[IC] Danganronpa Alternate: Apologies to Hope (Reboot) [Deader than Disco]

[Ammokkx]

Truth Bullet unlocked - Aurel Fuchs’ and Momoe Mizuno’s Account
The two claim to have been unable to sleep due to being stuck with each other. For this reason, they both claim it’s impossible for either of them to be the murderer, as they were together the whole night. Additionally, both heard a loud clanging sound during nighttime.

Chikako inserted herself into the conversation. "Wait, why couldn't it be the fish hook?" she asked. "I mean, the monokuma file says that she died from blood loss, so even a fish hook could be stabbed in and do the deed..."

"No... that's impossible," Ayu commented to correct the other girl. "Me and Hiroki checked Naomi's wound... it runs much deeper and wider than what the fish hook could do." The girl finished her argument, but wasn't yet done talking. She turned to another in the courtroom "...Momoe. You're the only one who didn't come to the crime scene. You're still hiding something," Ayu accused her. Momoe shot daggers at the smaller girl.

"How the hell would you know?"

Ayu didn't respond. Momoe groaned and pinched the area between her eyes, feeling another wave of drowsiness wash over her. She was much too prideful to let it show much beyond that point, though, and straightened her posture. In this new pose she also crossed her arms, her chin up, as if she was looking down on everyone else. "It's true I haven't played all my cards yet..." she offhandedly mentioned and was then interrupted by a loud voice.

"Spit it out already!" Taka aggressively badgered her, but let out a small yelp when Momoe's death stare had fixated on him in response.

"One more like that and you'll be the next corpse," Momoe growled at him. Taka shut his mouth, and then she continued. "I ran into Hibiki at the docks while you lot were dealing with Naomi's body. Now I dunno if it's quite what we're looking for here, but... ah, what the hell? Why don't you tell 'em, four-eyes."

[AimeChambers]

Hibiki had found it quite fascinating to watch the exchange between all of the Ultimates, after all, human emotion could both cloud people's judgment or motivate them to get to the bottom of something. All throughout the trial, Hibiki had been thoughtfully fiddling with something in his pocket. There was, after all, no reason to truly preserve evidence as the campers had no scientific equipment to examine it. A pity really, that his coat would be so thoroughly ruined, but the damage had already been done as Hibiki had hastily threw the object into his pocket, so why not ruin it further?

"So soon...? It seems your stubborn ego has reached its breaking point."

Hibiki slipped the object out of his coat pocket and set it on the rim of his stand.

"T-The fuck Hibiki?!" A slight gagging sound involuntarily came out of his throat as he stared at the dirtied scissors Hibiki had set down. The scissors were covered in blood and what looked to be sand particles. Ryuma had always been a texture guy, and just thinking about touching those gave him the willies. "I thought you were supposed to be helping us for Christ's sake?!"

"I am," Hibiki gave a confused at the Parkourist before he looked over at Aurel and then Hiroki, "I hope this helps."

[addamas]

---

“Is that blood?” The reluctance to keep looking at the scissors told enough as Flare spoke, but looking away wasn’t an option either. “That’s… horrible. For anyone to carve into someone’s throat like that, I’d become sick in an instant. They’d need such a big resistance to the gory, like a butcher.”

“Are you suggesting something?”

“No... I’m not.” Flare lowered her chin as she retreated into herself, getting lost in thoughts. Snow gave her a short glance before opening up to the rest of the group with her hands clenched.

“So if we’re gonna accept the scissors as the uhh, murder weapon, then does anybody know where they might get them? I… like to fiddle with scissors a bit, like cutting shapes into cloth and leaves. It helps keep my hands busy when I’m not cutting actual hair.” Though her eyes averted all others, there was an innocence in her voice. “But ever since getting here, I haven’t been able to find any. Not that I really searched for them.” She silently sneered.

“Actually.” Flare remarked as she rose up from her thoughts. “I have not seen any scissors but I know a place that could have them. Back during the investigation, I searched through Maiya’s research lab and it was filled with odds and ends, from the trivial to the useful. And with Maiya’s talent, scissors definitely belong there.” Flare stopped for a second, putting a finger on her chin. “More importantly, there was a trashcan that contained something strange. A CD case with pieces of a CD still inside; not the entire CD tho-”

“Wait, a broken CD?” Snow interrupted Flare. “The showers contained shiny shards, those must’ve been part of the CD, and there were pieces of pink torn fabric too, and the shower was still running!”

