The Monokuma File and the First Clue

“Furuhata-kun is dead…? This is a dream, right…?”

Takagi Masahiko still hadn’t fully processed the horrific scene unfolding before their eyes.

“It’s not a dream, you know!”

Black & White Bear had materialized outside the elevator, now directly facing them, its presence unsettling.

“You’re behind this, aren’t you…?” Amagasa Gen’s voice was laced with frantic accusation. “To be so utterly ruthless to us, it must be your doing again, mustn’t it?!”

“Hey!!” Black & White Bear roared, indignant at the false accusation. “Don’t you dare arbitrarily pin the blame on me!”

“Honestly… why would I kill someone without reason? I only target naughty children who break the rules, you see! And there’s one crucial thing you all need to grasp…”

“The one who murdered Furuhata-kun is actually one of *you*.”

A chilling silence descended upon the group, each person seemingly holding their breath in dread.

“Oh my, oh my, why do your faces betray such terror, like birds scattering from a hunter’s shotgun?”

“No, that’s impossible! You’re absolutely spouting lies!” Yuusuke’s defiant tone, however, had already weakened considerably.

“You still refuse to accept the truth! Honestly… it appears a class trial is precisely what’s needed to clear your muddled head.”

“Plush Bear,” Suzuki Minoru interjected, addressing Black & White Bear, “I wish to confirm: the killer doesn’t simply ‘graduate’ from here just by committing murder, do they?”

“Of course not! I’ve mentioned it before, you know, but… to ensure you all thoroughly grasp the ‘graduation’ conditions and the class trial rules, I’ll go ahead and transmit them to your student IDs right now.”

[Nine: Should a murder occur among students, a class trial will be convened after a set period, which all students are obligated to attend.

Ten: If the culprit is correctly identified during the class trial, only the culprit shall face execution.

Eleven: If the culprit is not correctly identified during the class trial, only the culprit shall be permitted to graduate, and all remaining students will be summarily executed.]

“What… what kind of execution are we talking about?” Takagi Masahiko stammered, his voice trembling with terror.

“Hee hee hee hee, what kind… why, there are all sorts, you know? Imagine crackling on an electric chair, gasping for breath as you inhale toxic gas, being torn limb from limb by machines, or even flattened into a mere paste!”

“You are utterly… monstrously cruel.”

“That’s simply my nature; haven’t you figured that out yet? Besides, the truly cruel one here is the culprit who murdered Furuhata-kun. Now… I’ve wasted enough breath. Make haste and investigate the crime scene!”

“To further assist your investigation, I’ve already uploaded the Black & White Bear file to your electronic student IDs. In a few hours, you are to gather before the red door on the first floor!”

With Black & White Bear gone, it was time for me to do what I could: investigate the murder scene.

“Kamimura-san, are you alright?” Takagi Masahiko asked, concerned that my psychological resilience might be faltering. However, drawing on my extensive gaming experience from my previous life, I knew I could easily withstand this level of pressure.

“I’m fine,” I assured him. “Let’s make haste and search for clues! For the sake of all our lives, we absolutely must uncover this killer!”

Stepping carefully over Furuhata Jun’s body, I moved just outside the elevator doors and accessed my student ID to review the Black & White Bear file.

[Monokuma file

Victim: Furuhata Jun… Time of Death: Approximately 8:30 AM. The body was discovered inside the elevator, which was traveling from the first to the third floor.

The victim died within the elevator, with the fatal wound being a severed neck, inflicted by a sharp object.]

An elevator murder, then… But what could be the murder weapon?

The file mentioned “a sharp object”… A small knife, perhaps? No, that couldn’t be right. Could an ordinary person possibly sever a head with a small knife in mere seconds? Moreover, the wound appeared unnervingly smooth and perfect…

Mere speculation would yield no answers; I needed to examine the crime scene with far greater scrutiny.

Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to endure the gruesome sight and the metallic tang of blood filling the air, before crouching beside Furuhata Jun’s severed head.

