Danganronpa: Frozen Mayhem

1-5: Deadly Life (Trial)

Without prompt, the students piled out of the elevator, spreading along the walls of an ornately decorated, circular room. In hues of faded gold and wine red, a carpet bordered a circle of bronze floor as glass light fixtures hung from the ceiling and walls.

Most apparent were sixteen mahogany stands in a wide circle at the centre of the room. The seventeenth, at the opposite side of the elevator, was larger and slightly detached from the circle. Monokuma perched on the large stand, red eye glinting wickedly.

"Upupupupu! Welcome, nouveau detectives, to the Class Trial!" Nobody responded. "Why so shy? Step right up, and take a stand at the spot with your name on it!"

Tentatively, fifteen pairs of feet shuffled to their places. Seishiro looked up and noticed that a stand, where he presumed Yoshikazu would've been, was occupied by a picture frame. It depicted a black and white photograph of the gardener, crossed out in bright pink paint. His heart sank.

"Now," announced Monokuma, "for an explanation of the class trial. This is where you lot debate it out on who the blackened is! At the end of the trial, a vote will be conducted to deduce the culprit. Remember, majority rules! If you vote correctly, the blackened gets an extra-special punishment courtesy of me! But if you vote wrong, it's bye-bye to the rest of you as the culprit gets off scot-free! Upupupu..."

Komi steeled herself. "Punishment...as in execution?"

"Thaaaat's right!" Monokuma replied.

She nodded gravely.

"That means that everything is on the line," said Seishiro. A few people agreed.

"I think we've already established that," muttered Takehiko, barely audible.

Monokuma clapped his hands once. "All righty! This time, you're on trial for the murder of Toshimi Yoshikazu, the Super High School Level Gardener. Let the Class Trial...begin!!"

Everyone watched each other warily. "A-alright," began Seishiro.

"What're ya waiting for?! Hurry it up, you slowpokes!" Monokuma shouted.

"Fine," replied Misaki, seeming much more distraught than usual.

"Alright, before we start hurling accusations, let's work through this systematically," said Keiji.

"Okay, how 'bout everyone brings out all the tangible evidence they have?" Etsuko suggested.

Umeko gave Seishiro a pointed look.

"Oh, right." He held up the two plastic bags. "I have these. It's a knife, and-"

"What's that?" Amaya interrupted.

He raised the bag with the white threads in it. "This? It's fabric, or threads, I guess, that I found on one of the pieces of broken clay."

"You realise that someone probably had that stuck to their clothing when they were setting things up in here?" Komi deadpanned.

Seishiro doubted himself for a moment. "Uh, it was actually impaled on one of the shards. There's no way it was there before."

"Makes sense," agreed Yuji.

"Oh! And I have this," called Ryousei. The sailor held up a bloody, short and curved sword with an intricate golden sheath. Seishiro recognised it.

"That's...my sword," said Amaya sheepishly.

Komi raised an eyebrow. "Funny, you're a lot less angry about it than I expected you to be. Could it be that you're the culprit?"

"It's too early for accusations," replied Keiji.