“Snow, please slow down. You’re hard to follow.” Flare raised her hand towards Snow, gesturing downwards.

“Don’t you get it? That means the killer totally got the CD and the scissors from maiya’s lab, or should I say, the blackened’s lab.”

[Ammokkx]

Truth Bullet unlocked - Bloodied scissors
A pair of scissors with blood on them. Found near the docks.

Truth Bullet unlocked - Shower
One of the shower stalls had been left locked from the inside, with shiny shards and torn pink fabric on the floor. The shower was still running without anyone inside.

[Temporary]

and

"Maiya's the killer, Monokuma's the killer," called Izo from across the hall, as he shifted his sitting position to rest his head over the partition and look down on Aurel, "You planning on just accusing everyone in the damn room, lady? Aurel, buddy, c'mon, you gotta give us more than loud noises. We're gonna have to listen to some crackhead like Snow or Shirou if you do-"

"Do you never have anything useful to contribute?!" Shirou snapped, bringing his palm down hard on the table. "Every other word out of your mouth is a joke, while a girl is dead, and we only barely have half of us ruled out as suspects! At least Snow is attempting to help the group, but you've given us nothing."

"Christ, alright, calm down, I was getting to it," Izo replied. His neutral expression faded into a smile, and he turned his head to his right, towards Monokuma's chair, "Tough crowd, am I right? Say, what was that thing you said not to worry about again Hiroki? - 'your timer would reset at midnight' or something like that? Hey Monokuma, if two people were unlinked when midnight came rolling around, what'd happen to their timers?"

"Huh? Why do you ask that?" Monokuma pulled away to lean against the back of his chair, placing his left paw against the white side of his mouth. Izo didn't say anything. With Monokuma's question in the air, he stayed sat, silent, just looking at him, until the bear sat forward again and pointed down at him with one paw, while gripping the armrest with his right. "Your cuffs are already off, so you don't need to worry about that anymore, alright?! Geez!"

"Ah, well, okay then, I guess that clears it up. Sorry guys, thought I had a good idea, but I sure wasn't expecting Monokuma to be so biased towards the killer. Guess we're all gonna be punished, huh?"

"Oh, so I'm biased now, huh? That's how it is?" In response, Monokuma sat back into his chair a short ways. But as he did, the bear flashed a grin across the hall to bear his fangs, not in a threatening manner, but in vague, thinly veiled amusement. "Well then, I suppose that if a student wasn't with their partner by the time midnight rolls around, their timer would reset like normal. As long as they make it back to their partner twenty minutes after that, I wouldn't have to punish them."

"And there it is folks!" Izo's smile widened to a grin in much the same vein as Monokuma's. He swung back around his desk, standing to address the rest of the captives. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, may I present that the blood on Naomi's sheets was hours dry by the time it was found. The suspect list just expanded to anyone who didn't use their twenty minute separation yesterday - which, Shirou and I did. Who wants to go next?"

[KenjuGuy]

Hamazura Ginshi

[Super Highschool Level Judo Master]

"Hold it right there, Snow" Ginshi interjected with a stern tone of voice. The martial artist lifted his hand gently as he continued to speak,"Yukimori wouldn't do something like that, I just know, but more importantly, she's my partner," It was after that when Ginshi looked over at Yukimori, as if to reaffirm his assessment of the girl.

"After all this ME we're talking about here. I would have noticed if she were doing anything strange." Soon enough, he turned his attention back to Snow. "Besides, her and I were outside at the back behind the cabins last night. So she was too busy to try anything," assured of his abilities as always, Ginshi did not waver in his declaration as he put on a smile.

"Our personalized labs are accessible for all. So any one of us could have went in there to take whatever they wanted. Just like Izo said, there are more suspects." The Judo master finally explained while scanning around at the other students around him. Then lastly, his eyes landed back on the one at the center of discussion, Yukimori, "But, I'm not the hero of justice here. I've learned that it's most important for someone to help themselves. All I can do is support, so let them hear what you have to say Yukimori Maiya!"

