(3rd Person's POV)

The group would head out of the gym and walked up the stairs to the fifth floor. They soon stopped walking around as they laid their eyes on the door of the headmaster's room.

Sora would walk up to it and tried to turn the doorknob, but...

RATTLE, RATTLE!

"It's locked. As expected." Byakuya said.

"Now what?" Sora asked.

"Isn't it obvious? We're going to tear this door off its hinges." Byakuya responded.

"Wait, but...the rules say--" Hina was about to remind him.

"We've seen that the mastermind isn't watching us. Those don't matter anymore."

"But like Shirayuki said... If the mastermind did show up while we were in there..." Hiro trailed off.

"Then we'll just have to finish our business before that can happen." Byakuya folded his arms.

"Okay, sure...but..."

"We've come this far, we can't back down now. We agreed this is what we have to do. So we have to do it."

"S-So beautiful...!" Toko gushed as she felt her cheeks flush red.

Hiro looked at Toko. "For serious...?"

"We don't have any choice... We're desperate!" Hina exclaimed as she glared at the door. "Let's do it! Let's rip this door down!"

"Okay, but...how are we gonna do that?" Hiro asked. "This thing looks pretty sturdy..."

"Then we'll need something sturdy of our own." Byakuya mused.

"Oh well, what about that thing in the toolshed?" Sora spoke up.

Hiro's face lit up. "Oh yeah! The pickaxe!"

"Interesting. That could very well be exactly what we need." Byakuya slowly nodded. "Now then..." He turned to Toko. "Fukawa, what time is it?"

"W-Well, when we left the gym, it was j-just before 9 o'clock. So it's probably 9 on the d-dot now..."

"Okay. Go get the pickaxe and be back here by 9:01."

"That's straight-up unreasonable!" Hiro exclaimed.

"I-I-I...! By m-myself...?" Toko stuttered.

"Surely you like to have your me-time once in a while, right?" Byakuya looked at her.

"W-Well...if it's me-and-you-and-Mistress-time, Master, then y-yeah..."

"Please don't bring me into this..." Sora groaned.

"You know how much time it took you to say that? Ten seconds. Take too long, and I'll erase your existence from my consciousness." Byakuya threatened. 

"Don'tcha try to do that every single second you're around her?" Sora raised an eyebrow.

"UnacceptabbbbbbllllLLLLLLEEEEEEE!!!" Toko scremed as she ran off.

"For serious, though...are we just gonna knock this door down?" Hiro asked Byakuya.

"No problem is solved by running away. Find your stones and be a man."

"I think Hiro lost those a long time ago." Sora snarked.

"H-Hey!"

But I guess he has a point. Sora thought. I don't think it's good to just...run away from whatever scares ya...

---

"If you spend all your time trying to avoid danger, you'll never move forward. We know the danger. But if that risk means solving the mystery, we have no choice. Am I wrong?"

---

"Maybe, b-but I'm still super stressed..." Hiro shuddered. "I'm so tense, I can hardly talk... I'm all flubbust--no... I'm totally flabbag--flapstaf--"

"Fapsauce!?" A voice piped up as the students turned to see Genocide Jill.

"Gross! Where'd that come from!? Wait, Genocide Jill? Where'd YOU come from!?" Hiro asked.

"Hello hello! It's the wondiferous, murdiferous fiend, here to greet you with a razor-sharp smile!" Genocide Jill grinned. "Kyeeehahahaha!"

"What about the pickaxe? Where is it?" Byakuya asked, looking annoyed.

"I was supposed to pick an axe...?"

"No, you seeping imbecile. The pickaxe..."

"S-Seeping imbecile!? Oh, Master! You wound me with your executive-level barbs! Bushwah! Here comes the bloody nose!"

"Seriously, though...did you really forget the pickaxe?" Hina said.

"Omega-3 fatty acids, that's what you need! Great for the ol' memory factory!" Hiro advised.

"But I think we already established that their memory doesn't carry over when they switch..." Makoto pointed out.

Byakuya sighed. "This is a level of uselessness I find difficult to tolerate..."

"Ah! The light bulb just went on!" Genocide Jill exclaimed. "That's why I went to the garden, right!? I was supposed to get the pickaxe! Alright, we've solved one mystery! That means there's just one more mystery left!"

"...Eh?" Sora tilted her head. "Whaddya mean "one more mystery"...?"

"Yup! Now we just need to figure out the identity of Object X!" Genocide Jill chuckled.

"Now what are you talking about...?" HIna looked confused.

Hiro folded his arms, sighing. "Did you already forget what we were talking about? You're like, missing out on life..."

"I'm not missing out on life! In fact, I found one in the garden!"

