Danganronpa: Frozen Mayhem

4-5: Deadly Life (Trial)

The sound of the elevator's descent had almost become familiar, and Seishiro resented the thought as he stepped into the trial room. Eight people, eight stands, half of them remained.

"Upupupupu! Come one, come all, to your unlucky fourth class trial!" Monokuma greeted them from his seat. "Wowie, I'm still reeling from the adrenaline! My mechanical, soulless heart is pounding!"

Misaki didn't have a snappy response like before, instead folding her arms over her stand and looking down aimlessly.

Oddly enough, it seemed like Takehiko spoke in her place. "Shut...shut up."

Monokuma suddenly snapped to attention, turning to the sniper. "Ah, yes, you!" Reaching underneath his throne, he threw a roll of bandages at Takehiko. "We don't want Edgy McEdgeface to bleed out because he's too hardcore for bandages, do we?"

Instead of dodging or catching them like his usual self, they hit him directly in the forehead and bounced off, before falling into his hand. "...right." It probably wasn't going to do much, especially since he looked on the verge of passing out at this point.

"Got a favourite?" Misaki mumbled under her breath.

"Hey!" Monokuma defended. "Now, I'm all for unnecessary death, but it has to be interesting unnecessary death, right? Ding Dong, a body has been discovered, but we won't be having a trial because the victim was too goddamn stupid to not die! Who wants that to happen, c'mon!"

Everybody shifted uncomfortably.

"Enough," said Komi finally. "Let's just get this over and done with."

"Agreed," sighed Katsuo dramatically.

"Finally, we're getting somewhere," cheered Monokuma.

At this, the two that had spoken went silent again.

"Ugh, can't I join in on the fun?" The bear slumped down dejectedly.

"No," said Yuji helpfully.

"Alright, alright," began Seishiro. "Uh, we should probably start by recounting the murder, since most of us saw it happen from different physical perspectives.

Etsuko nodded. "That's right. If we map out where everyone was, we can get a clearer image of what happened."

"I won't be of any use," said Takehiko, "I was outside."

"Me too," replied Yuji, producing a notepad from his pocket. "Wait, okay, I'll draw this. So what's important is the four super tall shelves in the middle of the library, right?"

"They were the murder weapon, after all," frowned Komi.

Yuji scribbled at his piece of paper. "Right. And...there's the door. I'm drawing them standing up so I guess this was right before they fell?"

"It's not like anyone moved," added Seishiro. "Toru-san and I were standing in that couch area at the far wall opposite the door, sort of in front of the bookshelf that crushed...yeah, you know. We were out of the way, though."

"Genda was speaking to me," stated Komi. We weren't in the exact middle of that shelf, but a little closer to the door. He was between me and the shelf."

Katsumi tugged at her cobalt hair. "I was in the exact middle, between the shelves."

"I was placed about two-thirds of the way down the side of the library closer to the hallway. You would be able to see me if you stepped in the door and faced right," testified Katsuo.

"And I was in the corner opposite the door, so I was way off," finished Etsuko.

"Right, so..." Yuji held up his finished map.