Danganronpa: Hope for the Hopeless/Chapter 2 - Deadly Life

## Story

*(Seno is dead.)*

That was the unmistakable truth that permeated my thoughts and likely permeated the thoughts of everyone around me. I took a few deep breaths and forced myself to calm down as I looked around at the rest of the class. If there reactions were anything to go by then I was right and they were all trying to cope. Everyone was doing better than last time but there was still mixed results to Seno’s death.

Not that it would be easy for anyone to take in the bloody severed head of Seno Sotatsu lying on the ground and staring up at us. Even for those who knew he was dead, and I suspected that we all did, it probably came as a shock. I for one knew that I still hadn’t grown used to it even as I looked back at the head.

The beginning of this investigation went differently than the last one in one way at least. Not everyone was silent. Sure, there were plenty of people at a loss for words, but I heard more than a few people murmur something about the situation. At Least, they did until Yakawa headed over to the head with gloves on both hands and knelt down to inspect what was left of Seno. After that, almost everyone fell silent leaving only one person to speak after about ten seconds.

“What are we going to do?” Sama said with clear concern in her voice as she tried to refrain from making eye-contact with the head, the tray, or the blood stain. “I don’t even know where to start with this.”

“Did someone say they didn’t know where to start!” Came the same cheerful voice that greeted us every morning. A moment later, Monokuma popped up next to Seno’s head and balanced on it much like someone standing on a soap box. Yakawa just scowled and stumbled away as a result. “It looks like some of Seno’s luck rubbed off on the rest of you cause your headmaster has another file for you. Open up those ElectroID’s and take a look!”

I prepared to do so and a quick glance around the room told me that everyone else was more or less doing the same. It wasn’t that I wanted to play along and I hated the bear, but a free clue was a free clue. And so, I pulled out my ElectroID, turned the thing on, and clicked the red Monokuma eye icon that he placed on our ElectroIDs last investigation. This time, I was taken to a case menu with two cases listed. I selected the second and carefully examined what came up.

Monokuma File 2:

Subject: Seno Sotatsu

Height: 5’8”

Weight: 147 lbs

Blood type: AB+

Birthday: April 4th.

Subject was discovered in the Kitchen around 8:07pm. The exact time of death happened during 7:52pm sharp. The cause of death appears to be asphyxiation induced by an unknown object being wrapped around the victim’s neck. Furthermore, there appears to be swelling in the back of the victim’s head and the head is severed from the C3 cervical vertebrae after multiple cuts. The condition of the rest of the body is uncertain as it is missing during the time of autopsy.

“An exact time of death?” I asked cautiously as I looked up and examined the bear as best as I could to figure out his intentions. I couldn’t figure out anything.

“But the power didn’t turn back on until at least 7:54,” Koike noted at she put her right hand to her chin in thought. She sounded innocent enough but Monokuma gave a more irritated glare by the second that only got worse when Koike winced and continued. “Is this another trick?”

“This isn’t a trick. I told you it takes a few minutes for everything to kick in.” Monokuma exasperatedly defended. “I see that this is what I get for trying to be generous with you guys. I’ve sure learned my lesson.”

“What i’m more interested in is the cause of death,” Saeki calmly stated as she stepped between the three of us and looked at her right nails. Yet she sounded as though she was trying too hard to keep her cool and it was pretty obvious to me at least that she wasn’t happy about this. “Yakawa, do you know for sure that he died of asphyxiation?”

“Well,” Yakawa began before he cleared his throat and continued. He maintained a calm serious demeanor but he frowned as he spoke. “His facial muscles are contorted and his eyes are bulging. Some of the injuries match the cause of death. I would know for certain if I saw the body but It’s just as likely that Monokuma is right as it is that he isn’t.”

“Monokuma would be right though wouldn’t he?” Eto chimed in. She sounded like it was painful to say but she asked nonetheless. “I mean, he watched it all happen on camera and he didn’t lie in the first file.”

“I still find it suspicious.” Shiro countered. Her tone made it clear that she was trying to wrap her head around everything but there were cracks in her voice that made it clear that it wasn’t handling it as well as she was trying to. “I feel like there has to be some sort of trick if he’s willing to give us this much information.”

“It is surprisingly informative in comparison to the last one.” Sasori said with a nod in agreement as he brought his right fist up. He looked calm enough but his fists didn’t stop shaking in what must have been anger until he brought his right one up to view.

“Well, I admit it wouldn’t it wouldn’t be the first time there were complications in the time or cause of death.” Monokuma said just fast enough to grab our attention before he jumped off of Seno’s head. “I guess I’ll just leave you guys to sort them out. I got to look my best for the upcoming class trial after all!”

I just shook my head in disgust as Monokuma disappeared under the floor. I had no idea how he did it and I only cared because it might offer to way to escape. But in the meantime, neither I nor anyone else wanted to stop him just to let him continue to bother us.

Instead, the group more or less focused on the task at hand. Yakawa brandished a small pocket flashlight that he probably kept in his pocket and knelt down once more to examine Seno’s severed head. Most people were content to stay quiet and watch though not everyone was willing to just stand there.

“So-” Saeki began as she looked around at the rest of us. Taking deep breaths all the while. “I don’t intend to intrude on everyone else, but we are on the clock so I have to ask. Are we going to split up and do the same thing we did last time?”

“First I want to know if Sama has an alibi.” Machi interjected. This earned her a glare from Wakuni that she flinched at, but she recovered quickly and continued. “I’m not an idiot. I won’t say she’s guilty if she doesn’t, but it would be nice to get it out of the way now if we can.”

Most of the group mush have agreed because they looked over at Sama, but she only shook her head and replied. She wasn’t much calmer than before if her tone of voice was anything to go by. And she made it clear that she wasn’t happy about the situation. “I’m afraid I don’t. I ran into Sanda and we searched together for a while but I came back here while he went to the warehouse.”

“And I ran into Eto and Koike on the way there before we both heard the body discovery announcement.” Sanda agreed in what looked like nervousness and he scratched the back of his head. Luckily, Eto and Koike both nodded in agreement to his testimony. “Don’t worry though, we all split up during the search so I don’t think anyone has an alibi for that.”

“Well, I happened to be with Saeki at the time.” Machi said though nobody believed her because he everyone looked at Saeki and she shook her head. She visibly frowned at that. Meanwhile, everyone, myself included, showed some sign of being displeased with her lie.

“It would be better for everyone if you just told us the truth.” Shiro commented. “It only makes you more suspicious when you lie like this.”

“I’m sure she just made an honest mistake.” Saeki said in defense of Machi as she crossed her arms and gave Machi a stare that appeared as though it conveyed in it. “But if you try to focus, I think that you will remember what happened. Isn’t that right Machi?”

After that, Machi conceded though I couldn’t tell whether she was actually sorry or if this was a last minute save. The irritation etched on her face pointed towards the latter. “Well, I guess we split up for a little while so it’s possible that we don’t have an alibi for the search.”

“Didn’t think so-” Wakuni started to grumble before Sasori cut him off.

“Did anyone not get split up during the search?” Sasori asked as he put his right hand to his head as though he were getting a headache. “We can talk about our searches all we want but unless we can narrow our list of suspects down, we’re just wasting valuable time.”

There was silence after that at least for a good five seconds. Sasori nodded at that and opened his mouth to comment. But before he could, I remembered that I could not have placed the head on the plate and Yakawa could not have either.

“Wait. I was more or less with Yakawa the entire time in the first aid station.” I said before anyone could interrupt. “Seno’s head could have been put there ahead of time, at least I think so, but neither of us could have done it if the head was placed there during the search.”

I looked over to Yakawa for confirmation and I realized then that he was just wrapping up his inspection. He held the head in his right hand, but he delicately placed it right back to where it was before and closed Seno’s eyes. It wasn’t until then that he stood up, put away his pocket flashlight, and turned to face us.

“Sorry about that. I put Seno’s head right back where we found it so I hope it doesn’t mess with your investigation though I doubt it will.” Yakawa said in a resigned tone. “Anyways, Nishi is right. We were in the medical area the entire time.”

“Great.” Sama said as though it was anything except for great all while she crossed her arms. “Well I suppose two is better than none although it doesn’t entirely acquit either of you. Not that I blame either of you. You’re in a better boat than I am.” Sama paused. “So, did you find anything new with- Seno?”

