Ulric clenched his fists. "Dammit, we're already out of time. That isn't fair. These investigations feel like they're getting shorter and shorter. What are we suppose to present during the class trial?!" he said. "All we can do is present what we've found thus far. We'll have to figure it out somehow. Come on." I said, turning and heading towards the stairs. Lilac followed beside me. The three of us headed to the stairs, and soon the rest of the group joined us.

We were all silent as we descended to the first floor. I was already terrified. In just a few moments, one of us is gonna be executed again. Either that, or we get it wrong, and everybody is killed except for the culprit....as well as Ulric, who will be trapped down here forever.

I took a deep breath. Neither one of these options are good. But, we have to figure out who the culprit is. That's the best way to get out of here. If not, all the work we've done thus far will be for nothing. So, we'll do this. Together. 

Soon, we had approached to the weapons trophy case room. I looked around, expecting another bizarre entrance from Monokuma.

"I wonder what it'll be this time. I'd rather not be at risk of being crushed by some sort of giant rolling ball like last time." Kanato said. "I don't fucking care. I just want to get this over with." Ulric stated. "Well, maybe the worse is behind us." Magane said. Suddenly, a trap door opened up below us.....and we fell straight into the darkness. Our screams echoed throughout the space as we continued to fall. My hair flew everywhere around me, blinding most of my vision. However, all had ceased as we landed on something soft. 

I gasped, and looked down, seeing we had once again landed on a large mattress. I looked around at everyone else, who seemed to be in one piece. 

"Welcome back, class!" I turned to the source of the voice, seeing Monokuma once again sitting upon his throne with the many stands surrounding it. "Hold up a sec here, didn't you already use some stupid trap door to get us here for our first trial?" Magane asked. "Oooh, someone has a sharp memory. Yes, that is the case. I was gonna go with a different idea of a buffoon carrying you down here, but it seemed like too much work. So I went with this, cause its more fun for me." Monokuma replied.

"Let's just do this, okay? I don't want to waste anymore time." Ulric stated. "Pufufufu, eager as I am, I see. Well then, let's get to it then! Everyone please go to your court stand, and we'll get this party started!" Monokuma stated. We all did what he said. I hated having to come up here, but what else could I do? I looked around the room, of course seeing the new portraits of the dead. 

"Now, as usual, a brief explanation of the rules before we begin. All of you must work together to try and come to a conclusion of who killed Mello. When everyone has come to a conclusion, you all vote on your culprit. And remember, if you don't vote, that's an automatic death penalty for ya. If you all vote on the correct culprit, then only the culprit will be executed. If you get it wrong, however, then everyone but the culprit will be executed. The only exception will be for Ulric, since he had broken the rules of damaging school property, his punishment will be that he'll be stuck in this academy for the rest of his life. Everyone understand?" 

No one answered.

"Alright, then let the fourth class trial commence! Give you're all, everyone!" 

Near was the first to speak. "So, I understand that our investigation was rather short. That is why I ask now; what clues did anyone find?" he asked. Unfortunately, no one said a thing. Near's eyes widened. "Has no one found a single clue?" he asked.

"No, we didn't find anything. There was absolutely nothing on the fourth floor except for those blood stains by the hallway with the secret to the outside world. Otherwise, nothing else was left behind." Magane said. "How are we supposed to figure this out? We barely have any clues! I don't know if I can deal with this...." Crona murmured. 

"What's there to explain, anyway? Obviously Mello went into that hallway of his own will, and got injured so severely that he didn't survive." Kokichi stated. "But the Monopad we got said he died of a heart attack. How could he have died from his wounds if he died from a heart attack?" Ulric said. "He got that heart attack from his own fear and shock. Bam! Case closed!" Kokichi declared.

"Now hold on; Lilac and I did find something strange earlier." I stated. "Oh? What did you two discover?" Kanato asked.

"I'm not sure what prompted Lilac to look there, but she led me straight to Mello's room. Inside, we found the Death Note." I replied. Crona gasped. "W-What?! The Death Note?! B-But I thought Near was the one holding onto that!" he said. "I see, so that's what had happened to it. I wondered who stole it last night." Near replied.

"But why would Mello steal it? I mean, he wasn't into killing anyone. And even if he was, he already had his own gun. He could've just shot any of us." Magane stated. "That may be, but Mello isn't that foolish. It's possible that he could've used the Death Note to make himself seem less suspicious, and possibly even frame me." Near replied.

"Okay, but then, why didn't he just do it? He had a powerful weapon in his hands, and he didn't rip someone immediately?" Kokichi said. "Well, I'm not sure if it helps, but Lilac and I did discover something else about the Death Note....a page had been ripped out." I said. 

"What? Ripped out? Why would someone do that? Those notebook pages wouldn't work outside the notebook, would they?" Kanato asked. 

