...

Ding dong, dong ding!

"...A-BODY-HAS-BEEN-DISCOVERED. EVERYONE, PLEASE-ASSEMBLE-AT-THE-ULTIMATE-ART-LAB."

...

"Wait...wh-what?" You blinked at the monitor which had already turned off. "No, it can't be... This has to be some prank... Please just be some prank..." You got up from your spot to shakily make your way to the Ultimate art lab. The door of the lab was already open a crack. Upon stepping inside, you noticed everyone standing around the room in a circle—in the center, was...Angie.

"We don't have time to talk about Atua!" you heard Kaito bark. "Instead of talking about Atua—"

"Yeah! We gotta talk about which one of us is the culprit, and win this game!" Kokichi cut him off.

"W-Wait, this...is part of the killing game?" Miu stammered.

"What else could it be?" Maki asked while biting down on her nail. "The fact that Angie's dead can only mean one thing... One of us killed her."

"B-But...why would someone do such awful thing!?" Gonta cried.

"Is that really what happened...?" Tsumugi wrapped her arms around herself, eyes widened in fear. "It's possible the culprit who killed Angie wasn't one of us, but—"

"Rise and shine, ursine!"

Monophanie took one glance at Angie's corpse and vomited. It was a weird...green color... "Ughhhh... Why did another murder happen?" she asked once she collected herself. "What's the deal, Monodam!? I thought you were gonna make everyone get along!"

"DON'T-WORRY... OVERCOMING-THIS-WILL-BRING-EVERYONE-CLOSER-TOGETHER," the green bear replied. THAT-HAS-BEEN-THE-CASE-SO-FAR, YES? THEIR-BOND-GETS-STRONGER-WITH-EACH-CLASS-TRIAL, DOES-IT-NOT? MURDERS-ARE-NECESSARY-TO-BRING-EVERYONE-CLOSER-TOGETHER."

"Ugh... But how...?"

"SO... LET'S-GET-STARTED." Monodam turned more towards the crowd of students rather than the other Monokubs. "CONDUCT-A-FRIENDLY-INVESTIGATION. THEN, WE-WILL-HAVE-A-FRIENDLY-CLASS-TRIAL. WE-MUST-DISTRIBUTE-THIS-FIRST." He pulled out a Monokuma File seemingly out of nowhere.

You narrowed your eyes at the Monokubs before walking over and snatching the file from them. "Thanks," you said half-heartedly.

"But we were supposed to pass it out..." Monotaro spoke up.

"I'm just doing what everyone else probably wanted to do but were too afraid," you snapped back. You were just feeling really impatient for some reason.

"IF-IT'S-WHAT-EVERYONE-WANTED...THEN-I'M-OKAY-WITH-IT. WE-SHALL-LEAVE-YOU-ALL-TO-DO-YOUR-FRIENDLY-INVESTIGATION."

"So long, bear well!"

"..."

"...Sorry," you told the others, "I just couldn't stand them anymore..."

Now everyone is going to think you're like a douche.

"Well, you already have the Monokuma File in your hands, so go ahead and tell us what's inside...!" Kokichi encouraged you, seemingly eager himself.

You awkwardly cleared your throat, avoiding anyone's gaze as you began to read what the file had to say. "The victim is Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Artist. The body was found in the Ultimate Artist's lab. The time of death is approximately two in the morning. The cause of death is a stab wound to the back of the neck. The forehead also has a laceration."

>>Monokuma File 3

"The Monokuma File included the time of death this time," Maki pointed out.

"2 a.m.. Everyone must have been asleep...we probably can't rely on witness testimonies," Shuichi added.

"So...the murder happened at nighttime after all," Tsumugi commented. "If everyone had followed the student council's rules like Angie and Atua said..."

"Kehehe..." Korekiyo chuckled darkly. "What good will that saying do? The culprit may be one of the student council, yes?"

"A member of the student council?" Kiibo repeated. "Th-That's—"

"Possible," you cut him off.

"We should go and figure that out! Let's start investigating and solve this mystery together!" Kokichi was beaming, bouncing slightly on his toes.

"...I can't..." Himiko mumbled. "I can't...do it... I can't investigate Angie's body..."

"But...if we don't make it through the class trial, then everyone will die..." Tenko told the girl.

"I...don't care..."

"What!?"

"Surviving...and everything else... It's too much of a pain."

"Then why don't we just use your magic to revive Angie!?" Miu blurted out, already fed up with the conversation.

