Chapter 2.4 - The Despair of the Boxer



"LET ME GO! LET ME GO!"

He held on to Ruby's waist from behind with both arms as she punched, kicked and clawed out blindly at him in an attempt to get loose from his imprisonment. Her eyes were so filled with tears that she could barely see, but she kept trying to escape, so she could return to the classroom, and were she any taller she would've succeeded.

"SHE'S MY SISTER! SHE NEEDS HELP!" Her voice pierced through his eardrums, a high-pitch scream of sheer desperation.

"Ruby, she's gone!"

"SHE CAN'T BE! SHE PROMISED! SHE JUST NEEDS A DOCTOR!"

"What on remnant is happening here?"

Jaune turned with surprise at the source of the voice, had amidst that mess forgotten about the existence of the others, and saw Weiss Schnee looking irately at him. The sharpshooter took his distraction as an opportunity, and struggled against his grip, finally becoming free. By the time he realized it, she was already speeding to the door, and he could not stop her.

The boy was about to give chase when he saw movement by the corner of his eye, and he looked over just in time to have a hand slap him across the left cheek. He felt the skin burn up, and stared in disbelief at the singer who was right in front of him.

"I should've expected you of all people to drop so low." There was spite in her voice, there always was, but this time there was something else: betrayal. Not jealousy, naturally, but the shattering of any tiny form of respect she had gained from his recent behavior.

"It's not..."

"Speak up, I can't hear you!"

"Yang..." He failed to form coherent words, and it took a moment for her to register what he was trying to say. When the proverbial lightbulb lit up, she hurriedly left him behind and ran to the classroom.

DING DONG DING DONG

"A body has been discovered. Get your detectives hats out, because we'll be holding a trial soon!"

The Ultimate Lucky Student sighed, letting a void of darkness fill his heart, choosing numbness over tears. He silently prayed to all the gods that would be the last time he would hear that awful announcement, and slowly marched back to the murder scene.

He tried not to look, but it was impossible to avoid looking at such a graphic display, still every bit as disturbing as the moment he had first laid eyes on it. Weiss hadn't made it very far past the entrance, staring at the brawler with wide eyes and her slender hands covering her mouth. The sharpshooter was standing by the corpse, her trembling fingers struggling in vain to undo the knots around her sister's wrists.

Jaune swallowed dryly, and reluctantly walked over to the stage. The ivory girl broke out of her daze as he passed by her, and said something about 'warning the others' before running back out. She seemed shook, and he didn't blame her; he was shook himself as well. But he knew whatever he felt at the moment, Ruby was no doubt suffering tenfold.

"Ruby..."

"Why are you just standing there? Help me!" She kept fumbling pointlessly with the rope, her hands trembling too much to be of any use in such a task.

"It's no use. You heard the announcement, she... Yang's gone."

"No! She..." Her shout faded and turned into a single sob. "She can't be..."

The blond dashed forward as he saw her knees falter, propelling her down to the floor. He caught her just before she hit the large blood puddle, and gently pulled her away from the corpse. The sniper allowed herself to be moved, tears now flowing profusely out of her silver eyes.

She grabbed on to his sweater, pulling on the black fabric with clenched fists, and screamed wordlessly. Jaune held her tighter, as tight as his arms could, ignoring the shoulder quickly becoming soaked in her tears.

Not long after, Weiss came back, bringing with her the rest of the class. They had heard the announcement, they had been warned about what had happened, but they were not ready for the sight of the actual crime scene, just as he hadn't been. It was a ghastly sight, a nightmare straight from the most tenebrous of stories, and the deceased's sister crying on the floor wasn't of any help either.

Nora clenched her fists, displaying uncharacteristic anger. Pyrrha covered her mouth with her hands, hiding away any shock or grief she was feeling. Emerald pinched her nose to try to keep away the invasive iron smell.

Gradually, Ruby settled down, although the lack of tears didn't mean the storm was done tormenting her. She moved away from him, and stood up with the help of a nearby desk, her muscles feeling too weakened to work by themselves.