[xxlanatjexx]

Frozen in place as Flare and Snow started talking about her lab. The scissors, the CD case being in her trashcan. She was so confused about the fact that they knew about the things that happened inside her lab, while she stood there being taken aback by it all. Not knowing about these things made her feel set up, causing her mind to go complete panic mode. “B-blackened’s lab? I know nothing about these things. I knew about the scissors being in my lab but I never touched them. I didn’t even go near my lab after we got the handcuffs from Monokuma.” Her eyes shaked a little when she looked around at the other students standing there, focused on her.
 
She pressed her eyes closed at Snow's words ‘That means the killer totally got the CD and the scissors from Maiya's lab, or should I say, the blackened’s lab.’ Blackened, blackened, blackened. It kept ringing inside her head. Not knowing how to respond or defend herself against it all. Rubbing her wrist as she started to press her thumb against it lightly to calm her nerves and collect her thoughts, she wanted to tell them what she did last night and tell them they were wrong. 

Ginshi’s words made her heart and mind relax. Nodding to agree with what he said about her and what they were doing at that time. "Yes, he’s my partner” She exclaimed with reassurement. “We were training behind the cabins. I wanted to know more about his fights, what he could do as an ultimate Judo master! Suddenly he told me he wanted to help me in getting stronger. That leading to us training and talking all night behind the cabins.” A smile came on her lips followed with a small blush crossing her cheeks. “Thank you Ginshi, for helping me out. He did nothing strange either, he was busy with training and talking.We removed our handcuffs when we wanted to start our training, we’ve been together and watching each other the whole time while they were off. He couldn’t have done it either, he was with me the whole time during that period.” 

[addamas]

---

“I see. So Ginshi and Maiya have an alibi as well.” Flare smiled as she looked at Izo in a somewhat grateful way. “You speak as if you have no stakes in this trial, but your condescending words help us nonetheless so thank you Izo.”

“Help? That asshole has done nothing but insult me and conspire with Monokuma!” Snow called out as she slammed her fist onto the stand. “Ugh this making my head spin, did our suspect list just get bigger or smaller? Me, Taka and Ryuma are still protected by the rule of three right? And Ginshi, Maiya, Izo, Shirou and Aurel have their alibi’s.”

“You forgot Momoe.”

“No I didn- whatever, fine.” Snow said with a downplaying hand gesture. “So who’s left then? Chikako? Hibiki? Hiroki?” Snow let her finger go over a few ultimates until it pointed straight at Hiroki. “Yeah, what is your deal? tell us what your alibi is.”

[Ammokkx]

"Wait, me?" Chikako piped up, completely ignoring the fact Snow wasn't pointing at her at all. "I've been spending my twenty minutes practicin' my dance steps. Every day. Without fail. Hibiki can back me up on this," she said. Chikako proudly slammed her fist against her chest and continued: "I'll be damned if I get rusty in this place. Besides, Hibiki doesn't do anything other than sit in his lab all day... I'm bored out of my mind in there!"

Taka slammed his palm against his head, peering through the gaps between his fingers. "Goddamnit, Izo! This is getting us nowhere! Obviously everyone's used up their twenty minutes every day! I even saw Lilly skip around yesterday and Flare sure wasn't fucking connected to her!"

"Bingo," another voice piped up from the crowd. Taka turned to it.

"Oh what do you want now, Momoe?" he asked, irate. She barked at him to shut his mouth.

"Anyway," she muttered to get herself back on track. "Think about who we know the alibis of. It's everyone short of Snow, Naomi and Ayu... and, unless you're mentally deficient, I don't think Snow's the killer here. Now lemme ask you directly, little Ayu..." her voice trailed off. Momoe leaned forwards with a smirk, tilting her head to the girl. "You never unlinked, did you?"

Ayu didn't answer, not immediately. Despite that, she didn't look any less relaxed than before. Her head turned to Hiroki's stand. She took a moment, and gave him a faint, but reassuring smile, as if to tell him it'll be okay. Soon as it came, it went again, and she turned her head back to Momoe.

"Me and Hiroki never used that function. Not since the day of the motive."

