The Second Class Trial Begins

————Takagi Masahiko’s Perspective————

“White hair…?” As I uttered those two words slowly, my gaze involuntarily drifted to Chisaka’s head.

“Oh my…?” Chisaka gasped, covering her lips in surprise as she stared at the white strand of hair. “I never expected it to be a color so similar to mine…”

“Chisaka…”

“Are you suggesting, Takagi, that I’m now a prime suspect…?” she mused. “I suppose it can’t be helped, given the damning evidence right before us, but…”

“Chisaka isn’t the only one with white hair,” Suzuki interjected, finishing her sentence with his own explanation.

“Besides, someone who sheds white hair doesn’t necessarily have an entire head of it, do they?” Chisaka remarked, pressing a finger to her chin in thought.

“I’m sorry, Chisaka! I didn’t mean to suspect you…”

“It’s quite alright. I, for one, believe that daring to suspect those around us is commendable, for the truth may, at the very last moment, unexpectedly shatter our perceptions…” Chisaka spoke with profound meaning, and my gaze sharpened, refocusing on her with renewed understanding.

“Precisely because of that… people often fear the truth,” Suzuki articulated thoughtfully.

Suzuki looked up, and following his gaze, I spotted another vent, though this one was sealed by a louvered grate.

“Returning to the matter at hand, we still have two places left to investigate.”

****

Suzuki and I entered the small storage room; there was one thing we needed to confirm here.

I distinctly remembered a hammer being stored inside the last time Kamimura and I visited this room.

Yet, after several thorough searches by both Suzuki and me, there was no trace of the hammer.

“It seems there are no more clues here… Let’s move on to the next place,” Suzuki stated.

As it turned out, the place Suzuki mentioned we hadn’t investigated was Amemiya’s room.

Unlike Kamimura’s room, an incredibly pungent odor wafted from within—it seemed someone had been using perfume as an air freshener. Several books were also stacked on the bedside table.

“’Japanese-Chinese, Chinese-Japanese Dictionary,’ ‘Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Japanese Dictionary,’ ‘Collins English-French Dictionary’… All dictionaries,” I murmured, picking one up and flipping through it. The sheer complexity of the pages instantly extinguished any desire I had to continue reading.

Truly befitting an Ultimate Linguist, I thought. As I prepared to return the dictionary to the table, I noticed a thin manga comic tucked away there. Its cover depicted two boys staring intently at each other.

‘What kind of manga is this…?’

Upon opening it, the images within instantly shattered my worldview! The embarrassingly explicit content rivaled even the adult comics I had glimpsed before… To think the two boys on the cover were involved in… *that* kind of relationship… Well, I suppose such romantic connections exist in the world too. Understood, understood.

“I never knew you liked reading this kind of thing?” Suzuki happened to glance at the manga’s contents, looking at me with an incredulous expression.

“N-no! It’s not like that! This manga was just on the table! I only looked at it out of curiosity!” I hastily explained, but he unconsciously took a step back, widening the distance between us.

Just then, a small note slipped from the bottom of the manga. Suzuki bent down, picked up the note before it hit the floor, and unfolded it.

Curious about its contents, I leaned in to read. The note stated: [Dear Young Lady, are you free at half past ten tonight? I haven’t been able to sleep these past few nights and was hoping to find some interesting books in the library… Do you have any recommendations, Miss Amemiya?]

‘This note… why is it unsigned…? That’s rather unusual… Could the note be from…?!’

Half past ten at night… At that time, Kamimura was likely already preparing to head to the third-floor library.

Amemiya died around ten forty-five, which means the culprit completed the murder between ten-thirty and ten forty-five…?

But if that logic holds, how did the note end up in Amemiya’s room? And to be tucked inside a manga, which was then hidden under a dictionary…

Could the killer have personally taken Amemiya’s key, hidden this conspicuous note in her room, and then returned the key?

That, however, seemed far too convoluted.

The culprit would likely not risk running back and forth from the third floor to the first; if they were witnessed by anyone along the way, their efforts would be completely wasted.

“Ehh… well, I’m getting tired of waiting… Shall we just start already?”

“Let the long-awaited class trial begin!”

“So then~ everyone, please gather at our usual spot!”

“Please enter the red door in the first-floor area. Puhuhu~ Well then, see you soon~!”

The broadcast in the room signaled the arrival of the class trial. Before I knew it… the moment for the second class trial had arrived. It was truly a somber realization.

Suzuki and I walked together toward the red door in the first-floor hall, and everyone else was also filing in.

Standing in the waiting room, I yearned intensely for her arrival, for even the silhouette of her shadow on the ground would have been enough to stir my heart.

But reality was not so kind.

As expected… she still hadn’t woken up.

“Hey! Monokuma! Don’t you know that Kamimura is missing among us?!” Yuusuke demanded, his face stern.

“That’s right! Anko is still… unconscious… How can you just hold a class trial without her knowing what’s happening…?” That was Osakabe’s voice, filled with concern for Kamimura.

“Monokuma, did you hear that?! Someone is absent from this class trial!” Katagiri protested indignantly.

“Hm~? So what~?” Monokuma feigned indifference, propping his paw on his chin and tilting his head, much like an ignorant child who had done wrong but refused to admit it.

“Of course, we should postpone the trial, you idiot! Holding a class trial like this isn’t fair to Kamimura!” Yuusuke clenched his fists, glaring furiously at the condescending Monokuma.

“But isn’t postponing the trial unfair to the culprit~?”

“You?! What did you say?! I-I can’t believe you’re actually siding with the killer…?!”