"We have to do it again, don't we?" The girl wiped her eyes, trying so hard to stay strong.

Jaune nodded. "Pyrrha, do you mind guarding the crime scene?"

The redhead looked at him with a confused look, but accepted. She was the only athletic type still left, and therefore the most well-suited for the task.

"I'll stay too." Velvet stepped forward, and moved to her side.

"Hey, has anyone seen Blake?" The whole class turned to Sun, who had uttered those words.

"Now that you mention it, where is she?"

"Very suspicious..."

"We should worry about her later. The clock is ticking on the investigation."

Neo waved, ensuring all eyes were on her. "I'm checking the library. Clues are probably all on this floor."

"Right, I'll come with." Sun took off with the mute, not even waiting for the other's opinions.

"Then I shall take the pool." Weiss put her mask of composure up again, even though he knew by now how much of it was just pretense. "Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"Want to join me?"

The sharpshooter looked back at the body of sister, letting out an almost imperceptible shudder, and then murmured a feeble 'okay'. The ivory-haired singer led her outside, leaving only four students left.

"Okay, so... Does anyone want to take the downstairs? Just in case..."

"You can count on me, Jaune!" Nora tried to sound jovial and energetic, but it fell fall to all that were present, unable to hide her fear.

"I guess I'll tag along. You boys can handle..." Em waved her hand at the corpse with a disgusted grimace. "...all of that."

As they vanished from the classroom, Jaune breathed out in relief, glad that the class was finally taking matters into their own hands and working together, meaning his act as a makeshift leader was no longer necessary. He glanced over at Ren, apparently his partner for that investigation, but the chef was busy with his Scroll. It took him a couple of seconds, but he soon understood why the boy was seemingly distracted.

"Do you think we have a Monokuma File again?"

Ren nodded. "We do."

Retrieving his own device, he punched the necessary buttons, and unlocked the new report.

Monokuma File N°2

The victim was Yang Xiao Long, the Ultimate Boxer.

Her body was found at 10:25am in classroom 2-B.

The body shows signs of impalement, as well as some other cuts and bruises.

Time of death was 10:10pm of the previous day.

He looked to the side, seeing the blonde girl with a metallic rod still stuck in her abdomen. 'Signs of impalement' my ass. He knew the bear was just trying to rile him up, but it was working. He felt so angry, an immense resentment towards the fluffy mastermind of that sick game. It was enough that he was playing with their lives, he was also enjoying himself. What kind of twisted mind could take pleasure from such a thing?

Dumping the device back into his pocket, he took a couple of tentative steps in the direction of the body. It had been hard with Penny, but this time it was so much worse. The pool of dark-red blood on the floor, clotted and glimmering, emanating that metallic smell that grew in intensity with each step he took. The twisted scene of torture-like grittiness. He felt as if he was about to unload the entirety of hos breakfast on the wooden-tiled ground. To add insult to injury, he not only had to stomach the sight, but he also had to investigate it.

"Really wish Blake was here, she's a lot better with that stuff."

"It's strange that she's missing. Very, very strange."

He looked back at the dark-haired boy, who wielded a serious pensive expression, one of his hands rubbing his chin as if the act would magically enhance his perceptiveness. "Huh?"

"The fourth rule, remember? 'A student can only kill two people.'"

"You think she's..."

The cook shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sure she's fine. She can take care of herself, no doubt."

"I hope so..." You're not helping. After too long of beating around the bush, the lucky student swallowed the bile in his mouth, and finally began investigating.

The most striking resemblance about the body was, of course, the Metal Rod poking out from her. It was a cylinder of one arm's length, and only two inches thick, its surface a chrome grey where it was not stained with red. The tip of the baton had a small rubber tip, almost like the foot of a piece of furniture, whereas the other end was well lodged within Yang's abdomen, perforating so much that it could stand on its own without falling.

