Against my better judgment, I darted down the corridor. As I strolled along, I saw a shortcut to the Cafe, which was useful for returning to my room in case I ran into danger. The corridor was mostly empty, except for a lone room at the end of it. As I got closer, I saw the door was slightly ajar. I kept walking towards it, and could just start to make out a conversation. I wasn't able to fully hear it until I was right at the room. Peeking in the crack, I saw a dim light as well as a shadowy figure. I determined that the occupants of the room were male from their voices, one of them being the director. The conversation went like this:

"Are you sure he's protected?"

"I promise, you have nothing to worry about. I've concealed what needed to be. Nobody will know the real him."

"The problem is, someone already knows."

"They've vowed to keep quiet about their real talents and his."

"If you say so."

"I gave him a talent that fits. The first thing he could do without... utilizing your special ability. No one will suspect a thing. Do you have hope in me?"

"Just hope you don't mess up. You got lucky the first time I shot you, but it won't happen again."

I wanted to get a better look at who was speaking and accidentally brushed the door, making it creak.

"What was that?"

I made a mad dash for the shortcut, quickly ducking into the hall. I hid there, waiting for whomever it was to pass by, but right as I reappeared into the hallway a mysterious person walked by me. They were silent, but their piercing red eyes zeroed in on me. Inside of that cold expression, I saw murder, death, and despair far beyond what I could comprehend. I was absolutely horrified. They continued walking by and I ran down that shortcut and onwards to my room. Once inside, I locked the door. I thought that Naginae or even Mononeko had the scariest gaze, but they were nothing compared to that person. My heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest. I laid down on the bed, tears streaming down my face a bit from fear. I knew I shouldn't have gone that way, but I learned something. The question remained of who did I learn about. It haunted me until I eventually fell asleep.

Those nightmarish eyes plagued me all night. In the morning I was still exhausted. Sleepily, I got dressed for the day and made my way to the computer lab. As if the horror I experienced last night wasn't horrific enough, right there in the door to Computer Lab lay a horrific sight.

My first reaction was to scream. It alarmed Mariko, who came rushing over.

"What's going on her-AHHHHHHHH!"

A different chime came over the speaker, alongside a buzz on the tablets, followed by an announcement over the speakers.

"Nyahaha. A body has been discovered!"

Soon the others gathered in the hall. I heard Kenji shout from the group.

"What the hell happened?!"

Regaining my composure, I responded.

"I was going to do some research on the computer, but before I could even get in there I saw Aki like this!"

"Nyahaha!"

We all looked around and saw Mononeko behind us. She held up a remote, pressed a button and the music from the speakers changed.

"Looks like his blog is now shut down, nyaha. Anyways, since we have our first murder, it's about time I told you fuckfaces how this investigation will work. You have an hour and thirty mins to investigate, which includes looking for clues, interviewing the others, and examining the body. Afterward, we will proceed to the trial. I'll give you more information when the time comes."

Mononeko left, and we were free to investigate. Jiang approached the body first, nudging it with his foot.

"Yeah. He is definitely dead. Got messed up pretty bad too."

Mariko and I went in for a closer look.

"He's got so many bruises."

Mariko was correct. Aki's face was covered in bruises, as well as his neck. I used the tablet to snap a few photos. The two of us did a full examination, while everyone else was gathering alibis.

Mariko called for attention and addressed the group.

"We estimate Aki's death occurred overnight. We also believe he was murdered right here in the computer lab, based on the location of the body. Akari and I will search in here for clues. The investigation app on the tablet is where we share all of our notes-"

Takuma interrupted her speech.

"There's an app for sharing investigation notes?"

"Oh yes! I found it the first day we got the tablets. I left a few notes in there already."

We all opened the app and looked at the notes. It consisted of Mariko sending keyboard emotes. I uploaded the pictures I took of Aki's body into the app. Yuck, they looked even worse on there than in person. Others started filling in notes they had while Mariko and I entered the Computer Lab.

The room was in mild disarray; there were a few chairs displaced and a hole in the wall. I snapped photos of them and sent them in the app.

"Hey Akari, I see what Aki was working on."

I went over to where she was, scanning over the computer screen. There were so many pictures of everyone, all taken with Aki's tablet. Most were us in our swimsuits, others were us around the school. We did notice a trend of Aki zeroing in on Jin, including one from out in the Garden.

"We need to dig more Mariko. I'm sure Aki was hiding something in there."

Mariko searched further into the files on Aki's tablet and managed to uncover a series of photos he took in the Garden. Many included Jin and a few included her with either Takuma or Jiang. Mariko seemed disgusted.

"Its like he had an obsession with her."

"If Jin saw these, do you think she would be driven to kill him?"

"I don't know Akari. Let's keep digging."

We dug through more of the photo folders uncovering more photos focussed on individual students or certain couples. Aki had a collection dedicated to Kenji, me and Jodansu, and the founder's family. Every picture he had of Kenji depicted him angry.

"Aki was obviously watching for something."

"As expected. Aki was a tabloid blogger. He even came to me asking for secrets. He was probably waiting for some gossip."

"I'll pull up his blog and snoop around. Anything I find will be in the app. Akari, ask around and see if anyone caught Aki acting suspiciously."

I nodded and left the Computer Lab.

The others were gathered in the Cafe, chatting amongst themselves. I walked to Jodansu and spoke with him first.

"Remember when you said you saw Aki in the Garden?"

"Yeah. Did you find out how he got access?"

"No, but Mariko and I uncovered a lot of photos he took. There were several ones of us together."

"That's kinda weird."

I checked the investigation app for anything new in it. Pictures from Aki's tablet were pouring in.

"Looks like Mariko just opened Pandora's Box."

Everyone checked their tablets, quickly scrolling through the collection of pictures. Mariko included a message in regards to Aki's blog.

"You all won't believe what Aki was writing about! His latest blog post focussed heavily on Kenji."

Mariko was still in the process of writing the notes when bell chiming played through the speakers. The tablets buzzed and the posting option in the investigation app closed. Mononeko's voice could be heard over the speakers.

"Time is up, everyone! I hope you got all the information you needed. Meet me in the Auditorium for the trial! Nyahaha!"

We left the Cafe and went to the Auditorium.

I expected the inside to look like a normal courtroom set up, not this place with multiple podiums. We all stepped up to a podium, and Mononeko appeared in the center.

"Hello Junior Detectives and Welcome to the trial! Before we get started, a few rules: You all have to work together to solve who did this. Discuss everything you know with each other recounting information you heard and clues you gathered. Afterward, you all will vote on who you think is the killer. If you accuse the right person, they will be executed and justice will be served. If you choose the wrong person, the accused will still die, but so will the rest of you, nyaha. The killer will get to graduate from the program."

Jodansu was the first to ask a question.

"Are we allowed to ask you questions during the trial?"

"Sure. But I will only answer three of them. Use your questions wisely. If there are no further questions, then let's get this party started. Nyahaha! Good Luck!"

Mononeko raised her hand revealing a remote. With a press of a button, the trial began.