Danganronpa: Hope for the Hopeless/Chapter 3 - Deadly Life

## Story

The first thing I did was sigh and take one glance at Yakawa as the guy systematically tried to get a response of any kind from Eto. I wasn’t an expert at saving people, but Yakawa seemed to be doing a good enough job. Yet, I knew that he would fail through no fault of his own. Eto had died long enough ago for body to nearly freeze over. Again, I wasn’t an expert, but I doubted that even Yakawa could resurrect someone who had already been dead for a long time.

I looked past Eto’s body and at the footprints that she supposedly left. There was no doubt that they were hers since they stopped at her snow boots. All the while, I wracked my brain to think of who could have done this and why. Money was the obvious answer to the latter though I didn’t really have any immediate guesses as to who and I didn’t really want to leave until Yakawa explained her cause of death or until Monokuma gave me a file. As sickening as that was.

By the time, I finished that line of thought, Yakawa was more or less forced to step back and hang his head in shame. He knelt down again, but this time, I imagined it was to examine Eto rather than save her. But that wasn’t all, I heard footsteps crackle the snow behind me. And I didn't really need to glance, but I looked over my left shoulder and saw everyone who was still alive headed over to catch up with us and stop in their tracks when they did. Their reactions were predictably unpleasant though there was one good thing that came of it.

My eyes widened when I noticed that Koike was among them.

“R-really?” Koike said as she crossed her arms gave what I presumed was a sad stare at Eto’s body. “One of the few days I accidentally sleep in and I wake up to a body discovery announcement. Who would kill Eto for money?”

“It might not necessarily be for money,” Sanda refuted though even his tone sounded less than enthused. “I mean, Monokuma offered a CD to anyone who could graduate. And while they could sell it for money, I don’t want to make any assumptions.”

“Well, I know.” Koike explained as she rubbed the back of her head with her right hand. “I know that’s true, but I want to believe that Eto’s life is worth more than being able to watch other people being forced to kill each other. It would be just horrible otherwise. That isn’t to say it isn’t already but- do you understand?”

“I believe I do,” Senji nodded. He drew a sigh when he glanced at the body, but otherwise maintained a calm enough disposition. “I know this is bad, but we need to try to lighten up and figure out what happened to her. Yakawa, can you explain to us how Eto died?”

“Well, it’s complicated-” Yakawa began only to be interrupted.

“What do you mean it's complicated?” Machi questioned. “You figured out how the other two died, can’t you figure this one out? I’d like to think that if it were me, you’d have figured it out by now.”

“I-” Yakawa paused for a second as he tried to figure out how to respond to that. “I’m not a Super High School Level Mortician. That said, I believe I have a time of death. Eto Uzuki almost certainly died between 11:30pm and 12:30am. And before you ask, no I can’t save her. As for the cause of death, well, I know for a fact that the arrow wound is not what killed her-”

As Yakawa drew his right pointed finger towards the blood pooled behind Eto’s shirt, Tanabe interrupted. “Are you sure? I know you’re better at this than me, but that arrow looks as though it went straight into her heart.”

“Oh, the arrow did pierce her heart. It punctured her pericardial sake and skewered the dead center of her heart based on the angle of the shaft here.” Yakawa conceded almost repressing a growl as he did. “I’m just saying that isn’t what killed her. In fact, she was already dead when she was shot by the arrow. If it were any other way, there would be a lot more blood. Now, I have no idea what her actual cause of death is, but I know it could not have been the arrow. Aside from that, all I can tell you right now is that she appears to have been restrained at one point judging by the abrasions on her wrists and ankles, and that she does not appear to have suffered any pain from her cause of death.”

“But if she was restrained, she probably saw her death coming ahead of time,” I responded. However, I was drowned out by Sama.

“Wait, really?” Sama said as she raised an eyebrow at Yakawa. “You know Yakawa, I’m glad you’re here to examine the body because let's face it, none of us want to and you’re the only medical doctor here. But you really have no idea how she died?”

Yakawa shook his head grimly. “I have a few theories but nothing to substantiate them. All I know is that it could not have been the arrow that pierced her heart. And I think my brother can back me up on this.”

“Yeah, Yakawa’s right. I’ve hunted enough animals to know that they leave way more blood than Eto left.” Wakuni grumbled. “Obviously, it's not a perfect example since I’ve never seen a human gunshot or arrow shot wound before, but my point holds up.”

“Well that’s troubling. If not even you can figure out how Eto died, then we have a problem,” Saeki chimed in and then bit her lip for second before resuming what she was going to say. “Is it too much to hope that the Monokuma file will clear this up?”

“Oh yeah, he’s probably going to do that again isn’t he?” Koike said with a brief scowl. “Well- I mean- he did it the last two times so it makes sense.”

“You got that right!” Came Monokuma’s voice just a second before he jumped out of nowhere from underneath the snow just to the left of Eto’s body. Nobody looked impressed at him and I knew for sure that I wasn’t. “Feel free to pull up your ElectroIDs because I have a brand new Monokuma file for you! Does it make you feel special? Well you shouldn’t because I do it for everyone.”

We looked around at each other when he said that with mixed expressions. Some people seemed to have ignored Monokuma entirely and still showed either grief or anger. I know I for one already wished for Eto to still be with us. And not just to avoid the upcoming class trial either. Still, we all pulled out and looked at our ElectroIDs and I was one of the first. I tapped the Monokuma eye icon, flipped through the case menu, and tapped the third case on the selection screen. Like before, it pulled up.

Monokuma File 3:

Subject: Eto Uzuki

Height: 5’5”

Weight: 115 lbs

Blood Type: AB-

Birthday: December 31st

The subject was discovered at the crossroads around 7:22am. The estimated time of death appears to be between 11:00pm and 6:00am. The cause of death appears to be a case of near instantaneous organ failure due to a source that is unknown at the time of the autopsy. Additionally, the victim has a 7-inch stab wound in her back just to the right of her spine. Furthermore, the victim’s wrists and ankle have red abrasions as though they have been rubbed raw against an unknown object.

I drew a sigh and looked up at Monokuma about the time that everyone else looked away from their ElectroIDs. And while I didn’t look at any of them in particular, I had a strong feeling that they were just as displeased as I was with the Monokuma File. After all, it literally told us nothing that Yakawa didn’t already deduce.

“Hey, Monokuma,” Sama growled. “Organ failure? A seven-hour time lapse? Would it kill you to give us something we don’t already know?”

“Well, I could have but- user feedback you know?” Monokuma replied in a mock snap of his left fingers. “If I remember correctly, and I know I remember correctly so don’t challenge me on this because I can pull it up on a monitor, one of you twerps complained about my Monokuma file being too specific.”

“Who would do something right that?” Sanda remarked from behind me out of nowhere. He still sounded upset, but he sounded more casual, likely from confusion, than before.

“Nishi and Koike. But mostly Nishi.” Monokuma replied as he pointed to me with his left hand all while maintaining his neutral posture. “But you were all suspicious of my files and I thought to myself ‘hey Monokuma, if this keeps up, all of your future class trials are going to be bogged down with boring semantics while they check everything that they already know.’ So I decided, since you now don’t know, you can waste less time recapping stuff you already do know. So if you’re screwed, remember this is all Nishi and Koike’s faults.”

“Hey, don’t blame this on us!” I defended before taking a worried glance over at Koike who just looked away from the group. I looked back at the bear. “Pretty much everything you had done up to that point was mislead us. We had every right now to trust everything that you immediately hand over to us.”

“Yeesh, you people really are ungrateful. You don’t know how good you have it. I’ll have you know, the last mutual killing session, I forced a group to spend their days in a prison instead a cosy snow lodge.” Monokuma said as he crossed his armed indignantly. “I won’t anything else because I don’t want to ruin the fun but you my point is, you’re all so spoiled. I guess I’ll see you later at the class trial. Or not if you’d rather be punished.”

*(Wait, the second game took place in an underwater-)*

“Wait.” Sasori called out as he shoved myself and Sanda aside interrupting my train of thought. We both caught our balance, but we looked at him as he reached out to Monokuma with mild glares. Sasori himself seemed calm enough if not with a hint of desperation in his voice.

But it was far too late. By the time Sasori parted us, Monokuma did a backflip into the snow behind him and outright submerged to who knew where. Sasori slowed down at where he used to be just long enough to look down the hole the bear made before the snow closed it up. And at that, we were all left in silence.

After five seconds, Sasori drew a sigh, closed his eyes, opened them, turned around, and addressed us. “Uhm, I apologize for that outburst. I’m just- really beginning to grow tired of that fraudulent headmaster’s riddles.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Saeki said as she forced a smile and stepped forward. “I imagine we would all rest easier if we knew what the heck was going on here. In fact, I wouldn’t be completely surprised if Eto died over those same answers which Monokuma promised in the motive.”

“That would be such a waste if that was the reason since the culprit is going to get out this situation if they succeed anyways.” Sasori uttered. “That’s another thing I don’t like about this case, we don’t know who did it, how, or even why.”

Senji coughed into his fist loudly enough to make everyone turn to him. “Don’t worry, we haven’t searched anywhere yet. By the time this is over, I suspect that by the time we’ve al run a sweep of the premises we’ll have a more thorough understanding of what happened. Though if I may say so, we should probably start right now. Like it or not, we all have to face another class trial and we have a lot of ground to cover.”

“Right,” Sasori said as he brushed his shirt off with his right hand and stood up to compose himself. “Well, in that case, we should probably split up since we have a lot of ground to cover. If it's alright, I’m going to search the cavern passage and maybe to lodge for anything suspicious.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea. I think I’ll go with you,” Sama said as he pushed past us and headed towards Sasori. He didn’t even ask the guy, but the way she quickly glanced at Eto’s body gave me the feeling that she was on edge.

“Hmm,” Saeki thought out loud as she put her hand to her chin. “You know, it might be a good idea for more than just two of us to search the lodge. I feel like most of the possible murder weapons would be located there among other things.”

“I kind of have to agree with that,” Sanda chimed in as he gestured towards the arrow shaft with his right hand. “I mean, Yakawa said it wasn’t Eto’s cause of death, but it's not like we know that for sure right?”