---

CLASS TRIAL

INTERMISSION

---

Do you want to save?

> Yes > No

---

Monokuma Theater

Whoa, did she just confess?!
I've seen my fair share of class trials, but this one seems to be going by in the blink of an eye...
Hey, speaking of eyes, did you know that bear eyes are better than human eyes?
I see colour just the way you do, but have even better nightvision!
I saw the murder happen with my own two eyes, puhuhu...
That girl must have been scared out of her mind!
Being so brutally murdered... the killer went way too far!
Please find the culprit quickly! Or don't. I don't care either way, puhuhu!

---

CLASS TRIAL

RESUME

[Temporary]

"You didn't split up even once?" Lilly asked, speaking for the first time since the Trial had begun. She pushed her whole body weight against the tabletop, leaning down and and swinging her legs behind her as she spoke. "Flare and me used it every day. She's really nice, but... hehe, I wouldn't wanna be stuck to her for the whole day."

"Can the two of you vouch for each other? According to the Monokuma File, the murder definitely took place over the night," with a begrudging look of resignation, Shirou glanced towards Izo. He had been an irritation since the moment the motive was announced, and in some ways even prior - but Shirou had to admit, that, among others, he wouldn't have come up with the idea. In no way could he come to like Izo, or forgive his insufferable attitude, but his usefulness in a Class Trial wasn't to be understated. "Unless you can prove each other's - or even your own - innocence, either of you could have used your pair's twenty minute separation, and made use of Monokuma's loophole-"

"Nah, there's no need for that," Izo piped up from across the room.

"Excuse me?"

"They might as well just come out, we've got 'em cornered," he continued. Izo slumped against the desk, leaning on his elbows for support as he stared across the room. Where he addressed the room and the campers with a jovial and nonchalant tone before, his carefree attitude had faded away into something more straightforward, and cold. "C'mon, tell us. Why the fuck did you kill her, Hiroki?"

[Savo]

Aurel Fuchs // Hisakawa Hiroki

---

Location:: Courtroom
Aurels Interactions:: Hiroki
Hisakawas Interactions:: Ayu (@Ammokkx), Lilly, Izo (@Vocab), Aurel

---

Hiroki could only gaze off to the side, tapping his two index fingers somewhat timidly as hew frowned the moment Momoe accused the duo of never splitting up - which was entirely true. He never really felt the need to get away from the person he was linked up and was musing on what to do next as he caught Ayu's glance over to his stand.

The boy paused, eyes widening as his mouth opened as if to say something to her, before seeing her gentle smile. He returned the gesture, albeit awkwardly, before sighing and nodding back to her. His once tense shoulders relaxed a little as he looked up from his stand, briefly glancing over at Naomi's before returning his gaze back to the other students. Despite this all, he still held his breath.

And then she dropped the bomb.

"No, it's just as she said," he replied to Lilly in a matter of fact tone, gulping before continuing, "we never used it; neither of us really had a reason to use that function anyways."

After that, Shirou followed up with a couple of questions, scratching at his neck, now trying to figure out how they would manage to vouch for each other. Well, he would of until Izo decided to interrupt that train of thought.

There was a knot forming in the bottom of his stomach as he clenched his fists. God, why was this guy so relaxed? They're in the middle of a life or death situation. Just as soon as the Fanatic was nearly finished, he was about to hop to their defense, till-

"... huh?"

-he was in the limelight. The boy fell still for a brief moment, processing it all before blinking before furrowing his brows, recoiling back before bringing a finger up, "Waitwaitwaitwaitwait, I didn't-"

Just as he frantically started up, he just as quicky came to an abrupt, chewing on his lower lip. He turned to the side, looking at each of the others; it felt like he was sweating bullets at this point.

"We shouldn't jump so early to conclusions-"

Yes, thank you Aurel!

"-however, he is our primary suspect as of now."

Ah, damnit. Hiroki wearily glanced over at the thief, his lips forming a tightly pressed line as his eyelids drooped. Strangely enough, Aurel kind of looked... befuddled? His head was tilted down at an angle and is hand was on his chin, with the only other thing being a raised eyebrow. "Well, unless he can give us a reason to prove it wasn't him."

