After what felt like an eternity of waiting, the elevator creaked and clunked to a halt. Looking upwards I could only barely see a pinprick of sky above, making me wonder just how deep within the earth we really were. The fire pit in the center extinguished itself, leaving us in temporary darkness until a pair of large, thick metal doors slid open to my right. A whoosh of cold air rushed in, offering respite from the hot, moist, sulfuric miasma we'd all been stewing in.
I gasped as soon as I laid my eyes upon the Trial Room. Spacious and imposing, the tall ceiling disappeared into darkness above, and the walls were surrounded by three rows of wooden benches, cordoned off by a wrought-iron fence tipped with sharp points. Above those were massive stained glass windows in various shades of angry red and gray, with what could've been interpreted as a sunbeam shining down from the heavens in one frame. The floor was covered in concentric rings of blue carpeting that lightened as they edged towards the center of the room, where sixteen blue lecterns with white surfaces sat in a ring. Over to one side, a wooden throne decorated with red banners sat high above us atop a small stage.
And atop that small stage, the Monokubs were standing, watching us eagerly. "Welcome to the class trial!" they shouted in unison.
"Oh boy!" Monotaro beamed. "The class trial is finally starting! Finally, a game that actually feels like a game!"
"Just as the prophecy foretold!" Monokid drooled, his tongue suddenly way too long for his own mouth to handle.
"Prophecy...?" Sunset muttered under her breath, glaring at Monokid in disgust.
"Listen up," Monosuke grinned deviously, "from here on, things are gonna get so violent you'll wish you could turn back."
"...T-That's not true," gulped Monophanie. "There won't be any... gory or violent scenes... I'm positive!" To my right I heard Button let out a loud, sarcastic chuckle.
"Never seen a courtroom like this before," commented Sonata.
"Do we really have to do this?" Indigo whined. "This is so fuckin' dumb..." Just then Monokuma hopped up onto the small stage from somewhere below and clambered up onto the throne.
"Of course! Putting strangers in life or death scenarios is the best entertainment!" he grinned.
"I fuckin' knew it," Soarin' grumbled. "This is all being televised..."
"Oh my god, you really suck," snarled Sugarcoat. Monokuma laughed.
"Suck or not, those who have fun are the real winners in this world!" he replied. "It doesn't matter what terrible things you do or are done to you, as long as you're having fun! Now, then... there are podiums over there. Please stand behind the one with your name on it."
We walked around the lecterns until we found those with our names on them, and took our places. Unfortunately, mine was situated directly across from Monokuma and his Kubs, who pulled out some plush stools to sit on. From my position, in a clockwise order, Juniper stood to my left, followed by Silver, Memento, Indigo, Sunburst, Mountain, Flash, Button directly across from me, then Sonata, Sugarcoat, Soarin', Sunset, Ocean, and finally Kotenage to my right. Between Sunset and Ocean was the empty lectern of Dr. Hooves, but in his place was a portrait of his face on a stand. It was bordered by a black-painted wooden frame with a black and silver ribbon draped over the top to the sides. The portrait itself was in grayscale, except for a large, sloppily-painted X in bright, hot pink that covered the entirety of his face.
Poor Dr. Hooves... I didn't know him all that well, but he didn't deserve to die. Even if it turned out that he and someone else had made a suicidal pact in order to get help... they could've murdered him somewhere he could've been more comfortable.
In fact... the more I thought about the clues Sunset and I had uncovered, the less I was sure that any pact had been made after all. One of us had seemingly specifically murdered the Ultimate Investigator, someone who would've been a huge help in a murder investigation... was it really just a coincidence? Did the killer target him so they could ensure they fooled us all and could leave? Could we even trust that killer to come back for the rest of us?
Unfortunately for us, regardless of what we believed the motive to be, of our trust in the culprit to return with help if they escaped... we had to do our best to solve this mystery. The Monokubs had seen to that. Our hope for rescue was being ripped from our grasp, partially by our own two hands.
I could only hope that the culprit had truly made their murder too difficult for us to solve.
*Class Trial! All Rise!*
"Ahem! Now then, let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial," Monokuma announced. "During the trial you'll present your arguments for who the culprit is, and vote for 'whodunnit'. Vote correctly, and only the blackened will be punished. But if you pick the wrong person? I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person may leave the campgrounds!"
My heart pounded against my ribs. There was an uncomfortable beat of silence before Monokuma spoke again. "...Of course, that's what I'll say if and when this happens again. This time, and this time only! ...If you pick the wrong person, the blackened may still leave the campgrounds, while the rest of you will simply enjoy an extended stay."
