"Let's begin with a basic introduction to a class trial...Just kidding! You all should know by now. Find the murderer, or die! So...begin!"

"...We found Kyoko in the gym at six twenty three pm," Hajime reluctantly began the trial first. "She had a golden sword stabbed through her stomach, and a missing arm..."

"Hey, we never wound up finding the arm," Hiro informed the others with a sigh. "This killing game is too crazy!"

"The arm could be anywhere. Probably disposed of, to be honest," Janelle provided her opinion as she nervously fiddled with the edge of her dress. "I do not think the whereabouts of the arm would be of any use to us at the moment."

"Correct. First, let's look at the time of death," Shuichi said, not wasting any time. He couldn't let the other Ultimate Detective's death go unsolved! Everyone was counting on him. "Twelve fifteen, during nighttime. This is a time when we were mostly all in bed, but..."

"Kyoko broke that rule," Lyra just grinned, her smile unsettling at a time like this. Her hands were clasped behind her back. "She deserved this. I mean, you go and break a rule, death is the only thing waiting for you! She broke a rule. Despite my best efforts to keep you all together, she didn't trust that, and went outside of our guidelines! She was asking for it."

"Kyoko didn't deserve any of this!" Makoto immediately defended, a wounded look on his face. He reminded everyone of an injured puppy with his pleading eyes. "I don't know what she was doing, but...I don't think she had any malicious intent. I don't remember why...but I remember she was my friend for a reason. I promise..."

"...Perhaps she was trying to investigate alone?" Sonia suggested. "I see no other reason for her to be exploring the school past hours."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Aoi agreed, her blue eyes wide. "I guess she just...walked in on the murderer, and they got to her..."

"Okay, well, first we can clear up some alibis," Hajime said. "The murder was at twelve fifteen. That was when..." Hajime paused to remember last night.

"I guess you can go to your room, Nico," Lyra sighed in irritation before she released Nico's arm. Instantly, the shorter girl disappeared. "So, then...Hajime, wanna stay up with me?"

"Yeah, sure..."

"Okay, great. Commence operation stay up and catch Byakuya!" Akane grinned as the nighttime announcement rang. Akane and Fuyuhiko took the first shift, then Lyra and Hajime, then Soda and Maki for two hours. Then it repeated, with Soda  and Maki being the only ones to wake up when the daytime announcement ran out...

"Lyra and I were on our shift," Hajime nodded. "We're both accountable for not just each other, but everyone else who was in the hallway with the group. So that would be Maki, Fuyuhiko, Akane, and Kazuichi. All of us are clear."

"What if one of them disappeared and you guys just didn't notice!?" Hiro panicked. "That would be an alibi if they slipped away!"

"Everyone was there while Hajime and I were awake," Lyra replied.

"Yeah, when I went to bed, everyone was sleeping. I remember waking Lyra up before going to sleep," Akane grinned. "Even Hajime was sleeping still! Sleepyhead."

"Okay, well, that clears them up," Makoto nodded. "Everyone else was in their rooms, right?"

"No. Byakuya and Toko came running at us around the morning announcement," Fuyuhiko said. "Toko was apparently chasing the hell out of Byakuya the whole night. So those two are unaccountable."

"Hmph. So I'm a suspect," Byakuya's arms were folded as he sneered at them all. "Unfortunately, you are wrong. I didn't murder Kyoko."

"No one can account for where you are, though..."

"U-Um..." Hiro scratched at his head, and Byakuya smirked.

"Actually, that's incorrect," Byakuya chuckled. "Hiro saw me running away from Toko, and he let me in. As he should. A commoner should respect and protect me at all costs."

"S-So that's where you went...!" Toko fumbled with her words. "I-I was looking e-everywhere..."

"Is that correct, Hiro?"

"Yeah," Hiro shook his head. "Byakuya was pretty rude about it, but I saw Toko heading our way and just I had to let him in..."

"So this clears Byakuya and Hiro, but Toko still doesn't have an alibi..."

"N-No, I d-don't...but I was searching a-around the school," Toko mumbled. "I d-did try to e-enter t-the gym a-at around twelve forty, b-but it was blocked...not that I-I think you'll believe me."

"Well, there are still plenty of people who don't have alibis, so it's not just you on the chopping block," Hajime said. "Who do we have cleared? Me, Lyra, Fuyuhiko, Akane, Kazuichi, Maki, Byakuya, and Hiro."

"Well...There's also Aoi, Sonia, and Nico," Makoto said, much to everyone's surprise. "When you all were on patrol, did anyone come in or out of their rooms?"

Everyone that had taken a shift replied with some variation of the word 'no'.

"Then it couldn't possibly be them unless they were in the gym until breakfast," Makoto replied.

"That is flawed," Janelle frowned. "They could have just hid there forever and come out during breakfast."