Hiroki, not even missing a beat, whipped out the Monopad and began sifting through the evidence, there had to be something they missed! "Uhm... what about the pink fabric in the showers? As far as I know, Ayu and I don't have anything pink in our wardrobe."

[addamas]

---

With a look of pity, Flare looked over at Hiroki and her gaze only ended after some time with a lamenting sigh. His argument was flimsy and only caused his heels to sink deeper into his grave and it disheartened Flare.

“...Hiroki… you’re a good guy right? Upstanding student, best of your class, a commendable name like ultimate Type A Student.” A barely noticeable tremble coursed through Flare’s words as she spoke, as if trying to search for certainty. “So why are you using such a trivial argument? Nobody said the pink fabric belonged to clothing, It could come from any number of places. A piece of bedsheets, maybe a curtain; I could probably even find something in Maiya’s lab, right where we found the broken CD.” She tapped her knuckle on the desk each time she gave an example as she looked at Naomi’s seat before returning her slow gaze towards Hiroki.

“If you want us to trust you, don’t panic and try to run from this.”

“You said the fabric could’ve come from maiya’s lab right?” Snow added as her chin rested in the palm of her hand.

“And the CD case was found there too. I can see those CD pieces being carried around in a pink bag for something like murder or something.” tilting her head towards Ayu, she continued. “Did you see Hiroki take anything like that? Did you take it yourself?”

[Ammokkx]

Ayu looked to be in thought ever since she'd spoken up about the state of her and Hiroki's mutual bindings. Up until Snow directed a question at her she hadn't bothered to look up, and even then only briefly glanced at the taller girl. "It doesn't make any sense," she muttered, looking down again.

"if you've got somethin' to say, speak clearly." Momoe chastised her. Stifling a yawn, however, her charisma lacked somewhat.

"Like I said, it doesn't make any sense. Hiroki can't be the killer," she stated rather bluntly.

"Well, why not?! He could've been sneaking away every night, right under your nose!" Taka chimed in. "In fact, that's what he did, didn't he?! Just look at him! He's shaking in his boots, now that he's been caught!" he continued the assault, gripping the podium in front of him with barely-suppressed anger.

"No, he couldn't!" Ayu raised her voice at Taka, this being the first time she'd done so ever since being locked up with everyone else. "Hiroki was sleeping by the time the murder happened. I was awake the entire time through midnight," she continued, crossing her arms and looking down on the ground again. "There was no bag. No chance to grab any of those things. We're missing something in this trial. There's a piece of evidence we still don't know anything about... something that we don't know what it was used for, a missing detail..."

Ayu was mostly talking to herself, forgetting she was even in the room. Another voice cut through those mutterings. "Well, if you were awake that night, then aren't you the killer?!" Chikako shouted. "40 minutes would be plenty of time to commit murder, and the only ones with that chance were you two!"

[xxlanatjexx]

Placing both her elbows on the stand with her forehead resting in her hands, head facing downwards. Thinking, processing, and then finally her hands pushed back her hair as she looked up. Her white hair fell back in place before she spoke up. “All right. Let’s just remain calm and go through everything once more. I do this for myself as well… Please don’t attack me” Her voice trilled slightly when she muttered out those last words. Just like the last time she spoke up, she didn’t want people to treat her like a dumb girl standing there wasting air.

“The estimated time of death is anywhere from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. We can confirm that it might have happened close to 00:00 am because the bloodstains on her torso were dry for several hours.” Nodding her head slightly to everyone, trying to just hope they appreciated what she was trying to do. “The blood must have come from her throat… The wound that took her life. It wasn’t a clean-cut, and we all assumed it is the scissors that caused that…” Suddenly her mind worked slightly with her once again, putting a few ideas in her head. “Wait wait, the CD might have been de murder weapon the killer intended to kill Noami with… They might have broken the CD in my lab, throwing the case that they didn’t need in the trash bin with some other CD fragments. Because they only needed a few of them.”

