He never thought that death would really happen.

He never thought that something like this would really happen. He never thought that someone would choose to kill someone else. From the chaos in the room and Maizen's panicked state, there was no doubt that this was a homicide.

The blood that had not yet dried flowed to his feet. The bright red color was glaring. Miao Mu's pupils shrank as he staggered back a step as if he had been electrocuted.

Death, death, death, death, betrayal, betrayal, betrayal, betrayal, betrayal, despair, despair, despair …

Malice as thick as black mud filled his chest, flowed into his nose, and flooded the top of his head.

Gradually, it became difficult to breathe.

Why … Why did something like this happen?

The headache that he had been enduring suddenly became unbearable. An image flashed through his mind. He closed his eyes as tears gushed out.

If this is a nightmare, I beg you, please let me wake up.

"Miao Mu!

Why did you suddenly run away?

What … happened here?! "

The people who were chasing after Miao Mu stopped abruptly. They were shocked to see the mess in the room.

"Hey, Miao Mu, you don't look well.

Are you okay? "

Enoshima frowned as she took a step forward. The brown-haired boy, whose face was frighteningly pale, closed his eyes and fainted on the ground.

"Miao Mu?!"

Just as Ishimaru and the others were frantically checking on the unconscious Miao Mu, they also discovered the tragic situation in the bathroom.

Not only were they shocked, but they also felt an indescribable sense of heaviness and panic.

The internal strife had really begun.

It was not a joke, nor was it a prank. The bloody situation was right in front of everyone's eyes. It cruelly tore apart the friendly atmosphere that they had worked so hard to maintain. Suspicion, suspicion, vigilance, and all the illusionary and beautiful facades were shattered at this moment.

Just as they were speechless, "that" began.

The ubiquitous screen lit up again. Monokuma on the other side of the screen used a comical tone to broadcast the discovery of the corpse to all areas on campus. They also ordered all the freshmen to gather at the stadium.

"What, someone has already died, and they still act like they're playing a game …" Ōwada clenched his fists angrily.

"Because that's Monokuma's goal."

Celeste said calmly, "Isn't it what it wants to see?"

"Um … How's Miao Mu?" Yamada asked hesitantly.

"He just fainted."

Kirigiri stood up and said emotionlessly, "He's highly stressed and hasn't rested well. Now that he's suddenly shocked by Maizen's death, it's not surprising that he collapsed. Anyway, we'd better follow Monokuma's instructions and bring Naegi-kun to the stadium."

In this kind of situation where everyone was helpless, this girl's calm attitude seemed to be very authoritative.

No one agreed with her, but no one refuted her either. Da Wada carried Miao Mu, and everyone left the crime scene silently like they were escaping from something.

Even if they knew that Monokuma was treating them like toys, so what?

Even if its malice had been exposed, so what?

In the face of absolute power, they were so insignificant that they were not even worth mentioning.

However, things would never go as it wished … Kirigiri stared at Enoshima's body, which had been pierced through because she resisted Monokuma, and thought expressionlessly.

Miao Mu, who had just woken up, only heard the end of the discussion. He stared blankly at Enoshima's body for a while, and to Kirigiri's surprise, he did not make a sound. Instead, he knelt in front of her and slowly covered her eyes. Then, he stood up and opened Maizen's death file to check her cause of death.

According to Monokuma's rules, the black side's murderer would only be allowed to graduate and leave the school if no one found out that he had committed the crime.

The judge would determine whether the murderer had been exposed or not. If the innocent members of the white side did not vote for the correct murderer, the murderer would graduate, and all of them would be executed.

After the announcement of the discovery of the body, it was time for everyone to search. The white side had to find clues about the murderer, and the black side could also destroy all evidence during this period. This had nothing to do with law or justice, and it was a situation where both sides were fighting for survival.

Miao Mu wanted to find the murderer of Sayaka Maizen in front of the judge after the search ended.

Although this idea was a little presumptuous, Kirigiri realized that she was used to this kind of situation.