"What...? What did you find?" Makoto asked.

"Kuh...oar...puss..."

"...What." Sora deadpanned.

"Didja hear me!? I said corpse!" Genocide Jill said.

"A corpse...!?" Makoto's eyes widened.

"That's right! I found a corpse in the garden!"

"Well then. Before we enter the headmaster's room, it appears we have something else to look into." Byakuya said. "We're going to the garden."

"O-Okay..." Makoto nodded as everyone dashed to the garden.

---

The doors to the garden burst open. As soon as the students entered...they saw it.

They didn't want to, but...

...They saw someone laying on the ground, with a mask covering their face... And there was a knife...buried in their stomach, up to the hilt.

"Wh-What the...!?" Makoto stammered.

"A-Are they really dead!?" Hina asked, her hands covering her mouth in horror at the sight she saw.

"For sure. But..."

"Who...is it?" Byakuya wondered, finishing Hiro's question.

Just to make things clear... Last night, Sora was attacked by someone wearing a mask... And whoever that was--now they're...

She doesn't know why, but now they're laying dead right in front of her...

"Kyeeehahaha! I told ya, there's a corpse hangin' out here!" Genocide Jill laughed.

"Are they really...dead? Is this really a dead body...?" Hina muttered to herself in disbelief.

"You need to begin looking around right away." Byakuya told everyone. "However... Be ever so careful. There's no telling what you might find."

"..." Sora stayed silent as she walked up to the body. She crouched down to get a better look.

They need to feed out who this person actually is. But there's no way to tell with the mask covering their face like that. And the white coat they're wearing makes it impossible to tell anything about the body itself. The victim is a total mystery...

But one thing Sora does know...is that, whoever this person is, they attacked her last night in her room. But why? And how did they end up dead like this?!

"Their heart isn't beating, they're not breathing, all signs of life have come to a complete stop..." Byakuya mused. "Thanks to the knife that's been driven into their stomach, their clothes are stained a bright pink. It appears the bleeding has stopped, but the blood that's there is still wet. Be careful you don't touch it and get some on you..."

"How can you be so calm at a time like this? Who is it!?" Hiro asked. "Their face and body are all hidden, so I don't have a clue..."

"I'm pretty sure it's a girl at least..." Hina spoke up.

"Huh? How can you tell?"

"Well...I think I see the outline of her chest. And just the general shape of the body... Yeah, the more I look, the more I'm sure it's a girl."

Really? Sora thought as her eyes slightly widened. Then...could it be...?

"Kyeeehahaha! Okay then!" Genocide Jill laughed as she suddenly sped to the body. "Let's just tear the mask clean off!"

"Wait, don't--!"

Byakuya tried to warn her, but by the time he did, it was too late. Genocide Jill's hand shot towards the mask. And in the next instant...

KABOOOOOOOM!

...There was a blinding light, and a deafening roar. The body...blew up. It blew up it blew up it blew up it blew up it blew up it blew up it blew up it blew up!

As soon as the explosion occurred, Genocide Jill's body went flying, and since she was so close to the body when it blew up, so did Sora's.

"Uwwaaah!" Sora yelled as she felt the cold, hard ground come in contact with her body. "Oof!"

"Hurry up, put out the fire."

Though her ears were still ringing from that explosion, Sora heard Byakuya's voice as he handed Makoto a bucket of water.

"Come on, dump the water on it."

"O-Okay!"

The upper half of the body was on fire. Makoto took aim and tossed the water as hard as he could.

SPHLOOSH!

Thankfully, that was enough to put out the fire. It died down, leaving behind only the unpleasant smell of burning...

"I-I guess that took care of it..." Makoto muttered.

"But what the hell, man?" Hiro said, his hands on his head.

"It...exploded?" Hina said in disbelief.

"Ow..." A voice winced as the others turned to see Sora, stars flying around her head. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow..."

"S-Shirayuki!" Makoto ran up to her. "A-Are you okay!"

"Oh yeah, I'm fiiiine!" Sora rolled her eyes. "Just got caught in an explosion and was sent flying towards the hard ground, no biggie!"

Makoto sweatdropped. Even in the most dire of situations, at least Sora didn't hit her head too hard to forget her signature sarcasm...

"I'm surprised that's only what happened to you!" Hina exclaimed. "People who get caught in explosions don't usually stay conscious enough to snark about it!"

"I...had a bad feeling about that body." Byakuya spoke up. "But I never imagined it would explode... And now the body... "

"It's burnt to a crisp! That's beyond well done, man!" Hiro yelled.

"Don't compare it to a steak! I'll never be able to eat steak again..." Hina grimaced.