Sama still tried not to look at Seno’s head in spite of bringing it up. Though she was failing even as Yakawa spoke up. “I didn’t find anything new I’m afraid. All the the injuries match the ones described in the Monokuma file but I can’t tell you the cause of death for certain. Like I said, there is nothing more to be gained from searching Seno’s head.”

There was a brief pause after that as I looked down at the head that lay on the floor and back at Yakawa who now seemed to have some blood on his clothing as a result of handling the thing. I didn’t want to look at the thing myself and I doubted that anyone else wanted to either because nobody argued. Besides, I doubted that there was anything that anyone could pick up that Yakawa missed. So, we all waited for a few brief moments in silence until someone questioned our next move.

“I hate to be that person-” Tanabe began said with a hint of a growl behind his quiet voice. “But perhaps we should figure out what do next.”

“It probably would be a good idea for us to split up.” Senji stated calmly enough though he certainly wasn’t smiling about the situation. “But before we do, does anyone have any information that might contribute to the investigation? I believe that now is the best time to disclose it.”

“Well I may have something.” Eto slowly began as though she were thinking of what to say. When I looked over at her though, she must have figured it out because she resume normally albeit with obvious signs of disdain from Seno’s death. “Seno’s head was found here, but I was in the art room when the lights were turned on so I would have noticed if Seno were killed upstairs. Or at least, I would have known if someone were to drag his body out of the east wing upstairs-”

“That is really useful actually.” Sanda cut in with a brief fading smile. “We might even make it through round two at this rate.”

“I wasn’t finished.” Eto replied as she gave Sanda what looked like a slightly irritated glance. “I’m pretty sure that I can take a lot of people out of the pool of suspects if everyone who was upstairs when the lights turned on is willing to meet me in the art room real quick.”

“Just don’t take too long. We do still need to investigate.” Sasori said as he nodded along with a few others. “Now does anyone else have anything to add?”

“Well I was with Machi before we launched our search.” Saeki replied. “Long story short, the both of us have alibis between breakfast and when we first met up after the lights turned on.”

Most people eyed Saeki and Machi with some signs that they had some degree of suspicion with what she said. First and foremost because they likely probably didn’t trust Machi though that might have just been me. But it was also possible that Sasori more or less said the same thing last class trial. Nobody seemed too upset with Saeki though and if they did, they didn’t show any signs of it.

“Alright. Anyone else?” Wakuni asked with irritation evident in his tone coupled with a lingering gaze on Machi that had been there ever since Saeki claimed to have an alibi. Nonetheless, she and everyone else was silent so he was given no choice but to move on. “Alright then, we’ve been here too long. We need to get going.”

Everyone must have more or less agreed with the statement because they began to explain where they were headed. Of them, Eto was the first. “Like I said, i’ll be in the art room trying to corroborate alibis.”

“I’ll be right behind you.” Sanda replied as cheerfully as he could given the situation before looking over he left shoulder and spotting Sama and Koike. “I personally think you two had better come but it’s up to you like always.”

“I am definitely coming and I have a feeling that Koike will want to come as well.” Sama dryly remarked after shooting him her usual glare. “It’s about proving our alibis so I don’t think anyone is going to pass up that opportunity.”

“Yeah, i’m going.” Koike said though she she visibly winced when Sama brought alibis up and looked down at the ground shortly after. If I had to guess, I would say it had become a sour point for koike.

At that, the four of them left out the front doors and undoubtedly made their way to the art room on the second floor. They all moved at separate paces but they all made their way out of the room until the doors all shut behind them and we were left to figure out the rest.

“So, i’m headed upstairs too if anyone needs me.” Wakuni stated bluntly before he started to make his own leave. He headed to the door but took one last look over his right shoulder at Seno’s head before he looked back ahead and pushed his way out into the hallway.

“I was also upstairs when the lights turned on.” Shiro reluctantly added as she backed away towards the door. “I promise I will be back to help soon.”

As Shiro left, Sasori drew a long sigh. “I know we’re starting to run low on investigators so this meeting had better be quick. But I also know the sooner I get there the sooner it will end so I have to go now.”

As Sasori left, the remaining six of us all looked at each other and a I noticed that Saeki and Senji were starting to show minor signs of perspiration. I didn’t know why, but I had a feeling that it had something to do with how we were currently down to six people until the meeting was over.

“In hindsight, we ought to have sent one person per group that was upstairs.” Senji said with a sigh as he crossed his arms and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now that the deed is done though. Regardless, I will stay here, guard the head, and search the crime scene. If any of you find the rest of Seno, let Yakawa know so that he can examine it immediately.”

Yakawa nodded fervently at that. “If you’re looking for me, I’ll be checking the storage room. There’s a lot of things in there that could have been used.”

“I know this won’t help us cover ground, but i’m headed to the storage room as well.” Tanabe said with sigh and a shrug. “I found something there that caught my eye and I need to know if it relates to the case at hand.”

“I am going to examine the supply closet.” Saeki stated in a mildly assertive tone. “Nishi found a lot of evidence last trial when she searched it so I’m going to swing by myself just in case. I will likely look in nearby rooms once i’m finished so if you can’t find me, check the general area.”

“I’m going to do the same thing I did last time.” I said with a nod as everyone looked at me. “I’m going to start at the crime scene and make a general sweep of the surrounding rooms. “

“And- I guess that leaves me to do a general sweep of the theater and dorm areas.” Machi said as she bit her lip in thought. “If I remember correctly, he was headed in that direction the last time I saw him.”

*(Wait a second.)*

“Hold on, I saw him shortly before the lights turned on.” I said as the recollection of the events that happened right before I met up with Yakawa. The memory was surprisingly fuzzy and gave me a headache thinking about it, probably because I was sick when it happened, but I remembered nonetheless. “I saw him leaving the dorm area before I ran into Yakawa.”

Machi took a sideways glance over at Yakawa who just nodded at what I said. With that, she gave a shrug. “I guess I can narrow my search to the dorm area then. I’ll let you all know if I find anything.”

At that, the whole congregation disbanded. First was Machi and I held my breath when she did. She probably left first before anyone could say otherwise and I wanted her to be supervised but the truth was that we were too low on people for that to happen. After that was Saeki, then Tanabe, then Yakawa. And at last, I was left to search the kitchen with Senji.

We got to it immediately. He started searching a few of the cabinets and turned his back to both Seno’s head and me. Apparently he trusted me enough which made sense given that I was with Yakawa when the lights turned on. At least, I hoped he made the connection and knew I was innocent. Meanwhile, I knew the perfect spot to start. It was rudimentary and I doubted that there would be anything coherent in it, but I headed over to check anyways.

“There is one thing I forgot to say Nishi.” Senji said from across the room. I looked and he only took a moment to look back at me from his work. “I’m sure that we can solve the case between the two of us. That said, I believe that the current cooperation will help.”

“Yeah I hope- so-” I began before I noticed something.

I looked down at a piece of paper in a trash bin buried under several paper cups and plates that weren’t even dirty. Really, it was nothing more than a simple handwritten note, but the fact that someone bothered to bury it under wasted products aroused enough suspicion for me to lean over and grab the thing. I carefully reached down to pick the thing up before I bought it up to read in my head. Supposedly, it was from Seno.

‘I am writing this in case something bad happens to me because I don’t want you to go without what I’ve learned. I am worried about Machi as of late. Yesterday I saw her grab a knife from the kitchen and overheard her mutter something about Saeki. I don’t know what is going to happen but I know that someone needs to intervene before Machi does something. ~Seno Sotatsu.’

Naturally, Senji was right in front of me waiting to ask the obvious question as soon as I finished. “If I may ask, and I will ask whether I may or not, what does the note say?”

“It’s a note from Seno, I think.” I said with doubt evident in my tone as I slowly and reluctantly handed the thing over. “This was alarming easy to find which means either the culprit messed up, there was something the culprit didn’t plan for, or this is a frame up.”

I frowned as he took it because I had a sizeable uneasy feeling in the back of my mind that it could be the last one. It may have been simply because there were so many other ways to get rid of the note but I couldn’t quite peg it down. However, I sighed and tried to suspend the thought for now. People make severe mistakes all the time and I had yet to see how well hidden the rest of the evidence was so I knew that I needed to consider it as possible evidence until I proved otherwise.

“It could be any of those possibilities yes.” Senji surmised as he inspected it instead of looking at me. He had just a hint in his voice that told me he thought along similar lines that I did. “I will hold on to this just in case it proves important. If it is, I’ll be the one to reveal it. That way, nobody will nobody will jump to conclusions.”