"....that isn't true," we all looked to Near, who had narrowed his eyes, "it doesn't matter if the pages of the Death Note are ripped out of the book. All that matters is that if someone writes the victim's full name, and knows what they're face looks like." 

"Nani?! W-wait a minute, so then for example, if I ripped a piece of the notebook out of the Death Note and wrote a name in it, that person would still die?!" Magane said. "Precisely." Near stated. "Ooookay, so someone ripped out a piece of the notebook. What does it matter?" Kokichi asked.

"Don't be such a fool! It means that it doesn't matter who possessed the book....as long as a page had been ripped out, anyone could've been the culprit." Kanato stated. 

"....is that really the case, though?" I looked at Kokichi surprised.

"Huh? What do you mean, Kokichi?" I asked. "Well, I do have a little theory. So, what if Mello stole the Death Note....and wrote his own name in it?" he said. My eyes widened, along with everyone else's. "What? But....but why would he do that? What could possibly promote him to do such a thing?!" Kanato said. 

"Simple. Poor Mello feels like a bit of a loser lately. Beating up Violet for no reason, about to shoot Monokuma, all that kinda BS. He starts to feel pretty hopeless. So, with what little prompt he has, he thinks the only thing he can do is to kill himself. So, he wrote his own name in the notebook to end it all." Kokichi replied. I looked away, rubbing my arm. "He didn't hit me on purpose...." I thought.

"Kokichi makes an interesting claim. I do not find it entirely impossible. Mello was, after all, often absorbed into his own emotions. Because of that, he'd often make rash decisions and do reckless actions. Such as pointing a gun at Monokuma, even when he knew it was pointless." Near said. 

".....no, that doesn't seem right to me. I understand I have no room to talk, since I haven't known him for too long. Especially compared to you, Near. But he seemed to have too powerful of a spirit to just end himself like that." Ulric replied. "But then, what else could have happened?" Magane asked.

"Violet, did you find any other clues in Mello's room?" Crona asked. "I did, but I'm not sure how it could connect to anything," I dug into my pocket, unfolded the paper and held it out, "I found this piece of paper in the trash can that was in Mello's room. It only has one name though, and a bizarre one at that, Mihael Keehl." I said.

"Mihael Keehl? Now that is quite the weird name." Monokuma said.

"Does anyone recognize this name? Does it mean anything to anyone?" Near asked. One by one, we each just shook our heads. "I've never heard of it once in my entire life." Magane stated. "But then, why would that be in Mello's room? Maybe its someone Mello knew." Crona said.

"But who wrote that anyways? And why? Hell, why would Mello throw it away?" Ulric said. I placed a hand on my chin, and started to think. There has to be a reason why this is. Come on, who is Mihael Keehl? And how do they relate to Mello? Unless....I perked up.

"Wait, I have an idea!" I said. Everyone looked to me. "What if Mihael Keehl....is actually Mello's real name?" I said. Near looked at me surprised. "What? How would you think of that?" he asked. "Well, let's pretend for a moment that Kokichi's theory is correct. That Mello did want to kill himself. He'd have to use his real name, right? So he'd have to write it in the Death Note. Not to mention, Mello and Mihael both have the letter 'M' in the front. Perhaps that's a small detail, but perhaps they relate to each other." I said. 

"No, I don't see how that could be Mello's real name. We don't know that for sure. Besides, if he simply wanted to kill himself by a heart attack, then what would be the point of going through that secret hallway, which he knew was booby trapped." Kanato stated. 

"Oh....I didn't think about that. I guess that's true." I murmured. Of course that would be the case, how could I be so stupid.

"....that still doesn't mean that isn't Mello's real name," I looked to Ulric in surprise, who had crossed his arms across his chest, "There is still another way that it could be Mello's name. It could still be possible that he didn't kill himself, but someone had killed him instead." Ulric replied.

"But no one here knew his name." Crona replied. "Yes, we all said we didn't know his name. But one of us could easily be lying, could we not?" Kanato countered. Magane crossed her arms across her chest. "That's true, but say someone did kill him. That doesn't explain why he was in the secret hallway. The killer didn't have to shove him in that hallway and use the Death Note. The wounds on his body were fatal enough, so they could've left it at that." Magane said.

"Ugh, this isn't making any sense...." Kanato muttered. 

"There has to be something we're missing." Ulric said. I placed a hand on my chin. There must've been something we're missing. I need to think back....everyone saw Mello alive and well at breakfast except for Lilac and I. Only fifteen or minutes later after he left the cafeteria did Kanato, Magane, and Crona come to ask us where he was. That's when we discovered him on the fourth floor. So that means that sometime between those fifteen minutes he had gotten into that secret hallway.

I wonder....was anyone else out of the cafeteria....

My eyes widened.

"Wait a minute, when Mello left the cafeteria, didn't someone leave with him?" I asked. "Huh? What do you mean?" Crona asked. I looked to Near.

