Everyone was silent, and I knew why. Besides Jikkō and I, the others hadn't seen Satchiko like this yet. Although all eyes were on her, the lucky student blankly stared straight ahead.

"S-Satchiko... you're really alive..." Katashi said, his blue eyes wide with mixed emotions.

Satchiko simply nodded, saying nothing.

"Well come on, I don't have all day." Michio pressured.

I sent him a glare before looking to the others. "Okay... where do we even start?"

"With Satchiko." Katashi quickly responded. "I... I need to know what happened to her."

Jikkō nodded. "Alright. Well, I can guess what went down. When she went missing, it was probably Michio locking her in the sewers. It was locked until after the trial, remember?"

"Yeah," I agreed. "But... we still can't be sure what happened down there."

Jikkō raised an eyebrow. "You really can't guess?"

I looked away, not meeting her eyes. I knew what she was getting at, but I didn't want to say it, and I assumed nobody else did either.

"If no one else is gonna point out the obvious, I guess I have to." Jikkō let out a small sigh. "Torture. Physical and psychological torture. I mean, just look at her... it must have been going on from the time she went missing until we found that body." She paused for a moment. "Isn't that right, Satchiko?"

"One, two, three~" Satchiko spoke slowly in a singsong tone, tilting her head to the side. I was pretty confused, and I knew I wasn't the only one.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mai asked.

Willow then spoke up. "Well, three days passed before we found the body. Maybe that's what she means."

"Three whole days." Michio let out a sigh. "It usually only takes a few hours... man, was that tiring."

"You have no right to complain about that!" Katashi retorted. "Satchiko had to go through three whole days of t-torture!"

"I don't understand..." I muttered. "You helped us search- I mean, I guess you did go off on your own a lot, but...."

Michio simply shrugged. "Hey, I needed a break. I hardly got any sleep with all the work I put in, she sure was a tough one to crack."

"Y-you monster..." Katashi said weakly. "I-I can't believe you...."

"Well... um..." Mai spoke up, "What about that corpse we found?"

"I was thinking about that for a while," Jikkō responded, "and the conclusion I've come to is that it must've been the previous assistant. It's impossible Satchiko was controlling it the whole time, and Kazuki and I saw no one else near the control room."

"That makes sense..." Mai said, a finger to her chin. "But we have no idea who it could be. All we know is she was a girl!"

"And she was blonde." Jikkō added, "I don't think it was strawberry blonde though, just blonde. I didn't pay much attention as most of it was soaked in blood."

Katashi suddenly spoke up. "I-it couldn't have been... Natsumi's body, right?"

Jikkō shook her head. "No, Natsumi was much taller than Satchiko, and there were no other wounds on the body. I would've noticed immediately."

"Are there any leads?!" Mai exclaimed.

I thought for a moment before cautiously speaking up. "I have an idea, but... I don't have much evidence."

"Well, let's hear it." Jikkō encouraged me.

"A while ago, Michio told me he had a twin sister." I looked right at the mastermind as I spoke, and I noticed he had a slight change in expression at those words. "He's blond, so it's likely she was too. I also don't think it's a stretch for twins to be working together."

Katashi's blue eyes widened. "B-but that would mean... he killed his own sister."

"I wouldn't put it past him." I simply responded.

Michio shook his head. "Oh Kazuki, why must you think so lowly of me?"

"How can't I?" I retorted, "Well, is it true or not?"

"I hate just telling you. That ruins the fun." Michio sighed, "But I guess it won't help you much, so fine, I did kill Mika. She was annoying and I had a replacement ready anyways. Satchiko is much easier to deal with- like this, at least." He added with a small chuckle.

He just keeps getting worse.