“Yeah-” I trailed off as I looked over at the stove nearby. Senji’s concern about everyone jumping to conclusions was definitely plausible given how the last class trial was conducted. Though I hoped that this trial wouldn’t be like the last one since we were all working together and nobody has been outright accused of anything.

“Regardless-” Senji coolly said pulling me from my thoughts of potential concern. “Would you like to see what I found while you were looking through the trash?”

“Yes I would.” I replied firmly. To be honest, there were a lot of reasons why I might not have wanted to have seen whatever he found but I knew that it would help to know everything I could in the upcoming class trial so I needed to go along with it.

Senji simply stepped over to the sink by the knife rack. He pulled off the largest knife with his right hand and the blade looked to be at least 12 inches, the largest knife immediately accessible. With his left hand, he grabbed the corner of several dark grey towels by the sink. Aside from a series of dark foot stains, nothing appeared out of place.

“I’m guessing that there’s a reason why you chose those?” I asked with my left eyebrow raised. I had a feeling that he was going to implicate them into the murder somehow, and it was as good a guess as any, but I didn’t see any reason why they would be.

“I believe that the knife was used to decapitate Seno and the towels were used to help clean up the mess. I found another bunch of them in the sink that i’m pretty sure were used to help dry the crime scene up afterwards but that’s just a hypothesis.” Senji said more or less confirming my suspicions. “I know you can’t see it all both of these objects feel damp as if they have been washed off very recently. Now, I don’t know if decapitation was the cause of death but the knife was definitely used.”

“Oh I get it.” I replied as I took a closer look at the objects. “The towels also look like they have enough food stains to where one blood stain wouldn’t be noticed so easily.”

“Correct. It’s strange though because I always keep things clean and neatly placed. I don’t recall letting anything get that dirty...” Senji said as he put all items down on the counter, pulled out his electroID, took a few pictures, and seemed to trail off for a second. Though eventually he put his ElectroID away, looked back over at me, and continued. “It doesn’t matter. We should get back to searching and sort it out later.”

I nodded and the two of us resumed searching as I once again took to the bottom cabinets and the floor while Senji took to the upper cabinets and the area of the kitchen that generally looked more like a professional kitchen. For about two minutes, neither of us found anything. But then, I made my way over to the dumbwaiter and opened up the latch.

It didn’t look so strange on the surface. The dumbwaiter inside looked just big enough for me to squeeze into except it was divided into three sections by shelves. Though as I reached out and felt the middle one, it felt loose to me. Other than that, the dumbwaiter was metal and there were two side-by-side holes in the back on the top shelf. All of which I was sure had a practical purpose such as larger food items or convection. The only thing I noticed out of place was a lack of wiring attached to the top of the dumbwaiter. It wasn’t connected to anything and there was no way to raise or lower the thing. I pulled out my ElectroID and took a picture of the thing.

“Senji, I think I found something.” I said as I put my ElectroID back in my pocket. He immediately came over when I called. “I think I may have figure out what the killer used to strangle Seno. The wire on the top is missing.”

I pointed at the top and he just peered curiously through the gap as he looked at the top. Sure enough, he raised his eyebrows in mild shock when he noticed there was nothing attached to the dumbwaiter and I knew at that moment that there was supposed to be something attached.

“Before you ask-” Senji began calmly enough in spite of the mild surprise as he took his head out of the shaft and looked back at me. “There is supposed to be something attached to the dumbwaiter. I can’t remember whether or not I’ve said this but it was fully functional. You made a good find Nishi.”

“In that case, i’m going to check the billiard room later in case the culprit removes the wire from there.” I concluded as I looked back at the open shaft and then back at Senji.

“I think that would be a good idea Nishi. I might search the place myself if the opportunity arises.” Senji said as he gave me a brief smile in spite of everything that was happening. “Regardless, I think I had better get back to searching the crime scene. Everyone who said we talked too long was probably right.”

I nodded in agreement and watched as he got back to where he left off. Coincidentally, it appeared to be a garbage chute in the side of the wall that presumably led to the incinerator room. I stepped back away from the dumbwaiter to resume my own investigation. But even as I did so, I noticed Senji frown at something he saw. After that, I didn’t even bother waiting for him to call me over because anything important enough to grab his attention was worth looking at.

“What is it?” I asked succinctly as I approached.

Before he gave a verbal answer, Senji fully opened the hatch and I went wide-eyed at what I saw. It was a dingy metal shaft with a fairly steep decline that I knew led to the incinerator. That much was a given. But what made me take a step back was a large and consistent blood trail that led around a corner to the edge of a bright glow that I imagined could only be the incinerator. Between the blood and the putrid stench that wafted from the shaft, I could have guessed that Seno’s body was being burned.

“I’m guessing that Seno’s body is getting burned down there?” I asked with concern evident on both my face and in my tone.

Senji just nodded. “I have to stay here and guard the crime scene but I need you to find a way to turn off the incinerator!”

I sighed, put my right hand up to my chin and thought, and tried to recall how the incinerator worked from initiation. It took a few seconds, but it came back to me and I remembered that there were two ways to turn it off. First, I could probably slide down the chute since the safety systems would put out the fire. Yet, I knew the rubbish could still burn long enough to injure me so I wasn’t about to take the risk. But luckily, I remembered that Saeki was given charge of the room so I just needed to find her.

*(Now where did she say she went?)*

“I got it!” I said. My eyes lit up when I remembered that Saeki would be in the supply closet on the way down there. “I think I know someone who can turn it off.”

“I know this is rude for me to say and I am going to have to ask for your forgiveness for it, but get going.” Senji commanded me. He almost reached out to push me to the door but he was able to stop himself from doing that and he quickly but uneasily put them back down by his sides.

Yet I understood the importance of turning the fire off. Already I could feel my pulse pick up from the imminent danger of losing evidence. So instead of complaining, I turned around and speed walked out the back door though I more or less staggered out into the hallways when the doors opened. From there, I caught myself and rounded the corner left to reach the supply closet. And in somewhere between ten to twenty seconds, I yanked the door open fast enough to make Saeki jump and hold her arms up in defense.

“Saeki, you need to turn the incinerator off now!” I shouted a little louder than necessary but urgently enough to convey the message. Luckily, she looked as though she heard me because she lowered her hands.

“You startled me Nishi.” Saeki said in between deep breaths as she tried to calm herself down. I just looked away as she continued. “This had better be important or I am going to very cross with you.”

“It is.” I said as calmly as I could while I backed away from the door and motioned in the direction of the incinerator room with my left hand. “We really do need to hurry though. I don’t know how long we have.”

As soon as I said that, Saeki just took off towards the incinerator room and I followed as best as I could. All the while, my heart was pounding almost as much as it was when Sama screamed. I lost sight of Saeki as she rounded the corner past the cross section of the hallway. But luckily, it was just a short flight down the stairs and another right turn before I saw Saeki fiddling with the control panel and her ElectroID inserted into the thing.

“So what is in there that’s so important?” Saeki asked. She didn’t sound upset even after being surprised, but her tone did make it clear that she wanted to know. That was fair enough although I distinctly recalled her withholding something from me. But I kept quiet about that.

“We think Seno’s body is in there. Along with whatever other evidence that the culprit thought to dump in there.” I said as I again looked away ashamed with how she handled things comparatively calmer than I did.

“Well that is important.” Saeki said emphasizing the word ‘is’ as she stopped interacting with the control panel and pulled her ElectroID out before pocketing the thing. “But don’t worry. The fire will be turning off any second now.”

At that, I could see through the reinforced door window that the fire had in fact shut off. And in seconds, the room was deluged in more than enough water to fully extinguish whatever was left of the fire. It was then that I let out a visible sigh of relief. I hadn’t necessarily been worried per see, but I had been in a hurry ever since I had discovered that Seno’s body was in there.

“So, uh. Did you find anything in the supply closet Saeki?” I asked a little hesitantly. Even to me, it sounded awkward. Though thankfully, she didn’t appear to be too upset with me.

Instead, she just crossed her arms and shook her head. “I know it’s to be expected but I believe that this culprit is learning from the mistakes of the last one. At least, they are to my knowledge because the only thing I found in the supply closet was a lack of cleaning supplies.”

*(Really? Because Senji and I found a lot of stuff fairly easily.)*

“I don’t know about that.” I replied as soon as I processed the information. “Senji and I figured out the tool used to decapitate Seno was the twelve-inch knife, we found the towels used to clean up the mess, and we’re pretty sure that the cable wire to the dumbwaiter was used somehow because it’s missing. Senji took pictures of most of it if you want to check.”

