The Culprit Revealed: An Unexpected Truth

Takahashi Aki’s face drained of color as she stared at me, wide-eyed with terror. “You?! How could you… appear… here?”

“Who knows? Perhaps… it’s just fate?” Kamimura Anko replied.

As the words left my lips, I stepped onto my designated platform.

Osakabe Nanase exclaimed, “Anko!” Her face beamed with pure joy, that single, brief address conveying the immense depth of her concern for me.

“Why, it’s our little beauty!” Katagiri Mimi chirped. “Welcome back!”

“Welcome back!” Arisumi Momoko added, as both girls clasped their hands together, their eyes sparkling with delight.

Ishii Yoshimi frowned slightly, her concern for me tinged with exasperation. “Your complexion still looks terrible,” she admonished. “Don’t tell me you rushed straight over the moment you woke up?!”

“I…” I began.

“No matter what, you should always prioritize your health,” Chisaka Erin chided. “Didn’t I write to you not to worry about us? And here you are, being reckless again…”

Chisaka-san lectured me like a mother, her initial joy at my sudden appearance quickly giving way to a pained expression and a weary sigh.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured, lowering my gaze and bowing my head slightly as I offered them my sincere apologies. “I’ve caused everyone so much worry…”

My impulsive actions must have troubled them for quite some time. Even if they didn’t scold or blame me, I knew I would be plagued by deep self-reproach and introspection.

“Alright, alright,” Akahira Yuusuke interjected. “It’s not your first time being reckless, after all. As long as you’re safe, nothing else matters.”

“Exactly, as long as you’re okay!” Akino Atsushi agreed.

Habara Kazuhiro added, “So, Kamimura-san, there’s no need to blame yourself. It’s truly fine!”

“And we owe a lot to Takagi, that kid,” Kitajima Kazumitsu pointed out. “If he hadn’t seen the note you left in the middle of the night, you might have really…”

“Heaven itself seems to favor him,” Suzuki Minoru mused. “Who could possibly stop him?”

As the Ultimate Lucky Student, Takagi Masahiko possessed a divine favor so profound it might as well have been the miraculous power bestowed upon him by the deities worshipped by all.

My chosen ally was indeed the right one; his abilities were utterly not to be underestimated!

“Takagi-kun, thank you,” I said, turning back to offer him a gentle, radiant smile, my eyes, brimming with warmth and color, meeting his.

“Ah, ah… don’t mention it!” Takagi Masahiko stammered, a blush creeping onto his youthful cheeks as his gaze darted nervously. “I only did what I had to do! The one you should really be thanking is Suzuki… It’s thanks to his guidance that we’ve all made it this far.”

“Thank him for what?!” Ishii Yoshimi scoffed, gritting her teeth and raising a clenched fist in disdain. “You have no idea how he treated me like the culprit back then! Just thinking about it makes my blood boil!”

“Uh… well… alright, you do have a point,” Takagi conceded, a corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

“Waaah, everyone hates me now…” Suzuki Minoru wailed, hanging his head and consoling himself tearfully.

Yes, I could well imagine the chaos he must have stirred up during the class trial.

While the process might have been convoluted, it was the final, positive outcome that truly mattered.

“I’m well aware of your usual methods,” I said, closing my eyes and lifting the corner of my mouth in a subtle, knowing smile. “In any case, you did help, didn’t you?”

“Indeed… you truly understand me best!” Suzuki Minoru beamed, his chest puffed out and his hands planted on his hips.

“It’s not just you, Suzuki, but all of you,” I stated, my gratitude heartfelt. “I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for your meticulous care and unwavering support.”

“Kamimura-san,” Takahashi Aki pleaded, her voice trembling with a tearful catch, “you wouldn’t just stand by and watch me be maliciously slandered by someone, would you? I know you’re a kind-hearted girl… I believe you can explain everything for me, can’t you…?” Her eyes, already blurred with tears, sought to elicit my sympathy with every wavering syllable.

“Kamimura!” Ishii Yoshimi cried out, quickly turning to me, sensing something was amiss. “She’s trying to manipulate you! Don’t fall for her tricks!”

“That person… is our sole and final suspect!” Akahira Yuusuke declared gravely. “What’s more, she’s skilled at disguising herself to deceive others! She doesn’t even spare herself!”