Jaune suppressed his will to touch the wound to investigate how deep it was and where it had struck internally, fearing the endurance of his revolting insides. Thus, he moved on to the woman's arms, bound apart by Elastic Rope, that also tied them to the edges of the blackboard. The rope was black, and had little weights on each end, but there were no signs of foul play in them.

Aren't those from the pool? They looked oddly similar to the ones he had found in the changing room, stashed along with other training gear. He made a mental note to return there later, and compare them.

The boy instinctively took another look at the corpse's face, almost as if expecting it to suddenly come back to life. Her lifeless lilac eyes looked like they were staring into him, blaming him for her death. It was then he noticed something else, a thick red line above the girl's brow, peeking from under her golden mane. He moved the hair out of the way, and took a better look at the Forehead Cut. It appeared to be recent, considering it hadn't closed, but it seemed to have been cleaned, as there was no blood coming out of it. It felt odd to find that blemish. He couldn't recall her having it before. Was it related to the murder, or was it just a red herring? It didn't make much sense for the killer to clean up a cut when there was so blood on the rest of the scene, but the possibility wasn't completely unthinkable.

He stepped back to contemplate the whole scene, feeling shivers rock his spine. He wasn't yet ready to put the pieces together, but there was something bothering him about it all.

"Why go to the trouble of tying her up? It seems... unnecessary."

"Maybe the killer wanted to show off."

"What?"

"The rope, the metal pole, it's almost like they put on a display for us to see."

His eyes widened in terror. "Why would they do that?"

"Maybe they wanted to send a message?" Jaune couldn't even find an appropriate answer for that.

Finding himself monologuing, Ren walked away and approached the corpse once more, raising his hands to the girl's scarf. Before he could be questioned about it, he gently pulled the accessory away from the body, revealing faint red Marks on the Neck.

"Huh? What is that?"

"Strangling Marks."

"...the hell? She was strangled too?"

"Apparently. Hard to tell with that, though. Those don't look like hand marks."

"Sigh I hate doing this."

The chef moved to put the scarf back on, in a pointless attempt to keep the body's dignity intact. It was then that he noticed something else.

"Oh!"

"What? Is there something else?"

"Yes, look here." The dark-haired boy pushed her jacket just slightly to the side, showing four red scrapes in her skin. They were Scratch Marks, not deep enough to be caused by an animal, not that there were any in the school, meaning they had to be human-made.

"What the hell happened here?" There were too many clues on her body, many of them seemingly contradictory. The more he investigated, the more lost he felt.

Jaune looked at the room around them, scattered in complete disarray. It seemed like a clue as much as anything they had found on the body. There were a couple of Smashed Desks, and most others toppled over, only a handful remaining in place. There were shards of glass on the floor, scattered the splintered furniture. Any way he looked at it, it appeared like a hurricane had tore through the classroom.

Beneath the chaotic mess, he caught a glimpse of a familiar orange object: Yang's duffle bag. It made sense for it to be there, the boxer always carried it with her when she was going to train, which in his experience was all the time. He felt guilty for wanting to see what was inside it, like he was going to peek at her most intimate belongings, but he couldn't pass on the chance that it would have vital clues within. Besides, it was not like she was going to get mad at him for it now.

The first thing that struck him when he walked forward to further investigate was the Blood Splatter on the floor. It wasn't substantial, not when compared to the concentration under and around Yang, but it was there nonetheless. I was hard to tell where they had originated from since they were a good five feet from the corpse, and thus dislocated from the main source of bleeding. Had the killer bled when confronting her?

Walking around it, so as not to disturb the evidence, he kneeled next to the duffle bag and reached for the long zipper. It was already open.

Peeking out from the opening was a metallic glimmer, so that was what Jaune grabbed first. To his surprise, the item he retrieved was a familiar pair of Open Handcuffs. There was hardly a reason for it to be surprising, Blake wasn't currently bound to Yang, so their cuffs had to be elsewhere, but he had somehow let the detail slip his mind. Where was the cat faunus? Was she okay? Why were the shackles in the boxer's bag? He had more questions than answers at the moment.