“I’m going to pass.” Saeki said brushing the notion aside with her right hand. “We have a lot of ground to cover and I trust your combined judgement.” She stopped after that, and I almost replied. But she quickly thought of another thing to say. “That reminds me, I probably ought to fetch Yakawa. You go on ahead and I will be with you shortly.”

As soon as I gave a shrug, she departed down the hallways towards the back exit and more importantly, towards the storage room where Yakawa said he would be. Not that I watched her head off. As soon as she rounded the corner, she left my sight. After that, I pulled out my ElectroID, swiped it through the card reader, and put my left hand on the handle as I waited for the click. It came, I opened the door, put my ElectroID back, and stepped inside.

I immediately covered my mouth and nose with my left hand and turned my head away as I was assaulted by the stench of burnt garbage and burnt human flesh. But eventually, I forced myself to look at everything inside. I slowly uncovered my mouth and nose and took a few steps towards further in yet not inside the edge of the garbage which appeared to have piled up at least a foot and a half. Considering the top layer was black from being singed, I could only imagine that there was more trash in here before the incinerator lit up.

*(So Monokuma turned this off too.)*

But overall, it was not that important of a deduction to the case. Especially because I noticed something more important in the center near the chute that confirmed Senji’s theory. In the middle of the room was the body of Seno Sotatsu laid stomach down. And I could tell that it was far burnt to a crisp. Not only was his body blackened, but the clothes on his back were missing save for a few pieces of fabric that had fallen off the sides. Worst of all, his skin appeared to be melted off because I could see his muscles. In fact, certain areas like the middle left rib, his right wrist, and his left thigh were burnt to the extent that bone was exposed. And finally, there appeared to be a piece of wire wrapped around the left wrist that trailed off to below the rubbish.

I covered my mouth with both of my hands, looked away, and closed my eyes while I felt an intense nasua stir in my stomach that made me sick to my core. A small part of me thought that I was going to throw up from the combined stench and sight of Seno’s burnt body. But I recovered as quickly as the sickness came upon me. And once again, I was able to look at Seno’s corpse with both my hands down by my sides.

It appeared that I came to my senses just in time because I heard the door behind me shut and I turned around to see both Saeki and Yakawa. Neither of their reactions were happy to say the least. Saeki tightly closed her lips, crossed her arms, and looked away in a futile effort to hide that anything was wrong. Yakawa meanwhile, went wide-eyed with shock for about a second before scowling and trudging forward towards the body with an expression that more than told us to stay out of his way.

“How about we all search the room for clues?” I asked with a hint of concern in my tone of voice. Both must have picked up on it because they looked up at me and nodded.

With that, the three of us searched the place. Saeki more or less started left of the body to make a counter-clockwise search, I did the opposite, and Yakawa examined the body. Throughout the whole ordeal, I remained as thorough as I could possibly be and a few glances over at the others told me that they were just as meticulous. The thought of how it would take a week of showers to get the stench off did occur but the notion was quickly forgotten thanks to our life or death situation. Yet by the time I reached the other end, all I could do was sigh because I had found nothing related to the case. I had found some telling things about my classmates of course, but nothing to do with the case.

“Grr,” Saeki growled as both of her fists clenched. “I can’t believe it but I failed. I haven’t found anything. I really hope you two have some good news for me.”

I put my hand on my hips and shook my head no as the two of them looked at me. They both glared when I did but I had a feeling that their irritation didn’t have anything to do with me so much as being forced to search through everyone’s trash and having almost no clues to go on. As if to confirm, Saeki’s gaze passed me and fell on Yakawa.

“This was a real low move on the culprit’s part.” Yakawa said with a low, slightly irritated, and quite frankly chilling tone after a long sigh. “Unfortunately it worked. I can’t figure out anything about Seno’s physical state with the tools we have and I can barely even identify him as male. If it weren’t for the fact that we knew who the victim was, he would be impossible to identify.”

There was a brief pause at that as Saeki and I just looked at each other and looked back at him. After that, Saeki sighed and broke the silence a little calmer than she had before. “You said you couldn’t find out anything about his body but did you find something else? Because I hope for all of our sakes that you did.”

“Well there was one thing.” Yakawa said as he touched the burnt wire delicately with his left hand. He was wearing gloves on both of course. “This string appears to be a partially melted wire that wrapped around his left wrist. I found a few other loops connected to the wire so I can only assume that he was bound in them before they loosened and fell off the other limbs. It’s only a guess though since I can’t examine possible wrist marks.”

“Well you did a better job than we did.” I said with as much encouragement mustered up as I could give. “It’s not what we wanted to find but it’s something.”

“Perhaps we could make another sweep?” Yakawa said as though it was an assertion rather than a suggestion. I frowned at that and looked over to Saeki who had more or less the same reaction. Yakawa continued regardless. “It couldn’t hurt right?”

“About that,” I reluctantly began. “We searched pretty thoroughly and I still have places that I want to search like upstairs and the storage room. Not to mention the fact that Senji will want to know.”

“Don’t worry about Senji. I’ll fill him in.” Saeki said a little more calm than before. The irritation was still there and obvious, but she took a few deep breaths and continued. “I was hoping to speak to him after I finish my search of the supply closet anyways.”

“So you girls are leaving then?” Yakawa asked.

“Uhm yes we are I suppose.” I answered. He just nodded in return. It was obvious again that he wasn’t happy but at least he looked like he understood. I took the opportunity to continue. “Aren’t you leaving as well?”

Yakawa just shook his head and grumbled something to himself before he sighed and spoke to us solemnly. “No but you two can go on ahead. In fact you probably should. I know it’s stupid but I don’t want to leave Seno’s body to the culprit’s mercy and besides, I might find something with another inspection.”

“It’s not stupid. Don’t say it is.” Saeki argued though with a small trace of a smile. “I’m not going to die so don’t get the wrong idea. But if I were to die, I wouldn’t want the creep who killed me to be handling my body either.”

“Thanks guys.” Yakawa replied. For a second, he showed a smile as well. One that didn’t fade and probably wouldn’t until we left and he refocused on the task of searching Seno’s unrecognizable corpse.

With that, the two of us left. Saeki swung the door wide open and the two of us stepped out before Saeki closed the thing behind us. After that, we departed our separate ways as she went back up the stairs to what I assumed was the supply closet to finish her search and I want the opposite way. I rounded the corner and marched towards the entrance of the storage room. Once again, I felt a cold chill from the side exit door that made my hair stand on end. But this time, it came with the reminder of the motive and the death that ensued from it. Both of which made me pass a brief forlorn glance at the window.

*(I’m sorry Seno.)*

I sighed after about twenty seconds, pushed the door to my left open, and made my way inside as the door closed right behind me without any trouble. Almost everything looked the same as before as well save for a few wires hanging over one of the shelves in the far end room that had opened up earlier and Tanabe on the opposite end sitting on the book crate and flipping through the pages of ‘Blue Ink’. Nevertheless, he did seem to notice me because when I entered, he spoke up.

“Oh hey Nishi.” Tanabe said with an eerily calm expression on his face that nearly gave me goosebumps. After that, he scrunched his nose, likely because of me, but said nothing about. Instead, he chose to focus on the task of investigating. “I see you also thought there would be something worthwhile in here.”

“Uh, yeah.” I said as nonchalantly as I could as I pulled my gaze away from him and approached the shelves and racks opposite of him. “So is there any particular reason why you’re reading a book in the middle of our investigation?”

“You haven’t read it? It’s the best murder mystery I’ve ever read.” Tanabe defended happily enough to make me narrow my eyes at him. At that, he dropped his attitude and spoke seriously. “The reason I’m reading this is because the culprit had to have read one of these books. See, it’s about a detective trying to stop a cop killing serial killer and there’s a scene that plays out just like when we found Seno somewhere in chapter two. I just can’t find it yet.”

“I’m a little sore of the subject of murder mysteries.” I admitted fully acknowledging that I hadn’t read it. Tanabe just nodded with what I guess was understanding though I didn’t really care at the moment what it was.

“Can’t say I blame you. It isn’t for everyone.” Tanabe conceded before lazily pointing towards the rack across from him with his left pointer finger. “If you’re looking for other evidence, go ahead and feel the weights and wire over there and let me know if anything is unusual.”

