"So... where do we start?" Ashley asked after a few seconds of silence. "Has anyone found any important clues? Because no one on the first floor found any..."

"Why don't we start with a certain letter we found in Jerome's pocket?" Ryan asked, something dangerously flashing in his blue eyes. "Seto? You have it, right?"

Seto sighed as he gingerly pulled out the piece of paper, taking great care not to tear it. He read it aloud once again, this time to the 11 remaining participants in the courtroom.

Jerome,

Read this letter alone in your room and make sure that the camera can't see what I've written here.

I wrote this letter instead of telling you outright so that whoever's controlling MonoWither won't find out what we're planning. I've decided that you should meet me in the pool area at around 5:00 am tonight. I doubt the mastermind behind all of this will be watching us then, they'll probably be sleeping. What I wanted to say earlier was that one of steel plates covering the window by the pool doesn't seem to be screwed on tightly enough. With your strength, maybe we could break out of here! It's worth a shot, right?

I know this probably sounds suspicious, especially after the motive, but please trust me on this. You know I'd have no reason to kill you. You already know my secret, since I told everybody. So please believe me! If we can escape this place, we can all be saved! Don't you want to leave?

I hope you'll trust me on this, although I'll understand if you don't. But this might be our only chance, our only hope...

When he was done, no one knew what to say. Ryan, however, still seemed to be extremely eager to catch the culprit and avenge Jerome. "See? The killer was someone who told everyone their secret, right? So that means that we can narrow down all the suspects to just Jason, Tyler, and Seto! It must have been one of them who killed Jerome!"

Jason's face visibly paled at the mention of his name.

"We're down to three suspects already?" Bodil asked, stunned. "That was really fast!"

Steven looked slightly more optimistic. "Maybe this won't be a lost cause after all!"

"But it's not enough," Jordan pointed out. "It's still two suspects too many."

Steven's face fell. "Yeah... that's true... And... I don't want to believe any of them would kill someone..."

"Jason, Tyler, Seto, do any of you have proof you're not the killer?" Annie asked quietly.

Jason closed his eyes, exhaling a long breath in an attempt to calm himself down. "...I-I've got nothing, unfortunately..."

"Th-There's gotta be something!" Tyler squeaked, eyes darting back and forth. "I swear I'm not the killer, I-"

"Seto?" Annie continued.

Seto bit his lip. He could see Bonks out of the corner of his vision giving him a rather strange look. Maybe, if he told everyone what he'd tried to do, it could serve as an alibi...

No, you can't! They can't find out what you did! They'll never trust you ever again! They'll never see you the same way again!

"...I..." Seto swallowed nervously. "I don't..." he lied.

"What if the letter lied?" Jason suggested, clearly attempting to find some way to clear his name of suspicion. "I mean... maybe the letter was slipped under Jerome's door or something... It wasn't signed, right? So the killer could have lied about having revealed their secret and Jerome didn't know!"

>>>-LETTER-> ((DIDN'T KNOW))

Seto shook his head. "No, Jerome would have been able to tell if the killer was lying. Look closely at what the letter says."

What I wanted to say earlier was that one of steel plates covering the window by the pool doesn't seem to be screwed on tightly enough.

"The person who wrote the letter said 'what I wanted to say earlier'. This means that Jerome and the killer had discussed this before, so Jerome knew who they were. Therefore, Jerome would know if the killer was lying about revealing their secret. So whoever did this has to be either you, me, or Tyler..."

Jason stared down at the floor dejectedly. "Oh..."

"Dammit, we're stuck!" Ashley cursed.

"Now now, we can't lose hope yet!" Husky declared. "Maybe we should talk about alibis, maybe that'll help like last time-"

"No it won't," Jordan muttered.

"Huh? Why not?" Husky asked in confusion.

"Alibis only worked last time because MonoWither confirmed that there were no allies. I'm sure they won't be so helpful this time around."

"Yep yep! That's correct, Jordan! You guys got lucky last time! We've removed the training wheels and now you're on your own! Was there an ally, or did the killer work alone? Now that's up to you guys to find out! We're not telling!"

"Then maybe we should discuss the body, or other clues we found during the investigation," Steven suggested.

"Jerome was stabbed in the chest, more likely than not with the diamond sword found  and died a few minutes later due to blood loss," Seto said. "According to the MonoWither File, he sustained no other injuries prior to his killing. He was found in the pool at around 7:13 am."

"I examined the body, it matches up with what the File says," Husky said.

"Why do you always examine the body?" Ashley asked.

