There was very little light, with only the light from the storage closet as my guide. However, what I discovered down there shocked me. There was a couple buckets of paint, as well as a tool box. I went over to get a closer look, with Magane following me and looking over my shoulder.

"Well well, isn't that interesting. So this is where the culprit tried to hide their stuff." she said. Kokichi hopped down as well, turning his head to the door. "And there's the entrance to the gym." I looked over, seeing a few streaks of light peek through from the small space of the little space.

"Do you think Nagito knew about this room?" I asked.

"Doubt it. If he did, he would've used it to escape from his attacker, and he wouldn't be laying dead right now." Mello said from above. I winced at the thought. It bothered me that Mello could be rather cold sometimes. 

"Rin and Lilac are back." Kanato called from above. Kokichi, Magane, and I rushed out of the small space and followed Kanato and Mello out of the storage closet. We went through the gym, seeing Rin and Lilac running towards us, with Crona, Rena, and Near following them.

"We took a look inside that trophy case. That spinning top isn't inside of it." Rin stated. "And we looked around the kitchen, seeing that one of the knives was missing. The knife we found by Nagito must've come from there." Rena said. 

"Only more evidence that would lead towards me....since I was alone in the dining hall after Nagito left." I thought. 

"How are you feeling, Near?" I asked. Near grimaced slightly, rubbing his head. "The pain still lingers a bit, but I'll be fine. I was hoping to get at least a glance at the closet before the trial...." he said. However the gym doors suddenly opened, and the other five came inside the gym.

"Fuck! Well that didn't work!" Zack growled, kicking at the wall. 

"What's going on?! What did you find in the warehouse?" Kanato said. Ulric growled, running a hand through his hair. "Nothing. We couldn't even get inside the damn place. We never did remember the fact that we aren't allowed inside that place until twelve in the afternoon." he said. 

"Shit, that's right. That place is locked up 6 a.m. to 12 p.m, and it still like eleven!" Rin stated. Near narrowed his eyes.

"That's why the culprit struck at night time. We wouldn't be able to investigate the warehouse when we found the body in the morning, meaning we wouldn't find any clues in there that could lead us to them." he said.

"So then, I guess this means we won't be able to find the culprit. Unless you guys found some stuff at the crime scene, nyow." Johannes said, looking over at me. "I mean, we found quite a few things, but....I can't see many things that could connect us to a direct person here." I admitted. 

"Maybe we should look again if we have time. How much longer until this class trial starts?" Amaimon asked. There was a sudden binging sound that rang out in the gym, making my eyes widen.

"I'll be happy to answer that for ya, partner! Answer is- time's up suckers! I hope you found some juicy stuff, cause it's trial time! Everyone scurry over to the trophy case room in the dining hall." Monokuma stated over the speakers. Everyone gasped.

"What?! N-No way! T-Time is up already?! That can't be!" Crona stuttered. "That was barely any time!" Rin said. "Kusoga (dammit), what do we do now?!" Zack said. 

"....we don't have a choice. We'll have to discuss our evidence in further detail at the trial." Near stated. Everyone was suddenly silent, seeming hesitant. However, we all knew there was no other choice. Near began to walk towards the gym doors, about to exit the place.

"Let's get going. I imagine nothing good will come out of us keeping Monokuma waiting." he said. We all looked at each other, then slowly began to follow Near out of the room. As we made our way towards the dining hall, I couldn't help but feel scared.

One of these people....killed Nagito. With only those handful of clues we found, we have to solve this whole thing on our own. No, its more then just that. We have to trust in each other to be open minded. To tell the truth. To bring our known knowledge together. If we don't, then we'll all die, and the culprit will get away with killing a friend. Will we work together to bring out the inner evil among us.....or will we kill ourselves with the decisions we make?

I felt a hand grasp mine, and I looked over, seeing Lilac giving me a wide smile. One full of reassurance, and her eyes lit up with hope. The same look of hope that Nagito had last night. And just like last night, I suddenly felt warmth from that look of hope, and smiled back. At least no matter what.....I have Lilac to rely on.

It seemed like forever before we finally arrived at that back room in the dining hall. We all looked around, trying to find the entrance, but didn't see one anywhere.

"Well, where is this damn thing?" Kanato said. 

"Uh, maybe we're not gonna do a trial after all?" Rin said. However, he had spoken way too soon....as a trap door suddenly opened beneath us. I inhaled sharply as I suddenly began to fall, my grip on Lilac's hand tightening. The screams of the others echoed around me as we fell deeper and deeper into the darkness, with the light above us growing smaller and smaller.

