Chapter 40:

DEMARCUS COUSINS IS OUT! FUCKIN' ACHILLES! JUST FUCK MY SHIT, FAM! (If it isn't obvious that most of this was written late January, early February 2018.) Seems like only a few chapters ago I was celebrating his arrival in the Big Easy! FUCK! This game can just rip your soul out sometimes. But we got Nikola Mirotic now, so I guess that helps somewhat.

And the Pelicans Clinched a Playoff Spot last night against the Clippers! (In case you couldn't tell that the rest of this was written during the midst of the most complicated NBA playoff race in NBA history). We want Portland!

"Oh fuck." Leon said as he arrived on the scene. "Kirigiri! Wait, why are there two bodies!"

. "Well, this is certainly interesting." Togami said. "I guess Naegi's sacrifice is in vain. We should wait for Monokuma." For there were two bodies, both dressed in clothes like Kirigiri's usual outfit.

. "She's not a girl who misses much./ Do do do do do do, oh yeah."

. "What do you mean? Naegi's sacrifice was in vain?" Maizono got all defensive.

. "She's a well acquainted with a touch of the velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane."

. "I mean, he takes the fall despite clearly not being the culprit, and Monokuma executes him anyway." Togami pointed out. "Clearly, he felt that Kirigiri brought more to the table for the group's survival. He, as you plebeians, would say "Took one for the team." It was a risky gamble, and it didn't pay off. She's gone and gotten herself killed."

. "I need a fix 'cause I'm going down./ Down to the bits that I left uptown/I need a fix 'cause I'm going down."

. "Ah hahahahahahaha. Let's check the bodies?" Genocider said, pulling out her scissors.

. "Fine, I'll leave it to you." Togami said.

. "Woah, woah, woah, who died and made you in charge?" Leon asked.

. Togami pointed at one of Kirigiri's bodies.

. "Very funny."

. "Hey dumbasses, quick arguing and let's get to work." Fujisaki said. "Togami, go check Kirigiri's room."

. "Why should I have to listen you?" Togami asked.

. "Mother Superior jump the gun"

. "Because I'm the one that remembered that you have her room key, you blond four eyed money fetishist." Fujisaki said.

. "I do not have a money fetish and I don't have her room key! Were you even paying attention?"

. "That's what you object to?" Maizono asked.

. "That's what's untrue!" Togami pointed out. "I am blond, and my glasses do make me look I have four eyes."

. "Happiness is a warm gun (bang bang shoot shoot)."

. "Oh, ho, ho, ho. Quite the entertainment spectacle we got here folks!"

. "Alright, first things first. We find her room key." Fujisaki said.

. "Here it is." Maizono said, immediately finding it.

"Fine, go check the room, Togami."

. Fujisaki was already uneasy before Monokuma strolled in when with a miniature television camera on his shoulder.

. "What is that?" Leon asked. "That television camera, you're filming us right now, aren't you? Have you no shame?"

. "I threw together a game where a bunch of high school prodigies are locked in a closed system. Shame went out the window. Still nothing on how Hope's Peak Academy treated the Reserve Course."

. "What?"

. "No time for his obvious ploys." Togami said. "We solve Kirigiri's murder first. We trigger his traps later, the sadistic teddy bear has his motives

. "Well don't you know that happiness (happiness) is a warm gun, (is a warm gun, yeah.)

. "Aww, you're not fun." Monokuma said.

. "Says the bear who decided to go with a cover instead of the original." Maizono said.

. "Hey, Beatles' songs cost a shit ton of money. How much budget do you think we have?"

. "Just go check her room." Fujisaki said. "Leon, go with him. Monokuma, let us know when we have five minutes left in our investigation, I want everybody back here." He glanced at the computer, beeping. "Genocider, Maizono, stay here."

. "So we're taking orders from the runt now, are we?" Togami asked as he left.

. "The runt who is stepping up as his classmates die around him, sure." Fujisaki said, as he began sitting in the armchair. "The headmaster's personal computer. Let's see if Kyoko Kirigiri ever got into this thing."

. Meanwhile, Maizono and Genocider were examining Kirigiri's body.

. "Wait a minute, why don't we have a Monokuma file?" Maizono asked.

. "Fucker probably thinks any information at all would be a dead give away to the culprit." Fujisaki said, as he began typing.

