Disclaimer: I do not own Danganronpa or Miraculous Ladybug. They belong to Spike Chunsoft and Thomas Astruc respectively. I only own the OC characters.

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Keeping everyone in the loop with each discovery always came with its subsequent reactions, either positive or negative. Regardless, Adrien felt like they were getting closer to sending this house of cards tumbling down. Whoever the mastermind was, they were going to pay. They were going to regret ever underestimating them.

On the day of the trial, each student woke up to a new addition to their memory logs in their eHandbooks. Adrien was confused at first what it was for, and when he opened it up, he could feel his heart sink to his toes. It was a photo, just like the ones Markov had been uncovering in the school's database. However, these were even more uncanny; his photo depicted a full classroom, the lesson appearing to have just started. A woman with orange hair and a bright smile was standing at the podium at the front of the class, using a ruler to point at different aspects of the lesson for everyone. Everyone who was dead and still alive was in this shot, and he didn't recognize the woman. Was she a teacher? But the oddest thing about this was that he wasn't in the photo at all.

Every student must have received something similar. With the grand reveal, Monokuma once again tapped into the loudspeakers. "Buenos dias, ladies and gents! By now, you must've all noticed the surprise I left for you." He laughed uproariously over the mic. "Just a little somethin' for the trial ahead. A warm-up for the despair-inducing revelations to come. And with that little nugget of wisdom..."

*Ding dong dong ding*

"Hope you all got a good night's rest! The final showdown is about to commence!" They were left with another malicious cackle before the feed cut off, leaving them in apprehension. They all psyched themselves up, preparing for the grueling fight ahead. Adrien, however, couldn't stop thinking about his photo. It suggested that they all attended school together before. Again, that should've been impossible. Something was clearly wrong here, and he didn't like the conclusion he was coming to.

Marinette grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, one that he returned gratefully. There was no need to be so nervous. As long as he had his Ultimate Lady Luck by his side, he could handle whatever came their way. He kept that embarrassing, albeit comforting thought to himself, steadying the beat of his heart as they descended to the trial room, hopefully, for the last time.

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Monokuma, as usual, was waiting for them.

"The last trial for the esteemed students of Collégé Duponte. I have to say, this was so much fun! If you guys do manage to graduate, though, I'm really gonna miss you guys. I mean it!"

"Yeah, right," Nino scoffed. The others tensely took their normal platforms, all surrounded by the photos of the dead. Monokuma jumped dramatically from his throne, somersaulting in the air until landing perfectly on the platform in the center situated beneath it. "Since I'm going to be participating," he explained, "I'll take the empty spot here. Which ironically leads to my first question to start you guys off." The monochrome bear put a paw to his chin as he tilted his head to the side. "Why are there nineteen spots when the class number is capped at eighteen?"

"Oh man, I forgot about that." Alix was referring to the extra platform, one that Alya had inquired about at the very first trial. Adrien realized that he had forgotten as well, but with what he knew now, there was only one logical explanation.

"Maybe the mastermind is actually hiding somewhere in the school, watching through Monokuma," Nino proclaimed triumphantly, confident he had it figured out.

"That would make sense," Maddie agreed, pondering. "Why else would there be nineteen platforms? Perhaps there's a mysterious nineteenth student we don't know about."

"No, there is another reason!" Maddie gave Adrien her calculating, undivided attention after the boy cut into her argument. She crossed her arms dubiously. "Do tell, Adrien," she prompted. Adrien took that as motivation to proceed with his theory. "The morgue," he stated, causing a chill to ripple throughout the cavernous room. "During the last investigation, when we found a Jane Doe in the courtyard, Alya, Maddie, and I found it in the boiler room. There were eighteen drawers in total, one for each of us." He suppressed a shiver, steeling his nerve. "With the last body we found, eleven people should have died. Yet only ten were occupied."

"Yes, I remember that," Alya acknowledged, pushing up her glasses. "I found it strange at the time as well. But I could never quite..." Her eyes popped wide open as she made a connection in her mind. "Wait," she breathed, beginning to sweat, "don't tell me..."

"That body was recycled," Adrien finished, sending a shockwave amongst the group. "Someone's corpse was reused so that Monokuma would force us to have another class trial."

"I don't force you guys to do anything!" the principal in question protested, waving his arms around. "I told you that the rules are that I give you the proper motivation, like any exceptional principal should!"

"Some principal," Alix scoffed, but the crowd was still focused on Adrien. The boy ignored Monokuma's outburst, plowing forward. "If the body was the corpse of someone who had already died, then there's no way that an extra student is hiding somewhere." He glanced over to Marinette then. "Besides, Marinette already knows that the mastermind is hiding among us."

