The Library’s Dark Revelation

————Takagi Masahiko’s Perspective————

“Ding!” Suzuki Minoru and I stepped out of the elevator together, then stopped before the library door.

“Creak!…Creak!” After his first attempt to turn the doorknob proved futile, Suzuki Minoru tried a second time, yet the door remained stubbornly shut.

“Huh?” Confusion clouded my mind as I stared at the scene unfolding before us.

‘Had I closed the door casually when I left with Kamimura Anko last night?… No, Kamimura Anko was in critical condition at the time; bandaging her wounds promptly was paramount. I certainly wouldn’t have had the leisure to concern myself with the door.’

“Takagi, you mentioned earlier that this door was locked from the inside when you rushed to the library last night, didn’t you?”

“That’s right… The situation was urgent then, so I didn’t hesitate to ask Monokuma for help to get the door open.”

“You merely went in to rescue Anko? You didn’t do anything else?” The way he uttered Kamimura Anko’s name suddenly irritated me for some inexplicable reason; it wasn’t out of jealousy!

“No… I wasn’t thinking much at the time, only about rescuing Kamimura Anko. Isn’t saving lives the first priority after an accident occurs?”

“You’re absolutely right, of course. I’d do the same and save someone immediately, but… the culprit’s luck seems to be exceptionally good…”

“Monokuma! Come out and open the door! I need your help here!” Suzuki Minoru shouted loudly towards the center of the hall.

“What, what~? You’re actually asking for my help~? You’re just incorrigible… Ugh?!!! Why are you asking me to open the door again! Hmph!!! Get your roles straight! I’m not your dorm matron (TL Note: A ‘dorm matron’ or ‘sù guǎn ā yí’ is a Chinese term for a female dormitory supervisor, often implying an older, strict figure)!” The newly appeared Monokuma threw its hands up in exasperation, huffing and puffing at the mention of opening the door.

“Oh, right, right, you’re a distinguished bear, so stop talking so much and open the door already. I’m getting a little impatient.”

“What kind of attitude is that?! Honestly!” It stepped forward, pulled out a familiar set of keys, and the door swung open for us.

Immediately, an unsettling stench of blood assailed our nostrils. It was quite strange, considering Kamimura Anko’s head wound hadn’t bled profusely, so why was this blood scent so incredibly strong?

“!” ‘Wait a moment… Since this morning, I hadn’t noticed Amemiya Wakaba anywhere… Could it be…?!’

“It looks like there’s a body up ahead…” Suzuki Minoru fixed his gaze forward, then slowly walked towards it.

I followed him to the foremost wooden bookshelf, and the sight before me instantly sent a shiver down my spine. The area exuded an eerie and violent atmosphere—the floor appeared to be painted with a splash of blood, dark red spatters covering a large area, even reaching beneath the frontmost bookshelf. Furthermore, drag marks marred the bloodstains on the floor, pointing directly towards the colossal stack of books on the far right.

“Takagi, let’s move the books together. You take that end,” Suzuki Minoru instructed, pointing to the side near the window.

“Understood.”

I stacked all the books from that end into a nearby corner. As the area obscured by books gradually diminished, a gruesome, blood-soaked human head abruptly came into view the moment I moved one particular book.

“Aaaah!!!” Unable to withstand the extremely bloody scene before me, I shrieked loudly, my rear hitting the floor.

[Ding, dong… ding, dong]

“A body has been discovered!”

“After a certain period, a ‘Class Trial’ will be held!”

“Just as I thought… Takagi, keep moving. Don’t stop.” Suzuki Minoru, seeing me frozen on the ground in shock, urged me to get up quickly.

Finally, after several minutes, the body beneath was fully revealed. Just as I had suspected… it was Amemiya Wakaba’s body.

‘Amemiya Wakaba, who always referred to herself as ‘this young lady’… had actually died here…?’

“Alright! I’ve given you the ‘Monokuma File’! The rest is up to you to figure out!” The newly appeared Monokuma declared before hastily departing.

[Monokuma File

Victim: Amemiya Wakaba… Time of death: Approximately 10:45 PM. Location where body was found: Inside the library.

The victim died inside the library. Their knees and both arms sustained minor impacts. The fatal injury was excessive bleeding from the back of the head, caused by multiple blows from a blunt object.]