. Genocider made a note of where one of the bodies was, as she waved her scissors around. "It's strange though. She has one arm under the bed."

. "Hey, Senjougahara, put those damn scissors away." Fujisaki said, not even bothering to turn around. "And you, Monokuma, why are you still here?"

. "I'm filming a documentary. The story of an anime-loving, cross-dressing programmer who found confidence. So who is the biggest reason you are the way who are today? Your father? Your mother? Your headmaster?"

. "So with Kirigiri and Naegi out, now I'm your target. Go bother Togami. No wait, on second thought, stay here."

. Maizono reached under the bed and pulled out two bottles.

. "Found it."

. "What is it?"

. "One's a strong sleeping medication. The other is a bottle of Dk Pepper."

. "No wonder he hasn't given us a file. The cause of death is literally right here."

. "Yeah, she was forced to ingest sleeping pills using Dk Pepper in order to swallow the pills."

. Fujisaki was still frustrated at the computer. He had discovered that Jin Kirigiri had liked to play mahjong on his computer, but that was about it. He was a programmer, not some sort of 'Super Hacka' like those -channel users used to put it. That being said people tended to put clues to their passwords around their computers. He had no idea why. How hard was it to remember variations of literally one phrase?"

. "What'cha doing, what happens if you run out of time before the class trial?" Monokuma asking Fujisaki.

"What happens if you mess with this computer? It'd be called a dick move by your viewers."

. "Aw, how do you know I would mess with this computer?"

. "I wouldn't mess with this computer, if I don't mess with the crime scenes, why would I mess with the computer? You're clearly using it for something."

. "Wait, seriously?"

. "Yep, cross my heart. I have never messed with a crime scene."

. "Uh huh."

. Fujisaki found some of Hope's Peak's more savory financial records that weren't password-protected, probably because ordinarily, nobody except the Headmaster would have been using this computer.

. "Donations from some of the major financial players such as the Nanjo, Kirijo, and Towa Groups. Hell, what is money from S.E.R.N doing here? Are they mining for interns? Throw in Tadashi Pharmaceutical Chain and Strategic Focus, and this place just invited conspiracy theorists to have a field day. On the surface, this is not super-surprising, though. Major places will look into Hope's Peak students with useful talents and recruit them while they are still here."

. "Why do you think it's said that Hope's Peak Students that graduate are set for life?" Monokuma explained.

. "And you weren't satisfied with the system? Wanted to burn it all down?"

. "No. I wanted to create despair."

. "So you say."

. "I would never lie."

. "You would never tell the truth either."

. "It makes you think, with all of these donations, why did Hope's Peak bother creating the reserve course to exploit their money?"

. "What?"

. "Oh yeah, the money of the reserve course students was meant to fund that of the talented branch. Your kind. I mean, they're nice, but donations aren't a reliable source of income."

. "Who are you? A disgruntled reserve course student?"

. "Nope, none of them are in here. Most of them are dead. All of them who were enrolled committed suicide. Save for a few."

. "And these survivors? What made them so special?"

. "They simply got lucky enough for various reasons not to be present when the mass suicide took place."

. "Uh huh."

. Fujisaki decided that it was time to shut down looking into the computer. He would have to get into it later. For now, he needed to focus on this conundrum in front of him.

. "Two bodies? What is she playing at?"

. Fujisaki began inspecting the body that Genocider and Maizono weren't at.

. "Investigating bodies. Crazy. Amazing what a week and a half does. I don't even know any more. I've lost track of how many days we've been in here."

. "This is Knuckles, and you've have reached the Death Chamber."

. Fujisaki was stuck. Where was he supposed to begin?

. "What about her pockets?" He muttered to himself.

. From front to back all I see is thorns/ I'm glad that I don't call this home.

. He began inspecting her pockets on her jacket. It was weird. His brain began going back to his days a a novice programmer to keep his mind straight. While (unsolved murder == true), {inspect the body for clues}. For (unsolved death = 0; unsolved death 16; unsolved death ++) {solve the death}. Do {solve the crime}, while {unsolved culprit == true}. If (corpse == true), find {cause of death} else {continue investigating for a way out}. It was all so simple and elegant. Life was nothing but a series of programs and problems to sketch out in pseudo-code and if necessary, programmed into lines of codes. Especially if that project, Amadeus, was continuing to make strides without him.

