Ace Attorney Investigations: Virtual Despair

Chapter 2: Fatal Secrets ~ Part 3 (Deadly Life)

~ Ultimate Pokémon Master Akari Hinata's POV ~

*DING DONG BANG BONG*

"A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin!"

I looked up from my moping and dashed out of my cottage, looking around desperately. I saw several others in a similar position. "What's going on?!" Zach yelled, anger burning in his eyes. "What does he mean by a body?!"

"It appears that another murder has taken place." Kenta deduced with a frown. "We must locate the scene of the crime immediately."

We left the cottage area, but we didn't have to look far in terms of locating the crime scene; Kyle, who was dashing towards us, seemed to have done that already. "I-It's the beach house!" he exclaimed. "J-Jordan and Niamh are already there...!"

Our large group followed Kyle's lead and rushed over to the second island, although none of us had heard of any beach house. Turns out that a whole bunch of rocks were blocking the road, and the process of all of us crawling through the only tiny entrance was painfully slow. When we were all on the other side, Susumu tried to open the roadside door, but it wouldn't budge. "I-Is it jammed or something...?!" he grumbled.

I ran around to the other side of the beach house, taking Susumu's hand and dragging him with me and burst through the double doors. Jordan was stood to the side, hands in his pockets. Niamh was knelt next to the body, looking sour. My attention turned to the body itself, and my eyes widened upon realizing who it was: Clement.

A few people behind me had gasped in shock, others whimpering and struggling to hold back their tears. I saw a blur of black and white in the corner of my eye and frowned upon seeing it's source: Monokuma.

"I knew that secret motive was a good idea!" the bear cheered. "And so the Ultimate Inventor has fallen... what a tragically pointless loss!"

"Pointless?!" Susumu repeated. "How dare you-?!"

"Now, now, Laugh A Lot, no need to get snappy." Monokuma scolded. "More importantly, you guys are gonna need this." He held up the Monokuma File, which I snatched from him. The design was pretty much the same as last time: an image of Clement with the words 'DEAD' flashing pink over it, with the details about his death on the next page.

'The victim was Clement Naoko
The time of death was around 1:30pm
Cause of death was a single blow to the back of the skull
The victim also shows signs of having been through a struggle'

"Well, that's all the help you guys are gonna get from me! Monokuma out!" Monokuma cried before vanishing into thin air. Again.

I glanced over to Clement's body and sighed. I knew we had to bring the blackened to justice, but we all knew what would happen when we did. They would be messily executed, like Octavio was. I don't want to put my friends through that, but we have no choice... We have to do this again.

~ INVESTIGATION START ~

"Hold on a second," Kenta cut in, glancing over my shoulder. "The Monokuma file says that Clement died at 1:30pm. But... it hasn't been 1:30pm yet."

"You're right!" Angelica gasped. "Maybe the culprit is secretly the Ultimate Time Lord?!"

"Can we please not include time travel in all of this?" Niamh pleaded. "It always just makes things way more confusing. Next you're going to claim that one of us is going to get trapped in an hourglass."

"Stop being idiots and investigate the murder already." Jordan groaned. "We don't have all day, quite literally."

I sighed and handed the Monokuma File to Niamh. "You'll be needing this, right?" I asked.