Part 49: Trial 2, Part 6

Click here to watch this update's video.









: Mondo...your handbook got broken in the sauna, didn't it?
: Wh-Wh-What!?
: Why!? Why do you keep accusing him!?
: Mondo and Taka had an endurance contest in the sauna not too long ago, remember?



: And for the contest, Mondo just so happened to keep his school uniform on. But little did he realize, he'd also left his handbook in one of his uniform pockets.
: And when it was all over, Mondo discovered that taking your handbook into the sauna could easily destroy it.



: Ngh... Grrhh...!
: No, wait, hold on...! You've got it all wrong! He would never kill--!



: I don't accept this! Show me the proof! The actual, solid proof!



I mean...I don't want to believe it either. But... But I found something that proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt...







: Let's test Makoto's assertion. If what he says is correct, then Mondo you broke your own handbook.
: In other words, if Mondo's handbook is actually broken then that proves that what Makoto said is right.
: Well my goddamn handbook works just fine!
: S-See? Look! Makoto was wrong, after all! Mondo wouldn't hurt a fly!

Even I don't want to believe Mondo might have actually killed someone... But I found something that proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt...

: The difficulty in this one doesn't come from picking the right weak spot, it comes from figuring out which of the now 5 Truth Bullets is the correct one. In this case, if Mondo says the handbook he has with him is working, and there's a broken one in the main hall, but Monokuma says it's not Leon's, then...



> Shoot "works just fine" with "Broken e-Handbook"









: Mondo, the handbook you have right now... Is it really yours?
: ...The fuck is that supposed to mean!?
: The broken handbook that was in the main hall... Isn't that one actually yours?
: What the heck are you talking about!?
: What I mean is, I think Mondo swapped his handbook out for one that actually works. I think he took Leon's handbook and replaced it with his own... After all, Monokuma said himself that Leon's handbook never should have broken.



: That's right! The punishment it suffered wasn't nearly enough to destroy it!
: So then, the broken handbook in the main hall is actually Mondo's. Which would mean that the handbook Mondo has right now is actually Leon's, yes?
: But doesn't that violate the school regulation that says loaning out your handbook is prohibited?
: Well, here's how I look at it... There is a rule about loaning your handbook to another student. But if they're dead, they're not a student!
: It's kind of a grey area, I admit, but no worries! If anything, it just makes things more interesting! As such, I decree that exchanging handbooks with a corpse is not a violation of the rules!



♪ Music fades out. ♪

: Well, Mondo? If I'm wrong about this, you're welcome to say so. I'm happy to admit I made a mistake, but...



: S-Son of a bitch...!
: What's wrong, bro? Come on, tell him he's wrong...! You ARE wrong! You HAVE to be wrong...!



: Everything you just said is wrong! You made it all up!
: Okay, then why don't we look back on this case one more time, from the beginning? That way, everything will become clear, and we'll all see if I was right or wrong!







: Just like before, watch the video if you want to watch the comic book be assembled. There are no new mechanics to introduce in Closing Argument so aside from an increase in wrong options due to being on Mean difficulty, nothing much has changed from the first trial.



: The killer is...you!
: Don't forget to read right to left!





: First, let's take a look back to before the incident...



: Last night, Celeste saw Chihiro in the warehouse, correct? At the time, she was apparently stuffing something into a duffel bag.



: That "something" was a blue tracksuit. You can confirm this, right Celeste?



: With bag in hand, Chihiro headed out, even though it was officially nighttime.



: She made her way to the locker room. Specifically, the boys locker room. But how could the victim, who was apparently a girl, access the boys locker room?



: Simple. Because "she" was really a he. Which is why he was able to use his own e-Handbook to gain entrance to the boys locker room.



: Once inside, he met with someone there. And the person he met was the one who killed him!



: It seems likely that the killer grabbed the nearby dumbbell, approached the unsuspecting Chihiro...



: ...and attacked him.



: And that's where the bloodstains on the poster and carpeting in the boys locker room come from.



: It was likely in the heat of the moment. The body was arranged, but the murder itself felt unplanned.



: Which is why the killer hurried to try and hide the act. First, pulling up the bloodstained carpet, then removing the bloody poster...



: ...and finally carrying the corpse into the girls locker room. A girl's handbook was necessary to get into the locker room, of course... But this alone doesn't prove that the killer was necessarily a girl.



