I felt a wave of dread wash over me as I walked towards the back of the hotel. Monokuma said that there would be a large red door for us to go through there, so I silently walked towards my possible doom.

My heart was racing, my breathing rushed. I didn't even have time to accept the fact that Ichiro was really gone before we had to figure out who did it.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked to the side to see Michio standing next to me with a reassuring smile on his face.

"We'll be fine, Kazuki. With all of us working together, I'm sure we'll have gathered enough evidence." He said, and I gave a small nod, swallowing nervously.

"Y-yeah... I hope so..." I replied, and together we walked down what appeared to be a new hallway in the hotel.

At the end were large, red double doors, towering threateningly over us. With a deep breath, I pushed them open, and walked into the next room.

It was a small space, seeming even smaller with everyone crowded inside. At the back sat an elevator, and that's where I assumed we'd have to go. Before I had a chance to take everything in, Momo had run up to me, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug.

I was surprised, but quickly hugged back, realizing that she was shaking. She looked up at me with eyes full of tears, and she truly appeared traumatized.

"D-don't leave me, okay? I-I don't want to die..." Momo whimpered, and I rubbed her back in soothing motions in an attempt to calm her down.

"I won't leave you, and we won't die. We'll find out who did this." I told her, but really, I was also trying to reassure myself.

"Let's get this over with." Jikkō spoke up, walking into the elevator. Slowly, everyone followed her lead.

Momo slipped her small hand into mine, and together, we entered the elevator. As soon as we were all inside, it began descending into the unknown. As the Elevator smoothly made its way down, everyone gave each other doubtful looks. Whoever the killer was was in here with us, and it was our job to expose them.

Finally reaching the bottom, we exited the elevator, walking in what could look like a strange courtroom. Stands were arranged in a large circle- sixteen of them- and between two nearest to the back was a large, royal looking chair. I noticed that above one of the stands was a monochrome picture of Ichiro, crossed out with what looked like blood. Monokuma quickly assigned us stands before sitting in the chair. Once everyone was in place, he spoke.

"Let's start with an explanation of the class trial!" He stated, and didn't wait to continue, "one of you is the blackened, and if the blackened is discovered, they will be executed. If the blackened succeeds, they get to graduate and everyone else is executed."

"Yeah yeah, we heard it before, can we start?" Natsumi cut in.

Monokuma ignored her. "This time, Ichiro Nakahara was murdered. Now, the class trial will start!"

"We know it happened in the skatepark shed... but was there anything there that could be the murder weapon?" Haru started.

Willow spoke up, "I found a bloody axe in the trash can, that should be it."

"But what if the killer put it there to trick us...?" Katashi asked hesitantly, twirling a strand of his magenta hair.

"There's no way." Willow responded, "it was buried deep, I had to dig to find it."

"You dug through the trash?!" Natsumi asked, sounding disgusted.

"Jikkō said to be thorough, so I was thorough." Willow simply replied.

"The shape of the axe also matched the wounds, so there's no question. It's the murder weapon." Jikkō stated.

"Yeah, we know that much... but are there any clues that lead to the culprit?" I asked.

"I think... we have found one..." Kaiya said hesitantly, before pulling a sheet out of her pocket. "We found this note in his room... it says to meet at 5:30 am in the skatepark shed."

"The Monokuma file says he died at around 6:00 am, so it matches up perfectly." Jirou added.

"But who's it from? Do you know?" Michio asked.

Kaiya hesitated before speaking up. "It says it's from... Mai Akiyama."

All eyes fell on Mai, and she let out a gasp.

"W-w-what?!" She stuttered out. "I never wrote that! I swear!"