“She… she’s no longer the Takahashi-san we knew…” Osakabe Nanase whispered, her eyes filled with a profound sadness and regret. It was the first time I had ever seen her look so utterly heartbroken.

“Kamimura-san! They’ve all been bewitched by some cunning villain, just like me!” Takahashi Aki blurted out, her words frantic and incomprehensible, her mind clearly unraveling. “Don’t believe their lies! Only you and I are truly clear-headed here!”

“Actually, I have a way to clear your name,” I said, my voice calm and gentle, trying to soothe her tumultuous emotions and show her as much warmth and care as I could. “Could you please try to calm down first?”

“W-wait, wait a second! Ka-Kamimura-san, wh-what are you doing?!” Takagi Masahiko stammered, staring at me in utter disbelief, utterly shocked by my actions.

“Is this… real… or fake…? Is this still the person I know…?” Chisaka-san muttered, her eyes wide and mouth agape as she stared blankly, unmoving.

“Oh, oh… thank you so much, Kamimura-san…” Takahashi Aki wept, her eyes glistening with gratitude and relief, now beaming at me as she received my comfort and sympathy.

“Kamimura! Snap out of it!” Kitajima Kazumitsu roared, seeing me seemingly swayed by Takahashi’s feigned pitiful demeanor. “She’s the one who killed Amemiya-san and knocked you out to frame you!”

“Is that so?” I replied, a subtle challenge in my tone. “Then I’ll ask everyone to do just one thing… and the rest will be up to Takahashi-san. That way, we’ll prove once and for all whether she truly is the culprit.”

“Tell us,” Suzuki Minoru said, “I’ll follow your lead.”

For some inexplicable reason, in certain moments, this man seemed to possess a psychic ability, discerning my true thoughts as if we shared a telepathic connection.

“Shortly after the incident, I engaged in a struggle with the culprit,” I explained.

“We’ve already deduced that much,” Habara Kazuhiro stated. “What then?”

“I struck the culprit near their right arm with a hammer, leaving a distinctive bruise,” I revealed. “Therefore… everyone only needs to roll up their sleeves and expose their right arm for all to see. In doing so, the culprit’s identity will become immediately obvious.”

In the next moment, everyone promptly rolled up their sleeves, and I, too, unhesitatingly bared my arm.

Takahashi-san, however, remained frozen, her left hand resting on her right wrist trembling slightly, her gaze gradually becoming vacant and hollow.

“Takahashi-san,” I asked, my voice imbued with profound sincerity, “everyone else has rolled up their sleeves. Why are you still unresponsive?”

“I, I… th-this, I…” Takahashi Aki stammered incoherently.

The very next second, her face turned ashen white, like frost, and her entire being resembled a hollow puppet encased in beautiful skin, indistinguishable from a cold corpse.

“It seems the culprit’s identity has been revealed without a single blow,” I remarked, a subtle curve forming on my lips as I held my open palm flat against my chest, as if holding the enemy within my grasp.

“Hahahaha… you really are something, aren’t you?” Kitajima Kazumitsu laughed heartily, dismissing the tension.

“You scared me half to death…” Chisaka Erin gasped. “I really thought you were…”

“Alright! When we get back, I’m going to ‘do you in’!” Katagiri Mimi declared, nodding excitedly. “And you can forget about wearing your old clothes again!” Her words seemed to carry a playful, yet suggestive, intent regarding my body.

“Count me in! Count me in!” Suzuki Minoru eagerly added.

“Me too, me too!” Akino Atsushi chimed.

“What… are you all talking about…?” I asked, bewildered.

“You’ll find out when we get back!” Osakabe Nanase teased.

Watching the jovial group, a sudden unease settled over me.

The next moment, I turned, my eyes pleading as I looked at Takagi, certain he would understand my unspoken plea.

Upon seeing my expression, Takagi offered a wry smile, then let out a relieved sigh.

“Now, allow me to reveal the entire sequence of events surrounding this murder,” Takagi Masahiko announced.

“Based on the contents of the mysterious note found in Amemiya-san’s room, the culprit must have slipped it to her the previous evening, intending to lure her to the third-floor library and murder her.”

“Given that the small storage room and the cafeteria were under constant surveillance by everyone during the day, the culprit would not have acted rashly. Therefore, they planned to obtain the murder weapon under the cover of night.”

