”Yea but, the rules don't say I have to play the announcement everywhere, right?” Monokuma tipped his head at Cyrus. ”I could just play it in one room and that would be okay, right?” The bear chuckled. ”Anyway, after a second glance, I noticed that not everyone is present. So I guess I'll make an announcement. But only because you're so damn cute when you're angry.” Shortly afterwards, the familiar, chilling announcement played.

Bliss was at a loss for words. She just stood beside Cyrus, horrified, unable to move. Her hands became so shaky that she dropped her umbrella. It rolled through the blood, drawing a perfect half-circle before it came to a stop.

”Cover your eyes, Caora! This isn't for kids!” Lucy wrapped her arms around the trap's head and pulled his face into her breasts. ”Wait, you're older than I am!”

Denis placed his hands over Lucy's eyes. ”Fear not, pretty lady!”

It didn't take Jezebel or Zachary long to show up after that. Jezebel let out an annoyed grown and folded her arms. “Like, of course... ”

”So I guess I'll give you guys my handy-dandy monokuma file now.” He squinted his one red eye. ”But boy am I tempted to hold it back. 'It's not in the rules, Cyrus! It's not like I have to, Faith!'” Monokuma shrugged and smiled. ”There we go, all downloaded. You may start investigating.”

And so the search started. The first thing everyone did was looked at their monokuma file. It didn't offer much, only describing more or less what everyone had seen. But it did bring everyone's attention to a puncture wound on Mercy's hand. She had bandaged it up, but it looked like it must have happened fairly recently. A scab hadn't even formed over it yet.

After that, the groups split up, leaving just a few people to watch after the body.

The first found a book in the chemistry lab beside a mixing station. It was opened to a page that talked about a man-made chemical called Litonix. According to the passage, Litonix is very poisonous and even a small amount can kill as quickly as one hour. The victim starts to violently hemorrhage blood seconds before they die. However, it can be mixed with other chemicals to produce Mundinol, a luminol-like substance. It's more accurate than luminol, and doesn't react to other bodily fluids. But it is still very poisonous and can kill in four to five hours. Litonix is only poisonous if ingested or it enters the blood stream. The origins of the book are unknown, but it does not appear to have come from the chemistry lab. There's no reading material here, and everyone who scouted the third floor days prior reported not having found anything like that.

The group watching over Mercy's body decided to inspect it again, and found that she had a police badge on her person. It must have belonged to Max, but why would Mercy have this?

The last group found a mask just outside the corridor leading to all the rooms in the second floor patient's quarters. Monokuma showed up to explain that pressing the button on the face causes the mask to sprout "ribs" that grab the back of the victim's head, and then gasses the victim with the virus. Further examining revealed the mask to be depleted.

When asked about the mask, Monokuma said. “The mask can only infect one victim. There is also only one mask, and I only loan it out to people who dial for a day at a time. after which, the mask simply gets up and returns, waiting to be summoned again.” The bear chuckled. When asked about the virus itself, Monokuma had this to say. ”Initially, the horseman virus impairs some of it's victim's senses, causing them to shamble slightly. it can makes them more susceptible to suggestions as well. They also have mild hallucinations, which get worse until the victim becomes a mindless zombie. the entire process happens in less than a week, with the fastest progression being four days.”

Little else was found before Monokuma called the investigation off. It was time for the trials to begin.

---

---

---

---

”I'm sure you guys know what I'm going to say, but just in case, I'll say it again. If the blackened is exposed during the trial, they alone be punished. But if they aren't exposed, everyone besides the blackened will be punished. And just to avoid another trial one mishap, I'd like to add that you don't have to 'expose' the blackened like 'that.'” Monokuma sighed. ”If I seem a little low power, it's just because my daughters were misbehaving again. But if they're good, maybe I'll let them join the trial with us.” Killgood batted his eyes.

Lucy was the first to speak up. ”I think it's pretty standard to discuss the victim first. All the cases I've read about seem to start with that.” Lucy had a feint smile on her face while she spoke. ”It wasn't stated very clearly in the Monokuma file, but I think it's safe to suggest we're dealing with a poisoning here.” She folded her arms. ”It's probably kind of obvious, but if we can figure out what poison was used on Mercy, we'll have a better idea of what actually happened to her.”

---

“Yeah I-it’s totally obvious.” Felix still looked very shaken by everything, his eyes were glued to the ground and there was an aura of dread surrounding his every move and word. “T-the chemical book I...it says it all.” Felix grabbed his e-handbook and scanned the truth bullet one more time. “Litonix is very poisonous and even a small amount can kill as quickly as one hour. The victim starts to violently hemorrhage blood seconds before…before they die.”

“Litonix.” Felix finally looked up to everyone with a distracted look.

“I just don’t get how she could get poisoned. I was with her for the entire hour, I should have noticed something, right?”

“It does seem unlikely; the party’s security was very tight.”

As vain a hope as she could muster, Faith had prayed somewhat that she wouldn't have to sit through another trial. She had already spent too much time within them, and they were starting to take their toll. Standing in a circle, surrounded by friends, discussing the murders of friends... it was taking a toll, and that toll was boredom, and she hated it. How routine they were, how it became second nature within the walls of Axis Mundi.

She hadn't personally known Mercy, but that wasn't to say she disliked her, the two simply never spoke much at all. A few words here and there when planning for that night, helping with the different groups to make plans and traps and such. At least Faith recognised just what role Mercy played within their group, as their sole doctor; she didn't trust Thomas.

Yet still she found herself stood, scrolling along her Handbook, taking in the different clues and their descriptions as they found them: the Monokuma File; a book; a mask; a badge. All seemingly random. Though she had already developed some theories in regards to the masks. Not that she wanted to speak up about them, though. It wasn't her way to start discussions when in trial, simply join in with them.

As she did with Felix.
"Hmmmm, I think not." she rested the Handbook down on the pedestal in front of her, "I can't say much for the Concert, buuuuuut I did put you two on the same table. Pluuuuuuus, I totally saw you two dancing~! There's no way somebody got close enough to poison her."

