. There is no reason to believe that it is correct at the moment.”

“We also have no reason to believe otherwise. Additionally, it is the only possibility we have that has not been disproven,” Senji asserted calmly enough. “We have every reason to at least discuss it and nothing to lose in doing so.”

“Nothing to lose?” Wakuni raised his voice as he slammed the podium with his right hand. It looked as though it was more out of concern and frustration than anger however. “What if we get sidetracked and choose the wrong person? What if Monokuma ends the trial early? What if my brother’s killer just walks away? We have everything to lose.”

“We’ll make sure we get sidetracked. We promise,” I stepped forward replied earnestly with more than a hint of pity in my tone. “We’re going to get through this Wakuni. But you just have to trust us.”

“If you are right? Then how come there isn’t any evidence to support your claim?” Sama remarked as she grit her teeth. At the same time, a few beads of sweat dripped down her forehead. “Senji and I searched the library and we’ve found nothing!”

“To be fair, we’ve been operating under a different assumption the entire investigation and class trial,” I replied quickly enough. “I’m sure that the more that we discuss the issue, the more it will make sense.”

“No offense to any of you,” Tanabe inserted while he raised both his hands in a calming motion. “But the delay makes no sense. If anything went wrong, or if Yakawa wasn’t in his room when the bomb went off, the plan would fail and we’d be alerted about the attempt. The culprit would want to be careful when putting their life in the balance you know. After all, we all know what’s at stake.”

“The culprit could have just manipulated events to make sure that Yakawa was in his room at the time,” Machi replied with a shrug of her own. “And if they died before it happened, it isn’t like they would know that they would die.”

“Wait,” Sama went wide-eyed for a moment. “If the culprit’s dead, they can’t still be the blackened can they? When did we establish that?”

“If you recall, Monokuma informed us that the blackened is whoever planned and commited the murder back during the first class trial,” Senji replied sternly but calmly once more. “Being alive is not a criterion. Hence why a suicide leaves the victim as the blackened.”

“That still doesn’t answer why they would murder my brother,” Wakuni explained as he brushed the other explaination aside with his right hand. “What motive would they even have to kill Yakawa back then?”

“That would depend on when the bomb was set up I think,” Machi replied but as she tapped her chin with her right pointer finger in thought. “But honestly, it doesn’t matter. Everyone wants to leave this place. Shiro and I both intended to kill someone at some point based on that alone.”

“Hey, I know it's possible that someone wanted to wait that long, but it's not necessarily true,” Sanda replied by gritting his teeth and rubbing the back of his head with his right hand nervously. “Don’t you think it might be better to examine the more plausible explanations first?”

“We have already examined the other possibilities,” Senji replied in a deadpan tone as he narrowed his eyes at Sanda. After that however, he sighed. “We all had a chance to determine other means of entering the library but we have not discovered any. It is only logical that we explore this possibility next.”

“I’m still not one hundred percent sure that the other classes couldn’t have interfered somehow,” Tanabe replied cautiously as he crossed his arms. After that, he looked away for a moment. “They had no trouble talking to us after all.”

“They could only talk to us because Monokuma set it up that way,” Machi rebutted soundly and bluntly after she shook her head no. “Besides, communication and presence are two totally different things and Monokuma made it sound like the last one was impossible.”

“Hold on! Suppose you’re right for a second,” Sama replied in a tone of evident desperation as her breathing became heavier. “How would we even figure out who the culprit is?! We don’t know when or how they set the bomb up! If you’re right, then this case is hopeless!”

“It's not hopeless Sama,” I assured her as best as I could while I made a calming motion with my right hand. I’m not sure how well I calmed her down however because she still looked evidently concerned. And if I had to guess, that was why she opposed the proposition in the first place. Regardless, I continued. “We always find a way. It's only hopeless if we don’t try.”

That was it. That was enough to make the opposing group back down from their argument. Albeit, most of them exchanged nervous glances with each other as the neon arrow on our side lit up and the floor began to rise once more. Unlike most other times however, the end of the debate did not give me a sense of relief. In fact, I knew that things were going to be harder from this point on.

*(I need to get everyone on the same page, we nail down a window of opportunity, and we need to find who set up the murder such a long time ago. I just hope we can do it.)*

I tried but failed to hide my own concern as our podiums safely glided back into position. We all made it back to our spots safely of course, but that thought lingered in my mind. And as I looked around the room, I noticed that nobody was pleased with the outcome of the debate. Not even Machi and Senji who looked at least mildly concerned themselves. I sighed again.

*(This is going to suck.)*

“So uh-” Wakuni grumbled. For a moment, he looked away, but he looked back at the rest of us soon after that. “This is really it. The culprit really acted before the door was locked. And- it could have been anyone.”

“I am afraid that that appears to be the case,” Senji concurred with a brief nod. He crossed his arms however. “I wish there were some easier explanation to this whole ordeal, but at least we determined that much.”

If I had to guess, that did very little to ease anyone’s fears. Not only did everyone who had previously argued against my theory look as though they were recovering from some shock and mentally preparing for another one, but Sama and Sanda both still looked as though they were trying to keep from panicking.

In the former case, Sama looked up at Monokuma and protested. “Monokuma, you have to dismiss this case. You can’t seriously expect us to solve this nightmare. The culprit acted not long after we showed up. The culprit might not even be alive at this point.”

“Honestly,” The animatronic teddy bear replied with a shrug. “I don’t necessarily expect the trial to go either way. But hey, that's the fun of it! You win some, you lose some, people get executed! But even if you are right about when the culprit acted, I’m not throwing the case out over a minor hiccup. Nope, this case is one-hundred percent solvable I think so the show must go on.”

“You think?” Machi retorted back as she crossed both of her arms and raised her right eyebrow. “That’s easy for you to say. You probably have the murder recorded with those cameras of yours. You wouldn’t have that attitude if you had to actually solve the case like the rest of us.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that- it's totally possible that- I might be able to solve this!” Monokuma defended. After that, he dismissed it with the wave of his right paw. “You know what? It doesn’t matter since I do have it on camera. Now get back to solving the case before I decide to end the class trial because I’m not dismissing it.”

Unsurprisingly, both Sama and Machi complied with the threat and the rest of the group turned to face each other once more. Albeit, with some grumbling from both Machi and Wakuni. But nonetheless, I did my best to refocus on the case. And as I looked around the room, I could tell that everyone else did as well.

*(It was a good try Sama but I’m afraid Monokuma isn’t making this easy for us.)*

Neither was the rest of the class. That much became evident as Sama spoke up. “Not gonna lie. This is bad, I don’t even know where to start. Does anyone else have any idea where this nightmare even began?”

“I am afraid not at the moment but try to calm down,” Senji said as calmingly as he extended his left out in a stopping motion. “We always manage to figure something out. Just take a deep breath and we will resolve this together.”

“This isn’t something to just take lightly Senji,” Wakuni growed. He nearly slammed his podium with his right hand but he stopped himself. “You know what’s at stake. We can’t let that monster get away with killing my brother! We absolutely have to find out who murdered him.”

“Not just that either. We have our lives hanging in the balance based on something I can’t even remember,” Sanda concurred as he crossed his arms and looked away. “Heck. We aren’t even the only ones either. There are three other classes that will get the axe if we can’t get it right.”

*(Thanks for the reminder.)* I deadpanned.

Nonetheless, it didn’t take me much time at all to determine that that wasn’t the most immediate of my concerns. No, my most immediate problem was right in front of me. Like all the other times before, the class was descending into a panic. And like many times before, my pulse picked up in anticipation. However, unlike before, as I reached out with my right hand, a good part of me knew that it was already too late to stop the situation.

Senji: “Everyone, calm down.”

Sama: “Anyone could have done it!”

Sanda: “What are we going to solve this?!”

Wakuni: “We have to get this right!”

Senji: “Will everyone stop for just a moment? We can determine what everyone remembers and move forward from there.”

Sama: “It could have been any of us. In fact, the culprit might even be dead by this point! How are we going to find who did this?!”

Sanda: “We need to figure this out. But how are we even supposed to remember everything that happened?”

Wakuni: “It's easy for you to say that we shouldn’t panic right right, but it's not your brother who’s dead, Senji.”

Machi: “That isn’t going to work Senji. I think they need answers before they’re going to stop this. And to be honest, I can’t blame them.”

Sama: “It's not like we can get testimonies, confirm alibis, or any of the other stuff that we usually do.”

Sanda: “I Know that I can hardly remember anything that happened back then, let alone everything that we did before the library door was locked.”

Wakuni: “In fact, I haven’t entirely ruled out the possibility that it was you. You don’t seem to be nearly nearly as scared as everyone else.”

Machi: “It's a pretty bad situation. If I were to be completely honest, I’m worried about it too.”

Sama: “I- I can hardly remember anything back then. How are we supposed to narrow down the list of suspects?”

Sanda: “Sama is right, it’s almost like we’re bad to square one again. In fact, I would say that we’re worse off than that.”

Senji: “That is preposterous Wakuni. There is absolutely no way that I would murder your brother Wakuni.”

Tanabe: “I agree with Machi, it looks pretty bad. But, perhaps we could start by solving some of the questions.”

Sama: “We don’t even know where to begin with this. I mean, everyone who isn’t the culprit knows they aren’t.”

Sanda: “At least then, we only had seven suspects to deal with. Now we have to worry about sixteen suspects.”

Senji: “I really do care about you. All of you. And if you don’t believe that Wakuni, at least acknowledge that I would have died for Koike.”

Tanabe: “Nishi, you’re usually the person to solve dilemmas like these. Do you have any ideas on how to proceed?”

Sama: “But aside from that, what do we even do?! Anyone could have set the bombs up at any time to kill Yakawa!”

Sanda: “We’re going to have to start the class trial over again with the knowledge we have. And I don’t know how much longer we have.”

Senji: “Does it really seem as if I would try to graduate knowing full well that Koike would be executed in the process?”

I closed my eyes, held out my hand to stop Tanabe, took a deep breath, and wracked my brain for answers. And as I thought about the situation, Machi’s first assertion did sound about right. Everyone would stop panicking once they found a good place to continue and the initial shock wore off. The only question of course was where to start.

I thought more about the matter, took another deep, and concentrated on what each of them was trying to say. Most of it was panicked chatter that wouldn’t help. However, as the debate continued, Sanda said something that stuck with me. Something that made me open my eyes and lower my hand.

