The Class Trial

As Jason and Makoto arrived at the red door, they went through it, and saw everyone already there, in front of some kind of an elevator. As they entered, most of the others greeted Makoto as if it was obvious that he's the culprit, since the murder occurred inside of the bathroom within Makoto's room.

Jason thought that the ones that did that, were idiots for accusing Makoto solely because the murder occurred inside his room. It's like blaming someone for making a bad food, based solely on its appearance, without even tasting the food.

Then, Monokuma appeared in the monitor within the room and said:

"Puhuhu... is everyone here? Okay then! Please board the elevator in front of you, which will transport you to the courtroom, where all of your fates will be decided... Puhuhu, I'll meet you all down there. I'll be waiting~"

Then, slowly, everyone entered the elevator, and when the last of them entered, the elevator started to move. Eventually, the elevator stopped, and when the door opened, the courtroom was revealed.

"You guys are finally here! Hurry up and find the seat with your names on it!" the bear said as everyone got off the elevator

Everyone made their way to their assigned seats within the circular stands in the middle of the room. It was set up in a way that allowed everyone to see each other. There were 17 seats in total, which seemed weird to Jason since there were only 16 students.

'Is there another person who is supposed to be present?' Jason asked himself as he looked at the empty seat next to him.

Jason was positioned between Aoi on his right and the empty seat on his left. Another thing that caught Jason's attention, was the picture of Sayaka, in the seat next to Makoto.

"Let's start with a review of the Class Trial. Your votes will determine the outcome of the trial. Accuse the culprit and only the culprit will be punished. But if you accuse the wrong person, everyone else gets punished, and the culprit will be allowed to graduate"

"And the killer IS one of us?" asked Makoto

"Of course they are! Why else do you think we are having this trial?"

"Okay, everyone! Close your eyes, and whoever did it will raise his hand!" said Kiyotaka. Everyone looked dumbfoundedly at Kiyotaka, and Jason couldn't believe that he even thought of that!

"You do know that no one is stupid enough to raise his hand, right? You DO remember that if the culprit is exposed, he'll die. Why would he confess?" said Jason

"Before we move on and start the trial, can I ask something? What's going on with... this picture?" Kyoko asked and gestured at the picture of Sayaka.

"I'd feel awful if she got left out just because she died! Friendship penetrates even the death barrier..." the bear answered

"Friendship... penetrates!?" Hifumi exclaimed with a lewd expression

'Is he going to take it THAT way, in a time like this?' Jason thought as he looked at Hifumi

"Okay... but what about the other empty seat? There were only 16 of us at the start, so why there are 17 seats?" asked Celestia

"This? It only means that our little courtroom here can technically fit up to 17 people!" answered the bear

Jason narrowed his eyes at the bear, as he thought:

'I doubt that the mastermind put an empty seat just so the courtroom will fit up to 17 people... I'm sure that there is a deeper meaning to it...'

"Now, get ready, because I officially announce the start of the Class Trial!" the bear said, and the trial began.

As the trial proceeded, Jason just observed. While it is important to look for evidence, not all evidence is necessary, if they already have a couple of main incriminating evidence, so Jason thought that all of this talking is meaningless, as he already saw that Kyoko also solved the crime. However, unlike him, Kyoko decided to help and guide the others to the answer, so they could fully understand exactly what happened. Jason could understand why she did that, as it's not good for others to have any doubts left about the crime, but he didn't see the point of talking about all of this minor evidence. If she wanted to help everyone understand, why not just show everyone the main incriminating evidence, instead of dragging it?

First, they focused on the murder weapon, which they soon deduced was a kitchen knife. Most of the others immediately accused Makoto for stealing the knife from the kitchen and killing Sayaka in his room, however, Aoi and Sakura witnessed the thief, who was Sayaka, which didn't surprise Jason.

Then, they continued to accuse Makoto, saying he stole the knife from Sayaka. However, Kyoko and Makoto revealed the fact that the culprit cleaned the hair from the whole room, and, as it is his room, Makoto has no reason to do so, which meant that someone who wasn't Makoto or Sayaka, who stayed at Makoto's room last night since they switched rooms, was the culprit, and he cleaned the hair, to remove evidence that he was in the room.

Furthering strengthening his innocence, Makoto mentioned the broken doorknob, which he had no reason to break, as he knew the trick that was needed to open the bathroom door, since it doesn't fit the frame in Makoto's room, and since he also told it to Sayaka, only someone who didn't know about the trick could have broken the doorknob.

Because the culprit broke the doorknob, they deduced that the culprit didn't know that the crime occurred in Makoto's room. Then, Kyoko revealed a note that Sayaka wrote, a similar note to what Jason received during the night of the murder, which she discovered by sketching over the memo pad in the room, which revealed the imprints of the note she wrote, and Makoto also revealed that the nameplates were switched, something that reinforced the deduction. However, when they asked who switched it since only Sayaka and Makoto knew about the room switching, and Makoto didn't do it, they understood that Sayaka herself was the one who switched the nameplates.

Makoto looked shocked that Sayaka invited someone to the room where she was staying. Jason knew that soon, Makoto will realize exactly how much of a fool he had been, when he realizes exactly why Sayaka did what she did.

Then, instead of pursuing why she did so, they suddenly moved to talk about what exactly happened within the time the culprit entered the room until he killed Sayaka. First, they mentioned that the culprit broke Sayaka's wrist, using the golden replica sword since there was that golden powder on her broken wrist.

Then, they deduced that the one who held the knife was the one who attacked first, as there is a gash in the sword's sheath, and no one in their right mind will attack someone with the sheath of the sword still on, which meant that the one who held the sword blocked an attack from the one who held the knife at the beginning. They also deduced that Sayaka wasn't the one with the sword, as her palms were clean, and she couldn't clean them during Nighttime since the water are off during Nighttime.

And then, since they knew that Sayaka wasn't the one with the sword, and knew that the person with the knife was the first to attack, the shocking reveal has been finally made. Sayaka tried to murder the culprit herself, but failed, and was murdered instead. Then, they also understood that Sayaka switched rooms with Makoto, so she could frame him for the crime. That fact completely broke Makoto, and that was when he looked over at Jason, and their eyes locked, and Jason told him wordlessly:

"Now you understand why I called you a fool?"

Then, reluctantly, Makoto returned to discuss the culprit's identity, with the help of Kyoko. But then, when it seemed that they were out of clues, for the first time, Jason had to speak, as an unexpected question was directed to him, by none other than Makoto himself:

"There is one more person who could have done it. Harris-Kun, I saw you coming out of my room this morning. Can you tell us what you did in there?"

Everyone looked at Jason with shock, even Kyoko looked surprised, and Jason just sighed and said:

"I was sure that I told you the reason, didn't I?"

"Yes, but it doesn't change the fact that I saw you walking out of the crime scene. So, were you the one who did it?"

Then, for the first time since they met him, Jason smirked in amusement and said:

"You truly are interesting, Makoto. Despite the claims that you're only average, you were one of the most active figures in this trial, and most of the time, you said important facts, but this time, you are greatly mistaken. Let me humor you, and I'll tell you exactly my involvement in this case"

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Do you like the way I wrote the trial, or, next time, do you want me to write the full interactions? Please tell me your thoughts about it!