Continuing to dig through the bag, he found loose clothing, the gloves and protections they had used in the training sessions, and two towels.

Why would she need two? He grabbed one of them, and looked closely at it. It was dry and soft, and had not distinguishing features apart from the...

No... No, no, no, no! He used all of his self-control not to visibly freak out, but inside he was a convoluted mess of panic and doubts.

The towel had a little drawing of a bunny in the corner, the sign he used to mark his possessions. The towel found in the crime scene was his.

Why was Jaune's Towel there? Had Yang accidentally brought it with her? Or had it been the killer? Why did fate keep trying to involve him in every murder? So much for Lucky Student.

Without thinking twice about it, he shoved the towel back into the duffle bag, and zipped it back shut, leaving the pair of cuffs outside. It wasn't like he was hiding evidence, right? After all, he was certain he was not involved in the killing, so it had to be nothing but a coincidence.

Finally, just the slightest more calm, he moved on to the pieces of glass on the floor. They too looked disjointed from the crime scene - there was nothing broken or made of that material inside the classroom, not even the windows, who were still covered in metal.

The lucky student picked up one of the shards, bringing it close to his face si he could see it in detail. It was curve and smooth, like the piece of a Shattered Bottle. He couldn't tell what it contained, however, since it had no visible label.

"Found anything useful?" He yelped at the sudden voice behind him, to which she giggled softly, even despite them being in the presence of the deceased.

"I... Plenty. Hey, Pyrrha? There was something I wanted to ask you."

"What is it?"

"The Monokuma file places the time of death at 10:10pm, that's when we were in the pool, right?"

"I think so. Didn't you hear the nighttime announcement? It plays at 10pm every day."

"You're right... Oh Oum, then it happened while we were so close by! How did we not hear it?"

Their conversation was forcefully ended by a slam on the door, putting an abrupt stop to Pyrrha's Testimony. Sun came inside, breathing heavily like he had just ran a marathon. Upon the confused sight of the ones already inside, the monkey faunus raised his hand to ask for a break, and after not more than three seconds, he finally shed some light on the reason that has brought him there with such haste.

"You guys need to come quick! It's Blake, we found her!"

Jaune was practically biting his fingernails by the time arrived at the library, even though it was right next to the murder scene. The blonde faunus had rushed back out after those ominous words, providing no explanation besides the one their imaginations could muster. He knew what he'd find behind that door, the horrors that awaited inside, and he wasn't sure his already faltering sanity could take another blow before breaking.

Ren moved ahead, sensing his hesitation, and opened the entrance. Pyrrha and Velvet had stayed behind, guarding the body.

As he crossed the doorway, the boy was surprised by the lack of body announcement on the nearby speakers. Why was it not ringing? It was a part of the rules, that the announcement would play when at least three people had found a b-

"Blake?"

"Oh, hey Jaune." The girl was sitting down on top of a table, with a hand pressed against the back of her head like it was hurting unbearably.

"What the hell, Sun, I thought she was dead!"

"Hey, man, that's not my fault. I said nothing about no one being dead."

Yeah but you made it sound like it! He glanced at the chef, who nodded at him. "You could've done a better job communicating."

"Why was all the rush then?"

"We came in and she was knocked out on the floor!"

The brunette grimaced, clearly unhappy with the memory, but as far as Jaune could tell they were telling the truth, despite how unbelievably suspicious it all sounded. Or perhaps he was being too trusting.

"What happened?"

"Someone came behind me and put a rag around my nose. I think it had chloroform in it."

"Chloroform?"

"It's a chemical that makes you unconscious when you breath in its vapors." Neo elucidated with a pre-prepared explanation for that exact circumstance. He couldn't be sure if the grin currently on her face was because she enjoyed being helpful, or a way of rubbing in his face how predictable and easy to read he was. Probably the latter, but truth be told he didn't know the mute all too well.