. "Stay alive." Fujisaki said. "You have a spot at Viktor Chrondria University to claim once this killing game is over. Though I guess it would be as undergraduate ib college now."

. He sighed in frustration. "How did it come to this?"

. The first body definitely looked like Kyoko Kirigiri. But what was once had been long pale lilac hair had been cut off. It was shorter. He removed the left hand glove off the corpse. The hand showed no signs of damage. And neither did the arms once Fujisaki had rolled up the there was some sort of ink on the inside of the glove. It seemed important. Fujisaki made note of it in his student handbook.

. "Even after all this time, it still doesn't feel real. Unless..."

. Fujisaki's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Celeste.

. "Celeste?"

. "Sorry, I'm late. I didn't have time to do my makeup. Now that I know that we're on television, I wanted to look presentable at all times."

. "I didn't know you had freckles."

. "Well, sorry, what happened here?"

. "We have two bodies, one victim."

. "I didn't think that was possible."

. "Oh, it's very possible. Remember how Mukuro's corpse suddenly showed up?"

. "Shouldn't there be fundamental differences in the bodies between them?"

. "Yeah, well none of us are detectives, and we don't have a third dead body to compare them to."

. Meanwhile, Togami had returned to Kirigiri's room. Monokuma had been gracious and unlocked it for him.

. "Wait, how do we know her room contains anything of significance?"

. "Well, I mean, we'll see." Leon said.

. "Do you suspect me?" Togami asked as he returned to Kirigiri's room for the second trial in a row. "After all, I had her room key for most of the time in between trials four and five."

. And then, not content with the Beatles "Happiness is A Warm Gun", Monokuma had switched music tracks to Zerosum's theme from Code Jeass.

. "Flair for dramatic, much?" Leon couldn't help pointed out, as half of a squabble could be heard over the intercom.

. "All right, Souda, listen here. You happy now, I'm playing some of your tracks!"

. "I wonder if you know/how they live in Tokyo,"

. "If you seen it, then you mean it/Then You know you have to go fast and furious!"

. Kirigiri's room had changed much since trial five. While her room still lacked personal articles, it looked now looked like a war zone. There were sword slashes every where.

. "Holy crap." Leon said. "What happened?"

. "That's what I'd like to know and how?" Togami said. "She still had the room key on her corpse."

. Togami looked around.

. "What's this?"

. "Is that a gun?" Leon asked.

. "No, it's a water pistol." Togami sarcastically said, aiming it around as he unloaded the chamber.. " I think we have may have the murder weapon."

. Leon examined the bullets. They were cold.

. "Plastic. What's a gun with plastic bullets doing here?"

. "I have a idea." Togami suddenly had a realization as he booked it to the fifth floor and the dojo. He walked up to the archery range and checked behind it.

. "A ha! Knew it! Figured as much."

. "Figured what?"

. "If you were going to hide a shooting range, you would put it behind the archery range."

. Leon peered behind. All of the elements necessary for a shooting range were there. The targets and practice guns had been hidden from sight.

. "Ah, you found it." Monokuma said. "I had the archery range put up. I was hoping the shooting range would never come into play."

. "Why? It would ruin your little game?" Togami pointed. "Deadly projectiles make murder too easy to execute after all."

. Now that he was here, Togami had a chance to reflect on the last trial.

. "Naegi wasn't the culprit, and yet the mastermind used the trial as an excuse to execute him anyway. And now he's sitting at the bottom of the dumpster where he's unable to be reached. Kirigiri the one he saved is now dead." Togami had a realization. "Shit, she's playing us."

. "She?"

. "Yeah, the culprit."

. "Togami, do you already know who the culprit is?"

. "I've narrowed it down to possibilities. I'll explain at the class trial."

. Fujisaki began checking the second body. This one still had long hair. He rolled up the sleeves, feeling that wasn't indecent in respecting the dead. This one showed signs of a struggle with sword slashes and cuts all over her arms.

. "I wonder if either Maizono or Genocider had noticed this."

. "It just occurred to me." Celeste said. " Without Naegi, this is turning into your show."

. "What do you mean?"

. "You're dictating the tempo, much in the same way Naegi used to. Sure things went on that he had no control over, but still."

. Fujisaki now had a conjecture once he had finished checking the second body. Genocider and Maizono were still standing guard at the front of the room.