“I can say with absolute certainty that Eto didn’t die from the arrow wound,” Yakawa interrupted with an unamused expression and slight irritation in his tone. “I’m not a mortician but I insist that that much is true so I would appreciate it if you stopped second guessing me.”

“Well, uhm, sorry Yakawa. I know you do a better job than I ever would staring at a dead body and whatnot.” Sanda admitted as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Well, I’m still heading with Saeki to the lodge. Even if the arrow wasn’t the cause of death, it’s definitely involved in the murder.”

“I guess I’ll be going with them as well.” Tanabe added. “We really don’t have a lot of time for the area that we have to search. We might as well make the most of it.”

“Hmm,” Wakuni thought as he crossed his arms. “I think I’ll join you guys later. For now, I’m going to check the trails near the lift.”

“And I will be standing guard of Eto’s body,” Yakawa said as if he were naturally continuing Wakuni’s conversation. “I would still like to try to see if I can figure out what killer did to Eto Uzuki that killed her.”

“I’m going to poke around the weather station,” Machi commented after she drew a sigh. “I think that’s where Eto’s trail leads so I bet I can find something useful there. After that, I’m going to check out the observatory.”

“I think I’ll do what I usually do, gosh I hate how normal that feels to say,” I remarked. “Where was I? I’m going to start with the observatory and look around. See if I can offer any help to anyone on I meet on the way.”

“I don’t like how normal this is starting to feel either. Don’t worry, we can keep reminding each other of how abnormal this is. Which it is. It’s horrific on every level,” Koike began with a sigh before shaking her head. “Anyways, I’m going to search outside near the observatory and maybe I’ll head inside from time to time.”

“I guess that leaves me. I believe it would be best if I searched outside the observatory as well. The summit really does have a lot of trails to cover,” Senji surmised. “Anyways, we should get going already. We’ve wasted enough time as it is. Oh, and do be careful. We have a killer in our midst and I know we have to spread out, but be careful.”

Everyone nodded and that including myself. And with that, the group headed off with varied degrees of speed. Sasori and Sama seemed to be the first to leave. But after that, Wakuni didn’t take much time heading off the way we came along. After that was Machi who waved goodbye and trudged off to the weather station. Then, Saeki, Tanabe, and Sanda. Wakuni of course, stayed where he was. And finally, Senji, Koike, and I started to head off. But before we did, Senji turned around and said one last thing to Yakawa.

“Do keep me updated if you have a breakthrough,” Senji requested. “I have to admit that I myself see no other wounds that might have killed Eto and it's almost unnerving if I may say so.”

“I will Senji, don’t worry,” Yakawa said as he waved us goodbye and gave a grim smile. It was clear that he wasn’t happy about any of this, but at least he was willing to help.

At that, we started to head off. And we made it about a few paces before Koike looked at Senji and asked the butler a question. “Hey Senji? I really want us to solve this case so I was wondering, do you have any idea on how Eto might have died?”

“Well, Yakawa would be the better person to ask. That said, I do have a theory though I didn’t bring it up earlier because I’m not positive and I don’t want to influence Yakawa’s search with potential bias.” Senji explained as he turned towards Koike away from me. “Basically, I believe that Eto was poisoned somehow. I know most poisons produce bodily symptoms but there is a poison cabinet available in the storage room and I noticed a few poisons there that might do the trick.”

“Like what?” I cut in. I knew it was rude, but I wanted to know too.

“Like this one called Lullaby-7.” Senji blankly remarked turned towards the both of us. I winced when he said that because I remembered seeing it. “I read the label and its near instantaneous, painless because supposedly simply feels as though you are falling asleep, flavorless, completely untraceable even through a blood test, and lethal enough to kill someone with an eighth of a drop of it. I’m actually quite surprised that Monokuma included it. Of course, I know that that poison couldn't have been used since Eto lasted long enough to run to the crossroads, but it’s not a leap to believe that similar poisons exist around here. Now I regret not inspecting the prize room on the second floor.”

“I’ve been there and I didn’t notice any poison.” I chimed in about the time Koike whimpered. To be honest, Lullaby-7 made my skin crawl too when he described it. “I didn’t get the best look of the room though, Monokuma was rushing me through because he wanted to get to the motive. Not that I wanted to but-.”

Koike sighed. “It’s okay Nishi, we don’t have a choice but to obey his games until we figure out how to get out of here.”

“Speaking of which, back to the investigation,” Senji started as he stopped and gestured towards a trail that headed off the main path. “You know, I could go with you if wish. The investigation won’t go nearly as fast, but we can search the trails more thoroughly and more efficiently.”

“Yeah, i think I would like that,” Koike said rather quickly. And at that, she turned to look at me. “Well, Nishi, I guess this is goodbye for now. We’ll try to keep you updated like always and of course, I hope you keep us updated.”

“Will do,” I said as I waved them goodbye.

Before they could leave, however, the three of us heard a cracking sound in the snow and we all turned towards the source at the same time. When we did, what we saw was Sama and Sasori rush towards us with heavily breaths as though they were making some sort of emergency sprint. I bit my lip when the thought that they might be entered my mind which was about the time they stopped in front of us and started panting.

“What’s going on?” I asked with no attempt to hide the confusion in my voice.

Sasori lifted up his right pointer finger as if to tell us to hold off questions until later. Then, after five seconds of silence, he stood up and told us between breaths. “Well, we were going to go through the cave passage, but when we got to the door that lead there, we found that the lock was broken just like the lock to the library.” Sama shot Sasori a short lived glare but he didn’t show any signs of noticing it. “Point is, we won’t be taking that way back.”

“Really? Someone did that again?” Koike asked innocently enough but with a hint of exasperation in his tone. “I hope Monokuma fixes this one.”

“Me too, but yeah, someone broke the locks. Perhaps it's the same person.” Sasori suggested before turned his head to look at Sama, “Hey Sama, you can go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you at the bottom of the lift but right now I think I need to show them the picture I took.”

Sama stared at Sasori for a brief second, during the time, I didn’t know what her reaction was going to be. But she must have known the urgency of the situation because she took off immediately after. I watched her as she headed down the trail and eventually left our sigh over a surprisingly short time.

*(Wow, Sasori was holding her up. I didn’t know she could run that fast.)*

After that, I turned around just in time to see Sasori Pull up a picture from his ElectroID and show both Koike and Senji. And when I did, I saw a close up of the same door that lead to the summit. Really, the door was the same as before, but beside it was the blue electronic lock only it appeared to be broken in half with the lower half hanging on the wall only by exposed wires and other circuitry. I sighed.

*(Yep, no doubt about it. That door is never going to open again without Monokuma repairing it.)*

“Wow, I just didn’t expect this investigation to start off so wrong for you guys,” I said with clear sympathy. “No worries of course, you can always check the other side once you catch up with Sama.”

“Much appreciated” Sasori said as he quickly put his ElectroID away and dared a slight weary smile in spite of everything. “Anyways, I think I need to get going now. Sama is probably waiting for me and if she isn’t, then I really need to get going.”

“Well, good luck and goodbye Sasori,” Koike said with a wave to Sasori. “I mean, we’ll see each other at the trial of course but goodbye for now.”

“Yeah, goodbye Koike, Sasori responded with a gentle wave of his own. “And goodbye Senji and Goodbye Nishi. I wish you just as much luck. I have a feeling we’re going to need as much of it as we can get.”

At that, Sasori followed Sama off down the main path, to where Yakawa would be at the crossroads. Though he quickly left our sight, I knew that he was headed to the lift. And it was then, in the ensuring silence that I silently wished him luck. And after that, I turned to Koike and Senji.

“I guess this is goodbye for real this time.” Senji remarked with a weary smile of his own. “We’ll see you around and we’ll do what we can to keep you informed of our findings Nishi. Good luck with your investigation Nishi.”

“Yeah, good luck.” Koike chimed in.

“Thanks,” was all I had to say before they waved goodbye and went off on their own.

This time, my classmates departed towards a trail that branched off of the main path. No doubt to scour the place. And of course, in the silence that followed, the necessity of my own search came back to me. It wasn’t as if I ever forgot how important it was to search for clues, but the thought that I had better hurry to the observatory pressed my mind and I continued in that direction.

And like so many times traveling before, my walk there went without any major incidents. I quickly came up to the building, opened the right door, stepped inside, let it close behind me, and looked around the place as I considered which room would be the best to search first. The thought of checking the door came to mind but Sasori showed me a picture and Sama backed up his testimony so there was no point. Instead, I went the opposite direction, turned right and made my way to the observatory's AV room.

After that, I approached the door, firmly grabbed the handle, swung it out, and I stepped inside. And when I did, I was relatively underwhelmed with what I saw. Namely, I didn’t see anything of note. Or at the very least, nothing seemed to have changed from the last time I visited this room. The chairs that Koike Senji sat in were pushed up against the table once more, but I had a strong feeling that Senji would have done that.

Nevertheless, I scanned the room for any possible clues to the murder starting with walking up the table. Just as I thought, I didn’t see anything on the tables or in the chairs for that matter. Next, I looked up at the projector followed by peering left at the screen. Once again, it produced nothing and I frowned as the realization came to me that I was likely wasting my time here. Nevertheless, I shrugged it off and knelt down on the floor to search underneath the table. Like above, I found nothing of relevance. And so, the only thing to do was to conclude that the killer had nothing to do with this room. Or if they did, they were thorough in cleaning up their mess.

*(I need to stop wasting time here.)*

With that, I turned around and proceeded to leave the room. Overall, it was uneventful. And while it was a waste of time, there was no sense dwelling on that fact. Instead, I pushed the door and headed out into the hall without so much as looking back as the door closed behind me. After all, there were still plenty of other rooms to check in the observatory. Though that said, I couldn’t help but think of Machi and I silently hoped for a second that she was having more luck at the other building.

I sighed and headed to the closest room that I hadn’t search yet, the dining room. It didn't take too long nor was it eventful. I simply headed down the hall until the double doors appeared to my right and I simply opened them before stepping inside. Luckily enough, they lacked those annoying card reader locks. But unluckily, I stumbled into what looked to be another roadblock when I entered as the area before me looked completely devoid of interference.