My hair flew around me, and my eyes were wide with shock. Were we gonna die? Monokuma wouldn't just kill us out of the blue would he? Thankfully, after what felt like forever but in reality was probably only a few more seconds, we all landed on something soft below us, bouncing slightly.

"Oof!" I said as I struggled to stop the bouncing. Lilac looked below us, smiling as she saw the mattress, and began to bounce a bit more on her knees.

"Well, glad at least someone had fun...." Ulric growled, irritation in his tone. 

"Where are we?" Crona asked. 

"Welcome to the trial grounds!" Monokuma boomed. Finally the pitch black room lit up, revealing the most bizarre looking court room I had ever seen. There were red curtains on the walls, and sixteen court stands were set up in a circle in the center of the room. However, Monokuma instead sat upon a beautiful golden throne, with red plush seating. 

"....you're shitting me." Rin said flatly.

"This is a court room?" Mello said. "Yep! Hope you like the decor! It wasn't easy to put together! Now, everyone get to your assigned stands, and let's start this thing up already!" Monokuma stated. We all looked at each other nervously, but did as he said, walking to our assigned court stands. However, as I took place in my stand, I gasped at a sight across from me.....

Framed in a nice red frame and yellow bows....was a portrait of Nagito Komaeda, with a big 'x' across his face. The portrait stood proudly on a podium, in the court stand where I assume Nagito was supposed to stand at if he was still alive.

"Nagito....." I murmured.

"What the hell is that?!" Rin snapped, slamming his fist down on his stand. "Pufufufufu, what's the problem? I thought you would be happy with me showing respect for the dead. And what better way then a beautiful portrait? Doesn't it look nice?" Monokuma said.

"Respect? More like a damn slap across the face to Nagito! How could you put something like that up?! We already know he's dead, so why the cruel reminder?!" Rin growled, his tail swishing side to side.

"Why you ask? For entertainment, of course!" Monokuma stated. Rin opened his mouth to continue, but Monokuma interrupted him.

"But enough about the portrait....let's talk about the cause of that portrait being up." 

That made everyone go silent.

"Now, a brief explanation of the rules before we start. You guys work together to figure out the culprit to Nagito Komaeda's death. When you believe you've come to a conclusion, then you'll vote on your culprit. Remember, it's a majority vote, so out of all fifteen of you, the most votes out of eight will be the group decision. If you get the culprit correct, then you all will continue to live in the academy while the culprit is executed. However, if you get the culprit incorrect, then you'll all be executed while the culprit goes home with their life in tact. Oh, and one more thing. Everyone has to vote on someone, for not participating in the vote will result in your death. Everyone understand what to do?"

There was no response from anyone....so Monokuma nodded.

"Then I announce the first class trial officially in session! Blast off!" Monokuma boomed. 

We all looked around at each other, seeming hesitant. We understood the rules, and we had our clues, but....where do we actually begin? "Does anyone know where we should start our discussion?" Amaimon said. 

"I propose we begin with what the murder weapon could've been. That should be a fair enough of a start." Near said. Ulric crossed his arms across his chest and huffed. "Isn't that obvious, though? There was a knife where Nagito was, right? And he was covered head to toe in bloody cuts. So it must've been the knife." he said.

"Nyow, he's right, what else would it be?" Johannes added. "Not like there were any other weapons at the crime scene." Zack stated, placing his hands on his hips. I furrowed my brows. No, that's not true. There's evidence that proves otherwise, but what was it.....that's it!

"No that's wrong!" I found myself stating, grabbing everyone's attention. 

"There was another weapon we found at the crime scene. It was hidden in the back of the air vent. That spinning top." I said. Rin perked up. 

"That's right! That was in the vent! Lilac was the one that showed us!" he stated, and my sister nodded. "How do you know that was the weapon that killed Nagito though? How do you know?" Rena said.

"Yeah, I find it hard to believe a spinning top could be used as a weapon? Those things are just toys, right?" Amaimon said, head tilted. "While that would normally be true, this particular one was found in the weapons trophy case when we first began the investigation of the academy. I was there when my group found it." Kanato said.

"Yeah, so was I actually. It didn't look like a normal spinning top. It seemed to be made of metal or something. But we couldn't exactly look at it real good with it being behind that case." Ulric said.

"Wait, if that top was in the weapons case, then how did the culprit get to it without breaking the school's regulations? Anyone who breaks the rules gets executed, right? And we all admitted that we didn't have those Monokuma chips." Crona said. 

"Zack and I even searched the rooms. We didn't find them anywhere." Mello stated. 

"Well then, I was expecting that you'd find this obvious, but I shall explain. Has anyone considered the possibility that someone in here lied about having the Monokuma chips?" Near asked. We all looked at him surprised.