"Really? And how does she know that?" Alya peered conspicuously over the rim of her glasses, pointedly staring at the blunette. The girl was unperturbed, however. "That's what I was investigating in secret with Markov," she explained calmly. "The student register only has a count of eighteen students. That should convince you if the morgue itself hadn't already."

"That pesky rat!" Monokuma unsheathed his claws menacingly. "Perhaps I shouldn't have allowed him to roam around so freely after all."

"If that's the case," Nino continued, "whose body was used and who put it there?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Alya's lenses flashed in the light. "It was the mastermind who placed the corpse for us to find."

"As for the body's identity," Marinette chimed in, "that was another thing I investigated." She shivered as she prepared to relay her findings. "After thorough... analysis, the fatal wounds on the corpse appear to be multiple bullet holes."

"Bullet holes?" Maddie echoed, astonished. "So that means it was..."

"Sabrina. Sabrina Raincomprix, the Ultimate Tutor." Adrien cast his gaze to the side, clenching his fists. "The mastermind accessed the morgue to use her body in a murder trial."

"Dude, that's totally fucked up." Nino was beginning to develop a blue pallor to his skin. "What kind of person is that fuckin' crazy?"

"Not like it matters." The accusation came, surprisingly, from Marc, who had yet to contribute to the conversation. "You're all just as guilty." The students stared at him in confusion as he fished out his eHandbook, pulling up a photo that Adrien didn't recognize. "Just give it to me straight!" the writer exclaimed, thrusting out the digital device to show everyone. "Are you all in league with the mastermind?"

Marc seemed angry enough that he had overcome his stutter. That thought flashed briefly through his mind before disappearing again, scrutinizing the photo carefully. It was a picture of the entire class again, but this time they were all on the bullet train that was downtown, as if they were going on a field trip. Adrien could spot himself from a mile away about three seats down, staring out the window with headphones on, listening to a cassette player. Nino was sitting next to him, who was leaned over the seat in front of them, fiddling with Alya's hair. The journalist herself seemed yet to notice it. This was completely different than the photo he received that showed one glaring similarity.

"Hey, I don't see you anywhere in that photo, dude," Nino pointed out, voicing what Adrien was already thinking. "I got a photo like that, too," the model said, taking out his own eHandbook to show everyone. "We all did," Marinette stated, each any every one of them showing each other their own strange image. All except for Maddie.

"Where's yours?" Alya asked, glancing at the brunette. Maddie narrowed her eyes slightly. "You took it from me, remember?" The journalist flinched. "Oh, that's right," she said in an apologetic tone. "I had completely forgotten about that." She dug around in her pockets until she pulled out Maddie's digital notebook, tossing it to the girl. The unknown Ultimate immediately opened it up to scan the contents. "Huh, you're right," she concluded, turning the device around to show everyone else. "I got one too."

The photo was taken at the bank of the Seine, everyone gathered around for some kind of event. There was a portly, pleasant-looking man with a mustache in the background at an ice cream stand, serving everyone his ice cream. Like the other photos, Maddie was nowhere to be seen in the image.

"Oh," Marc voiced, his form trembling again. "I-I'm sorry. Tha-That's s-so weird, I... I d-didn't know that e-everyone else h-had one."

"It was a ruse," Marinette explained. "A ruse to pit us all against each other. Exactly how the mastermind wants it to be."

"But if one of us is the mastermind," Alix inquired, "wouldn't it make sense to point fingers at each other? In a situation like that, doubt would help weed out the traitor!"

"No, that's not it." Adrien calmly talked Alix down, keeping the nature of the trial within reason. "We won't get anything done if we do that. And it may result in making the wrong choice in the end." He raised a closed fist in front of him, steadfast. "The only way to root out the mastermind is to work together."

"Adrien's right," Marinette added. "We need to collectively pool our knowledge, and use the tools at our disposal, so that we can convict the one behind all of this."

A few moments of resounding silence, until everyone eventually agreed, nodding resonating all around. "Sounds good to me," Maddie stated, regarding the both of them with an air of respect. "Hmph," Alya said, adjusting her glasses. "To think that you would be the rallying point." She smirked slyly, a sure way as any to show she offered her support. "Perhaps I underestimated you, Agreste."

The blond grinned gratefully at all of them before getting down to business. "First things first," he began. "The photos. It's clear to me that we all knew each other before coming to this school."

"What?!" Alix exclaimed in bewilderment. "That's not possible. We didn't even know you, Alya, or even Maddie before we got here. Not even Kagami or Luka." She pointed her finger, challenging. "How could we have known each other when we've never even met, or before we've all gone to school together?"