I narrowed my eyes and scanned the room expectantly. The thought of Eto came to me at that moment along with the frankly obvious notion that this investigation was as much for her as it was for us. I took just a second to pause and remember her and frown at the memory of her death, but after that, I went back to searching the room.

I wanted to check the entire room of course, but I started with the curtains specially, to my immediate left. I reached out and nonchalantly pulled the curtain to the side just enough to see what was behind it. All the while, some of part of my mind told me that I wouldn’t find anything. But my eyebrows raised when I saw at the bottom of the curtain, the cloth was rolled up and tucked behind the rest of the curtain with two string marks within the cloth.

*(Hmm.)*

At that, I gently put set curtain back to its original position, pulled out my ElectroID, and proceeded to the next three curtains to my left. It was odd for a curtain to be rolled up on the end like that but I decided to check the other three curtains nearby in case it was just stylistic. So, I went by each curtain and pulled each of them back. As I did, I knew with increasing certainty that the first one I inspected was unique. So, once I go to the stage from the left, I turned around and briskly made my way to the first curtain with one thought in mind.

*(Something is definitely going on in this room.)*

With that, I simply but precisely pulled back the first curtain and took a picture of the rolled-up end. After that, I went ahead and loosened it just in case something was being stored there. But once more, I found nothing. For the seconds that followed, I closed my eyes and cleared my mind to try to think of a reason why that would be, but nothing came. And at that, I opened my eyes and shook my head.

*(Maybe I’ll find another clue that can help me figure it out.)*

So, with that, I headed the other direction which luckily only had two curtains to search through. I bounded past the double doors to both the outside and the kitchen before I reached the next curtain. Like before, I cautiously drew it back. Only this time, when I did, my eyes went wide with surprise at what I found.

This time, the end of the curtain wasn’t just bunched up on the end and rolled into a cylinder that was tucked behind the rest of the curtain. This time, it was connected to two strings and a quick glance told me rose all the way to the ceiling. More specifically, up to the wooden joist before they turned towards the center of the room. Additionally, they seemed to have plenty of slack because they would have been pulled down to the ground if they hadn’t. Suffice to say I got my answer to what was up with the other curtain. And naturally, I took a picture of it before I put the curtain back into position.

And finally, I checked the last of the curtains. Like most of the others, it lacked anything that distinguished it from the others. So of course, when I stepped back, I turned around and eyed the two suspicious curtains as though they were going to reveal what was happening under my gaze. I knew they weren’t of course. And after that, I looked at the table where Senji sat and then at the roof. I was obviously just going to have to climb up there and see for myself what was going on.

But first, I noticed a mostly empty trash can to my immediate left and took a quick but careful glance at the contents inside. All it had was a single strand of broken duct tape that looked as though it once made a loop but appeared to be torn. Additionally, there seemed to be a used cloth. It was pure white and didn’t have so much as a speck of blood on it, but I supposed it have to have been used for something. Once again, I frowned, pulled up my ElectroID, and took a picture. I knew right away that I didn’t know what this meant but we could hopefully figure it out later at the class trial. Regardless, a thought did creep into my mind when I did.

*(Everything here just seems to lead to more questions.)*

I shrugged the thought off, sighed, and proceeded to climb knees first onto Senji’s table before getting my footing and slowly standing up on the table. While I did, I made a mental note to remind Senji that he would probably want to clean his table off before he ate there. Assuming we still went ahead with the party which I highly doubted. After all, the room felt empty with all of these party decorations and the knowledge that Eto died on the eve of the event. I could never bring myself to attend this celebration after that and I had a feeling that no one else could either.

Regardless, I shook my head and peered above the joist. And as soon as I did, I noticed something that nearly made my spirit sink. The entire joist was polished off save for the outer corners of the room which meant that our culprit, if this was their doing and I was willing to bet it was, took the time to cover his or her tracks. But more alarmingly, it meant that they learned from that particular mistake that Shiro made and likely learned a few others as well.

That wasn’t all of course, there just so happened to be two stacks of two books on the joist. All of which were likely from the weather station since they were all related to weather patterns. And on the top of them were ring stains of some unknown liquid. Naturally, each book stack had a string that passed over it. What was more was that one of the strings stopped and hung over where Koike was to be seated and one happened to hang over where I was to be seated. And again, I took a picture of the scene.

But that still wasn’t the end of it. I glanced over to my right and noticed two ring stains. One that was halfway between the trajectory of the first curtain and where I was seated, and one that was halfway between the trajectory of Koike was to be seated and the curtain. To make matters worse, I noticed a dead spider lying in one of the wet rings. So, while I took a picture, my pulse picked up and a thought came to me.

*(Poison!)*

At that, I quickly climbed off of the table as the dizzying realization struck me. Those wet rings on the wood and books were all from some sort of poison bottle and the trajectories of both origin points happened to hover over Koike and me. And of course, they happened to be the only wet stains which meant that the culprit wasn’t covering up another planned murder. Rather it meant that the killer was going trying target me and Koike. Eto was probably just caught in the crossfire.

When I touched the ground, I felt sick to my stomach. Someone had legitimately attempted to kill me and it looked like they would have succeeded if the party went ahead. If I were being honestly, the thought that Koike was a target didn’t help matters either. It meant someone tried to pull a double murder which was alarming in of itself. But it was even worse than normal because the culprit might still be among the group that stayed at the summit.

*(I should probably warn the others.)*

At that, rested against the table and tried to shake the fact that someone had tried to kill me and Koike and very well still be making plans to kill us from my mind. I wasn’t how it took for me to refocus, but the thought embedded itself in my brain way longer than I wanted it to. In fact, I doubted I would ever forget that someone tried to kill me, but I did manage to clear my mind enough to focus on the case. And once I did manage to refocus, I put my ElectroID away and let out a sigh.

At that, I looked around the room once more. I peered at the tables once more and approached the inner middle tables, but like before, absolutely nothing seemed to be out of place. Well, nothing except for the sheet of the table I climbed on being slightly off-center but that had nothing to do with the murder and everything to do with me so I ignored that and proceeded to search another part of the room.

I looked up. Once again, I saw absolutely nothing that I didn’t see before. In fact, the black backdrop of the roof hid the thin silk string eerily well and the thought came to me that I wouldn’t even have noticed if it weren’t for the fact that I had seen it before. To be honest, I didn’t know what I was expecting to find since I already looked up there more thoroughly.

And at that, I turned towards the edge of the stage and climbed on to it. Like before, I glanced around the stage for clues. Like before, there were none either at ground level, to the sides of the stage, or directly above. It was just a blank stage for all intents and purposes. Granted, I hadn't peeked behind the stage curtain and Koike and I were the targets rather than Sanda, but at the same time, it felt uncanny how little the amount of evidence we were actually finding compared to the last two culprits. I scowled, but nevertheless continued.

*(Out killer had to have messed up somewhere. We’re all just counting on each other to figure out how and where.)*

To that extent, I pushed both the stage curtains back at the part in the middle to see what was behind the visible stage. Like before, it was an empty area save for a few stage props that were likely going to be used in Sanda’s performance. I carefully peered at the same sword box from before when I first visited the room, but it was devoid of any traces of involvement. Additionally, when I approached and pushed the thing open, I saw nothing.

At that, I stepped over to another prop, namely, the only other one which happened to immediately catch my attention. I bounded to and looked down at a box that contained no less than twelve one-handed short swords. Though I looked at every blade on the thing and they all lacked both bloodstains and dampness to indicate that any blood was wiped or washed off. Furthermore, I noticed a note within the bin that contains several items including five decks of cards, two sparrow cages, two sparrows, a handkerchief, and a slew of other cheap magic trick items. But most importantly, it only called for twelve swords meaning that all potential swords were accounted for.

And at that, I started to head away from the stage. After all, all the other props were simply items on the list and a cursory glance told me that none of them were involved in the murder of Eto, but, one particular deck of cards happened to be spilled on the ground. Well, most of the cards were still in a card box but three happened to be on the ground. Coincidentally, all three of them happened to be spades. Furthermore, they were an ace of spades, a two of spades, and a three of spades. The last of which had a single strand of ginger brown hair on top of it. Naturally, I pulled out my ElectroID and took a picture of it.

Once that was done, I looked around the room once more for anything suspicious only a little more thoroughly than before. It took a few extra minutes of my time to make the sweep and I noticed nothing new, but it was well worth my time.

It was then that I turned around and looked at my next objective. Namely, the next room that I wanted to search. I knew that the kitchen would be important, but right now, the backstage prop room was a lot closer, it would be the perfect place to hide something that was well hidden, and I couldn’t help but think in the back of my mind that it would come back to bite me if I didn’t search the room.

So, I headed over to the backstage door, reached out, and pulled it open. Like before, it was the usual backstage fare, clothes racks, props as far as I could see, and moveable cabinets containing magic tricks and the like. But almost nothing looked as though it were completely out of place and I groaned ever so slightly at the daunting task of searching the entire place.

Of course, there were some things that appeared to be out of place. For starters, I moved closer to the clothes rack and pulled out my ElectroID. Oddly enough, it appeared as though nearly half of them were missing compared to the last time I saw that particular clothes rack. One or two pieces of clothing missing was suspicious, but half the entire wrack meant that it almost certainly had something to do with the murder. Suffice to say, I took a quick picture. And when I did, the flash lit the room to reveal something that I hadn’t seen before.

Slowly, I made my way over to a tent prop in the corner of the room. And as my footsteps echoed throughout the area, I looked around a relatively wide selection of stage props that I hadn’t seen before. Most of them seemed to be renaissance based and when I looked at an axe, Yasui’s execution flashed through my mind. But I reached out, tapped the blade of the axe, and discovered that it was a plastic replica. A part of me breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Monokuma didn’t flaunt the same props that he used to kill the guy.

Still, I turned towards a blue fabric tent with a black metal frame and approached it at last. The investigation was very important, but so was getting out of here. And shelter from the cold for at least some of us was a start. It wouldn’t be enough, but it would be a start. And what was more, I noticed a few supplies such as coats of various sizes and colors and two dark green backpacks. In fact, I even noticed what looked like props for emergency supplies next to the tent including but not limited to, what looked like another reflective blanket, a plastic flare gun though there were no flares to be seen, and a stretcher.

