Luna's POV

     I did not want to speak, however, this time it was for a great reason. I sat on a stool—which was propped directly in front of a podium. Everyone else seemed to be gathered in front of theirs—except for Sam, who sat on a large throne far away from us; on the other side of the room.

     "Unbelievable." Prince scoffed. "What is this for?" The Charizard picked at the wooden podium with his claws.

     "There's something I didn't tell you all." Sam grinned widely. "And for good reason!"

     "What is it now?" Inu groaned, crossing her arms in stress. She seemed seconds away from burning her podium into charcoal.

     "You all have to solve the murder! If you don't, you'll all die!" Sam giggled, clutching her throne's arm as she held a disgusting grimace.

     "W-What? You said if we killed someone, we could leave!" Sherwood gripped his podium, leaning forward to offer the evil Braixen a hiss.

     "Hey, if you're the murderer—and you did an amazing job hiding evidence—then you should have nothing to worry about! You'll leave scot-free if no one can figure out it was you!" Sam laughed lightly, her eyes closing as her paw waved in the air. "You may start now. Do not leave your podium, or you will die. You are being timed."

     Instead of the usual awkward silence that was held after every statement Sam uttered, something quite unusual occurred.

     "Alright then, let's get to work," Bigby called, his eyes gleaming with determination. "We need to have a reference as to when the murder could have happened." The midnight Lycanroc seemed to immediately take the lead in solving the murder.

     "Eh, I'm not sure. Should've been after we left the pool." Xeonix folded his arms, gazing directly at the podiums, which were organized in a neat circle.

     "Why are you all listening to her?" Nightshade snapped, crossing her arms with an attitude. "This is just what she wants, all of us to argue."

     "We're not arguing, we're trying to save ourselves!" Loki called and switched her gaze to the Salazzle.

     "So? You scared of a little Braixen, pussy?" Nightshade's tail flicked with anger. "You know what? I'm leaving! That's i—" The Salazzle was cut off by a Lucario gripping her by the wrist.

     "You're not leaving. You'll die. May I remind you, that Braixen isn't alone." Hydra's angry glare seemed to cause shudders from the Royal Salazzle, and it wasn't long before he released his grip on her wrist. It was quite fortunate how Hydra was there to save Nightshade's life...but if she keeps acting up like this, I don't how fortunate that really will be...

     "So who did it?" I muttered into the air, attempting to move on from the little mental breakdown I had earlier.

     "That's what we're tryna figure out, ya cunt!" Vince smirked widely, the Greninja's gaze locked onto mine. It was unbelievable how instantly Vince went for my throat—it was like he was born to make fun of me. It's like everyone here likes to make fun of me.

     "I couldn't care less about what follows," Prince uttered and rolled his eyes with un-amusement, "as long as I live..."

     "Oh my god, shut the fuck up!" Inu's temper was the next to shatter as she listened on to the tall Charizard's comments. "We're trying to do something here!"

     "Okay." Hydra heaved a long sigh. "Let's get back on task."

     "Definitely, after we all left Leon near the pool was when the murder happened..." Sammy placed a paw against her chin.

     "Wouldn't it be reasonable to say he was killed and then thrown into the pool?" Zantai offered his opinion.

     "That's wrong!" Sherwood objected, his talon raised in the air.

     "Oh, oh!" Sam shuffled around in her throne, clicking a certain button. Suddenly, the podiums Sherwood and Zantai stood in front of suddenly shifted, revealing the machinery below them. "I've always wanted to do this!" Quickly, the two podiums were shifted inside of the circle. We all surrounded the Blaziken and Sceptile. "This is called Contradiction Time! You two will have a one-on-one debate between your opinions, and whoever wins...gets something special at the end of the trial..."

     After her words, the two podiums faced in front of each other before their glares met.

     "You heard what she said." Sherwood shrugged. "I gotta tell ya, you're quite wrong. We all checked Leon's wounds, and there was only a cut on his shoulder."

     "You ain't believe there could be somethin' less bloody? Like uh...a hammer?" Zantai scoffed at the Sceptile's words before leaning closer to glare at him with intent.

     "Nah, we checked for weapons everywhere." Sherwood retaliated. "Ask Loki, she informed me about it."

     "Then he was knocked out. There's many methods to knock or daze someone without using a weapon." Zantai gazed at his talons.

     "Like Hypnosis?" I butted in.

     "The adults are talkin', kid." Sherwood glared at me. Looks like this is their time...I shouldn't have interrupted.

     "Looks like I win." Zantai folded his arms. Seconds after his words, the podiums shifted back to normal. "Leon coulda' 'been knocked out and thrown into the pool to drown."

     "If the culprit could do that, what would be the point of shattering his shoulder ring?"
Hydra uttered, pointing a paw at the Blaziken. "You still have yet to explain the cut on his shoulder."

     "We haven't even gotten that far, Hydra." Bigby cleared his throat. "Let's talk about the pool. Hydra, you said there were two buttons in total, one inside of the pool and the other outside?"

     "Awe, come on. Isn't that obvious by now, mate?" Vince cackled.

     "Are you Hydra?" Bigby turned to the Greninja, who silenced immediately. "Exactly, so zip it."

     "Yes, there are two buttons in total." The tall Lucario huffed.

     "I don't think it's possible for an electric button to work underwater," I interjected, and to my surprise, someone responded calmly.

     "He tested it." Galant tilted his head. "The button weirdly works underwater for some reason."