’10:45 PM… I was still asleep then. What about Kamimura Anko…? Was she already heading to the library at that time…? I probably found Kamimura Anko collapsed on the ground around 11:35 PM…’

‘That means… Kamimura Anko was likely attacked between 10:45 PM and 11:35 PM…’

‘But… I remember when I found Kamimura Anko, she was holding a bloody hammer, and that hammer is still next to the library door now…’

Just as I was about to go to the door to examine the hammer more closely, Suzuki Minoru was already crouched there, carefully observing it.

“Takagi, do you have any recollection of this hammer?” Suzuki Minoru turned his head and asked me.

“…When I entered the library door, I saw this hammer in the hand of Kamimura Anko, who was lying on the ground…” I answered him truthfully.

“…” Suzuki Minoru suddenly fell into deep thought, his eyes narrowed as he intently stared at the blood-stained hammer.

“Is this bloodstain Anko’s?” He pointed to the bloodstain next to the hammer and questioned me.

“I think… it should be. At that time, her head was lying in this pool of blood, and the wound on the right side of her head was slowly bleeding…” I tried to recall the scene from last night.

“Hmm… I understand. Can you go into the inner room and investigate?”

“Oh… sure. What about you?”

“There should still be many clues around here that haven’t been unearthed… Let me search carefully by myself.” He then began his investigation from the doorway.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I turned and headed towards the inner room. What struck me as strange, though, was that a wooden bookshelf lay toppled in front of the inner door, and this bookshelf contained no books whatsoever.

‘Could it be… that all the books piled on Amemiya Wakaba’s body came from this very bookshelf…?’

‘Well… I should go in and investigate the situation inside first…’

I pushed open the half-ajar door, but it wouldn’t budge, as if something was blocking it from behind.

Squeezing my body sideways, I peeked inside and discovered it was the retractable ladder Kamimura Anko had used earlier. Why would this retractable ladder be open and placed in the corner of the door?

Driven by curiosity, I looked up above the retractable ladder and found an electrical switchbox.

To verify if this switchbox controlled the library’s main power, I cautiously climbed up and pulled down the lever. Instantly, the lights in the room vanished, plunging everything into darkness, and the lights outside the door also faded to black.

‘It seems… this switchbox indeed controls the library’s main power.’

I pushed the lever back up, then slowly climbed down.

Next, I meticulously observed the entire inner room, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

As I prepared to exit the room and report my findings to Suzuki Minoru, I saw him standing motionless, staring at the floor.

“Suzuki, I found a master electrical switchbox for the library inside, and a retractable ladder placed in the corner of the door. It looks like someone used the ladder to tamper with the switchbox.”

“…” Suzuki Minoru remained unresponsive, still scanning the floor around him. Following his gaze, I looked down and noticed several bloody shoe prints on the floor.

‘Whose… shoe prints are these…? Huh? Wait a moment… I think I’ve seen these shoe prints somewhere before…’

‘That’s right! Could these be the shoe prints I saw on Kamimura Anko’s abdomen on her clothes last night…? I opened my student ID and compared them one by one; the size and structure matched almost perfectly…’

“Um… Suzuki…? Are you listening to me…?” I wanted to tell him about the evidence I had just discovered.

“Oh, I heard you. A retractable ladder in the door crack and an electrical switchbox above it, right?” He said, then walked towards the bookshelf next to Amemiya Wakaba’s body.

His gaze fell on a… dent in the bookshelf? Huh…? How was this dent made…? When I first came to the library, there wasn’t a dent here… Could this be related to the murder?

Suzuki Minoru then followed the direction of the bloody shoe prints to the first wooden bookshelf on the left, where he surprisingly found another similar dent in the middle of the bookshelf! The formation of this dent… perhaps it was caused by the blunt object mentioned in the Monokuma File…?

‘Hmm? Why is there a student ID beneath the bookshelf…?’

I half-crouched and picked up the student ID, examining both sides. Pressing the power button, the screen lit up, displaying a nine-digit numerical password grid. As for whose student ID it was, I had no way of knowing.

“A student ID? Did you just pick that up from the ground?” Suzuki Minoru questioned, seeing me repeatedly staring at the student ID in my hand.

“Yes, I just picked up this student ID, but I don’t know the password… nor do I know whose student ID it is…”

“Follow me.” Suzuki Minoru said, then turned and walked towards Amemiya Wakaba’s corpse.