here some michika in shikimori to brace urself for the upcoming chapters :)

Monokuma popped up in front of the students. "A body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the computer room... wait, you're already here."

Ichika stared at the corpse blankly. "Micchan..."

Tsumugi shivered. "I-It's terrible... Why did it end up like this?"

"I-Iruma-san? Wh-Why...?" Kiibo exclaimed.

"Wh-What's going on? Why was... Iruma killed?" Himiko sweated.

"I... don't understand, either... Iruma-san was like this when I woke up..." Gonta looked around in a panic. "Hey! What's going on? What happened?"

"Well, it's obvious a murder happened." Kokichi sighed.

"M-Murder!? Wh-What do you mean!? Did something happen when I was asleep?"

"We weren't asleep and that wasn't a dream. We were in the Virtual World." Kiibo explained. His eyes grew wide. "W-Wait... what if this is the traitors doing!?"

"T-The traitor... Got Iruma...?" Himiko stammered.

"..." Ichika stared at Miu's corpse blankly.

Maki looked around the room. "Hey, where's Momota?"

As if on cue, they all heard footsteps running fast down the hallway, the sound growing louder until the door burst open, and there stood the man of the hour.

"Hey! What's this all about!? What was that body discovery announc-" Kaito took one look at Miu and froze. "Wh-! Iruma!? Wh-What the hell is going on here!?"

"You're too late, okay? All the others finished gasping in terror already." Kokichi commented. "But anyway, where were you this whole time, Momota-chan? What were you doing?"

"I-I was just taking a nap."

"You were sleeping? I was sleeping too! I had a strange dream! I couldn't understand anything!" Gonta added.

"As I said..." Kiibo looked nervously at Gonta. "That was the Virtual World."

"So you logged out by yourself and then took a nap? Without our permission?" Kokichi interrogated Kaito.

"I suddenly got logged out... Before I realized it, I was back here..."

"You were logged out... involuntarily?" Shuichi repeated.

"Yeah... I didn't know if it was okay to log back in, so I went back to my room and slept. And when that body announcement woke me up, I rushed over here-"

"Hey, Momota-chan! If you're gonna lie, then you might as well do it better! Do you think you can make a killing game more exciting with a crappy lie like that!?" Kokichi pouted.

"I-It's not a lie! I really was sleeping!"

"Oookay, everyone, let's stop arguing and get on with the investigation." Ichika chirped and everyone fell dead silent.

"Ah..." Tsumugi gave Ichika a nervous look.

Shuichi sighed. "...Aki-san."

"Geez, stop it." Ichika pouted. "Stop looking at me like that, okay?" She gave them a bright smile. "We need to start the investigation."

Himiko walked up to Ichika. "I-Ichika? Hey... are you-"

"I'm fine." Ichika smiled at her. "Monokuma, the Monokuma file. Hand it out."

"As you wish, m'lady!" Monokuma pulled out a black tablet. "Ta-da! The Monokuma file! With this, you can even investigate up Iruma's asshole!"

"Huh?" Monophaine looked shocked. "Even there?"

"Well then, do your best!" Monokuma and his cubs then disappeared.

"Okay, everyone!" Kokichi chirped. "Let's do this! I'll find the culprit this time, no matter what!"

"What are you being so cheery about!?" Himiko screeched.

"Well, what're you sad about? You guys hated her! Not as much as you hate me, but still!"

"Th-That's not the issue... Of course I thought she was loud and annoying, but..." Tsumugi trailed off.

"I never wanted her to die. I wanted us all to escape together." Kaito said.

"Iruma-san was certainty brash and spirited, but she wasn't a bad person." Kiibo sniffed. "I viewed her as a friend... Krgh... I want to cry, but I can't... I should have had Iruma-san install a crying function."

"Wow!" Kokichi chirped. "The heartless robot wants to cry over a vulgar slut, yet her closest friend doesn't even bat an eye at her death!" He hummed and pressed a finger to his cheek. "Surprisingly suspicious behaviour..."

"..." Ichika stared blankly at Kokichi.

"Stop it, Ouma!" Himiko screeched. "Ichika is sad about Iruma's death! R-Right?"

"Of course I'm sad..." Ichika sighed. "But, we need to focus on the investigation right now."

"Ooooh, changing the subject now, are we?" Kokichi taunted. "The suspicion is risingggg!"

"Shut up!" Himiko yelled. "I know what you're implying! Ichika would *never* kill anyone! And Iruma was her friend!"

"Nee-heehee, but of course! Why would a friend kill a friend? I can't think of a single reason."