*(Of course! We need to treat the case as if we were starting over. That means we need to determine everything that we usually determine at the start of the class trials.)*

Even after the thought occurred to me, it did take me a second to sift through the information that we needed to re-establish in my mind. And to be honest, the revelation didn’t make me feel any less tense. But within a short moment, I realized the obvious fact that Yakawa’s time and cause of death weren’t going to change so the only thing left to discuss was the window of opportunity in which the culprit set up the bomb. And more importantly, something equally important came to mind.

*(I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before, but we can narrow down the culprit’s window of opportunity to set up the bombs to before the library was locked. If nobody could enter the library now, nobody could enter the library back then after it was locked either.)*

“Guys!” I shouted shortly after the quite frankly obvious revelation came to me. Luckily, that made everyone stop and turn to face me. And from there, I was able to speak up in a normal tone. “I can see that we clearly need to refocus our efforts but luckily I know just the place to start. We just need to determine the new window of opportunity that the culprit had to commit the crime.”

“Yeah, and then sift through all the information, determine who couldn’t have done it, and narrow the suspects down to one person,” Sama said with a tone that was still clearly concerned as she crossed his arms. “Are we seriously going this?”

“Well, Monokuma’s not dropping the case so we don’t have a choice and I’ve always been told that I have a good memory so- uh, I think so,” I replied earnestly as I rubbed the back of my head with my right hand. “I do have some good news though. I remember the library being locked the day before Naya died and if the culprit can’t enter the library now, they couldn’t back then after it was locked either. So it definitely had to have happened before then. We just need to know the earliest it could have happened.”

Sanda, Sama, and Tanabe visibly exhaled at that. And after that a brief silence fell upon the room. A few people looked as though they were thinking about the matter or straining themselves to remember what happened. Sama in particular closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with her right hand. But what mattered was that most of the tension in the room was gone and that we could move on. The concern was still there of course and even I felt tense, but we could continue the trial.

That’s when I noticed Machi bite her lip as if she had something to say. Then, she opened her mouth once, but she closed it and shook her head as if she changed her mind about saying what she was thinking. However, it didn’t last for long before someone else, namely Senji, picked up on what was happening and questioned her.

“Machi,” Senji asked politely enough. “Do you know something regarding the situation that you might wish to share with the rest of us?”

“I uhm,” Machi swallowed and then nodded. After that, she took a deep breath and I frowned at what did not look like a good sign. “Alright. You remember when the shed burned down? Well, the earliest that the culprit could have acted was after Koike and Sama left the library that time.”

“Wait a moment,” Sama interjected as she narrowed her eyes at Machi. “How do you remember who was in the library? How do you even know who was there? I- vaguely remember being there with Koike but I don’t remember you being there.”

“Well, I remember that day vividly for a- variety of reasons,” Machi replied before she sighed and continued. “You ran into me on my way out of the library. I was carrying a basket with a bunch of papers and- mechanical junk in it. I saw you and Koike enter and neither of you could have set up the bombs without the other knowing so it had to have happened after you both left.”

I wracked my brain for a moment as the memory of the event slowly came back to the front of my mind. As fuzzy as the memory was, I remembered Sanda getting Sama, Koike, and I to head down to our dorms to check on Machi, Seno, and Yakawa. It didn’t end well of course, but Machi was absolutely right. At the very least, it caught Sanda’s interest because he spoke up.

“If I may ask, what exactly were you doing in the library?” Sanda asked as he raised his right eyebrow at her. “I mean, what would you be doing with a basket of paper and mechanical junk like you said?”

“Well, that is a fair question, but there’s no easy way to answer it,” Machi said as she visibly turned a shade paler and looked away from the group. “I- uh. Well I was- I was removing a contraption that I set up to- well to kill Sama.”

At that, the group more or less descended into shock and outrage. Wakuni visibly shook his fists and seethed, Senji narrowed his eyes at Machi, Sama just closed her eyes and shook her head, Sanda bit his lip, Tanabe flinched, and I turned towards her and went wide-eyed as my pulse picked up. Not with surprise, but with the knowledge that her confession was about to start.

“Now, I want you all to know that I decided not to go through with anything,” Machi quickly stated as she held both her arms up to form a stopping motion. “But, while Saeki discovered eight murder plans that I made, I actually created nine of them. It was another one to murder Sama so I decided to tell her, Saeki, and Nishi. Basically people that needed to know but definitely wouldn’t implement it.”

“You- you actually decided to go through with that one!” Sama asked before she shivered violently. “Why?! What do you have against me?!”

“I’ve never had anything against you. And I decided not to go through with it! I- I took it down seconds after I set it up,” Machi replied in a clearly pained and desperate tone. At that, she reached into her coat, pulled out a rolled up piece of paper, and began to unravel it. “In fact, I don’t want there to be any more secrets. So, I made this copy to share with the rest of the class if you’re okay with it.”

Sama nodded and Machi turned the piece of paper around to show the rest of the class. Although Machi’s own hands trembled, I saw clearly that it was the same copy of the plan that she showed me during the investigation. Complete with mechanical terminology, Machi’s detailed writing style, and a detailed outline of what would happen just like the other eight murder plans. She held it out for a few seconds and silence followed, but in case we couldn’t read it, Machi broke the silence and spoke up.

“For those who can’t see it, the jest of the plan was to coat part of the chandelier in a highly explosive, photosensitive fuel gel and plant some firecrackers around the area so that everyone would believe the culprit simply took them from the storage room. Then, when I had an alibi, I would instruct a drone to shine a light through the library window and set off the gel with a light. Sama would die and I would have an alibi,” Machi relented in a clear strain in her voice as she rolled the paper up once more and slid it into her coat. “I ditched this plan just like the other ones and I threw it in the incinerator, but I kept copies on my scroll in case I needed to redraw them for the sake of a case.”

The tension in the room was already palpable as most of the group visibly turned on Machi in what had to be shock and outrage. The most prominent of all the responses however was Wakuni’s responses. For a moment, he stopped and stared at the plan with what had to be shock. Shortly after, he unclenched his eyes and glared at Machi. If looks could kill, Machi would have died right there.

And when Sanda spoke up moments after that, things only got worse. “Hey, that plan doesn’t look too different than what happened to Yakawa. Do you suppose it's possible that the culprit found the plan and based their own off of it?”

“That’s possible,” Wakuni hissed despite his calm enough demeanor in a tone that made me, Machi, Sama, and Tanabe shiver. “Of course, we can’t discount the possibility that the culprit lied about her murder plan being thrown away in the first place. You finally settled down on one you thought would succeed didn’t you Machi?”

“Wakuni, I had no involvement-” Machi began only to be cut off.

“Don’t you dare lie to me Machi!” Wakuni exclaimed as he slammed both of his fists on the podium for emphasis. Machi flinched at that. But regardless, Wakuni pointed to her with his right hand and continued. “It was your plan that the culprit used Machi! My brother is dead because of you! And what’s more, you had to have told the others who know after Saeki announced your murder plans at the first class trial because that’s the only plan you knew nobody knew about! You were the only person with the original murder plans when the murder was set up Machi!”

“I see where you’re going with this but Machi is innocent, Wakuni,” I quickly interjected. That caused him to glare at me for a moment and more Machi to look down at the floor. Regardless, I continued. “If she set the bombs up, Sama and Koike would both have noticed. It wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. She couldn’t have set it up afterwards either because as I recall, she was under Yakawa’s supervision after that shed inci-”

“Nishi, I thought you were on my side,” Wakuni interrupted as he pointed to himself with his right thumb. “Are you seriously defending that piece of garbage? Even if she isn’t the culprit, she is still responsible for my brother’s death. But more importantly, you know she’s the only person who could have killed my brother. Or has she tricked you too?”

“Wakuni, you’re going to make her cry,” Tanabe interjected as well. His tone sounded as though he was a bit ruffled and he gripped the podium with what had to be anticipation, but otherwise, he seemed to be recovering quickly enough. Sure enough Machi’s eyes were in fact beginning to water.

That only made Wakuni snap at Tanabe. “Well of course she’s about to cry Tanabe. All she ever cares about is herself. All she has ever cared about is herself. So, she took the life of someone who dedicated his own to saving others and now she’s about to lose the one thing that she cares about. Her life!” Wakuni turned to Machi. “I hope it's agonizing Machi. I hope your death is prolonged and-”

“Enough Wakuni!” Senji interjected forcefully and with a raised voice. “Nishi has already demonstrated that Machi could not have been the culprit so it is absolutely pointless to continue this line of accusations. If you have proof or even a theory as to how Machi committed the act, you are free to speak up. But otherwise, the culprit had to have found the plan in the incinerator room.”

At that, there was about a thirty second pause as the group looked at Wakuni and awaited his response save for Machi who didn’t even bother to look up but instead started to drip tears down her cheek. Over time, Wakuni calmed enough to the point where he relented, but not with any agreement for Senji’s argument.

“Fine,” Wakuni eventually growled as he crossed his arms, turned away from the group, and took a few heavy sighs. “But you know this isn’t over!”

“Anyways,” Senji went on as if Wakuni hadn’t made that comment. “Based upon what Nishi said, it appears if the culprit lacked the opportunity to plant the bomb until Sama and Koike left the library which means that the window of opportunity for the culprit is even smaller than Machi anticipated.”

I nodded at that. Not only did it make sense logically, but as I recalled, I was with Sama and Koike when Sanda led us to the hall to check on Machi, Seno, and Yasui so I would have noticed if the bomb was placed. As I thought about that though, another recollection came to me as well. Namely, a meal that we had not long after the ordeal but just before the library door was locked. As I remembered, everyone except for Yakawa, Sasori, Seno, Yasui, and Machi attended it.

*(but Yakawa was busy cleaning up the first aid station and Sasori was busy watching Seno, Yasui, and Machi. That means that the culprit had to act before dinner started. Wait! If that’s true, then a large chunk of the class might actually have an alibi for that time!)*

I went wide-eyed as the revelation came to me and spoke up once again. This time, I could barely contain my excitement. “I can confirm Senji. I joined Sama and Koike and Sanda eventually fetched us after we heard what happened to Seno, Machi, and Sasori. I think Sanda and Sama can confirm that much. Also, everyone was either at the dinner that night just before the door was broken, were under supervision in Machi, Seno, and Yasui’s cases, was standing watch in Sasori’s case, or cleaning up the first aid station in Yakawa’s case. Senji, I know you can confirm where Yakawa was, Machi can confirm where Sasori was, and I can confirm the rest of it.”

The group more or less nodded in agreement at that as my pulse picked up with excitement and a wave of hope rushed over me. Senji and Sama were among the first to agree followed by Machi, but eventually, everyone aside from Wakuni agreed to what I said. And in Wakuni’s case, he appeared to be deep in thought.

