DANGANRONPA V2: ECLIPSE

Chapter 4: Part 3

There wasn't even a trial. He was caught red-handed. 

I couldn't believe my eyes when was brought to the crime scene and saw what had happened. Another one of us, dead. Gone, forever. My heart was racing. Everything seemed wrong. 

No one else was supposed to die. 

But someone did. 

They were saying Saikoro did it.

Saikoro, the one who danced in the rain with Keiko last night.

Keiko, who was no longer with us. 

I couldn't believe what I was being told.

We were all standing in the woods. Every single one of us. Yuuki and Ahmya had found the body at first, however, the announcement wasn't triggered until Daiki, Kichiro, and Ruji showed up. According to Yuuki, he and Ahmya arrived just seconds too late. If they walked just slightly faster, maybe Keiko would still be alive.

The ultimate public speaker had been stabbed. Plain and simple. Stabbed right through the back by the person who was her closest friend. By the time Yuuki and Ahmya arrived, Saikoro was holding her closely and crying for help, covered in her blood. I had never seen him cry before. It felt like the kind of thing he'd never do, although looking back he seemed close to crying over Sora. 

When Rantaro and I arrived, he was no longer himself. I didn't see the cool and confident gameshow host I had grown accustomed to. His charming smile was gone, replaced with emptiness. He muttered to himself, like a madman saying, "I didn't do it," over and over again. 

But Yuuki had seen the knife in his hand.

"Ghosts," Saikoro kept whispering. "It was the ghosts."

"He keeps saying that," Ruji whispered as his group and mine stepped back. "It couldn't have been ghosts, though. Ghosts can't wield physical objects like that. Not weaker spirits, anyway. The ability to possess an object takes a lot of negative power and... well, it's complex, but I highly doubt a ghost could do this." 

He was trying to explain, but it was hard to pay attention with the sight of Keiko's limp and lifeless body in Saikoro's arms. It was hard to pay attention to anything other than my racing heart. 

"What seems to have happened," Kichiro explained in a mock-serious tone. "Is that Saikoro killed her, then the despair got to him, making him all, well, this. Hehehee, soon the rest of us will follow in his footsteps! "

I didn't want to agree. I didn't want to just shrug and be done with this investigation. I wanted Saikoro to be innocent. However, Ahmya wasn't saying anything that went against Yuuki's claims, and judging by what went down, everything seemed to line up. The Monokuma file even stated that Keiko was "stabbed in the back by a close friend."

Why would he do that, though? They were dancing together before. They were friends...

"It wasn't me," Saikoro whimpered, all his confidence having been stripped away. "It wasn't me. The mastermind! It's the mastermind!"

He looked up at Kichiro, narrowing his eyes. There was an intensity that had never been there before. One that sent chills down my spine. 

Daiki pushed the ultimate unlucky student behind himself, though Kichiro didn't seem affected by the ice-cold glare. Why was Saikoro looking at him like that, of all people? Kichiro wasn't the one who discovered him. 

"Shhh, calm down," Yuuki told the gameshow host, kneeling down and placing his free hand on Saikoro's shoulder. "Just... breathe. We're all friends, and the trial isn't for a while. Maybe we can find a way out of this place before-"