Her right hand slowly moved to her forehead as she tried to explain her theory a little more. “they found the scissors at the docks, right? Where most likely the fish hook came from. Why not think Noami had the scissors all along? Her partner was the ultimate hairdresser, right? What if the killer had another murder weapon in mind?” She scratched the back of her head again. “My mind is a little messy. I apologize,” A small nervous laugh followed these words before she sighed and continued “I don’t know but the killer had either… The CD or the fish hook in mind as a murder weapon. He could have used the CD that he/she pulled out of their pockets while ripping a piece of cloth. After that, the CD charts were full of blood. Throwing it in the shower stall and turning on to wash the bloodstains away, while the killer was inside.” Taking a deep breath before moving back to her theory “Locking the door and then climbing over the wall to go back to the room. He noticed that Noami wasn’t dead yet. They must have gotten the scissors from her when she tried to defend herself. Or from somewhere in the room that then made the cut in her neck deeper and unclean. Not knowing how to dispose of the scissors, they went to the docks and took a fish hook, leaving the scissors behind. And putting the fish hook after dirtying it with blood, inside Noami’s hand so we might get on the wrong path…”

Her cheeks were flushed red as she felt the pressure she put on herself. Maybe she was wrong and she was spouting nonsense about things they might have already discussed. But still, she wanted to finish this. “I might be totally wrong with the fabric part. But as far as I know… I don’t use pink cloth in my lab at all, even when I use cloth it would be most likely black or white. Chikako, Hibiki, Hiroki… You guys are the only ones without an alibi like Snow said. But Ayu” Her eyes moved to her. “When what you said is true… That Hibiki was sleeping all the time. He has his alibi then… What’s yours?”
 
Suddenly her head turned towards Hiroki, Momoe and then back to Ayu. “Wait if I remember correctly… I was supposed to meet Hiroki at my lab after the incident with the turrets in the Amphit theater… But when I was making my way there you three were there and entered my lab. So you people are the only ones that entered my lab and might have gotten a glance at what was laying there… This might not be relevant but I just thought why not share it… After all, my lab is involved in this case.” Cutting of her whole theory (that might have some small flaws in it, due to her mind being so messy), probably leaving the important parts out and the parts that they still needed to discuss.

[Temporary]

"Weren't you guys using Hiroki's cabin?" Lilly asked abruptly as Maiya's recap trailed off. A finger raised towards her lips, partially obscured halfway up the palm by her jacket, as she looked towards the floor, momentarily paused in thought. "I thought I saw you guys go in there one night when me and Flare were walking back. At least, I think so, I might be misremembering, hehe."

"If that's true, then," Shirou piped up, his gaze falling to his right, onto Ayu, before flicking across the room to where Momoe stood for a brief moment, "Did either of you hear anything last night - specifically you, Ayu? That cabin is directly opposite where the murder occurred, the two of you would have had the best chance of hearing anything that happened in there."

[Ammokkx]

"Hear anything?" Ayu responded to the question, lightly tapping her cheek with her index finger. "...No. I didn't hear anything, not even the sound that Momoe and Aurel heard." Her gaze wandered again. Momoe took advantage of the silence so she could speak up again.

"Oi, you." Momoe's gaze was firmly locked onto Maiya. "I don't know what the hell you're tryin' to pull here with draggin' me into this... but I've been to your lab, yeah. I also know for a damn fact you've got a bunch of old rags strewn all over the place," she growled. "It ain't just black and white... you can make a damn rainbow out of all those clothes."

Ayu was muttering again. She mumbled about how something was wrong underneath her breath. Momoe's head snapped to look back in her direction. "Your attitude is pissin' me off too. If you've got any better ideas I'd like to hear 'em," she growled at Ayu.

"...Aurel," Ayu spoke up. "The noise you heard wasn't near midnight, was it? Because that means I'd have heard it, too. Isn't there something strange about that?" she asked him.

[Savo]

Aurel Fuchs // Hisakawa Hiroki

---

Location:: Courtroom
Aurels Interactions:: Ayu, Momoe (@Ammokkx)
Hisakawas Interactions:: Aurel

---

From the looks of it, Hiroki just seemed confused about this whole ordeal. At least, that's what Aurel go when peering up and glancing at the fellow. Eyes and lower lip were drooping a bit as well. The thief could only stare at his own podium, biting at his thumb as Ayu introduced this new portion of the alibi, that she was specifically up around midnight as well.