I reached out to feel the fabric of the tent. Of all the props, this one appeared to be genuine. It was far too porous from observation and realistically speaking it would provide no protection if we tried to escape, but it felt like a start and I chose to hang on to it if only for the sake of my own sanity. So without thinking, I took a picture for myself as a smile ever so briefly crept across my face.

When I turned back to refocus on the case at hand, it dropped and I casually took a few steps over to where the clothing rack was again. Upon closer observation, that were all long sleeved shirts. However, none of them appeared to be that warm. In fact, none of them were suited for cold weather. I briefly closed my eyes and wracked my brain for an answer or some possible way to connect any of the pieces of evidence that I had found in the search. But to be honest, not much came to me other than the guess that Eto got caught in the middle of the killer trying to murder myself and Koike.

I opened my eyes and sighed again. About the same time, I also heard footsteps echo in the room along with the sound of the entrance door slamming open. My eyes darted in the direction of the sound and that was when I saw none other than Machi Satu standing there with a frown on her face and tapping her right foot with what looked like impatience.

“Nishi, are you here?” Machi asked in a concerned enough tone as her eyes darted across the room. “I’ve got some very very bad news and I need your help with something.”

I hesitated, not because I was afraid of Machi, but because I wasn’t in any mood to hear whatever bad news she had to say. But after a split second, I stepped forward into the light provided from the room adjacent to this one. Machi saw me almost immediately after I did it as well.

“Oh, there you are Nishi,” Machi said as her body visibly loosened. Nonetheless, the urgency in her tone rung clear. “I need to you to follow me the dining room. It’s kind of an emergency and I barely have enough time to explain it to you as it is. Simply put, we’re in deep trouble.”

Machi held the door open for me and I searched her for any signs of deceit. But apart from her attitude being different than normal, everything she did seemed to indicate that she was telling the truth from the tone of her voice to her posture. I just silently nodded, headed through the door, and braced myself for whatever it was that I was about to hear.

“What’s wrong Machi?” I earnestly said as she stepped into the dining room behind me.

She just held up her left hand in a stop motion to stop me, bounded off the stage onto the normal floor, waltzed right up to the table where we were all going to sit, and reached under the table to grab something. She was in a steady jog and though I tried to catch up at first, as soon as she reached under the table, I intentionally fell back and stopped just short of leaving the stage.

“It’s actually really complicated,” Machi said as she pulled a grey case out from under the table that still had black tape attached to it. “Long story short, I had to quit my search early because the lift just stalled with Sasori, Saeki, and all the others on it.”

“But-” I said as I took another glance at the metal case which she popped open to reveal several tools and wracked my brain for a reason why she had it taped under the table. “Okay, first off, you’re not even an engineer. And I don’t mean that to be rude but are you sure you can fix whatever’s wrong? Second, why do you have that taped under the table?”

“The same reason Yakawa has a box of medical supplies taped under the table right next to it.” Machi immediately retorted as she closed the case and glared at me. “As for whether or not I can fix it, I may not be an engineer or a repairman, but I’m pretty sure I can do a better job than you or anyone else trapped up here so stop undercutting me. I actually went to you specifically because I need someone to resume my search of the weather station pronto.”

“But what-” I began.

I was trying to ask about the observatory itself, but Machi cut me off long before I could finish what I was trying to say. “I’ll send someone this way yes. But right now, I’m worried about the actual scene of the crime which is way more urgent than this place. You never know, the culprit may have just stalled the lift to lure me away so he or she could dispose of the evidence there. And there is evidence there.”

“If the killer is there though, won’t they try to kill me?” I protested as the the image of the poison drip murder attempt came to mind. “I have proof that they tried to kill both myself and Koike before so it's not like this killer is above doing that.”

“Stop being such a-” Machi automatically responded before she stopped herself. At that, she genuinely paused and looked at me in what looked like a sympathetic light. “I’m sorry to hear that Nishi, but I’m sure you’ll be safe. I’ll be working on the lift, Yakawa will be guarding Eto’s body, though I wouldn’t put it past Wakuni, he’d have to pass by Yakawa to do anything, and Koike is with Senji so they both can’t do anything. It was just a scenario I made to prove a point. Although you do see the importance of searching the weather station, right?”

“Yeah.” I agreed as I bit my lip and nearly crossed my arms. “I’ll search the station. You can go fix the lift.”

Truth be told, I wanted to search the rest of the observatory first. But when Machi put it that way, I knew that it would be irresponsible not to head over to the crime scene immediately. Granted, the killer probably wouldn’t be there which is why I didn’t further press the issue that he or she tried to kill me, but it was still important to search to weather station before something else happened such as accidental tampering and the like.

“Thanks,” Machi said with surprising civility as she more or less grabbed the metal case by the handle with her right hand and immediately turned around to leave the room. As she pushed the door open, she gave one last wave with her left hand without so much as turning around before she bounded out the door.

I sighed as the door closed behind her and idly took one last glance at the kitchen. The lift was definitely going to be a problem given that it was currently our only way off the summit due to the door lock being sabotaged. And it was especially a problem for the poor people who were stuck on the windy mountain side without the thermal weaving that I just so happened to win for myself. They were in for a long cold ride if I had to guess.

Nevertheless, that didn’t affect me personally so I knew I couldn’t let it affect my investigation. We were all counting on each other and if I couldn’t help with the lift, then I knew I needed to pick up the slack for the people who were working to put the people trapped on the lift back on the ground. And so, I sucked it up and marched over to the door on the other side of the room. After that, I simply opened the door, put my hood up, stepped through it, opened the door that led outside, and stepped through it all before the first door ever closed.

At that, I felt a minor chill brush against my face, but nothing major. Still, it made me stop for a moment to think of how windy it must be right now on the side of the mountain where five of us were trapped. I frowned and headed off knowing full well that it was pretty much all up to Machi right now. In the meantime, I glanced around at the snow around me and all the other trails that went off the main path. It didn’t pertain to the investigation, but as I speed walked past, I took a mental note of each of them for later reference.

Other than that, my trek went without incident and I didn’t stop for anything. At least, not until I saw Koike and Senji heading in my general direction just a few paces ahead of me. They appeared as though they had just gotten off a trail judging by their snow prints and the markers but I Senji noticed me, stopped, and caused Koike to do the same before I approached the two of them.

“Hello Nishi, I’m glad to see you’re alright at least,” Koike said without so much as an attempt to hide her worry in her tone. “I don’t know if you know this or not, but the lift is stuck with all five people who decided to go down to the lodge on it.”

“Yes, that is quite alarming,” Senji remarked as he crossed his arms and looked in the general direction of the lift. “Machi passed us not too long ago and said she was going to work on it. I believe she can resolve the issue, but this proves at the very least that someone is actively sabotaging the investigation.”

“Yeah, I know.” I said bitterly. Honestly, I was replying to both accounts because it really was a very bad thing to be happening right now. “How about we focus on what we’ve found. I’ve found quite a few things the observatory though some of which are going to have to wait until the class trial. Have you found anything?”

At that moment, I bit my lip. I considered telling Koike that she would have been murdered along with myself if Eto had not intervened and gotten herself killed in whatever setup was going on here, but I decided against it. I could always inform them in the class trial and doing so right now would alarm both of them. Besides, nobody was going to target either of them while they were together. Unless Senji did it of course which I doubted. So, I just kept quiet and listened to what they had to say.

“Well, I did have an epiphany not too long ago. Well, two really,” Senji said calmly enough. “First, I noticed that Eto’s footprints happened to be the only footprints that were discovered on the summit before we all split our separate ways. It isn’t exactly hard evidence, but I believe it to be suspicious given the fact that the only footprints that were here when we approached the crime scene were Eto’s and that they only came from the weather station-”

“Yeah,” Koike chimed in. “I told Senji that that doesn’t necessarily mean that the killer only went to the weather station because we had a really big snow storm last night. But it's still suspicious since Eto’s footprints should have disappeared as well. Isn’t that right Senji?”

“It is an enigma,” Senji agreed with a simple nod. “Now the second thing that occured to me was the fact that in order to sabotage the lift, our killer would have needed to mess with both generators which would require him or her to be here on the summit. Which means that it is likely, not guaranteed but likely, that our killer is in the group of people who stayed to search the summit. I don’t know where you’re going Nishi, but please be careful.”

“That’s actually a funny story,” I admitted as I rubbed the back of my head with my right hand. “I found out about the lift situation from Machi. She wants me to head over to the weather station before something bad happens there in her absence.”

“That’s a good idea. Nishi, you should probably head over there.” Koike admitted delicately and with a faint frown. “Of course, we still have a few places that we would like to search as well so I guess this is goodbye for now.”

“Yeah,” I said as I forced a weary smile. “Goodbye guys. I’d say to stay safe but I doubt anyone will try to kill you while you have each other around. But- uh enough of this heavy stuff. I know we can do this, we just need to keep up the good work. I’ll see you at the trial.”

*(Or at least, I hope we can do this.)*

Without telling them my thought, I waved them goodbye. And furthermore, they waved back with what looked like weary smiles. But soon after, they turned around and headed off down a trail to the right side of the path. Soon after that, they left my sight disappearing behind some of the rock formations and I was left alone to look back at the trail and get back to heading to my destination.

And I did. I arrived at where Eto’s body was without any incident. Though oddly enough, the only trace of Yakawa that I could find where his footprints and they headed in the general direction of the cliff. Immediately, I followed them with my eyes just in time to see Yakawa returning to Eto’s body. Apparently, he must not have gone too far. And naturally, he noticed me.

“Oh, hey Nishi,” Yakawa said in a tone that didn’t sound pleased but didn’t too upset either. When he saw me looking at the tracks, he was quick to explain himself as well “I thought I saw someone, but it turned out to be a false alarm.”

I nodded and smiled at him. “I understand. Anyways, I gotta get going. Machi wants me to search the weather station.”

“Well before you do, I think there’s something you should know,” Yakawa insisted as he stepped up to Eto, looked down at her body, and peeled Eto’s hood back with his right hand. Overall, her hair seemed surprisingly well kept. Anyways my eyes followed Yakawa’s eyes. “I found a square frozen patch on the side of her neck. It may be a coincidence, but it matches the shape of those contact sleep poison stickers we found earlier.”