"That hardly seems like something you'd find in an average household."

"Where would you even get something like that?"

Neither one of them had an answer for that mystery.

"Do you remember anything else, anything that could help us figure out who did it?"

"Well, when they attacked me I instinctively tried to defend myself. They should have a pretty nasty scratch on the right shoulder." Upon hearing Blake's Testimony, Jaune and Ren traded a terrified glance, much to her confusion. "What?"

"Yang, she... had scratch marks like that." It didn't occur to him that she might not have known about the boxer's fate, but luckily, she seemed to have been filled in by Neo already.

"That's not possible. Yang couldn't have been the one to do it..."

"Weren't you two handcuffed to each other? I recall you refusing to be released yesterday." It was only when Ren pointed it out that Jaune realized that very same inconsistency.

"I..."

"They asked me to open their cuffs yesterday after dinner." Sun spoke up, offering her a helping hand.

"You... Why? What was all that speech about complying with Monokuma for then?"

"We were serious about it! But, Yang asked for a little time to herself, and of course I agreed. We were going to put them back on afterwards." The more she spoke, the more it all seemed too convenient, with all the evidence pointing to her and little more than her own testimony on the defense side. Jaune was trying his best not to take any conclusions just yet, though. There was certainly more to that case, nothing was ever that simple.

"I can confirm, at least that's what Yang told me yesterday. I can't say so for what happened afterwards, obviously." Sun's Testimony seemed to corroborate everything she said. Was it possible that they were working together?

"Hmm, okay. Did you find anything else?"

"We haven't really checked the rest of the library."

"Okay, let us know if any new clues come up." He and the chef turned to leave, since there was apparently nothing else be learned there. When they crossed the door to the hallway, Blake followed them out.

"You suspect me, don't you?"

The luckster failed to come up with an answer, but his partner did it for him. "It's too early to say yet."

The cat faunus nodded. "Is it okay if I inspect the body? I know you already did it, but..."

"It's fine, go ahead. Maybe you'll find something we didn't."

With that she took off. There was an odd look in her eyes, quite unlike her usual unfazed expression. They had all been affected by the latest loss, but she was the only one displaying signs of guilt. Whether that was from having played a part in the murder, or simply for failing to protect her companion, he could not yet know.

"What do you think of what they said?"

"It's odd, to say the least. Almost like those two are up to something." The neutral tone with which the cook said those words was rather off-setting.

"But why would they cover for each other? I thought only the murderer graduated."

"Well, there's only one way to know for sure." The silence that followed implied he expected the blond boy to do it.

"Ugh... Hey, Monokuma?"

"Did somebody call?" The bear almost fell from the ceiling, dropping right in front of them. Considering how quickly the mascot responded, it was clear he had been spying on them.

"Yeah, we have a question."

"You always do, Jauney Boy. Are you sure this is about the case, or are you just trying to unlock my romance route? The headmaster and a student, oh my that would be scandalous!"

"Oh, shut up and listen."

"In the event of two students committing the crime, which one would graduate?"

"The killer, of course. It only matters who dealt the killing blow."

"So, if someone planned the whole thing, but wasn't the one to put the final blow on the victim, would he not count as the murderer?" Dear Oum, man, are you helping with this case or planning a murder of your own?

"Nope. Only matters who swung the axe, who sliced the throat, who put tge poison in the drink, who broke the..."

Jaune burst out. "Okay, okay, we get it!"

"Alrighty, then. I guess I'll leave you two studs to it." The stuffed animal started to walk away, but stopped at the last moment. "Oh, and Pool Noodle? Call me later if you're still interested."

"AAAAAAARGH!"

Monokuma took off laughing.

He breathed out deeply, and looked at Ren with pleading eyes. He found no mercy there.

"He wouldn't do this if you didn't make it so easy on him, you know?"

Ignoring the wit, the boy began walking to the next stop. He was almost through the hallway when he spotted the grey door to the pool's antechamber, and remembered the elastic rope he had seen in the crime scene. Without so much as a warning, he turned ninety degrees and kept going. The sudden change wasn't lost to his companion.