“Perhaps quite unfortunately for them… the culprit intended to retrieve the hammer from the storage room, only to find it inexplicably gone. They could never have imagined that the hammer had already been hidden away by Kamimura-san, leading to the failure of their plan that night.”

“Please wait a moment, Kamimura-san,” Chisaka Erin interjected, her sudden interruption and questioning catching me off guard, leaving me momentarily stunned and causing me to involuntarily pause. “Please answer me truthfully… why did you hide the hammer from the storage room?”

“Actually, that day I happened to overhear a conversation between the culprit and Amemiya-san,” I explained, trying to sound calm and collected. “Just to be safe… I hid the hammer in my room during the time before the culprit returned, fearing they might harbor ill intentions…”

I made my explanation as composed as possible, dreading that they might uncover any inconsistencies.

My true abilities… could not yet be revealed to others.

For if another culprit were to emerge in the future, I feared I would be their first target.

Consider it a white lie told for everyone’s sake.

Takahashi Aki remained silent.

“So, out of caution, you went to check on Amemiya-san last night,” Suzuki Minoru summarized, “but there was no response from her room. Therefore, you took a defensive weapon and attempted to go to the place she had visited with the culprit previously… Is that right?”

“Yes… that’s essentially it,” I confirmed.

“I see…” Suzuki Minoru said, then turned to Takagi. “Please continue.” He then shot me a smile, one that held an inscrutable meaning, seemingly meant only for my eyes.

“Then, after ten o’clock last night, the culprit once again lured Amemiya-san to the library,” Takagi Masahiko continued. “Unlike the previous night, this time the culprit had found a substitute weapon for the hammer: a Suikinkutsu (TL Note: A type of Japanese garden ornament that produces a pleasant dripping sound, often involving a buried earthenware jar and water, here used as a blunt weapon).”

A Suikinkutsu…? I never would have imagined the culprit used such an instrument to fight me that night…

Well, despite everything, I ultimately couldn’t overpower the culprit… and nearly lost my own life in the process.

It was truly a case of losing both the battle and the war!

“The culprit grasped the cylindrical handle of the Suikinkutsu and repeatedly struck Amemiya-san’s head with its base,” Takagi explained grimly. “Within a mere ten minutes, Amemiya-san tragically lost her precious life…”

“However, at that very moment, Kamimura-san suddenly burst into the library,” Takagi continued. “The culprit’s reactions were astonishingly sharp; noticing her wielding such a dangerous blunt object, they immediately retreated into the inner room.”

“Perceiving the situation as unfavorable, the culprit employed a cunning trick against Kamimura-san,” Takagi elaborated. “They switched off all the lights in the library, using visual interference to further impair her judgment.”

“Ultimately, the culprit successfully managed to knock Kamimura-san unconscious,” Takagi stated. “They then placed the bloodstained hammer into Kamimura-san’s hand, framing her for the murder.”

“Afterward, they hastily rushed to the sink to wash away the bloodstains from the Suikinkutsu, then returned it to its original place,” Takagi explained. “The culprit believed they had successfully pulled off a perfect deception, yet little did they know that a small amount of water remained inside the Suikinkutsu’s spout, and a trace of blood was left at the sink. These were the crucial flaws that exposed the culprit.”

“The culprit then returned to the library and locked the main door from the inside, their true intention being to fabricate this murder as a locked-room mystery.”

“Next was the culprit’s escape from the scene and the simultaneous process of disposing of the bloodstains on their person. First, the culprit stacked bookshelves to form a ladder and climbed into the ventilation duct. Before sealing the vent, the culprit forcefully pushed down the bookshelf leaning against the wall with both hands. Once the bookshelf fell, the culprit immediately sealed the vent and crawled backward into the first-floor ventilation duct.”

“The reason the culprit was able to descend safely from the third floor to the first was due to the unique structure of the ducts: the ducts between adjacent floors sloped downwards.”

So, the escape route Monokuma mentioned… was this? Its words at the time were truly double-edged.

“Following that, the culprit crawled to the ventilation opening in the first-floor garbage disposal room and dropped the bloodstained raincoat. The incinerator’s garbage chute was conveniently aligned with the overhead vent, allowing the culprit to effortlessly toss the raincoat inside with one hand.”

“Finally, the culprit crawled back to the ventilation opening near the dormitory exit, jumped down from there, and hastily returned to their room. Am I not right, ‘Ultimate Dancer,’ Takahashi Aki-san?”