Memories from the moment she arrived at Hope Peak flashed through her mind, and she did not let go of any insignificant discoveries. She recorded them as clues under everyone's name.

Miao Miaocheng was a student who entered the school in the name of luck. In fact, he did not have any substantial talent that could make people treat him differently. Gentle and good-tempered were his characteristics. He had a positive personality and rarely fell into depression for a long time. Moreover, he did not hold grudges.

Before he entered the academy, he had gotten to know a senior student from Mount Hope. From the tone of his voice when they first met, and also the only time he talked about that person, they should be very close friends. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to understand how they, as new students of Mount Hope, ended up in their current situation.

After being locked up here, he should be the closest to Maizen. The girl's intentions were very obvious, but Miao Mu himself did not seem to have any special thoughts.

It was such a person who did not seem aggressive at all that was the biggest suspect in this murder case.

First, Sayaka Maizen's place of death was in Naegi Makoto's room.

Second, Maizen must have been in contact with Miao Mu on the night of her death. The evidence was that the two had swapped rooms and even the door number. This exchange did not take place during the day yesterday.

The murder case happened during the night when most people were asleep, and Miao Mu was the obvious suspect in the case. These two clues were enough to put him on the spot.

No one could be sure that anyone who watched the video provided by Monokuma would not want to leave the school. Once this thought took root, it would give rise to a motive for the murder.

He had a motive, and he had the opportunity to commit the crime. It could not be more suspicious.

However, they could not rely on this evidence alone to determine the murderer. There were other suspicious points.

Maizen's place of death was in the bathroom of Miao Mu's room. From the traces of damage in the room, Maizen hid in the bathroom after a struggle with the murderer. However, she was unable to stop the murderer, and Maizen was killed in the bathroom.

The problem was that Miao Mu's bathroom did not have a door lock. If he committed the crime himself, no matter how they looked at it, there was no need for him to remove the door lock and enter the room to commit the crime.

In addition, removing the door lock would require tools. The tool box in Miao Mu's room was still sealed. Obviously, it had not been used. From this point of view, the crime scene did not fit the logic of Miao Mu's actions.

Another point was the murder weapon. There were two objects in the room that could be used as murder weapons. One was the fake knife that fell on the ground, and the other was the kitchen knife that was inserted into Maizen's abdomen.

It was easy to determine that the latter was the one that caused the fatal injury. However, the place where the gold foil peeled off showed that the fake knife had been used before.

If he wanted to kill someone, one murder weapon was enough. Obviously, a normal person could not wield two knives at the same time. If they accidentally fell into the hands of the other party, they could be used as a means of retaliation.

Considering that he intended to use a weapon other than the fake knife to hide his identity as the murderer, it did not make sense. After all, there was nothing more suspicious than someone dying in his own room.

Other than that, there were other clues that Kirigiri was very concerned about.

"Hey, Naegi-kun." She said, "Do you have mysophobia?"

"Huh?" He did not understand her question, and a blank expression appeared on his face.

"Your room … The floor was cleaned very well. I couldn't even find a strand of your hair."

Kirigiri half-squatted on the ground to observe. Then, she picked up a cleaning roll and looked at it. "A lot of this has been used."

"I didn't even clean it yesterday." Miao Mu bit his lip. "This might be because Maizen and I swapped rooms …"

"I couldn't find Maizen's hair either."

Kirigiri interrupted him. She stood up and glanced at him. "Logically speaking, the situation was so chaotic when the murder happened. If you didn't clean it up after the incident, it would be hard to not find her hair, right?

But — "

"But?"

"I did find a strand of white hair on top of Maizen's blood."

Kirigiri said lightly, "According to hair color, the only candidates are me and the Almighty. But we both have long straight hair, and that strand of hair is very short and should be curly … It's surprising that the clue to the murderer's identity doesn't match any of the freshmen."

She saw the obvious hesitation on Miao Mu's face. She could not bear to see him like this, but she did not stop.

