Chapter 9- Find Her Murderer

The investigation begun.

Everyone suspected that Makoto murdered Sayaka, but it didn't make sense for Makoto to kill her. They were close friends and I didn't see Makoto to be ruthless enough to betray his friend.

I needed to trust my friends when going through this investigation. That meant trusting Makoto as well. It didn't seem like him to murder someone. So I was going to prove everyone else wrong during this investigation and find out who the real killer was.

I quickly walked through the hallway as I walked over to Makoto's dorm. Sayaka's body was in here. But it made no sense. When I came to get Sayaka earlier before realizing she was dead, I found her in her room. How was it that the body was suddenly moved to Makoto's room?

I stood in front of Makoto's room and gazed up at his nameplate above the door. But it wasn't his nameplate. It was Sayaka's. Her name was written on the nameplate above the door and I looked even more confused as I looked back at the digital map in my handbook and it was saying this was Makoto's room. Interesting.

"You notice it too," I looked up from my digital notebook to see Kyoko walk towards me from the hall as she stood beside me and looked up at Sayaka's nameplate. "How is it that Maizono's nameplate would be on Naegi's door?"

"It is odd. Because I found Maizono in what I thought was her room," I explained as I gazed up at the nameplate. "But it's actually Naegi's..."

"Someone switched the nameplates to throw us off their tracks," Kyoko explained as she seemed deep in thought. "What makes it even more unsettling is that Naegi said him and Maizono switched rooms last night. Perhaps one of them switched the nameplates."

"Maybe. It's definitely possible," I said. If Makoto wanted to throw us off his tracks, it's definitely likely that he would switch the nameplates. But, did Makoto really switch the nameplates. Or did someone else do it instead?

"Check Naegi's room. I feel like evidence may be there to help during this," Kyoko said before entering into Makoto's room and leaving me out in the hall.

I exhaled slowly as I entered into Makoto's room. The body was just in the bathroom here as almost everyone seemed to be investigating themselves as I tried to make aimless excuses to not see the body.

I instead searched the room as I gazed at the scratch marks laying all around Makoto's room as I looked at one scratched against the wall. It looked like some blade was brought against the surface of the wood. But the only thing here that could do damage like that was the blade in Sayaka's stomach. Or was it?

I looked around more as I then spotted something laying on the ground. I furrowed a brow as I kneeled down to find two metal pieces shining in gold broken apart in uneven pieces. I put my hand towards it and felt one of the cold metal surface of the longer piece and looked at my hand to find it stained in a golden color.

"Naegi," I said and caught Makoto's attention as he walked over towards me.

"What's up?" He asked when seeing me kneeled in front of the golden broken pieces.

"These metal pieces. What were they before broken apart?" I asked and stood up to look over at Makoto.

"It was a katana. It was left in my room by Monokuma before this all started," Makoto answered as he gazed down at the metal pieces. "What about it?"

"If it was a weapon before broken apart. Is it possible that this was used during the murder?" I asked and then pointed towards one of the scratches against the wall. "It looks like the murderer had a difficult time trying to kill Maizono. Perhaps they used this as well for a weapon. And it broke somehow."

"It's not a bad idea," Makoto said as he looked at the mess of his room. "You could just tell all that just by looking?"

"You'd be surprised at what evidence leaves behind," I answered as I started to walk towards the bathroom door and looked at the door knob hanging on the door.

The knob seemed to be hanging slightly as two screws were taken from their rightful place on the doorknob as I gazed down to see the two screws laying on the floor. Interesting. If this was Makoto's room, why did the killer have such a hard time getting in? The men's bathrooms didn't have locks and they could easily open the door.

"Why is the doorknob almost completely off, Naegi?" I asked Makoto as I turned around to face him. "If this is your room, the bathroom shouldn't have a lock."

"My door doesn't fit right," Makoto answered as I looked at him confused. "There's a special trick to opening the door that only me and Maizono knew."

"Interesting," I mumbled as I turned back towards the hanging knob.