“Oh-” I said with raised eyebrows as he pointed to the patch with his left pointer finger and I looked down at it. This certainly collaborated with Senji’s theory that the culprit was using some sort of poison. “So, how long would that drug have taken to knock Eto out? Did she even have a chance to fight back?”

“Not long at all and probably not. According the label, once the drug circulates to the brain, it takes somewhere between a tenth and a hundredth of a second. Of course, it would take a while to circulate through the bloodstream but if you place it on the carotid artery like our killer did, then the victim would have maybe ten seconds tops,” Yakawa summarized as he knelt down to inspect the body once more and sighed. “I’m just speculating though. I don’t want to hold you up.”

“You aren’t,” I lied before drawing a glance down the trail that led to the path that led where I needed to go. “That said, I suppose I’d better get going. I’ll see you around Yakawa. Thank you for your help.”

At that, we both waved each other goodbye and as I turned to head to the weather station, I noticed him draw a faint smile out of the corner of my eye. And after that, I bounded down the main trail while looking around as I did. Once more, I arrived at my destination within a few minutes without any major incidents. Of course, I stopped short of the weather station and looked around for any signs of the killer, but the world around me was more or less silent, peaceful, and devoid of any signs of interference.

I let out a sigh of relief, grabbed the front door handle, opened it, stepped inside, and looked around as the entrance door closed behind me surprisingly quickly and quietly. It didn’t seem like anything to do with the investigation as the door lack any signs of tampering or involvement, but it was odd nonetheless.

At that, I turned towards the room itself. It looked perfectly normal other than the fact that one of the three swivel chairs, namely the one at the end of the room, happened to be missing from the desk arrangement. The screens happened to all be turned on, but they only displayed weather like they always did and I doubted that they were even capable of displaying anything else. I didn’t take a picture of it, but I did pull out my ElectroID and slowly advance around the corner as I braced myself for whatever I would see. And when I finally peered around the corner, I was not disappointed.

In contrast to the entryway, the adjacent room looked as though there had been a struggle of some sort. Immediately, I noticed the counter was littered with scrapes on the other end of the room along with some scrape marks in the white plaster wall behind it. Even the vending machine had a crack that webbed across the surface of the frontal glass.

But that wasn’t all, there happened to be glass shards all over the floor though mostly in the near right corner. And when I looked, I saw why, the coffee machine had apparently been against the wall so some point, because there was a coffee stain on the wall behind it the bowl where the coffee was made was shattered to pieces and even the clock on the machine, was broken at 12:42am. Furthermore, I noticed the missing swivel chair which was overturned near the window and bore a piece of duct tape around its body and each of the arms along with a single white blindfold on the floor. Finally, some of the books from the bookshelf were missing. Naturally, I took a picture of the entire room itself, before turning to my right and taking a picture of the now broken coffee machine.

After that, I headed over to the chair and knelt down to inspect the pieces of duct tape as well as the blindfold. And what I saw made me frown. The duct tape on the chair was partially wrapped around the sections a person’s arms or legs would be rest and seemed to be torn apart along the pieces that weren’t connected to the chair as though they were crudely cut by something. And as for the blindfold, it had two to three stands of natural black hair in it. I took a picture of both and closed my eyes.

*(I hope whoever was kept there was unconscious. It's just cruel to know that you’re going to die ahead of time but not have enough time to try and make peace with it.)*

I sucked it up, opened my eyes, stood up, and headed over to the bookshelf. I took a picture of the bookshelf and the missing books in it. But other than that, as I scanned the bookshelf, I could not see anything else out of the ordinary other than the fact that a few of the books that happened to be there were missing.

At that, I shook my head and turned to the trash bin as well as the counter ready to take a picture of everything that would be located there. But as I approached, neither turned out to have anything in them or behind them. They were just an empty trash bin and counter respectively. Nevertheless, I did take a picture of the marks on the counter and walls before I put my ElectroID away and turned around to leave having searched every area of the crime scene.

I took four paces forwards and when a thought occurred to me and forced me to stop for just a split second.

*(It's odd how the killer put way more effort into covering everywhere except the crime scene but did nothing about the crime scene itsel-)*

At that exact moment, my train of thought was cut off. I heard a high-pitched shatter echo throughout the room and I noticed a new source of glass spill over onto the ground out of the corner of my eye as the cold outside air crept into the building. But I wasn’t paying nearly as much attention to those as I was to the arrow that embedded itself into the wooden frame of the bookshelf that was closest to the exit and less than an inch from my face. It was metallic grey, it had a red tail, and most notably, it would have gone right through the side of my head if I hadn’t slowed down just an instant ago.

Naturally, I was left pale and speechless with objective horror as I stared wide eyed at the arrow. All the while, my pounded and every fiber in my being told me to run, but my brain more or less failed to function properly due to being preoccupied by the fact that someone literally just tried to shoot me.

I wasn’t entirely sure how long exactly I stared at the thing. It felt like minutes to. Yet, I looked out the now cracked window in time to see the perpetrator in the distance pulling another arrow out of nowhere with his left hand to place into the slot of his crossbow which he held in his right as though I had only looked at the thing for just a split second. Not that any of what I saw helped to assuage my fear. The person who shot at me wore a dark blue coat and pants, dark grey gloves, and dark grey goggle rims. In other words, Wakuni’s clothes.

Suffice to say, as soon as I could tear my vision away from him, I booked it out of the way of the window and into the entryway where the monitors were. And it was only then that I slowed down long enough to brandish my knife in my right hand and even consider the situation that I was in. I didn’t stop of course, but I considered my possibilities.

That wasn’t to say that any of them were good. I could fight him of course and if I wasn’t shot before I reached the guy, he would still have the advantage by virtue of the fact that I didn’t want to be blackened and he did if he wasn’t already. I could run, but the door led straight to him and he would still likely shoot me. And of course, I could always stay where he couldn’t shoot me, but eventually, Monokuma would call us all to attend the class trial. Besides, if this was Wakuni, then I had a feeling that I wasn’t even safe where I was.

My subconscious made my decision for me. Namely, to run for it and injure him if he tried to stop me. And so, I cleared the room with surprising speed and practically burst through the door pressing my left foot on the threshold and proceeding into the cold outdoor air.

That turned out to be a mistake.

As soon as I opened the door, it slammed shut right into my face with more force than I imagined possible. With a loud bang, it came back into my face with a sharp pain to accompany it. I felt my nose break with a sickening crack, I felt something trickle, down my forehead, and I felt an absolutely splitting headache. And as if I needed a reminder, blood splattered all across the interior of the door.

As my vision blurred, my hood flew off my head, and I staggered backwards in pain, the door swung open once more. This time, I figure stepped into the threshold of the building. And even though my vision was blurry, I saw that he covered the lower section of his face with a red handkerchief and he winced when he saw me.

Not that sympathy stopped him, he charged at me and lowered the crossbow over his right shoulder as if to bring it down on my head. I didn’t know whether a crossbow was unwieldy to use as a club or not, but I didn’t even bother to guess. My heart skipped a beat when he first attacked me, but luckily, I instinctively jumped back.

He almost immediately brought the crossbow back up as if to make another run, but I was faster and desperate. I swung my knife horizontally. I was still nearly blinded by blood and pain, and I didn’t aim for his center mass, but it was too late for the attacker to pull back and the knife barely connected with the culprit’s right outer wrist to slice through two layers of clothing but glance off of him. I could barely see, but I noticed he had more layers of clothes under the two that he would be expected to wear.

*(Huh?!)*

He stepped back for a split second with his right foot. He already started to recover, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. At least, not until I had made my exit and rendezvoused with someone on the other side of the summit. Without warning, I completely threw myself at the man. I left the floor, and just a split second later, I collided with the guy. We both fell onto the floor after that though thankfully my landing was soft and I felt the wind get knocked out of the man.

Both of us dropped our weapons which clang to the floor beside us. But I didn’t care. Instead, I kicked off the assailant and bounded out of the threshold and out of the building. For just a second, my fear turned to hope that I’d be able to get away.

That was when one of the attacker’s hands reached out to grab my left leg and caught it. What I felt was a white knuckled grip accompanied by a grunt as my leg jerked back and I fell face first into the soft, cold, uninviting snow. It didn’t hurt and I caught myself with my two arms before I landed, but I fell nonetheless.

For the ensuing three seconds, I tugged away as forcefully as I could. Yet I was unable to break free of his grasp. And after that, I felt another hand, his right hand judging by where the assailant’s thumb was, pull my left sock down an eighth on an inch and press something against my skin. I thought my heart couldn’t beat any faster, but after that, it did.

Like before, I threw myself in the direction I wanted to go and this time, I pressed my other leg off of what was probably the attacker’s head. Sure enough, it worked. And with an audible grunt from behind me, I pushed off into the outside air. More specifically, into a cross between a sprint and an awkward stumble as the partially dried blood blurred my vision.

I pulled my hood up against my forehead with my left hand and pressed my left palm against my nose to stop myself from leaving a blood trail as I bounded for the main trail without daring to look back. After all, I knew that had seconds at most until the crossbowman recovered his stuff even with a million things flashing through my mind.

Once I made my way onto the main trail, time seemed to move at a standstill. Yet, that didn’t stop me from running the second fastest that I ever had in my life. With each step, I felt an increasing wave of exhaustion and my running became more erratic. But nevertheless, I found the adrenaline to maintain my sprint for somewhere between ten to fifteen seconds.

That was when I noticed a right handprint on a rock face and a left footprint on what looked like a small crevice between three rocks along the rock face. Somehow, in spite of everything, it occurred to me that my attacker went off the path for some reason. Additionally, it somehow crossed my frantic mind that the assailant would search the main road long before he retraced his steps here if I didn’t leave a trail.

And so, I placed my right hand and left foot where his were as carefully as I could and started to push my way up. Halfway through, a dizzying wave of exhaustion his me and I bobbed my head for what felt like forever. But it must have been a short time because I was able to hoist myself over the rock to see a makeshift path of footprints over what looked like an awkward pile of rocks, snow, and boulders. And luckily, all without any signs of being caught.