I turned my head and looked at the wires, weights, and PVC pipe lined along the other side and back at Tanabe who just shrugged. I did not want to feel around them, especially not in light of the fact that Tanabe suggested it. For all I knew, he wanted to surprise me with some spider that he hid away in the pipes.

Nevertheless, I sighed and gave in for the sake of the investigation before turning towards the rack and slowly feeling along the thing. All the while, I kept vision of Tanabe in the corner of my eye. The process was slow of course, top to bottom and left to right. But about a third of the way through, I placed my hand on a metal wire next to a weight. It was ice cold, granted, room temperature was pretty cold, but this wire was so cold that the shock of it nearly made me jump. As soon as I recovered, I looked to my left and I noticed a PVC pipe on the other end of the weight with several scratch marks on it.

“Do you understand now?” Tanabe asked with a slight frown on his face. “Something other than the lack of heating had to have changed their temperature so they must have been used in the murder.”

“Yeah-” I muttered irritantly as I pulled out my ElectroID and took a picture of the set before putting my ElectroID back. “What I don’t understand is why you made me feel the thing.”

“Because nobody ever takes me seriously. You would have dismissed it as a coincidence unless you felt it for yourself.” Tanabe shrugged in what must have been resignation or contempt. “That’s all that’s in here by the way. Yakawa and I scoured the place.”

“Are you telling me to leave?” I asked as I gave him a blank stare.

“Not at all.” Tanabe replied evidently missing or ignoring my reaction. “I just wanted to let you know so that you could continue your investigation. An apology if you will for putting you through that. If you want to stay you can sit down by me and we can skim through the pages together.”

*(Reading a book I hate in the middle of an investigation. Sure.)*

“No.” I bluntly declined. Though when he lowered his book and looked me in the eyes, I explained myself. “We still have an investigation to do and I can’t afford to sit out when I’m not needed.”

Tanabe’s meager smile dropped and he nodded. That was good because it meant he understood where I was coming from. When he spoke, he didn’t sound angry either though his tone was solemn like the investigation before. And for a moment, I wondered just how well he was really coping with the deaths of our classmates.

“You’re right Nishi.” Tanabe said. “It’s like I said last time, we can’t afford to pick the wrong guy so we had better be safe than sorry. Goodbye Nishi and good luck on your investigation.”

With his consent, I headed to the door and stepped outside of the room. All the while, two thoughts made their way to the front of my mind. The first of course was how Tanabe was coping, what he really thought about us given the things he said, and how he was doing in general. With a sigh, I let the door close behind me, closed my eyes, and resigned myself to check up on Tanabe eventually.

*(Note to self, see if Tanabe is alright eventually if we survive the class trial.)*

But I quickly pushed that thought from my mind because I had a more urgent one. Namely, deciding where I was going to search next because I knew I really did need to help out even if it was an excuse when I said it. But fortunately, the answer came to mind almost as quickly as the question and I barely even had to stop and think before it occurred to me. The second floor would be the perfect place to search. The billiard room would even make the perfect starting point since I already wanted to search the top of the dumbwaiter shaft.

So, I made haste upstairs. The trip of course, wasn’t too eventful on my way to the second floor. I rounded the corner past where Yakawa was, rounded the corner again before proceeding up the stairs, and made my way towards the back hallway to the center of the lodge. Though along the way, I took note of Shiro walking towards the supply closet and smiled wearily at knowing the entire group was back to searching for clues.

From there, I went through the back hallway past the AV room, past the route to my right that took me past the wretched lounge where Monokuma addressed us, made my way to where all the staircases were, climbed the stairwell, and headed right towards the billiard room. It was then that I saw the main door to the art room open and Eto stepped out to stop me.

“Hey Nishi.” Eto remarked with a worn smile. “I have a few things that I need to talk to you about. I think I even have a composite list of who up here couldn’t have done it. But i’d like to discuss it in the art room.”

“Uh- yes I would.” I conceded after a quick glance at the art room and a second of thought.

I wanted to go to the billiard room to be honest. And on top of that I didn’t know what Eto wanted to tell me or why she wanted to tell me in the art room. But everything appeared to be safe in there and finding out a list of people who could not have killed Seno was way too valuable to pass up. And so, I stepped through the opened door and turned around in time to see it shut behind Eto who had also stepped inside.

“So what did you want to tell me?” I asked calmly enough. I may have wanted to check out the billiard room but I had no reason not to start with Eto since she was here.

“Well, first I wanted to tell you to meet me in my room after the class trial.” Eto said before she looked away in what looked like shame. “It’s better to show you than to just explain it to you but it’s not relevant to the case and I doubt we have enough time to waste before the class trial. The point is, I’ll be there after the class trial so meet me there. And well, I’m sorry.”

I had to admit that Eto’s apology caught me off guard due in part to the fact that I had no idea why she would need to apologize to me. Though knowing Eto, whom I didn’t know too well but I was sure I knew enough, it was probably something like not being able to figure out who had the Last Blood perk or something of that nature. And while I wouldn’t be happy about it, I definitely wouldn’t blame her for it.

“Hey Eto. Relax. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s nothing I wouldn’t forgive you for.” I said mustering up as reassuring of a smile as I could for her. “If it’s that important then i’ll be there. But let's focus on the task at hand.”

“Right. Heh, you are the best. Although I’m also upset about Seno. It’s so unfair. The culprit probably didn’t even want to do it!” Eto protested as she looked back at me before taking a sigh and calming down. “But long story short, I can prove that almost everyone up here was where they said they were and thus could not have killed Seno. The only person who I don’t know about is Sasori who would have had a small window of opportunity if he left right after he claimed that you did.”

I frowned and nodded. I didn’t necessarily think that Sasori was the culprit of course, but there was no denying the possibility. I even took one glance out the window to my left to see if Eto could have spotted Sasori headed downstairs. And just as I thought, she couldn’t.

“Basically, Wakuni was in the sports room, and supposedly the archery range though I know he’s innocent so he’s likely telling the truth. Thankfully too, because I’d hate for Yakawa to see his brother get executed-” Eto continued although she trailed off at the last part before she picked up and continued. “Sasori was in the game room of course. You can most likely verify that though you weren’t with him the whole time.”

I nodded to all accounts.

“So that leaves Shiro, Sama, Sanda, and Koike.” Eto continued counting them off on her fingers. “Shiro was in the women’s restroom during Seno’s time of death. Luckily the round clocks run on battery power or we wouldn’t know that. Sama, Sanda, and Koike were all together in the rec room throwing some sort of apologetic party for Koike. In fact they’re over there right now. And as you know, I was here in the art room the entire time.”

I was already paying attention but I passed a glance to my right when she mentioned those three still being around there. That was convenient for me insomuch as I could at least ask them about what they might have noticed. Nevertheless, I returned and maintained eye-contact and respect of Eto until she was finished.

“You said that Koike and the others are near the rec room?” I asked with no attempt to hide my curiosity as I took yet another glance in there direction. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that that Eto did the same.

“Pretty much.” Eto surmised with a sigh before she frowned. “I’m off to find Yakawa or Senji to see if I can find out more about, well, what happened. But you can probably catch up with them if you head there now.”

“I think I will actually.” I said as I headed for the door, grabbed the handle with my right hand, and gave her a single wave with the other one. “Goodbye Eto. I’ll see you around.”

“Goodbye Nishi.” Eto replied before she returned the single solitary wave. “Good luck Nishi. We need all the help we can get if we’re going to get any justice for Seno.” She shuddered, but forced a weak smile after. “But I believe we can. We just need to do what we did last time minus the pointless accusations.” She paused as if some realization hit her. “Oh, here I am holding you up. Goodbye Nishi.”

After she finished, I opened, the main door, stepped out, let the door close behind me, and turned right towards the greenhouse balcony and the recreation room where Koike and the others apparently were. From there, I simply headed down the hallway until I reached the area that wrapped around the greenhouse and looked to my right. Like always, there were two doors in that direction. The nearest one led into the rec room and the farthest one to the billiard room. The only different seemed to be Koike fiddling with the door handle on the second door before giving up.

*(It looks like Koike found something.)*

I put on a smile for Koike as I approached her. About the same time, she turned to head in my direction. She started off looking at the floor but as we got closer to each other in front of the rec room door she sniffed the air, looked up and startled when she noticed me.

“Oh hey Nishi. Uh, what is that smell?” She asked before she winced. After that, she did her best to recover. Albeit with a frown and a face palm with her left hand. “I was just testing the door to the billiard room. I wanted to know if it was still locked so I asked Sanda and Sama not to mess with it.”