"Speaking of which … I'm sorry to offend you in advance."

Kirigiri said, "After you were frightened by Maizen's body and fainted, I checked on your condition and found some traces."

She gently tapped the lower part of her neck with her black-gloved fingers, near her collarbone.

Without needing Kirigiri to continue speaking, the man covered the collar of his hoodie reflexively and looked at her in horror.

He was indeed a herbivore. If he was provoked a little more, he would probably explode.

"It's a bit beyond my expectations."

She didn't continue. Instead, she raised her eyebrows and laughed magnanimously. "Don't worry, I'm not interested in your personal privacy. Also, I want to say that this might be a kind of alibi."

As long as … someone can stand up and testify for you.

Without looking at Miao Mu's reaction, Kirigiri was no longer interested in staying and turned to leave.

In fact, Miao Miao Cheng was not the only one who was involved in the murder in the dance garden. She had other areas that needed to be investigated.

"Ding, dong, dang, dong —"

That sound rang again.

Ignoring the prayers and pleas in the heart, the nightmarish sound —

It represented the omnipresent Monokuma, the end of the search time that was the final struggle of some people, and the impending meeting of the student level judges.

Whether it was the people who cried in front of the corpses, the people who locked themselves in their rooms to escape, or the people who actively searched for clues, they all had to walk into the elevator under the command of the black and white bear. They looked at each other in silence amidst the bumpy sound of the falling machine.

Sayaka Maizen, the super high school idol, the beautiful and considerate girl, was dead.

She would no longer breathe, no longer open her eyes and smile, and no longer be with them.

Death meant that all future was cut off.

"Before the start of the judges, let me explain the rules again."

The spacious underground judge's arena was in sight.

It was unknown who had set up the venue, but it was decorated with bright red curtains and golden tassels. The colors were so bright that they were close to vulgarity, and there was a clear and intense collision between the colors. The enclosed space was airtight, and the atmosphere was inexplicably filled with a strange enthusiasm.

Monokuma sat high above and looked down. There were a total of 16 seats at the center of the judge's table.

"The results of the student level judges are decided by your votes," it said. "If the real culprit is found, only the culprit will be punished.

However, if an innocent person is treated as a culprit, not only will everyone except the bad guys be punished, but the culprit who successfully deceived everyone will graduate successfully! "

"The culprit … is really among us?" Miao Mu murmured.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Looks like Miaomiao still can't accept reality. How cute, how pitiful." Monochrome Bear covered its mouth and snickered. "Then, is he one of the criminals among you?

Or is it someone else?

It's so hard to tell … Ah, let me say this first, I didn't do anything. I'm the most rule-abiding bear, and I will only punish according to the rules. "

"Before we discuss, I have a question to confirm." Kirigiri ignored Monokuma's deliberately mystifying words, and its eyes were sharp. "That … what does that mean?"

"That?"

Monokuma repeated. Following her line of sight, it saw the photos of Maizen and Enoshima placed on the empty seats. They were maliciously framed in black and white, and there was a huge cross drawn in the center of their faces with what looked like blood paint.

"Oh, that."

Monokuma laughed. "Friendship is beyond life and death. It's too pitiful to abandon your dead classmates."

"Then, why is there an empty seat?"

Celeste narrowed her eyes slightly. "There are 13 participants in the student level judges. Including the dead Maizen and Enoshima, there are only 15 people in total, right?

Why are there 16 seats? "

An extra seat?

Miao Mu was suddenly startled.

"Oh, right … there's an extra seat."

Hina Asahina tilted her head in confusion. "There's only Yasuhiro and I, and the seats beside us are empty …"

"Haha, what a coincidence."

A voice that was extremely unfamiliar to most of the people present sounded.

"If you don't mind, let me participate."

His voice was clear and gentle. Standing at the entrance of the referee field was a tall young man wearing a dark green hooded windbreaker. He had gentle grayish-green eyes and soft white hair. His temperament was close to people, and his features were handsome and elegant.