Ichika and Shuichi first headed over to the hydraulic press. "The hydraulic press is down and there's blood in the area." Shuichi muttered to himself.

"The hydraulic press is controlled by those buttons up there, right?" Ichika pointed to the blue and grey panel. "If we use it to lift up the hydraulic press, we should be able to check the body."

"I... don't... really want to do that, though..."

Ichika sighed and gave him a knowing smile. "I don't want to either, but you need to do it. You have to keep pushing forward."

Shuichi nodded and walked up to the panel. "I should be able to use the 'up' button to raise the press and check the body..." He shivered. "...I don't want to see a crushed body, no matter who it is... but I have to do it."

"Don't worry, you can do this, Saihara-san. I believe in you." Ichika cheered.

Shuichi pressed the button. "...Huh? It's not moving?"

"Maybe it's just a malfunction? Try again." Ichika suggested.

Shuichi tried again but the press still wouldn't move. "Strange... it moved when we investigated it last time." Shuichi looked around and his eyes widened. "The power cord. It's cut!"

"Huh? It is!?" Ichika exclaimed.

"Without power... The press can't move." Shuichi hummed. "This can't be a coincidence. The power cord was cut on purpose..."

"Then it must be the work of the culprit!" Ichika finished.

Shuichi nodded in agreement. He looked back down at the cord when he noticed something strange. "Huh...?" He leaned in and took a closer look at something that was tangled in the wires. A brown piece of hair...? His eyes widened. "Th-This is...!"

"Saihara-san? Is everything okay?"

"..." Shuichi remained silent.

Ichika titled her head. "Did you find something?"

"No, don't worry about it." Shuichi rushed out, standing up quickly. "Anyway, we should take a closer look at the controls. There must be some kind of clue there..."

"O-kay!" Ichika nodded. The two students went to the control panel and took a closer look together.

Shuichi hummed. "In addition to the controls, there's an emergency stop button..."

"Well, I don't think it was used at all." Ichika said bluntly. "If the culprit was planning a murder, then they'd have no use for it."

"True... but what concerns me more... is the safety function."

"Oh yeah!" Ichika gasped. "This hydraulic press should have a safety function.'

"That's right. If the infrared sensor detects a living thing, the press stops automatically..."

"Theeeeeeen... Is the hydraulic press really the cause of death?"

Shuichi blinked in shock. "H-Huh?"

"Think about it. On the Monokuma file, it didn't specify what the cause of death was, right? So then was the press really the cause of death?"

Shuichi's eye's widened. "That... is a possibility."

Shuichi and Ichika then walked up to the press's side.

"This sleeve... it's sticking out of the press, so then the victim of this case must be..." Shuichi trailed off then shook his head. "No, it's too early to determine that."

Ichika tugged on Shuichi's sleeve like a child and pointed at Kaito's sleeve. "Look, Saihara-san! The sleeve has a single hole."

"A hole in the sleeve... What could that be?"

"The sleeve has some blood around it, so then Momota-san was probably hurt before going into the press."

"Hurt before going into the press...?" Shuichi mumbled. "Why and how was he hurt then...?"

Shuichi scratched his chin and looked at the press. "I think that's about all the information we can deduce from the hydraulic press. Since we can't check the body, we don't have many clues to work with..."

"So we'll just need to find clues elsewhere. I'm sure we can figure this out, we just need to work together!" Ichika chirped.

"Yeah." Shuichi nodded.

The two students got up and Shuichi's gaze landed on the trail of blood leading up to the press.

"What is this? A bloodstain?"

"It looks like a swipe pattern as if it was being dragged..." Ichika pointed at the bathroom. "And it's coming from the bathroom."

"This bloodstain suggests something was dragged from the bathroom to the press..."

"And that means that the victim could have been killed in the bathroom." Ichika added.

"But look here." Shuichi pointed to a large pool of blood on the streak of blood. "It looked like the culprit was dragging the body, but then stopped for a bit before they resumed dragging it to the press... Why would they stop...?"

