Guide:

{Word Count: 2,835}

(Y/n)'s P.O.V.

"Well then, all we have left is to uncover the culprit behind this murder case," stated Byakuya, pushing up the grey frames resting on his nose bridge back into their correct position. His burning gaze seared into my skin, eyes switching between me and the Monokuma File in my hands. It was because of his impatience that I felt a need to read the information even slower.

"How can you be so calm...?" Hina murmured as she turned to Byakuya. Her eyebrows furrowed and her teeth clenched. "They're dead, gone forever! How are you not upset?! This is awful, absolutely awful!"

Falling beside Hifumi's lifeless body, Hina gingerly lifted Hifumi's head onto her lap. "How can a person be so cruel...?" Tears cascaded down Hina's tan cheeks the longer she looked at Hifumi's plump, paled face. Her head dropped forward, her large tears falling down onto the deceased male below her.

My attention was drawn away from the Monokuma File and was now fixated on the moment Hina shared with Hifumi. It was truly tragic, almost like a scene from a movie. However, one thing that set this moment apart from a movie was that no miracle would happen here. No magical moment would occur like in some sort of fantasy based society.

A particularly noticeable tear splashed down onto Hifumi's cheek rather dramatically. Nothing occurred for a second, but then my previous thoughts were quickly proven wrong. Hifumi groaned and whimpered and his eyelids slowly began to rise. A rather audible gasp escaped past my previously sealed lips. Since when did this sort of thing happen outside of movies?

Hifumi began to weakly speak. "Where...am I?" Hifumi's stare was blank as though he was still dead. His gaze was set on the ceiling, a trembling hand reaching up as though to reach for something. "It's so cold...so very cold... Is Winter approaching?"

"Hifumi! Hifumi, stay with us!" Hina begged of him. Her voice was hardly recognizable. Hina's usual, bubbly voice was no where to be found. Now, the only thing you could hear in her broken tone was the sound of despair and distress.

Hifumi glanced up at Hina. "Huh? O-Oh, I remember now... Hope's Peak..."

"Hifumi, stay awake!"

"I can remember...everything," Hifumi coughed a bit before continuing. "I'd met you all before...before..."

Hifumi's arm dropped down. I noticed how he began to blink a bit slower now, his breaths now having rather long pauses in between. My eyes widened. "We're losing him!" I shouted, causing gasps to erupt within the room.

Hifumi's dry lips began to curl into a smile. "Ah, the light... I can see it reaching towards me..."

I stood there staring at Hifumi for a moment, almost completely unaware to anything else around me. Before anymore time could be wasted, I staggered towards Hifumi and dropped down beside him. "Hifumi! Who was the one that killed you?" I shouted.

"Huh? Killed...me? Oh, yes, I remember them..." Hifumi's eyes finally shut as his final breath was spent muttering a familiar name. "Yasu...hi...ro."

Hifumi returned back to the deceased man he was before the miracle that Hina's tears had brought upon him. I gently grasped his wrist, pressing two fingers against it to feel for a pulse. A bit of sadness jabbed my heart when I felt nothing beat against my finger pads. "He's gone," I announced, stepping away from his corpse.

"He said Yasuhiro, didn't he?" Celeste pointed out, a hand covering her mouth. "Yasuhiro Hagakure... That is the only person he could have been referring to, is it not?"

"I suppose so..." I mumbled. A small smile made its way to my lips as I stared into Celeste's eyes. "Unless perhaps someone here is hiding something?"

I noticed Celeste's eyes enlarged only for a split second before she began to giggle. "Oh (Y/n), that is a silly suggestion. Who here would have something to hide?"

Byakuya chuckled. "I believe (Y/n) would have something to hide."

"Oh please, not this again," I pinched the bridge of my nose as I groaned. "Must you continue insisting that I have something to hide? We have other things to worry about, jackass."

Sakura stepped in between Byakuya and I. "Guys please, don't argue now. We have to find the culprit."

"Well Hifumi already told us it was Yasuhiro Hagakure. With that, the case is solved," Byakuya frowned as he spoke. I could tell he was not satisfied with the reveal. Perhaps he found it too boring.

I nearly laughed. Hiro was behind all of this? It seemed too easy and just quite unbelievable. Someone like Hiro pulling this all off just didn't seem right. He was too dim-witted to plan this all out. There was no way this was an act either; I could've easily seen through such a weak act.

"If that's true, I can never forgive him!" Hina yelled. She ran her jacket sleeves under her eyes to clean her tears.

Byakuya ignored Hina. "Anyways, we better start tracking down the culprit now," Byakuya frowned and furrowed his brows, "the trial will conclude without much trouble."

"Yes, it does seem to be that way," Celeste murmured, also looking a bit disappointed by that fact.

'We'll see," I added with a smile. I doubt this will end that quickly.