As soon as I did, I looked back the way I came to see the man who attacked me in hot pursuit yet scanning the area down to the most minuscule detail. I shivered and didn’t dare to so much as dare to breathe as he slowed down near where he got off but ultimately continued down the actual trail.

Once he did, I felt a sudden heaviness from both my eyelids and my body in general. I rubbed my forehead with my right hand and curiously search myself as to why. I found nothing on my arms or right leg thankfully, but on my left leg, I found a blue sticker with a Z symbol on it just like the sleeping stickers on the back of my left leg.

*(How long do I have?! Until the blood from my leg circulates to my brain. That’s like what, less than a minute from when I started running, and I spent like thirty getting here!)*

Like lightning, I tore the sticker off my leg, left it in the snow behind me, and took off into a sprint down the path not even caring about leaving footprints or blood anymore. Yet even as I did, the world began to blur out of the corners of my vision.

My final sprint lasted for about ten seconds and until I came across an opened between the makeshift trail on my left. After that, my entire vision began to blur and my body outright quit on me. I fell from a four-foot drop to the left, through the rocks, and into the snow below. Thankfully, without bruising myself on the face of the trail.

*(This is it! I’m going to die!)*

At that, the entire world began to fade to black. The snow could have been a mattress for what my body could tell as I unwillingly surrendered and closed my eyes. All the while, I felt my heart rate decrease and my mind begin to drift into a slumber. Already, my life stopped flashing before my eyes and the thought of the class trial and the culprit began to ebb away in the darkness. I tried to do something, anything, to resist. But it was futile.

And as I finally drifted off into a terrified sleep, the last thing I heard was the sound of two people walking ever closer in the snow with vibrations to match. One almost immediately after the other.

…

I opened my eyes, closed them again, and then opened them as the world around me slowly came out of a blur. I let out a sharp breath as the pain from my head grew as well. At first, I just bobbed my head, but then, I felt and saw some of the most immediately things around me.

Namely, I was on that stretcher prop that I saw early though it felt harder than I hoped an actual stretcher would be, my head was propped up by some sort of pillow thought I couldn’t see it looking up at the ceiling, my wounds had been cleaned judging by the lack of a sticky feeling on my forehead, my hands were down by my sides and unrestrained thankfully though they were underneath a blue blanket, and something was wrapped around my forehead. I couldn’t see it, but it felt as though it eased the pain. Additionally, I titled my head up and Yakawa stood before me and his face brightened as he saw me. And finally, there was a white strip on my nose.

That didn’t change the fact that I was tired. Apart from the sharp and nearly dizzying pain in my head and my entire body felt cold and more like a ragdoll than anything else as though all of my energy had been sapped from it. At the same time, questions filled my head of where I was and what was going on.

“Am I dead? Yakawa, are we dead? Is this the afterlife,” I started to sit up and groaned. “Where? Where’s my brother?”

That was also the time I looked around at my environment. Astonishingly, it appeared to be the dining hall rather than some otherworldly place. And furthermore, I noticed a tray to my right near a table that happened to have a white box on it. I didn’t know what was in the box, but I noticed gauze on the tray as well as a few kitchen implements such as knives and vaguely made the connection even though my brain still felt like it was relatively fuzzy.

“You aren’t dead yet Nishi,” Yakawa remarked calmly and to the point. “That said, you did say some interesting things while you were out. Most of it was gibberish and incomprehensible like most say if they sleep talk though.”

“Like what?” I asked. I still felt dizzy, but I sat up completely as he saw it almost as if a fog was lifting from my brain. “What did I say?”

“Well mostly there were three recurring themes. The first was that you wanted to know if we would miss you if you died. The second was that you thought Machi would be the one to kill you because she’s a horrible person who tried to hang you, to put it mildly. You said a lot worse but I’m not going to repeat it. Also, she heard that by the way and she’s not happy with you.” At that, Yakawa’s smiled dropped to a frown. “And there’s the third thing. You complained about no one would figure out that Wakuni killed you and that if you had to die, you wished the initial arrow killed you so that we would have a way of figuring out who did it. Senji, Koike, and Machi all suspect him now thanks to you.”

“I- I’m sorry,” I defended.

“You couldn't help yourself,” Yakawa relented with a sigh before rubbing his forehead. “I’m not going to judge you for what you said. I’m just worried about him now is all. Especially, at least subconsciously, you think he attacked you. Nishi, my brother and I made a promise not to kill anyone and I insist that my brother isn’t a killer. He’s hard to get along with some times but you got to believe that he would never do anything as horrible as that. Please Nishi, if you don’t no one will.”

“Uhm, I’m not opposed to the fact that it could have been someone else. If there’s any way someone else could have gotten his clothes-” I began before another sharp pain course through my head. “Ow. Anyways, how did I get here?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, you were actually very lucky Nishi. You may not feel like it right now and I don’t blame you, but you are or else you wouldn’t be alive.” Yakawa answered much more calmly than when he talked about his brother. “Senji and Koike happened to in that general area when you fell into the snow in front of them from out of nowhere. A short time after that, someone impersonating my brother showed up at the top of the bend that you fell from. He got away, but Senji and Koike followed his trail back to the weather station among other places and we’ve pretty much deduced what happened to you there down to the drug our assailant used on you. Anyways, remember when I said there was a false alarm back at the crossroads?”

I nodded as the memory very slowly came to me. It was when Yakawa came back to Eto’s body. Of course, when I remembered, I also remembered him talking about skin contact sleeping drug and began to feel a nauseating feeling in the back of my throat.

“Yeah, It turned out to be not so false. It was a diversion to make me look in the opposite direction of where I needed to be looking. I’m sorry about that,” Yakawa admitted with a wince when he saw my reaction. “Luckily, Senji was somehow able to track the assailant all the way to the side of the summit cliff on the other side of the crossroads after he and Koike brought you to me. The tracks disappear after the cliff and the assailant got away, but we believe they somehow retraced other boot tracks. Anyways, Senji came to me, I took you here, and here we are. Thankfully, the attacker didn’t do anything to you that I couldn’t fix though I would rest for now.”

“Ugh,” I groaned as another dull pain came from my nose. After that, I looked Yakawa in the eyes and almost impulsive asked a thought that crept into the back of my mind. “I’m embarrassed now-”

“Don’t be,” Yakawa said as he crossed his arms and spoke in a much more serious tone. “I’m assuming the assailant is also the culprit in which case he or she has managed to best Eto, Senji, and Koike without so much as a scratch. No one is judging for not being able to beat him or her. In fact, I’m really glad you didn’t kill them or we’d be having a really hard conversation right now.”

“It's not that,” I said as I shook my head. But as I did, another question came to mind and I stopped. “Yakawa, I want you to be honest with me. Are any of these injuries going to cause any scars?”

“Uh,” Yakawa began hesitantly as he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. I sighed. “They probably will yes. But if it helps, you’re still the same person as far as I’m concerned. And- uh- it's not life altering right?”

*(Just Great.)*

“Honestly, you’re also lucky I studied a wider variety of medical fields before I landed on paramedic,” Yakawa sheepishly continued. “If I hadn’t I’m not sure if I would have been able to fix your nose.”

“Can we stop talking about this?” I cut in a little faster than I should have. “Like please?”

It was about the time Yakawa nodded that another realization hit me. I couldn’t believe that I got caught up just laying around. Granted, my body still felt somewhat like rubber and I knew that I could easily fall asleep rather comfortably here if it weren’t for Monokuma’s rules, but as soon as my mind went back to the investigation, I went wide-eyed and pushed myself off the floor as best as I could.

I made it maybe a half an inch off the ground before my arms were on the verge of buckling. On top of that, Yakawa pushed me back onto the stretcher. Not violently, but firmly and I shivered when he did.

“What do you think you’re doing Nishi?” Yakawa asked in a rather assertive tone. Though to his defense, he let go of me so it was likely out of worry more than anything else.

“Hrk,” I winced as another sharp pain went through my head and I moved my right hand up to my forehead to apply pressure though I continued to beg nonetheless. “I- I realized that there’s still way too much ground to cover. We still have an investigation to conduct and I’ve spent way too much time lying here instead of preparing for the class trial.”

“Nishi, I can’t allow that. You don’t even look like you can stand right now let alone search the summit outside. I’m really sorry but you’re in no condition to be overexerting yourself,” Yakawa said with a sigh, “If it were up to me, you wouldn’t be required to attend the class trial. Monokuma said otherwise back when I asked, but you deserve rest after what you’d been through.”

“Please let me go Yakawa,” I continued to plead, “I’m just as much involved in this now as everyone else. If I don’t search the crime scene, who will?”

“We’ve already taken care of it,” Yakawa said as he pulled out his ElectroID and turned it on all before handing it to me. “Senji and Koike have been searching the area where your assailant was last seen and I think you’ll find that they’ve made considerable progress. Here, take a look.”

With that, I grabbed Yakawa’s ElectroID and looked at the page that he happened to be on. It was a picture of an ElectroID picture that showed the edge of the summit cliff much like where Yakawa said Senji tracked the culprit to. It wasn’t particularly revealing, but I noticed a jagged rock pointing away from the cliff with a ring rubbed around it and even a red flag on the side of the cliff almost tilting horizontally and precariously over the side.

“I believe your assailant is our culprit. And I believe he marked the area as a place to stash his weapons,” Yakawa stated as if it were a matter of fact and he knew what was going through my head. “I think you’ll agree when you see the next two slides.”

I nodded and flicked the screen, the next thing to pull up, unfortunately, was a picture of a crossbow on top of the snow. The make and model of which was beyond me but it was black, metallic, and compact. There really wasn’t anything special about it, so I quickly flicked the screen again to see the next picture of a picture. Though what I saw made me shiver violently. It was just like the previous picture, but the crossbow had an arrow exactly like the one that nearly killed me within its firing mechanism.

“Koike also took a few pictures of the crime scene though I don’t think you’ll find anything new. We only took pictures of the blood stain on the door, the arrow embedded in the bookshelf, and a general overview of the crime scene. Oh, and I also checked the kitchen and found that its salt containers are relatively low on salt if that helps,” Yakawa said with a sympathetic tone. If I had to guess, he saw me shivering. “Don’t worry Nishi, absolutely nobody is going to mess with you while I’m here so you can just focus on acquitting my brother so that we have justice for Eto okay?”