"...But I don't think that's the case," Shuichi picked up where Makoto's train of thought ended.

"What? How can you even think that? We just ruled out a lotta people, I think you're being too aggressive!" Akane pointed, her rebuttal not particularly strong.

"Well, if you put your hand on the handle of the sword, your hand gets this glitter all over it," Shuichi raised his hand for everyone to see. Sure enough, golden sparkles were all over his hand. "You'd have to go wash them, and you can't wash your hands in a gym. No one showed up this morning with glitter on their hands, so they had to have washed them. So it couldn't have been Akane, Nico, or Sonia."

"Okay, well...we still have a lot of people who it can be," Aoi sighed. "And I couldn't make sense of any of the clues..."

"...It's difficult, I agree. However, I noticed some wood specks on the ground," Shuichi said.
"Himiko pointed out that it could be from the beams above, but I wasn't quite sure of what they could lead to in this case..."

"Hmm.."

"Yeah, there was a little dent in one of the beams," Himiko said. "It looked like something hit it and chipped off the wood..."

"...But what?"

"This might be going out on a limb here, but..what if the attacker was up there with the sword?" Hajime suggested. "That would match up with the sword dent and the dent up on the beam."

"But how would you get up there?" Hiro placed his hands on his head. "No one is that tall!! Did you expect us all to sit on each other's shoulders to get up there!?"

"...No, there was an easier way. There was a ladder, remember?" Byakuya could only roll his eyes at his perceived stupidity of his classmates. "Anyone could get up there."

"Oh, that makes sense," Hiro said. "So then they hid up there, and when Kyoko checked out the ladder, the person knocked Kyoko off the ladder and chopped her to pieces!"

"I don't think that's it, but..." Hajime brought a hand to his chin. "We can gather that if they were up there, Kyoko must have walked in on this set-up. She was probably surprised..."

"There's also another problem with that," Makoto interjected. "If the ladder was underneath where the murderer was, then Kyoko would have seen the ladder, and seen who was above it. Kyoko is...was... smart. I don't think she'd walk into a trap."

"Good point. So if the ladder was just to the side, and you came up to the beams from the side, then...to get to the middle, you'd have to walk there," Hajime said. "Those beams are pretty thin. You'd have to be confident you could do that..."

...There was only one person who could probably pull that off confidently. Makoto took a deep breath before whirling around to point toward someone.

"It's you!" Makoto's finger ended up pointed right toward the platinum blonde ballerina. Lyra looked at him with her golden eyes wide as she finally stopped laughing in the background.

"Me?"

"The Ultimate Ballerina...none of us have particularly good balance, but you would have the means to balance up there for a long period of time . Everyone else would fall before Kyoko even came underneath!" Makoto exclaimed. "You're the only one who could have made it there!"

"Oh...I see..." Lyra smiled wider. She was strangely giddy for being accused of murder. "I'm the only one...ahahaha..."

"Wait, that can't be right!" Hajime shook his head. "We already cleared Lyra's name. We were in the same shift!"

"That's true..."

"Wait a damn minute, Akane said something earlier!"

"Yeah, when I went to bed, everyone was sleeping. I remember waking Lyra up before going to sleep," Akane grinned. "Even Hajime was sleeping still! Sleepyhead!"

"If that's what Akane said, it's possible that Lyra didn't wake Hajime up until after she had completed the murder," Fuyuhiko reasoned, his fists clenched tightly. "So...Lyra technically has no alibi!"

"She also wasn't with us when we all met after dinner, so she could have grabbed the sword then!" Kazuichi reasoned, his face turning pale. "This was all for a charade..?"

He was cut off by Lyra's growing maniacal laughter. It was more like a cutthroat cackle. There was nothing melodious or warm about it; a far cry from the girl who had been encouraging friendship. As Lyra looked up, the shimmer in her golden eyes had finally taken center stage. It wasn't full of trust and loyalty as they had originally thought; no...instead, her eyes were full of malice and insanity.

A chill ran through everyone's entire body.

"Figured me out now, have you?" Lyra's laughter was beginning to slow, but only slightly. Her hands were still clasped behind her back. "It only took you guys so many words to figure it out!"

"But-you were the one who was pushing for us all to be friends!" Aoi couldn't grasp the harsh reality of Lyra's true nature. "You...You can't have actually killed someone..."

"Makoto said it himself, I'm the only one who could have done it!" Lyra grinned widely. "No one but me..."

"...Something isn't adding up," Shuichi muttered. "No..."

"What's that? What's not adding up?" Lyra's grin somehow grew wider and and more malevolent. Waves of malice radiated off her entire being. "Let me make it more clear for you, then!"

Lyra raised her hands, revealing blood stains all over them. She began to cackle once more.