. "Ding Dang Dong. It's time for Trial 110. Trial 20. Trial 12. Trial 11. Trial 10. Trial 6. Whatever you want!"

. "God-damn binary-based joke." Fujisaki said.

. The remaining students made their way to the Trial Room and to the elevator. How many days had it been since they started? Fujisaki looked at the cameras. Six trials, they had come so far, and yet there were still stuck here.

"We're reaching the end. Maybe. With the five non-culprits left, at most we can have two more trials."

. "Fujisaki, are you all right?" Maizono asked, slightly concerned.

. "Yeah, just doing some math in my head."

. "About what?"

. "How many trials we have left."

. "And what did you conclude?"

. "Assuming a culprit in this trial. With five students remaining, two. A second future culprit would be able to finish off the other students. And since they wouldn't have any other students, they couldn't get caught by their peers. Which means they would leave."

. "So we're nearing the end-game."

. "One way or another. Yes. And Monokuma knows it. Makes me wonder why he provided motives. At most he was going to get seven trials. It was just a fluke that he managed to squeeze out an extra trial by the deceased Hagakure being the culprit for Trial 4."

. "Well, it's been a wild ride so far."

. "Yeah. I never thought I would survive this long."

. All six of them took their positions. A new sign post for Kirigiri was up as well as Naegi. It bothered Maizono. Never in this whole game did she ever think Naegi would be gone before her.

. "Well well well, buckaroos. What are you going to do without your two best ace detectives?" Monokuma taunted.

. "I'm sorry. Are you just insulting our intelligence now?" Celeste asked.

. "No. Not at all. You guys have to be intelligent." Monokuma replied.

. "Let's solve this. Wouldn't want Monokuma to throw a fit because his game ended early." Fujisaki said.

. "Hey, what's that supposed to be mean?"

. "Nothing." Celeste said. "But I think what Fujisaki is trying to say that we started at fifteen. Assuming an even amount of culprits and victims gives us seven trials. And here we are at trial six. Basic math says that six people making it to trial six puts us on the high side of ledger."

. "Yeah, but ledgers are always balanced."

. "Indeed they are." Celeste said with a smile. "And right now, someone's ledger is unbalanced."

. "Probably Monokuma, he's the one who thought who thought offering an avalanche of money was a good motive." Fujisaki said.

. "Well, I mean, I was..." Leon said.

. "Quick with your lovers' quarrel" Genocider said.

. "And the award for reading the mood goes to Genocider Syo." Fujisaki sarcastically replied.

. "Hey, we're on the big screen for who knows how many people." Genocider said. "We should play it up."

. "No, we shouldn't." Togami said. "We should get this done. Do we have a time of death?"

. "I remember looking at the clock." Fujisaki said. "It was around 3 P.M when we found her body."

. "So it's safe to assume that murder took place before 3 PM?" Togami said. "When's the last time anybody saw her?"

. "Come to think of it, has anybody else seen her since last night?" Genocider asked."

. "Weren't you the one who claimed their already knew the culprit?" Leon said.

. "Of course." Togami said. "But patience is a virtue. This must be worked out rationally."

. "Alright, so what's your theory?" Celeste said. "It better not be another dead student like with Hagakure."

. "No, it's not." Togami said. "My primary suspect is Sayaka Maizono."

. "Huh?" Maizono asked. "Wait, what!"

. "That's who you suspected." Leon said. "Why am I not surprised?"

. "Hey, what's that supposed to be mean?" Maizono asked.

. "You blamed Kirigiri for Naegi's death. Figured you would murder Kirigiri."

. "Well, I can't fault your reasoning. But wild accusations do nothing." Maizono argued back. "I would like some evidence."

. "Alright." Togami said. "Well, my first reason is how the body was positioned. Genocider told me you two found empty bottles. Do you deny that?"

. "Well, no." Maizono said. "Is that all?"

. "The second reason is that I found a way for you to acquire a gun and plastic bullets."

. "And you think I did."

. "Something like that."

. "How?"

. "The archery range is also a shooting range. It has guns, plastic bullets, and all the items necessary to pull this off."

. "Meaning?"

. "When's the last time we saw Kirigiri?" Maizono asked.

. "We saw her this morning. Remember, during Fujisaki's little explanation about the origins of the Internet." Leon said.

. "That was about 10 O'Clock. So she was still alive." Celeste said.

. "You weren't there when the discussion began." Leon pointed out.

