"A body has been discovered! Everyone, please head to the Ultimate Pianist's lab!"
For a moment, Kaede felt like all time had stopped. It hadn't even been 12 hours since the motive had been announced, for god's sake! What had she done wrong? And the victim...Gonta? GONTA??? Gonta was literally the nicest person in the Ultimate Academy--no, the whole universe! If someone dared use him or kill him, Kaede would never forgive the perpetrator. It just wasn't done. He was the ray of sunshine without the shadow, the steadfast friend who had tried their best to be the perfect gentleman and protect everyone.
The door behind them swung open, and a few people ran in. Tenko, Kokichi, Shuichi, wait--is this it? Where was everyone else? Had they not heard the body announcement?
Kokichi opened his tongueless mouth once and closed it again, his eyes widening with shock.
"G-G-G-onta?" Tenko shrieked. "Why! Tenko was just about to remove him from the degenerate males list! He was so kind to Tenko after H-Himiko died! How is this possible!"
"Isn't it obvious?" Shuichi muttered, clutching his heart like he was having a seizure, pearly beads of sweat running down his forehead. "It seems like we couldn't handle the stress of being talentless. Gonta paid the price."
"Where is everyone else?" Kirumi asked, echoing Kaede's thoughts from before. "Kiibo, and Korekiyo, and Angie? Also, why is my talent not returned yet? Was the condition not a murder?"
"Yeah, well, I changed that!" Monokuma popped up from nowhere, giggling evilly. "It isn't any fun if I give all your talents back after the crime has been comitted, so I decided to change the condition to after passing the class trial! Of course, if you fail to find the true killer, him or her will get their talent AND their freedom back! More fun that way, don't ya think?"
"No!" Tenko yelled. "Tenko DOES NOT think it's fun! Tenko won't allow Monokuma to play with our talents like this! TENKO WANTS HER TALENT BACK!"
Kaede saw the signs right on time as Tenko grabbed a music stand to throw at their bearish headmaster, and reached to stop her, nearly slipping in a puddle of Gonta's blood in the process. She had a feeling that if the former Ultimate Aikido Master had a temper tantrum right there, right then, the damage wouldn't help them in that situation. They needed the crime scene as well preserved as possible, right now. Besides, attacking the headteacher would get Tenko killed, and Kaede didn't want any more casualties today.
She felt Tenko's hand twitch under her grip, and for a moment was scared that she was going to get thrown. Luckily, that didn't happen. "It's so unfair!" Tenko simply wailed. "I just want to go home!"
That hit Kaede right in the feels, and for a moment she just wanted to sink to her knees and sob along. She didn't deserve this. She wanted to go home.
But the world was cruel, and she couldn't do anything about it.
"We need to focus on the case," Shuichi muttered. "Monokuma said our talents aren't back until we finish the trial, which means Kiibo is deactivated somewhere. What I'm worried about are Kiyo and Angie. One's a mass murderer, one's a cult leader who's known for manipulating and murdering two people in the Ultimate Academy before. Right now, both of them are seriously unstable, "
"Gonta was guarding Angie!" Kaede's heart started beating abnormally quickly, she felt it might fly out of her chest.
<em>No no no no no no no no no no no...</em>
She turned on a heel and ran out of her lab.
<hr>
"Was he in his room?"
"No! I just did a quick scan of his lab and didn't find anything, but it's so big that he might be hiding in the shadows or something. There was a really interesting detail, though. Maki's lab door was slightly ajar, but there was no one inside, and I don't know whether anything's missing. Where else haven't we searched?"
"The hall? Maybe, but there's no point in him being there,"
"Maybe Kirumi's lab? He mentioned he liked it there before."
Kaede sprinted around the corridors of the Ultimate Academy with Shuichi. Where was Korekiyo? Why hadn't he arrived at the crime scene as soon as possible? He had discovered two of the previous crime scenes. Why was he one of the only ones, not there this time?
"Let's go back for now," Shuichi panted. "He'll be bound to pop up just before the class trial or Monokuma will kill him. Who knows? He might be our killer."
Kaede was about to concede when a thought struck her, a thought that should have hit her earlier. The Ultimate Artist's lab. That was where Gonta was guarding, right? And it was also where Angie was.
She pushed the asymmetrical doors open, praying to every good god and deity out there for her to not be too late.
To say that she arrived right on time was possibly the greatest understatement in human history. The curved, razor-sharp edge of the sickle was swinging mere inches from Angie's neck just as Kaede carefully closed the door behind her.
"Stop!"
For a moment that felt like the longest ever, Kaede was afraid that she was too late. That the weapon might bloom flowers of scarlet right in front of her very eyes, with nothing that she could do about it.
But, as if it was formed from a miracle, it stopped.
"Oh?" Angie tried to turn her head around to look at her assailant, though failing because of the crisscross of ropes binding her to the chair. "What's wrong, Kiyo? Aren't you going to kill Angie? You said you were going to kill Angie to get your dear sister back, right?"
<em>Shut up shut up shut up shut up I just pretty much saved you from being stabbed in the neck so stop trying to make things more difficult than they are right now!</em>
"What's going on?" Shuichi took in the scene behind her. "Kiyo?"
Korekiyo wouldn't even properly look at Kaede, his eyes floating at the wall behind her. If he suddenly decided to bolt, she didn't have the confidence that she could stop him. Animals were most dangerous when they were cornered. The same probably applied to killers. "I heard the body discovery announcement, but I wanted to head over after I finished with this." he gestured at the sickle and Angie, and Kaede tried to get her brain to comprehend how he was acting so calm and matter-of-fact when he had just been caught in the act of attempted murder. Or maybe it was because of the attempted murder that he had put both his literal and figurative mask back on. Because he was taunting them, like, <em>Ha. You guys are so pathetic.</em> "So, who died this time?"
"Gonta," Shuichi answered.
"Oh," Kiyo closed his eyes. "A bit of a shame, really. He was the most harmless and innocent person here. I was sort of hoping for it to be Kokichi,"
<em>Me too, Kiyo. Me, too.</em>
"Well, if the killer is Kokichi, he'll also be executed, won't he? So you shouldn't give up hope so soon~" Angie sing-songed, rocking her chair rather violently. "Angie will pray that Gonta finds Atua's kingdom, then!"