"O-Ouma-kun! Stop it!" Tsumugi stepped in. "Geez, you are so insensitive when it comes to murders, aren't you!?"

"Urgh... I just can't forgive this. I'll... never forgive this. I'll never forgive the culprit, either... But I can't ever forgive myself! I swore to protect everyone! But I failed to protect Iruma-san! I couldn't protect anyone again! I am a failure as gentleman!"

"..." Ichika stared at Gonta blankly.

The remaining students all spilt up for the investigation. Shuichi and Kokichi ended up investigating together after Kokichi basically replaced Kaito as Shuichi's partner and they went off to investigate.

Shuichi looked over at Ichika and walked over to her.

Ichika smiled sadly. "I... had a feeling it would turn out like this..."

Shuichi sighed. "Aki-san..."

"Heeeey, Aki-chan. I get your sad and all, but you really need to focus on the investigation. Our lives are on the line right now and I totally don't want everyone to die because you wont stop moping around in the corner."

"O-Ouma-kun!"

Ichika nodded. "Yeah, I know. What did you want from me?"

Shuichi turned his attention to Ichika. "I just wanted to ask you about what you saw when you were in the dining hall."

"Oh. You're talking about Micchan, right? Yeah. I saw her outside the window and-"

Kokichi raised an eyebrow. "Oooh? You saw her? And you didn't try to stop her? What kind of friend are yo-"

"I did." Ichika snapped and sighed. "The moment I saw Micchan, I ran outside to the window to see if she was still there. I looked around for 10 minutes before deciding that I should inform Saihara-san, so I ran into the kitchen to tell him."

Shuichi sighed. "Yeah... you really didn't need to kick the door."

"Ah-haha... sorry. Did I scare you?" Ichika smiled innocently. "Anyway, once I told Saihara-san, we heard a loud crash from outside and rushed out into the hallway. And that's when we heard Kiibo-san's voice."

"Kiiboy's voice, huh? Wasn't he at the chapel?" Kokichi asked.

"He was, but Aki-san and I are positive it was his voice. We heard Kiibo-kun from the entrance hall, when he *should* have been at the chapel." Shuichi said.

"Whaaaaat? That's weird, cuz you shouldn't be able to hear anything between the chapel and mansion. Even Iruma-chan said that."

"That is true... The sound shouldn't reach through that map loading point... So how were we able to hear Kiibo-san's voice?" Ichika questioned.

"Maybe... someone's lying." Kokichi grinned.

Ichika played with the drawstrings of her jumper. "Lying, huh?"

"..." Shuichi looked at Kokichi. "By the way, Ouma-kun. Did you hear the loud noise or Kiibo-kun's voice at all?"

"Hm... I'm not sure. I must've not noticed cuz I was too busy searching."

"You're lying to his face!" Kaito came marching up to where Ichika, Kokichi, and Shuichi all stood.

"Momota-kun!" Shuichi exclaimed.

Kokichi rolled his eyes. "Momota-chan, you keep interrupting me when I talk. Do you like me for something?"

"Who would like you, dumbass!?" Kaito growled. "I was interested in Saihara's conversation!"

Shuichi blinked. "My conversation?"

"You heard Kiibo's voice when it should have been impossible. Can you tell me more about that?"

"Everything I said before was pretty much it." Ichika spoke up. "After that, Saihara-san and I left the mansion to go back to the chapel..."

"We saw Gokuhara-kun as we left the mansion, and the three of us went to the river. That's when we met up with Ouma-kun."

"And then we used that signboard that I found as a bridge..." Kokichi added. "What about it though? Did you notice anything?"

"..." Kaito was silent.

"I see you're working hard. It looks like you're starting to take this game seriously, Momota-chan."

"Shut up!"

"We saw.... Gokuhara-san..." Ichika went silent. "..."

"Gokuhara? What about him?" Kaito asked.

"I was just thinking." Ichika gave Gonta a sideways glance and stared at the ground.

"Why are you staring at Gokuhara-chan? What use is that big idiot anyway?" Kokichi said.

"It's just... it's strange."

Shuichi gave Ichika a strange look. "Strange...?"

"Hey, hey, Saihara-san. Did you notice anything about Gokuhara-san in the Virtual World?"

"No... not that I know of."

"Yeah, Gokuhara's the same as he always was." Kaito chimed in. "Both in the Virtual World and out. He's still the same, harmless soul!"

"..." Ichika then stared at Kokichi blankly. "...Hey, what did you do, Ouma-san?"

"Huh?" Kaito had a puzzled expression.

"..." Kokichi was silent. "Hey, Saihara-chan. We should go back to investigate. No use wasting time here and talking to the moping midget, y'know."