“Uh,” I started to reply as my eyes darted around the room looking for something to say. Something caught my mind just as I noticed the neutral expression on Yakawa’s face drop to a frown. “Speaking of which, who’s watching Eto?”

Yakawa sighed and I just dropped my head back down on the pillow as a stir of guilt washed over me. From the looks of things, nobody was watching out for Eto which the culprit had free reign to do with her as he or she saw fit.

“I see,” I said to break the silence without any effort to hide my contempt for the situation. “Poor Eto, she deserved so much better than this. I’m sorry things had to be this way. For what it's worth though, I’m happy to have someone here with me.”

“I’m glad to be here Nishi. You cannot begin to understand how glad I am that Koike and Senji found you,” Yakawa replied as a faint smile crept over his face once more. “As for Eto, she deserves the dignity of having someone watch over her, but you are more important. You’re still alive Nishi and I can protect you but the best I can do for Eto is figure out who killed her so that she can rest in peace.”

“I understand,” I said with a slow nod. I didn’t like it, but I understood. But of course, as soon as I did, another thought came to mind, namely, the flashback of the arrow landing less than an inch in front of my face and a chill ran up my spine. “Hey Yakawa, if I ever get murder, promise me that you’ll remember me well. And that you’ll talk about me and avenge me. I know It’s a possibility but I would feel better knowing that I would be remembered in a positive light.”

“Nishi,” Yakawa said, “How could I not remember you in a positive light? Of course, I promise. You aren’t going to die. We are going to figure out who the mastermind is and get out of here together. But if you do, you can rest in peace that you will not be forgotten and that we’ll put every last effort we have to muster into making sure that you have justice.”

“Thanks,” I said as a faint smile crept across my lips.

About that time, the door from behind Yakawa opened with an audible creak. Naturally, the two of us looked in the general direction of the door though I merely had to look up while Yakawa had to twist around to look over his right shoulder. And when we did, we saw Machi in the doorway with a blank stare on her face and with Senji and Koike behind her and to her right and left respectively.

“I somehow got the lift working again,” Machi just blurted out, “Wait, is-” Machi stared at me for a second before she shook her head. “Nevermind, I guess this means you’ll want to cart her down to the lodge so she doesn’t show up late to the class trial or whatever.”

“That’s right. I could actually use your help getting this stretcher onto the lift and down to the lodge. So which of you three are willing to help? Technically I only need one of you to do this properly but I know you two,” Yakawa pointed at Koike and Senji wanted to stick together after what happened.”

“Tsk, I wouldn’t even assign the vacuum bot that I have from back at home to do it,” Machi interjected. She didn’t sound angry so much as detached, but I bit my lip anyways knowing that this wasn’t going to end well. “I guess I don’t have much of a choice though seeing as I’m headed to the bottom lift terminal myself to make the whole lift fiasco doesn’t happen again.”

“Uh, we’re perfectly willing to go with you,” Koike offered with a slight raise of her hand. “Senji and I did discuss this ahead of time. He said he was willing to take to delay to make sure that one of our classmates was safe.”

“Are you sure about that?” Yakawa asked as he untwisted his body and turned around to fully look them in the eye. “You know we don’t have a lot of time left and I know everyone’s going to jump to the wrong conclusion with the evidence we have.”

“This again?” Machi protested as she trudged forward, passed my left side almost hugging one of the tables next to me, and turned around ready to pick the front side of the stretcher up. “I don’t want to be rude but the evidence was fairly conclusive. You and Wakuni are the only people who could have done it and I don’t think it was you.”

“Let’s-” Yakawa turned around to answer her but stopped as if he were trying to think of something to say. Ultimately, he must have given up though because he just avoided the subject. “Let’s just get Nishi down to the lodge so we can go our separate ways okay?”

“Agreed,” Machi said with a nod.

And with that, the two of them picked up the stretcher and I felt my body sink into the sagging middle of it. It was still fairly comfortable, but it wasn’t nearly as soft as it had felt before. I would have liked to suppose that Yakawa put something soft underneath it, but I wasn’t able to look behind myself to confirm because the angle in which I was laying. All the while, I felt a rush of embarrassment knowing that I could probably walk but instead I was being carted around like a little child because of Yakawa’s safety measures.

After that, things moved fairly fast although I wasn’t that surprised given the fact that Yakawa was the Super High School Level Paramedic. Senji and Koike gave grim smiles as we passed by and the two of them were all too willing to hold the door open for the three of us. However, Senji did stop Yakawa to say one thing before we left the observatory.

“Yakawa,” Senji said as he looked Yakawa in the eye, “For what it's worth, I am not opposed to the possibility that your brother is innocent though I want you to know that I’m here for you either way.”

“Uh,” Yakawa stopped and bit his lip. “Yeah, okay. Thank you Senji. I will definitely keep that in mind. I’ll see you two around.”

At that, we headed out the door like so many times before while Senji and Koike waved us goodbye. And with that, we all headed off towards the lift. It was fairly uneventful with us reaching the crossroads and even the outskirts of the lift in record time without anything happened other than my perpetual embarrassment. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that Machi was going to intentionally drop the stretcher out of spite though she never did.

And so, we approached and headed inside the lift station without any major incidents. And when we did, a single cart waited for us as though maintaining the transport was one of Monokuma’s jobs. Come to think of it, it likely was.

*(I’m going to have to ask about that '**some time'**.)*

After that, it was just a matter of stepping on to the lift, lowering me gently in the center which I didn’t like but it at least protected me from the cold winds, keeping it and strapped down so that I didn't fall out of the lift, sitting down, and then strapping in. As the lift whirred to life and we parted the station, the Machi and Yakawa just looked at each other with an awkward silence.

As we left into the cold outdoor air, Yakawa tried to break the silence by defending me. “Hey Machi, I hope you realize that Nishi doesn’t really feel that way about you. She was delirious. The kind of stuff that goes through your head in an oxygen deprived, drug induced state is completely random.”

“Hmm,” Machi pouted as she crossed her arms and looked at me. “Somehow I don’t believe that. A lot of you guys must have had similar thoughts when Saeki showed everyone those notes. I honestly don’t know why I was surprised that Nishi still has petty resentment.”

*(Petty?)*

“No really, I don’t hate you Machi,” I protested instead of speaking my mind. “I was upset at first, but I’m over it. I’m willing to put this behind us if you are.”

“If you say so,” Machi said in a tone that was borderline between indifference and sarcasm.

Another awkward silence passed at we went through the waypoint station. Like always before, there was nothing particularly of note as we passed by but the silence felt almost tangible. And what was more was that I had a feeling that this was just about as uncomfortable for Machi and Yakawa as it was for me.

Luckily, it didn’t last too much longer. The final leg of the lift made my stomach turn and I thought I saw the world spinning around me, but I knew that I was injured and recovering from a sleeping drug so it was almost to be expected. Surprisingly, the worst of it was the sudden stomach wrenching stop as the lift slowed down rather suddenly at the bottom. Yet we all survived. And as soon as it came to a complete stop, Yakawa and Machi were all too happy to unstrap the stretcher and cart me off of the lift.

From there, they just took me off the lift and silently carried me out of the building at the bottom of the lift although Machi appeared to do so sluggishly. If I had to guess, it was because she didn’t want to leave the lift. After all, it was the only reason why we came. But once we got into the cold night air, we began to travel without too much incident. Although I did speak up.

“You know, I really can walk on my own,” I insisted. I was pretty sure I could too. I still felt tired and heavy, but I could move my limbs just fine.

“Maybe we should let her walk.” Machi agreed, “You’re going to have to leave her alone to change her clothes anyways and I’m certainly not following her into the coat changing room. This is pushing it as it is.”

“I know, Machi. You’ve made it very clear how irritated you are with Nishi,” Yakawa said with a sigh. “But except for the coat room, this is protocol. And I don’t feel like taking an unnecessary risk if I don’t have to. I trust you understand that at least considering why you came down here.”

At that, Machi bit her lip and nodded. And with it, the rest of the trip was rather eventless. We passed the burned down shed, approached the side of the lodge structure, entered through the front door, made our way to the dorm area, and finally, made our way into coat room. It was then, that they finally set me down and that Machi would finally go away and I would be left alone.

“Well, my work here is done. It's been fun talking to you though Yakawa,” Machi said dusting off her jacket in her usual unamused manner. “Nishi was surprisingly heavy though. I’m glad you were there to pick up the extra weight.”

Yakawa opened his mouth, likely to defend me. But before he could even respond, Machi left the premises. And while she was probably headed towards the lift again, something in the back of my mind told me that she only left so soon to get in one last jab against me and have the final say.

Not that I had time to complain about it or anything because I was too busy getting up. Of course, I pressed myself off of the floor with my hands, leaned upwards, and with great effort, I slowly staggered upwards to a stand. All the while, my vision briefly blurred, my head felt light, and I felt the effort that it took for me to stand. But overall, it was surprisingly manageable.

Once I got my balance, I pulled out my ElectroID and felt the recorder in my pocket only to realize that something was missing. And at that, I looked over at Yakawa who was now looked at me with his arms crossed and what looked like a serious expression.

“Yakawa, what happened to my knife?” I asked him respectfully and clearly enough.

“Knife? Oh yeah that,” Yakawa said before he shrugged. “I’m sorry Nishi. I thought the one we found at the scene belonged to the assailant. I should have kept it with me so that I could return it to you. Oh well I guess, there’s plenty of them last time I checked so you can pick them up once the trial is over. In the meantime, however-”

“I need to get changed,” I finished for him.

He nodded, I took my stuff, swiped my ElectroID through the reader, and entered the room once the click told me it was unlocked. From there, I went to a stall and changed. It was a surprisingly slow and tedious process compared to all the other times I had changed, but I accomplished it nonetheless.

And with that, I entered the coat room, swiped my ElectroID through the locker lock, put my coat in the locker, and turned around to see the stretcher prop was gone and Yakawa standing near the door with a standard wheelchair. To be exact, a wheelchair with a black seat, silver wheels, black handlebars behind the seat, and black handrails on the wheels. It was pretty typical really.