“Still locked?” I said as I took a suspicious glance at the door and made no attempt to hide my interest. “So it’s locked right now but it was also locked earlier?”

“Yep. We took a short break just before the murder. Sama and I came out here and the door was locked then. We reconvened just before the lights turned on by the way.” Koike noted calmly enough before she winced at what she said. “Please tell me this doesn’t make me a suspect. I don’t want to go through another trial like that again.”

“I don’t think so.” I reassured her. To which she gave a quick fading smile. “Naya says you three all have alibis so we know you didn’t do it. Besides, I think everyone has learned their lessons from last class trial so don’t worry about that.”

“Thanks.” Koike said before she gave a quick sigh and looked vacantly towards the greenhouse. “You know, I can’t believe he’s gone. I mean, I hate what he did to me, but I never forgave him. And now he’s dead. He died thinking I hated him because I took too long.”

I bit my tongue and kept silent at that. I remembered distinctly that he said he wanted to make things right with Koike before someone died. And according to Koike, he never had to chance before he was killed. Apparently my silence was telling though because Koike just looked at me and sighed again.

“Hey Koike-” I said in a desperate attempt to cheer her up. “I think he knew you didn’t hate him, even if you were upset with him. People get upset with other all the time but that doesn’t mean that they don’t care about each other right?”

Koike nodded. Her frown started to fade but she didn’t sound convinced. “I know what you’re trying to do Nishi. And I appreciate it but I really don’t know what to think.”

“Would it help if I said that whatever afterlife he’s in, I’m sure that he knows?” I asked once more to try and help though admittedly it wasn’t as refined as what it could’ve been.

“No but it helps to know that you’re trying at least.” Koike replied. “Don’t worry about me Nishi, I just wish I could have had more time to make things right but it’s all water under the bridge now. Anyways, I bet you’re here to look around for clues. If you are, Sanda and Sama are in the recreation room.”

“I am. I guess this is goodbye for now then.” I said as I reached for the door to my right and pressed against it with my right hand until it started to barely open. “If you need me-”

“I’ll let you know.” Koike finished. “If you’re worried about it, we can talk about Seno after the trial. For now, I’m sorry about the way I acted and I hope I’ll see you around.”

I paused, but nodded back as reassuringly as I could. And with that, I opened the door and headed into the recreation room. And when I did, I noticed a few differences immediately. For starters, a curtain was somehow set up using PVC pipe and what was likely props from Sanda’s room. Aside from that, there were several magic implements on one table including two briefcases, a wand, three rings, and an actual pigeon just walking around the table irrespective of my presence. On another table still were two plates. One had a half eaten sandwich of one was empty. And finally, Sanda and Sama were both standing in the center of the room talking to each oblivious to my presence.

“It really is something isn’t it?” Sanda commented. He sounded happier than most but there was an undertone of disappointment in his voice. “I mean, we all knew it was going to happen when we woke up and it was near freezing, but it’s still hard to take.”

“I know,” Sama said with a sigh and bit her lip before continuing to talk. “And it’s so much worse knowing that we have to go through a class trial. Where if we get it wrong, well- you saw what happened to Yasui.”

“Are you afraid we’re going to die?” Sanda asked with a shrug. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Just do your part and I know the class will figure out the truth. That’s what we did last time and it’s what we’ll keep doing.”

“I’m not too worried, at least, not any more worried than I was last time.” Sama remarked. Her concern slowly turning to frustration as she continued. “I was just hoping that we wouldn’t have to go through another one. But then Monokuma being to guy he is, he just had to hit us with another motive this early.”

*(Wait, it was kind of soon. What was up with that?)*

“That’s just the story of our life right?” Sanda said with blatant exasperation despite trying to stay cheerful like he always did.

“I just wish this story had a hero.” Sama grumbled as she crossed her arms and looked out the window. “A hero who could solve all of the mysteries for us and possibly lead us out of here. It wouldn’t certainly take some of the stress away from being stuck here.”

“That would be nice.” I accidentally thought out loud.

It was just a mumble as the thought of some Super High School Level Lucky Student, other than Seno because he clearly messed up, standing up to Monokuma in the trial room entered my mind. Of course it would be some lucky guy because it was the past two times, or past three if Seno was right, but now the only person who could have done that is dead. Regardless, Sama and Sanda both turned to me in surprise.

“I thought I smelled something. How long have you been here?” Sama asked as she raised her voice and tapped her right foot. Evidently demanding some form of an answer. In the meantime, I just frowned at her first remark. I was definitely going to have to take a thorough shower later.

“I more or less just got here.” I replied in partial truth because I didn’t want to tell them how much of the conversation that I overheard. After that, I looked around the room from left to right. The answer to my question was obvious, but I asked anyways to direct the conversation away from myself. “So, I keep hearing that you guys had some sort of get together with Koike. Is this where it happened?”

“Look around you Nishi. Where else could it have happened?” Sanda said in a teasing enough tone even though his face didn’t show it.

“I’m joking. I’m joking.” I said as I raised both of my hands partially in defense before dropping them. “In all seriousness though. Since you three were here, can you tell me if anyone went into the billiard room?”

Sama and Sanda both shook their heads with varying degrees of speed before Sama replied. “Nobody went in there while we were all together. We did split up for a little while but both Koike and I left the room. I don’t think Sanda has a reason to lie either.”

“Sama is right on all accounts for once.” Sanda teased earning a scowl from Sama. However, he looked over at the door and then looked me in the eyes almost dead serious after. “I didn’t step foot in the billiard room. Why do you ask?”

I looked Sanda over from top to bottom for a second, if he was lying to me, then he showed no signs of it. Rather, he seemed like he was just trying to cope with the second death the same way that he dealt with the first and Sama was surprisingly willing to potentially be dragged along for the ride.

“I think the murder may have had something to do with the billiard room. The dumbwaiter cable is missing and It had to have been removed from the top of the shaft.” I replied. Sama and Sanda looked at each other when I said that. “Speaking of which, I have a question for the two of you. Have you seen anything suspicious?”

“I didn’t see anything. I don’t think the others did either-” Sanda began before he was cut off.

“Koike spoke to us about the door from the billiard room to the hallway being locked from the inside.” Sama said as he looked at Sanda and gave a brief smirk to Sanda who raised both eyebrows in what must have been shock. “If you ask me, she might have something for you to hear.”

“I’ve already heard it.” I said with a hand wave of my right hand. “The only thing to do now is check the billiard room for clues.”

“Good luck Nishi.” Sanda replied pleasantly enough.

“I doubt she’ll need luck. It’s just a room search.” Sama retorted before she gave a sigh and looked back at me. “I suppose we’d better search the surrounding area. I- well I don’t know how much you heard earlier but I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t a little scared of the upcoming class trial.”

I just returned the most reassuring smile I could as the thoughts of the class trial came to my own mind. As the image of Yasui’s beheading flashed through my own mind and I thought about what I had found, I couldn’t help but agree. She had every right to be worried about the upcoming trial. Particularly with the threat of deaths like that looming over our heads.

I almost frowned at the thought, but I consciously refrained from it. Instead, I just headed over the billiard room door and planted my right hand on it before responding. “It’s okay to be worried about Sama. I think we all are. But if it helps, I don't see any reason why we can’t figure out the killer.”

At that, I opened the door, took a few steps inside, and immediately shivered again from the sudden onset of frigid temperature. It almost felt as though I was outside although I wasn’t and by the time the door shut behind me, I could see my own breath. Apparently it was the most well-insulated room in the lodge. Regardless, I looked around for the source because I knew that I would have to leave soon if the temperature remained the way it did.

Luckily for me, a quick scan of the room revealed the obvious source of the problem. At the far end of the room, the window was open. Furthermore, I could hear the window blowing and a small pile of snow on the ground more than told me that we were in the middle of that storm Monokuma warned us about.

*(Wonderful.)* I thought sarcastically.

I slowly but steadily made my way to the window with the intent of closing the thing. The heating may be back on, but the room wouldn’t get much warmer unless I did. Still, it got noticeably colder as I got closer to the window and when I grabbed the window to close it, the cold ice bit into my hands.

In spite of this, no because of it, I yanked the window down with a sudden jerk. A few ice junks cascaded off the top on the other side before falling down to the first floor but I didn’t pay too much attention to that. Instead, I flipped the locks on the window and took my now shaking hands away from it.