     "Very odd, isn't it?" Hydra shifted his suspicious stare to the Gallade.

     "So, I have something to say," Luster muttered. "I don't know how important it is, but I have to say it." Everyone seemed to shift their attention to the Luxray. "There's this extra room hidden somewhere around where our rooms were. I decided to walk in and found a flight of stairs. Though, there's  a metal door blocking the entrance on the top of the steps. The issue is...the supportive black-colored railings on the side were tampered with."

     "What do you mean by that?" Loki tilted her head.

     "A small chunk of the railing was broken—like with something tough," Luster replied, slightly frowning at the Zoroark.

     "That seems useless for now, but maybe later it could help..." Sammy sighed and shook her head. "Going by the idea that Leon was knocked out and thrown into the pool to be killed, how—"

     "Wait!" Loki quickly realized something and pulled a few small chunks of black metal to show the group. "I brought this with me in case. Do you think this piece of metal is part of the railing?"

     "Yeah, it sure looks like it." Luster narrowed his eyes. "Kind of."

     "That's odd..." Hydra huffed and shuffled around to display the same exact hunk of black metal to everyone. "I also brought something like that as evidence."

     "Except yours is bigger," Nightshade remarked.

     "How does this have to do with anything?" Sammy tilted her head.

     "Because one of these chunks of metal could be Leon's shoulder rings. By common sense, Loki found the real one." Hydra mentioned and gazed down at his paw. "The one I have seems to be from the railing Luster found."

     "Oh, I see. Then what you brought isn't useful?" Xeonix bit his claw with impatience.

     "No," Hydra answered flatly. "Because if I'm correct, the culprit tried to throw us off by taking a piece with the similar material to Leon's shoulder ring and hiding it somewhere obvious."

     "I get it!" Loki smiled, gazing down at her evidence piece. "That's why it was so well hidden! It was under multiple layers of boxes."

     "That sounds...a little far-fetched?" Galant cleared his throat. "I don't know, whoever committed the murder couldn't have known they needed to get it away with it. All Sam told us was that murdering would let us free, and looking at all these elaborate steps to hide evidence, this culprit knew from the start he needed to get away with the murder."

     "That's why it makes this all the more interesting." Hydra gazed at the Gallade. "It's amazing how you know that." He chuckled. "Because I do too."

     "Ooh! How about he was snuck up on and drowned?" Sammy quickly called.

     "That doesn't make any sense. Leon's a Lucario—who uses aura. They'd easily be able to tell who's behind them." Zantai tilted his head.

     "Actually, I never sensed him using it once." Hydra placed a paw against his chin. "Which is what caused his death."

     "You're telling me he never used his aura?" Inu scoffed. "How stupid is that?"

     "It's the truth. Lucario can detect if either one is using their aura...not once did I read that from him." The Lucario heaved a short sigh and continued. "Either way, there were many methods to daze him—not knock him out entirely."

     "What do you mean?" Galant tilted his head.

     "There's a reason why he has that cut on his shoulder. If Leon was knocked out immediately, then he wouldn't have put a resistant fight. However, there definitely was a struggle—seeing as how there was a cut on his shoulder. So going by that, he wasn't knocked out; he was dazed."

     Silence. It wasn't an awkward silence, it was more of a point of processing what the Lucario articulated.

     "Actually, that's not true." Bigby quickly called.

     Sam giggled in her throne. "Another one, another one!" She happily pressed the same button, causing Hydra and Bigby's podiums to shift to the middle.

     "How so?" Hydra tilted his head, gazing around the area.

     "If he wasn't knocked out, he would have enough time to swim back up to the surface," Bigby replied.

     "As I said earlier, he was dazed. I believe he was quite unaware of where he was for a moment. The time where he finally snapped out of his small daze, the glass was already closed off." Hydra crossed his arms.

     "Can't he teleport like you do?" Bigby quickly added.

     "No. That's an individual trait that only I have." Hydra frowned, his gaze locked onto the midnight Lycanroc's. "So because he can't, he's stuck underwater."

     Bigby shook his head. "No, because like you said, there was a button in the water. Leon could have easily swum over and pressed it."

     "You're right." Hydra smiled. "Imagine this, however. What if he didn't see the button?"

     Silence, and suddenly, a loud laugh.

     "You believe he couldn't see the button?" Prince chuckled. "Hydra, we're going backwards now."

     "Trick Room!" I called out loudly, causing Hydra to turn to me and smile even wider, a small nod following after his expression. "Galant knows Trick Room!"

     "W-What!?" Galant snapped. "That's a huge jump!"

     "Am I wrong?" Hydra tilted his head. "Leon wouldn't know where the glass was located if you just hid it with Trick Room—just like you did with Luna's room door."

     "That still doesn't explain the cut on his shoulder!" Galant hissed.

     Hydra stayed silent and pointed to the Gallade. "You have blades for arms. They're quite tough, I'd imagine. Perfect for shattering a Lucario's shoulder ring."

     Galant stayed silent and shook his head. "You're accusing me of such unreasonable things! Where's your proof?"

     "I have it." Hydra rose the larger chunk of metal. "Because you're the only one who can tear off the stair railing and break it into little chunks."

     "So? What's your proof that Trick Room was used inside of the pool!?" Galant yelled once again.

     "Because..." Hydra closed his eyes and took a deep breath, folding his arms casually. "When I went inside the pool..."

     "There were scratches on the floor, instead of the glass."