"This is no time for your mean-spirited taunts!" Kiibo scolded. "Reviving her is clearly impossible!"

"We cannot say that with certainty, no?" Korekiyo spoke up, pulling down mysteriously on his hat. He was obviously hinting at something, which peaked your interest a bit.

"Excuse me!?"

"Well...of course, resurrecting her is impossible, but I know a way we can speak to Angie. We can summon her spirit with a seance called The Caged Child."

"Seance...?" Maki repeated slowly. "What are you talking about? Cut it out."

"Y-Yeah! This is no time for jokes!" Tenko joined in.

"Oh, I'm serious..." the anthropologist countered, resting his entire hand on one of his cheeks. "This is for our investigation. If we speak with Angie, we can ask her who the culprit is and bring this case to a swift close."

Kokichi had a finger up to his lips. "First, a resurrection trial and now a seance? Are you messing with us?"

"Kehehe... I would appreciate it if you didn't compare it to Monokuma's foolishness... Seances are genuine occurrences. They are written of in literature the world over. In fact, I myself have participated in seances a great many times..."

Someone's a little kuku, you thought, staying quiet as Korekiyo continued.

"On top of that, we have a rare chance to perform the legendary seance, The Caged Child. It would be foolish not to take advantage of this, yes?"

Tsumugi sweated from nervousness. "N-No matter how close you put it, now not the time for something—"

"Oh? I suspect the only way to confirm your earlier theory is by performing the seance, yes?"

"My...earlier theory?"

"The possibility of the culprit being the resurrected transfer student... It is not wise to go into the class trial with such outlandish theories in one's head. So to prove such a thing possible, I think it is best we consult Angie herself."

"Th-That logic is peculiar, to say the least!" Kiibo exclaimed.

"Kiyo, you seem unnaturally enthusiastic about this," you spoke up. A bad feeling was welling up inside you.

"It's only for the benefit of our investigation," the male snapped. "And...as an anthropologist, I am greatly intrigued about things such as this. It's a love that you would never understand."

"Holding a seance to find out about the ritual..." Kokichi suddenly started talking. "So we're gonna fight the occult with the occult. Well, we can't worry about this forever, so we might as well go with the easiest solution. Okay, I'll help out! I was getting bored of investigating, anyway!"

You rolled your eyes at him. "Real helpful."

"I'll help too..." Himiko mumbled.

"Huh!? You too!?" Tenko shouted.

"If I can talk to Angie one more time...I'll do anything. A seance or whatever it takes...I'll do it."

"I'll help out as well! I can't leave Himiko alone!"

"Do whatever you want..."

"Okay...I will."

"So now we have four participants," Korekiyo announced. "Kokichi, Himiko, Tenko, and myself... However, The Caged Child requires more than just the four of us..."

Kokichi hummed. He closed his eyes and spun around in a circle until he finally stoped and pointed his finger out in front of him. "Whaaat? Kiiboy?" He let out a disappointed sigh. "Fiiiine, I guess he can come too."

"I guess we can't be picky..." Himiko spoke.

"Why am I being forced to participate and being treated like a burden!?" the robot asked in frustration.

"Well then," Korekiyo started, completely glossing over the question, "we need a place to perform the seance... Where shall we do it?"

Kokichi tilted his head. "Huh? Only us?"

"The Caged Child requires five people. No more, no less."

"Why didn't you tell me that before...!?" the boy whined. "Ugh! If I had known that then I would've picked with my eyes open."

"What does this have to do with (Y/N)?" Himiko groaned. "You keep looking at them..."

"...Huh?" Oops, I...completely zoned out. Uh...should I say something...? What do they want from me—!?

"None of your business, Himiko!" Kokichi snapped.

Kiibo looked at you. "If you want, you can take my place in the seance."

"We already decided that you're going with us. We have no time for talking!" Himiko sighed, calming down. "...I just can't wait any longer to speak with Angie..."

"Fine..." Kiibo mumbled, while Kokichi pouted.

"...So as I was saying, where shall we perform the seance?" Korekiyo spoke up. "And before any asks, no, we cannot do it in my lab. In order for The Caged Child to succeed, the room must be as dark as possible. My lab has windows, so turning the lights off won't make it quite dark enough."

"Then...how about the empty rooms?" the red-head offered. "There aren't any windows there, so if we blow out the candles, it should be pitch dark."

"However...there are three rooms. Which one shall we use?" Korekiyo asked.

