My inner voice is telling me...
'Hope moves forward.'

    "Well, what do you guys think? To believe or not to believe Kaede?" He asked.

     "Um.. I do wanna believe Kaede, but Shuichi does seem pretty suspicious." Tenko pondered.

     "Why Shuichi and not Y/N?" Tsumugi avoided.

     "Shuichi has been strangely quiet for awhile now..Which is classic degenerate male behavior!"

     "They're both quiet." Tsumugi contradicted.

    "W-Well... I have an instinct it's Shuichi and not Y/N!"

       "Nyeh..I agree."

     "Shuichi is the only person here who's suspicious." Maki hummed.

     "No, I still think it is too soon to determine the culprit." Kiibo disagreed.

     "Umm...I agree. I sort of cant believe that shuichi is the culprit." Tsumugi mumbled. 'You just wanna accuse me...'

     "Yeah, this aint right!"

     "I agree!" Angie agreed with the astronaut.

     "But i don't know if Atua agrees. Cus right now, it's his naptime."

      "Well, I think it's either me or Shuichi." I huffed.

      "This is quite troublesome.... It seems our opinions are on opposite ends." Tojo sighed.

     "How are we supposed to decide? We're split right down the middle..."

     "Hold on!" Monokuma screamed. He cut off gonta with a smile. "..split? Did you just say split?! You did! I heard it! I heard it with my belly button microphone!"

    "Wait, your ears don't do anything!?" Tenko cried while doing a kazuichi type of facial expression...

     "The Ultimate Academy is proud to present its very own morphenomenal trial grounds!"

     'Oh no...'

     "....Morphenomenal trial grounds?" Maki asked.

     "The trial grounds are gonna morph!?" kokichi grinned. "Seriously!? I tooooootally want to see that!!!"

     "I don't.. I don't like heights." I sighed.

    "You better hold on tight then!" Monokuma laughed loudly.

    Time slowed down once again. Some words flashed on screen.

"YOUR SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE! At times like this, Debate Scrums are perfect! In a Debate Scrum, you will be split into two teams.. Then, you argue your opinions against each other. But look, everyone's so fired up, the subjects of your statements don't match. That's not how you debate at all!"

     "Can we hurry this up?"

      "...." The words just showed up as dots. "You have to match your subject with your opponents' and put them in the correct order. Listen closely for the subject of your opponents' argument! You will convince all your opponents at once!"

      The words came to a wrap as a small game device landed in my hands... 'is this what i'm supposed to use to intertwine?'

     I didn't get to think much before a big sign flashing bright red with a caution sign showing up with the words in all caps, 'HOLD ON TIGHT'. I held the game controller in my left hand and wrapped onto the podium with the right. The entire room glowed blue. The podiums were wrapped with blue lights before we ascended into the air.

    Everyone was put onto two sides, monokumas throne smack in the middle.

'Is shuichi the culprit?"

     The debate had begun. It was just like in the game, I felt like I was watching through a screen. Everyone went back and forth, I had four options to show up in front of me. I hit the third one.

      "We can't rush to a conclusion! Were going too fast!" I cried.

     "Why talk it through when we all know shuichi is the culprit?" Maki rolled her eyes.

      "If shuichi had the receiver, it could've been disguised." Ryoma tapped on his cigar.

     "Kaede is the one who actually had the receiver!" Kiibo argued.

     Kokichi quickly jumped in "But that was kaede's lie, isn't it?

     "We'll know whether or not it's a lie when we talk this through!" Kaede begged.

GROUCH BIND

      I was hitting the 'A' key on my game pad trying to move the rocketship above our heads over to the other side. It was like tug-a-war but none of us wanted the rope.

FULL COUNTER

      The rocketship pushed all the way over and the podiums slowly lowered again. The stands dropped to the ground and made a click noise before Kaede cried out. "Everyone, you have to believe me! Shuichi is not the culprit!"

    "If we vote for Shuichi, we'll be making the wrong choice!" I agreed.

     "And if that happens... Everyone will be executed.." Kaede rubbed her arm up and down. She sadly looked at me, her eyes filled with regret. "I definitely won't let that happen, even if it costs me my life!"

    "Kaede..." Shuichi heaved.

    "Yeah, it's just like kaede said! Shuichi aint the culprit!" Kaito cried.

   "Gonta believe in Shuichi, too! Gentlemen always believe in friends!"

    "Well, if Shuichi's not our culprit..Then who is it?" Ryoma did a cat-like smile.

    "We've already exhausted all possible avenues of discussion.." Korekiyo hissed.

    "No way. There has to be something else we can discuss. We just gotta think." Kaede looked over at the detective. "Right, Shuichi?"

     "Huh?" He asked.

    "Shuichi...Even though you're not the culprit, you've been quiet for awhile...It's because you realized something, huh? You're scared to reveal the truth."

    "...ah!" He cried.

     "I thought so...Shuichi. Answer me this--what kind of truth did you realize? Don't be scared to say it. Not just for me and Y/N,... but for everyone else. Please...face the truth."

    "..The picture." He finally said after a while.

    "Picture?" Tojo questioned.

    "The picture from the camera aimed at the hidden door, just before the muder. I thought it was suspicious.... The way Miu was acting.."

    Angie asked. "Hm? What was suspicious?"

  "If you look at the picture, it looks like Miu is trying to remove the camera..." The blue hair detective started. "But that must mean she noticed the camera we set up."

    "That's true. But when did she notice that?" Tenko belowed.

    4 options showed up in front of me again on the little gamepad. 'Before, after, right then, and lucky guess'?'

    I crashed my hand on the third option "It had to be when the camera first took its first picture."

    "Correct, the picture was taken when She moved the bookcase. At that moment, something made her notice the camera. So, she tried to remove it, and that's when the bookcase closed."

    "Oh! The sensor was triggered, and that's when this picture was taken."

   "If that is the case, we must find the reason why she noticed the camera?" Tojo said.

   "What do you two think?" Rantaro egged him on.

    "I've been contemplating what it could be. Why did she notice the camera?" He asked "And the answer..is this picture."

   Shuichi flashed us with a card. In it was Mius extended arm towards the bright flashlight of the camera. Kaede hummed and words flashed onto the screen. 'Got It'. "Because of the flash, right?"

   "Nyeh? The flash?"

   "Yes. The flash went off when the hidden door camera took a picture." I hummed.

    Shuichi added on, "Miu noticed the camera flash.

    "But how can you tell the flash went off?" Tenko asked.

    Shuichi explained the flash and the camera and how they worked with the photos. My nails were grinding against the medal podiums. Sometimes i wish these trials were short, an hour at most...

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