Just One More Time

3 - You Almost Won

"It's Saihara, the poison had to have come from his lab!" Akamatsu argued, tears threatening to prick her eyes as she glared at the detective.

"It can't be," Himiko interrupted with determination. "He was stalking Ouma at the time!"

"Not the entire time!~" Ouma chuckled. "He ended up leaving a few minutes before Gokuhara died! How coincidental!"

"Where were you both at that time?" Harukawa asked, mainly talking to Shuichi.

"Uh, we were in that long hallway near the gym," Shuichi muttered.

"Would that have been enough time for Saihara to set up the poison and trick Gokuhara into drinking it?" Kiibo asked, catching on to Harukawa's line of questioning.

"Anyone could've tricked the idiot into drinking it, don't act like it'd be hard!" Ouma groaned in frustration.

"That would've meant I had to go from the first floor and grab poison from my lab on the fifth floor. Then go from the fifth floor back to the first floor, set everything up, and then to Gokuhara's lab on the second floor." Saihara spoke, having a map pictured in his mind, knowing the academy's layout like the back of his hand at this point.

"Hoshi was the first to find Gokuhara's body, so he would've seen Saihara leave the scene, right?" Akamatsu asked.

"No, it is poison. If Saihara is correct in identifying the poison as hydrogen cyanide, then Gokuhara could have ingested it minutes before." Shinguji held one of his elbows, pointing another bandaged finger in the air as he thought.

"Let's go over alibis again," Kiibo suggested, the room agreeing (minus a groan from Ouma). "Akamatsu and I were in her research lab for almost an hour until the body discovery announcement." 

"Yep! That's right!" Akamatsu smiled.

"Yumeno was stalking me the entire time, that our alibis," Harukawa explained.

"Nyeh?!" Himiko gasped, seeming surprised that the woman knew.

"Poor Yumeno, she thought she could stalk an assassin and get away with it!" Ouma teased.

"Leave her alone Ouma," Shuichi glared at the supreme leader.

"Oh? Standing up for your girl-"

"Shut up and get on with it! I was hanging out with Harukawa!" Momota shouted. Shuichi frowned, glancing over to Himiko.

"Yeah, he was," Himiko eased Shuichi's suspicion.

"I'd left Gokuhara alone in his lab after we were bug hunting." Hoshi offered his alibi. "After that, I wasted time in my lab until the announcement. That was about half an hour before he died."

"I spent the day in my lab," Shinguji stated.

"Was anyone seen in the dining hall area and at what time?" Shuichi asked, figuring out a few things about the case.

"Hoshi did about five minutes before Gokuhara's death," Momota informed the group.

"He cannot be the culprit, as Hoshi entered my lab immediately before the discovery announcement," Shinguji explained. 

"You couldn't have mentioned that earlier?!" Himiko shouted with a pout. The group began arguing amongst themselves as Shuichi lost himself in thought. Gokuhara was given a drink laced with hydrogen cyanide. Whether it was pure or not, there would've been half that bottle in the drink, which would've killed him almost instantly.

"That's it!" Shuichi shouted. Everyone turned to the detective, ready for the closing argument. "The blackened entered my research lab, taking a bottle of well known and highly lethal poison, hydrogen cyanide, which can kill within a few minutes in a small dose. Hiding the poison on their body, the blackened went to the dining room. Finding themselves alone, they grabbed a mug and poured half of the bottle of poison into the mug.

Once they'd created the drink, the blackened shoved the half-empty bottle of hydrogen cyanide into the gap between the counter and wall. Knowing Gokuhara was in his lab, they gave the drink to their victim. Hydrogen cyanide is colourless and odourless to most people, so most people would assume it was water, especially Gokuhara. After poisoning Gokuhara, the blackened left the entomology lab and went to create an alibi, finding Shinguji in his research lab.

The culprit is you, Hoshi Ryoma, the Ultimate Tennis Pro!" Shuichi shouted, pointing at the short male. No one seemed surprised, as the alibi didn't add up from the start. 

"Why would you kill Gokuhara?!" Ouma glared, a shadow enshrouding his face.

"I don't want to create a fuss. Yeah, I did it, but the motive had nothing to do with it," Hoshi sighed.

"I asked why." Ouma's voice dripped with venom as if he sought revenge for his parent's murder. Did he care for Gokuhara this whole time?

"I wanted to see my girlfriend again. If I escape, I'd just end up in prison again, but if Monokuma wiped my criminal record, I'd be free from prison. I'd figured I could pin the motive on Harukawa, or the poison on Saihara. Sorry for all of this."

"Sorry won't bring Gokuhara back," Akamatsu cried.

"Just kill me Monokuma," Hoshi ignored the group, turning to stare at the black and white bear.

"Punishment time!" Monokuma shouted, slamming down the familiar red button in front of him. Before anyone could continue questioning the killer, a tennis net flicked out from the wall and wrapped around him, yanking the male into another room off of the trial grounds.

Hoshi's body thudded into a tennis post standing tall in the middle of a tennis court. A tennis net wrapped around him, squeezing his body and strapping it to the post. An automatic tennis ball machine wheeled into view, aiming at the criminal. Hoshi watched with blank eyes, accepting his death without any fight.

The automatic machine switched on, shooting one tennis ball into Hoshi's body. Hoshi grunted in pain, his face contorting into a grimace as another tennis ball collided with his abdomen. More tennis balls started shooting from the machine, littering Hoshi with bruises and broken bones. A cloud of tennis balls masked Hoshi's body as the machine came to a stop, tennis balls rolling throughout the tennis court.

Hoshi slumped forward, his chest heaving as he struggled to breathe. As his eyes fluttered open, Hoshi gasped as his gaze landed on his girlfriend, the only reason he'd stayed alive for so long. Staring at his girlfriend with a pained smile, his face dropped as she pulled out a gun. Aiming the gun at his head, Hoshi's girlfriend smiled as she pulled the trigger, brain matter splattering from the back of his head.