"No, wait, Aki-san. What are you-"

"Yeah... you should go back to investigate. I'll see you guys later." Ichika gave them one last smile then left.

"Ah! Aki-san, wait!" Shuichi called out after Ichika, but she was already walking away.

"Just leave her. She probably needs some time to herself." Kaito sighed.

"Yeah. Just forget about what she said. We have to save everyone!" Kokichi chirped.

"You wanting to 'save everyone' has gotta be a lie." Kaito growled. Kokichi and Shuichi went back to investigate.

***

"...The Virtual World. We should go there again." Kokichi suggested.

Shuichi blinked. "Huh!?"

"I just read your mind, didn't I? I did, right? Right? Right?"

"If that's the case, then I'm coming too!" Kaito chimed in.

"Oh great, he's coming..." Kokichi groaned. "You must really like me, huh?"

"Tch, say what you want. I don't have time to waste on you! If we go back to the Virtual World, we might find some new clues! With those, I might be able to clear my name!"

"...May I join you as well?" Kiibo spoke up. "I also think we should investigate the Virtual World again."

"Oh! So I get to be that avatar again!?" Himiko chirped.

"Huh? Did you like the avatar after all?" Tsumugi asked.

"I'm going to stay here." Maki said. "He's still in the middle of analyzing the program." Maki pointed at Monotaro

"I'm going to stay as well. I want to search around here more." Ichika sighed.

"I'll... search this place more, too. This is absolutely no time to be sleeping."

"That's not what we're... Tsumugi sighed. "Well, that's fine."

"Ichika, are you sure you want to stay here?" Himiko asked

"Yeah, don't worry about me. As long as I'm here, I'll make virtually nothing goes wrong." Ichika grinned.

"Then, I'll stay here too." Kokichi said.

"What?" Shuichi gave Kokichi a skeptical look.

"Hm, surprised? Are you gonna get lonely without your partner? But I'm busy, y'know? I have to watch Harukawa-chan, in case she tried to do anything deceitful."

"Deceitful...?" Maki repeated.

"Well, you and Momota-chan are pretty close, so you might do something deceitful for him, right?"

"..."

"Good thing Gokuhara-chan's here with me. Your glare is too scary to handle alone. Gokuhara-chan would risk his life to protect me for a murderer."

Gonta has a confused look. "Huh?"

"Hey! If you keep saying messed up crap like that, I'm gonna kick your ass into orbit!" Kaito snarled.

Maki sighed. "It's fine... Just ignore him and hurry to the Virtual World."

"Momota-kun... let's focus on solving the case for now."

Kokichi let out a breath of relief. "Thank god... I don't like violence. The Ultimate Supreme Leader would rather sneak around! So anywaaaay... I'll leave the Virtual World to you, Saihara-chan."

"..." Shuichi remained silent.

"But, I'm not exaggerating when I say this class trial can only be solved by you, okay? Your talent can save the useless people here, y'know?"

"Who you calling useless!?" Kaito barked.

"Enough already." Maki snapped.

"Momota-kun... let's go." Shuichi sighed.

The five students who were going into the Virtual World sat down in their seats and went back to the world.

***

The students that were in the Virtual World came back and Maki, Shuichi, and Kokichi were crowded around Monotaro.

"I'm starting to put together a lot of important facts, so here they are!" Monotaro chirped. "First, the person who tampered with this program was... Mommy, like we suspected. Mommy had an eccentric way of writing her code, so I knew it was her right away."

"I guess her personality wasn't the only thing eccentric about her." Kokichi commented.

"So, what did she tamper with?" Maki asked.

"A few things... but I'll share the first one with you." Monotaro said. "It looks like mommy deleted a lot of objects from this killing game simulator."

Shuichi hummed. "She said that she deleted anything that could be used as a weapon. But in that case, why was there a hammer?"

"That's true, only the hammer was left. But why was it left, hm?" Monotaro tilted his head. "The way the program was written makes it seem like she did it on purpose."

"Did she *add* anything? We found a cell phone in the Virtual World."

"No, that cell phone was an original feature of the program. All Mommy added were the two maps. The rest was already part of the program."

"By the way, while we're talking about objects, I want to ask you something..." Kokichi spoke up. "We used the signboard to cross the river, but could we have used something else as a bridge?"

Monotaro shook his head. "Hmm... I didn't really see anything that could have been used as a bridge to cross the river."

"So, what's the next thing she tampered with?:

"Well, it looks like she tampered with certain parameters of the program."

"Parameters?" Shuichi repeated.

