let's all just pretend that i didn't accidentally publish this chapter at 7 am when it wasn't ready—

❝ DO YOU NOT AGREE THAT

DISMISSING A DIFFERENT SET OF VALUES

DUE TO IGNORANCE IS FOOLISH ? ❞

—sonia nevermind, the ultimate princess

══════════

❝ A body has been discovered ! ◥

━━ Everyone report to the F.C.S

◣ ━━━━ classroom immediately ! ❞

"No, no, no!" Rainbow starts to scream, covering her head with her hands, "this can't be happening."

"God," Lunar jabbers, "Valerie?"

I inhale slowly, shivering and squirming as I stare longer at the body. To say it's getting easier to look at dead bodies is a lie, but to admit I don't immediately pass out from it feels wrong, like I should.

Rainbow continues pacing back and forth, shaking her head as Lunar tries to move away from the scene. Between all of us, she's probably the least bothered, but her shudders are still notable.

After a few more moments, quick and sudden footsteps echo down the hallway, a multitude of people rushing towards the room.

"What did you guys do?" Kyran accuses, immediately panicking upon seeing Valerie's body.

"We didn't do anything!" I defend, "we came in here to check on her and—"

"Okay, guys, calm down," Evelyn assures, "look, just save it for the investigation. You can argue at the trial."

"Oh God, is that Valerie?" Aly questions, squirming at the sight, "not again . . ."

"No way—!" Draco gasps.

Evelyn shakes her head and closes her eyes, sighing. "We're going to find who did this to Valerie, too. Now it's all of our lives on the line again."

I slowly shift my gaze towards her. ". . . Okay."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"I suggest checking the Monokuma File," Evelyn advises, "I'm going to check the body."

Internally, I tell myself I will check the File, but only after I leave the room. I pace back and forth in the hallway, taking deep breaths until I calm down. After a few more moments, I hurry back into the room before my nerves can stop me.

I open the Monokuma File.

loading E-Handbook: Monokuma File No. 3

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

an 'X' is drawn in blood-like fashion over photo.

the area shown is in one of the kitchens located inside the F.C.S. classroom.

the victim is laying on their side, lopsided enough to barely be on their back — body is closer to the left (facing forward) side of the kitchen.

: Valerie Maki

: roughly 1:30 P.M.

: victim was found in the F.C.S. classroom, located on the third floor.

: there is a bluntly-made blow to the victim's left side of their head. There is also a notable rash spread along the victim's collarbone and jawline.

: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━

"It's . . . unavailable?" I notice, "why is the cause of death not available?"

Evelyn turns her head to glance up at me as she crouches down beside Valerie's body. "It's redacted?"

"So, Monokuma is purposefully hiding the cause of death?" Lunar theorizes, "but isn't it kind of obvious?" She motions towards Valerie.

"He must have hid it for some reason," Evelyn murmurs, "if he did, it has to be important."

I frown. Why?

I start off by going over to the front of the room, deciding to check out the doors since we were in a rush beforehand. I spot Draco crouched down beside the doors that we tossed aside haphazardly.

"You find anything?"

"Dunno. Did you guys do this?" He points to the hinges.

"Oh, yeah. That was us. The doors wouldn't budge and Valerie wasn't answering us, so we used a screwdriver from the janitor's closet to take the doors off the hinges." I crouch down beside him.

"Yeah, well, I think I know why the doors were stuck," he says, picking something off of the floor.

He holds up a small bundle of tape. Upon further inspection, I realize it's a bunch of pennies taped together. The tape wrapped around them is scraped slightly.

"What is that?"

"It's the penny-lock," he explains, "I had to do it in a game once, but I didn't really know if it worked in real life. I guess I have my answer now."

"Penny-lock?"

"It's when you take a few pennies and tape them together so they don't slip away, and then jam them in between the door and the doorway. They're usually tight enough to get stuck, and if that game was right, then the only way to get it unlocked is by taking the doors off the hinges." He finds three more bundles lying around.

"So . . . you think someone was trying to keep Valerie stuck in there?" I ask.

He shrugs and shakes his head. "I don't know. But they also didn't want people to get in either."

"Geez," I sigh out, "well, anyway . . . I need to ask you some questions." He nods at my words and I continue. "Where were you at the time of Valerie's death?"

"I was still in the cafeteria," he explains, "even after I finished eating, I just stayed to sit down by myself for a moment."

"Okay, can anyone verify that?"

"Uh, well, you guys were there when I left for the cafeteria. But I don't think anyone saw me there," he tells me.

"Did you see or hear anything that might have something to do with the murder?" I inquire.

"Not really sure if this counts or not, but I saw Evelyn going into Alec's room. I also saw Aly—" he glances around and then lowers his voice, "—going into the gym. I think she wanted to talk with . . . y'know."