"Conclusion: the slow acting variant of Litonix, Mundinol. Since you make one out of the other, I'm guessing they've got preeeeeeeetty similar effects." then she turned to Max, "Oh and like Maxxy said, I made everything reeeeaaaaaal secure. The only other way to kill Mercy would be through food or drink, and I mean, poisoning the food would probs kill everyone, and I had Bliss and Cyrus watching the food table, soooooooooo... There's no way it was the fast acting poison~! I mean, that's even if either of the poisons in the book were even used."

Cyrus found himself agreeing with Faith. “I think finding the book out of place along with the symptoms is too much of a coincidence for it to not be Litonix or Mundinol.” Cyrus mused. Of course, it could be a red herring, but that was too early to conclude. It was more likely the killer had simply left the book in a hurry. “The majority of us should be dead if it was in the food. So it definitely was not there.”

Cyrus repeated the day in his head. “Mercy finally died around 8 o’clock. If it was Litonix, it had to have been applied right at the end of the concert or the beginning of the party. I can’t recall anything out of place happening there. So I think the long acting poison is more likely indeed.” He looked around a bit before he continued. “This means the poison must’ve been applied sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 PM.”



Noel nodded gleefully. The reasoning for it being Mundinol wasn’t sound, but it was the most logical assumption to make. ”3:00 and 4:00 PM you say? In that case, Denis and I can cover for each other. We were in his room at the time.” She grinned.

She then smiled at the idea she had. ”So did anyone see Mercy during that time? Perhaps we can deduce something based on that?” Then she looked at Denis. ”Or we can just reduce the amount of suspects by covering for each other, I guess that works too if we’re sure it’s Mundinol.”

This wasn't exactly Ice's first trial, but it was the first one that the victim mattered something to him (or so he told himself), and more importantly, to Alice. It was important not to get everyone killed after all. Ice slipped his hand under his chin, trying to piece his thoughts together well enough to speak, but it all didn't add up. Instead, he just blurted out the thoughts running laps around his head. "The fair dinkum is, it couldn't have been a fact acting poison, but then again, it's hard to pin it on Mundinol either. I was 'illin with Mercy the around 30 minutes a little after 3 in the pharmacy, but didn't notice a thing. That isn't to say I was joined to her at the hip, but I was in the room with her and probably would have seen a needle or her reaction. There were other people in the room as well and I'm sure they'd have noticed something too."

Leaning against the side of his stand, he continued his evidence outpour, "Also, the Quack was wearing bandages at the time of her death, which I didn't notice earlier today. She must have been meaning to cover it up. The question is why? It would only take a small bandaid to cover up the puncture, but she chose to cover the entire hand." Ice assumed that meant the person who did it was semi-important to her if she saw who did it. There was no way he would say it allowed though, on account of the immediate suspicion towards Alice.

Offhandedly he added, "Also, I came in with Alice after getting my arse handed to me in the dojo. Caora came in soon after and Max had been there with Mercy the entire time I was there." He made eye contact with the police officer, "Is that maybe when the badge was passed around for show-and-tell?" While he had already mildly trusted the police officer after their 'talk', that didn't do anything to drag suspicion away from him.

Hmm. Something doesn’t quite seem right. Thomas briefly ran through every he knew about this case so far from his spot in the court of carnage, which was almost too big for Thomas. The Infinites consensus was alarmingly ignorant of certain variables, and it seemed that all anyone wanted to do was state their speculation as a fact.

Faith, Cyrus, Noel, and Ice were acting too hastily. That irk, the one from before when he was investigating Mercy’s corpse, flared up. “Gentlemen, lower your voices. Haste is convenient, but it is no excuse for sloppy logic. Assumptions have no baring where an Infinites life is in the question.” He glanced to Max, and then away. ”Before we proceed, we must decide for certain how and what exactly caused Mercy to die.”

Thomas raised a hand up to his upper lip, and placed his gaze on a certain heterochromatic Infinite. ”And I know just where to start, Infinite Recon”

"Huh...?" Alice looked up over to Thomas, trying to appear calm. But it was still obvious that she was a nervous wreck over her friend's death. "Whadya mean...?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.

”Hmm?” Thomas lifted his chin slightly. He picked up on Alice’s discomfort, but he was unable to attribute it in a meaningful way. ”You are… or, err, were the closest to Mercy. I’d like to clear up some particularities regarding her and her behavior.”

"Oh- Oh, okay." The recon nodded in reply. "What do you need to know first?"

Thomas was pleased with Alice’s compliance. ”Good. Let’s start with something fairly basic then. Did Mercy have any condition that would impair her ability feel in her hands — such as diabetes?”

"N-No, and she didn't like sweets much, so she ate more healthy and savory foods. Dunno how she'd have diabetes in that case." She told him, shaking her head.

”Ah! Excellent. I’d expect nothing less from the Infinite Plague Doctor!" Thomas cleared his throat. ”Ahem. So. Is there any reason, besides the wound on Mercy’s hand, that she would be wearing those bandages that were on her hand? And if there isn’t, would you agree that Mercy herself was aware of the fact that there was a puncture wound on her hand?”

"I don't know. The only reason I could think of is if she accidentaly hurt or cut herself, and even if she did, I doubt it was bad enough to need the bandages. Unless she somehow cut a vein open." Alice shrugged. "But yeah, I agree to the fact that she was aware of her wound.

”I see. Is Mercy prone to this sort of accident? As in, does it happen often? Is it possible that she is insecure about showing her own injury, and that is why she covered her hand?” Thomas raised his eyes, and frowned ”On that note, is it unusual for Mercy not to tell anyone about a small injury like that?”

"E-Erm, I don't think she is. I-I mean, the other time she accidentaly harmed herself was when she punctured her lung, resulting in her asthma." Alice explained, resting her head in her hand. "And I don't think she'd be insecure about it too, she mostly walks it off or ignores it, a-as her injuries weren't as important as others'. Atleast that's what she told me before. So yeah, it's not unusual for her to not tell others about it, unless they're stuborn..."