“What do you mean siding~? I’m simply conducting the class trial exactly as planned, without any changes~”

“What kind of ‘exactly as planned’ is that?!” Before Yuusuke could finish, Suzuki cut in, addressing him with a chilling bluntness:

“It’s no use. Can you truly expect anything from a creature that desires for us to kill each other?”

“D-damn it!” Not just Yuusuke, but even I felt a deep sense of indignation.

“That’s a rather cruel thing to say about me—but… perhaps I still have a shred of kindness, you know? Although I do love the despairing look on your faces when your last glimmer of hope is extinguished~”

“Alright! Everyone, hurry inside! I can’t wait any longer~” Monokuma urged us on, his face beaming with excitement.

Let’s go. Let’s find the true culprit who attacked Kamimura and killed Amemiya!

Even though Amemiya was an arrogant, eccentric girl who spared no mercy in her criticisms… she was still one of us, a companion.

And the person who brutally murdered Amemiya… is among us now.

The large door slowly closed before my eyes, and the freight elevator rumbled loudly, descending into the depths.

The deeper it sank, the more my unease swelled.

Yet, the freight elevator continued its relentless descent, unwavering, until…

The terrifying courtroom came into view.

“Same old rules~ everyone to your spots, and let the fierce class trial begin!”

I walked to my designated spot. Furuhata, Amagasa, and Amemiya’s places were marked by holographic projections of… their memorial photos.

Only Kamimura’s spot remained utterly empty.

Somehow, this blank space momentarily filled me with a strange sense of relief.

“Alright~ then, let’s begin! The second class trial!”

And so, we once again embarked upon…

A class trial of mutual suspicion and betrayal, with everyone’s lives on the line.

****

Testimony One: Around 11:40 PM yesterday, Takagi Masahiko woke up and received a note in his room, signed “Kamimura Anko,” which read:

When you see this note, please come to my room as soon as possible. If there’s no response from the room, it means a murder has occurred in the third-floor library. Remember! Do not act recklessly alone! Ensure your safety no matter what.

Testimony Two: When Takagi Masahiko received the note and rushed to the library, the door was locked from the inside. He then requested Monokuma’s help.

Upon opening the door, he immediately found Kamimura Anko collapsed beside it. Her wound was slowly bleeding, and she held a hammer in her hand, with only its flat surface stained with blood.

Testimony Three: Kamimura Anko had a wound on the right side of her head, seemingly caused by a blunt object such as a hammer or a wall. The fingers of both her hands had clearly visible dust, and her abdomen appeared to have suffered a severe kick from someone.

Additionally, she only had her personal room key on her person.

Testimony Four: A faint, blurry shoe print, resembling the sole of a sports shoe, remained on the abdominal area of Kamimura Anko’s clothing.

Testimony Five: The hammer previously kept in the small storage room is now missing.

Testimony Six: The library door was locked from the inside by someone this morning. After several investigations of the door, no hidden mechanisms or wires were found nearby.

Testimony Seven: Amemiya Wakaba’s body was covered by many books. There were large amounts of spattered blood next to the body, along with drag marks of blood. The back of her head had numerous linear wounds.

Amemiya Wakaba had a student ID and her room key on her person.

Testimony Eight: The contents of Monokuma’s File are as follows: The victim is Amemiya Wakaba… The time of death was around 10:45 PM. The crime scene where the body was discovered is the library.

The victim died inside the library. Her knees and arms sustained minor impacts. The fatal injury was excessive bleeding from the back of her head after being repeatedly struck by a blunt object.

Testimony Nine: On the left side, the first wooden bookshelf inside the library entrance has an indentation in the middle. An unknown student ID was found on the floor nearby. The bookshelf next to Amemiya Wakaba also has similar indentations, seemingly caused by being violently struck by the same type of blunt object.

Bloody shoe prints were found on the floor between the two bookshelves, both pointing towards the first bookshelf on the left. Their size and shape almost perfectly matched the shoe print on Kamimura Anko’s clothing.

Testimony Ten: The third bookshelf on the left side had fallen forward, and a quarter-circle scuff mark was found on the corresponding floor area.

Testimony Eleven: An extended telescopic ladder was placed in the gap of the inner room door in the library. Above the ladder was a circuit breaker controlling the library’s main power; pulling the lever would shut off all power to the library.

Testimony Twelve: Above the outer door of the inner room in the library, there was a ventilation opening about three meters high from the ground. It was sealed with an aluminum louvered grate at the time, but appeared to be removable by hand.

Testimony Thirteen: A drop of dark red blood was found at the third-floor washbasin, suggesting the culprit had been there. There was nothing unusual inside the male and female restrooms.

Testimony Fourteen: The water pipe outlet in the recording studio contained a small amount of water, and there were several noticeable dents on the side of the base plate.

Testimony Fifteen: An open ventilation shaft was located directly above the first-floor dormitory entrance. The hamster Suzuki Minoru had placed in the third-floor library’s ventilation shaft, given to us by Monokuma, was able to safely descend from this opening.

Testimony Sixteen: Inside the trash incinerator in the garbage disposal room, there was a blood-stained dark green raincoat. Directly above the incinerator was a sealed ventilation shaft. A short white hair was found inside the raincoat’s hood.

Testimony Seventeen: A note was found tucked inside a manga on Amemiya Wakaba’s bedside table. The content was as follows:

Dear Young Lady, are you free at half past ten tonight? I haven’t been able to sleep these past few nights and was hoping to find some interesting books in the library… Do you have any recommendations, Miss Amemiya?

The note was unsigned, and the handwriting was neat and clear.