"These are the very hands I used to kill her!" Lyra said triumphantly. "Kyoko's blood...all over me...it's not something I could just wash out, don't you think!?"

"How could you say such a thing...?" Makoto exclaimed. "Kyoko...Kyoko didn't deserve that...You sliced her up!!"

"This...This has to be a joke," Aoi whimpered. "Lyra, why are you acting like this? Stop joking around!"

"Oh, I'm not joking. I killed her, plain and simple!" Lyra's laughter echoed Monokuma's. "It was a joy, murdering her!"

"Do you want to die?" Maki glared, barely managing to contain herself. "How heartless can you be?"

"I-I'm glad i-its her," Nico just muttered. "N-Now I won't be dragged around..."

"...No, that's wrong!" Shuichi exclaimed suddenly.
"Sorry, Nico. But Lyra,'you say those are the hands you used to kill someone, right? You didn't wash them since the murder?"

"No, I didn't! I have to relish this feeling forever," Lyra cackled before she lifted her hands to her face. "What kind of fool would I be if I didn't take in every moment..?"

"Then it can't be you!" Shuichi shouted as he pointed accusingly at the girl. "Because if you pick up the sword...glitter gets all over you. You don't have any on your hands!"

"...What?" For the first time since this killing game had started, Lyra's smile dropped. The malice in her eyes, however, did not. "But I did do it. Why are you trying to pardon me from the glorious crime I committed?"

"...Because you're lying!" Shuichi said. "I don't know why you're acting like this...but it wasn't you. The gold should be on your hands, just like how it was on Kyoko's."

"Wha-well, I was just careful! Unlike you two. It's not my fault you guys got glitter all over your pathetic little selves! Come on, Sushi. Don't tell
me I'm wrong!"

"Sushi...?" Shuichi was almost distracted by his nickname for her. "But you are...If you were waiting for Kyoko up there, how do you explain how Kyoko even managed to get grip on the sword? You would have just been able to slice and be done. No...It's not you. Give it up!"

"Well, if it's not me, explain how in the world the sword was used to murder Kyoko while it was up there!" Lyra growled. "It wasn't. Exactly! There's no other way it would have worked-"

"..Unless you were able to put the sword up there and bring it down whilst still being on the ground."

"That's not possible. You'd need magic or something like that!" Lyra snarled, ferocity in her voice. "You can't just make a sword drop on its own!"

"No, but if you used a contraption or something like that you could," Shuichi replied. "I'm not sure what kind of contraption you'd be able to use that Kyoko wouldn't see, but it would be possible..."

"No, it uh, actually wouldn't," Kazuichi interjected. "Cuz if you used a contraption with a string to push and swing the sword off, it would result in the sword going in a circular motion and stabbing Kyoko, not just slashing..."

"So if the sword was pushed off without some sort of long range like a string to pull it off, how else could you push the sword off...?"

"You can't! That's why I did it," Lyra's brought her hand up to her lips as she ran her bloodstained hand across her face. A maniacal look was still in her once innocent looking golden eyes. "I was the only one able to do it, remember!??"

"Why are you...still pretending?" Makoto frowned. "If you aren't the one that killed Kyoko, then why bother doing this...? I thought you wanted us all to get along! You were the first to say we should all just become friends and trust each other!! I don't understand why you've changed!"

"Oh, Mako-Tako, I didn't change. I really meant all that. I wanted to see and believe for myself if everyone could believe in each other," Lyra was clearly enjoying the attention as the malevolent aura surrounding her only grew more vicious. "But despite everything I did, you all still fail to trust in each other! That's enough to prove to me that none of us deserve to live. Humans are such monsters, only ever looking out for themselves. Even now, you all are choosing to distrust! How do you like seeing the world from my point of view!?"

"L-Lyra..." Nico just pulled the hood further over her head, but her eyes were narrowed in disgust. "Y-You..."

"Aww, Nico-Nico-Ni, don't look at me like that," Lyra pouted. "It's only fair. If we've all succumbed to the worst part of humanity, it's only fair that we pay for our mistakes with our lives!!"

"It was only one person who gave in!! Why do we all have to die for that!?" Tanya exclaimed. "Lyra...It's not to late to change your mind about whatever this is. They say it's not you, you can give up this charade...!"

"It's not a charade. And you need evidence that I didn't do it! C'mon, what have you got!?"

"...Did the weapon come from the armory?" Maki questioned, her red eyes concentrated on Lyra ferociously. "Hey. You guys went to the armory, didn't you?"

"Oh, yeah. There was one missing, so that's gotta be it," Fuyuhiko responded. "What does that prove, though?"

"Monokuma said that when you take a weapon out, a time stamp appears on the box. That time is when you took the weapon," Maki explained. "...So, what time was on the box?"