“You seem pretty pleased with that discovery Nishi,” Senji remarked. After that, he smiled in spite of everything. “I assume that there is something else that you wish to explain to the rest of us?”

“Definitely,” I replied as soon as he finished. “Yakawa and I were watching, Machi, Yasui, and Seno at the time which means that the five of us had absolutely no time to have set up the bombs in the library.”

“Not that my brother would do that anyways,” Wakuni spoke out in a cautious tone as he uncrossed his arms, looked back at the group, and narrowed his eyes at me. “You know better than to believe that he was a suspect Nishi.”

“I never suspected him,” I defended. That much was true. “But I don’t see any reason not to mention it. I might as well prove he’s innocent so that nobody feels the need to bring him up later as a suspect.”

Wakuni relented at that. So, I took a deep breath and noticeably relaxed. As I looked around the room, it appeared as if everyone else seemed to be at least a little less visibly stressed than they had previously been as well. We hadn’t found the culprit by any means, but a narrow window of opportunity, a list of things the culprit had to do, and five people proven innocent was a good start.

*(Five down. Ten to go.)*

However, the excitement in the air dwindled almost immediately when Senji stopped, frowned, and bit his lip. If I had to guess, he had some argument about what I had to say. And as I result, my smile dropped as well.

“Hold on just a moment,” Senji interrupted. “As tasteless as this may sound, Yakawa is not here to verify that you are telling the truth. As much as I want to believe you, I am afraid I cannot just write five people off the list of suspects without definitive proof.”

*(Well- actually you have a point.)*

Luckily enough however, it didn’t take me too long to think of a counterargument to that. Several counterarguments in fact. And as soon as I did, I spoke up. “Well, first off, if I were the culprit, I wouldn’t have defended Machi when she was being accused. But if you don’t believe that, Yakawa could have told anyone if I did something suspicious and Machi was one of the people I visited. She’ll be happy to verify that I’m telling the truth.”

“Nishi is telling the truth,” Machi confirmed with a quick nod as she finally looked up at the group again. Albeit with somewhat watery eyes. “She came to my room and we had a quick talk about how I was doing. I don’t remember the exact details but I know it happened.”

“Well, I suppose that that is as good of an alibi as any,” Sanda remarked before he gave a quick shrug. “I guess that means we only have ten more alibis to find. Hey uh- Nishi. Prove me innocent next will you?”

“I can’t just choose who I acquit or don’t acquit,” I replied kindly enough with a small sigh as I did. “I have to follow the evidence and to be honest, even I am having difficulty remembering everything that far back.”

“Well, at least that’s five people who we know didn’t do it,” Sama replied. She was still taking deep breaths but she seemed calmer than before. “We might actually manage to finish this stupid trial alive.”

“I wouldn’t count them all as innocent so quickly if I were you,” Wakuni interjected as he narrowed his eyes once more at Machi. By this point though, I wasn’t surprised. “There’s no reason why Machi couldn’t have just used a drone back then.”

“Except the library requires an ElectroID. That’s how we were locked out of it in the first place,” I replied as I dismissed the issue with the wave of my right hand. “And I distinctly remember visiting Machi in her room which means that either I or Yakawa had her ElectroID at the time. And before you ask, we’ve already established that the library entrance is the only way the culprit could access it. So Machi could not have used a drone to enter the library back then either.”

“I think it's safe to say that everyone Nishi acquitted is innocent Wakuni,” Tanabe chimed in. He opened his mouth to make another remark, but he was quickly cut off when Wakuni fervently shook his head no.

“Machi is not innocent!” Wakuni asserted. “Even if she wasn’t the blackened, which she has to be by the way, but even she wasn’t, she’d still have created the plan that was to murder my brother! She is not innocent and she is going to die horribly.”

I winced at that, but I argued back quickly enough. “I think what Tanabe meant to say was that Machi could not have been the blackened. I know she made the murder plan, but unless something else comes up, she literally couldn’t have set up the bombs.”

Wakuni did not take that well. As if someone flipped a switch, the man grit his teeth and sneered at everyone. Then, he looked around at the rest of his classmates. Machi failed to meet eye contact but otherwise, everyone aside from Wakuni remained calm enough.

“Why are you defending her Nishi? I thought you were on my side,” Wakuni accused as he looked towards me once again. After that, he addressed the remainder of the class. “And what about the rest of you? What happened to finding justice for Yakawa? Does he mean nothing to you?!”

“It means more to us than you believe right now. Not just our own lives either. Yakawa was our friend as well,” Tanabe argued back vehemently. “We are just trying to be careful that we choose the right person as the culprit. If Machi did kill Yakawa, I promise we’ll catch her. But for everyone’s sake, we are going to follow the evidence.”

“Speaking of following the evidence, does anyone in the class remember any that happened just before the library was locked?” Senji added. I could tell from his tone of voice that he was beginning to lose patience however. \Which if I had to guess, was the reason he didn’t leave the floor open for Wakuni to make another remark. “Anything at all would help tremendously and honestly, I am having some difficulties trying to remember things. The beginning days of our stay here feel like a blur to me.”

*(Fair enough. I hate it but I agree.)*

At that, yet another silence descended upon the room. And even before I looked around the room, it was because everyone else was lost in thought. Yet, at the same time, despite their attempts to discern anything, nobody did and the silence persisted.

I myself sighed, closed my eyes, and thought back to what I knew and the events that I remembered in hopes of noticing something that I previously overlooked. As I recalled, Yakawa and I were with Machi, Seno, and Yasui. Then, Sasori showed up to relieve Yakawa and we went to the cafeteria. I pondered a moment to think about whether or not that proved Sasori innocent, and a small flicker of disappointment came to me when I realized that I still couldn’t think of a way to acquit him. Yet, I remembered stopping by the first aid station with Yakawa and another thought came to my mind. Namely, that someone had to have messed up the first aid station that I remember Yakawa having to clean up. And with that, I opened my eyes and my mouth. But before I could speak, Tanabe did.

“I have something,” Tanabe said in an almost quiet tone as he looked away from the group. “As I alluded earlier, I ransacked the first aid station that day. Again, I’m sorry about that but I was looking for medicine. So, I was too busy to have been able to set up any of the bombs if that helps.”

“Tanabe is telling the truth,” I said. Both Sanda and Senji visually showed some skepticism at the logic but I continued regardless. “I figured that out myself just a few seconds ago. Like I said, Yakawa had to clean up the first aid station because someone ransacked it. And as I remember, Tanabe confessed to ransacking the first aid station at the end of the first class trial we had. Anyways, the place was an absolute mess. There’s no way Tanabe would have had the time to search through it and set up the bombs. He’s innocent.”

Luckily both Sanda and Senji nodded at that. In fact, the latter spoke up. “Well then, if Nishi backs the alibi up, then we can remove Tanabe from the list of suspects as well. And as for the first aid station, I do faintly recall something along the lines of everyone forgiving you for that. You have no need to worry about that.”

“Yeah, I know,” Tanabe replied with a brief nod and a smile of his own in spite of everything that we were going through. “Thanks.”

“No problem. I just wish you told us from the beginning,” I assured him in the best tone I could. “Yakawa could have helped you immediately if you had just gone to him for help instead of lying by saying that one of your tarantulas got- loose-”

As I trailed off, another memory flashed in my mind. Namely, the memory of everyone leaving the meeting to determine how Seno, Machi, and Yasui were doing. And more importantly, where everyone claimed to be. Tanabe lied about where he would be, but as I recalled, Shiro claimed to want to search the storage room, Senji said he was cleaning up the AV room, Sasori claimed to go to the cafeteria, Sanda supposedly went to the laundry room, Koike presumably went to her room, Sama claimed to be headed to the library, Wakuni supposedly went to the gym, Saeki said she wanted to search outside, and Eto and Naya stated that they were headed to the laundry room.

I went wide-eyed and stopped in my tracks. I wasn’t entirely sure about the details but as my mind raced with answers, I was pretty sure that there were a few other people that could be crossed off the list of suspects as well. Namely, Sasori and Senji because I remembered witnessing the result of their work. I ran into Senji while he returned equipment to Machi and Sasori definitely helped with the food or there wouldn’t have been any meals for Seno and the others.

“I have more good news everyone,” I surmised with a smile in spite of everything else that was going on. “We can cross Sasori and Senji off the list of suspects as well. I remember Senji cleaning up the AV room and Sasori making food for Seno and the others. I know they both did it as well because I saw the results of their work so they were too busy to have set up the bombs.”

Luckily enough, nobody contested that.

“In that case, we already have eight people accounted for,” Senji agreed once more. At that, he looked over in Wakuni’s direction as he continued to address the group. “And if I may say so, while I knew I was innocent, I am happy to know that we prove it as of now. That may make this ordeal a bit easier since I do not recall running into anyone who wasn’t already staying near the dorm area.”

A brief silence followed after that and a few people looked at Senji for a moment. But after that time, nobody contested him. And with that, we had eight alibis confirmed. We were halfway to finding the actual person that killed Yakawa.

*(I only hope that it appeases Wakuni when we do. I understand where his rage is coming from, but he needs to stop lashing out at his friends.)*

Around that time, another thought came to me. Namely, the fact that several of the people whose alibis I couldn’t confirm claimed to have been in the dorm area. Namely, Naya, Eto, Sanda, and Koike. Furthermore, Saeki claimed to have headed outside around the time. Which meant that her alibi might be verifiable as well. Assuming that Senji could confirm what he previously said.

“Senji,” I spoke up once more. “To reiterate, the only time you ran into people was when you were in the dorm area? You didn’t meet anyone while you were out collecting Machi’s equipment from the AV room? Not even Saeki?”

“As far as I remember, no,” Senji explained as he shook his head once. After that however, he paused and brought his left hand up to his chin in thought. “Wait, I actually did run into Saeki. She entered the building just before dinner time. I suppose we should cross her off the list of suspects as well because she was outside the whole time.”

“That’s what I thought,” I replied. “Saeki isn’t the only person we can remove from the pool of suspects though. Naya, Sanda, Eto, and Koike all initially stayed in the dorm area after we all checked up on Seno and the others. Sanda and Koike went to their rooms while Eto and Naya went to the laundry room. Which means if Senji never saw them leave the area-”

“Then we couldn’t have set up the bombs!” Sanda finished. At the same time, he went wide-eyed at the revelation. After that, he started counting off the people I mentioned on his right hand. “Hold on! With what you said, how many people does that leave left?!”