: After all, Sayaka and Junko's handbooks had been placed in the main hall. Using one of those, a boy could get into the girls locker room without much problem.



: And that's exactly how the killer did it. With the carpet and the poster they'd brought with them, they got to work.



: They changed the layout of the boys and girls locker room, in what you might call...a crime scene switch!



: That could have been the end of things, but no... Byakuya discovered the body and decided to...intervene in the situation, making things even more complicated.



: So, after stumbling on the crime scene, he went and grabbed the extension cord from the library, and then *he* got to work.



: He used the cord to string up Chihiro's lifeless body.



: Then, using the victim's own blood, he left a grisly message there at the scene of the crime. He wanted to create the illusion that Genocide Jack was responsible for the slaughter.



: And around the same time that Byakuya was putting together this facade, the killer, having already disposed of Chihiro's bag and other belongings, arrived at the sauna. There, they planned to destroy the last piece of evidence...Chihiro's handbook.



: And just as the killer expected, the steamy sauna was enough to ruin the electronic gadget. Somehow, the killer knew that the handbook couldn't stand up to the heat of the sauna. And the reason they knew that is because the sauna had already wrecked their own handbook! ...And that's how it all played out.





: Isn't that right, Mondo Owada!?





: Kh-Kheeh...
: W-Wait...! No, this can't be right! Where's your evidence...? Y-Yeah, where's your evidence!?
: You need evidence! You need proof! Without any proof, you can't pin any of this on him!

Evidence that Mondo is the killer... That already revealed itself earlier in the trial. All I have to do is check that one item of his, and everything will become clear...



: Let's talk a little bit about Fever Time and Nega Time. During a Bullet Time Battle, if you press the R button Fever Time will activate, and the tempo will be forces to its max. At this point, even if you push the buttons at random, you won't miss. But this only lasts until your Focus Gauge runs out, so make the best possible use of your time. Of course, it wouldn't be fair if only *you* got access to special time, right? So we've also prepared something called Nega Time that your opponent can use. If the opponent activates Nega Time during the Bullet Time Battle your Tempo Marker will disappear, making it quite a bit tougher to hit the buttons in rhythm. If you were to activate Fever Time at this point... No, never mind. I'm sure nothing would happen. I don't know what I was worried about!
: Nega Time sounds like a bad thing, and it is, but it's easily countered by just activating Fever Time as soon as you notice Nega Time is ongoing. I don't know what causes an opponent to use Nega Time but I think it's mostly random. Obviously, this means it's safest to just use Fever Time only when Nega Time occurs so you aren't stuck guessing the beat for too long. Your Focus Gauge also depletes really slowly in Bullet Time Battles so you'll have a nice long time to use Fever Time when you activate it.









: I don't think I mentioned it before but when you lock on and destroy a statement, your opponent actually takes more damage if you pile up more statements on screen before you destroy them. For example, if one destroyed statement does 1 damage, two statements that are destroyed at the same time might do 2.5 damage. While it's risky to let statements pile up too much, this can help end a Bullet Time Battle sooner.



: Here you can see the effects of Nega Time. My rhythm meter is completely covered up and I can't see a thing. However, as I mentioned before, the best thing to do here is immediately activate our own Fever Time because it negates all the bad effects of Nega time.





: Without any proof, you can't pin any of this on him!

> Fire "Broken e-Handbook"



: This should prove it!







: If my thinking so far is right, Mondo must have replaced his broken handbook with Leon's. In which case, we can just check each of out handbooks right now. Once we do that, we'll--



♪ Music cuts out. ♪

: We don't gotta do that.
: Huh?
: Yeah. Yeah...





: I did it... I killed him.
: Bro? Bro...what are you saying?
: I got no choice, man. After hearing all that, I gotta just...give up.



: Go ahead, Monokuma. Get it over with... Ask for the god damned verdict...
: Roger that!



: W-Wait, hold on--!
: No waiting! No holding on!
: Time for the moment we've all been waiting for! Grab your lever and give it a yank!
: Who will you elect as the blackened this time around? Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one?



: What's it gonna be? What's it gonna beeee!?









: So it turns out during my trial playthrough to gather pictures, I perfected the trial. As far as I can tell though, there is no reward for doing this aside from a few extra Monocoins.