"Everything in that program is categorized as either a 'human' or a 'non-human object'. Everyone's avatars had the "human" parameter... But for some reason, Mommy gave her avatar the 'non-human object' parameter!"

"And what happened if you become an object?" Shuichi asked.

"Well, the difference is only for identification purposes, so it probably didn't affect anything."

"But if it didn't affect anything, then why would she have gone out of her way to do that?" Maki inquired.

"That probably had something to do with the next thing she tampered with. Mommy added a wall that didn't originally exist in the program." Monotaro brought up a map on the screen. "The coordinates of the Virtual World are represented on an X-axis and a Y-axis... and it seems Mommy added a wall that runs the length of the y-axis."

Shuichi gasped. "She created an additional wall? But... you're positive there was only one?"

"Yep, it's definitely the only one. Also seems like that wall was given a special setting. A setting that allows non-human objects to pass through it."

Kokichi nodded. "I see... that's very interesting. So, are those all the things she tampered with?"

"There's one more thing. So, um, it seems like two of your avatars was given a strange setting."

"A 'strange setting'?" Shuichi repeated.

"Yeah... The setting made it so they would be unable to move if Mommy touched them."

"So if Iruma-san touched them, their avatar would be paralyzed?"

"Who was it?" Maki asked.

"Ah... It was Ouma and Akiyama."

"Eh, it's me? I didn't know tha-" Kokichi froze and his face went blank. "Wait... Aki-chan also had that setting?"

Monotaro nodded. "Yeah, it seems like it. Well, that's all I have to report. Well? Do you think it'll help you guys out?"

"That helps a lot... Thanks." Shuichi said with a smile.

Finally, the intercom switched on and a depressed Monokuma told the students to make their way to the shrine.

"You seem like you're not into it at all. We don't have to do the class trial, y'know!?" Himiko barked at the intercom.

"But... it's gonna start, huh? We can't stop it anymore, huh?" Gonta asked sadly.

Shuichi shook his head. "No. We can't."

"This is all I can tell you guys, but I don't want any of you to forget... I'm your friend!" Monotaro exclaimed.

Tsumugi blinked. "Huh? He just decided we're friends?"

"Thank you very much! I feel relieved!" Gonta smiled.

"Don't worry Monotaro. Saihara-chan will get revenge for Iruma-chan's death!" Kokichi called out. "And he'll get that revenge... by finding the culprit among us."

"Thank you everyone! Thank you so much! When this class trial is over, I hope we can all get to know each other better!" Monotaro chirped.

"Nyeeeh... that's the kind of line that triggers a death flag." Himiko grumbled.

"I... want a fresh start. I want to make up for all my past mistakes. Meeting you all... has really... Sorry, it's nothing. I'll save it after the class trial has finished."

"Nyeeeh... the flag is rising!"

"Hm? What was that? I... think I heard something over there." Monotaro turned to look behind him. "I'll go check it out all by myself!" Monotaro hopped away.

"It's waving in the wiiiiiiiiind!!!"

"Quit screwing around. Let's hurry up and go." Maki snapped.

"I'll do my best, too! I'll do my best to be even a little bit useful for everyone!" Gonta smiled brightly.

"I'm soooo excited! I'll definitely expose the culprit this time!" Kokichi grinned.

"Tch... what's so exciting about this?" Kaito growled. They all proceeded to leave the computer room. All except for two students.

Ichika stood in front of Miu's corpse, a blank expression on her face. Shuichi walked up to her.

"Aki-san..."

Ichika sighed with a small smile. "That idiot... what was she thinking...?"

"Come on, Aki-san. Let's go and find the culprit."

"Before we go... Saihara-san. Can you please promise me something?"

"Huh?"

"Promise me that... no matter what happens. No matter what anyone says. No matter... who the culprit is... You'll find the truth."

"O-Of course I will, I made that promise to Akamats-"

"Even if the culprit... is someone you'd least expect. Don't turn away. Just... please."

Shuichi gave Ichika a perplexed look. "..." He then nodded. "Of course. I will uncover the truth. No matter what."

Ichika gave Shuichi a warm smile. "Thank you..." She then looked back at Miu's corpse and her eyes widened. "Oh, her goggles fell..."

Ichika walked up to them and carefully picked the goggled up. She held them carefully as if they could break at any moment. "Saihara-san, Micchan... wouldn't mind me holding on to these, right?"

Shuichi shook his head. "I don't think she would. You were her friend after all."

Ichika carefully placed the goggles into the pocket of her jumper. "Well... let's go. Everyone is waiting." Shuichi nodded and they both headed off to the Shrine of Judgement

Shuichi looked at everyone. "It looks like... that's everyone..."