"But now that the body's charred, I really have no idea... How are we gonna find out who it was...?" Makoto wondered.

"Who isn't here right now?" Byakuya looked at him.

"...Huh?"

"If we consider who's not here, that will quickly narrow down who it must be."

"There's only one person missing..." Hina said.

"It's...Kirigiri." Hiro said.

"K-Kirigiri?!" Sora widened her eyes, ignoring her head injury to focus on what the others were talking about.

That dead body...it's Kirigiri?! Sora thought in slight fear. That...that can't be!

"B-But...you saw the body!" Sora argued. "Kiri's way too short for her to be the body."

"I don't think you of all people have any right to be talking about height, Shirayuki." Byakuya snarked.

"Hey!"

"Calm down. I didn't say it was Kirigiri."

"But, I mean...who else...?" Hiro wondered.

"There is one other person." Byakuya outstretched his arm and pointed at nothing in particular. "The mastermind..."

"What!?" Hina looked baffled.

"Th-The mastermind!? Come on, there's no way! The MASTERMIND got char-broiled!? Get serious!" Hiro narrowed his eyes.

"I agree, normally the idea wouldn't be worth considering." Byakuya conceded. "But I have reason to believe it may be true. The mastermind being dead would explain that other matter, wouldn't it? Monokuma can hardly move around if its master is dead, right?"

"B-But...that corpse is a girl, right? It doesn't make any sense! I mean, remember what Alter Ego said?" Hiro reminded.

---

"So that same person may very well be the mastermind who planned all this out. And according to the files, the headmaster is a man in his late thirties. It seems possible, even likely, that he's somewhere in this school right now."

---

"He said the mastermind is some middle-aged dude, right? Which the corpse obviously isn't! Then could that mean...the mastermind isn't the headmaster...?"

"Then maybe it's that teenager girl that Kiri told me about?" Sora spoke up. "The Ultimate Despair..."

Hiro blinked twice. "Huh...?"

"Mukuro Ikusaba. The seventeenth student at Hope's Peak."

"...What are you talking about?" Byakuya asked.

"The other day, Kiri told me...that there was a seventeenth student here in this place." Sora explained.

"I think you'd better tell us everything you know." Byakuya narrowed his eyes.

"That technically was everythin'. All she told me was..."

---

"Mukuro Ikusaba... The seventeenth student, lying hidden somewhere in this school... The one they call the Ultimate Despair... Watch out for her."

---

"It sounded like Kiri thinks Mukuro Ikusaba is the mastermind."

---

"No...the headmaster isn't the mastermind, I'm sure of that."

"...?"

"I don't have proof yet, but I have no doubt I'm right."

---

"There's another student here, and it's a female? That would match the body's characteristic..." Byakuya mused.

"And that phrase, the Ultimate Despair--it sounds super mastermind-y, doesn't it?" Hina said.

"Okay, so...the mastermind is this girl Mukuro? And she's a student here? And she's the Ultimate Despair? But if she's been hiding here in the school like some teenage Bigfoot...how'd she wind up burnt to a crisp!?" Hiro asked. "None of this makes any sense! To just suddenly show up and then die!?"

"I think we'd better take a closer look at the body." Byakuya suggested. "There may be some clues to help us figure out exactly who it is."

"Ah! Hey, wait!" Hina suddenly shouted.

"...What?" Byakuya turned to her.

"A-Aren't we forgetting something? You know...Fukawa?" Hina reminded him.

"Oh yeah! She got totally blown up, huh!?" Hiro explained.

"Forget about her. I'm sure the explosion vaporized her." Byakuya apathetically assumed.

"Nn...gh...!" A voice grunted as they turned to see Toko weakly walking towards the group.

"Oh! She survived!" Hina beamed.

"Oh...she survived..." Byakuya repeated, but didn't look pleased at all.

Toko shook her head, her vision and grip on reality returning to her."Huh? What just h-happened...? Master...? Mistress...?"

"You declared for the whole world to hear that you would never again inhale a single molecule of oxygen." Byakuya lied.

"Oh. Then...I don't mind b-breathing in the carbon dioxide you exhale. That's enough for m-me to live..."

"This is the strangest back-and-forth I've ever seen..." Hiro remarked.

Makoto soon approached the burnt up body.

"Watch yourself, Naegi. She may be dead, but she's still a girl..." Hina warned.

"D-Don't worry. I don't plan on touching the body all that much." Makoto assured her. After all, he's not Kyoko...

Sora would then approach the body as well. She sighed. "Yare yare dawa... Might as well..."

The woman then went to search the body, to see if there's any secrets that this "Mukuro Ikusaba had hidden in her.

Chapter 35: End

To be continued...?