Thomas nodded, and turned to the rest of the infinites ”Very well. I have one last question, but first, an exposition. As far as we are aware, whatever killed Mercy was a poison. I agree that the poison is the one we have seen in the textbook, as the poisons described bear similar symptoms to what we have observed. We know that these poisons have two methods of entry, via the bloodstream or via ingestion. Because of the puncture wound on Mercy’s hand, there is a possibility that her hand was where the poison first entered her body.”

Thomas’s then looked back to Alice. “What we’ve just established is that Mercy knew about her hand being punctured before she succumbed to the poison, and even bandaged it up. There is no room for doubt about this.” Thomas droned on, making sure everyone was on the same page as him. ”Now, I have personally investigated this wound, and its size is comparable to that of a pencil tip punctured part way through the hand. While it must have been considerably painful, the wound was certainly not enough to warrant a full bandage. A simple band aid and neosporin would have sufficed.”

”There are several possible reasons for this, some of which would render that fact irrelevant to this case. However, before we come to a consensus I would like to hear your answer to this final question.” Thomas directed his full attention to Alice. ”Do you think it is possible that Mercy knew that she was poisoned, before she succumbed to the poison?”

"N-No! I don't think she'd know if she was poisoned. Cause if she did, she could've searched for or created an antidote before it killed her!" the recon answered.

Thomas nodded. “That will be all.” Satisfied with his queries, he shifted back in his podium, indicating an opportunity for other Infinites to speak.

Daimyon was part of the group that went to check out Mercy's room and on the way found a strange mask lying in the patient quarters corridor. Its appearance was rather unnerving, and the description Monokuma gave about it was downright chilling. A virus that turns its victims into a ‘mindless zombie’ in no more than a week? The prospect of having such a weapon in their midst, acquirable by a simple phone call terrified the poet, but he steeled himself and made notes about its effects to be referenced later.

That was their group's only meaningful find, however, and other Infinites were not too fruitful either. All in all, the short investigation yielded a few, seemingly disconnected clues that Daimyon could not piece together right away. He hoped that through collaborative review they could make sense of the chaos, and uncover the truth behind the mystery of the murder.

Else they might just all die.

---

During the trial, Daimyon abandoned his diligent note-taking habit, and instead tried to pay attention to the information presented by the rest of the group. The poison was the first matter to be discussed in detail, and rightly so, but despite that, the poet could not get the mask out of his head. He had drawn a sketch of it which he was now looking at, along with a list of symptoms of the virus' progression.

- Impaired senses, shambling
- Susceptibility to suggestions
- Mild, but worsening hallucinations

He tried to imagine what it would feel like to be affected by such a syndrome. As a poet he prided himself on his sharp senses that allowed him to gain different perspectives—he dreaded losing that edge even temporarily. The only condition that sounded worse than that was his free-flying soul being caged and enslaved to the desire of someone else. He had already deemed himself to be vulnerable enough to misdirection and he hated it; sometimes he felt he could not even trust himself. And the fact that the mask had already been used once, presumably with success, left him with little room to trust anyone else, either.

“Forgive me if I wander off the current topic, but...this mask leaves me restless,” he finally spoke up once Thomas had finished his questioning. “I have to assume there is an infected among us. Who is it? Do any of you feel anything...strange?”

It was another trial. Another battle where everyone faced death. He had many reservations about the case. Mercy, the Infinite Plague Doctor, was gone. Without her, who could have known what would have happened to the group in the tribulations they had once faced, and what would happen in the future. If Calvin couldn’t even work, who was to say how his fellow infinites would face the challenges ahead of them?

He scoffed lightly as he tried to remove himself from his thoughts. The trial was the most pressing issue. None of it would matter if they couldn’t figure out who had murdered Mercy. He thought again to the horrific way she had died. Had it been anyone else, she might have been able to do something. Of course, the murderer had likely known that too. While at first he had suspected Felix who had spent the majority of the event with the victim, he was relieved to hear that the poison was likely Mundinol, although it complicated the case greatly. Cyrus managed to narrow down a time-frame:

“This means the poison must’ve been applied sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 PM.”

"Oh shit," Calvin’s face went as blank as a sheet of paper. "I went and saw Mercy around 4:00 PM...” He looked around the room and his eyes landed on Braden. "Braden, you were there in the Pharmacy with her before I got there. Why?” He wasn’t angry. Not yet. But there was a hint of exasperation in his tone. "And before anyone asks…" Calvin pulled off his gauntlet to reveal a bandaged hand of his own. "I burned my hand earlier like some fucking amateur." There was a slight rawness to his tone as he said those final words, but he was quick to compose himself.

---

“Hold on a second Daimyon, one thing at a time." said Max before turning to Ice. "I hadn’t spotted Caora nor Braden in the pharmacy, so I must have left prior to their arrival. But it seems like the pharmacy was visited by many people, how curious.” Max continued after Calvin. “Though casting suspicion on anyone based on their interaction with Mercy is quite naïve. In fact it’d be even more suspicious of those who weren’t seen with Mercy; as if they were avoiding her…or poisoning.” Although it was clear that even Max wasn’t very confident in this theory, if it warranted a response, it’d be worth it.

He then faced Braden. “While I can't speak for Braden, I entered the pharmacy around 3 PM to simply asking how to best deal with an injury I sustained during the last night of carnage. As for my badge, I noticed it had dissapeared when we were setting up the party. Perhaps i dropped it during the conversation with Mercy and she found it; that badge is important to me, i wouldn't just hand it out. I must say though; our alibis suggest that Mercy has been in the Pharmacy for the entirety of 3 to 4 PM, which would suggest one of the people in there poisoned her but that seems...too simple, maybe we are missing something.” He said while placing a hand under his chin.

”Right, suspect the cautious one.” Braden raised Erica up without looking at Calvin. But the puppet had plenty to say to him. ”Listen here bucko, even if you're an egg short of a dozen, it doesn't take a genius to figure out Mercy was looking over many patients in that time frame. Braden sprained his wrist practicing a puppet show with us, so we went to see Mercy. Jezebel and Zachary were there before us so it's not like we were first.” The puppet leaned closer. ”But say, chum, did anyone see Mercy after you? Or were you there with her by yourself for a time? BUSTED!”