MonoWither grinned. "Ooh, are you secretly a necrophiliac? Do we have to pull out the Kinkshame Hammer of Justice-"

"NO SHUT UP THAT'S FUCKING DISGUSTING!!! Anyway, I, uh, took a forensics biology course in college before changing my major to pyrotechnics..." Husky said awkwardly.

Jason looked perplexed. "But you told me you were forced to change your major because you failed the course-"

Husky's eyes widened in embarrassment. "Th-That's not important!"

Seto tapped the podium stand to get everyone's attention. "I think I've got an idea."

"You do?" Bodil asked hopefully.

Seto nodded. "Why don't we discuss how the murder must have occurred, based on what we know?"

Jordan stroked his chin. "Well, before nighttime, we know that the killer gave Jerome a letter, tricking Jerome into going to the pool at 5:00 am. While there, Jerome was stabbed by the killer and his body must have fallen in the pool. The killer then left Jerome's body there as well as the sword, figuring there'd be no point in hiding it, and went back to their room."

"And we all know that the only ones who could have done this are Jason, Seto, and Tyler..." Ryan hissed. "Come on, one of you should confess already! We're gonna get you sooner or later, just make things easier for us and give up!"

"But I didn't do it!" Jason yelled back.

"It wasn't me, right Seto?" Tyler asked desperately. "You- You know I wouldn't do something like this, right?"

Seto bit his lip and remained silent.

Tyler's eyes widened. "Seto, don't you trust me...?" Tyler asked quietly.

Seto looked away. He couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. A sickening nausea was lingering in his stomach. As much as he wanted to believe Tyler, as badly he wanted to after all they'd been through together, he'd learned a horrible lesson from what happened last time.

Sky. Sky was the one person he felt he could trust with his life. Seto had trusted him with everything. He'd trusted Sky would always be there for him, he'd trusted Sky would never betray him...

Trust didn't exist in a place like this, Seto had come to realize. If Sky of all people had betrayed him, even going to great lengths to frame him for the horrible crime he'd committed, then that could only mean...

...he couldn't trust anyone in this world of despair...

A few seconds later, after realizing that Seto wasn't going to reply, the hope in Tyler's eyes faded. "I... I see..." he whispered in a hollow voice. "So... that's how it is then... I... I still trust you though... I know you didn't do this... You wouldn't kill anyone..."

Seto's rigid grip on the podium stand was turning his knuckles stark-white.

"Wait a minute..." Ryan said, squinting his eyes suspiciously.

"What?" Husky asked, confused.

"Tyler and Seto, you two slept in the same room the night before the motive was revealed, right? It all makes sense now... You two must have been conspiring together!!!" Ryan shouted, jabbing his finger in their direction.

Tyler's face paled. "No we weren't! I got super drunk that night and Seto let me in his room! I swear, that's all that happened, we didn't kill Jerome-!"

"I don't want to hear your damn excuses!" Ryan yelled.

"Do you have any proof, Ryan?" Seto asked calmly.

"Well- Well- Well you two are both suspects for the killer! This can't just be a coincidence! Plus, Tyler's been acting all nervous this whole time!"

"S-So have I!" Bodil shouted in defense. Then his eyes widened. "Wait, that doesn't mean I'm the killer!"

"I'm sorry Ryan, but you really need to cut your shit out," Annie muttered.

"Excuse me?!!!"

"I know you're upset and really want to avenge Jerome, I really do get that and I'm sorry, but you're not helping one bit. In fact, we're just going nowhere. So please don't keep accusing others and hoping they'll admit something."

"If you've honestly got nothing, just don't say anything," Ashley suggested. "That's what I'm doing."

Ryan grit his teeth. "F-Fine... But it's still gotta be one of you three! That letter the killer left said so!"

Seto narrowed his eyes as he thought carefully.

"Seto?" Jordan asked, noticing his expression. "Did you think of something?"

"...Just keep on discussing for now."

"Going back to what Jordan said," Bonks murmured, twiddling her thumbs. "Something's been bothering me..."

"What's been bothering you?" Steven asked, concerned.

"He... He died a few minutes later from blood loss, right? But if he fell in the pool, then, wouldn't he have drowned to death first?"

"But that obviously didn't happen, I mean, the MonoWither File did specify that he died from blood loss. That must have gotten to him first, that's the only explanation," Husky said.

"Yeah, that's probably it..." Bonks admitted. "Sorry..."

"All right then, um, maybe we should go back to the three suspects?" Ashley asked. "I thought that was a pretty good lead. We just need to narrow it down to one, and that letter's the most valuable clue we have. There's gotta be something we're missing about that letter!"

