(3rd Person's POV)

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAATTT!?!?" 

Hiro's yell echoed throughout the data room as the students laid their eyes on the now-functioning Monokuma.

"Gyaahaha! Been a while, ya friggin' bastards!" The bear cackled.

"M-Monokuma!?" Makoto stuttered in fear.

"How...? You're supposed to be d-dead!" Toko shouted, completely baffled.

Sora narrowed her eyes as she folded her arms. "I knew it..."

"Gyaaahahaha! Me, dead!? Don't be freakin' stupid!" Monokuma mocked with another maniacal laugh.

"Hey, you're actin' kinda strange! Something seems...different." Hiro fearfully muttered.

Monokuma chuckled. "Of course I'm different! Evolution is perfectly natural! After all, I've been hibernating for two years already..."

"Not even! It's been like half a day at MOST!" Hiro exclaimed.

"How are you alive again!?" Hina asked, her eyes honed in on the bear.

"Oh yeah, that's it. Puhuhu..." Monokuma giggled. "The look on your faces right now is sublime! That's what I wanted to see--the moment you went from hope to despair..."

Byakuya clenched hist fist, glaring at Monokuma. "Don't tell me you pretended to be dead, all for this moment...?"

"Why would a bear pretend to be dead? You're the ones who should pretend to be dead when you see a bear!" Monokuma said as he laughed once more. "I mean, that's totally laughable! It makes me laugh! I'm gonna laugh now! A-ha-ha-ha! ...And that's that." His mood switched in and instant as his face went blank, before forming a sinister grin. "Well, it's almost time to cut off your past so full of hope, and begin to despair at the future ahead of you! I want you to all have way more fun in this killing game!"

Hina's eyes widened in horror. "You can't be serious... We have to keep going?"

"N-No... We were supposed to get out of here...!" Hiro weakly cried.

"Get out of here? Are you still obsessed with getting out of here?" Monokuma tilted his head, before looking annoyed. "How do you not get it!? There IS no getting out of here! And besides... This life isn't all bad ya know! I mean, there's stuff you won't like about life no matter where you are!"

"Are you s-serious? This place is the w-worst...!" Toko grunted.

"If it's the worst, does that mean you're in...despair? Ahh-hahahahaha!" Monokuma cackled before sighing. "Whew. I'm pooped from all that laughing! I guess I'll just get to the point now."

"The point...?" Makoto repeated in confusion.

"You guys really struck gold when you found that TV. Yes, indeed! That TV is an essential part of your school life here." Monokuma said.

Byakuya grunted. "I knew it was hiding a secret of some kind..."

"But I connected the antenna, so why's it just showing us the surveillance feed?" Hiro asked.

 Monokuma giggled. " Puhuhu... Look how attentive they are now! Well then, I'm gonna let you in on a blood-gushing secret and tell you about it! That TV is absolutely, without a doubt, displaying the signal coming in on the antenna."

Hina looked confused. "Huh? But...what does that mean?"

"It's displaying th-the signal...? But it's just us, standing h-here..." Toko pointed out.

Monokuma rolled his eye. "Ugh, you're so stupid! Don't you get it!? Fine, I'll just tell you..." He then turned around and pointed to the abundance of screens. "This killing game is being broadcast live to the entire world. It's the most popular thing on TV!"

"What...?" Makoto looked confused.

"This killing game is being broadcast live to the entire world. It's the most popular thing on TV!" Monokuma repeated.

"..."

Sora had her eyes closed in thought. This killing game...is being broadcast to the entire world, even as they speak? And...for some reason, she feels like there's some sort of deeper meaning in those words...

"Wh-What? Broadcast live...to the entire world?" Hina unconsciously took a step back. "What kind of bad joke is this...?"

"It can't be... Have they taken over the airwaves somehow...!?" Byakuya breathed out, his stoic and composed expression turning into one of disbelief and shock.

"The camera feed is being broadcast...? No way, that's impossible!" Hiro denied incredulously.

"That kind of overconfidence is a major weakness in your crisis management system, you know that?" Monokuma let out a proud sigh. "All you need is one weird trick that I found, and hijacking the airwaves is Easy Mode!"

"A-Are you being serious right now...?" Makoto's jaw dropped.

"Of course!"

Right then...the students heard some kind of... creaking. But the sound was coming from their own minds. Like a boat tossing in the ocean, their minds had begun to creak and groan.