Emily wasn't making eye contact with anyone. She was just leaning on her podium, which was swallowed by her massive breasts. “Oh Calvin, you couldn't have done it.” she shook her head. “I'm so useless, if only I could prove it...”

”Noel right!” Denis cried out. ”We were together almost entire day. We even went to my room for interview! I famous now!”

“Heh...” Jezebel grunted. She had been pretty quiet, but was grinning during Thomas and Alice's entire demonstration. ”So like, Zachary wanted to have the doctor look over his eye and junk, and I came with. Caora was leaving just as we arived, and like, Braden showed up just as we were leaving. So yea.“

”Alright” Lucy was jotting down notes in a text book. Probably a product from the craft store on the new floor. ”So it seems like Mercy was helping a lot of people around that time. We should definitely continue to talk about the people who saw mercy during that time.” The infinite prodigy looked at the group. ”But I'm not going to nail the killer with just a list of people who saw Mercy. Did anyone notice anything else that was kind of strange? Other than having access to Mercy, was there anything else the killer needed to pull off this crime?”

---

It was unfortunate that another murder had plagued the Infinites, especially so close to that last, trainwreck of a Night of Carnage. Murdering someone was an unforgivable action, but doing so at this point in time somehow made it worse in Zach's eyes. What sort of selfish bastard would do such a thing? This was 3 times that somebody had killed another. It was safe to say this would continue, even were they to survive this trial. They needed to find a way out of this situation before there were no Infinites left! This world needed a future!

Thankfully, it seemed like some others were being proactive in their approach. Going by what was discussed, it was most likely that the poison used was not the fast-acting type but the kind that took a few hours before taking effect. Naturally, people began stating their alibis, but strangely it seemed as though quite a bit of people visited Mercy before the party. Of course, Zach knew this beforehand since he'd been there with Jez. But most interesting of the discussion so far was Thomas' questioning of Alice. Presumably, the point was to confirm that while Mercy did know about the wound on her hand, she wasn't aware it was poison. That much was kinda obvious though. Mercy would have to be of a horrible character to not inform others about this, as that simply put everybody else in danger. Oddly, the mention of a pencil tip did remind Zachary of something that may be of note to the case, but he wasn't sure if he should potentially bring up something that may digress from the current topic. He figured he'd hold onto that information until later.

"Yes, that's correct." Zachary acknowledged Jezebel's recounting of their alibi for the 3:00pm-4:00pm timeframe. But Zachary assured himself that would be the last time she needed to speak for him this trial. He'd admit that the feeling of having someone get his back was a great one, but in order to improve as a person and to fulfill his desire to make his relationship with her one in which she benefits, Zachary needed to assert himself.

There would be no more politicians calling him cuck.

Still... "I can't say I was looking for anything of the sort, but I'm afraid I did not see anything that was out of the norm while we were with Mercy." the fact he could've missed something important weighed on him and he'd spoke as if he was upset at himself for not seeing anything.

This was far from Faith's first rodeo, but something didn't quite add up. The poison had to be applied between 3pm and 4pm... But from her understanding of the timeline, the chronology of the events during that time, it should have been physically impossible. That was, provided her timeline was even correct, but with all the alibis that had been given, and no one calling anyone else out for lying, there was nothing to say it was wrong.

"If you're all telling the truth, that should make the timeline something like this then, right?

Mercy arrived the pharmacy prior to 3pm
Max entered at 3pm
Ice and Alice entered just after 3pm
Max left shortly after Ice and Alice arrived, before Caora showed up.
Caora entered sometime between 3 and 3:30pm.
Ice left at 3:30pm, presumably with Alice in tow.
Caora left sometime after 3:30pm.
Jezebel and Zachary entered at the same time Caora left.
Braden entered the pharmacy at some time before 4pm, at the same time as Jezebel and Zachary were leaving,
Calvin entered at 4pm, and saw that Braden was still there."

She took a second to think after speaking, and looked around the room, and no one in particular, before settling her eyes upon a certain someone.
"Hey Maxxyyyyyyy~! Y'know how you went to look for Mercy at 3? Did you go straight to the Pharmacy and find her there, or did the two of you run into each other while you were looking?"

"I found her near the pharmacy." Max stated with something on his mind. "But I don't actually know what she was doing prior to that."

"Near?" Faith placed a hand to her chin for a short moment, before pulling out her Tome and flipping it open, "So you mean she wasn't in the Pharmacy when you arrived?"

"As in, right in front of it. Come on Faith, you're dwelling on these trivial details." max folded his arms in annoyance before continuing. "Have you even considered that the dosage of poison could have been altered? Mercy could have been poisoned outside of the 3 to 4 pm range."

"That's impossible." she simply said, reading across a page, making sure to keep the contents of the book hidden from those either side of her, "We already ruled out ingestion as a method of poisoning, aaaaaand Thomas kindly pointed out that the puncture wound could very easily have been where the poison entered her body."

Her gaze then drifted up from the book towards Max, slightly smiling.
"As for why it's impossible, Ice said so himself. He was in the pharmacy with Mercy yet he didn't notice that she was wearing bandages, implying she wasn't between 3 and 3:30. So if we're still going to say an outside party poisoned her, it can only have been Braden, Calvin, Caora, Jez or Zach~!"

"Yes well I don't recall any of them stating that Mercy was wearing a bandage. If that can be cleared up, then I agree with you. But until we know for sure, it's a possibility that Mercy was poisoned after 4 pm."

"Anything else to add?"

Perhaps it was the nerves of the case, or simply the fact that Faith had herself under the impression that she was without a doubt correct, but even despite that point, she kept what small a smile she could observe.
"Anything else to add? Hmmmmmm..." she placed the tip of her index finger to her lip, looked off towards Monokuma, then, almost as quickly as she had zoned out, pointed the finger directly at Max.

"So maybe she was poisoned after 4pm!" she gave him a warm smile, then closed her book, "Of course it's not like when she bandaged herself matters, since there's only really one person who could have poisoned her." her gaze drifted over Thomas, and then Daimyon in turn, and then to Lucy, "Daimyon's so right, the Mask is proooooooobably pretty important. After all, Mercy would have sought to cure herself if she knew she was poisoned."