"...Stay of execution, maybe," Memento muttered, glancing at Monokuma.
"Okay... so..." Sunset began, quickly losing her confidence. "...Er, anyone here been in a trial before? What do we do?"
"Don't take the lead if you don't know what you're doing!" Sugarcoat chided.
"Well, if this is just like the games, then I can lead us," said Button. "Uh... first, we should talk about the state of the body. Like... what was off about it."
"Lots was off about it, he's fuckin' dead!" Indigo snapped, holding her head in her hands.
"No, no... besides that. Let's talk about how we found Dr. Hooves," Button shook his head slowly. "Okay... so, the victim was found just a bit before Nighttime ended, right?"
"Right," Silver shuddered. "I-I saw him lying against the sitting log between the Activities Cabin and the Fire Pit, j-just as I was leaving the Indoor Pool room."
"IT WAS CLOSE TO 7:45AM, NO? I TOO WAS WRAPPING UP MY DAILY EXERCISES AND RETURNING TO MY COTTAGE FOR A SHOWER," added Kotenage.
"And apparently, he died around 2:00am," Juniper narrowed her eyes in thought. "Someone must've hid the body during the night and then dragged him out to be discovered in the morning!"
...What? No, I'm pretty sure that didn't happen... I glanced over to Sunset, who frowned as her eyes darted back and forth, undoubtedly mentally sorting through all of the clues. It was enough of a visual cue for me to follow my gut.
"Wait, that's not right!" I shouted in alarm, drawing everyone's eyes on me. "Ah... I don't think Dr. Hooves was hidden anywhere... when we searched the log, Sunset and I didn't see any drag marks on the ground."
"Yea, that's right," Sunset's eyes widened, looking up from her lectern. "There was a big trail of blood on the backside of the log, like whoever did it just let him slide right off."
"If he was hidden elsewhere, there would be a trail of bloody drag marks," remarked Flash.
"And the body's condition confirms he was left like that all night," added Memento. "If he was dragged somewhere sheltered from the cold, there'd be a little bit of rigor mortis in his face and neck... they're both still floppy."
"F-Floppy...?!" Ocean cringed.
"Plus the lividity and postmortem staining shows that he never left the position in which we found him," she continued.
"Right... so, if anything, the culprit maybe just propped him up against the log and left him there," I reasoned. "Between the darkness of the night, the dying campfire and the light and shadows it'd cast, that was probably all the hiding the culprit needed."
"I d-definitely didn't see him when I went to the indoor pool this morning," nodded Silver. "S-Sunrise hadn't even happened yet."
Sugarcoat glared at her from across the room. "You were practically right next to the body, how did you not see it?"
"Wh-What do you mean?" Silver bit her lip. "I went to the indoor pool to swim, it's not like I opened the door and then decided to l-look behind me."
"Well, it would seem that you're insisting that you had no knowledge of it being there," she replied in a cold, clinical tone. "I think it's not out of the question to suggest that you wanted to check and see if the body was still where you left it."
"...Hey, y-you're not trying to say I did it, are you?!" Silver gasped.
"Am I?" Sugarcoat asked calmly, her face dangerously blank. Silver began to tremble as everyone's eyes turned towards her. While I shivered at the sheer frigidity in Sugarcoat's voice, a thought bubbled to the surface in my mind.
No... I can prove Silver's innocence here!
"Wait, that's not right!" I shouted again. "Kotenage, didn't you say you left your cottage to exercise at around the same time as Silver?"
"SOU SOU," Kotenage nodded. "I WAS WALKING TO THE FOREST BEHIND THE MAIN CABIN, AND AS I WAS DOING SO I SAW THE DOOR TO THE INDOOR POOL OPEN. SILVER WENT INSIDE BUT A SECOND LATER, AND THE DOOR CLOSED ALMOST IMMEDIATELY."
"Did you see her turn her head?" asked Flash. "Judging by where we found the body, she would've been looking to the right if she had seen it."
"...NO, I DON'T BELIEVE SO," Kotenage answered after a moment of thought.
"Oh, and we're supposed to believe that?!" snapped Juniper.
"It's fine for now," Soarin' sighed, holding up his hands in front of him. "It's hardly enough evidence to pin it on her, and there's tons of things we haven't gone over yet."
"Can't we just vote now?" Sonata groaned, rolling her eyes. She was slumped over her lectern resting her cheek in one hand.