I nod. "Is that all?"

"Think so," he hums.

"Okay." I stand up and look over towards Evelyn, before deciding to talk to Aly first; Evelyn's busy with investigating the body. "Where's Aly?"

"Library, I think," he says, "said she wanted to check something out for the investigation."

I nod and quickly take my leave, wandering down the hallway to the elevator before reaching the second floor. I hurry over to the library and start to search for her.

"Aly?"

"Over here," she calls out, her voice echoing from behind a bookshelf.

I meander past the cases and find her. "I need to ask you some questions." She nods at my statement, and I continue, "Where were you at the time of the murder?"

"I was in the bathhouse," she tells me, "you know, homesick."

I think back to Alter Alec, then remember the cameras in the library. I refrain from mentioning it any further.

"Alright, can anyone verify that?" I inquire.

"Uh, I don't think so," she says, and with a motion of her head, I know she means Alter Alec can.

"Did you see or hear anything suspicious? Or that might have to do with the murder?"

"Don't think so, no," Aly comments, "not unless you call the lack of towels in the bathhouse a clue." She smiles slightly at the joke, and part of me feels relief that she finds comfort in the new presence and form of her brother.

"Okay, and if you don't mind me asking, why are you in here?" I question.

"I had an idea of what happened," she admits, "but I wasn't sure, so I came here to see if there was a book that had the information to confirm my guess."

"Any luck finding one?"

"No . . ." she sighs, "I was just about to give up and head upstairs."

"What was your idea?"

"I'll explain at the class trial," she says, "we need all the time we can get during investigation, right?"

"Right," I agree.

"I'm going to head back upstairs. I guess I'll see you there," she loosely says, waving over her shoulder.

I nod and wave to her, directing my attention back to the bookshelves nearby.

I hear a clatter come from the back of the room and flinch. "Who's there? Hello?" When there's no response, I decide to investigate.

I walk closer to the noise, until something falls from the ceiling and I scream. I move away until I realize it's just Monokuma.

"What are you doing?" I question.

"Ne, you just witnessed me fall and your first response is to accuse me? How rude teenagers are these days!" Monokuma complains, standing up.

"You're a machine. I'm pretty sure you're fine," I sigh.

"Is that a jab at mechanics? I'll have you know I'm a great mechanic!"

"So you're repairing something?"

"Who told you that!"

". . . Forget it," I say, hoping he'll leave so I can see what he was doing.

He starts to mumble something about 'nosy teenagers' and I fight back the urge to remind him we're literally investigating. He disappears with a pop and I'm left alone again.

"Hm . . ." I hum as I look around. I glance up at where he fell from, and find a second vent on the upper half of the wall.

That must have been where Monokuma was repairing . . . but was he actually?

I make my way back up the stairs and elevator, reaching the third floor, and then finally the F.C.S. classroom again.

I remember I still haven't asked everyone, so I walk over to the person closest to the door — Lunar.

"Here to interrogate me?" she asks, closing a cabinet she had just been looking in.

"That's probably Evelyn's thing," I say, "but I do have to talk to you."

"Ask away."

"Okay . . . " I tap my foot against the tile. "Where were you when Valerie was murdered?"

"The File said 1:30 PM, right?" She thinks for a moment. "I was with you guys."

I nod. "Why were you late to role call this morning?"

"Like I said, I overslept. I stayed up late the night before," she explains, "I was drawing and I didn't realize how much time had passed."

"Can anyone verify that?"

"Uh, not that I know of. I was alone in my room," she admits, shaking her head.

"Is there anything else? Like, something significant you might've heard or seen?" I ask.

"Near the time of what happened? No." She shakes her head. "I was with you guys. I wasn't really paying attention to anything else."

"Okay. Thanks." I walk away.

I look around for the next person, who happens to be Rainbow. She's leaning against the wall, sighing.

"Hey, you alright?" I ask.

"Yeah . . . I think this whole thing is just . . . making me feel nauseous . . ." She rubs the bridge of her nose. "At this rate, I feel like I'm going to throw up."

"Sorry about that. But I have to ask, where were you at the time of Valerie's death?"

"With you guys."

"Yeah. Okay, did you hear or see anything that you think has to do with this?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "No."

"Okay," I answer, "well, hope you feel better. You should probably step out for a bit if the whole murder is upsetting."

"Yeah . . . that's why I stayed away last time," she murmurs, "I'm not good with this stuff."

I nod. "Yeah, me neither."

As I walk away, she also leaves, wandering out into the hallway. From through the doorway, I see her sit down against the wall.

I wander over to Evelyn. "Have you found anything?"