“Yakawa, I really don’t want to just be pushed around in that thing.” I insisted as I looked him in the eyes. Surprisingly enough, I had no doubt that he’d be able to acquire a wheelchair in fact, I suspected it was from his room. Almost as if on cue, my head throbbed again and I recoiled. “Really, it's tiring but I can walk on my own.”

“Nishi, at the very least I’m bringing this to the elevator. But we have medical protocol to follow,” Yakawa insisted though his face softened and he spoke in a pleading tone. “The very last thing I want is for you to get hurt from some accident. Will you please please please just do this for my sake? You can stand up during the class trial but right now, but I have a lot to process right now, you’re technically under my medical care, and it would give me one less thing to worry about.”

I sighed and nodded, then pointed at the guy with my right pointer finger. “I’m only doing this for your sake. And once I get to the trial, I’m going to act like I usually do. I might sit in it if I get tired, but other than that, I plant to be an active, standing participant.”

Yakawa solemnly nodded. And with a deal reached, I crossed the coat room and sat down in the wheelchair. It wasn’t too comfortable overall, in fact, it suffered from the same problem as the fake stretcher, but overall it, it was comfortable enough to lean back against.

Ding dong, bing bong.

We just looked at the nearest speakers with equally irritated glares ad Monokuma’s trial announcement played. “It's time for round three! And you know what they say about third time being the charm! Anyways, That’s right! It’s time for our third and possibly final class trial!!! Anyways, you’d better get to the class trial elevator pronto or I’m going to kill ya. Like always, If you get lost on the way there, be sure to give a shout and I’ll take you there. I mean, you have no excuse by this point, but why break tradition now? Well, Ciao.”

Yakawa looked down at me and I just blankly stared at him as I explained. “He just does whatever he can to get a reaction from us.”

With a collective sigh from both of us, we headed out the door, made our way to the staircase where Yakawa let me get off and climb the stairs so that he could carry the thing to the top, and let me get back in it. Though as we started off again at the staircase intersection area, I spoke up to me.

“Hey Nishi. Listen, I know this is a huge favor to ask and I just asked you to cooperate with me, but this is perhaps the last opportunity that we’ll have to talk in private so I have to ask. I beg you to reconsider whether or not it was actually my brother who attacked you,” Yakawa said as his grip tightened around the wheelchair handles. “If I had my way, you’d be recovering properly and Wakuni would be off the hook. But since I don’t, I’m begging you to defend my brother. If you don’t stand up for him, then nobody will. I know Senji isn’t going to outright accuse him, but i’ve seen his attitude towards my brother change even if it is just a few changes in posture. Please Save my brother Nishi.”

“I- I’m not opposed to him being innocent, but I saw a man in his clothing,” I questioned with evident pity in my tone. I sighed after I said that because I knew that Wakuni’s innocence, while possible, was unlikely and that I would have to decide whether or not to trust Wakuni or not very soon. “I- I just don’t know. Give me some time to decide okay?”

Instead of a verbal answer, he just grunted and nodded with an expression that looked as though he had been stabbed in the heart though he clearly wasn’t. Suffice to say, I sunk down in my seat for the rest of the awkward ride until Yakawa gripped the door left handle to the elevator room with his left hand and awkwardly pulled it back.

After that, we finally made it into the elevator room to be immediately be greeted by the sight of Sasori, Tanabe, Sama, Sanda, and Saeki. It only took them until the door closed to notice me in the wheelchair with the bandages on my head and nose because they all turned towards me with differing reactions. Saeki and Sama both went wide-eyed in what I guess had to be shock, Sasori winced and looked away, Tanabe took a few curious steps forward but maintained a worried expression, and Sanda just crossed his arms and shrivelled.

“Nishi, what happened to you?!” Sama asked though it sounded more like an exclamation. “Are you okay? I mean, I know the word okay is a subjective term and, on some levels, none of us are okay. But I think you know what I mean.”

“I’m fine and I appreciate the concern,” I replied with possibly the first brief earnest smile I had since some guy who might have been Wakuni attacked me. “Someone tried to shoot me with an arrow and then tried to crack my skull open but Senji, Koike, and Yakawa saved me. So, uhm, it's been a pretty lousy investigation for me.”

“It's been a poor investigation all around,” Tanabe vaguely remarked as he looked up at me with scowl and a trace of fear in his eyes. “I did find one thing though. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with lullaby-7 but its a very special type of poison that is practically untraceable. You could take someone’s life and nobody, especially not the victim, would know it. Anyways, I found two missing bottles of lullaby-7 in the storage room and I have a picture to prove it.”

“Uhm, that will hardly be necessary,” Sasori said as both of us shivered at Tanabe’s description. “While we’re on the topic though, I was also able to scrounge up something. As soon as I saw the arrow in Eto’s body, I knew I had to check the archery room. And I found two missing crossbows. Take a look.”

He pulled up his ElectroID and showed me a picture. Sure enough, the archery room looked perfectly normal save for two empty slots where crossbows should be inside the display case. Furthermore, the glass pane looked untouched meaning it had to be someone who knew how to get access to the crossbows.

Just as I got a good look and Sasori put the ElectroID away again, the door opened behind me and the rest of the group began to file into the elevator. First was Machi, then Senji and Koike, and finally, Wakuni who simply gravitated towards Yakawa who stood by me. At the same time, Saeki took the opportunity to glance at Wakuni and casually walk up to where I was. Or more accurately, standing between Wakuni and myself. If I had to guess, she also connected the dots as to who the most obvious suspect was.

“Apart from what Sasori and Tanabe found, I am afraid that we have not been able to find anything,” Saeki said to me with a sad sounding hum to accompany her speech. “I’m sorry I failed the class.”

“It's not your fault you- Saeki. You’ve had like ten minutes at most thanks to the culprit breaking everything.” Machi argued. “Anyways, I hate to say it but Nishi getting attacked is probably be best thing that could have happened for the case. We’ve also found next to nothing but thanks to eyewitness testimony, we know that its Wakuni.”

“I never said it was Wakuni,” I replied as my right eyebrow twitched ever so slightly. “Don’t go putting words in my mouth.”

“There you have it,” Wakuni said as he motioned towards me with a clearly nervous smile. “Straight from the horse's mouth. I didn’t attack Nishi and I certainly didn’t kill Eto!”

“I wasn’t referring to Nishi’s testimony although I am a tad curious what the heck was going through her head at the time,” Machi stated earning her a glare from Yakawa, myself, Wakuni, and Saeki. She ignored us all. “I was referring to Senji and Koike’s testimonies. They saw him too. And honestly Wakuni, I knew you’d be sloppy but I never imagined you’d be this sloppy.”

“Machi-” Saeki warned only to be interrupted by a half white and half black teddy bear that appeared from out of nowhere.

“Save it for the class trial folks, the elevator is ready!” Monokuma said from out of nowhere with raised arms about the same time the noise of the elevator coming to a screeching stop permeated the room from behind me. “There’s been enough delays as it is. Step into the elevator and pick a side based on whether or not you think Wakuni didn’t do it if you want to. Just to clarify, only the second part is optional.”

“Because we didn’t know that already?” Sama said in a sarcastic tone despite beads of sweat appearing on her forehead. “It’s not like the only reason we ever do anything you tell us to isn’t because you’ll kill us if you don’t.”

“Watch it Sama,” Monokuma said with his normal gleeful tone but a narrowed right eye and glowing left eye. “Now, where was I? Oh yeah, I’ve given you way more time on the investigation than I intended to so that I could accommodate that lift shenanigan. There weren’t any rules against it, but the point is that the elevator is here and I’ll be waiting in the class trial room.”

At that, Monokuma disappeared. And instead of questioning it, we all shuffled into the elevator. After all, the thought that Monokuma sounded impatient popped into my mind and I’m sure it popped into the minds of everyone else as well. So, we all piled in. However, Wakuni, Yakawa, and Senji stood on the right while Koike, Machi, Saeki, Sama, Tanabe, Sasori, and Sanda all stood to the left.

As I entered the elevator myself and the doors shut behind me, I knew once again that I was going to have to pick a side. I briefly looked over at the group that accused Wakuni. It would sure be a convenient narrative if it were true and everything pointed towards him. But at the same time, the thought of what Wakuni said echoed in my mind. This was skewed worse than when Koike was accused when Senji’s subconscious suspicions were taken into account. If I didn’t do anything, then Wakuni’s only representation would be himself and Yakawa and while they were smart people, they faired averagely during the class trials.

I sighed. *(This isn’t going to be a fair trial if I don’t intervene.)*

As soon as I made my way over to Yakawa who gave what looked like a surprised smile back, the elevator began its descent into the darkness. Soon, we were going to have to go through another class trial. And soon, I would have to face the person who hurt me. As my pulse picked up, the only thing that came to mind was the hope that I wasn’t making the wrong choice by doing this and potentially leading the whole class astray.

I took a few deep breaths and Yakawa put a reassuring pat on the right shoulder with his left hand before he spoke. “Hey Nishi, thank you so much. You can’t tell just how much this means to us. And I know it doesn’t look good, but you’ll see you’ve made the right choice once we find the real culprit.”

I gave a fake smile and nodded. “It's like you said, if nobody defends Wakuni, then who will? I know you will but you’ve been guarding the body all day.”

With that, he frowned and nodded. And once more, as the elevator fully descended into darkness, one last thought came to my mind. One last desperate plea to make it through this class trial and see the light of day. After all, isn’t that what everyone here strove for? To avenge Eto and live to see another day? Once more I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath.

*(I just hope you’re right about Wakuni.)*

## Trivia

* This chapter contains the second of multiple attempts of Nishi’s life.
* The creator nearly had Senji take over while Nishi relapsed into unconsciousness and received medical leave from the class trial, but decided to keep things as they were.
* The attack against Nishi was changed three times during conception.
* Nishi should look on the bright side. She doesn’t have to feel excluded from the murder plots anymore.
* Yes, it was always the creator's intent to have someone have to face the fact that someone attacked them.
* The creator considers this mystery to be the easiest by far for readers who have been paying attention.