Makoto simply nodded along to the others’ words, everyone more familiar with the happenings in this city than she was. After all, she was taken in by her charm, right? That girl had triggered just enough of her protective instincts at the time, and Makoto had thought she had her trust, to boot. But this… still boggled her mind, made her heart hurt. She genuinely trusted that girl.

But this was truly the worst betrayal, wasn’t it.

That’s why Makoto had prepared herself. After being tipped off, she showed up to the trial room with a diary in her pocket and a purple shawl around her shoulders. She could almost feel Hotaru’s arms around her as she stood at her podium. That’s right… even if she… wasn’t here… Hotaru was still watching out for her, wasn’t she. With this, then maybe…

She pulled the shawl around her shoulders just a little tighter, chiming in.

“Well… That’s about it, then, huh? There’s not much to talk about.”

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Falling silent, she opened her eyes, before pointing square at MonokumAI.

“What is this? Did you bastards forget that two people are dead? Upupu, or maybe you just didn’t care that much, since all you were blabbering on about was that bo~ring~ mastermind business!”

NOW LOADING...VOTE RESULTS:

Otome: 4

AND THE WINNER IS...

Makoto had tried to put herself between Otome and Katsuo, just in case. That gun was far too big and she hadn’t seen Katsuo’s genuine apology coming, so… she was worried that SHE might try and take that genuine good will away from them all. At first she slipped an arm around his shoulders, giving him a gentle squeeze. But alas, she tried to nudge him backwards slowly, trying to put herself between them. That was all she could do to resist this bumbling, awkward girl with a gun.

She mentioned showing some real emotion, though, which made Makoto’s skin crawl. That real emotion is the reason why she didn’t believe Katsuo at first. Why she didn’t trust his opinion here. Narrowing her eyes, she glared back at her.

“Send a message about… What, exactly?”

She crossed her arms, sighing.

“About us? About how we’re monsters too or something? I mean, since you hid your own crimes and only wanted to show off ours. So what was it, Ito? You got your stage. What’s the point of keeping secrets now? If you have a point to make, then now’s the time, yeah?”

A short pause.

“No use keeping secrets now. What could you have left to protect, huh? You killed Tim. He was a bit dense, but didn’t deserve THAT. He didn’t have a clue who you really are, not in the slightest. He was trying to make things right. And you killed him. What’s one more life, right?”

She shot a glare across the room at Otome.

Jack, too, had clenched his fist to the podium when the shots rang out. It had never occurred to him that Hime might still have the gun she’d murdered the 81st Class with, or that she’d still had ammunition for it. For the moment, though… she seemed occupied with the bear. Arguing with it? She’d set the robot up, hadn’t she?

One thing was true - they’d caught her, at least. And for now, they seemed to have some modicum of power that the bear had granted. Extra time for questions, and such. Everything that they were about to do was, as far as Jack knew, still being broadcast live on the Internet - and so, even if he died, and the rest of the class died… the information would make it out. Someone, somewhere, could use that to shut down the city’s power source, or prevent this situation from happening the future, or something. The duty fell on the shoulders of everyone in that trial room to get as much out of Otome Ito as they could, for that reason.

And boy, was Jack planning on putting her through the wringer.

“Ito’s right. There’s no point in despair right now. Any sort of idealism like that won’t do us any good.”

“That’s because the only thing we have left to find out is the truth. Whether this is the real Ito or not, I can’t tell right now. And that’s not good. Whether Ito is H!MECH@N-type of peppy, or gloating with despair like the bear wants, or the same type of rock-like apathetic she is now, it doesn’t matter to me. I just need to know which one’s the real version.”

This class had dealt with actors before. Katashi Hayashibara. If he hadn’t dropped the façade at the last minute, they would’ve never known that he wasn’t exactly like the character he played. Hime, or Ito, would be a much tougher nut to crack. One thing that was for sure - the current Ito wasn’t anything like the impassioned cracking of the H!MECH@N personality that he’d experienced, just the trial before.

NOW LOADING: VOTE RESULTS

Hoshi: 1

Hime: 3

Timothy: 1

Mastermind Vote: YES

AND THE WINNER IS...

Jack flashed a grin and a thumbs-up at Basil and Stella. They were getting out of here. Basil had it right - they couldn’t have done anything without the weight of the proof that they had now, and they’d only just discovered the pieces which connected everything. And now, Stella had pretty much firmly connected Tim’s murder with their bigger case, tying up all the loose ends. With everything they’d found, they had a clearer-cut case for the mastermind than for any murder they’d tried to solve so far. They’d finally arrived at the truth. He, Stella, Makoto, Hoshi, and Basil… they’d done it.

“For starters, we know the mastermind has to be female.”

Jack held up a bloodstained and crumpled note, with some very notable frantic scribbles on it: “OUR CITY, SHE’S TRYING TO–”

“The entire Hope’s Peak 81st class was murdered. Their bodies were locked inside a meeting room on the second floor of Admin, full of the same bullet holes which they’d suffered weeks earlier. This note was in one of their hands. Beyond that, though…”

Next, he pulled out a blue journal from the overstuffed backpack he’d brought with him, which members of the class had seen him writing in the previous week.

“Atoshi-san and I, when she was still alive, got into Shirosai-san’s room. He had left some datalogs on his computer, which revealed that there was a freshman member of the 84th class who would be coming in a few weeks ahead of the main group - that’s us. Shirosai-san and Think-tank-chan had to leave before then, so they weren’t murdered… but, from a corrupted file in those datalogs, Atoshi-san and I were able to decipher enough to infer that that freshman was some sort of performer.”

After folding the journal back up on his podium, he crossed his arms and grinned at this next point.