That was basically admitting that she did it, as eloquently as Chikako put it, which was completely peculiar in of itself. Aurel could only blink, ruminating to himself about this all.

"Just what are we missing," he fidgeted around with his fingers before brushing his hair a bit, only to be met with a speculation from Maiya about this whole situation. More thoughts now clouded his mind as a result of her constant hypothesizing, resulting in Aurel wincing a bit as he processed it all.

Regardless, Aurel yawned for a second before stretching one arm up while having another behind his back as the bickering continued on. Of course, as he sifted through the information, it eventually came to a close when Ayu addressed him.

"Eh?" Aurel blankly looked at the girl, pointing out the inconsistency; it contradicted his own thoughts as he looked down at the podium, biting at his index finger. "Uh, yeah, it is a bit... off."

Aurel turned his head back, staring in Ayu's direction before shoving his hand out into his pocket and giving it a few taps. Maybe there was something that she realized that they didn't?

Looking through the evidence again, he went silent for a couple of seconds, biting his lip the moment he finished reading seventy-five percent of the reported pieces.

Of course, after he found nothing besides what they already knew, he went through them again, attempting another angle before sighing. Hmm... maybe looking at their alibi from another perspective could help?

Instead of looking at what she explained happen, Aurel focused more so on what they were doing throughout the night. He was usually just lying down while keeping an eye on Momoe, who was doing something on the monopad, "I never did figure out what she was looking at..."

Exiting the evidence tab, he instead went to the tab involving the map, as that's what he last saw her staring at before she relegated herself to just keeping him from seeing what she was doing. Even as he scanned the campsite, he couldn't tell what the point of it all was, at least until his eyes drifted to the corner of the screen.

The time was, as of right now, XX:XX.

Wait.

Aurels eyes widened, remaining silent for the most part as he continued staring at the top right portion of the screen, "Uhm, Aurel, did you figure out something?"

That certainly broke him out of his reverie as he felt a small shock surf along his skin, recoiling a bit before rubbing his eyes. "Yeah. I did." Grunting, he turned and looked directly at the Smuggler with a deep frown.

"Namely, the reason why you were staring at the monopad each of those nights," Aurel pointed directly towards Momoe, doing his best to stifle a yawn before continuing.

"You were looking at the time, correct? That means you know the exact time when we heard that sound."

[Ammokkx]

Momoe's head tilted a little further upwards when Aurel addressed her, one hand in her pocket. His frown was met in kind by one of her own. Regretfully, she said: "Tch... cat's out of the bag, then. It's as the mousy girl said; the noise didn't happen anywhere close to midnight."

"Wait, you knew?!" shouted an angry Taka. "Why the hell didn't you tell us?!"

Momoe gave him a casual shrug. "I have my reasons. Mainly, I've got a better idea of the killer now. Someone here was really desperate to cling to that theory, and they weren't even the one who thought of it."

"Hey, hold up! Why are you two so sure the noise has anything to do with the murder, anyway?" Chikako interjected. She wanted to say more, but Momoe decided to cut her off right there.

"Piss off with the flimsy excuses. The noise we heard was the lock breaking, and you know that damn well."

Taka threw his voice back into the mix. "Oi, back up! The killer? How could you know when we've been going in circles?!"

Momoe's irritation was starting to reach a boiling point. She closed her eye for a brief moment, a soft growl escaping her. "I swear to god, if you say one more stupid thing in this goddamn farce of a trial..." she muttered, partially to herself but mostly aimed at the offending party in question. Ignoring him, Momoe opened her eye again and continued. "Before that... Oi, Tinkerbell," she said to Maiya. "You said somethin' real interesting earlier. 'The killer had the CD in mind as a murder weapon.' Maybe it's 'cause the thief's been keepin' me up every night, but something's tellin' me you're not far off."

Chikako challenged Momoe again. "Wait, weren't you the one who said the scissors were the murder weapon?"

"I said I hadn't played all my cards... I never said anything about a murder weapon," Momoe replied with a smug grin. "I could carry just about anything around in my coat and the thief wouldn't even notice. Those scissors were pretty large, though... I dunno how anyone'd be able to lug those around without their partner noticin'. Now a CD's large n'd all, but..." Momoe continued to explain, but left out the last part of that. She glanced over at Ayu. The girl noticed Momoe's gaze and replied after a little bit of hesitation.