"Come here," she beckons, motioning with her hand for me to crouch down. She points to Valerie's head. "Just like the File says, Valerie has a bash in her head. Blunt force trauma."

"Is that what killed her?" I ask, "does that mean it . . . it was an accident?"

"No, it definitely wasn't," Evelyn denies, "someone definitely wanted her dead."

"But we didn't see anyone come up here—" she cuts me off.

"They didn't have to." She leads me a few inches away, where them she grabs something from the floor. "This was not an accident by any means."

It's a rope tied from one end of the counters to the other, low to the floor. The rope is kept tight by closing the doors on them, and on the inside of the cabinets, they're tied to the sink pipelines. It's nearly impossible to actually notice if you're not trying to find it.

"You mean she tripped?" I inquire.

"Seems like it. And whoever set this up wanted it to happen," she explains, running her fingers along the rope, "they painted this rope so it would blend in with the ground. See? It even flakes off."

She rubs her fingers harshly against the rope, flaking off the paint to reveal a bronze color beneath.

"Do you think it was the cause of death?" I watch as she sits up on her knees, running her free hand on the countertop's edge.

"If it were this easy, there'd be no reason to hide it," Evelyn says, "Monokuma's keeping something from us."

You could have just said no.

"Not to mention," she adds, "take a look at this." She points to the left end of the rope, where it's tied around the pipe. "See this knot?"

"Yeah, what about it?" I ask.

"A left-handed person usually ties in an opposite direction to 'normal.' That, or the right-handed knots they try aren't as firm unless they practice," she explains, "you should know that. You're a lefty, aren't you?"

"Um, yeah, I am," I affirm, "so you're saying, whoever tied this was right-handed?"

"Exactly."

"Anything else, detective?" I ask.

"There's this." She moves back to Valerie's body, pushing aside Valerie's pink hair and moving her head to the side. "It was listed in the File, right?"

". . . Holy crap. Yeah, it was."

Along the exposed areas of Valerie's neck is a rash, stretching all the way from her cheek to her collarbone, spreading underneath her jawline.

I can't look away. "What is that?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure what caused it yet." She sighs. "I have a suspicion, but I need more evidence to confirm it."

"God, who would have wanted to do this to someone as sweet as Valerie?" I question to no one in particular.

Evelyn doesn't answer.

I start to look around the kitchen. On the left countertop's edge, there was a splatter of blood and a small crack in the marble.

"You said the hit on her head was blunt force trauma, as in, something heavy hit her to cause it, right?" I double-check.

"Yeah, just like last murder," she answers, still inspecting the body.

"Okay."

When I glance up, one of the cupboards is open. Avoiding the rope (which is extremely close, I might add), I stand on the tips of my toes to reach the highest shelf, where only a singular carton of eggs sits.

"What the—why are the eggs up here?" I ask to myself, "aren't they usually refrigerated?"

"Usually they are," Evelyn answers, "depends on where they're from."

I open up the other cupboards nearby, but they're all empty. But how? Just a few days ago, Rainbow and I checked this place out, and just yesterday, Valerie and I were in here. There was glassware in each of these cabinets. Now they're all gone, and there's only eggs on the highest shelf, which aren't even supposed to be in here?

This doesn't make any sense.

Once I find that there's nothing left in this kitchen, I move onto the next kitchen. There's ingredients spread out on the counter in this one, and about two pans full of cookies.

This must have been the kitchen she was using.

But then why was she in the other one?

I look around more, stopping near the stove. "It's still on," I start to say, "she was making cookies."

"Seems like she had already made a batch or two by the time she was killed," Evelyn informs from the other kitchen.

I turn off the stove, fearing a fire hazard. After a few minutes, the temperature lowers rapidly. I inspect it more, looking up at the stove hood.

"Huh . . . that's weird." The ventilation has been tampered with. Furthermore, there's a vent nearby the back of the room, located near the floor.

I wander around more, until finding something on the countertop. It's a carton of eggs, except it's empty.

There's a bit of flour on the carton. I recognize it as the same carton Valerie and I used when we made cookies yesterday. We used quite a bit . . .

I leave the second kitchen, checking out the next two, only to find nothing. I wander around the room more, checking the other tables and cabinets for anything, but to no avail.

I try my luck with the closet on the other side of the room, where I remember there being supplies for the class kept inside. When I open it, it's obvious that someone's been in here.

There are some things pushed aside and out of their neatly organized state, brooms and mops tossed around, like someone was rummaging in here.

I notice a strangely folded towel and undo it, something falling out and onto the floor of it as I do. It's a . . . pamphlet? Was someone trying to hide this?

On the cover reads Kitchen Safety 101! and is accompanied by an overly happy model standing next to her kitchen stove.