His mouth hung agape, as though he had been on the verge of uttering a final word.

The head lay precisely in the center of the elevator doorway, with no discernible blood spatter on either side of the door’s base. Beyond its gruesome severance, the head itself appeared to hold no further abnormalities.

Stepping into the elevator, I knelt to examine the rest of the body. The point of severance was clearly inside the elevator, confirming that Furuhata Jun had indeed been killed within its confines.

Wait. Had the bloodstains beneath the neck’s cross-section been severed too? To inspect the area more thoroughly, I cautiously rolled Furuhata Jun’s body over.

“Whoa!! Kamimura-san, what in the world are you doing?!” Takagi Masahiko exclaimed, utterly aghast at my action of disturbing the corpse.

“I’m looking for clues, of course.”

My suspicions were confirmed: a significant amount of splattered blood was indeed present beneath the neck’s cross-section. Curiously, though, the blood emanating from the head’s neck appeared scant, as if it had only just begun to flow. I decided to step outside the elevator and photograph this crucial finding.

There had to be more clues nearby. All six of us had taken this elevator from the first floor to the third… The first floor? That was it! Perhaps the first floor held additional clues!

Without a moment’s hesitation, I pressed the button for the first floor. Uh oh… Furuhata Jun’s head was still resting squarely in the center of the doorway.

‘Forgive me, Furuhata-kun,’ I thought, ‘but to find your killer, I have no other choice!’ Gently, I cradled Furuhata Jun’s head with both hands and carefully moved it just outside the elevator entrance.

Takagi Masahiko simply stared at me, dumbfounded, as if I were a madwoman.

“Ka-Kamimura-san? You… I…” he stammered, words failing him.

“To face a scene so horrific that most people would avert their gaze, yet Anko can still cast aside all fear and relentlessly search for clues, heh heh heh… She truly is the type of girl I admire.” Suzuki Minoru observed me with an unsettling glint in his eyes.

‘Should I tell him that in my previous life, I was a boy?’ I mused, ‘and that I’ve played my fair share of gory games.’

“I’m heading to the first floor,” I announced, pressing the door-open button. “Does anyone wish to join me in the elevator?”

In the very next second, Takagi Masahiko quickly stepped inside.

“I think I’ll stay here and examine the surroundings,” someone replied.

“Ah, I won’t be going either.”

“My apologies…” Yuusuke offered a strained, bitter smile. “I fear I might only get in your way. I’ll rejoin you all a little later.”

And so, only Takagi Masahiko and I remained, left to ride this dark, coffin-like elevator alone.

Just as the elevator doors were about to seal shut, I vaguely discerned some liquid pooled on the floor, directly beneath the center of the closing doors. I quickly stepped forward, crouched down, and dabbed at it with my finger.

“Kamimura-san, I feel like your personality isn’t quite… what one would expect from a girl.”

“Is that so? Perhaps I’m simply a peculiar girl.”

“No, not at all… I think you possess a certain… ‘boyish charm’ that’s quite striking.”

“Takagi-kun… are you always so adept at complimenting girls?” To be frank, I rather appreciated Takagi Masahiko’s comparison—especially since, in my original life, I truly *was* a boy.

“R-really? I was so worried I might have said something inappropriate…”

The moment the elevator doors parted, the first thing I did upon stepping out was to activate my student ID’s camera and capture an image of the unknown liquid clinging to my finger.

‘It’s blood, isn’t it.’

I meticulously scanned the surroundings for clues, yet it was only when my light beam fell upon a Black & White Bear mascot that I noticed something tied beneath its head…

A thread? I reached out to touch it. This wasn’t the soft yarn used for knitting; it felt more like… fishing line?

Following the line with my fingers, I traced it to where it disappeared into the narrow gap of the elevator door.

I attempted to pull the end of the line free, but after a brief tug, it became firmly lodged within the elevator door mechanism.

Pressing the elevator button, I opened the doors, and with that, the line was successfully retrieved in its entirety.

The other end of the line bore a gruesome, blood-stained… movable single loop.