If Makoto was the killer. Than that means he would've had no problem opening the door and killing Sayaka. But it seemed the killer had a problem when it came to opening the door. And the only people here who had the right tools to unscrew the pieces would be the boys. Girls only had sewing kits. So that narrows down the list of suspects quite a bit.

"I'm about to check the body. While there, please make sure I don't pass out at the sight," I explained to Makoto as I started to open the door.

"Uh, sure. Why would you pass out though?" Makoto asked nervously.

"I was never a big fan of examining dead bodies. I almost puked my guts out when seeing Enoshima die," I answered as I turned towards the door way. I then shivered when remembering Junko's brutal death.

I then sighed as I opened the door and looked inside at the dead body that was against the wall. When I looked at it, I felt myself get a little dizzy, but I got a grip of myself and entered into the small bathroom and looked down at Sayaka's body.

Poor girl. Sayaka didn't deserve this. She was probably innocent and didn't know how to defend herself, but she worked up quite a fight from all the scratches and scars inside Makoto's bedroom.

I looked down at the knife sticking out of her chest as I saw it stained with blood as the scar gave me a small view of her... Insides. I tried to avoid looking at the fresh flesh as I gazed at the murder weapon.

"Just as I thought," I said when looking down at the knife. "It came from the kitchen."

"How do you know that?" Makoto asked from the doorway as I looked at him and sighed.

"A knife is missing from the kitchen. It most likely found its way into poor Maizono's chest and ended her life," I explained as I entered that conclusion.

I remembered watching Sayaka take the knife from the kitchen and hide it behind her back. Why did she take the weapon that would soon end her life? Unless this death was an accident... It was possible that Sayaka tried to kill somebody herself but ended up being the victim afterwards. The tables turned on her and the knife was now sticking out her chest.

I then looked down at Sayaka's wrist to see it swollen. Most likely broken. And that's when I saw the glint of gold on her wrist. I held out my hand that was stained with gold as well from the katana and saw that the paint matched perfectly. So, it seems I was right about the fight in Makoto's room.

Sayaka most likely broke her wrist when trying to fiend off her attacker. Perhaps her wrist was the thing that broke the katana into two pieces. It wasn't a bad hypothesis, I had to remember this for the class trial.

I then moved my head over to behind Sayaka's limp body. I gazed confused as a message was stained in blood against the wall. 11037. What could those numbers mean? Perhaps it was a code. Or something else. Sayaka wrote it in blood to tell us something as she was dying, but what was it?

I memorized the numbers in my head as I turned back towards Makoto in the doorway. I felt sorry for him. Losing his closest friend here must be hard on him. But, perhaps me and Makoto could find out who this murderer was together. Work as a team, perhaps.

I didn't believe Makoto was the killer, but I couldn't prove it without solid evidence. I just had to keep looking until I found something that could prove that Makoto didn't do it.

"Sorry for your loss, Naegi," I said as I moved out of the bathroom and into the dorm where other classmates were. "But it's probably best that we don't mourn Maizono's death for now. How about you aid my investigation? There's someplace I need to check."

"Sure that's a good idea, princess?" I turned around to see Mondo looking over at us. "He clearly murdered the girl."

"I didn't ask for your opinion, Owada. If I suspected Naegi I wouldn't have asked him to come along with me," I said calmly towards Mondo as he rolled his eyes and turned away from us. I turned back towards Makoto with a smile. "Now, then. Shall we go?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure," Makoto said with a smile as I led the way out of the room and into the hallway.

I walked towards the cafeteria with Makoto following me as we walked inside.

"What're we looking for, exactly?" Makoto asked me as I walked towards the door of the kitchen and stopped to look towards Makoto.

"Last night I had a nice cup of tea with Ogami and Asahina. While here I noticed a knife go missing. I wanted to check if it was still gone," I explained as I opened the door to the kitchen and looked inside. I didn't want to tell Makoto every detail and who took the knife. If Makoto really was the murderer, I didn't want him to use my words against me.

"You think that's the murder weapon," Makoto said as he walked into the kitchen as well.