"That's easy." He held up the CD case containing the disc him and Marinette had watched earlier. "Marinette found evidence of all of us agreeing to be locked inside the school for the rest of our lives."

"I-I'm certain I'd r-remember something like that," Marc stuttered, shaking so much that Adrien feared his bones would fall apart. He took a deep breath, preparing for what he was about to say. "With all this combined together, there's only one logical explanation for this. The reason why we don't remember," he paused, as if for dramatic effect, "is because at one point we did."

"You're claiming amnesia?" Alya inquired, raising an eyebrow. "Isn't that a bit too convenient?"

"Not for the mastermind," Marinette chimed in. "It would be hard to get anyone to kill each other if we all knew each other as friends." She took a calculated glance around the room. "That's why they made us all strangers, or near-strangers, to get us to be wary of one another."

"When I first came to this school," Alix mused out loud, "I remember feeling this strange dizziness before passing out. When I woke up, I was by myself in a classroom."

"That's what happened to me, too," Adrien acknowledged. "I believe that happened to everyone, except for the mastermind. That moment of unconsciousness was the memory-wiping being activated."

"B-But how c-could someone do s-something like that?" The students turned to Monokuma, relaying Marc's question. The bear only stood there motionless, watching them. "Well, Monokuma?" Alya prompted.

"Ugh," the animatronic whined, sagging. "You guys are reading too much into this whole amnesia thing. Would you believe me if it was extensive hypnosis?" He procured a stopwatch on the end of the chain, swinging back and forth. "Or an intensive lobotomy?" He was suddenly dressed in a doctor's outfit, brandishing a crude handsaw and awl. "The point is there is no point!" He rapidly changed back to normal, steam shooting out of his ears as puffs in annoyance. "There's no use agonizing over the itty-bitty details. It's been done, it's over with, move on with your lives!"

"So, the only important thing is to find out which memories were stolen, and for what period of time." This came as more of a statement from Alya than anything else. She lowered her chin pretentiously. "A lot of good that will do us."

"No, there is something," Adrien offered, "and it has to do with Sabrina." The others, except for Marinette, looked at him incredulously. The fashion designer chose this moment to take the reins. "There's a file about the Ultimate Villain in the school archives. It suggested that this individual is a master at deception."

"What does that have to do with Sabrina?" Nino asked.

"Remember her behavior when the killing game first started," Adrien supplied. "We all thought that she was just panicking after realizing we were all put in a hostage situation. But that wasn't the case. It was like she knew this was going to happen." Adrien hardened his stare, capturing the room's focus. "She just didn't expect to be a part of it, until Monokuma showed up. She was working with the mastermind to erase our memories, set up this killing game, until they double-crossed her." He lowered his head, his hair hiding his eyes. "In her outrage, she got herself killed. Simultaneously silencing her as a witness."

"Sabrina betrayed us, too?" Alix voiced out loud, shocked. "Why would she do that? If we all knew each other, she should've been our friend."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Monokuma interrupted, jumping up and down in earnest. "What sort of idiotic assumption is that? Sabrina was in kahoots with the mastermind?! Unbelievable!"

"It is believable, actually," Adrien countered. "Why else would the mastermind reuse Sabrina's body? If I didn't know any better, it seems to me like a sadistic insult to injury after they turned on her."

"That's all speculation!" Monokuma spat angrily. "Where's your proof, huh? There's no way the mastermind would've been able to manage another mole when they themselves are one! You're giving them too much credit!"

"That's because the mastermind never planned for Sabrina to survive," Adrien argued. "In fact, they planned the opposite. They knew how she would react, potentially resulting in her death. Therefore, the mastermind would've tied up all loose ends."

"That would require an insane amount of intuition." Alya pushed up her glasses, eyeing him. "Is there anyone here who strikes you with that level of clarity?"

"The mastermind must have been hiding among us even before we came here," Marinette supplied. "So, at the time, they were pretending to be our friend, too. That's when they got to Sabrina." Marinette narrowed her eyes in thought, expression turning sour. "And they're still pretending, even now."

It was then that it hit him. He didn't want to believe it because they had been so helpful and supportive throughout this entire ordeal. But there could be no other explanation. There were even times where they had conveniently left to go god-knows-where but still be present in the room when Monokuma was showed up. They had been pretending all this time.

"It's so obvious," he said out loud, not caring that he had stopped filtering his thoughts before he spoke them. "The Ultimate Villain is pretending to be one of us. A normal student." His emerald eyes slowly began to rise, feeling the deadly piercing stare of blue eyes. "The only one who doesn't know their talent is..."