"Nyow? What are you getting at? You think one of us hid the Monokuma chips?" Johannes said, narrowing his eyes at the detective.

"Why not? Who would just stop at hiding them in their room? Perhaps they could've hidden them somewhere within the academy." Near said. "If had thought of that before, why not have Zack and I search the rest of the academy as well?!" Mello said, seeming irritated. Near raised a hand to his hair and began to twirl a strand of it between his fingers.

"I didn't have you do it, because everyone else has done it instead." he said. Mello gave him a puzzled expression. "What?" he said.

"While you and Zack searched the dorms, everyone else did a second thorough investigation of the academy. And I made sure no one searched alone, so if someone was to try and hide them, someone would've reported it to us." Near explained. Rena perked up.

"Ah, soka! So if we saw our partners hiding something, we would know, and would tell everyone." she said.

"But what if the partner lies of seeing someone try to hide the Monokuma chips?" Junko said. 

"That was not a concern of mine. How should I put it....I usually am able to separate the truth with lies, and from what I've seen no one has lied about anyone hiding the chips." Near explained. Near looked up at us.

"My point being, we cannot rely on each other to tell the truth on everything. One of us is a murderer after all, and they will obviously go to extreme lengths to hide their identity." Near said. Everyone was silent, seeming frustrated. However Kanato sighed.

"Fine then. If there is no way to determine the owner of the Monokuma chips as of now, let's move on to another topic, and see if any more clues will be leaked." he said, hugging his teddy bear close.

"Okay, so let's say that the weapon was the spinning top. Why would the culprit put the knife there beside Nagito? I mean, you don't really need two weapons to kill someone. In fact technically, there's still a chance that the knife could be the weapon right?" Junko said.

"That's true, I mean either way, Nagito was killed. Does it matter how he died?" Kokichi said. 

"No, it does matter. If how he died didn't matter, then the culprit wouldn't have gone to such far lengths to hide their crime scene." Mello said. I perked up.

"Yeah, I agree. I mean, the place was painted all over, and there was a rug placed there. All to hide the marks that were in the room. Unfortunately, they forgot to hide the markings on the metal support beams for the shelves." I said. "But then, why leave the knife out?" Rin said. 

"This is all so confusing. I can't deal with it...." Crona murmured. "Oh don't be a baby. It's only a murder investigation. You're a boy, aren't ya? Grow a pair." Kokichi said with a smile. Crona winced, seeming taken aback.

"Hey, there was no reason to say that." Rena stated.

"Sure there was. This might not be our first class trial, so he needs to get used to this kinda stuff." Kokichi stated. Lilac gave him an angry expression, but it looked too cute to be serious. "Awwww, did I upset you? I'm sowwy. Nee-heehee~" Kokichi said mockingly, putting on an innocent expression.

"He's not wrong though. If we're gonna solve this, we need to buck up and get this thing into gear. And that means talking about all the cringey and icky bullshit in this hell hole." Junko stated. Near cleared his throat.

"Can we please return to the topic at hand?" Near said. "Please...." Ulric said, seemingly annoyed.

"Now then, I do have a theory for the culprit's intentions. Let's try to paint this scenario; the culprit didn't want us to know what the murder weapon was. They wanted us to believe it was the kitchen knife, but in reality was the spinning top. However, clearly after they had finished using the top, there was too much evidence leading towards that spinning top. So, they covered up the markings, and planted the kitchen knife at the crime scene. Sound logical?" Near explained.

My eyes widened. That certainly sounds right. I've been wondering for a while as to why the knife was there, and Near already figured it out. He really is a good detective, and he didn't even get to see the crime scene.

"Ah, demo, demo, what about the different wounds on Nagito's stomach and thigh? Those wounds looked much different from the other scratches on his body. Perhaps the spinning top was used for the attack, but the knife still very well could've killed him." Magane said. 

"Well, if I was a murderer, and wanted to hide the weapon.....I would use a different weapon to damage the body after the victim was dead." Amaimon stated. We all looked at him surprised.

"D-Damage the body?" Johannes said. "Yes, think about it. If someone damaged the body after they had died, it would only further make everyone believe that was the weapon, right? But if the culprit went to so much trouble to hide the spinning top, then its obvious that they didn't want anyone knowing it was even used. So, if you think about it harder, the spinning top must be the weapon." Amaimon explained.

"How....how did you think of all of that?" Zack asked. 

"Impressive, Amaimon. However, I to am curious of what made this possibility pop up?" Near said. Amaimon blinked, either oblivious to everyone's suspicion or ignoring their suspicions.

"I was only trying to think through the killer's point of view, that's all." he replied.