"Allow me to read the Monokuma File aloud," Byakuya stated. Wait, what? I looked at my empty hand only to realized I no longer held the Monokuma File. He must have snatched it from me while I was focused on Hifumi. That son of a bitch!

"The victims were Hifumi Yamada and Kiyotaka Ishimaru. The cause of death for each was a blow to the head. It is thought that they were both killed with a similar weapon."

"That's it?" Celeste raised an eyebrow. Leaning over a bit to try to see if that was really all, she was met with the sight of only those three sentences.

"That is rather strange. There is not as much information as the other cases," Byakuya huffed in annoyance.

Celeste hummed rather gleefully. "Not a problem. The events of this case are already solved. We know more than the Monokuma file anyway."

"Well I'm going to go investigate anyways, though I see no reason for it. It seems everyone has already been led to believe who did it," I announced, turning to exit the room and investigate elsewhere. As I opened the door, Genocide Jill burst into the room and shoved me aside, rushing over to her "master Byakuya." I rolled my eyes and dusted myself off before leaving the room.

Where should I go investigate? Was it practically useless to investigate? Taka was killed by Hifumi and I was there to witness it. He tried to kill me, but I was saved. Now who had killed Hifumi?

Hm, was it really Hiro?

I had walked for a small while before finally reaching a location. Without realizing it, I had traveled back to the physics lab, the very place where I was nearly killed. Now that I think about it, did I ever get my e-Handbook back after that? After a quick checking of my pockets, I realized I in fact did not have it. I dropped to my hands and knees, searching around the ground for my precious e-Handbook.

"Why hello there, (Y/n)!~" I was startled by the familiar, sudden voice from behind me. I snapped my head towards Monokuma, banging the temple of my head against a nearby shelf. The testing tubes neatly tidied on the shelf clattered when my head made contact with the edge of the shelf.

"Yikes, be more careful there!" Monokuma chuckled.

I quickly rose from the ground, rubbing the side of my head. "Shut it, teddy bear. I'm looking for my e-Handbook."

"Oh, you mean this?" Monokuma slipped the handbook from his pocket.

"Yes, that! Give it to me-"

"I will if you give me a kiss~"

Monokuma instantly received a glare from me. He leaned forward with his lips puckered, eyebrows wiggling. I was unamused by the action and went to swipe the handbook from his hands. However, Monokuma quickly raised his hand before I could.

"Ah, ah, ah! Not so fast, princess!" Monokuma grinned when I was unsuccessful in snatching the handbook. "I said if you give me a kiss! C'mon! Give me a kiss!~" Monokuma made dramatic kissing noises just to tick me off.

"No! Not right now!"

"Sooo, later then?"

"Sure, whatever. Just give me my handbook!"

Just as I asked, Monokuma handed me the handbook. I guessed I would owe him a kiss later. Before he could have me swear to give him a kiss later, Hina burst through the door and rushed over to me. She tensed up a bit around Monokuma, but ignored him and focused on me.

"(Y/n)! Big news! We found Kyoko! Not only Kyoko, but Robo Justice as well! Come on, we have to go!" Hina insisted. She grabbed my wrist and dragged me away from Monokuma. Monokuma's lips curled down as he gave me a small wave goodbye. I waved back before being pulled out of the room by the Ultimate Swimming Pro.

"Guess what?! It's Hiro wearing the costume!" Hina informed. "You've got to see this! Let's get to the pool as fast as we can, okay?!" Hina only spoke in a loud tone and was obviously upset by the entire ordeal. Even after I walked beside her instead of dragging behind her, she still held an extremely tight grasp on my wrist. It was almost as though I was some sort of criminal being arrested by a persistent police officer.

It only took us a couple of minutes before we had reached the second floor and entered the pool. The pool area was incredibly large with bleachers lined up on either side of the large pool centered under a dome ceiling. Some record boards were placed on the wall beside a large painting of the Hope's Peak Academy logo, flags placed in front of it and blocking the names written on the record boards. The blue and white colour scheme gave the area a fresh and relaxing vibe, and the smell of chlorine gave me a sense of nostalgia from when I would visit pools as a younger child.

Hina pointed to a corner where our classmates were crowded in. "Over there!" Hina and I made our way over to the other students.

Just as Hina told me, Robo Justice was present. He towered over the rest of us, the impassive expression molded into the plastic only further intimidating us. Byakuya and Celeste stood off to the side while Kyoko was placed directly in front of Robo Justice. The stoic girl simply observed the robot with curiosity.

Suddenly, a voice came from Robo Justice. The gruff tone was muffled by the hard plastic shell of Robo Justice's face mask.

"Man, I have had the worst day!" said Robo Justice. However, the tone was familiar.

"Hiro?" I mumbled.

Kyoko turned to me to explain. "I found him jammed into the pool locker. When I got him out, he seemed to be asleep. So, I kicked him and he quickly woke up."