"Near, I was told you left to wake my sister and I. But you two never showed up. Where were you the entire time?" I asked. "Well, as you were told, we were supposed to wake you two up. But he suddenly took off on his own upstairs. I attempted to follow him, but had lost sight of him. The buffoon on the third floor had blocked the hallway, so it was difficult to follow him. By the time I finally arrived to the fourth floor....Monokuma had made his death announcement." Near replied.

"Did you happen to see anything? Like maybe someone else heading up that way?" I asked. "No, I didn't." Near said. "So much for that...." Magane said. 

"....as long as we are asking questions, there is something that has been bothering me for quite some time. How did Lilac know to search Mello's room in the first place?" Near asked. I blinked. I didn't really think about that much. "Uh, I'm not sure. She never told me." I replied. "Well, Lilac," Near said, now addressing my sister, "perhaps you could explain yourself." 

"Hold on, why is she being questioned? She brought us important evidence. She's trying to help." I replied.

"Violet, I don't think you understand what position your sister is in. She found critical evidence that no one had any idea about. You have to wonder how she managed to do such a thing....unless she killed Mello herself." Near replied. My eyes widened. I never realized that. She did know that didn't she. So then....how did she know that?

"Lilac." Lilac perked up when she was again addressed by Near.

"I ask again, how did you know to search Mello's room?" he asked. Lilac didn't speak. This deathly scared me. Lilac hasn't said a word in years. Not since....our incident back at home. If she doesn't attempt to defend herself in anyway, everyone will think she's guilty. "No! S-She couldn't have done something like this! Never!" I stated.

"You don't know that." Near replied.

"I do know that! I'm here sister! I know her better than anyone! She wouldn't harm anyone!" I stated.

"Do not be irrational, Violet. She needs to explain herself. So unless she is physically incapable of speaking, she had better say something. Or she will be suspected as the culprit!" Near stated sternly. I looked away, fists clenched. As much as I hated it, he was right. Violet doesn't look too good right now. But I know she didn't kill Mello....but how can I prove that?

"We saw her this morning," we all looked to Kanato, who had a shadow cast over his eyes, "we saw Lilac this morning, when we woke up Violet as well. They were with us the entire morning. So Lilac couldn't have been given the chance to write anything in the Death Note." he said. He looked up at her, fury in his violet eyes.

"So don't you dare point the finger at Lilac for murder." he said in a threatening tone. Near looked taken aback, and didn't say another comment.

"Nee-heehee, alright this is more like it! Things are getting spicy!" Kokichi cheered, jumping up and down from his court stand. "Still though, you gotta wonder, we still don't know how she found out about the evidence in Mello's room. Pretty suspicious if you ask me~" Kokichi continued, a wide smirk playing on his lips.

"Indeed. So, I would like to ask you again, Lilac-"

"It isn't his room." 

We all froze.....stunned by the words that had slipped out of Lilac's mouth. Those quiet, soft words, in such a simple sentence.

"L...L-Lilac?" I murmured. "What are you talking about? What did you see?" Near asked. "....it's not his room. That wasn't Mello's room." Lilac replied. "Huh? What are you talking about, Lilac? There was a sign on Mello's door with his name on it. It had to be his room." I replied. However, as those words escaped my lips, I stopped for a moment....and began to really think....

"Wait a minute...." I murmured. "Violet? What is it?" Ulric asked. I started thinking back to all the things I saw in 'Mello's' room. I was so focused on the Death Note and the mysterious name, I didn't take the time to notice the little things; the strangely neatened room, the different clothes Mello would never wear, even the sign on his door, which fell off easily....

"....that wasn't Mello's room. Lilac is right." I murmured.

"What? I don't understand." Magane said.

"There were so many things off with that room. It was strangely neat, more than Mello would be. Especially with how much chocolate he liked to eat, there should've been at least one wrapper somewhere. Instead I found completely different clothes than he wore. And the sign on his door, it fell off with ease. What if....someone swapped those signs, and made us think that the room we were in was Mello's." I said.

"Okay, but what good would that do for the culprit?" Crona asked. "It would make us think Mello had killed himself, assuming the culprit planted the Death Note and piece of paper in that room." Ulric said. "But then couldn't they have just  left the Death Note in Mello's real room?" Magane asked.

"Let us keep in mind that Mello died early this morning just minutes after he left the cafeteria. It's possible the culprit didn't have time to do so, but instead swapped the name signs on the doors instead." Kanato replied. 

"In that case....who's room was that?" Crona asked. "Violet, what clothes did you see?" Kanato asked.

"That's simple. They were large white shirt, as well as pairs of blue pants. Looking very similar to...." I slowly raised a hand, and pointed a single finger at Near.

"Looking exactly like the outfit Near is wearing now."