"Um...the middle room. The middle room's always best for stuff like this."

"Very well. I shall begin the preparations at once. I shall have you four help as well. Let us carry all the necessary equipment from my lab."

"A-Are you really going to do this?" Shuichi stuttered.

"This is for our investigation. I said as much, did I not? Kehehe... We need to use all our effort to discover the culprit, lest our lives be lost." He started to walk out of the room, motioning for the others to follow him.

"I seriously feel that something bad is about to happen..." you mumbled. You started to bite on your nail nervously. "What if another body is found, or something like that?"

"Well, let's hope that that doesn't happen!" Kokichi chirped. You flinched, not knowing he was still there—let alone right at your side, hugging on your arm. "Wish me luck~" he whispered in your ear.

"Don't do anything stupid. Just stay safe with this, alright?" you told him. "I highly doubt that the seance will work...but we can still never know what will happen. If another body is found, it better not be yours. If it is yours then I'll kill myself."

Kokichi put a hand up to his heart. "A-Aww... Would it be because you wanted to stay with me forever and ever?"

"Sure...and to slap you for letting yourself get killed."

"Welp, I can assure you that I won't die today! Now, I gotta go. You know, before any yells at me. See you later!" Kokichi let go of your arm and skipped over to the door to leave.

You sighed. Time for the investigation... I might as well get the hardest part out of the way: investigating the body. You stepped over to the dead Angie, kneeling down so you could see better. The final blow was a blow to the neck, but there's another wound on her forehead for some reason... Two different injuries, but this one on her forehead doesn't seem to be bleeding much.

>>Forehead Injury

Agh, inspecting her corpse feels wrong. You took a step away. Having teenagers investigate their own classmates' deaths... It all seems too elaborate. Like some weird mystery show.

Shaking the thought out of your mind, you looked up at the effigies hanging up around the body. They were all upside down, rope keeping them suspended in the air. Kirumi, Ryoma, Rantaro... Why is there a golden katana stuck in Kaede's sculpture? Hmm...but nevertheless, it's still pretty disturbing to see them all like this.

>>Upside Down Hanging Effigies

Now, I do want to check the katana a bit more... You stood up and pulled out the katana from the effigy. You immediately felt something weird in your palm, and upon inspection, you found that some gold leaf was flaking off onto your hand.

Ew...but, actually, this might have been in Kiyo's Ultimate lab. I remember Angie saying something about a katana in his lab which I could use to prick my finger with.

"Ah, (Y-Y/N)!" you heard Shuichi call over to you. "What are you doing...!? We should preserve the crime scene!"

"They're just doing a more thorough investigation," Maki spoke. "Just look. Pulling the katana out revealed that." She pointed at the tip of the katana, which was stained blood pink. "We can probably assume that this is the murder weapon. The edge is too rusty to cut well...but it would be enough to stab."

"But why would they go through the effort of using this as the murder weapon?" Shuichi questioned.

"Good question. They could've gone to my lab and grabbed a more suitable weapon..."

"Well, Kiyo's lab isn't too far from here. Maybe they just grabbed something close by because they were in a rush?" you suggested.

"Or maybe they needed a long weapon like this," Maki interjected. "My lab doesn't contain swords, or any other weapons of this length. I'm not sure how Monokuma found out, but he must know that I don't use swords for work. When I first started working, I botched a mission using a katana... I haven't used a sword since. Which is fine, because they're a hassle to carry anyway."

The female looked at your hand. "So I see the gold leaf flakes off easily since it's all over your hand."

"Yeah, and it feels weird... I don't like it."

"It must be pretty old for the gold leaf to flake off so easily," Shuichi remarked.

"Great, I'll have to wash my hands later... I'm putting it back, now, if that's okay with you two." Maki nodded while Shuichi averted his gaze. You turned back to the effigy to carefully place the katana back where it was. "Hm... I wonder why this would be stabbed into the effigy..."

"Maybe it was part of the ritual?" Maki wondered. "Or was the culprit trying to hide the murder weapon?"

"Perhaps they had no intention of hiding it. They didn't even wipe off the blood," Shuichi explained. "Besides, I'm certain there are better ways to hide the murder weapon than this..."

"Then what's the reason for this?"

"I...honestly don't know."

Maki glared at the detective for a moment before calming down. "...We should investigate where this weapon came from. We might find a clue there," she told him.

