Behind the Silver Screen

Kujo and the player went to Kudo High's film club's rehearsal to investigate into the disappearance of senior Tokisaki Mina, only to meet the student film crew at the stage, about to rehearsing for the upcoming drama *Escape the Light*. After deciding to continue the rehearsal without the appearance of the lead actress Yoshida Haruka, the film crew opened the curtains of the stage. However, much to the team and the crew's shock, they found Haruka's body hung from the ceiling of the stage. Kujo and the player then flagged five people as suspects, including student director Ayatsuji Hiiro, student actor Hidaka Taiki, vice principal Hanazawa Akiko, lead actor of the drama and former student of the school Hasuro Johnson, and student cameraman Hiyama Kenta, who was also a suspect back in the murder at the pool.

Mid-investigation, Hirokawa approached the team, telling them that Haruka was seen studying in the lecture hall hours prior to her death, prompting the team to investigate the lecture hall. They then soon discovered that Haruka had been ogling Hasuro, her crush, including recording a scene of him going showering, strongly pissing Hasuro off. Vice principal Hanazawa also had troubles with Haruka's parents, who suspected her of using the school's funds for her own activities. Later, the team witnessed a fire burning at the audience chairs.

The fire turned out to be lighted by Hiiro, who wanted to burn all of his photos with Haruka. He then revealed that behind Haruka's nice acting face was her true colors, explaining that Hiiro had overheard Haruka backtalking with her friends about him, leading to Hiiro's shock when he kept thinking that Haruka considered him a good friend and that he gave the leading female role to Haruka as payment for their friendship. Besides Hiiro, Kenta was also angry at the victim after she borrowed his expensive camera and accidentally dropped it to the floor due to her clumsiness, malfunctioning the camera. The team also found out that the victim caught Hidaka cheating in the class red-handed. Despite all of the suspects' hatred towards the victim, the team was able to unmask the real culprit, Hidaka.

Admitting to the murder, Hidaka confessed to the team the real reason why he got the lead male role of the drama - Hidaka had sabotaged the previous candidate of the role by pushing him from the stairs, breaking his arms. Unfortunately, Haruka discovered Hidaka's sabotage and started threatened him if he did not want her to post the true story online. Losing himself due to Haruka's far-fetched demands, Hidaka grabbed a rope and strangled her to death. Judge Sato sentenced Hidaka to 12 years in jail.

Post-trial, the player accompanied Hirokawa, who was extremely interested in *Escape the Light*, to help Hiiro find the replacement for Hidaka due to his arrest and teach the cast how to act in the most possible natural way. With Hirokawa's help, Hiiro and the player then managed to find Tsuzuki Ryuga the most suitable candidate for Hidaka's role. After a long time persuading Ryuga, who was reluctant to replace Hidaka, the team were able to convince him, saying that Hirokawa would teach him some natural acting skills with her actress experiences.

Meanwhile, Yoshimune expressed his worries for Shin, who kept on acting strangely recently, including stopping binge-watching anime with Yoshimune and isolating himself inside his lab. After Yoshimune revealed that Shin was a graduated student of the Kudo High School and that he started his strange acts after the team sent him one of Tokisaki Mina's belongings, Kujo and the player deduced that Shin must have been relevant to Mina by some means. The team then decided to take a look in the school's lecture hall, where, surprisingly, they found a photo of Shin and Mina together in a collage, and thus (per Megumi) found out that Mina was Shin's girlfriend during high school. The team confronted Shin, who admitted the fact. While admiring Mina's personalities, Shin was also in shock and extreme sadness upon finding her missing for unknown reasons. The team then accepted Shin's demands, to leave him alone and try to find the truth behind Mina's disappearance.

In the end, the team received a call from Tokisaki Arisa who insisted on them coming to the abandoned school wing instantly, saying that she just found something relevant to Mina's missing case. Before being able to ask Arisa for further information, the team heard Arisa screaming and the call was ended afterwards. Sensing that Arisa was in danger, the team rushed to the Kudo school's abandoned wing.