"Uh...Nine forty seven, I think."

"I wasn't with the group at that point! I could have easily taken the sword and hid it somewhere!" Lyra taunted. "Sorry, can't pinpoint me with that!"

"No, but it clears everyone else. Besides, we already know it's not you," Maki glared. "Shuichi cleared your name already, so just shut up."

"I mean, I just as easily could have been lying about not washing the glitter off of my hands..."

"...A-Actually, L-Lyra wasn't with the group, b-but she m-might have been with me," Nico finally contributed to the trial hesitantly. "I-I think...S-She dragged me t-to the dining hall sometime before nighttime, t-that could h-have been at nine f-forty seven for a-all we know..."

"Unfortunately, no one there looked at the clock, so we'll never know for sure," Lyra taunted. "Sorry, Ni-Ni. Can't clear me! Damn, if only someone had looked at a clock! We'll never know. For all you know, I could have gone at nine forty-seven!"

"...No, that's wrong," Shuichi took a deep breath, his features concentrated and slightly guilty-looking. Why? Well, because Shuichi was about to make a bold-faced claim that was inherently false just to make Lyra shut up. "That's wrong because at nine forty-seven, I was walking around the hallway and I saw you dragging Nico! So there; you couldn't have done it!"

"That's an oddly specific time that you remember," Tanya remarked, but thankfully didn't expand upon. "Okay, well, there! Now there is confirmation that you didn't do it since you didn't grab the sword!"

"...Just because I didn't grab the sword doesn't mean I wasn't the one who killed her!" Lyra frantically responded, refusing to give up on her claim. "Maybe-Maybe Kyoko grabbed it, and then I stabbed her with it!"

"No, placing it on the ceiling beams would require set-up, and there's no way you would have had time for that," Maki glared. "You didn't do it!"

"Kiki, you don't have to stare at me like that. But fine. You're right. I didn't do it," Lyra just rolled her eyes before she dropped her hands. Maki's glare  only grew more hateful at Lyra's nickname. "Unfortunately for us, we have no idea who could have done it since I'm not guilty. Oh well! I guess we'll all die together. A fitting end for a group who didn't believe in each other."

"If we all die, then that means the actual traitor gets away," Hajime tried to reason with Lyra, knowing that they'd get nowhere without her cooperation. "Remember?"

"...Huh? Really?"

"Were you not paying attention when I explained the rules!!" Monokuma interjected with a growl, and Lyra shrugged.

"I thought you said we were all going to die."

"What would be the incentive to kill if everyone died!?" Monokuma raised his furry paws up. "No. If you kill and get away with it, you get away while everyone else dies!"

"...Ah," was all Lyra said. "Well, we can't have that now, can we? No person who breaks this distrust deserves to live, right...?"

That was indeed what everyone was hoping she'd say, yes.

"...Then fine. I'll cooperate...until this trial is over. Then I'll just have to try and kill you all myself for this disruption!" Lyra snarled. "...Well, you all said it's impossible to have the sword up there without a person. You're wrong. If you balanced the sword up there, it could just fall off if you hit one side with something."

"Wait, so w-we're cooperating w-with her...?" Toko could only stumble over her words. "I-Is that really smart...?"

"We have to if we want to survive," Hajime replied grimly. "But she's right. I just don't know...what you could use..."

"Perhaps a demonic soul was the one to knock it off!" Sonia suggested, bright-eyed and optimistic. "Or a hamster?"

"Why does the sound of those two things make me jealous?" Kazuichi mumbled.

"Kazuichi's got a fetish for hamsters and demons!?" Himiko asked, panic in her voice. Kazuichi's panicked rebuttals fell on deaf ears.

"If it wasn't magic, and the sword was balanced on top of a beam, you could indeed hit it with something on one end to make the sword fall," Shuichi said pensively. "That does seem to be what happened, judging by the dent on the ground. That makes sense. But what could you throw at it...?"

No one knew how to respond to that. After a moment, Byakuya just sneered and pushed his glasses up.

"Idiots. Fortunately, I've got evidence that'll help you figure it out," Byakuya rolled his eyes before he pulled a piece of cloth from his pocket. It had the same small slit in it, dried blood surrounding it, but as Byakuya unfolded the fabric, it revealed two small holes. "I bet someone sees this and is panicking right now...but do you understand now? This lays out the evidence perfectly."

"That fabric...that matches Kyoko's sleeve! I think," Hiro exclaimed. "Wait, so she ripped her clothing?"

"No, it wasn't a rip!" Hajime pieced together what Byakuya was saying. "I've got it. It wasn't the sword, either. That hole was caused by the same thing that tipped the sword! And that could only be caused by one person, considering the armory is off-limits at night..."

Hajime whirled around, his finger pointed accusatory at one person.

"It's you!"