"They could've gotten distracted or... Maybe someone appeared and distracted them... Or maybe even the culprit let them die right there, and crushed their dead body in th-"

"Ah, yeah..." Shuichi raised his hand, signalling Ichika to stop. "Yeah... You... don't need to finish the sentence."

"Ah, sorry..." Ichika chuckled apologetically.

Shuichi and Ichika then proceeded to head to the bathroom before Shuichi stopped to look at the green Exisal. He narrowed his eyes.

"This Exisal... why is it in the middle of the hangar? The hatch is open as well and the cockpit is exposed." Shuichi looked closer. "So this is how it looks on the inside, huh?"

Ichika nodded. "Yeah. It seems rather small but It's definitely big enough to fit someone inside."

"Huh? The hatch is open?" An annoying voice came from behind the two students. It was Monokuma. "How strange. Only the Monokubs can turn off the electronic lock and open the hatch."

"Only the Monokubs?" Shuichi questioned.

"Normally, the Monokubs are the only ones that can pilot the Exisal. 'Normally' being the keyword..."

"Then could you use the Electrohammer to disable the lock and pilot it?" Ichika tilted her head.

Monokuma hummed. "Yeah, you could. In fact, it seems that it was just that. The Electrohammer seems to have been used and that's why the electronic lock is all screwed up."

"...Have you mentioned this anyone else?" Shuichi asked.

"Nope. No one's asked me about it, either. And even if I had been asked, it would've been irrelevant information to you anyway." Monokuma then hopped away.

Ichika sighed. "That must have been a lie."

"Huh?"

"Geez, don't you realize? The hatch is open and a human could have definitely fit inside it. I think this is not just about Ouma-san and Momota-san." Ichika lowered her voice. "...I think there's a third party involved in this case."

Shuichi's eyes widened. "A third party..." He repeated quietly.

"Mm-hm." Ichika nodded in response. "Also, it fits with the possibility of someone stopping Momota-san and Ouma-san to create that bloody puddle." She added.

"I see..." Shuichi hummed. Once they finished, the two of them proceeded to the bathroom.

"Ah! This case..." Shuichi had walked over to a black case laying on the floor near the toilet.

"Hm? What about the case?"

"This case..." Shuichi turned around and saw a crossbow not too far from it. "This is the case of one of Harukawa-san's crossbows from her lab. But why is it here?"

"Oh! Maybe someone brought it here!" Ichika gasped and put her fist in her palm.

Shuichi hummed and took notice of the three arrows, each one tipped with some blood. Shuichi stared at the arrows. "What is this...? What happened here?"

"This is probably where the hole from Momota-san's jacket came from."

"But... Momota-kun only has one hole in his jacket, and all three seem to have been used." Shuichi turned around. "Look, there's a small bottle in the corner of this bathroom." Shuichi picked it up and examined it. "It's empty... But I feel like I've seen this before."

"The blood seems to be hiding the full label, but it says poison on it so..."

"This must have been taken from my lab..." Shuichi finished. He also took note of the bloodstain on the floor before sighing. "Alright... I think we've finished investigating the bathroom."

They stepped out of the bathroom. Shuichi looked over at the washing machine. Ichika noticed Shuichi looking at the washing machine and tugged on his sleeve again. "Hey, I wanna check out something on the Exisal. Let's investigate it a bit closer."

"..." Shuichi hummed. "...How about you investigate it yourself and I'll investigate something else in the meantime."

Ichika blinked up at Shuichi and tilted her head. "What?"

"It's just time is running out, right?" Shuichi chuckled nervously. "We can save a lot of time by splitting up momentarily."

"True. But what else is there to investigate here other than the Exisals? They're very suspicious right now, yknow?"

"No there is something I need to investigate. We don't have enough time right now so please investigate the Exisals, and I'll investigate something else too."

"..." Ichika stared at Shuichi with a blank stare and the detective held his breath. "...Sure."

Shuichi let out a small sigh of relief. "Th-Thank you... We'll meet back here once you're done."

Ichika nodded slowly. "Mmhm..."