"The Ultimate Anthropologist lab?" Shuichi smiled. "Yes, let's do that. I wanted to make sure the katana indeed came from that room." He left the room with Maki, leaving you alone.

With a sigh, you began to step back when you stumbled on something. Sh*t... Great going, me... Huh? You found that you had stumbled on a book, more specifically, the Necronomicon. The instructions for the resurrection ritual were supposed to be written in here. Angie took it...because she wanted to resurrect Rantaro.

You bent over to pick up the Necronomicon and opened it to the first page. "Prepare an effigy of the dead soul you wish to contact," you began to whisper to yourself. "Everyone may participate. The size and shape of the effigy is irrelevant. Make it out of whatever materials you wish. If it's not obvious who the effigy is supposed to be, label it with the name of the deceased.

"After preparing the effigy, burn this Necronomicon to ashes. Use caution! Be mindful of carbon monoxide poisoning! Sprinkle the ashes on the effigy and repeat the name of the deceased three times. Then close your eyes and wait. After a while...you should feel a light tap on your back. If so, that means the ritual was a success! The ashes are only good for one use. The ritual can only be performed once, so use it wisely."

"Hmm..." Considering that this book is still here and hasn't been burned to ashes, I'm positive that it's safe to say that the ritual didn't work...

>>Necronomicon

Oops, I hope nothing on my hands came off on the book... You placed the Necronomicon back down on the ground where you had found it.

Not wanting to miss out on anything in the room, you started to walk behind the hanging Kaede...sculpture. You noticed something out of the corner of your eye. You turned around, focusing the sliding lock of the back door to the lab. It was still locked. There's some gold leaf here...like on the katana. But why? You gently tapped the lock, it immediately moving. So loose... It moves around at the slightest touch.

>>Art Lab's Back Door

Perhaps I should also check the front door... You walked over to the front door. Um... Huh. Nothing interesting except this door has a different type of lock. You turned around to scan the room once more. You noticed Tsumugi looking back over at you every once in a while.

You awkwardly cleared your throat. "Uhm...need something?"

"...Oh! Sorry for looking," the cosplayer apologized sheepishly. "I just...had something in mind that I wanted to share to someone. Shuichi and Maki seem to be busy investigating, and Miu is just...Miu..."

So where does that leave me...?? You shook the thought out of your head. "What is it that you were wanting to share?"

"W-Well, um... I know that it might be wrong to think this, but... I'm wondering if Tenko could be the culprit..."

"Huh? Why her?"

"It's not like I have proof or anything but earlier, I heard Himiko say that she was trying to...betray the student council. Not to mention that, as a student council member, she would've been allowed into this lab."

"Did Angie not let anyone but the student council come in...?"

"Correct... Angie had been shut away here working on the ritual by herself since yesterday... She said she would unlock the door if she heard a student council member's voice."

"So she would only let you, Kiibo, Gonta, Himiko...and of course, Tenko, in here... Am I understanding this correct?"

"Yeah... B-But, don't see it as me wanting to suspect Tenko..."

"...Mhmm... Got it."

>>Tsumugi's Account

"I'm going to go some place else to investigate, if that's all you had to say?"

"Ah, yeah...okay..."

You turned away from Tsumugi and left the art lab. You quietly made your way down the hall and to Korekiyo's lab. I hope he doesn't mind me being in here. Letting out a short breath, you opened the doors and entered. Wow... What a place. Artifacts seemed to be just about everywhere. In the middle of the room were some display tables, which you walked over to so you could inspect.

"There's a golden sheath here," you mumbled. "There's nothing in it... Yes, I'm positive that this is where the katana came from."

>>Gold Leaf Katana

"Hmm... Is there really anything more that I need to look at? I certainly checked everything...right? Right??" You sighed. "Then...what am I supposed to do, now? Kokichi and the others are busy doing their seance... Ugh, I doubt that will even work."

"Oh, so you went here," a voice suddenly spoke.

You quickly spun your head around, spotting Tsumugi. "Oh. So you had the idea to come here, too..."

"Yeah..."

"The gold katana in the effigy came from this lab," you bluntly told her. "You can see that by looking at the sheath over there in the case."

"Ah, I see." She walked over, looked at it for a second, and returned to you. "You're right! Thanks for telling me."

"It's no problem."

Tsumugi sighed. "I hope that Korekiyo's seance will be done soon. If it works, then...our trial would be much easier."

