Danganronpa Alternate Universe (What if...?)

Act 1 Accusations

I stepped out of the rickety elevator and found myself in a dimly lit room. The room was smaller and had 16 jury stands sitting in a large circle. Two of the stands had picture frames in front of them. Each frame had a portrait of a deceased classmate in it. The portraits also were marked with a big X on it.

"Monokuma, what's with the frames?" I asked the bear who popped out of the judge seat in the front of the room.

"It's like they're still here! In spirit! To help out with the trials!"

"Yes that's nice and all, but you seem to have made a mistake. There are only fifteen of us, now down to thirteen, but there are sixteen stands. Why is that?" Togami turned towards the bear.

"Last minute decision, there was going to be sixteen of you! But one student transferred out at the last minute, lucky lucky! Anyway, your trial starts in three...two...one...go!"

"Let's get straight to the point. What are all of the pieces of evidence gathered by all of you?" Togami asked us.

"I talked with everyone important to the case and I have accounts from all of them. The people you want to hear from the most are Ikusaba, Naegi, Hifumi, Ishimaru, and you." Sakura explained.

"Why Togami and I?" Ishimaru asked the girl.

"You were the ones who originally found Enoshima. You have alibis to give on yourselves as well."

"Oh, that's right! Okay, I will tell you everything I know!" Taka nodded.

"Okay, I was doing a bit more digging on the place and searching the rooms that we don't go in often. I ran into Togami and he was doing the same thing. We were both heading towards the dorms when we noticed the trash receptacle's door was open. So we headed in to see what was up, and we looked in one of the trash bins and found Enoshima."

"I can attest to this. I was trying to find some information on the history of the place when I ran into Ishimaru. Since he is a bit more...bearable, than some, I allowed him to join me for a moment while we investigated. What I didn't expect to find however was a deceased classmate." Togami added.

"Right. Okay, But what about Hifumi? He doesn't have anything to do with any of this?" I turned toward Ogami.

"He was a part of Ikusaba's alibi." she responded.

The gambler nodded, "Yes, quite right. He saw me come out of the sauna in my bathrobe and asked why I wasn't dressed in my normal attire. I told him the situation and he said he would watch out for anyone who was carrying my tea-length gown. I thanked him and walked on." "And? Your alibi besides Hifumi?" I asked her.

"I was getting to that. I walked into the sauna and put my pile of clothes and the key in the changing room. I was in the sauna for about an hour and then I walked out, noticing my clothes were gone, along with the key. So, I grabbed my bathrobe and wandered into the baths and the sauna, thinking maybe I misplaced them, but alas I came up with nothing, so I headed back to my room and ran into Hifumi, and then explained my situation. After that I changed in my room and went back out into the cafeteria for dinner. I was with you all when Taka ran in to tell us about...about Junko..."

"I can agree that my events are parallel to yours, friend gambler! I was walking towards the kitchen myself when I ran into you, I was bringing my project with me and then I heard of your sticky situation, so I offered to guard the door! However my tired self forgot that it was my day to make dinner with Hagakure so I had to drop everything and go to the kitchen, including setting my precious project down at my seat! There you have it ladies and gents, there is my alibi!" Hifumi blurted out.

"Well, I guess that rules out Ikusaba as a suspect as well, considering that she has a solid alibi. Naegi, however, is not off the hook yet. Care to explain your side of events?" Togami spat. Naegi grew pale.

"Like I said before I didn't do it! I gave my key to Ikusaba!"

"Naegi please! We already established that the key was stolen. Where is your alibi?" Togami maliciously roared at the small boy, who looked as if he was about to faint.

"I was wandering the halls, about to get more paper from storage, when Ikusaba found me. She said she was looking for someone to play cards with and that she was bored, so I agreed. We decided that the winner gets to decide the loser's fate, since we couldn't bet on actual money. She said she will go very easy on me because she wants a long game. However, she said she went too easy on me, because I won the card game. The first thing that came to mind was for her to take the trash out for two weeks, so that's what I gave her." Naegi nervously said, taking deep breaths after his explanation.

After composing himself, he continued, "I then headed back to the storage room to gather some paper and I drew in the cafeteria for hours. I also was planning on using the sauna after I ate dinner, except I wasn't planning on doing a murder trial."

"Can anyone confirm this? Was Naegi truly drawing in the cafeteria for that long?" I asked around.

Celeste raised her hand, "Yes. He was, I know because I arrived at the cafeteria forty-five minutes before dinner was going to be served. I waved hi to Naegi myself and sat down. In that time frame when the both of us were sitting down and the time frame where Enoshima was killed, there's no way Naegi could have killed Enoshima, disposed of his clothes, cleaned up everything, and gotten the paper to draw in the cafeteria."