"Everything has a meaning, you know... All those hints I gave you, all those tantalizing tidbits about the school's mysteries... Even me luring you here right now... Why would I do any of that without a reason?" Monokuma asked with a smug grin. "It was all for my captive audience--to show them true despair like they'd never seen it before! I became the director of a despair-based production! This is the ultimate reality show! The best in despair entertainment!" He laughed.

Hina shook her head in refusal. "You're lying! If this was on TV, the police and everyone else would be going crazy!"

"Y-Yeah... There's no way they wouldn't have tried to come and rescue us!" Hiro meekly agreed.

"What if...they already did?" Monokuma wondered as he put his paws in front of his mouth.

"...Huh?" Makoto blinked twice.

"But then again...it's not really any of their business, right? Sure, some people might yell at their TV to try and warn you. But who would actually come here to help?" Monokuma let out a chuckle. "Don't you think that's possible? I don't really know personally though, so whatever!"

"But to take control of all communications like that, you'd need an astronomical amount of resources." Byakuya pointed out, still sweating from this revelation.

" Yup! So, how could things have come this far?" Monokuma asked. "Well... That's a secret! There's something you all need to do first, remember?"

"You don't mean..." Sora trailed off.

"Oh, I do mean, Goldilocks. There's the little business of..."

BING, BONG! BONG BING!

"A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin!"

"Huh...?" Makoto's head whipped to the monitor.

"C-Class trial!? Do you mean...!?" Hina trailed off, her hand covering her mouth in horror.

"Puhu... Puhuhuhuhuhu...!" Monokuma started to giggle madly. "Puhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhu...!" He then pulled out a Monokuma File. " I'll leave the next Monokuma File right here. Everyone give it all you've got, okay!? Okay! Things are gonna get pretty crazy from here on out! You're in for a heck of a ride...! I can't wait...! I can't wait!"

And then...he was gone. Reality was incomprehensible, the truth hopelessly out of reach. All the students were left with...was despair.

They stood there for who-knows-how-long, frozen in place. Sora... Sora's mind blanked out for what seemed like an eternity. 

"I don't understand any of this..." Hiro spoke up, his hands running through his hair. "What's "despair entertainment"? And...how is he still alive!?"

"I thought that finally...finally we could get out of here..." Hina lamented.

"A-And plus...what did he s-say about a class trial!?" Toko nervously bit her thumb.

Byakuya sighed. "Well, that part's obvious. The class trial is the class trial. What it means is that at this point, we have to figure out who the culprit is... Figure out...who killed Kirigiri."

Sora blinked twice, before tilting her head in confusion. "Kiri...?"

"Wh-What are you talking about? I thought Mukuro Ikusaba was the one who died..." Hiro said.

"The victim was female, right? Kirigiri certainly fulfills that condition. And if Monokuma is still alive and active...that means that the mastermind, Mukuro Ikusaba, isn't dead." Byakuya assumed. "So naturally that body can't belong to her. So it must be Kirigiri. There is no other possibility."

That body...is Kiri's? Sora thought. She's the one who's been murdered...? It...can't be...right? I...don't even know anything about her. To have her die when we barely even started to even understand each other...

"T-That can't be..." Sora said, trying to keep a straight face. "I don't even know if I can believe it..."

"Whether you believe it or not doesn't matter. The truth is the truth! If you refuse to believe, it's your responsibility to uncover the truth for yourself." Byakuya told her.

"..."

Byakuya then turned to the other students. "...Anyway, we'd better begin."

"B-But...if we're gonna have a class trial...then that means the killer..." Hina trailed off.

"Correct." Byakuya nodded, knowing where she was going. "It must be someone participating in our school life."

"Wait, so you're saying one of us killed Kirigiri!?" Hiro exclaimed.

Byakuya closed his eyes. "Well...that's not precisely what I'm saying, no."

"Huh? But you just said--"

"I don't have time to explain now. There is a veritable mountain of issues I need to confirm. So I'm going to begin my search. If you value your lives, you'll put everything you have into this. That is how this game works, after all..."

Sora let out a sigh. She has to do this one more time...in order to make sure she lives to hopefully escape this hellish school, she must partake in the class trial one more time...

But...is Kyoko really the one who was murdered...? Sora thought. It does make sense, as she's the only one who isn't here, but if she isn't...then where the hell is she?!

Welp. There's only one way to find out.

IT'S...INVESTAGATION TIME!

Chapter 37: End

To be continued...?