You crossed your arms, looking to the side. "Might at well have as much fun in this hellhole while we can..." you spoke, voice barely above a whisper.

"H-Huh...?"

You sharply turned your head back so you could see the teen properly. Your face was dark. "I'd rather die with everyone else rather than be the last one standing...and that's the truth." You could feel how empty your gaze was while your eyes shined a bright blue.

"Y-Your eyes—!?" she started to shriek.

"What are you talking about?" you snapped. "You're probably just seeing things... I get that a lot." Frustrated, you ran a hand through your hair. "So...I guess we're just stuck here, waiting until everyone gets together again." Changing the topic...great job, me.

"...Yeah, I guess we'll have to wait..." Tsumugi awkwardly held onto her arm, looking off into the distance. "...I was just wondering, um, about your Ultimate talent."

You raised a brow at her. "Why? The name sounds so stupid... I mean, really. When I used to help my mom, I would just collect information about people, consider their actions depending on the information I got, and interrogate them for the truth—my 'unusual intuition' helped too, I guess... I have, like...some sort of knockoff talent."

"Well, at least you're more interesting than me." The female sighed. "I'm just some plain cosplayer..."

"Dressing up sounds fun," you told her, trying to cheer her up.

"We should talk more...! And then maybe, I can put you into a cosplay!"

You glared daggers at her. "Yeah, good luck trying to—"

...

...

Ding dong, dong ding!

"Wh-Who would've thought...there'd be another victim during the investigation...?"

"E-EVERYONE...PLEASE-ASSEMBLE-IN-THE-SEANCE-ROOM..."

...

It took you a moment to process it. Then, it clicked. "W...Wait..." You felt all of the color drain from your face. "Another...body...!? Another body!?" What if it's...him?

You sprinted out of the Ultimate Anthropologist's lab. Middle room, right? You busted into the middle room, finding Korekiyo, Shuichi, Himiko...and an alive Kokichi, as well as a dead Tenko. You couldn't help but to feel relieved that Kokichi was alive, but...Tenko? Of all people...?

It wasn't long before everyone else ran into the room.

"T-Tenko! Seriously?" Kaito asked.

"Wh-What is this? How did this happen?" Tsumugi questioned, a terrified look on her face.

"T-Tenko...! Gonta sorry... Gonta no could protect you!"

"Kiyo...!" you snarled quietly. "This was your stupid seance... Have any ideas about what happened...!?" Ugh, he probably didn't hear me...

"Rise and shine, ursine!" The three Monokubs appeared.

"I'm so surprised!" Monotaro spoke. "I never thought a murder would happen during an investigation! U-Um, I guess for now...you should maybe start the investigation right away!?"

"Before that, I would like to confirm something..." Korekiyo spoke. "The culprit who killed Angie may be a different culprit from the one who killed Tenko, yes? What happens in the event there are two murders by two people?" he asked casually. "What if there are two blackened? Will we need to find them both at the class trial?"

"Kiyo, you're asking this way too calmly..." you trailed off. He's just...acting weird again.

"But he does have a good point," Kiibo remarked. "What would happen in that scenario...?"

"Huh?" Monotaro was sweating a bit. "Wh-What would happen? Monodam...what would happen?"

"WH-WHAT-WOULD-HAPPEN...?"

"Why do you look lost, too, Monodam!?" Monophanie exclaimed. "I thought you were gonna run things instead of Daddy!"

"I...I-NEVER-EXPECTED-SOMETHING-LIKE-THIS-TO-HAPPEN..." The robot threw its small arms up into the air in frustration. "I-DON'T-KNOW-WHAT-TO-DO! REALLY! I-DON'T-KNOW!"

"Aw maaan, they're all disorganized," Kokichi whined. "If you can't decide the class trial's objective, then we won't know what to investigate."

"Imagine if we could get out of doing a boring investigation," you mumbled, but loud enough for him to hear.

"F-Father always knows what to do! We should ask him for help!"

The pink bear huffed at the red one. "Have you already forgotten!? Daddy's in no condition to help us!" Monokuma suddenly popped up out of nowhere, displaying his bald patches in all their...glory. "Ughh... It's all our fault that Daddy ended up like that..."

"Huh? It's all your fault, Monophanie?"

"Daddyyyy! Heeelp! We don't know what to do on our own!"

"We gotta use the power of love!" Monotaro chirped. "That oughta snap him back to normal!"

"TH-THAT...WON'T-WORK. FATHER-IS-JUST-AN-EMPTY-SHELL-NOW."