I crossed my arms and waited for the heating to do its job while I stood there and looked out the window careful to avoid stepping in the snow lest my shoes or socks get wet. As I looked out the window, I could tell that it was snowing hard between the grey clouds in the sky, occasional lightning strikes, and a flurry of snow brushing past. To be honest, it was somewhat difficult to see out the window. Though that was to be somewhat expected from what I could see. Namely the fact that most of the windows were frozen over and only got worse the closer they were to the face of the building. In fact, the only windows on the second floor that weren’t covered in snow appeared to be this one and the window across from it near the art room.

I pulled out my ElectroID and took a picture of the storm outside just as I stopped shivering again. It wasn’t that I saw anything, but I figured that I might as well have some reminder of the temperatures outside in case it came up in the class trial or even during exploration afterwards. After that, I put my ElectroID up again and blankly looked up at the ceiling.

I was then that I noticed something because of course something was off. The roof of the room, like most of the second-floor roofs, had panels. But I stared blankly in unamusement for a second as I realized that the one panel just above me happened to be missing with just a small edge of it sticking out of the whole like it was placed aside on top of some of the nearby panels.

*(Could this just be '**coincidence'**?)*

It obviously could be a coincidence when I considered that Monokuma outright admitted to doing renovations before and that this could easily be something that he was in the middle of before the murder took place. Additionally, it could have been like that the entire time without my noticing because it wasn’t like I was looking for it. But nevertheless, it could easily have been a clue. And I knew I needed to drag a chair over to where I was standing and take a look in there just to be safe.

And so, I looked for over at the nearest chair in the room. I noticed one close by in the corner to my right. But as I shifted my gaze, something caught my eye. I looked again and when I did, I knew I spotted something unusual. Specifically, the pool table in the center of the room seemed slightly tilted in a barely noticeable counterclockwise turn from its original position. I only noticed because the right two legs left short feint skid marks that went about a few inches each on the rug in the middle. Nonetheless, it was still there. And I still pulled out my ElectroID, took a picture, and put my ElectroID back.

*(I’m beginning to think something bad definitely happened here.)*

It was true. I sighed as I looked again at the nearest chair knowing full well that I couldn’t deny it. Something definitely happened here. Trying to piece it together with the murder only gave me a headache as I processed the facts of what I knew, but I knew that I’d have to figure it out sooner or later. Hopefully Senji or someone else could figure it out because I doubted that I even had time to try before the class trial.

And so, I headed over to the chair and pulled on it. It turned out to be heavier than a simple wooden chair, it had no good place to grip the thing, and loud scraping noises permeated the room when I pulled the thing. But between both of my hands gripping the thing, it didn’t really take that much effort on my part to get the chair into place. But I still took a second to stop as I looked at what I had done. Luckily, it didn’t leave any annoying scrape marks on the ground or It would have made the investigation a lot more irritating.

But since there wasn’t, I focused on the task at hand rather than a ‘what if’ and stepped on top of the chair right foot first. From there, I rested my nearly stumbled but I rested my left hand on the back of the chair to steady myself and peered through the panel in the ceiling.

Like many areas before, it looked like I more or less expected the area to look like. It was dark, musty, and most dusty. A little too much in fact for me to see much ahead of me. With my free hand, I pulled out my ElectroID and used the light to take a quick look around.

Right away, I noticed that I was right about part of the panel hanging out because I noticed that it was neatly tucked on one of the wooden crossing beams that made up what looked like an attic crawl space. I frowned at the revelation and looked around at the place once more. Apart from the obvious wooden support beams, boards, and other things to insulate the area, two things caught my eye. The first was an odd five pound gym weight that appeared as though it were balanced on a wooden board but had fallen over halfway onto a panel. The second thing I noticed was that the dust was disturbed and there were at least a two dozen scrape marks near the weight as though something or a lot of things had been dragged out of it.

Naturally, I did the obvious thing and used my ElectroID to take a picture of the entire thing. It was all hard to see through the camera but at least it was a good reminder to myself and I was pretty sure that I could point it out to Senji or Saeki who could probably solve it for me in turn. With that settled, I put my ElectroID away, slowly ducked, and carefully stepped back off of the chair. After that, I turned away from both. I considered putting everything back where it was supposed to be of course, but ultimately, I left everything where it was just in case someone else showed up and wanted to search the scene.

After that, I headed over to one of the last two places that I wanted to search. I came to the billiard room for the dumbwaiter, but when Koike mentioned that the door to the hallway was locked from the inside, I knew I had to check it. Especially since it was right next to the dumbwaiter in question.

And that is exactly what I did. I rounded the front of the pushed pool table in the center and took a quick glance at the door. It wasn’t anything special but it did have a lock on the front door which I’m pretty sure meant nobody could have come in or out of this room after Sama, Sanda, and Koike took the room with the only other exit.

I shrugged it off and took note of the thought for later. For now, I simply took a few steps to my right until I stood in front of the latch to the dumbwaiter, I opened up the latch, and I leaned forward to peer inside. It was dark of course, but there was more than enough light from the room for me to notice two things. For starters, there was no cable wire anywhere to be seen just like I predicted. In fact, I followed the absence of cable wire all the way up to an empty cable spool with my eyes. The second thing I noticed was that light poured in from two other side by side holes higher up above me akin to the holes that I had found in the back of the dumbwaiter.

I pulled out my ElectroID once more, took a picture of it all, put it back, and ducked backing my head out of the shaft. After all, there wasn’t any point to me hitting the back of my head on the shaft. After that, I took one more casual glance around at the room to see if I could find any more clues or think of any other places the search. But, the answer to both questions was that I couldn’t. Not without knowing where to take a closer look at least.

*(So what now?)*

I stopped for a few seconds, put my right hand to my chin in thought, and recalled what everyone had said and where I had gone so far since I took care of everything that I wanted to take care of. Luckily enough, the answer came to me fairly easily and a trace of a smile came to me when it did. Saeki mentioned finding something, or the lack of something, in the supply closet. I could even ask Senji for an update on everything he knew along the way.

A started to head over to the door just as it swung open. Behind it was none other than Senji, the guy I wanted to ask for an update. He gave me a quick smile and headed over to where I was standing though he did take a quick glance around the place.

“Good news. I’m finally finished up in the kitchen.” Senji commented calmly enough but with some hint of pleasantness in his voice. “So did you find anything in here?”

“How did you get away?” I asked as I folded my arms and eyed him with an obvious questioning look. “I mean, I don’t want in interrupt you. I have some pictures you’re going to want to see. But who’s guarding the scene of the crime?”

Senji paused, looked round the place again, and held up his left pointer finger as if feeling the air. It took a few seconds, but when he was finished, he replied reasonably enough. “Tanabe volunteered to take care of it when I mentioned that I needed to search the billiard room. But if I were being honest, this place looks to be almost as much of a crime scene as the kitchen with the exception of a lack of a severed head. Anyways, you said that you had pictures to show me?”

“Pretty much.” I said making no attempt to hide it as I dug out my ElectroID and pressed my thumb on the screen to turn the thing on. After that, I held it out for him to borrow. “Just, be careful with them. I’m sure you’re polite enough to know this already, but I want all of those pictures back in one piece.”

“I am well aware of that. I assure you that this will be just like last time.” Senji said as his smile faded. Aside from that, he calmly took my ElectroID and went straight to the pictures as I saw on the screen. Being the guy he was, he flicked the screen back to the first picture that I took in this room and quickly sifted through the pictures to the end. After that, he looked back up at me and asked another question. “Is it alright if I go back through some of the past pictures? I don’t believe you have anything on here to hide but I want to ask you to be safe.”

“Uh-” I replied as the memories came back to me. Unless I activated it accidentally at one point, I only took pictures of the investigation. Ones that I intended to share with everyone at the class trial to be specific. “Yeah. You haven’t had much of a chance to look around and I don’t think I have any secrets on there.”

“Thank you.” Senji said as I saw him flip through the ElectroID once more. This time, to the first picture I took this investigation.

To be honest, I was surprised how comfortable I had grown with him searching through my stuff. Though it probably had to do with the fact that both times he did, I agreed and we were conducting a murder investigation. Once he finished, he gave the ElectroID back to me which I in turn pocketed once more.

“I appreciate it.” Senji conceded as he stepped back and looked out the window once more. Perhaps trying to find out why I took the picture I did or to confirm the storm’s weather for himself. Regardless of the reason, he quickly turned back to me and spoke. “I see now that I have more areas to search than I initially thought. I’m going to make a quick comb of this room and-”

Ding dong, bing bong.