"What else could it be," I said as I looked towards the rack hanging on the counter and saw that the knife was still missing. "It's most likely the murder weapon. Where else could you get a sharp knife? This is the only place on the first floor with weapons laying out in the open."

"I see," Makoto said as I turned back towards him. "Do you think I was the one to murder Maizono?"

"No. I don't think you would murder her," I answered honestly as I shook my head. "You and her were good friends. I knew that. You were also as shocked as the rest of us when finding Maizono's body, you passing out answered that. Everyone else are just idiots not to realize it. But, I do want to ask one thing, why did you and Maizono switch rooms?"

"She came to me in a panic. She said someone was trying to get into her room so I offered my room to her to sleep in for the night. I didn't realize that she would get murdered while doing so..." Makoto said with a guilty look in his eyes.

"Don't blame yourself for this murder. It will only make you feel worse," I said in a calm voice while trying to cheer him up. "But, you slept in Maizono's room last night?"

"Yeah," Makoto answered with a nod. "I know it sounds like an excuse but I really-"

"I trust you, Naegi. I know you didn't commit this murder because every piece of evidence I found points away from you," I interrupted Makoto as I sighed.

"How do you know that for certain?" I heard a male voice say from the doorway and I looked up disgusted to find Byakuya stand at the doorway and peer inside at the two of us.

"What'd you doing here?" I asked harshly as I crossed my arms.

"The murder weapon came from the kitchen, did it not? I came to see for myself. I was right," Byakuya answered as he gazed behind me and at the knife rack on the wall. "Anyways, about what you were saying earlier, how do you know for certain Naegi has no part in this murder?"

"Because I didn't," Makoto said with an angered look towards Byakuya. He seemed to not like the rich brat either.

"I have evidence to prove his innocence," I answered calmly as I remembered everything from Makoto's room that could prove him innocent. The nameplate swap, the unscrewed doorknob, and the room swap last night.

"Hmph. Have you ever thought about Naegi destroying the evidence to cover his tracks," Byakuya said while looking at me with a smirk. "There's an incinerator, don't forget that."

"Well, I'll have a look at it myself. I'm sure Yamada will open the gate for me so I can investigate," I explained as I walked to the door but looked back at Makoto. "Care to come with?"

"Of course," Makoto said with a smile as he walked towards me as we walked to the doorway.

"I too will aid your investigation. I need to see the evidence for myself," Byakuya said as he followed the two of us out of the kitchen. I rolled my eyes and sighed. Of course, just invite yourself to come along...

All three of us walked along the hallway to get Hifumi so he could unlock the gate inside the incinerator room since he was on garbage duty and we all walked into the room as Hifumi took out the key and opened the gate for us to look.

We made our way to the incinerator as I looked down to find a burnt off piece of what seemed like a white flannel shirt that had a spot of blood on it. It looked like a sleeve as I picked it up and looked down at it in my hand. I tried to think of who wore white flannel shirts here. Makoto wasn't one of them.

"Seems like our victim tried to get rid of the evidence," I said while glancing down at the burnt sleeve.

"Leaving something behind in the process," Byakuya finished as I handed him the sleeve and continued looking.

"It's most likely somebody who wears a white shirt with long sleeves. You can tell by how the sleeves are tucked in," I explained as I looked inside the incinerator to find ashes at the bottom of the metal bin. It seems they did a good job at getting rid of everything else.

"Don't forget that you too wear a white shirt yourself," Byakuya said as I looked back over at him and rolled my eyes.

"I almost pass out at a sight of a body. I can't commit a murder as brutal as that," I explained as I noticed something laying on the ground near the incinerator. I kneeled down and gazed as I saw shards of glass were scattered along the ground.

"Found something?" Makoto asked and walked over to me.

"Actually, I did," I said as I picked up a couple of shards and held them in the palm of my hand. "This was probably used to turn on the incinerator from behind the bars..."

"How do you know that?" Byakuya asked as he crossed his arms.

"Because Yamada was on trash duty. He had the key and so the killer couldn't have gotten to the incinerator without something to activate it. They most likely threw what this was before broken shards and turned on the incinerator," I explained as I looked down at the shards in my hand. And I remembered seeing a certain object being glass and a likely object to throw. "And that object was a glass ball."