"That's not true!" Monophanie argued. "Anything is possible with the power of love!"

"Power of love, eh...?" Kokichi repeated quietly. He turned to you with a small smirk on his face, casually taking a few steps closer to you.

"Kokichi...are you implying something?" you muttered to him under your breath. The boy didn't respond, and instead pressed a finger up to his lips mischievously.

"You don't understand that 'cause you've never been in love before, Monodam!" Monotaro spoke.

"..."

"Daddyyyyy! I love you, so please go back to normal!"

"I wanna see you, Fatherrr! I love you with all my heart!"

"Aw, you're makin' me blush," another voice suddenly cooed. Out of nowhere, another Monokuma jumped into the scene—except, this Monokuma wasn't, well...balding. "I'm baaaack! Were you good while I was away? Thanks so much, my adorable, darling cubs! With you running the academy, I was able to fully enjoy my relaxing vacation!" He had started to pick up all of the cubs and lick them...including the other, balding Monokuma.

"Heeheehee!" Monotaro giggled. "Oh, that tickles! Father's intense love is getting me all soaked!"

"Daddy, your tongue feels amazing!" Monophanie spoke. "This better not awaken anything in me!"

Monophanie, just shut up, you groaned inside your head. Or at least stop calling Monokuma 'Daddy,' because you can say some pretty weird things...

Monodam just screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..."

Monokuma let go of all his cubs, leaving you to question what just happened. Are we all going to forget that there's a corpse in here!?

"Man, that vacation was just what I needed. It's important to take time off to relax. Normally, most companies won't even let you take time off to go on vacation... But I was able to do it! The secret is to just leave whether you got permission or not!"

"Wait, so then...who's this baldie then?"

"Oh, just a part-timer I got to cover me while I was gone. Here's your pay, like we agreed on! Now take it and get outta here!"

"Huh?" Tsumugi tilted her head to the side. "I thought you were supposed to be relaxed."

"..." The other Monokuma bounced off, leaving the real Monokuma.

"Now that that nuisance is outta the way... What were you guys talkin' about again? Ah, that's right. What happens to your votes if there are two blackened candidates? Well, I have an answer to that! It's first come, first served!"

"First come, first served...?" you asked quietly.

"The blackened who killed the first victim to be discovered will be your target," the robot bear responded. "In other words, if the blackened who killed Angie isn't the same one who killed Tenko... Then only Angie's killer will be considered the blacked. Basically, Tenko's killer wasted a kill, and Tenko herself is a waste of a victim. Oh, I'll add this to the school regulations, so you can review it later. I also updated the Monokuma File. Do your best to investigate this murder, too."

>>Monokuma File 3

Yeah... We wouldn't want Tenko's death to be entirely meaningless.

"Boy, everything is going so smoothly now that Father's running things again!" Monotaro cheered. "Leaders gotta be able to take decisive action! Indecision is just the worst!"

"Daddyyyy, you're glowing! You're glowing like a lamp!"

Monokuma let out a satisfied sigh. "There's nothing better than being praised by my cute cubs. For as long as you live, I will never let any of you go." Then, he promptly left.

"He just left us behind while he was saying he'd never let us go!"

"That's why he's so amazing! Please lick me some more, Daddy!"

"So long, bear-well!" You were glad that the Monokubs had left.

"So, if both murders have different culprits, then our vote will determine Angie's killer," Kiibo declared.

Maki bit on her nail. "But we don't even know if there is a different culprit, do we?"

"True...we should investigate Tenko's death as well, just in case," Korekiyo spoke.

"Ah-haha!" Kokichi laughed. Stars were in his beautiful amethyst eyes. "Finally, things are heating up! I'm getting so excited!"

"Gahhhh! You f*ckin' psycho!" Miu spat. You just blankly stared at her until she finally noticed. "Wh-What...?"

'You f*ckin' b*tch,' is what you were really tempted to say. However, you decided against saying that. "Let's look at the updated Monokuma File, and then we can go to investigate other things."

"Yeah, that sounds nice." Shuichi smiled at you before pulling out the file. "The victim is Tenko Chabashira, the Ultimate Aikido Master. The body was found in the middle of the empty room on the fourth floor. The time of death is approximately 11 a.m.. The only visible injury is a stab wound to the back of the neck."

