Everyone had gathered in the cafeteria. After all, nobody would dare defy an order from their headmaster at this point…

“Welcome, everyone!” Monokoma shouted. He waved his hand suddenly and metal bracelets snapped around everybody’s left wrists.

“What the hell is this…” Dale grimaced.

“This is your motive!” Monokuma grinned. “Since you guys are all ‘such pure’ souls who would never kill...well, I figured things needed to get a little bit more tense. Allow me to explain:”

NG Code:
-Every bracelet has a forbidden action labeled on it
-Nobody is allowed to share their forbidden action
-The only person who can see their forbidden action is the wearer of the bracelet
-If you correctly guess somebody else’s forbidden action, they can verify your guess is correct and now be able to show you their bracelet
-Committing your forbidden action or sharing it without somebody guessing will result in a penalty
-The penalty for breaking your forbidden action is an injection of anesthetic into the body. Five minutes later, a lethal poison will enter

“What the hell…” Momo tugged at the bracelet.

“Hey, no trying to remove it either!” Monokuma shouted. “If you interfere too much with the bracelet, I’ll hit you with a penalty.”

A few people hit the buttons on the side of their bracelet. They weren’t able to see the words displayed on the other bracelets, but their own were perfectly visible. Some faces were scared. Some were blank.

“N-No!” Dallas shouted. “I-I...err-...shit…” He collected himself. “I can’t accept this.This is cheating.”

“Oh? I didn’t take you as one to back down from a challenge, Mr. Haizaki.” Monokuma snickered. “Well then, I’ll leave you guys to it.”

“So what?” Silas tried to bring in some levity. “We each can’t do one thing anymore, how can that be?”

“We have to find the mastermind.” Dallas’ voice had a sense of urgency to it that it lacked before.

“Sir Sherlock, I suggest you calm down. Cooler heads always prevail.”

“This isn’t a time to be calm!” Dallas shouted. “Our lives are on the line!”

“We all know. That’s exactly why we can’t panic.”

“I won’t accept this. I-I can’t leave things like I did…”

“What are you talking about, Dallas?” Molly asked.

“I-I have to see Sally again…” His eyes became gloosy. “Forget it. I’m the Ultimate Detective. I’ll solve this case myself if I have to.” He walked out of the room.

Everybody stared at their NG Codes, unsure of what would happen next.

“You’re kidding me.” Dallas sighed. “That’s everyone?”

Only 8 other people were in the room: Dale, Momo, Terrence, Silas, Lyla, Molly, Sachiko, and S.

“That’s all, huh?” He grimaced. “Whatever, I suppose this’ll be enough.” He sighed heavily and lit a cigarette.

“D-Dallas, you can’t just make us stand here!” Momo shouted. “We’re here to help, now get on with it! You said you knew the mastermind.”

“This isn’t what I intended. “Everybody is supposed to be gathered here.”

“W-Who cares?” Momo retorted. “If you tell us who the mastermind is, we can all go home!”

“I need towait until midnight anyway…” Dallas grumbled.

“Sir Sherlock, I don’t believe anybody else is coming and we won’t be ready by midnight if we go looking for them.”

“Let’s all be calm…” Molly advised, clutching a puppet close to her.

“Man this day sucks…” Dallas pouted.

“We may as well wait.” Lyla said.

The clock just ticked on and on. Dallas seemed to be getting increasingly nervous and fidgety. “I need you all to promise me something.” He said.

“W-What?” S was was the first to speak.

“When we find the mastermind, we’ll kill him. We can’t forgive someone who just toyed with our lives like this.”

“That’s impossible to promise…” S said. Nobody else seemed to offer any words to that.

The clock ticked on and on. “Alright.” Dallas nodded. He got ready to dramatically point. “The mastermind is-!”

PSST

The room turns pitch black. Nobody can see in front of them at all anymore.

“W-What’s going on?” Silas yelled. “I can’t see who he’s pointing to!”

“Dallas, who’s the mastermind?!” Sachiko’s voice was the next one to pierce the darkness.

“Nobody panic.” Dale suggested. “Let’s just get a sense of our surroundings.”

THWACK

“Ow, fuck!” A boy yelled.

SPLAT

A jingle plays in a low pitch.

BANG

An explosion of gunpowder illuminated the area of the room Lyla was standing .

“I need everybody to stay calm!” Dallas ordered. “On the count of three, everybody just say your name so we can establish our position. One, two, three. Dallas.”

“S.”

“Sachiko.”

“Dale.”

“Sir Candor.”

A jingle plays in a slightly different pitch.

“Molly.”

“Silas.”

“M-Momo.”

“...Lyla.”

There was certainly room for error, but everybody seemed to be standing where they were before the blackout occurred.

“Thank god.” Silas smiled, probably. “Alright, next we should-” He was cut off. There was a violent shaking.

“E-Earthquake!” Momo yelled. There was a sound of bodies hitting the floor, everybody was trying to protect themselves. Objects were falling over, and the shaking didn’t seem to stop...until it finally did.

“Is everyone ok?” Lyla asked.

As if an answer to her question, the lights turned on. The scene before them was worse than they imagined.

Dallas was...gone. Where he had been standing, some splatters of blood were on the floor.