Ichika then went off to look closer at the Exisals while Shuichi went off to the washing machine and then the storage room. Shuichi walked inside the storage room and took a look around. He looked at the door. "The door is completely spotless... Didn't Aki-san said she tried kicking the door down? Wouldn't it have left marks if she did...?" He placed a finger to his chin.

"..." Shuichi sighed with a nervous expression and shut the door completely. He then gave a door one kick and sure enough, it left a certainly noticeable mark. "So the door marks easily, huh...?"

Shuichi froze for a moment. "Huh? It's dead quiet in here..." Shuichi opened the door and he heard the buzzing of the lights from the hangar. "So this room is soundproof..."

Shuichi was about to leave when he noticed a large pile of detergents and soaps all stacked together in the corner of the room. Upon closer inspection, he found that the pile wasn't just bottles, but papers and folders as well. "I see... So these bottles were supposed to hide these." He picked the folder that lay on top up and tilted his head in confusion. "What is this...?" The folder was labelled 'plans'. "Plans...? For what? Ah!" He opened the folder and was greeted with a language he was not familiar with. "What...? Is this Chinese?" He flipped through the papers. "And Korean too..." He got to the last page in the folder and narrowed his eyes. "...Why is this paper ripped in half? Wheres the other half?" He took a closer look at the pile of papers and folders. "There's a rubber here... but no pencil?"

After processing the information, Shuichi left the room and looked over at the hook that had the key to lock the door. "The door was locked from the outside... and from what I can see, it can only be locked from the outside as well..."

Shuichi nodded to himself and went back to where Ichika was, staring at the Exisal with a finger on her chin. "Aki-san! I'm done."

"Oh good timing! Me too!" Ichika chirped, clapping her hands together. "Now then, let's continue."

"Did you find anything new?" Shuichi asked.

Ichika shook her head. "No, sorry. Nothing new. Monokuma refused to give me any extra info too."

"I see..." Shuichi hummed.

"What about you? Feel ready to tell me where you investigated?" Ichika pressed her fingers together.

"I found some... I found something alright." Shuichi chuckled nervously.

"..." Ichika stared at Shuichi.

They then both decided to investigate outside of the hangar. Shuichi examined the hangar's alarm system. "The shutter's security is still shut off..."

"You said that you used an Electrobomb to get into the hangar?" Ichika asked.

Shuichi nodded. "Yeah... Now that I think about it... there were three Electrobombs in total. One was stolen by Harukawa-san but what of the other two...?"

"..." Ichika was silent. "...I'll investigate the shutter a bit more thoroughly." She gave him an innocent smile. "You can check this area out by yourself. Let me know when you've finished."

"Huh? A-Are you sure?"

Ichika smirked slightly. "I mean, not too long ago, you said we were running out of time, no? I'm just following your great idea! Is there a problem?"

"A-Ah... No... You're right. You go and investigate that. Let's meet back here after." Shuichi said nervously. The way she said that was rather...

Ichika nodded. "I'll let you know if I find anything about the shutter."

Shuichi gave Ichika a hesitant nod before walking off to talk to Kiibo.

***

Shuichi finished looking at the scratched panel and walked up to Ichika who was inspecting the shutter door. "Aki-san, I've finished. Did you find anything?"

Ichika shook her head. "Unfortunately not... I saw you talking to Kiibo-san. What was that about?"

"Kiibo-kun told me about what he witnessed when he came to the hangar to try and reason with Ouma-kun. He saw someone bring a black bag, like the one we saw in the bathroom. They went into the hangar with the bag, but they didn't come back out with it."

"I see, I see..." Ichika hummed. "Then that means that she probably has something to do with the murder, huh?"

"..." Shuichi stared at Ichika. "Yeah, probably..."

"Let's move on." Ichika smiled. "There are still a few things left to investigate, no?"

"A-Ah... yeah."

Shuichi and Ichika headed down the halls and the two of them found three Exisals all just standing around, completely frozen.

Shuichi hummed. "If Ouma-kun is alive, he can use his remote control to move them as he pleases... But... what exactly was that remote control? Does he have that because he's the mastermind?"

Ichika nodded. "Obviously. He said it was the master remote, and why would he even have a remote that can control the Exisals if he wasn't the mastermind?"