"So we are back at square one. What other things do people have to offer?" Togami asked all of us, pushing his glasses on his face again.

"Maizono found Ikusaba's clothes and the trash room key back at the sauna and the changing rooms! We also looked at the key and saw there were no fingerprints on it." I responded, "We also went into the sauna but found nothing."

"But wouldn't the key have Naegi's fingerprints on it?" Sakura questioned.

"It should, but it didn't. It wouldn't have Mukuro's prints on it because she wears gloves, but someone took the extra time to clean off the key to get rid of their trail." I responded, "Oh, we also ran into Fujisaki and Owada while investigating."

"That's right! We found charred pieces of unidentifiable fabric scattered around the furnace, and the furnace was warm like it had been used recently." Fujisaki said, "We also found a knife on the edge of the furnace. It was charred and part of it was stained a different color from the rest, like it was covered in blood."

"Yeah, but I just realised somethin': Knives aren't normally this shape, I'm thinking it was half of some scissors, like sharp sewing scissors! Found in the girl's sewing kits!" Mondo announced.

"Everyone who has a sewing kit take it out!" Togami pointed to the whole courtroom. Upon checking the kits he sighed.

"Everyone's kits are intact, no broken scissors. There must be an extra kit somewhere." Togami grumbled.

"What about Asahina's kit?" Toko asked quietly.

I turned towards Monokuma, "Can we see Asahina's sewing kit?"

"Sure thing son! Here you go! One sewing kit from Asahina coming right up!"

Sure enough, one half of the scissors was missing.

"There is the weapon. Anything else?" Togami noted, then addressed the court.

"Yes, Owada and I found a note the culprit wrote. Posing as Monokuma, the culprit asked Enoshima to come by the trash room to give more information on the video, and asked her to bring the video as well." Fujisaki added.

"We found a used mop as well, looks like they cleaned up a little bit of the blood on the floor too, since some marks are smeared." Owada declared.

"Okay, let's go over the events so far..." I addressed.

"So, at the beginning, the killer wrote a note to Enoshima and wanted her to meet at the trash room. The killer asked Enoshima to bring her video as well. Once the note was written the killer headed towards the sauna to grab the pile of clothes and the key to the trash room. Once the killer met up with Enoshima the final blow was struck, with the halved sewing scissors. Once Enoshima was dead, the killer hid her in the trash bin and burnt their clothes, along with the weapon.

The next part was the clean up. The culprit took the mop and tried their best to clean up the mess that they had made, and delivered the clothing pile and the key back to Ikusaba, thinking she was still in the sauna. However, they made two fatal mistakes: They left the trash door open, and they didn't realize Ikusaba left the sauna a while ago, looking for her dress. Thinking they got away with it, the killer left to go to dinner."

"That's what we have so far, but the identity still remains a mystery." Togami responded.

"Oh what are we going to do?? Our time is almost out!" Fujisaki whimpered.

I thought more on the holes of this story, why weren't things lining up? Surely there had to be something...

Something clicked in my mind, and everything made sense.

"Ikusaba, if you were in the sauna for so long, why were there dust bunnies on the rocks and a live spider in the corner of the sauna?" I turned towards the gambler.

Ikusaba turned white, but her face remained the same, "Those are just marks on the rocks, as for the spider I have no idea."

"But the spider should have been dead, and the room would have felt warmer, but it was a fridge in there. Everything aligns when you think about it."

"Are you accusing me?? After all of that evidence?? You must be joking!" Mukuro shrieked.

"It makes sense, only someone on your level can pay attention to little details like that!"

"Shut your mouth dipshit you are WRONG!"

"I don't think so, you're just not paying attention to my proof!!"

"IF YOU THINK I COULD HAVE KILLED MY OWN SISTER IN COLD BLOOD YOU MUST BE MORE DULL THAN A BROKEN LIGHTBULB."

"Then how do you explain the dust I physically moved off of those rocks??"

Ikusaba fell silent. The whole courtroom looked at both me and the gambler.

"Well kids? It's time to vote! Cast your votes now to see who gets to kick the bucket, whether that be jury, or killer!"

Mukuro eyed me and placed her vote, most likely on me. I placed my vote as well and looked around at the rest of the jury members, they all looked between Ikusaba and I, expecting Ikusaba to put up more of a fight. However, she was as silent as ever, glaring at me from across the room.

"Aaaaaand the votes are in! Drum roll anyone? No? Well, the most voted is... Mukuro Ikusaba. Right on kids! Ikusaba is indeed the guilty party!" Monokuma shouted.

I looked at Ikusaba, who's expression was unreadable, as she was looking at the ground. Mixed emotions filled the room as the killer herself was unmasked before our very eyes.