. "What are you implying? Are you pointing the finger at me ?"

. "Yeah!"

. "Of course!"

. "And here we go again!" Genocider said. "You were the one that saw the bottle and immediately offered a suggestion. That seems almost too convenient."

. "Are you calling me stupid?"

. "I'm calling you guilty." Genocider said. "So it's Maizono, then? Bitch has a motive and a method." Genocider excited snipped. "And after I taught you how to throw scissors in the dojo too! That's when you discovered the shooting range!"

. "LISTEN GENOCIDER! IT WASN'T ME. YOU WERE THERE WITH ME."

. "Wait, what!" Togami said. "Why didn't you mention that early?"

. "Because when I went there with Genocider, I was there the entire time until the body discovery announcement." Maizono said.

. "That wouldn't have stopped you from being there earlier."

. "Why you little?"

. "Your room is very near Kirigiri's." Togami said. "That could easily account for the state of her room.". "What?" Fujisaki said.

. "There are swords slashes and bullet holes from plastic bullets all over the place. Obviously, Maizono jumped Kirigiri in her room, and used the sword slashes and -"

. "How do we know that those two fought in there?" Celeste asked.

. "Because one of the corpses had sword slashes all over her arms." Fujisaki said.

. "But we don't know if that corpse is the real one. There are two corpses. One of them is Kirigiri. The other one is a fake. How do we know the sword slash one is the real one?"

. "Are you saying there was an entire fake crime scene set up?" Togami said.

. Fujisaki pondered and pondered. "I think she may be onto something. Where would the sword have come from?"

. "That sword in the atrium." Togami pointed out.

. "And how would Maizono have gotten the sword in the atrium?" Fujisaki said. "It's been missing since well before the last trial. Maizono's motive would have been revenge against Kirigiri for Naegi. Why would she take the sword when Naegi is still alive?"

. "She could have used the guns like Genocider said, and Kirigiri used the sword."

. "We learned from Naegi in the last trial that he had the sword versus the masked intruder." Celeste said. "And that it was gone when he woke up."

. "Uh huh." Maizono said. "So if the masked intruder took the sword..."

. "And the masked intruder was Mukuro Ikusaba..." Celeste continued.

. "Then neither Maizono nor Kirigiri could have used the sword."

. "Exactly."

. Togami was scratching his head. "Something doesn't add up, unless that happened."

. "You think someone found Mukuro's sword." Fujisaki said.

. "Exactly." Togami said. "It's possible Maizono found the sword, and used it whap Kirigiri."

. "So now we're back to me again?" Maizono said, indiginantly.

. "Not necessarily. Anyone could have found the sword." Celeste said.

. "Or what if the corpse wasn't Ikusaba?" Togami said. "We potentially got it wrong. The corpse of Trial 5 turned out to be Kirigiri instead. Remember, the corpse of Trial 5 was never identified in the Monokuma file."

. "Where are you going with this?" Leon asked. "We agreed it was Ikusaba because of the tattoo."

. "Okay, but that doesn't explain everything." Fujisaki said. "On one of the bodies, I found the markings of a tattoo on the left hand under the glove."

. "Wait, seriously?" Leon asked.

. "If one of the bodies is Ikusaba, and the other body is Kirigiri. That would explain where the two corpses come from." Fujisaki said. "Unbelievable. A recycled corpse."

. "But where could it have come from?"

. "The Biology Lab. All the components would have come from the Biology Lab."

. "So the culprit murdered Kirigiri and was able to get into the Biology Lab using …." Genocider said.

. "But we all knew about the key?" Genocider said.

. "Does anybody know if the key on her corpse?" Leon asked.

. "No." Fujisaki said. "It wasn't. I checked."

. "The first one to check the bodies was... Maizono."

. Maizono simply smiled. "You got me. Took you long enough. Your ideas for a motive was completely correct. I got rid of Kirigiri for what she did to Naegi. With him out of the way, there's no way he can be executed. And I don't give a damn about the rest of you. And with that, I press this." She pressed the button on her two-way receiver.

Author's Note: I know it's been a while. I was trying to make this a two-parter, but without padding, it couldn't be done. The Chapters would have been too short. If you have questions or comments, please leave them in the review.

I've also started a video series on Youtube called "Messing Around". The first episode involving Sonic Mania should be up by the time this goes up.