No one had time to react, or even register Adrien's implication, before a blur streaked its way across the trial room, making a beeline for the boy's spot. Adrien himself didn't have time to notice Maddie had moved before he caught a flash of metal in the spotlight, and a dastardly expression appeared before him. The pain came next, and he looked down in shock at the survival knife buried in his gut, the hand holding the hilt viciously jamming it inside. Maddie's hair had turned shades darker, black like a raven's. Adrien lifted his head to peer into the face of his would-be assassin, familiar red eyes glaring back at him.

The same eyes from the one who had stood over him that night to kill him.

"Adrien!" The boy had never heard Marinette scream like that. This scene must have looked pretty bad. He was soon reminded why as blood bubbled up the back of his throat. It forced its way out, making him cough, the crimson drops spraying down the front of his shirt. Maddie suddenly glanced around them and leapt backwards, performing an acrobatic move similar to how Monokuma did earlier. He found out why she jumped away as the others had rushed over to him, crowding around him. He noticed that he had collapsed onto his back when Maddie had let go of the knife after people propped him into a sitting position.

"Dude, are you alright?" Nino asked fearfully, cautiously eyeing the knife protruding from his abdomen like it was a venomous snake about to pounce. Adrien grunted, feeling more blood dribble down his chin. He shifted around, trying to take a better look at the injury. "Don't move around!" Marinette cried, putting steadying hands on his shoulders.

"I...I don't think it... hit any... vital organs." Adrien had to take a breath every few seconds; talking was starting to take up a lot of energy. He gently wrapped his hand around the hilt. "It'll be fine." Without much fanfare, he yanked the knife out of his stomach, making a horrendous squelching sound. "Ah!" He cried out in pain at the removal, gritting his teeth. Marinette hastily removed her pleated jacket, bunching up the fabric to press against his wound.

"Agreste," Alya said, "I'm having difficulty understanding how you managed to get stabbed and pull out the weapon without dying."

"Yeah, so am I," he answered truthfully. "I'm just trying not to think about it too much." To be completely honest, he must have only been feeling this calm right now due to the adrenaline. But he would rather believe that it was because Marinette was there by his side, abandoning him the last thing on her mind. He smiled at her gratefully, which she returned with one just as bright.

A high-pitched giggling from the center platform popped their cozy bubble, and they all turned to the mad individual cackling away, hands over her mouth as if to stifle it. She looked completely different from the Maddie they had come to know over the past few weeks; there was nothing different about her physically other than the black hair and red eyes, but her entire personality seemed to have shifted. Instead of the bold, charismatic girl she used to be, she was now a sinister-looking monster, taking pleasure in their pain and suffering. The others angrily narrowed their gazes at her, while Adrien calmly got to his feet with Marinette's help, still pressing her jacket against his gaping wound.

"You're still alive, huh?" Maddie cackled. "I'm impressed, Adrien, really, I am. I didn't expect that from you of all people. Then again," her eyelids lowered, emanating a truly menacing aura from the shift in expression, "you always were able to do that."

"M-Maddie," Alix stammered, frozen stiff in shock. "How could you?"

"It's just like Adrien said. Or was about to say before I stabbed him." Maddie tossed her head, her black hair flowing in cascading waves. She held out two fingers on each hand in peace signs, framing her red eyes between the spaces. "Congratulations, boys and girls! I am, indeed, the Ultimate Villain, the mastermind behind this school life of mutual killing!"

"This is wack," Nino mumbled out loud. "None of this makes sense. You're saying that... it was you this whole time?"

"Of course, sweetheart," Maddie drawled, lowering her hands. Nino cringed at the nickname. "It's not the most original plot twist in the world, but I got you good with it. People would be outraged if I made it exactly like the first one." She threw her head back and laughed uproariously, circling her arms around her stomach.

"First one?" Marinette echoed. "Wh-What do you mean by that?"

Maddie, no, the Ultimate Villain, managed to compose herself, flicking away a tear in her eye. "Don't get confused on me now," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "I don't give a shit about despair. No, no, this game means so much more than that." Both hands stuck out their index and middle fingers together, making finger guns. The left hand aimed at her own head, while the right was trained on them. "This is the culmination of all my hatred. I am the destroyer of all mankind! AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

{Madeleine Pilgrim: The Ultimate Villain}

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Author's Note: And so the mastermind is finally revealed! I told you it was obvious. Occam's Razor: the most obvious answer was the correct answer. Who would've thought? *whispers* I did write this, after all, so of course it was obvious for me.

The next chapter should be the last. Secrets and more will be revealed! Stay tuned to see how this standoff reaches its stunning conclusion!

I'm late again, I know.

Praise is appreciated and constructive criticism is encouraged.

See you next time!

-The_Mayflower