"Yeah, that was harsh! You could've tapped my shoulder or something instead," Hiro commented from inside of the Robo Justice suit.

"Anyways, Hiro, first explain to us why you are dressed in that robot costume," demanded Kyoko.

"To be honest, I have no idea. I was asleep and when I woke up, I was here!"

Byakuya then opened his mouth. "Whatever. Take that costume off. It's incredibly stupid and it pains me just to glance at you."

"Not everything has to accommodate to your likings, Byakuya," I growled.

"Quiet, peasant."

"Oh! My apologies, your highness. I didn't realize how incredibly airheaded you are as to not realize how the world doesn't revolve around you!"

Hiro intervened before the argument could continue. "Hey, uh, guys? I can't get this thing off..! A little help?"

Celeste stepped up to Hiro, twirling a piece of hair around her finger as she did so. Raising her brow, she questioned, "why would you make this if you couldn't get out of it?"

Hiro grumbled something inaudible before yelling, "I didn't make this stupid thing!"

I stuck my tongue out at Byakuya, to which his face morphed into an appalled expression, then went over to Hiro. I observed the back of the Robo Justice costume and noticed a strong clasp keeping the suit closed. "Hey, there's a pretty strong clasp holding this thing together. I don't know how you would get this off by yourself." I unbuckled the clasp and began to pull the suit off, but the plastic pulled back against my efforts. After seeing me struggle for a bit, everyone began to join in to help me help Hiro out of the costume.

After everyone's collaboration, Hiro was free from the suit. Hiro let out an overexaggerated sigh of relief upon getting out of the last piece of the suit. He fanned out his arms a bit, large sweat stains covering his clothing from the plastic molds that clung to him perfectly. He gave thanks to each of us for the help.

"Don't bother trying to act innocent, Hiro," Celeste immediately began to accuse. "That suit fit you perfectly, even more proving that you are the culprit. Not to mention we found the blueprints in your room for the construction of Robo Justice. Do not try to object; it is obvious you made the costume."

Byakuya replaced his frames to perfectly fit on his nose bridge. "It's true, I saw the blueprints myself."

"Then...it's obvious..." Hina clenched her fist as her face contorted. Eyebrows pressed downwards and lips curled back into a snarl, she roared, "Hiro was the one who put this costume on and started attacking everyone!!"

"Woah, woah, woah! I don't even know what you guy are talking about!" Hiro frantically said.

"Don't try to object. You are the costumed attacker. You are the one who killed them, are you not?" Celeste narrowed her eyes.

Sweat began to pour down Hiro's face. "What?! Killed them? I have no idea what you're saying, seriously! Try out the outfit; there must have been someone else wearing this and attacking everyone!"

"Fine, I will then!" Hina volunteered herself to try on the Robo Justice outfit. She began to slip on the large, bulky costume and immediately began to topple over. "This thing is seriously loose! Plus it's so inflexible, you can't even bend the waist! What a horrible design!" Hina quickly took off the costume just as fast as she had put it on. "No one but Hiro could fit in this thing!"

"B-But I didn't do it!!"

"Show us some evidence to disprove that then."

Hiro stiffened when Celeste's fiery gaze burned into his own. Her blood red eyes seemed to freeze him in place and made him sweat more than a dog forced to lay in the hot sun in Summer. I bet he felt as though she would spot out every single one of his uncertainties and rip him apart from the inside.

"E-Evidence?" Hiro shook his head. "I-I don't even know what's going on!!" Hiro let out a yell of frustration.

"Hiro, I must ask you something," I said, resting a hand on Hiro's shoulder. He looked over to me and sniffled. With a smile, I asked, "Hiro, did you kill Taka and Hifumi?"

Hiro's eyes widened. "What?! Taka and Hifumi died? ...N-No.... No way would I ever even hurt a fly!"

I studied his fear ridden expression. Was there anything deeper hidden behind that expression? Was it a façade to fake innocence? Was I really staring into the eyes of a killer?

I thought about it from an actress's point of view. Insert this scenario into my mind as though it was a movie script. How many possibilities were there to this exact scenario? I would roughly say around 168, but this was only from the top of my head of course. If I were to limit down all of those possibilities into one likely outcome then...

I found the culprit.

I turned away from Hiro abruptly, not speaking another word to him. I could tell he questioned my behavior, but I didn't really mind that right now. I wondered when the class trial would begin. Sometime soon, I had hoped.

I had left the pool area without bidding anyone a goodbye. I was sure the class trial announcement would ring off soon, so I had planned to make my way to the big red door to make preparations for the trial. Before I could progress any further, a hand grasped my wrist from behind. When I turned, my eyes slightly widened. Someone I did not expect had their gloved fingers wound around my (s/c) wrist.

"I need your help, if you wouldn't mind."