Senji just looked up at the nearest speaker and sighed as Monokuma interrupted him over the speaker just as cheerfully and homicidal as ever. “Attention students, it’s that special time again! You know what i’m talking about! It's the second class trial! Like always, you have five minutes to get to the elevator. If ya get lost, all you have to do is hollar so you have no excuse if your late. Ciao!”

Senji glanced at me again. Though this time, his fists were clenched shut and so were his teeth. I took a step back just to be safe but when he spoke, he still managed to keep cool. Even if the irritation was obvious in his voice.

“It doesn’t appear that I will be able to conduct my investigation any further.” Senji slowly informed me after biting his tongue for a few seconds. “Shame. I wanted to give everything a quick search just to be safe.”

“That is unfortunate.” I conceded with a frown of my own. I didn’t want to go to a class trial and I certainly didn’t want to go to one when at least one of us wasn’t prepared. “I think we might have everything we need from here though. I don’t know that for sure, but we made it through last time somehow.”

“Somehow.” Senji agreed with a nod before regaining his composure as best as he could. “I suppose I should be grateful that you had the time to search the room. Did you have time to finish your search?”

“Yes I did.” I replied.

That's what I said. Though to be honest, I would have been more comfortable heading to the supply closet and checking it out for myself. It was like a nagging tug in the back of my mind that I knew would drive me nuts. And to make things worse, this search just felt shorter than the last for some reason. Still, I put on the best smile I could for Senji.

“Good job Nishi.” Senji concluded. He still didn’t sound happy but he sounded somewhat relieved. “In that case, I should be able to rely on your judgement as well as the pictures you shared with me of course.”

“I really hope you don’t think I’m infallible. Everyone has their mistakes.” I warned just as something came to me. “And I almost forgot. Did you find anything else in the kitchen while I was gone?”

“Unfortunately no. Nothing of consequence.” Senji said as he shook his head and made no attempt to hide his disappointment. “And as for what you said, I know that you are not infallible. I would rather we both have searched the room. But one of us is better than neither of us and I do not believe I have a choice. We really do have to get going.”

“Yeah.” I said as I looked at the still locked door. “Let's get going. I really don’t want to get punished for tardiness.”

Senji must have agreed because when I headed to the door, he quickly followed me. After that, I simply and unlocked the door and swung it open before I stepped out into the hallway. Then, we began to make our way to the elevator. It wasn’t too difficult to find my way fortunately so I didn’t need to call for Monokuma. I simply headed down the hallway, turned left, went straight down that hallway until I approached the stairwell past the art room, headed down to the first floor, hooped around the AV room, and stood before the same ominous double doors that I had entered once before during the class trial.

My reaction was simple of course, hesitation. Though I put my right hand on the door, I couldn’t help but let second thoughts enter my mind. It wasn’t that I particularly doubted that we could figure out the murder case, but the thought hadn’t been completely absent from my mind. Nor had the memory of Yasui’s execution. I took a few seconds to force the passing thoughts away and before I gave Senji a quick glance.

“Are you ready?” I asked. Obviously, he wasn’t ever going to be ready for this and we had no choice, but the formality of asking helped me think about something other than the worst case scenario.

Senji just nodded. After that, I opened the door and the two of us stepped back into the dark grey metal room with the caged elevator looming in the back. In fact, almost everything was the same including the remaining survivors standing there displaying their different reactions to the upcoming class trial. Eto, Shiro, Sama, Saeki, Machi, Sanda, Yakawa, Sasori, Tanabe, Koike, and Wakuni were all there waiting for us. In fact, the only difference was that Senji and I were the last to arrive.

“It looks like you both made it.” Saeki said while trying to maintain her usual demeanor but failing in no small part because of the people keeping their distance from her. “You two made it with plenty of time to spare as well.”

“I’ll say.” Wakuni mumbled as he crossed his arms. He didn’t seem any angrier than before, but he didn’t sound too happy either. “Is everybody ready for the class trial? It isn’t what I wanted but I know it’s inevitable.”

“I don’t think anyone is really ready for this.” Sama answer understandingly enough. “But it's like you said. We have to do it. If we don’t the bear will kill us.”

“I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that we have this trial covered.” Shiro interjected delicately as she pressed her fingers together. “If we’ve done it before, we can do it again.”

“Let's just try to focus on not repeating our past mistakes.” Yakawa stated in a calm but weary tone as he gazed about the class. “And we should be careful about the cause of death. For any of you who saw the rest of Seno’s body, I’m sure you understand why I think something doesn’t quite add up.”

“You mean the file that Monokuma gave us?” I asked. Then, without waiting for an answer, I responded. “Like I said earlier, the details seem to be oddly specific. There’s probably something in there related to the murder that Monokuma is playing along with.”

“Did someone say my name?” Came a cheerful voice from the seemingly nowhere. One collective sigh from half the class later, Monokuma sprung out of the floor and landed in the middle of the group. “I don’t have to play along with anything. I only gave you the necessary information for a fair trial like the impartial judge I am.”

“Right.” I Sama trailed off in a tone that made it clear that she didn’t believe him. “Would you have left us alone if we didn’t say your name?”

“Nope!” Monokuma said happily although his left eye glowed and he raised his hand with protruded claws as if to warn her not to press her luck. “People say my name all the time. I only show up when I’m relevant. Or when I’m bored.”

“So you’re here to tell us that the elevator is unlocked?” Sasori guessed after rolling his eyes. When Monokuma looked at him and reverted to his normal state, he only looked away and continued however. “Or you know, something?”

“I’m unlocking the elevator now yes, but I also wanted to congratulate you guys.” Monokuma said in mock praise. “You’re attendance is better than usual. None of you waited until the last minute to show up.”

“Speaking of time-” Tanabe began to question quietly enough from the far left corner of the group. “This investigation felt shorter than the last one. What is up with that?”

*(Well you did spend a lot of it reading that book.)*

“I concur.” Senji said with a mild growl in his voice. “We didn’t have time to launch a proper investigation. I know that I didn’t get to search one of the rooms that I wanted to inspect and I am willing to bet that I am not the only person who feels this way.”

“Would it make you happy if I gave you more time?” Monokuma asked in a suspiciously innocent voice and both hands down together by his side as though he were trying to be exaggeratedly innocent. It didn’t work in the slightest.

“I would feel better if you did-” Eto began before she was cut off.

“Too bad! I never said I would.” Monokuma said raising his right fist in objection to her request. “It isn’t about the time spent but how you spend it. You’ve had more than enough time to find all the clues you need. If you’ve squandered it, it’s not on my paws.”

“Monokuma, I think a little more time would be fair,” Koike said before she looked at Senji and me with what could only be concern. If I had to guess, it was because we didn’t have enough time to launch our searches. “I mean, we showed up with time to spare right?”

“Hey! What you did was your decision.” Monokuma asserted and took a step towards Koike. “I can’t be blamed for your choices and I’m not going to extend the investigation so stop asking! The elevator is waiting so I’ll see you all at the bottom if you know what’s best for you.”

With that, Monokuma disappeared and the doors to the elevator opened up with a metallic creak that permeated the room and made half the class, myself included, wince. Where Monokuma went, I would likely never know. But I knew at once what I had to do. And looking around, it seemed like everyone else did as well. Because within seconds, we all made our way into the elevator itself.

As the doors shut behind us all, I took a quick look around at my classmates. Then, my thoughts and assessments set in. Barring the incredibly unlikely suicide, one of us murdered Seno. One of us would not be coming back up the elevator shaft. Either that, or twelve of us would not be coming back up. Though the mood of the room was calmer, I was sure that everyone was thinking the same thing with at least a little bit of apprehension in their mind.

I thought back to what I had looked at as the elevator whirled to life and descended with the clatter of cables within the dark shaft. I could start to piece together the murder, but I didn’t know who killed Seno and I couldn’t help but think of the places that I wasn’t able to search. My pulse picked up but I took a few deep breaths and tried to focus on what I had learned. I could only hope we found everything we needed. Luckily, I didn’t have to fight back evidence against an innocent suspect this time so that was in my favor. And I was thankful for that. We would need every advantage we could get because it was time to put everything we knew together. It was time to fight for our lives.

*(It’s time to find out who killed Seno Sotatsu or die trying.)*

## Trivia

* According to Tanabe, the book ‘Blue Ink’ is about a detective hunting down a police killer.