Inescapable Despair (Song of Despair AU)

Chapter 1: Investigation

Once Haru walked into the scene of the crime, alerted by Monokuma's announcement, he wished he hadn't. Seeing his classmate's corpse on the ground made him sure of the severity of their situation.

"Wow, I sure didn't expect this one to go first!" Monokuma exclaimed once everyone had gathered, then he shrugged. "Oh well, now you gotta investigate so we can have a class trial!"

"Class trial? What's that?" Momo asked between trying to comfort the sobbing Kazuki.

"Basically if you don't find out who the killer is, you all die and the killer goes free. If you succeed only the killer dies and you stay here." Monokuma explained, then passed out tablet-looking things. "This'll help. Good luck! Upupu~!"

Once Monokuma left, Haru looked around at his upset classmates. He took a deep breath before speaking. "Look, I know that this is really a horrible situation, but we can't give up. We have to do our best to investigate and find the killer!"

"He's right." Jikkō said, though her voice held some emotion for once, and she was looking anywhere but the corpse in front of her. "Lets all split up and look for anything that might help us."

"I can talk to everyone." Jirou spoke up. "I think I'm good at reading people, I'll be able to tell if anything's off."

"You're definitely good at reading people." Haru stated with a small smile. "You always know what I'm thinking."

"Well, you're not hard to read..." Jirou said a little more quietly, reflecting his boyfriend's smile. Even in a situation like this, Haru's heart fluttered at how pure the shorter boy appeared with that precious smile of his. I won't let you die in here.

After a few minutes, everyone decided what they were doing and all went their separate ways. Haru, Jikkō, Orochi, and Willow stayed at the scene of the crime to investigate there. While Orochi and Willow searched the area, Jikkō and Haru knelt by Michio's body.

"There isn't any blood..." Haru pointed out, looking at the state of the corpse. "Do you know how he could've died?"

"There are many ways to die that don't involve any blood. Poisoning is one example, but I don't think that happened here." Jikkō said, and as she talked Haru noticed her voice shaking. Not only that, but she was shaking as well.

Haru tilted his head, "Jikkō, are you o-"

"I'm fine." The assassin snapped, and took a few deep breaths. She pulled her bandana up higher, staring downwards. After a moment, she went back to the body as if nothing was wrong.

"Like I was saying, I have a few ideas of what might've happened." Jikkō continued.

"Like what?" Haru asked.

The black haired girl gently brushed some of Michio's hair to the side and examined his neck. "Never mind, there's no question about it. His neck was snapped."

Haru took a closer look at it, and noticed that Jikkō was right. It was most definitely snapped. "Who could've done this?"

"I have a pretty good idea." Jikkō said, and Haru looked to her to continue.

When she didn't, he let out a small sigh. "You're gonna make me wait until the trial, aren't you?"

"That's the idea." Jikkō replied.

After a little while longer of investigating, the monitors switched on. "It's time for the class trial!" Monokuma exclaimed.