"They said we have to at least try to figure this out," Button swallowed as he briefly turned to face the Monokubs, who merely smiled and waved back as their red eyes gleamed. "A-Anyway, I think we've confirmed that the body was never moved after the murder, now... um..."
"We could talk about the murder weapon," Memento broke the silence as she produced the boning knife from one of her scrub pockets. "This was found in the Kitchen."
"AH! I KNEW I SAW A BONING KNIFE IN THERE EARLIER!" Kotenage's eyes lit up. Indigo and Ocean snickered quietly at their podiums.
"Did you, now?" Sugarcoat turned, focusing her cool ire on the Ultimate Rikishi.
"HAI... AND BEFORE YOU BEGIN SUGGESTING ANYTHING, NO, I DID NOT STEAL THE KNIFE I WISHED TO USE FOR PREPARING OUR MEAL LAST NIGHT."
"Is that so...?" Sugarcoat stared down her nose at Kotenage, almost appearing bored.
"I ASKED YOU ALL IF ANY OF YOU HAD SEEN IT. IF I WAS TO PLAN A MURDER WITH IT, WHY WOULD I ALERT YOU ALL TO THE FACT THAT IT WAS MISSING?"
...That's a good point. Not to mention...
"Yea, I can agree with that!" I nodded. "We even checked the magnetic knife rack together, remember? None of them appeared to be missing at the time."
"That doesn't mean anything," Sugarcoat sneered. "The knives were simply spaced out more evenly to hide the fact that it was gone."
"But he's right, though," Sunset chimed in. "Unless it really was missing, why would Kotenage have asked about it? If it turned out that he had stolen the knife, then he'd just make himself suspicious."
"He could be playing some sort of 4D chess with us," Juniper hummed.
"...No, that doesn't seem reasonable," said Sunburst. "I would agree with Miss Starlight here, and assert the notion that Mr. Kotenage here really believed the knife to be missing."
"But are we sure it's the murder weapon?" asked Mountain. "Surely there are quite a few knives around for the culprit to choose from."
"I'm sure... it fit the hole perfectly," said Memento. Indigo's and Ocean's snickering grew louder.
"...YOU GUYS DON'T WANNA KNOW HOW SHE FIGURED THAT OUT. TRUST ME," Kotenage added queasily.
"Right... so, if the knife was missing from the kitchen from yesterday evening until this morning, the killer must've put it back at some point in between," Button stated.
"It couldn't have been during the night... the Dining Hall and the kitchen by extension were both closed," I reasoned.
"Huh? It might be closed, but it isn't like the whole joint is locked up tight, is it?" asked Indigo.
"It's kinda freakish how locked up it is, actually," I frowned. "There's chains covering the doors and everything."
"Alright..." Flash spoke slowly. "...So, then the culprit must've put it back while we were all looking for clues."
"We all split up into pairs for that," remarked Soarin'. "I guess it's not out of the question for the innocent one of the two to not notice anything."
"...Or maybe they're happily covering for them," Sugarcoat grumbled, her eyes shifting back and forth in suspicion.
"Boy, you sure don't have much trust in anyone." Sunset pressed her lips into a thin line as their eyes met.
"Why should I? You remember why we're all down here in the first place, right? Because one of us is a fucking murderer," she snapped back.
"Yea, but-"
"Just forget about her," Sonata sighed, clearly bored with the conversation. "So she doesn't trust anyone right now. Fine, go ahead, but let's just keep going." Sunset stared at her incredulously for a moment.
"I... but... friendship and trust is important..." she muttered, slumping in resigned defeat.
"I know... I'm sure we'll get to that part of the plot soon enough," I nodded knowingly in her direction.
"Uh huh," Soarin' drawled. "Anyway, I don't think there's any point in throwing out random accusations and seeing what sticks. We should focus on the last people who were in the area, or the last people to see him alive... that always seems to work out."
"Well, there were three people outside before it happened... Button, Indigo, and... my brother," Mountain frowned.
"Yea, that's right... I saw them still around the fire pit when I returned to my cottage for the night," I replied. Everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Uh... I-I didn't do it," Ocean shrank his head down towards his shoulders as he eyed us all.
"D-Don't look at me! I didn't fuckin' kill anyone," Indigo took a step back from her lectern.
"Me either," said Button, "...though right now, all we really have is our word, huh?"
"Indeed," Sugarcoat drawled. "So, we're all going to need your accounts of what happened that night."
"Yea, and no pleading the 5th!" Juniper pointed aggressively.
"Wouldn't dream of committing perjury," Button smirked. "Alright, uh... well, we passed the bowl around and talked all evening."
