Chapter 3: Best-Laid Schemes, Part VI (Class Trial)
----
Once again, the elevator landed with a loud bang before the doors opened up, bringing us into a new incarnation of the courtroom. It looked like it had received a massive overhaul: the walls? Blue. The floor and carpet? Also blue. The columns? Blue. Only the curtains weren't blue - they were more akin to a silvery, celestial white.
Monokuma's throne was there, of course. So were those large doors. And our podiums, still arranged in a neat circle. Not one, not even two, but three crossed-out portraits had been added to them. Yura, Masao and Kozue were now little more than monochrome pictures. Uneasily, we stood behind them, before Monokuma greeted us how he normally did.
Monokuma: Wow. Just wow. You must be a bunch of bloodthirsty bastards, am I right?
Yukiharu: ...Do everyone a favour and fuck off.
Monokuma: Nuh-uh! I am the teacher, you are my students, guess who's the one in charge?
Yukiharu: Me.
Monokuma: No, me!
Yukiharu: Dammit.
Monokuma: Anyway, welcome one and all to the Class Trial! I think everybody knows the drill by now.
Ayane: We do.
Monokuma: But it looks like somebody here's a bit shaken up, am I right?
Souta: ...Ugh... My head...
Monokuma: So I'll repeat on his behalf! Think of "guilt" like a volleyball. Now imagine you passing it all around through your words until the rally ends. Or in other words, until you run out of time and have to vote on who you think murdered poor little Kozue over there.
Disgusting. It was quite clear to me that he was deliberately mocking each victim. First Mugen, then Haruhi, now Kozue? I felt sick to my stomach.
Monokuma: And once it's over, if you did manage to serve the ball of guilt into the correct court, then they die alone. But if your spike just so happened to be a fault, then only a single person wins the game! The blackened, of course.
Madoka: Pfft. As if that was obvious.
Umiko: Ahh! I don't wanna die...
Hirou: It's alright. We'll find who did this, for sure.
Ayane: (sigh) Can we get this over with, Monokuma?
Monokuma: If that's what you want, then so be it!
Kaori: (And once again... the Class Trial... began.)
----
Madoka: I'll open things up. We need to talk about the motive. Have you ever stopped to consider that girl kept in the drowning tank?
Kaiji: This is irrelevant, Madoka! For all we know... she's long dead and we can't do a thing about it... God... I just can't believe it...
Madoka: Oh, really? We don't even know her name. So why are you treating her like some stranger?
Kaori: Madoka, we have a far more serious matter on our hands.
Ayane: And trying to force us into another matter can and will waste time.
Madoka: But... that girl...
Kaori: And besides, this Class Trial is being held because...
----
(Multiple Choice)
1. The girl was murdered.
2. Kozue was murdered.
YOU ARE READING
Danganronpa: Memento Mori
Mystery / Thriller"Kaori Hotaru, the Ultimate Weaver, finds her school life to be far different from what she expected. She meets 15 others, only for them to find themselves at the mercy of Monokuma, trapped in a strange facility in which the only way out is to kill...