“Uhm,” Machi held up her right hand to make a pausing motion. She did not make eye contact with Sanda or the remainder of the group however. “That leaves three people. Sama, Shiro, and well- Wakuni unfortunately.”

Both Machi and I winced at that as I recounted the list of people that we knew for a fact didn’t kill Yakawa. It didn't take me much longer than a few seconds to determine who I hadn’t acquitted yet, but as much as I hated it, Machi was right. Wakuni, Shiro, and Sama were all suspects. And to make matters worse, Wakuni and Sama were both near the library at the time in question. In fact, Sama was in the library during the majority of the time in question.

Not that that was the focus of my attention at the moment. Instead, I turned to face Wakuni like Machi, Senji, and Sama did as we all waited for his reaction. Sure enough, he didn’t disappoint. He immediately clenched his fists, narrowed his eyes back at Machi, and grit his teeth at what could only have been the notion that he was still a suspect.

“Do you seriously think that I would kill my own brother?!” Wakuni hissed once more as he slammed his podium with both of his hands. “Unlike you Machi, I have morals! And I am quite frankly disgusted that anyone believes for a second that I might have murdered Yakawa!” He glanced around the room as he said that last line. After that, he pointed in Machi’s direction with his right pointer finger. “No. This is probably just another transparent attempt by Machi to protect herself!”

“We’ve already proven that she couldn’t have committed the murder,” Sama argued back before she briefly shook her head and sighed. “I’m sorry Wakuni, but she’s innocent. If we want to find out who actually killed your brother, we need to-”

“Move on?” Wakuni hissed just before he dismissed the issue with the wave of his right hand. “Who’s side are you even on Sama? Machi made the plans that were used to murder Yakawa, the most selfless and wonderful I’ve ever known! So that she could escape and people like you and I end up dying horrifically! Why are you defending her?!”

Machi just crossed her arms and looked down at the floor as she spoke up in an evidently miserable tone. “Wakuni, I tried to have that plan incinerated. Once upon a time, you would be right. But- I’ve been trying to change. I’ve been doing everything I could to make up for the mistakes I’ve made ever since I dismantled the death trap. I was scared and I was stupid, but I quickly realized that I never wanted any of this to happen.”

“Before you speak Wakuni,” Senji interjected with a slight frown of his own as he rested his free hand on the podium. “We have already proven Machi innocent and we have no evidence to suggest otherwise. I know you do not think this is important to us, but we really do want to catch the right person just like you do. And what we have been saying for quite some time now is that unless you have evidence to suggest that Machi killed Yakawa, it is time for you to move on.”

“I see she’s tricked you as well then,” Wakuni growled before he crossed his own arms. “Machi has tricked all of you. She doesn’t want to change! Everything up to this point has been a long winded act to regain our trust so that she can escape while we pay for it with our lives! Why can’t any of you see that she’s the same cold-blooded, sociopathic, immoral, monster that she was from day one! How many times do I have to say it! She’s. A. Monster. And. She. Will. Never. Change!”

At that, Wakuni took a deep breath, uncrossed his arms, and looked away from the class. Yet, even as he did, I still noticed his face soften and his eyes begin to water. If I had to guess, he was on the verge of a breakdown.

*(Assuming he hasn’t crossed that bridge a long time ago.)*

“Can’t you see what she’s doing?!” Wakuni cried out one more time. This time, in a more pleading tone than before. “She is playing each and every one of you for fools. I know you’re smarter than this. Don’t fall for her tricks.”

“Uhm, maybe we should keep going,” I interjected, ignoring him entirely and moving on before things could get any worse. “I remember that Shiro said she went to the storage room, Sama claimed to have gone into the library, Shiro said she went to the storage room, and Wakuni claimed to have gone to the gym.”

“Nishi, please,” Wakuni begged.

A part of me almost felt sick from watching him in the sorry state that he was in. He wasn’t a bad person after all, but as painful as it was, I had to ignore his last plea for help so that we could find out who actually did kill his brother.

*(I just hope that the truth brings you some form of solace Wakuni. And that everyone else forgives you like I will.)*

And that was when it hit me. As soon as I finished that thought, I realized that my recollection singled out one suspect in particular. Someone who was at the scene where the bombs were set up and quite frankly should have noticed if someone else had been planting an explosive. Just in case I was wrong, however, I ran the logic through my brain to double-check.

*(Let me think about this. Shiro, Sama, or Wakuni are the remaining suspects. If Sama was the culprit, it's entirely possible that she could have planted the bombs without anyone noticing. After all, the bombs were set up where she claimed to be. But if Shiro or Wakuni committed the murder, they would have had to have gone to the library and Sama would have found them. Its not impossible that Sama could have given either of them a window of time to commit the murder, but right now, it seems unlikely. I’d better examine this further and see if there is any reason why she couldn’t have done it.)*

As soon as I finished my thought, Sama interrupted. All the while, a bead of sweat appeared on her forehead and she put her two pointer fingers together. If I had to guess, Sama instantly figured out that my recollection of events implicated her as well. “Wait. Nishi, are you sure that I went to the library?”

“I’m positive,” I replied with a quick nod. “And before you ask, my memory has been almost completely accurate up to this point.”

At that, a silence fell upon the room. Sama opened her mouth to make some sort of retort. But ultimately, she closed it and crossed her arms. After that, the people in our group began to deduce why she was suspicious as well with varying degrees of speed until Sama had everyone’s attention, she grit her teeth as suspicion fell on her, and Sanda spoke up.

“Hold on a second, that would mean that Sama was where the bombs were planted,” Sanda finally said. “Sama, you didn’t do it did you?”

“I didn’t kill him.” Sama insisted as she uncrossed her arms and shook her head vehemently. After that, she paused, closed her eyes as if she wracked her brain in thought, and then continued. “I- don’t remember everything that happened but there’s no reason to believe that I stayed in the library the whole time even if I did. You know Shiro or even Wakuni could have slipped through.”

“Sama. wouldn’t you have noticed if you went back to the library and there was some sort of large device in the middle of it?” Tanabe replied reasonably enough. Even though his attitude meant nothing to Sama at the moment. “The device that Senji and Nishi showed the group seemed obvious in the pictures.”

“Well- uh, it might have been planted after I left the library for the last time,” Sama defended as she looked away from the group and visibly wracked her brain for answers. None came up however and she bit her lip.

Senji sighed and came to her aid. “Sama has a good point. We are operating under the presumption that these activities happened before everyone was able to proceeded to dinner. If the bombs were constructed prior to their placement. The culprit may have been able to slip into the library after Sama left it.”

Once again, nobody had an argument. However, at the very least, most of the group stopped looking in Sama’s direction and she visibly relaxed. However, it did present a problem. We narrowed the list of suspects down to three people, as far as I remembered, I had no way to confirm any of their alibis. I sighed.

*(We’ve narrowed it down to three people. We only need to find two more alibis. Either that or prove that Sama has to be the blackened. But all three of them spent their time away from the rest of the group. I might as well continue to see if there is proof that Sama is innocent since we’ll all be able to finish the trial by accusing her without bothering with the other two suspects she isn’t, but these three aren’t going to be easy to sift through.)*

And so, I thought about it. At first, I considered who might have been with Sama at the time in question. However, it only took about a second for me to recount everyone’s alibis and when I did, not of them validated anything that Sama said. The closest person to Sama was Wakuni, but he was in the gym so even he couldn’t have watched what Sama was doing at the time. Nonetheless, I did think about where Sama was and if there was anything to verify that she was telling the truth. But after a few seconds, nothing came up to prove her innocence or her guilt.

So, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and wracked my brain for some other means of proving whether or not she was guilty. After about three seconds, I got a mild headache. But moments after that, an idea came to me based on the possible explanation for Sama’s innocence that Senji had given me.

*(Hold on. Sama did go to dinner like everyone else who could make it. So, if I can prove that everything in the library was normal when she left, I can prove that she’s innocent.)*

With that, I turned my focus to the last relevant event that happened at the time. Namely, the dinner that occurred that day. The dinners all seemed to have blurred together, but I prodded the memory for anything that might have proven Sama’s innocence or guilt. And sure enough, after a few more seconds, something did come to me. As I remembered, Sama and Wakuni entered the cafeteria after I did and Shiro entered the cafeteria after them. And so, I opened my eyes as my pulse began to race with excitement.

*(Wait, if Wakuni and Sama went to the cafeteria room together. There might actually be a way to prove both of them innocent!)*

“Wakuni,” I began as calmly as I could. In response, the man looked up at me and clenched his teeth. I ignored it and continued. “I remember you and Sama entering the cafeteria together. I know you’re distraught right now but this is really important. Did you go to the library to fetch Sama?”

At that, Wakuni unclenched his teeth, put his right hand to his chin in thought, and narrowed his still watery eyes at me. If I had to guess, he wasn’t too pleased about the fact that he was still a suspect and he probably thought that answering might lead to an accusation. Nonetheless, this was important, so I pressed the issue.

“Please Wakuni, I’m not accusing you right now. I’m just trying to see if I can acquit her,” I insisted. “If you went to get her, or even if you didn't go to get her, it will help me tremendously.”

There was another pause as Wakuni sighed, closed her eyes, and clearly wracked his brain for the answer to my question. The seconds that passed drew heavy as my pulse slowed down to normal and the impending disappointment threatened to crush my theory. However, in the end, Wakuni did speak up.

“I still insist that Machi did it,” Wakuni asserted as he shot a glance at Machi and almost growled at her. He did stop himself however and continued to answer me. “I’m not trying to dismiss you Nishi. Even if you think Machi is more important to you than Yakawa, I still want to solve this case. It's just been a while since the library door was locked. That said, I do think- no. I know I went to get Sama so we could head to dinner the day that the fire burned the shed down.”

“Wait, that means you can confirm that I am telling the truth,” Sama remarked as she gripped her podium in what had to be anticipation. “Wakuni, when we left, did you see anything suspicious in the library.”

“I know I would’ve said something if I had seen a device like Nishi and Senji showed to us,” Wakuni answered as he evidently caught on to my train of logic. After that, he sighed and rubbed his head with the back of his right hand. “I suppose that means you’re innocent then.”

“It also means that you’re innocent as well Wakuni,” I proclaimed with a sigh of my own as I visibly relaxed and gave a smile in spite of everything that happened. Wakuni lowered his right hand and returned a glare at me though so my smile quickly died however. Regardless, I continued my explanation. “Sama would have noticed if you entered the library or set something up there while she was away before she went to dinner. And because the two of you went to dinner together, you couldn’t have set the bombs up while she was in the cafeteria either. You both have full alibis.”