"Yea... strong shit, though, I think I nodded off around midnight, maybe?" added Indigo.
"Nah, you hung on a bit longer than that," Ocean grinned. "I know I fell asleep around 12:30am or so."
"It wasn't that long... I was talking about the last gaming tournament I played in, and I didn't realize you two had zonked out in the middle of it," Button chuckled. "It was like 1:00am when I finally noticed!"
"You did? The fuck didn't you wake us, then?!" Indigo shouted.
"I did! Or, at least I nudged Ocean awake," Button shrugged. "He seemed like he was waking back up and then he'd wake you up too, so I threw another log on the fire for you guys before heading to bed myself."
"Did I?" Ocean pursed his lips while scowling in thought. "I don't remember."
"Maybe we did... but we must've passed out again, next thing I remember is you waking me up and Button having peaced out," Indigo pointed to Ocean. "The fire was mostly out by then."
"Didn't feel like getting more wood, either," he nodded in agreement.
"Yea, so we went to bed- IN SEPARATE COTTAGES, Sugarcoat," Indigo yelled while the latter rolled her eyes. "I remember the clock said 3:00am just before crashing."
"Well, that seems perfectly above board," commented Sunburst.
"Not really... that just means that either one of them is a fucking liar, or someone else is a sneaky fucking liar," growled Sugarcoat.
"The Monokuma File says that Dr. Hooves was killed at 2:00am, while Indigo and Ocean became drowsy and fell asleep sometime before that, and then woke up and returned to their rooms at 3:00am," said Sunset. "If those two are telling the truth, that means they slept right through Dr. Hooves' murder..."
"Ugh... now that you say it like that..." Ocean shivered.
"S-Shouldn't we have woken up? You know, t-to the sweet s-sounds of s-someone being brutally fucking murdered right in f-front of us...?" Indigo snarked through chattering teeth.
"...Perhaps not," Sunburst admitted. "If the culprit took the victim by surprise, then I see no reason to doubt that the murder was silent."
"Well, if they made any noise... we all probably would've been asleep by then, and nobody heard anything," Flash frowned.
If the victim made a noise as they were being killed, it might not have been heard... wait... didn't I hear a strange sound in the middle of the night?
...
...
...Oh! I know!
"Wait... I-I think I heard something," I spoke up. "I couldn't really fall asleep last night, and at some point, I could've sworn I heard an owl or something."
"You did?" Mountain turned her head towards me in curiosity. "How certain are you?"
"Well... I had my window by my bed open," I recounted, only now remembering my experiment with the endless geothermally-heated water from the shower. In my haste this morning I had completely forgotten to sense whether the cottage was any warmer than usual. "I'm pretty sure it came from outside, but it was only one hoot, then that was it."
"I see... strange," Mountain mused.
"Is it? We are in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere," Sugarcoat sneered.
"I suppose you city-types wouldn't have noticed," Mountain continued, "but ever since we all woke up here, I have yet to see a single living animal... no beasts, birds nor bugs, not even any tracks or droppings. It's as though their instincts are telling them to avoid this place at all costs."
"Hey, yea..." Ocean nodded slowly. "I haven't even seen a bird fly by overhead, or bugs and frogs during the night, or anything."
"So? Maybe one just finally showed up last night," said Silver.
"MUCH LIKE A BAD OMEN," Kotenage added nervously.
"I don't know..." Mountain hummed. "But, I can't say what else it might've been."
So the Ultimate Hunter doesn't think I heard an owl after all... but I know I heard something! What could it have been...?
...
...
...Oh! I know!
"Wait... wait a minute," I gasped slowly, my eyes widening. "It was just one single noise, what if... what if the noise wasn't from an animal, but came from... t-the V I C T I M?"
"The victim?" Sunset parroted.
"Yea... maybe what I heard was... the sound of Dr. Hooves getting s-stabbed..." I swallowed hard, feeling a wave of nausea roiling up my throat. "L-Like he tried to shout for help, but was quickly silenced."
"It's definitely possible," said Memento. "A puncture like that'll give you at least a few seconds of consciousness before passing out and dying. Maybe he did try to call for help, and then the killer shut his mouth so he couldn't."
"H-How terrible..." Silver whimpered.
"So, that's figured out, I guess," Juniper pressed on, unnerved. "But, uh... there was so much blood around the body, like... pressurized for show-levels of blood. Wouldn't the killer have gotten blood all over them while moving the body behind the log?"
"Ah, right... that would've made a huge mess," Flash grimaced.
"Not unless the culprit used something to keep themselves clean," reasoned Sunburst. "Was there anything that could be used as such nearby?"