"Where are you going?"

"I just wanted to check something in the pool, won't take long."

He moved onwards, noting that the chef was not following. It didn't matter, since he didn't expect there would be many clues inside. There would, however, be more than one thing in there that he did not expect.

The first of those things was Ruby quickly moving around, her hands full of pool supplies. Her face didn't look as troubled as before, but instead with a strange kind of focus. She stored away the boards in a rack, and then trotted off to get more.

Standing next to the rack was Weiss, taking notes on a notepad. Every time Ruby came up to her, the two shared a glance, and she nodded in approval before scribbling some more. If he didn't know better, it looked like she was grading the young girl.

They didn't stop when he made his presence known, so he quietly slipped next to the singer ad whispered his confusion. "What are you doing?"

"An inventory of the swimming supplies." She spoke bluntly, keeping her eyes on the task.

"What? Why?"

"To keep her mind off of what happened." The tone lowered abruptly, in an attempt to avoid reaching the ears of a fast-approaching Ruby. She waited until the sharpshooter left, and then continued. "She's grieving a lot right now, and it will only get worse in the trial. She needs this."

"By making her work?"

"It's mindless and mechanic, doesn't require any thought. Perfect for you, now that I think of it." You just couldn't resist, could you.

They conspicuously paused again, and then resumed once her back was turned.

"That's very nice of you…" He couldn't hide the surprise in his voice, but didn't feel the need to.

"I know what it's like to lose a sibling."

Oh, right. Her brother Whitley was murdered by the White Fang. He made sure not to say those things aloud, fearing that it would be poking at her wounds.

"Did you find anything here?"

"No, nothing seems to point to this being involved in the crime."

"Okay, thanks. I just want to check something in the guy's changing room."

Before he could reach the door, however, she called out for him.

"Jaune?"

The boy turned around.

"My hands are tied on this one, so…" She shifted her weight, struggling for a second to find the appropriate words. "Now's not the time to be helpless."

It was somehow reassuring, despite her crude phrasing. He smiled faintly to show he understood, but she had already returned her focus to Ruby,

Putting all of that aside, he waved his Scroll over the Electronic Lock, and walked past the now unlocked door. The changing room was the third surprise he would find on the pool area. It didn't look quite like what he remembered.

The showers were untouched, the lockers were still in place and firmly shut, but there was a piece of furniture that was new to the decor: a metallic rack, or what was left of it. The structure seemed to have collapsed, and its contents were spilling out of the shelves and onto the floor, flooding the changing room with swimming gear. As he peered on closer, the cause of the damage became apparent - the Rack was Missing a Leg. Without the added support, the weight of its entrails had forced it to crumble, thus the reason for the mess.

He wasn't yet sure how it fit into the murder, but it undoubtedly had to be important. Unless someone had used the pool late in the night, he had been the last one to be there, and he recalled with absolute certainty that the rack hadn't been there.

With a sigh of tiresomeness, wearing down by all the detective work, he moved around and reached the lockers. Opening the first one, he grabbed the jumping rope inside and inspected it in detail. As he had suspected, it looked just like the rope tying up Yang, from its elastic material to the two weights on each end.

With all his business seemingly concluded, he took one peek through the curtain and into the pool, to make sure there were no sneaky clues awaiting there, but he found none. It felt somewhat lucky in that regard - he was about ready to put down the thinking hat. But he couldn't, not yet. One more place required his attention.

He found the chef waiting for him on the outside.

"Find what you were looking for?"

"I think so."

"So, to the infirmary?" He nodded, glad they were on the same page with the investigation. Even if he was being a lot more talkative, which was fortunate since a silent partner would've made the case much harder, he still couldn't shake the feeling that the black-haired cook perceived more than he let on, and was thus closer to the truth than him. Maybe it was just another of his inferiority-fueled ravings, but it felt real just the same.