"...The CD was already broken before Naomi's murder. They shattered it to make it easier to carry."

"I knew you were one of the smart ones," Momoe snidely replied. "Snap that bad boy in half and it's a lot easier to hide. Take it from me."

[Savo]

Aurel Fuchs // Hisakawa Hiroki

---

Location:: Courtroom
Aurels Interactions:: Ayu, Chikako, Momoe, Taka/Taya (@Ammokkx), Flare, Snow (@addamas), Emiya, Izo, Lilly (@Vocab), Maiya (@xxlanatjexx), Ginshi (@KenjuGuy), Hibiki, Ryuma (@AimeChambers), Hiroki
Hisakawas Interactions:: Aurel, Ayu, Maiya, Momoe

---

As this whole discussion continued to transpire after his claim, Aurel remained silent, musing on some of the other statements throughout this entire trouble. Leaning back, he nibbled at his finger before yawning into his hand and rubbing his eyes.

"Hm... that kinda makes sense, but now this brings up another issue," Hiroki spoke up, pursing his lips as he massaged the side of his temple with a single finger, "why are the scissors covered in blood?"

Posing this question, he moved the finger by his temple to his lips and began tapping it while looking off to the side. "Considering the timeline and multiple other factors, I don't understand why they are like that. The docks are a decent distance away from the labs to the point where the killer wouldn't of been able to shower and destroy the cut up CD if they went to retrieve the scissors from Maiya's lab. Furthermore, there's no real way to hurt yourself cutting a CD in half, unless you go about it in a really silly way."

Hiroki pouted, crossing his arms as he tilted his head, looking up at the ceiling, "That's honestly all I really got, so unless we have a-"

"The killer is Chikako."

Hiroki sputtered, blinking for a moment as the thief interjected into his thought process with an allegation that Chikako murdered Naomi, "N'huh, what?" There was a fair share of accusations thrown out, many with reason but a lack of a rhyme to the case; despite this all, was this a completely random accusation?

He was unsure. Hiroki could understand why Izo accused Ayu and him, despite the accusation falling flat. The boy merely rubbed his chin, staring down into his stand, ruminating. How did the thief arrive at that conclusion?

His mind wandered back to the pink cloth for a brief moment. Flare did try to deflect because she has pink clothes, but the thing is, Chikako has pink clothes as well... and Lilly also had pink clothes as well.

What made Aurel think it was Chikako?

[KenjuGuy]

Hamazura Ginshi

[Super Highschool Level Judo Master]

Ever the patient and receptive person that he was, Ginshi didn't interject much despite their possible impending doom. However, his receptive nature allowed him to have some keen intuition. That focus of his, happened to zero-in on Aurel's statement. "...I see,..Chikako huh. It's funny you say that, Aurel." The martial artist rubbed the back of his neck. Just what made Aurel think the blackened was Chikako? Ginshi had a feeling that he knew why, or at least partially.

"If I recall, there are multiple sets of CDs in your Lab, Chikako. I wouldn't be surprised if those CD pieces came from there. Sure, they could have gotten it from somewhere else but if the killer wanted a CD of all things, the obvious strike would be your lab that comes to mind first," The boy declared without hesitation. He assumed they were for Rhythm Games, but he didn't know too much about them. Is there still a chance he could have her teach him about this after the Trial? Putting that aside, he returned to the topic, "Now I can anticipate your next attack, you're going to say that the labs are accessible everyone and not just you. Well that would be true, but there's this odd maneuver this blackened threw out,..."

The Judomaster looked at and stretched his fingers before continuing on, "The Blackened tried to frame our little Maiya over here by putting the CD case in the lab of her trash bin. If they wanted to get rid of it, they could of just thrown it in the lake, but they didn't. But, why frame Maiya? The only reason would be to turn suspicion away from Chikako, whose lab the CD belonged to. And if you say they're trying to frame you, then why not just put the CD case in your trash bin instead? See where I'm getting at here?"

Ginshi spoke on in his usual laid-back and proud manner. "But I'm sure our Ultimate Thief has a more solid reason than even I do,"