She couldn't exactly prove the theory, but it made some sense, that much she knew.
"She obviously knew about the cut to have the foresight to bandage it. Looking at the time periods of 3pm and 4pm aren't really gonna help us anymore..." she drummed her fingers lightly against the podium before her, "Since there are only three people who could have poisoned Mercy in that time, after all. Braden, Calvin... and herself." her smile somewhat dissipated, "So what the killer really needed was a time when they could infect Mercy with the Horseman Virus~! Uuuuuunless someone wants to own up to being infected~?"

Max let out a short laugh; Faith's theory was out there, but it somehow made sense, the cop couldn't help but agree with the matchmaker. However, his laugh dissipated in an instant as the implications took root in his mind.

"You're implying that Mercy poisoned herself because she was infected by the horseman virus and it made her open to the suggestion. If you're right...this blackened..." Max trailed off into space for a bit before snapping back. "But that complicates this trial. It would mean that Mercy killed herself."

Faith placed the Tome gently onto the podium, letting her hand rest atop its cover as Max took in her theory. At the same time, with her free hand, she pulled from her skirt her Handbook, and brought up the rules.
"Technically, that would be true. After all, Rule 7 states that 'anyone who kills a fellow patient and becomes "blackened" will be cured...'" in a similar motion, she placed the Handbook on top of the book as well.

"So I suppose that raises a very big question, Doc. If a person infected with the Virus kills someone, who is considered the Blackened? The infected party... or the person who infected them~?"

Cyrus grew very cynical of Faith and Max’s analysis. Too much of it didn’t add up. Naturally, there was still the possibility that someone was lying. Max could’ve easily done it himself in the time before Ice and Alice arrived. No puncturing would be necessary, all it would’ve taken was to give her a drunk with Mundinol. The bandaging was suspicious, but it wasn’t that proven it was connected to the case just yet.

“Well if we just go by the presence of the bandaging or not, that’s not enough to prove it didn’t happen in this time period from 3 to 4.” Cyrus said. “I saw Mercy at 4:30, but I didn’t notice any bandages. I might’ve simply overlooked them.” He wondered aloud. “Did you notice anything, Emily?” He asked, as she was with him when he encountered the plague doctor.

He also frowned at the statements regarding the horseman virus mask. “No doubt the mask is important. But aren’t you jumping to conclusions that Mercy was truly infected? Honestly, if anyone remembered being infected, including Mercy, they could’ve told us at any point, couldn’t they?” He scratched his head. “Surely an event as a mask being forced upon you and being exposed to a dangerous virus isn’t something you’d keep silence on purpose. Until proven, anyone could carry the virus and keep silent for some reason. Not to mention, the progression of the virus takes days, so it could’ve been applied yesterday, or two days ago. We have no solid timeframe lead for this. ”

That said, he was still very interested in the answer to the question they asked Monokuma.

Cyrus was still most wondrous about how Mercy was poisoned. And as such, he came up with a plan. “If mercy was truly stabbed with Mundinol, I might propose the following. I’d like to have the bandages looked at for mundinol blood traces. If mundinol was truly applied to Mercy via that puncture wound, there is a chance some mundinol would’ve left a trace on the bandage.” He then turned to Monokuma. “Can we have the bandages… with the lights off?”

He wasn't sure if they were on the right trial here, but there had to be a clue somewhere.



Noel was pursuing another line of thought. Perhaps there was something to what Lucy had said. If they couldn’t pinpoint the time of murder well, perhaps they should chase other lines of thought first. What did the killer need? Well that was quite obvious…

”Well, besides access to mercy, the killer needed to prepare the poison. So they needed to do the following things…” Noel started to sum up. ”They needed the intel, which they got from the book. It seems most likely that this book was obtained from the study?” Noel estimated.

”Secondly, the killer would need the materials to make the poison. I imagine most of these could be obtained in the chemistry lab?” Noel’s mouth curved in doubt. ”But I suspect the chemistry lab wouldn’t contain the means to create something this lethal. Perhaps the killer used chemicals from the pharmacy instead? I was there with Dennis this morning, and I remember a lot of people took different things. Weren’t you taking inventory, Thomas?” She asked the young biomechanic. Maybe he knew of anything in the pharmacy that could’ve been taken.

Then lastly, there was the obvious. ”Finally, the killer had to mix the chemicals in the chemistry lab. They used the mixing station next to the book, of course.” She stated. She doubted anyone would disagree with her on this last part.

”So I guess ultimately the question boils down to these three locations. Did anyone see anything involved with the case in these three locations?” Noel in particularly looked at Thomas, thinking his actions in the Pharmacy as the most promising lead they might have.

This was getting out of hand… or, no, it was already out of hand once Mercy died. Now, it was getting painful. This case was like a highway, with all it’s routes, and every Infinite was on a different path. They weren't disagreeing, but no one was agreeing either. Something would have to be done, but Thomas wasn't particularly good at handling this type of thing. The best he could do was address Noel, and try to help the Infinites reach a consensus.

”I agree, the book must’ve come from the study. Ah, I’m sure the Politician knows someone who could tell you more about this.” Thomas looked to Cyrus, then Lucy, a hint of disdain in his gaze. ”I can corroborate your statement. The Infinite Spy, the Infinite Reporter, and myself were all in the pharmacy this morning. It was about half past ten.” Thomas subconsciously ran his left hand over his right hands watch as he spoke, admiring how smooth the glass felt after all this time he’s had it.

”Unfortunately, I didn’t finish my inventory, as I thought you were aware. I cannot say for certain that there is nothing lethal, such as litonix, in the pharmacy.” Thomas met Noel's eyes. ”And, by the way, if you’re suggesting anything, I suggest you use evidence a little less circumstantial.”