They climbed down the stairs together, reaching the first floor. After turning their backs to the cafeteria and its brightly-lit hallway, they spotted a familiar ginger mane just by the gift store entrance.

"Hey, Ren! And Jaune. What are you guys doing down here?" Nora waved, then trotted up them, bringing the green-haired illusionist with her.

"We needed to make sure of something. What about you, did you find anything?"

"There's some stuff missing from the AV Room, but otherwise nothing."

"From the AV Room?"

"A Sound Recorder, to be specific." Emerald joined in, impatiently shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

"Why would the killer need a recorder?"

"Beats me." She punctuated the sentence with a shrug. "Anyway, what were you looking for?"

He turned around and pointed at the infirmary door a little further along the hallway. "That."

"The infirmary? Wasn't it locked?"

"That's what we want to make sure."

He walked up to the door with a big red cross in it, followed closely by the other three students. Holding his breath in anticipation, he reached for the doorknob, grabbed it, and twisted.

The door opened.

The room ahead of them was white all over, just as disinfected as a hospital would be. There wasn't a speck of dust or dirt in sight. They walked in, and began getting acquainted with that new environment.

The right side had two patient beds, separated by a pale teal curtain that offered the only sprinkle of color in that otherwise impersonal space. A cupboard was attached to the wall at face-height on the farthest wall, and within it they found a plethora of medical instruments, from forceps to blades and syringes. Jaune found them to be unsettling, not just because he wasn't too fond of doctors, but because all of those things looked like they could be used as a murder weapon. They already had enough of those.

The left side of the infirmary seemed to function more as storage. There were two tall metallic cabinets, just taller than he was, separated by a small fraction of wall where a potted fern stood. He wondered if the plant was real or plastic, considering it didn't seem to be dying despite the lack of sun and water. Unless the mastermind was watering the plants during the night, it had to be a fake.

Opening the cabinets, he inspected the contents of one of them, while Ren did the same for the other. They were filled with bottles of Medical Supplies and chemicals, with names that he had never heard of and had no idea what they were meant for. There could be poison in there for all he knew, and he would have no way of telling. Regardless, he was looking for only one thing, which he did not find: chloroform. He traded a glance with his dark-haired companion, confirming that he too had found nothing.

DING DONG DING DONG

"Time's up. All students are to gather near the red door on the first floor immediately. And make it quick, I'm getting bored here."

The four of them looked helplessly at one another, silently hoping that they had gathered enough evidence to crack the case. There was too much at stake for them to lose.

Quietly and with a fair bit of resignation, they left the infirmary and headed to the satin red door. Since they were the closest to it, they were the first to arrive. Eventually, the others walked in to, standing in front of the gate to the elevator. There was a tense silence shared by all, whether from being deep in thought or entrenched in fear.

Weiss and Ruby were the last to show up, and did so without a word. The youngster still looked quite shaken, not even taking her eyes off the floor. The trial was bound to be a rough ride for her, more so than for everyone else.

The door behind them clicked shut, and the elevator on the other end opened its inviting doors. When the eleven of them were inside, the sound of buzzing machinery began once more, and they descended into the depths of the school.

Yang Xiao Long, the Ultimate Boxer. She had been light-hearted and playful, but surprisingly thoughtful even through her occasional outbursts of anger. She had cared deeply for her sister, and she had loved what she did with all her might, the thrill and the rush of adrenaline of a fight rivalling no other sensation. It couldn't have been an easy task to take her down, just as it wouldn't be an easy task to solve the mystery of her death. But they had no choice. Their lives were on the line. Whatever the result, they had to endure and survive, as Yang would've wanted them to.

And so, the door opened for the second Class Trial.

TO BE CONTINUED

Students Alive - 11

Have you figured out who it is already? If you haven't, here's a handy map of the clues just like last time (replace every '-' for a '.', since this site doesn't let me post links).

i-imgur-com/lkbbukM-png

Trial chapter should be up in just a couple of days. Don't forget to review :)