The twelve remaining Ultimates filed into the circular Class Trial Room once more and took their places. There were 3 new portraits now--Kaito's was crossed out normally, while Maki's had a circle with a cross in the middle, like the view from a sniper scope. Ryoma's portrait from last chapter was there too--crossed out boldly with pink. Seeing them tugged at Kaede's heartstrings, and NOT in a good way. She would do anything, <em>anything</em>, to stop more portraits from popping up. Yet, it was still inevitable.
Angie wasted no time after she got to her podium to start accusing people.
"It was the bastards from the <em>Other</em> Student Council! Atua says so!"
"What proof do you have?" Kaede shot back. "We have no motive, all of us have alibis, and above all of that, Kaito was our friend!"
"What about Maki?"
"Her too!"
"Hmm~?" Angie's smile faltered a bit. "Even after she lied to all of us about her talent? You let a dangerous liar into your group, just because you didn't approve of Atua's might! That was your problem, and you decided to fix it when Tenko betrayed us! So <em>all</em> of this is all your fault!"
"That is really low coming from you, Angie," Kiyo narrowed his eyes. "You realize that you included <em>Kokichi</em> of all people into your cult just so that you could try to outnumber us and get a majority vote in the outcome of this Ultimate Academy, right? Also, you mention that you knew Tenko had betrayed you. You realize that it's your team that falling apart, not ours,"
"Angie knew, Angie knew!" the Ultimate Artist did not seem very fazed by the accusation. "But Atua will forgive Tenko, because Atua is very generous and kind. He will forgive her, as long as she pinky promises, so she can still be in the Atua School Council. And for Kokichi...he hasn't betrayed the Ultimate Student Council yet, does he?"
Kiyo had given them a good head start in the stubborn battle against Angie, but here was where it was going to get complicated. He glanced at Kirumi, Kaede, and Shuichi(the only remaining true members of the Athena Student Council left) and raised his eyebrows, like, "What's the plan?"
The Ultimate Detective took the floor. For Kaito and Maki.
"Actually, Kokichi did betray you," Shuichi said confidently. "He came into K-Kaito's room last night and told us the origin of the flowers that were used to make his sickness worse,"
The Atua Student Council's response was way more muted and confusing than any of them had expected, though. Angie tilted her head. "H-huh? What is Shuichi saying all of a sudden? Angie didn't poison Kaito!"
"Stop trying to hide it!" Kaede stuttered. "It was daffodil bulbs, here, look-" she pulled the slightly wilted yellow and yellow flowers out of her white backpack and showed them to the Ultimate Artist, incontestable proof of the injustices done.
Gonta gasped. "Those are from Gonta's lab!" he said. "There were all sorts of pretty flowers in the butterflies' cages, and Gonta remembers those especially," But Angie didn't ask Gonta to take the flowers for her! If she had, Gonta would have done that himself!"
<em>So Angie didn't want too many people involved in this plan--not even people from her own cult,</em> Kaede thought to herself.
"Wait up! Tenko didn't hear about such a plan either!"
"Neither did I!" Kokichi scratched his head.
All of them turned towards him.
"How do you not know?" Kirumi asked incredulously. "You were the one who told us in the first place!"
He only shrugged, the little snitch he was. "Don't know what you're talking about. Sorry!"
Kaede swore all of the bloodthirst she had ever withheld in her whole life came closest to erupt at that moment.
Kokichi stared in her direction, a look of obviously feigned confusion all over his face. When he saw Kaede's look of anger(which was probably plastered all over his face) he just shrugged.
"Really, I don't! Besides, even if I did know what was going on with Kaito, why would I tell you?"
"L-let just focus on the fact that Kaito is dead now. And Maki," Tenko said hastily, squeezing both of her index fingers together. "Doesn't Monokuma have a time limit on Class Trials?"
"I sure do!" the Ultimate Annoying Headmaster Robo-Bear sniggered. "So hurry up and start talking about what's important! Because my patience is running thin already!"
"Okay," Shuichi gritted his teeth in what I could see was barely controlled anger. "So the killer couldn't have acted alone, there were definitely two people. One of the two Body Discovery Alarms active this time went off when Kiyo saw the crime scene, which means that two innocent people other than the killer were there with the first victim died,"
"Which is probably Kaito, because you assert that he went missing first," Kiibo pointed out, the first voice of rationality in this strained courtroom atmosphere.
"Right. One of the innocent people was Maki, because she went to go find Kaito about 5 minutes after he went missing. She must have seen his body, and the killer and his or her accomplice had to kill her."
"So that she wouldn't talk?" Kokichi asked.
Kaede forced herself to stay rational and resist the urge to punch the living hell out of the Ultimate Supreme Leader. "Maybe, but there's really no point in killing Kaito,"
"He is useless," Kokichi agreed.
Kaede's hands balled into fists. "That's not what I meant. Kaito is a great leader and a good friend, and he's no big threat to anyone in the Ultimate Academy--at least, no one I really know of, anyways. Maki is the Ultimate Assassin. She's the big fish that <em>some</em> people," she put emphasis on the word <em>some</em> , "would want to fry. She had feelings for Kaito, and it's obvious that if she thought that he was in danger, she would rush to save him,"
"Like the yandere she is,"
"Shut up. The only problem with this is there are <em>too</em> many alibis--the only person without one is Tenko, and as Shuichi proved earlier, there had to be two people at the scene of the crime, so the fact that she was alone might have the opposite effect and clear her of suspicion instead."
Gonta held up his fingers. "B-but no one was in pairs at the time of the crime! Then, how do two people do it?"
"Maybe Shinguji-chan is lying? Maybe... something else happened in that damp, damp, room, and Shinguji-chan and Chabashira-chan came together to kill! Chabashira-chan would have the strength to kill an ASSASIN, wouldn't she? Besides, they look like each other's type! They might be in love, like Romeo and Juliet!"
Mistrust. Mounting stress. Lies. And finally, an accusation that made some sense.