With that out of the way, Thomas’s attention fell on Max and Faith. Through an almost incoherent mess of suggestions, there was something on the right track. ”I’d like to hear more about this theory, that Mercy herself was infected by the Horseman Virus. I said it before, but we still do not have the full how or what for this murder.” — Thomas looked at Daimyon, and then back towards Faith and Max — ”When the Poet’s group found the Zombie Mask, which holds the Horseman Virus, it was empty. I don’t see why someone would go through all the trouble of obtaining the mask just to dissipate it, so I am certain that it was used on someone.”

”There’s something that’s been bothering me too." Thomas raised his hand to his upper lip again. "Mercy’s gait has always been equal to half her height, or, well, close to half her height, — it’s a little hard to measure when all I could use was the floor tiles for reference — just like a regular healthy human. When I saw her at the party today though, her gait was noticeably changed. Monokuma had mentioned that the Horseman Virus could affect how an individual walks. If Mercy was infected by the Horseman Virus, that would neatly explain her gaits inconsistency.”

Caora picked up his stuffed sheep and looked at it. ”What do you think Fang? Is that how you remember it?” he looked to everyone else. ”I think the timeline goofy lady constructed is correct, that's what I remember too... Only I remember the masked doctor had a bandage on her hand. Or was she holding bandages when she was patching up Ice? Hmmmm...” Caora defered to Fang again, who said nothing.

Lucy was writing down the order in which everyone visited the pharmacy, per how Faith explained it. But her pen hand stopped when Faith started to “theorize” with Max. Faith was already blatantly ignoring clues and making assumptions so that Mercy could die just how they wanted her to. Jezebel had spoken to Lucy about the match maker, but she didn't think anyone could be that detached from reality. Thomas and Jezebel seemed to be right about them. Fortunately, Cyrus said something.

“That's right, I was there!” Some of the color returned to her face. “I think she had bandages on her hand, but I'm not sure if she was bleeding.” Emily swallowed. “I heard the stove beep, and I ran into it a little too hard with my chest. I panicked and sought out mercy to have her look at it. I'm sure she had bandages spooled on her hand like toilet paper. I can't really remember. But it was a bit after 4:30 when she finished up. She said she was going to see someone, right?”

Braden sighed. ” I don't think I saw any bandages. I'm pretty sure I'd have remembered a bleeding hand.”

“Wait, Calvin!” Emily placed her hands on her cheeks. “I saw you at the doctor's too! Why didn't you mention me?! If I was the killer I could have gotten away with it. You need to be careful...”

Monokuma giggled. ”As you all know, what made this motive so alluring is that you can turn one of your friends into a mindless zombie to do the killing for you!” Monokuma tipped his head. ”But there's not really much point if your 'hired gun' gets labeled the blackened right? Ultimately you're doing this for your own freedom. The case wouldn't be very interesting if the person who used the mask was considered spotless.” Monokuma folded his arms. ”I don't know about the lot of you, but to me, the blackened is the one who masterminded the case.” Killgood slid his paws over his mouth. ”Oh, and before you ask, everyone who asked for the mask was notified of this.”

Jezebel rubbed her chin. ”So like, we have an infected and a blackened...”

The bear smiled. ”Oh, but if the killer wasn't infected, then they are the blackened as usual.”

Lucy cleared her throat. ”I understand not everyone ca-” Suddenly the bandage popped up on a pedestal in the center of the room, and all the lights went out. However, nothing glowed in the darkness. When the lights flipped back on, Lucy examined everyone in the room with a scowl. ”I understand not everyone can be me, but let's stick to unearthing all the clues before we start dreaming up theories.” Lucy was writing down Everything Noel said. She could barely keep up with everyone, so she was writing a lot of it in shorthand. ”Noel, as I recall only you and Cyrus had access to the pharmacy. So everyone who wanted in would have had to have gone through one of you.” Lucy's expression started to lighten as she continued talking to the reporter. ”So if the killer needed access to the pharmacy, they would have had to have gone through one of you.” Lucy looked around the room. ”Though I'd prefer if everyone who went inside the pharmacy came clean on their own.”

Jezebel cracked a smile. ”I just looked over the chemistry book in question, and it totally came from the study. Like, everything from there has a stamp on it and junk, and this matches!” She raised the book up so that everyone could see.

”And I was in there the whole time, so don't any of you try to hide the fact that you visited. Speak up!”

”She didn't even need bathroom breaks!”

”H-how did you know that?” But Lucy didn't have a chance to get her answer, as Thomas was talking about Mercy's gait. ”If she was infected, that could be important in figuring out when she was infected.”

Noel felt some hostility coming from Thomas, and felt that needed to be set straight first. ”Oh, you misunderstand me Tommie!” She said with a chuckle. ”I simply meant you were in the pharmacy for a while doing inventory, you might’ve seen something get taken that was of interest. I don’t suspect you any more than anyone else who visited the pharmacy on my watch.” She eyed around the room knowingly. ”I’d suggest everyone who went there to tell us exactly what they took, and why. Tell us every detail, now!” The smile on the reporter’s face was gleeful, obviously she was as much interested in people’s medical information as she was actually finding their killer.

Noel then turned towards Cyrus. ”I was interviewing Denis when people were asking me for the Pharmacy, so I admitted people there until 2 pm at the latest. Did you give anyone access to the Pharmacy, Cyrus?”



Cyrus wasn’t sure why the biomechanic referred to him when talking about the book and the study. He hadn’t been there all day. Neither did he know much about Lucy. The biomechanic was referring to Lucy, right? “Wait, why would I know about that?” He questioned Thomas. He’d rather have that out of the way, before incurring any further implications.

Cyrus then looked at the caretaker in shock. “That’s correct! She went to see someone!” He had almost forgotten about that. There was no saying if that was actually connected to the murder, but no lead was to go uninvestigated. “So, who had an appointment with Mercy around 4:30 pm?” He scanned the room, awaiting an explanation.

Cyrus then responded to the reporter’s query. “I have admitted nobody to the pharmacy. So they must’ve gone through you.” He answered plainly.

The reporter grinned. ”In that case, I can at least inform everyone that Mercy did not access the pharmacy. She did set up there to examine patients, but she explicitly insisted she didn’t need anything.” She smiled saying that. It obviously meant that, regardless of whether Mercy was infected or not, she couldn’t have obtained the materials to create the poison.