I looked around to see if anyone had any arguments against what I said. However, nobody spoke up against what I had to say. So with that, two of the three remaining suspects were proven innocent. Which of course, only left one possible suspect remaining.

Just to double check, I went through the list of confirmed alibis. Yakawa and I were watching Seno, Yasui, and Machi until I went to dinner and Yakawa went to the first aid station, Sasori prepared dinner and covered for Yakawa when we left, Saeki went outside, Eto and Naya went to the laundry room, Koike and Sanda went to their rooms, Tanabe ransacked the first aid station, Senji brought Machi’s equipment to her from the AV room, Wakuni went to the gym, and despite being in the library, Sama left for the cafeteria with Wakuni before the bombs were placed. That of course, only left one person by default.

*(Shiro. Wait- that means-)*

“We’re all going to live guys,” I said as I smiled once more and my pulse picked up with excitement for the first time in a while as the notion sunk in. It almost felt surreal, but this time, Monokuma didn’t have anyone to punish. “By process of elimination, our culprit is Shiro. Now, I still want to try and figure out how she did it just in case I’m proven wrong, but right now, I think we have our culprit.”

“Are you sure?” Sama interjected as she put her right hand to her chin in thought. “We already caught Shiro for Seno’s murder and she was already going to be executed. There’s no reason for her not to have confessed to setting up the death trap that was used to kill Yakawa.”

“Based on the evidence we have, I’m almost positive she did it,” I grumbled as my smile faded and I crossed my arms. Shiro wasn’t like my other classmates. Koike, Yasui, and even Sasori only killed people because they were pressured. But her? She was spiteful and she wanted to kill someone to escape since day one. Only unlike Machi, she didn’t have a change of heart. “If you remember, she tried to shoot me out of spite. I wouldn’t be surprised if she kept quiet about the bombs in a final attempt to kill us all.”

Sama, Tanabe, Sanda, Senji, and Machi all frowned at that. However, none of them contested what I said. The only person who didn’t have an immediate response in fact was Wakuni. If I had to guess, it was because he still thought that Machi was the culprit and because he was already in the process of having a breakdown.

*(The poor guy is blinded with grief and anger.)*

“Hmm, I wish I could believe otherwise, but it is certainly possible. In fact, it answers several questions if she is the culprit,” Senji remarked as he brought his left hand up to his chin in thought. “Furthermore, it would explain how the bomb was put together. If she did indeed go to the storage room as she claimed, she could have attained raw material for the metal plates there and she could have attained fertilizer from the greenhouse unimpeded. Additionally, she could have constructed the bomb prior to the deed. However, I do have one question, Nishi. How would she have evaded the notice of Sama and Wakuni?”

“Well, there are two places that she could have hid until they left,” I answered simply enough. With that, I pulled out my ElectroID, pulled up the relevant pictures of the closet near the library, showed the rest of the class, and flipped through the pictures as I continued to speak. “Actually, that would explain what I found near the library. The trolley cart in the storage room appeared to have been moved and I noticed faint scratch marks against the wall. Almost as if flat panels have been placed against it.”

“Well, the culprit could have used panels to form a ramp on the stairs so that they could move the rolley up and down the stairs,” Machi agreed with a quick but still miserable nod. “That would allow them to move the equipment needed to set up the bombs more easily.”

“The only question I have then is what happened to the tiles, but I don’t think it matters. Shiro could have easily just hidden them somewhere where we didn’t find them. She could have backtracked and put them in her room for all I know,” I acknowledged. After that, I put my hands on my hips. “Alright then. The only question that I have left is, has anyone interacted with the closet since the culprit set up the bomb?”

Thankfully enough, everyone involved more or less either shook their head no or gave some gesture indicating that they did not. And with that, it felt as if some great weight had been lifted from me. Shiro had the capacity, the materials, and the time to make, transport, and set up the bomb so she could have committed the murder. Moreover, she was the only person who could have committed the murder.

*(It looks like everyone present gets to live this time.)*

“Okay then,” I replied. After that, I took a deep sigh and then continued. “I for one am satisfied with the conclusion. Does anyone have any objections to Shiro being the culprit or should we finish this class trial already?”

I spoke with a more pleasant tone of voice than usual. But of course, it was for good reason since just this once, I didn’t need to condemn anyone to death. Moreover, seconds passed by and people appeared to have considered the question based on their gestures, but nobody spoke up. And so, it appeared as if we were all in agreement. Until of course, one person spoke up and shattered that hope about ten seconds later.

“I have an objection-” Wakuni began only to be interrupted by Tanabe.

“Wakuni, as much as it pains us all to see you this way, we don’t want to die and Machi has already been acquitted,” Tanabe argued firmly as he crossed his arms. “We’ve already been through this and you don’t have any arguments for her being the culprit.”

“But I do Tanabe, I’ve been thinking about possible arguments for a while now.” Wakuni growled back before he closed his eyes and took a deep sigh. “Machi may not have committed the act, but she planned the entire murder scheme. Now, as I remember, Monokuma said that the culprit was whoever planned or committed the act. Which means she is just as culpable as Shiro is even if you are telling the truth.”

“But Shiro is still culpable,” Sama responded as she put her right hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes back at Wakuni. “If we can survive the class trial by voting for her, we’re not going to risk our lives on the off chance that Monokuma will accept Machi as well. Which I highly doubt he would.”

“You’re not listening to me. Nobody is listening to me,” Wakuni continued as he raised his right fist and shook it at Sama in response. “Unlike Machi, Shiro is dead! And Monokuma, being the selfish bastard he is, is probably going to consider a living culprit as the blackened over a dead culprit! Which means that Machi is our only choice!”

“Your argument has a lot of assumptions there,” Sanda argued firmly as he crossed his arms. “Like assuming that Monokuma will take the person who planned the act over the person who actually went through all the steps by themselves and killed someone else.”

“Well you know I’m telling the truth!” Wakuni snapped right back and slammed his fist into the podium. At the same time, Machi practically shrivelled. Regardless, he continued to argue the semantics of the trial. “Everything I said is based on what Monokuma himself told us. I’m sure if you were to ask him, he would agree that he instituted the rules I mentioned.”

I opened my own mouth to make a retort to that. The first thought that popped into my mind was to dismiss what he said as ridiculous. And to be fair, it was. But at the same time, something in the back of my mind told me that Wakuni was at least correct about Monokuma saying something along the lines of what he repeated. Moreover, while almost nobody seemed to believe Wakuni, this seemed like the only reliable way to make him stop.

“Fine. For the sake of the argument, I’ll ask,” I started with a sigh and an evidently displeased tone in my voice. Then, I turned to Monokuma. “Monokuma, If hypothetically, there were two candidates that qualified as blackened but one of them died before the class trial, would the dead one still be the correct answer?”

“Well, it might have been,” Monokuma replied with a nonchalant shrug. “But you know what? I haven’t really thought about it up until now and I don’t like your attitude so I’m going to say no. In the purely hypothetical scenario, you described where at least one blackened is still alive, I will only accept living culprits as a correct answer.”

*(I hate you so much.)*

“Hmm,” Senji muttered as he bit his lip and looked away from the group. “I still do not believe that Machi is the blackened. If she were, the underlying qualification would be whether or not she qualifies as the blackened in her own right.”

“I don’t believe she does either,” I surmised as well. I still couldn’t remember everything that Monokuma told us back when we did the first class trial, but I was pretty sure that Machi still wouldn’t be the blackened based on the rules of the killing game.

“Wakuni, I don’t expect you to forgive me,” Machi added with clear reluctance in her tone. “But please don’t throw your life and everyone else’s lives away for this. You know that I didn’t kill your brother.”

That just provoked a hiss from Wakuni as he glared in Machi’s direction. If looks could kill, she would have been dead. But thankfully, they couldn’t. And so, silence loomed over the room and for a few moments, nobody dared to utter so much as a syllable. Luckily enough, it seemed as if nobody believed Wakuni. But at the same time, nobody seemed to be able to refute him either. And a part of me knew that we were never going to resolve this case until I managed to refute him once and for all. So, I took a deep breath, wracked my brain for an answer, and at least tried to speak up on her behalf in the meantime.

“Wakuni, can we take a step back and think about-” I started only to be interrupted.

“What the heck is wrong with you Nishi?!” Wakuni hissed as he snapped towards me and slammed his podium again with enough force to make me jump. “Nishi, You said you knew what it was like to lose a brother! And yet, you’ve been siding with the monster who murdered him this entire trial! She should be drawn and quartered! She should be flayed alive! She can’t be allowed to leave while we pay for it with our lives!”

“Hold on just a second,” Sanda interjected. However, neither Wakuni nor I looked at him. “Nishi, you didn’t tell us anything about having a brother.”

Everyone in the class trial room ignored Sanda however. Instead, Wakuni and I fixed our attention towards each other as the two of us made eye contact. And as he did, Wakuni began to opened his mouth once more. I almost cringed internally at knowing what was going to happen. It was obvious and I had done it already five times before. But nonetheless, I knew it was going to hurt as Wakuni began his rapid fire debate.

“Nishi, you idiot! You are going to get us all killed!” Wakuni shouted. “Can’t you see what you’re going to do if you don’t stop!”

“Machi is going to get away with everything she did!” Wakuni continued as he pointed to Machi with his left hand. “After everything she did! She is going to walk away while the rest of us die Nishi! Don’t you care about that!”

“I know you don’t care about me!” Wakuni accused as he narrowed his eyes at me once again. “You don’t care what I’m going through! All you care about is keeping Machi alive! At the expense of everyone else here and all of the other classes!”

“Can’t you see Nishi! Machi has you fooled! Machi had most of you fooled!” Wakuni continued. However, this time, I detected a hint of desperation in his tone. “Underneath that facade of hers, she is still the same monster that would have had you hung if she didn’t come up with a more elaborate plan! Can’t you see she’s never going to change!?”

“Clearly you can’t! You’ve closed your mind to the possibility that Machi orchestrated everything to gain our trust so she could stab us in the back!” Wakuni hissed as he looked away. “But at least acknowledge that Machi is just as culpable as Shiro!”

“She might not be,” I quickly and instinctively replied.

Wakuni paused for a moment after that. And with it, a short reprieve followed and I took the opportunity to catch my breath and tears finally began to roll down Wakuni’s face. However, he scowled at me, grit his teeth, and continued.