Alright. Now that that's settled...I suppose I should go ahead and investigate Tenko's body. Just to get it over with.
***

"That sounds like a good plan." You nodded at Maki and Shuichi. The three of you had all agreed on going back to Angie's crime scene to go another quick sweep, just in case there was something important that had left unnoticed. You were the first one to step out into the hallway, when...

Another dead body...!? Your heart felt like it dropped. There was someone lying down on the floor with some blood around their head; even worse, it was Kokichi.

You felt your legs start to run over until... "It's a lie!" Kokichi's head pulled up, revealing he was still alive. He stood back up on his feet. You instantly noticed the pink blood dripping down his face. "Nishishi... Did I surprise you all? Were you gonna scream and cry in terror?" he teased.

"Wh-What are you doing?" Shuichi stuttered.

Kokichi opened up his eyes. Pain. Weakness. Vulnerability... He closed them, and smiled once more. "Oh, sorry... I'm just a little light-headed from the blood loss. Yeah, this is real blood..."

"Kokichi, you little sh*t!" you spoke tightly. "I'd slap you for being so stupid and letting yourself get into...whatever happened, but you're already injured, so..." You let out a defeated sigh.

"You...still haven't answered my question."

"Oh. I got curious about something, so I decided to search the empty room next door. Th-Then, suddenly..." The boy opened his eyes again—just a small bit. "I-I...stepped through the floorboard."

"You stepped through a floorboard?" Shuichi repeated.

"Geez, that got me pretty good... 'Cause of this, I-I tripped and fell pretty hard."

"Obviously," you scoffed.

"If you're going to lose consciousness, do it after you tell us everything," Maki told him.

"O-Oh...sorry, my bad... I guess...there was no crosspiece supporting this floorboard, so I kinda...stepped through... Ah-haha, what bad luck..."

Ding dong! Bing dong!

It was the announcement that investigation time was over, and that everyone should head to the trial grounds.

"I guess...time's up."

"Aw maaan," Kokichi spoke with another smile on his face, "it's 'cause of you guys, I didn't have enough time to check something..." He pulled out a thick, old-looking book. "I wanted to re-research the seance again, so I brought this document with me... But, unfortunately...I couldn't find anything new that could be used as a clue. Kiyo perfectly reenacted the seance as what is written in the document. He drew his magic circle the same exact way as in this picture. Not only that, he used the same exact tools, too. Nothing suspicious about this whole thing.

"Well, I wanted to check the finer details, but...I-I'll tell you about it later...a-at the...class trial...so...see ya there..."

>>Bloody Kokichi

Seeing the poor boy start to clumsily wobble off, his blood loss clearing affecting his footing, you had a sudden urge. "H..Hey! Kokichi, wait up!" He was still a bit fast, so you caught him farther away from Shuichi and Maki. "At least...let me clean you up, okay?"

"Nah...I-I'm fine... Besides, we need to...go to the...c-class trial..."

"Does it look like I give a f*ck about the class trial right now? Come on." You lightly held his delicate wrist in your hand. "If we get in trouble for being late and get killed for it or something like that, then I can at least know that I died with you," you spoke, not really thinking about what you were allowing to come out of your mouth.

Kokichi widened his eyes at you before looking away, seemingly a bit bashful—or maybe he was just delusional from the lack of blood. He stayed silent, but hugged lightly onto your arm as you lead him downstairs.

Word Count: 5539
~~~

Sorry this was so long, so that there was literally nothing for Tenko's investigation... ._.

But, hey! By the time that this gets uploaded, that means that my break is over. I wanna thank you all so so, SO much for all of the support! Even though I didn't respond to any comments or PMs, I read everything and thought, "Wow, I'd never get such kind treatment at school or any place like that...!" I will say that this break has been...actually quite relaxing! I felt bad for not writing anything at all during my first week, and I never got around to publishing any one shots, despite working on a few... (but I eventually worked ahead some in this story).

This is already long enough. Again, thank you all so much for your support! And thank you all so much for 65k views and 2k votes! (The numbers will probably go down when the other chapter is unpublished, but I still wanted to give my thanks!)

((EDIT: 71k*, but the number still might go down. You'd think that with 3 weeks, I'd have the next chapter done, but um...well, it's a trial chapter, so at least I have around 3000 words done. I hope that I can post everything on time from here on out, but if I end up being a week late, please forgive me and try to understand... ^^; But anyway, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR 1K! UM, UH, Um... A-Ask me questions or something, give me story ideas—whatever you want for me to repay you all!!))