Though Daimyon did seem to wander off-topic with his query about the mask, as Max had told him, it did lead to the group coming up with a couple interesting possibilities in relation to the identity to the infected. The most intriguing to the poet was the potential that Mercy had become victim to the virus before she was murdered. He looked over his short symptom list once more and tried to connect them to her behaviour just before her death. His spotty memory did not help him in this effort, which alarmed him, since his daily recollection skill was crucial to him. Even slight impairment in that would have been devastating.

He did recall the doctor acting quite merry at the party, taking up Felix's call to a dance with glowing enthusiasm, but he could not draw anything definite on this observation alone. After all, Noel had reacted similarly when the poet had asked her. It seemed unlikely that any power of suggestion was involved—rather, it was merely the charisma of the two men that had earned them the hand of the damsels in dance. Despite this—for him, rational—conclusion, Thomas reinforced the suspicion by mentioning the discrepancy in Mercy's gait. Surely, that could also be explained away with simple overeagerness and lack of practice, Daimyon thought. If he had not prepared his waltz beforehand, he might have looked similarly off-balance.

He had ample time to ponder on these possibilities and potential clues, as the debate focused on two locations: the pharmacy and study, and he was very certain he had been to neither today. Just before he believed he was out of the case discussion, however, Cyrus mentioned a time: 4:30 pm. An exact time, and one that soon rang a bell as he retraced his day further and further back.

“Ahem!” The poet cleared his throat, asking for attention after Noel had finished with what she had wanted to say. “During the afternoon, I was in the kitchen, preparing the food that would be served at our gathering. I was...ah, mostly an assistant to a much more talented culinary artist in this endeavour: Bliss. She worked heartily and diligently, and understandably felt exhausted after a couple hours. Thus she left the finishing touches to me and went away to rest up, saying she was feeling very weak. This had to have been around the 4:30 mark, for I glanced up at the clock in the kitchen when she left.” He could speak with reasonable certainty on that, as it was his habit to always round to the nearest quarter-hour mark when checking the time. It was easier to remember this way and only allowed for 5 minute differences at most. “I assume she was Mercy's mystery patient. Of course, she very well might have simply gone into her room. Could you clarify this matter to us, Bliss?”

Calvin shuddered involuntarily as Emily called him out on his failure to mention that he had seen her. Calvin turned to face her. "Jesus, we're jumping around so much and I'm just trying to wrap my head around any of this ." He turned towards the rest of the Infinites. "I did see Emily, and was going to mention it. Just so we're clear." Calvin breathed out a sigh before he tuned back in to try and keep track of all that was occuring, though he was intensely aware of the glances the other patients threw his way.

Lucy and Noel started pushing for more details from those who had entered the pharmacy, and Calvin nodded along quietly. "Like I said, I was working in the crematorium and I burned my hand. It really fucking hurt, so I went to the pharmacy to grab some ointment or whatever. Mercy was there, doing something with Braden, and then she helped me out with my hand. Wasn't anything crazy, I ran my hand under water for a bit and then she wrapped it up. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to fall off or some shit. Emily did come after me, and I left pretty quickly after. If I had to say, I was gone sometime around 4:30 I didn't notice anything off with Mercy, but I don't notice much." There was a faint grin on his face that quickly fell away as he remembered himself and the situation he was in.

Bollocks.

Everything had gone to slightly disorganized to a full on clown car of a trial. Alibis were thrown everywhere, Faith was already plotting a theory, and the mask was too much of a wild car to even begin to understand on his own. What they needed was someone to order everything out, but it seemed as though both Cyrus and Thomas were trying to get the one up and explain it all. The bandage was already a head turner, some people had noticed it, some not- him included. But why the entire bandage in the first place? The missing badge was another random entity that had to play in somewhere, after all, a manny wasn't going to just drop his identification nugget all willy-nilly. The mask was indeed a bit strange for it had to be used on someone, but the Blood Donor hadn't known the girlie well enough to keep up with her habits.

It might not have been his 'turn' to talk with everyone talking almost over each other, but Ice said what he had to for his alibi, "I got some nasty bruises sparring with Alice, but the main reason I came over with Alice to the pharmacy was to take a look at my hand again, I tried to put weight on it while in the dojo and mucked it up again." He gave an almost comical look at the Infinite Recon, "Even though this Kinza didn't get even red in the face...So I just needed a bit of ointment, some new braces, and good ol' bandages, bit of a bronx that Calvin came after us or Mercy'd have patched us both up with the same stink."

"Hmm..A bit odd that almost no one saw the bandages on Mercy's hand before the party, besides Emily..." Alice thought to herself as she silently listened to the discussion, scratching the back of her head when mentioned in Ice's alibi. Strangely, Monokuma's comparison of an infected infinite to a hitman bothered her, the recon digging her nails into her arms at the thought of one of them unwillingly turning into a hired gun for the blackened.

"Then again, a bandaged hand can easily be ignored without someone pointing it out, so there isn't an accurate time when she first had patched her wound up, considerably...unless..." she looked over to Calvin, a quick look of disbelief appeared on her face, before she shook her head. "No, no...Seriously doubt he'd do something like this, even then, can't truely trust anyone in this damn place..."

Alice groaned in frustration. "I swear, this trial's gonna be the end of me."

Calvin was scanning the room intently, and he didn't miss Alice's pointed glance and shooken head. "Everything fine?" His tone was a bit tense, as if the words were being forced out. He just hoped to defuse the tension before it settled on him. His eyes carried some sort of unspoken message, though whether it related to the trial or something personal it was difficult to tell.

"I-I'm alright. This case is just getting to me, that's all." Alice reasured Calvin, giving the metal worker a nervous smile.

While Ice may or may not have been able to understand heads or tails of what was going on with the main trial, he was keeping a close eye on the two of them. Whatever Alice was cooking up made him on edge, something had definitely happened between Alice and Calvin when they'd spoken at the party, but the Blood Donor had completely forgotten to ask Alice about it. But what they really needed to do with get to the bottom of this, and what with Alice's antsy stare, "You didn't see Mercy in plasters? It'd be kind of hard to miss with her right smack dab in front of you..." Now he sounded worse than the others, blast it all.