“DANG IT NISHI!!! WHY CAN’T YOU GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD THAT YOU’RE GOING TO KILL US!!!” Wakuni claimed as he slammed his podium with both of his hands. “WE WILL DIE IF YOU DON’T RELENT NISHI!!! DIE!!! HORRIBLY!!!”

“MACHI HASN’T CHANGED!!! SHE IS NEVER GOING TO CHANGE!!! SHE IS A MONSTER!!! SHE IS AN IRREDEEMABLE MONSTER AND SHE IS GOING TO GET AWAY WITH IT!” Wakuni continued as his tears increased in volume. “SHE IS GOING TO GET AWAY WITH MURDERING THE BEST THING IN MY LIFE THANKS TO YOU NISHI!!!”

“I HATE YOU!!! I HATE YOU SO MUCH NISHI!!! YOU SAY THAT YOU CARE ABOUT ME!!! ABOUT US ALL!!!” Wakuni began as he slammed the podium with his left hand again and pointed to me with his right pointer finger. “BUT YOU DON’T WANT JUSTICE FOR MY BROTHER!!!”

*(Okay, I know you don’t mean that.)*

“YOU!!! RELISH THIS!!! EVERYONE WHO HAS DIED SO FAR!!! YOU ENJOY IT BECAUSE EVERYONE LOOKS UP TO YOU!!!” Wakuni accused as his tears practically broke into a full blown sob. “You- you- you’re the hero and you know it! You just want to be idolized!”

“Please Nishi! Have pity- on our lives! Have pity- on my brother!” Wakuni croaked as he pressed his hands together in what was practically a pleading gesture. To be honest, the tone shift in of itself startled me. “Admit that- you’re wrong! Machi made the plan that Shiro used to kill Yakawa. And- and that makes her the culprit.”

That was it. Something about his last argument stood out to me as a contradiction. And after two seconds of thought as Wakuni looked at me with desperation and expectant in his tear stained eyes, the flaw in his logic came to me.

“That wasn’t her plan,” I simply replied with evident pity in my voice. At that, Wakuni hung his head in what had to be shame and buried his face in both of his hands as I swallowed and explained myself. “Her plan involved dropping a chandelier on Sama but Shiro’s murder plot used different explosives, had a different target, involved locking the library, and detonated the floor to get to another room. It may have drawn loose inspiration, but Machi did not plan the murder that was used against Yakawa.”

With that, I sighed and looked around the room. Everyone aside from Wakuni more or less agreed with me based on Senji, Sanda, and Sama’s nods, Machi’s right thumb’s up, and Tanabe muttering something along the lines of agreement. With that, it was over. We had solved the case and all we needed to do was vote. Yet, a somber tone still hung in the air as the only sounds to permeate the room were Wakuni’s tears.

“So, what now?” Sama asked with a solemn tone as she looked away from the sight and down at the floor. “I suppose we should go over everything one last time to make sure it's all correct? So that, we can vote. And maybe give Wakuni the hug he needs.”

Sama trailed off and mumbled the last line, but I heard it. And so did Senji because he waited for her before he spoke up. “Yes, I do indeed believe that that course of action would be for the best.” Senji turned to me. “Nishi, I am afraid that I remember next to nothing about the day the bombs were set. Do you feel up to the task?”

I thought about it for just a second. Honestly, the ordeal was painful, but I had everything I needed to explain what happened. I just needed to piece everything together. Moreover, I knew in the back of my mind that I was the only person who could under the circumstances. So, I sighed and nodded.

“Alright. Here is what happened. What really happened.” I began. “Unlike the other murders, this one didn’t start with a motive. It started with someone who was confused and desperate. That person of course, was Machi. She was afraid of the killing game like the rest of us. But unlike the rest of us, she felt as if turning to murder was her only chance of escaping the killing game. And so, she created nine murder plans with the intent of choosing one to go through with. All the while, she unwittingly set Yakawa’s actual murder into place.”

“Machi grabbed cherry bombs from the storage room, a highly explosive fuel gel from the storage within her own room, and undoubtedly rigged a light on one of her many drones that would trigger the explosive gel by her own admission,” I continued. “Once she had the materials ready, Machi sprang into action. The morning that the shed burned to the ground and before Sama even arrived at the library, she entered it with a basket full of the materials needed to set up her murder plan, no doubt climbed the ladder in the library, and everything up to kill Sama at her beck and call.”

“The plan was simple enough,” I said with a sigh as the concept came to the front of my mind. “She would coat a part of the chandelier in gel, duct tape firecrackers to the same part, and when she had an alibi and Sama was where she was needed, she would order one of her drones to shine a light through the window to trigger the chandelier to drop on Sama’s head. Sama would have died instantly, the drone could have been sent away, and nothing else could conclusively link her to the case as far as she knew. In Machi’s mind, she was executing the perfect murder plan.”

“But she didn’t go through with it,” I emphasized before I returned to my normal melancholy tone. “As soon as she set everything up, she regretted what she did and immediately reversed what she did to set up the contraption. She took the whole contraption down, probably wiped off the explosive gel, and put everything in her basket. Around that time, Sama and Koike went to the library and met her on her way out. I imagine that Machi was relieved that she had everything taken down. But regardless of whether she was or not, she went on her way and Sama never suspected that her life was once in danger. As for Machi, I don’t know whether she had all of her plans with her or if she went back to her room to get them, but she dumped them in the incinerator. And ever since, she has done everything in her power to make up for her mistakes.”

“However, her past wasn’t behind her. Some way or another, the culprit noticed Machi throw away her murder plans,” I sighed once more before I bit my lip. “And with that, the murderer recovered the nineth murder plan, took inspiration from them, and set out to craft the bombs needed to enact the new plan the moment that an opportunity arose. That opportunity happened when Seno, Machi, and Yasui explored the shed that burnt down. Seno, Machi, and Yasui could have been hurt, Yakawa was forced to save them, and everyone stopped what they were doing to check if the three were okay. I later checked up on them personally myself. Machi asked if I knew she wasn’t a murderer. I thought nothing of it at the time, but in retrospect, it makes perfect sense.”

“Regardless,” I continued. “The crowd dispersed and the culprit gathered the materials they needed from the storage room. Then, they gathered panels from somewhere within the lodge, used them to create a makeshift ramp for the stairs, and used the trolley from the nearby supply closet to transport the bombs as well as the device that was used to funnel their explosions and drive a spike into Yakawa’s room. Based on the scratch marks within the closet, I also believe that the murderer used the closet itself as a hiding place while they waited for Sama and Wakuni to leave the area so that they could set up their own murder contraption.”

“When dinner time came, that is exactly what happened.” I continued. “Once, Sama and Wakuni left for dinner, the killer waltzed into the library, set up the bombs as well as the contraption that would force a spike through the ground, and left the library. On the way out though, the culprit damaged the lock system on the door so that we all would be locked out of the room. And more importantly, so that we wouldn’t be able to determine that there were bombs in the library. Not even Machi could have known since there was no way for her or her drones to have entered the library and searched it.”

“After that, time went on,” I said with another sigh. “Yasui murdered Naya, most of us forgot about the library, and the culprit undoubtedly focused their efforts on ensuring that Yakawa remained alive so that he could die for them when the time came. Monokuma forced the killer to commit a second murder. They were caught and they were punished for that one. However, given how petty the murderer was, it is no surprise that they refused to explain that there was a death trap waiting to kill one of us. In fact, I believe they may have relished the fact that there was one more chance for us all to die. That the culprit would have their vengeance for being condemned to death.”

“Once more, time went on,” I concluded. “Everyone moved on, even Machi who had planned nine murders and confessed the one that wasn’t discovered to Sama and Saeki. But somehow, through some fluke of bad luck, we all decided to go to bed early on the day that the bombs were set to go off. Had we waited, everyone would have lived. But as things happened, the killer took one more life and nearly ended the lives of everyone in our class, class 82nd, class 86th, and class 87th. That being of course, was none other than the worst of us, the person who I realize now was an absolute monster to begin with, Shiro Michihiro, the ultimate egotist. I swear she was such a pig in life and death.”

At that, I finished and looked around the room. That was it. Every piece of the puzzle fit perfectly and as far as I could tell, there were no contradictions within my argument. In spite of everything including the complete nonsense that we had to deal with that would have made any reasonable judge dismiss the case, we won. We found the culprit and as long as we all voted and most of us voted for her, nobody would die.

*(Poor Wakuni though. I’ll make sure he’s treated properly when all of this is over.)*

Luckily, nobody in the room argued with my closing statement so I took the chance to glance at Wakuni and Machi. Machi had her arms crossed and simply stared vacantly at the monitor on her podium while Wakuni continued to sob with his face buried in his hands. We had won and nobody had to die, but I knew immediately that neither of them were going to have a happy outcome for the trial.

“Does anyone have any other arguments, or have we all arrived at a consensus?” Senji asked politely enough. In reality though, it was more of a formality than anything else since I was the only person who remembered everything that happened back when the bombs were set up. The silence from the rest of the class was telling as well because Senji acknowledged it and turned to face Monokuma. “I believe we are all ready to vote.”

“Yeah, I think I speak for us all when I say we have no more objections,” Sanda concurred with a quick nod. However, even he sounded somewhat more solemn than he had been before Wakuni’s breakdown. “I think we’re all ready to vote Monokuma.”

“Hmm, well it is about that time,” Monokuma answered back as he rested his head against his right hand. After that, he stood up in his chair and raised his arms dramatically. “I’ll just pull up the voting screen then! Like always, you know the deal! When the voting screen appears, tap the picture of the person you think killed Yakawa! And like always, there are no do-overs so make sure you get it right the first time!”

That was it. That was the only warning we got before the ballot box appeared on the podium screen once more. Like always, it had the same four by four grid. Furthermore, the top of the screen had a countdown timer that marked our deaths if we didn’t vote before it reached zero. Only this time, Yakawa and Koike both had their images greyed out with red X’s over them. However, they didn’t appear for very long because I quickly sifted through the greyed out pictures and tapped the one that belonged to Shiro without so much as a second of hesitation. And after that, like always, the picture of Shiro enlarged and filled the remainder of the screen. It had a much darker greyish yellow color aside from the red X that remained red, but it worked like usual anyways.

I looked up and looked around in case someone, probably Wakuni or Machi, refused to vote. But luckily enough, nobody seemed to want to refrain from it. Machi pushed her screen miserably, Wakuni seethed and slammed his screen, and everyone else pushed their own screen with varying degrees of irritation and sorrow. However, by the time the counter hit zero, it appeared as if everyone voted for someone.