"Hagakure has one. Do you think he did it?" Makoto asked me as I put the shards back down.

I shook my head softly. Yasuhiro wouldn't murder someone. He wasn't a likely candidate. But I knew someone here who had perfect aim...

"You're not as useless as I thought," Byakuya scoffed behind me and I sent him a glare.

"I'm not useless at all!"

I watched as Makoto stepped away from us slightly. It was probably for the best. I felt like I was asking for a fight.

"Oh, really. You certainly act like the rest of those morons," Byakuya said back with a smirk.

"I'm the whole reason you were able to figure out how the glass ball ended up over here!" I argued back, feeling my face tint with red.

"I could have easily figured that out on my own," Byakuya said with a smirk. Oh that little son of a bitch...

"Oh, I'm sure you could, Toothpick," I said with a smirk when coming up with the clever nickname. It suited him perfectly. Tall and skinny.

"What did you say?" Byakuya said, looking offended by the creative nickname he was given.

I smirked as I then heard the chime come on through the wall and I looked up at the screen hanging on the wall to see Monokuma's familiar face appear on the screen.

"Time's up, chickadees! Please make your way to the red doors at the end of the hall that will then decide all your fates!" Monokuma's laughing voice said before the screen turned off.

"That evidence you collected to prove Naegi's innocence better be accurate. I don't want to see what happens if we were to pick wrongly," Byakuya said while readjusting his glasses and walking out of the room. He was still a jerk.

I looked over at Makoto nervous as he gave the same look back to me.

We walked out of the room shortly afterwards together as we walked towards the end of the hall towards the red doors that stood out among every other door here.

I turned towards Makoto again nervous. I felt worry flow through me as I felt anxiety kick in. What if we were to get this wrong? Than that means we all die... I just had to use all the information I gathered from this investigation to find out who murdered my close friend.

We entered the room as everyone else seemed to already be in the small room waiting for us.

Everyone was crowded in a small room, only a bit of free space to move as everyone gave angry and looks of suspicion towards Makoto as the two of us entered.

"Nice. Do neither of you two have any way to tell time? We've been waiting I'll have you know," Taka said harshly as he glared at both me and Makoto. He must've been pissed when we didn't arrive precisely on time...

"Heh. Suppose you can't blame them, right? Naegi only knows it's a matter of time before he gets executed. And I bet blondie here helped him destroy the evidence!" Toko said as she looked angry at the pair of us.

"Excuse me?" I asked with a furrowed brow as I crossed my arms annoyed. I didn't like Toko all that much and for her to come out and say that I was an accomplice without any evidence was harsh and offensive.

And when I looked over at Makoto, I saw innocence in his eyes as he looked at everyone worryingly.

"We haven't proved anything yet. I'll remind you the man's owed a fair trial," Taka argued with Toko as I continued to glance nervously at Makoto. I know he didn't do it. I knew it. But I had to prove it inside the courtroom.

"Whatever, man. Look at him, he's totally guilty," Leon said as he crossed his arms and glared at Makoto as well.

I looked over at Leon with anger filling my next words, "I hope you realize that nothing can be proved until this trial starts. So how about you shut that mouth of yours and let's get this over with."

Leon looked annoyed at me as I turned away from him to hear Monokuma's static voice fill the room. "Is everybody in?" I then looked shocked as an elevator revealed itself on the other side of the room as everyone looked over at it. "Hop aboard and be conveyed, as if by magic, to the student courtroom. Otherwise known as the Moment of Truth Room, for all of you."

Everybody then filed into the elevator as I looked over at Makoto.

"Ready?" I asked him before walking in with everyone else.

He gave me a determined nod as we walked into the elevator with everyone else.

I gazed at everyone as I felt nervous sweat drip down my face as everyone else seemed to have the same looks as well. I didn't know what was going to happen inside that courtroom. But, I knew that I was going to prove that Makoto was innocent and figure out who the murderer was and avenge my friend. And before I knew it, the elevator doors opened.

Let the class trial begin.