"Yeah, that makes sense Ashley!" Bodil exclaimed.

"...Really?"

"Yep! Now, about that letter, the killer told Jerome to meet him by the pool at 5, right?" the Bulgarian asked for clarification.

Jordan nodded. "And the killer made sure to write the plan out on a piece of paper so that Jerome could read it in private..."

"How convenient that Jerome left the paper in his pocket..." Annie said quietly.

>>>-PENCIL-> ((LEFT THE PAPER))

"...Pencil," Seto mumbled to himself.

"What did you say?" Ryan asked, somehow hearing Seto from a significant distance away.

Seto pursed his lips together before pressing onwards. "Bonks, you have pencils for drawing, right?"

Bonks looked surprised. "Yeah I do..."

"Did you lend anyone a pencil?"

Now she looked confused. "No, I didn't. I mean, I let Steven borrow my pencils two days ago when we were drawing, but he gave them back... Why do you ask?"

"I remember MonoWither once told me that they were selling pencils at the shop, because they only provided pens with the notebooks. But the letter was written with a pencil, right? Why would the killer go through all the trouble of buying a pencil and wasting their WitherCoins when they could have just used a pen that was given for free?"

"Where are you going with this?" Jason asked, perplexed.

"The more I think about it, the more I feel like that the letter was just a ruse."

Husky's face paled. "A ruse?!"

Seto nodded. "It was a ruse meant to trick us, to make us suspect the wrong people for the wrong reasons."

"Could you please explain why you think that?" Jordan asked.

"Certainly. Now as I said before, it doesn't make much sense for the killer to go through the trouble of buying a pencil and wasting their coins when they could have just used a pen... unless the killer planned this whole thing out. After all, ink from a pen bleeds in water, right? But the graphite in pencil doesn't. See what I'm getting at here?"

"You mean, the killer specifically wrote that letter in pencil so that we'd be able to read what it said after checking Jerome's pockets?!" Steven asked, stunned.

Ryan banged his fists against the podium stand, startling everyone. "That doesn't make any goddamn sense!" he shouted. "First of all, why the hell would the killer want to do that?! Why would the killer expose himself like that?!"

>>>-LETTER-> ((EXPOSE HIMSELF))

"Because what the letter said was completely false. Jerome never even got that letter in the first place. It was placed in Jerome's pocket after he died," Seto said.

A vein on the side of Ryan's forehead started twitching crazily. "What in the hell? Is this your way of defending yourself? Because it seems to me like it's just making you look even more guilty! Do you really expect us to believe you?!"

"Sounds crazy, I know, but that's the only logical explanation why the killer would use a pencil to write the letter. The killer wanted us to be fooled and start blaming the ones who revealed their secret, when they weren't the culprits at all."

"Hold on a second!" Annie cried out. "You're saying that the killer planted the message in Jerome's pocket after killing him, right? But how would they have been able to do that? If Jerome's body fell in the pool, how would the killer be able to place the letter there? The letter must have been in there the whole time, even prior to Jerome's death!"

"...you're assuming Jerome's body fell in the pool right after he died. Sorry Husky, but Bonks was right. If someone fell in the pool even after being stabbed, they would drown to death first. Plus, the MonoWither File even stated that he died from blood loss a few minutes later. Jerome couldn't have died in the pool. At the very least, he died on the pool deck and the killer placed the letter in his pocket before pushing his body in the pool. That would also explain why he was lying facedown rather than face-up."

"Don't tell me that's what really happened!" Bodil said, his face pale. "The letter was fake all along?!"

"We've been following a false lead this whole time?" Husky whispered.

Seto's face hardened. "It's gotta be the truth, but I think... I think this clears my name as well as Jason's and Tyler's..."

"It wouldn't make sense for the killer to frame themselves, right?" Jason asked, silently praying the rest of them would agree.

"So that means we're not guilty!" Tyler exclaimed, relieved.

"But still, we're practically back to square one," Ashley said, staring down at the floor. "Now we've eliminated three suspects, but we've still got nine more, and I've got no way of proving that I didn't do it..."

"Maybe the killer didn't buy a pencil," Ryan muttered. "After all, isn't there one clear suspect? It's got to be Bonks, of course!"

Bonks let out a shriek of horror. "No! You've got it all wrong! I wouldn't do that!"

"Got any proof?" Ryan asked.

"It- It wouldn't make sense for me to use a pencil like that, it'd be too obvious it was me! Plus, I'm not strong enough to kill a bacca like Jerome..."