“W-What’s going on?! You guys are trying to kill me, aren’t you?!” Anissa shouted.

“A-Anissa, when did you get here?” Sachiko was visibly surprised.

“I realized I was late to Dallas’ meeting, and then everybody started to jump up and d-down and shake the building! I mean, I know I didn’t deserve to be invited but-”

“We don’t have time for this.” Dale lightly shoved her aside. “We need to find Dallas.”

“W-Well, he’s not in the basement.” Anissa confirmed. “I know that for a fact.”

Dale eyed her warily. “Let’s check the basement.” He suggested.

“Yeah.” Molly agreed. “She’s clearly hiding something.”

“F-Fine. Don’t trust me. Not like I blame you…”

Before the group got to the basement, John, Penelope, and Casey showed up. They were all soaking wet.

“Where did you guys come from?” Silas asked.

“We’ll explain later!” Casey decided. “We heard a gunshot, are you guys ok?”

“We don’t know. We’re looking for Dallas, we think he’s in the basement.” Lyla said. “Come on, let’s go.”

The group opened the basement door and headed down. “Woodshop or medical…” Terrence pondered. When they reached the bottom, they found Shirly there. She was supporting herself against the doorframe to the woodshop.

A feeling of trepidation hung in the air….the class took a deep breath and peeked inside.

The body was sprawled onto the floor, eyes closed. He lay in an undershirt with his dress shirt, coat, and hat thrown to the side. Half his body had begun to turn purple, and a small pattern of blood had formed around.

Dallas seemed oddly at peace, yet in so much pain at the same time.

The killing game had begun.

“A body has been discovered! Please head to the woodshop as soon as possible.”

“Oh my god…Dallas.” Silas turned green.

“Tch.” John spat at the ground. “One less worm on this earth.”

“H-How can you say that?!” S yelled. “H-He was alive not too long ago and-!”

“I don’t need lectures from a robot. This place has limited food, we’re better off that he’s dead.” John ran his hand through his hair.

“Let’s ignore him.” Kagayaki showed up. Akio was behind her, but Claudius still seemed to have not shown up. “We need to get started on the class trial, right?”

“T-The last thing I can think about right now is a trial…” Penelope steadied herself.

“Shirly, what happened?” Dale asked.

“I just came here after the blackout. I found him like this and…”

“Did someone say trial?” Monokuma popped up.

“You’re way too late on your cue!” Anissa yelled.

“Well then, I’ll just get out of your way. I suggest you guys search every cranny, missing one clue could be fatal. But uh, take this.” He throws a file over to Terrence, who fumbles with it but gets it straightened out.

“Right then!” Terrence decided. “I’ll just read it aloud:”

The victim is Ittestu Haizaki, the Ultimate Detective.

Time of death is shortly after midnight.

Body was found with a wound on his head, and a deep cut on his left arm.

“It’s not much…” Silas mumbled.

“Monokuma, I have a question.” Molly asked. “If Dallas was killed by his NG Code, who’s the blackened?”

“The blackened would be whoever triggered his NG Code.” Monokuma answers. “However, if the wearer of the NG Code triggered it, then the blackened is the mastermind.”

“So the mastermind must be the blackened behind this crime!” Terrence shouted.

“Oh? We’re meeting the man behind the curtain already.” John smiled in delight. “The thought of killing one of you vermin is giving me goosebumps...but perhaps I’ll make you dance first since you thought to put me in this game of yours.”

“That’s enough.” Casey says. “We need to split up and cover as much ground as we can. Two per team since…”

“Since we can’t trust each other, right?” Shirly finished her sentence. “One of us did this…”

Team Assignments:
Woodshop: Sachiko and Anissa
Medical: S and Akio
Foyer: Terrence and Momo
Pub: Casey and Dale
Exit Door: Penelope and Kagayaki
Auditorium and Sound Room: Silas and Molly
Miscellaneous: Everyone else

Ding dong, bing bong
The PA speaks:

“It’s time for the class trial! Everyone make your way to the dormitory!” you hear Monokuma’s voice say.

Everyone gathered by the elevator in time for the trial.

“Claudius, where the hell were you?!” Casey yelled. “We were worried sick.”

“Sorry.” Claudius looked pale, and avoided eye contact. “I’m here now, though.”

Everybody got in the elevator. It rose slowly down.

“Well I guess this isn’t unexpected…” Kagayaki sighed, looking at the 16 seats arranged in a circle in front of them.

“I-I’ll just take Dallas’ spot.” Anissa moved over to the podium that had Dallas’ portrait with a giant ‘X’ over it. She sort of crept under the sign and scrunched down to fit on the podium, not moving the sign out of the way as far as she could.

“Well, someone had to do it. So, thanks.” Silas said.

“Isn’t that a pretty picture.” John laughed. “You couldn’t get a more perfect image of what’ll happen to you, girl.”

“Dallas was a good guy. A little reckless with firearms, sure, but nobody’s perfect. He may not have had the best interests of the group at heart, but he never tried to hurt them, and did intend to put away the one behind this killing game. He had people in the outside world who were waiting for him. People he’ll never see again…

We can’t forgive the person who killed him. And the one who killed him is…one of us.”