"Er... nothing that'd make sense," Button frowned, rolling his eyes and pursing his lips as he wracked his brain. "I checked the Storage Shed and it didn't look like anyone had taken anything like that."
...No, wait, there was something else no one's mentioned yet... and it could keep a culprit from getting all bloody!
"Oh, I know!" I exclaimed after a few moments. "In the fire pit, among the ashes and burnt trash, there was a piece of blue plastic tarp with some blood on it."
"There was?" Button perked up.
"Right!" Sunset chimed in. "It was partially melted, like someone tried to burn it."
"If it has blood on it, then it's probably the victim's blood," Sugarcoat glared at the floor as she brought her fist to her chin in thought. "So the tarp was definitely involved."
"Eh... how so?" asked Silver. "Tarps are generally huge and flimsy and make noise when you move them... wouldn't those factors make the killer not want to use it?"
"I dunno... it'd definitely keep the blood off of you if the murder was messy... which I think we all believe that it was," said Soarin'.
"How would you hold onto the knife, then? Just holding the tarp up with one hand would leave your other arm exposed and bloody," said Sonata.
"Not if you grabbed the knife through the tarp, so there's always that layer of plastic between the killer and victim," Mountain explained. "And depending on how fresh or wet the fire was, the crackling could possibly drown out the noise of the tarp being moved."
"Plus if the killer approached the victim from behind, then they wouldn't have to worry about their shadow tipping them off!" added Juniper.
"Shit, yea! Okay, so that's probably how the tarp factors in," said Button. "I think we're getting a good idea of how the murder played out."
"Yea, but we still don't know who did it!" Ocean wailed. "Isn't that the important part?!"
"True... although, if Button had returned to his cottage at 1:00am, then that leaves you and Miss Indigo as our primary suspects," Sunburst spoke carefully.
"W-What?! But I didn't fuckin' do it!" Indigo shouted.
"Y-Yea! N-Neither did I!" added Ocean.
"It has to be one of you two," Sugarcoat scowled. "You were the only ones still outside when Dr. Hooves was murdered at 2:00am. You both admitted that neither of you returned to your cottages until 3:00am. Therefore, one of you must've faked being asleep and murdered the poor doctor, and Zaps, I am very disappointed in you," she finished haughtily.
"Fuck... now I wish I woke all the way up when Button nudged me," Ocean grumbled.
"You?! What about me?! I don't have anything to do with this shit at all!" Indigo pointed furiously. "Besides, what the fuck was he even doing outside at that hour?!"
"Yea... hey, yea! No matter how baked I got, I think I'd remember if he came out to match with us," Ocean agreed. "He doesn't seem like the type at all."
"...You know? That's a good point," Memento piped up. "I don't remember him smelling like smoke all that much when I autopsied him."
"If anything, that was probably me... I kinda reek right now," Ocean glanced away, slightly embarrassed.
"You said it," Indigo cringed as she crudely sniffed her own armpit. "I was about to hop in the shower, but then that fuckin' body announcement discovery came on and I had no time."
Sunburst and Memento leaned away from Indigo in disgust. One of my eyebrows raised as I noticed that Sonata began sniffing the air around her. She sniffed to her right, then her left, then above her before sniffing to the right again, edging closer and closer to Button.
"Uh... can I help you...?" Button grimaced as he leaned away, only for Sonata to lean in more. Finally, after one extra-long sniff, she stood up straight with a puzzling look.
"You know... for someone who spent hours beside a campfire last night, you sure don't smell like it," she spoke, slowly and evenly.
"Uh... wh-whaddya mean?"
"Well... you should smell like campfire smoke," Sonata stated. "But you don't. In fact..." she paused as she took another deep breath through her nose, "...you don't even smell like you've been reveling and partaking in anything last night."
"O-Oh..." Button tried to reply, but his eyes had widened almost to the point they were bugging out, and his lips were pressed firmly shut. The others stared at him with mixed emotions.
He doesn't smell like campfire smoke...?
And all of a sudden, I knew.
I gasped as I realized I was now certain of the culprit's identity. The one who had murdered Dr. Hooves in cold blood.
The thought that that person, the one who warned us about everything that would happen to us in this killing game, had deliberately gone against their own advice... it made me feel sick to my stomach. But even the twisting and churning of my innards was overruled by the furious maelstrom of emotions running through my mind. The hypocrisy, the sheer audacity of this betrayal was nothing short of enraging.
"...Button? There had better be a good explanation as to why you washed your clothes," I glowered.