Calvin recoiled slightly as Ice began to question him. "Come the fuck on, dude." He said quietly, before raising his voice. "I didn't fucking notice it, big whoop. I didn't know that she was going to die, so why would I be watching out for every little detail?" Calvin raised an arm and blinked slowly. "I'm not the only one who isn't clear about whether or not she was bandaged!"

Ice sighed, scratching at the back of his neck, he didn't mean to sound patronizing, but it may have come off that way. "Calvin, we're participating in a killing game where anything could be lethal and you were getting bandaged by a Quack who hadn't gotten hurt in the last Night of Carnage. It'd be strange not to inquire of why she was hurt. There's no way you could've gotten that close to her and not seen the blood, did you pick up anything else? A smell? Maybe she flinched a little while patching you up?" Calvin might have not been able to pick up on it, but Alice probably could have, the question were more towards himself than the Metalworker, berating himself for not picking up on anything himself. Ultimately they had been in similar situations and Ice had been just as unobservant because of his own silly problems.

"Honestly, I haven't picked up on much since you were my main concern at the time." Alice spoke up, looking over to Ice. "I wonder if she was trying to hide her hand though..."

"She wasn't wearing gloves, she was with 'patients' all day, it should've been obvious! Blimey... " Ice leaned his good hand onto the podium, "Why can't we all just be observant for once?"

"I don't know what to fucking tell you, dude. I- I wouldn't have burned myself if I was operating at a hundred percent!" He tore off his right gauntlet to reveal a bandaged hand. He threw it to the ground, angrily unwrapping as he continued to speak. "I didn't smell shit, I didn't see shit, and I don't know shit. " He finished unwrapping his hand and held it up for the group to see. There was a thin pink line that crossed over his hand, slightly raised.

"C-Calvin, settle down, take it easy!" Alice tried to calm the metal worker down, an expression of nervousness present on her face.

"It takes two words, we're not at a sailor spelling bee, lay off the Grand Theft Auto," There wasn't anything left to argue over and he was starting to wind down, his eyebrow still twitching slightly but at longer intervals, "And for Apollo's sake, get some water and sleep after this, I don't want a body announcement to go off because you keeled over." He gave a rye smile, "Assuming we're not all executed after this."

There was a no shift in intensity from the Infinite metal worker, though his volume lowered enough for others to continue speaking. "I'll be fine." His tone was hardly convincing, though some piece of himself knew it to be true.

The glare Calvin got after that sorry excuse was worse than any look Ice had given him during their argument.

"Enough! I already deal with enough bullshit from these damn trials." Alice raised her voice at the two, resting her head in her hand afterwards. "Arguing will only add to this clusterfuck, and it's not gonna help figure the case out."

While he did his best to ignore the daggers emanating from Ice's eyes, Calvin felt a bitter retort rise in his throat to Alice's statement, but he stopped himself. Alice had just lost one of her closest friends. He was angry and hurt, but he understood what it was like to feel loss amidst the craziness of a trial. "Sounds good." He stood quietly as he did his best to rein himself in.

Breaking from his stare down at the Infinite Metalworker, he glanced over at Alice sheepishly. Well that certainly went well. It was only after a second that Ice piped it, "By the way, I stopped by the pharmacy at around noon while the other three were there, don't exactly want to be lynched for not saying anything."

---

As the trial continued, Felix began to lose sight of the greater picture, there were so many alibis and clues; and all were presented in the span of what felt like seconds. It was enough to turn the free-runner’s head upside-down. And yet in the upside-down, there was one discussion that Felix understood clearly. Jezebel and Lucy were talking about the origins of the chemistry book that was used to create the poison; and at that moment, he remembered.

“I think I did it, I got the chemistry book from the study.” Felix’s face turned pale-white as he realized what he had done. “Mercy asked me to bring her a box of books in the study at about half an hour past eleven, and I dropped them off with her at chemistry lab. I didn’t actually see what kinda books were in cuz I went straight back to the study, but it’s pretty clear now that it was the book about litonix.”

As he said the words, his face grew restless. “B-but it doesn’t make any sense! Why would she need a book about litonix, and then get poisoned by the same thing! It’s so stupid.” He said as his head slowly turned down, degrading his entire pose into dread.

“She really was infected wasn’t she?”

Faith listened to everyone's talks, and their theories and the like, but she had to admit that, deep down, she was sad. Lucy hadn't just brushed aside her idea, she had made an off hand and passive aggressive comment towards her! To Faith, of all people! To one who holds the right to a Throne of Gods! Of course, she could understand where the lack of understanding on the girls part may have come from - a person with the talent Infinite Prodigy might have been used to having things go her way at all times, and complimented from all angles, but this time, Faith would be the one to win what little battle she wished to incur.

"I mean, of course Mercy was infected. It's kinda obvious if you think about it, and also the most logical." she looked around, part tired, part happy, but also part sad, her face betraying something of a sombre tone, "But alas, my fellows, I believe I have made a mistake that hath led us down the wrong road." she drummed her fingers on the table, and the pages of her Tome, "We know that Mercy got the book from Felix now, and that there is a lot of discrepancy with when her bandage was applied. Buuuuuut, I said Litonix couldn't be applied." she frowned, then gave a small smile, "Yeah I was totally wrong about that~!"

Faith stood, silent for a moment, to let people take the idea in, then continued.
"I said you couldn't have used the fast acting poison at the party because you would probably end up getting everyone killed, right? But everybody seems to say the puncture wound Mercy had came after 4pm, so Mundinol can't have been used. If Mercy really did poison herself, the fact of the matter changes - she could totally have given herself Litonix during the concert, or the party, or whenever, really!" her gaze then drifted to Bliss, "Daimyon's right, you bounced on us cause you weren't feeling well. If you went and saw Mercy after 4:30pm the question falls to you: did she have that bandage on? Cause if she didn't... the murder weapon may have been Litonix after all~!"