“Upupupu!” Monokuma said to interrupt the silence. In response, I looked at him like I usually do after voting. “Here we are! The dramatic climax of the battle between the spotless and the blackened! Will the spotless find the culprit and save everyone? Or will the culprit walk away with the blood of four classes on their hands?! There’s only one way to find out!”

Like all the class trials befores, the monitor slowly dropped behind Monokuma to where everyone could view the results. And like several times before, doubt did creep into my mind. But I took a deep breath and tried my hardest to repress the doubt. After all, the only thing I could do at this point was hope that I was right and everyone believed me. But regardless, the all too familiar scoreboard flickered on the screen.

* Senji Kenazane: 0
* Saeki Masu: 0
* Sanda Iwane: 0
* Seno Sotatsu: 0
* Koike Juichi: 0
* Shiro Michihiro: 6
* Tanabe Kenzaburo: 0
* Yakawa Shoda: 0
* Nishi Toshiro: 0
* Yasui Katai: 0
* Sama Koetsu: 0
* Machi Satu: 1
* Naya Hitomi: 0
* Sasori Renzo: 0
* Eto Uzuki: 0
* Wakuni Shoda: 0

When I looked at the scores, I bit my lip. It was good to see that Shiro had the most votes, assuming that she was the culprit which I was ninety-nine percent certain she was. The one percent doubt killed me a little on the inside, but there honestly wasn’t anything I could do about it so it wasn’t the main reason I was displeased. The main reason was the predictable, but unfortunate vote for Machi that Wakuni undoubtedly made.

*(Either he still believes she should be considered the blackened, or he hates her that much. And neither of those possibilities are good.)*

Regardless, the screen changed to the same roulette from before that would determine whether or not we would remain alive long enough to try and resolve the issue. Namely, it changed to the roulette from before with eighteen different spots. Including the two random adjacent spots on the wheel that denoted Monokuma and the mastermind. And like always, there was both a half-white and half-black ball in the Monokuma section and an unlit neon ‘guilty’ sign in the middle of the wheel.

Then, for the fifth time, everything except the center spun rapidly and the ball was dislodged from monokuma’s section. And like always, I held my breath as I waited for the wheel to hopefully stop over Shiro Michihiro for the second time this killing game. Luckily enough though, while it felt like forever, it didn’t take long for the wheel to slow down to a crawl. And after that the ball bounced from Tanabe’s section, landed on the edge of the wall between them, teetered for a second, and finally dropped into Shiro’s area. With that, the neon sign lit up and confetti began to fill the screen until the whole thing was covered and it slowly faded to black. Finally, the monitor retracted.

“Upupu five in a row! I guess that means everyone gets to live. For now anyways,” Monokuma exclaimed as he leapt down from his chair. Similarly, the rest of us stepped away from our podiums and formed a loose cluster to the right of the room save for Machi who stood away from us and near Monokuma’s chair. Regardless, Monokuma continued. “You know, the masterminds said you’d never be able to pull it off. But it looks like I’m going to be laughing my way to the bank!”

“Nobody cares about whatever bets you had with-” Sama snapped before she trailed off for a second. After that, she narrowed her eyes and deadpanned her subsequent question. “Wait a second, you actually bet in favor of us being able to solve this murder?”

“Eh, you guys have been able to solve every class trial up until this point. Call me an opportunist but I know a pattern when I see one. You’re still rubbish though Sama,” Monokuma nonchalantly replied with a shrug. “Anyways, I still can’t be partial so I had to be willing to sacrifice the 2,000 yen I put on the line if you guys couldn’t figure it out, but it looks like I don’t have to. Though to be fair, nobody is going to be punished either so it isn’t a complete win-win.”

“Right,” Senji sighed as he brought his left hand up to his forehead. “Do you have anything other than this malarky to say or can we leave?”

“Well, now that you mention it, I do have a few things to say about Shiro,” Monokuma replied. “You might be interested in knowing that you didn’t know her at all.”

At that, everyone save for Wakuni and Machi seemed to break free enough from their stupors in order to look at Monokuma as if they were listening intently. And to be honest, I couldn’t blame them. Despite the fact that the thought of Shiro left a sour taste in my mouth, I myself felt a spark of curiosity. Monokuma must have noticed because he took the opportunity to break the silence.

“Shiro wasn’t quite like the rest of you losers. She was a loser herself, but she was different and- uh- well you know what I mean,” Monokuma started with the dismissive wave of his left hand. “Unlike the rest of you chumps, Shiro didn’t earn her title through skill. Nope! She got her title by sabotaging those that were better than her, stealing other people’s work, and generally manipulating other people. That’s actually how she learned how to make bombs. Truly, she was a parasite and a fake-”

*(No wonder she was eager to sacrifice us for her own gain.)*

I clenched my teeth and looked back at the podiums as Monokuma mentioned what he knew about Shiro. Namely, at the greyed podium of Shiro herself that bore a red X across it. With that, I felt my sorrow give way to anger until I made the conscious effort to look away from it and forced myself to calm down. Regardless, Monokuma continued.

“In fact, even her murder plans were unoriginal. She copied Seno’s murder off of Yasui’s execution and Yakawa’s murder off of Machi’s plans. If you ask me, all she was good for was a double murder,” Monokuma said as he put his hands on his hips and shook his head in mock disgust. Wakuni visibly seethed at Machi and Machi looked away in response though. “Well, whatever I guess. I’m sure her spirit’s turning in her grave somewhere knowing that you managed to solve this case because like Nishi guessed, she did indeed withhold information about the murder plan in hopes that you all would die from it. So, congratulations on beating her again. Any questions?”

Nobody spoke up. However, I took another glance at Wakuni and Machi. Neither of which seemed to be faring well from what Monokuma had to say and if I had to guess, Monokuma meant to hurt them. So, I opened my mouth to end the conversation early. But before I could, Tanabe spoke up.

“We don’t have any more questions,” Tanabe asserted with some melancholy but just a hint of irritation in his tone. After that, he motioned for us to head towards the exit with his right arm. “Come on everyone. I think we’ll be much happier if we leave, get some fresh air, and take some time to process what’s happened.”

For a second, I looked at Tanabe incredulously and a few other people raised their eyebrows at him. But one by one, each of us realized that he was probably right. And it didn’t take long for any of us to begin to follow him. However, before we could get any far, Monokuma stopped us in our tracks.

“Not so fast,” I heard Monokuma tease. I did not turn around to bother looking at him however. “I haven’t unlocked the door yet and this trial still needs a grand finale! I don’t have a punishment but we’re past the deadline and I do have a motive to finish!”

That made everyone stop in their tracks. But for me, it made my heart skip a beat as I instantly went wide-eyed with shock and horror. All the while, a wave of fear swept over me that immediately overrode my sorrow. After that microsecond, I forced myself to act as if I were just surprised like the others and join them in undoubtedly questioning the bear.

Tanabe narrowed his eyes at the bear and spoke up once more. “You said you wouldn’t do that if there was a murder. And Yakawa was murdered.”

“Not quite Kenzaburo. I said I wouldn’t go through with the motive if one of the eight remaining students committed a murder. Or suicide for that matter,” Monokuma chided as he held his left arm up and extended his claws ominously. “Last time I checked, Shiro was on her way out days ago! But as you already know, this motive is not your problem so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

That made Tanabe flinch as the attention of everyone in the room divided between Tanabe and Monokuma. All seemingly out of their previous stupor save for Wakuni who looked away and myself. While I offhandedly looked in Tanabe’s direction, the memory of the motive came flooding back to me. In fact, it was much more vivid than the memories I had to recall for the class trial. And sure enough, I remembered him saying ‘it has to be one of you eight because i’m not letting you off easy’. At that, I felt a cold chill rush over me and took everything I could to repress a violent shiver. On the off chance that I wouldn’t have to be put through the motive, I kept quiet and desperately hoped against the evidence that I overlooked something or that the mastermind changed their mind.

“Right,” Sama finally said before she swallowed and then continued. “So- uh, who is it then? It's not me is it?”

“Nope! It's Nishi!” Monokuma answered as he threw both of his hands up in the air excitedly. “Nishi has been lying to you this whole time! She was afraid of how the rest of you would react but she knew that the motive was meant for her since this morning!”

Another pause filled the air at that as everyone’s eyes turned towards me. Even Wakuni’s. Yet, under the circumstances, it barely even registered. Instead, I lost control of my composure as my heart hammered in my chest, my skin turned scarily pale, and the one thought rushed through my mind over and over again.

*(Run!)*

And that is exactly what I did. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, I made a complete one hundred and eighty turn and bolted for the door. And as I made my desperate sprint, I almost felt weightless and my retreat almost seemed timeless to me and the adrenaline coursed through my veins. In spite of that, however, I did hear Senji say something in the faint distance.

“Nishi,” Senji shouted with clear worry in his tone. However, it almost sounded muted to me as I continued my sprint. “Stop!”

I didn’t. In fact, I practically threw myself forward towards my goal. My lungs burned and my heart continued to hammer in my chest, but I didn’t care. All that mattered to me was escaping the class trial room and saving the last thing that I had of my brother. My memory of him.

But as I did, I felt a sudden force pull me back but by my left arm. For a split second, the world began to spin and I lost my bearings. I regained them without too much difficulty. But the moment I did, it was too late. Wakuni had me in a full nelson hold. One that I immediately attempted, and failed to jerk away from.

“Hmm,” Wakuni began. His breathing was still somewhat heavy and his tone still sounded solemn, but he was adamant about not letting me escape nonetheless. “You’re stronger than I expected Nishi.”

“Let me go!” I practically pleaded as I struggled against Wakuni. Unsurprisingly though, he was the physically strongest person in the class so I didn’t do much against him. At that, I stopped and begged. All the while, I practically broke down. “Is this because I lied to you?! I swear I wasn’t planning to hurt anyone! I just didn’t want to be detained by you guys!”

“I can vouch for that,” Tanabe interjected with a brief nod. “In fact, after she confessed everything to me, she was planning to tell the rest of you.”

“That is not- wait. You knew about this Tanabe?” Senji asked as he turned to the guy and raised his eyebrow. After that however, he shook his head, sighed, and turned to face me. “It doesn’t matter I suppose. Nishi, the point is, if you were to bust the door down, you would be executed for breaking a rule. And truthfully Nishi, I do not want to see you die. I am deeply sorry for this. But we will not just stand here and let you destroy yourself. Please stop struggling. You are only going to make this worse and you still have a chance to walk away from this with your dignity.”