Seto sighed. "Ryan, please stop. You're accusing her based off a possibility that isn't backed up with cold, hard facts."

"Well it's a possibility that I think we should keep in mind," Ryan muttered.

No one had the heart to further reprimand Ryan for his senseless accusations.

"But one thing I don't get is... why would Jerome have been in the pool area in the first place?" Steven asked.

"That's a good question Steven. If the letter was false, then Jerome would have no reason to be there," Jordan said quietly.

"Maybe the killer just told Jerome themselves?" Annie suggested.

"Yeah, I mean, all the killer wanted to make us believe was that they'd told everyone their secret, right?" Tyler asked.

>>>-MONOWITHER-FILE-#2-> ((ALL THE KILLER WANTED))

"I don't think so," Seto muttered. "I think the killer wanted to hide something else."

"Like what?" Jason questioned.

"It bothered me how the second MonoWither File seemed to be lacking some vital information compared to the first one. Last time, the MonoWither File specifically stated the approximate time of death and the place where the murder occurred."

"Well, maybe MonoWither just didn't feel like stating the obvious?" Ryan asked. "It's pretty clear to me that Jerome died near the pool area and that the murder occurred shortly after 5."

Seto shook his head. "You're going by this based off of what the letter said. The letter was proven to be false."

"Okay, then you tell me how the hell Jerome ended up in the pool if he wasn't told to go there by the killer!" Ryan yelled. "I even saw him preparing to leave Mitch's room myself! I don't exactly know the time he did, but he still left voluntarily! Don't you dare tell me I'm lying! I saw it with my own eyes you dumbass!"

Seto felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He'd totally forgotten that Ryan had seen Jerome leave the room... "I... Well..."

God, you really are an idiot, aren't you. How could you have forgotten that crucial piece of evidence? Our lives are at stake here, you know!

Ryan glowered at the sorcerer, who was at a loss for words. "You know Seto, you're still not completely off the hook! After all, you could have faked that letter yourself and come up with an 'explanation' yourself to trick us!"

Seto ignored Ryan's baseless accusation and continued on. "Nevertheless, we don't know if Jerome was headed to the pool at all. I... I personally think Jerome's body was transported to the pool and placed inside to trick us into thinking he died in that area."

"What?!" Bonks shrieked. "How is that even possible?"

"Jerome's a bacca. Do you realize how difficult it would be to carry him?" Ashley demanded.

"That's right!" Bodil declared. "You can see the facts with your e-Handbook! He weighed over 200 pounds!"

"Plus, dead bodies are harder to carry than live, conscious ones!" Husky asserted. "I know that much!"

"I'm sorry Seto, but... there's just no way Jerome's body could have been taken to the pool from a different place," Jordan said.

Seto was about to refute Jordan's statement, but that was when everything suddenly started going terribly wrong.

"Hold on a second," Annie muttered, silencing everyone. "I'm not sure how I didn't see this before, but..."

"But what?" Steven asked.

Annie pointed at Seto with a trembling finger. "Seto, your face, it looks like there's claw marks on it..."

Seto's eyes widened as his hand flew to his cheek. Oh god, the spell couldn't have worn off already, could it? How could this have happened at a time like this? The spell was supposed to last for a whole day!

The pill, he realized with sudden dread, a dread that sank into his stomach and took his breath away. The damned pill MonoWither had forced him to take. How could he not have realized that it would affect his masking spell? Seto tried to turn away, to hide the scratches from view, but it was already too late.

There was a stunned silence as everyone stared at Seto. Even Mitch, who had been inactive and barely alive throughout the entire trial, shifted his blank gaze to face the sorcerer. The catatonic man's hands shook slightly as his hollow eyes met Seto's brown ones. His lack of an expression ironically seemed to say it all, at least that's what Seto thought.

"...I knew it..." Ryan hissed, glaring daggers at him from across the circle. "You killed Jerome, didn't you?!"

Seto heard MonoWither giggle, the machine clearly taking delight in the poor sorcerer's growing terror. He found himself clinging onto the podium stand as his quavering legs threatened to give way. "N-No, that's wrong..." he whispered, his voice faint. "I wouldn't kill him... I didn't... it wasn't me... believe me..."

"Then explain those claw marks!" Ryan yelled. "If you really didn't kill him, then explain how you got them!"

Seto couldn't speak, couldn't think. His mind had gone totally blank, and he was feeling extremely lightheaded.

Something akin to triumph gleamed in Ryan's ice-blue eyes. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, chuckling darkly under his breath. "I think we've finally found our killer."