With that, my struggles stopped and I looked around the room as reality came crashing down on me once more and I staggered for a moment. I looked to each and every one of my classmates for help, but they all stood back. And at that moment, as my gaze fell on the last person, Senji, I knew that whatever Monokuma had for me was imminent.

I thought about Tano one last time. The guy wasn’t defined by his mistake, he had a life. A life that he deserved to be remembered by. A life, during which, my family was entirely ordinary and below the average income, but a life where we were whole. Where part of us wasn't missing. And as the realization sunk in and cut to my heart that those memories were going to be taken from me, it overcame me and my eyes began to water.

“I don’t care about my dignity,” I said in a very soft pleading voice. At the same time, I looked down at the floor. “I just don’t want to forget.”

“Forget what Nishi?” Machi asked with evident concern in her own tone. Wakuni glared at her in a response with a look that made it clear that their business had not concluded with the class trial in response however. And Machi recoiled before she could say anything else.

Not that that stopped Monokuma however. “It's a long story but the gist of it is that Nishi here grew up in a poor household with her mother, father, and brother. They were all poor but they were all happy until Nishi’s brother developed depression. Everyone sacrificed something to pitch in and get the ingrate treatment and medicine, Nishi skipped quite a few meals herself, but it wasn’t enough in the end. It didn’t even come close to working.”

“Monokuma don-” I pleaded. However, I was ignored and truthfully, I knew that I would be. I only begged there was nothing else that I could do.

“The point is, Nishi’s brother, what’s his name, decided that he didn’t care about the consequences and offed himself. Nishi’s parents were both working but when Nishi came home, she found his suicide note and it, along with a few deductions, led her right to his dead body. I suppose in a sense, Nishi has solved six murders up to this point! If you count suicide as murder which Nishi does by the way. The point is, I’m erasing last every memory prior to his death,” Monokuma callously shrugged with his usual cheerful tone. I just slumped forward hopelessly in response as I grew sick with unrelenting dread. Regardless, Monokuma continued. “Honestly Nishi, he clearly didn’t care about you. I’m not sure what you see in him.”

“That’s not true,” I argued forcefully but with a croak in my voice. All the while, tears began to drip down my cheeks once more. “Tano was sick. He wasn’t in the right state of mind!”

*(And I didn’t know! I should have been there for him! I should have known! I should have stopped him! I didn’t pay him enough attention! It's- all my fault!)*

“Well, now that explanations are out of the way, let's get to the grand finale!” Monokuma said as he waved away my argument with his left hand and then rubbed his paws together with what seemed like anticipation.

“Hold on just a second,” Machi interrupted as she stepped between myself and the bear with her arms on her hips. Her face was also tear-stained by this point, but his tone was firm. “Just to clarify. This isn’t an execution. You aren’t going to hurt her. Right?”

“It's not an execution, but I am most definitely going to hurt her! Physically, psychologically, and probably relationally since over thirty other people are going to witness her humiliation!” Monokuma asserted. “But I am a bear of my word. So she will make a complete recovery from what I am about to do to her. Physically speaking aside from her memory of course.”

At that, the group looked once more at me. Though I didn’t have it in me to look back at them. And honestly, I almost felt the pity from them as they did. The better part of me knew that they didn’t want this to happen as well. But in the end, they had decided that they had to hand me over to the bear so that I didn’t break a rule and get myself killed whether they wanted to or not. So, there was nothing to say and silence smothered the room as dread shook me to my very core.

*(Is this what the past culprits felt?! Tano. Wherever you are, I’m sorry!)*

“Well, this isn’t the end of anyone, except maybe a memory. But this is the grand finale and we’re gonna give it everything we’ve got! IT’S MOTIVE TIME!!!” Monokuma shouted as he brought his arms in the air. After that, he dropped them again and then crossed his arms. “It just isn’t the same.”

Sama’s POV

Monokuma’s Multi Electro-Memory Therapy

I watched as the screen faded to black. And at the same time, I covered my mouth with my right hand. What Monokuma did was horrible and Nishi’s horrified and unconscious body would forever be burned in my memory. But at the same time, but at the same time, I struggled to look away from it.

*(Even if you lied to us, you deserve better than this Nishi. Crap! Why did this have to happen?!)*

At that, I pried my eyes away from the trainwreck just as the screen retracted. With it, I looked around and crossed my arms. When I did, I realized that I wasn’t the only person. In fact, I noticed that I was the last person to look away from the screen because everyone else seemed to be looking around the room as well save for Wakuni who just glared in Machi’s direction. I sighed.

*(Please just cut it out already, Wakuni. You know she didn’t kill him.)*

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait very long for Monokuma to come spouting out of the floor like the annoying twerp usually did. But when he did, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a glaring absence of Nishi.

“Where is Nishi?” I demanded with my hands on my hips and concern as well as irritation in my tone.

“Where is who?” Monokuma said as he brought his right paw up to his mouth in mock thought. After that, he dismissed it with a wave. “Upupupu I’m just kidding. The thing is, I went a tad bit too far. She hasn’t woken up yet so she’s going to take some time to recover before I can release her to you lot. I mean, you can’t even take care of your own pets! You can’t be trusted with an unconscious chick!”

Tanabe gave a glare at the bear in response when the creature said that. Which was fair enough since today was already a bad enough day for all of us. The only consolation was that everyone aside from Yakawa got to live. Honestly though, he death was still bad enough on its own.

Still, I glared at the bear as well. Today was a bad enough day already but if Nishi wasn’t going to be released for a while, what would we do? We had only managed to get this far because of her in the first place! If anything happened to her, we were doomed!

“Some people say that consciousness is a collection of memories,” Monokuma mused. “That makes me wonder if the Nishi that wakes up will be the same Nishi that walked into the class trial room. I mean, physically they’ll be the same but it makes you think.”

“You know, we only cooperated with you because we did not desire Nishi to be punished,” Senji replied in a stern tone as he clenched his left fist. “What you did was petty, it was uncalled for, and your controller will die for it with all of their other crimes. If you believe that this will do anything other than unify the classes against you, you are mistaken.”

“Yeah,” I chimed in as defiantly as I could.

“If you say so. But if you want to follow that train of logic, keep this in mind. There are only seven of you left and most of you are at each other’s throats. Heck, Senji, didn’t you try to help Koike graduate? Didn’t you say in your room that night that Nishi deserved to die for what she did? Just something to think about,” Monokuma replied with a shrug. “Anyways, the door is unlocked and the elevator is down. See ya tomorrow! Or was it today? Upupu.”

With that, Monokuma leaned backwards and fell through the floor of the class trial room to what seemed to be nowhere. Considering the fact that the whole game was apparently set in a virtual world, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were actually nowhere either. If only the bear would stay there. We wouldn’t have to deal with him.

*(And we would be safe.)*

Regardless, I turned to the elevator. The only thing left to do was to head there, head up, and live out the rest of the lives that Nishi saved once again. So, I started heading in the direction of the double doors. After all, I wasn’t about to risk Wakuni or Machi holding them open and the other person running into them. No. They needed to be kept apart from each other at all costs.

“Come up guys. Let's get out of here while we still can,” I said as I approached the doubled doors, pulled the closest one open, and held it open for the rest of the group. Then, I spoke with clear fear in my tone. “Before Monokuma does something else.”

Everyone hesitated for a few seconds. Undoubtedly, they all had their reasons. But luckily enough, they all complied at their own pace. First, Machi headed up to me and walked through the now open door though she couldn’t look me in the eye when she did. After that, Senji followed. Then Sanda. Then Tanabe. And finally, Wakuni who just looked away from me in evident pain. I reached out with my free hand to pat him on the back, but he just walked through and left me to myself.

Finally, I took one last glance at the class trial room. The place that seven of us came down to and the place that only six of us would leave from. At least for now. For a moment, I reached out towards the trial room and waited in some desperate hope that it would bring Nishi back sooner. But in the back of my mind, I knew it was in vain. She was stuck with Monokuma until he said otherwise and there was nothing I could do about it. So, I turned to the hall, headed towards the elevator, and let the door close behind me.

From there, I stepped into the elevator itself and listened as the elevator door closed behind me with a metallic screech. In some ways, it was serene. But in others, I could never quite get used to it. To leave someone behind to that bear and knowing full well that I could be next. Nishi was alive this time. Supposedly if Monokuma was telling the truth. But somehow, that didn’t bring me very much comfort.

Regardless, the elevator motor whirled to life like usual. As it did, I looked around at the others and then at the nearest wall to the left of the elevator. The motor caught Wakuni and Tanabe by surprise, but they regained their balance within moments. As for the rest of us, it was just a melancholic silence save for the sparks and the occasional scrape as the elevator continued and accelerated its ascent. One where hopelessness loomed in the air and the consolation was that Tanabe, Sanda, Machi, Wakuni, Senji, and myself were here to ascend from the forsaken class trial room.

But, everyone was to themselves and for good reason because I myself let my mind wander off as I looked away from the group at the nearby wall and crossed my arms. The same thoughts played through my mind over and over again. Yakawa was dead. Wakuni hated Machi. Everything was falling apart. And I could be the next to die. Well, maybe not the next. That probably went to Machi and then Wakuni. But after that was anyone’s game and there would only be five of us left. One of which was the mastermind behind all of this! Behind all of our suffering.

Finally, just before the elevator faded into darkness, I took one last fading glimpse of Wakuni as he practically hissed at Machi. The guy was my friend. One of the closest ones that was still alive. But if I didn’t do something, he would kill Machi and die for it. It was just our group being knocked down to five survivors. I would lose a friend.

*(Unless I stop it.)*

That was when the plan that slowly came to me. I just need to find a way to make sure that the group holds out. That there were no more murders. At least, not until Nishi came back and someone better than me found some way to fix this. Somehow, the group had dealt with so many issues before this. Things were dire, but I mentally repeated the same thought over and over to myself in hope that I would start to believe it. And that of course, was to just hold on. However, as the elevator faded completely into darkness and we went with it. One final thought came to me. A desperate cry.

*(I hope Nishi comes back soon. And I hope someone saves us soon. Because I can’t do this alone.)*

## Trivia

* Just to confirm what was stated earlier, Nishi isn’t going to suffer from anything long term other than another dose of amnesia. She probably would in real life, but this is a virtual world as everyone previously established.
* In the event that Machi went through with her plan to murder Sama, she still would have disposed of the blueprints for her plans by throwing them into the incinerator. Of course, that means that Saeki still would have found them.
* Whether Machi would have gotten away with the murder is open to interpretation.
* Shiro is in fact, a fake. While she technically became the best candidate, she only did so by sabotaging other people.