Shuichi walked around the Exisals and stopped when he noticed an Electrohammer laying on the floor. "Why is an Electrohammer here? And it's out of power, so it must have been used..." He mumbled. "Yesterday, I saw all four Exisals protecting Monokuma for some reason... Ouma-kun said he was the mastermind so shouldn't the Exisals have been around *him*. I suppose I just got too caught up thinking about Ouma-kun, I ignored Monokuma..."

"Were you going to try and reason with Ouma-san-?"

"Pay attention! Listen up! Take heed, I say!" An annoying, high pitched voice came from behind the two students. Ichika jumped back and Shuichi flinched.

"Monokuma!?"

Ichika puffed her cheeks out. "You stupid chicken nugget! Stop scaring us like that!"

"Oops, not sorry. Anyway, it's just... I saw that Saihara came this way last night."

Shuichi's eyes widened. "Huh?"

"Puhuhu... You were acting all sneaky, weren't you? Like a teenage boy tryin' to creep into the adult movie section of the video store. But you wouldn't need to sneak around, cuz the Exisals wouldn't have attacked you."

"...What are you saying!?" Shuichi yelled. "We didn't have to sneak-"

"Cuz everyone's coming to rent adult movies, so in a way, everyone going there is the same-"

"N-No, not *that*! I meant about the Exisals not attacking us."

"Pfft- Saihara-san is a pervert?" Ichika asked, tilting her head and placing a fist on her hip.

"N-No! I am not!"

"Oh, I see. Well, at the time, the Exisals were on auto-pilot and directed to only observe me Their movements are limited now that the Monokubs aren't around to pilot them." Monokuma explained.

"Autopilot? You mean... the remote control Ouma-kun had?"

"...Yeah, that's pretty much it."

Ichika tilted her head. "Wait a minute. Why are you telling us this?"

"Yeah... This puts the person controlling you at a disadvantage..." Shuichi added.

"But we're not talking about that... We're talking about this. Even if it puts someone at a disadvantage, the class trial must always be fair. The person who shared that info with me didn't seem interested in sharing it with you guys... So you share it instead! That way, it'll be fair to all the participants!"

Shuichi covered his mouth with his hand and looked at the ground deep in thought. Monokuma then laughed his annoying laugh and cast Ichika a barely noticeable sideways glance before looking back at Shuichi.

"Also, a piece of advice for Mister Detective! You might wanna be careful around one of your classmates that are alive! They know a lot more than they're letting on!"

"Eh?" Ichika stared at Monokuma blankly.

"Puhuhu... you heard me." Monokuma giggled. "Okaaaaay! That's all I can tell you two! Good luck!" Monokuma then hopped away, leaving Shuichi and Ichika alone again.

"..." Ichika blankly stared after Monokuma.

Shuichi stared at the small girl. "Aki-san? You alright?"

"Oh, sorry, just thinking." Ichika smiled innocently.

"That's about all we can investigate here..." Shuichi sighed. "I'm going to go and check out a few more places. There could be something there."

Ichika nodded. "Alright, let's go."

The two students left the area of the hangar and made their way over to the main building, finding themselves in Maki's lab.

Shuichi looked around the lab. "I feel as though there are less weapons here than I remember..."

"Isn't that because Momota-san took them for the Monokuma fight?"

Shuichi nodded as he recalled the events in the gym a few days prior. "Yeah, that's right. Momota-kun had them." Shuichi's eyes then landed on a black case on a shelf. He hummed. "As I suspected... there are two black bags here, identical to the ones in the hangar."

Ichika opened the bag. "Hmm, it seems the crossbows are disassembled."

Shuichi nodded. "It doesn't seem like they'd fit in the case if they weren't." He scrunched his eyebrows together, looking deep in thought. "I remember the last time I was in here with Momota-kun... There were distinctly three cases."

"Were there now...?" Ichika played with her drawstrings. "Momota-san didn't have a crossbow with him during the gym either... So then the crossbow in the hangar must've come from here."

"Which means someone brought it from here to the hangar." Shuichi rubbed his chin. "However, it's fairly difficult to put the crossbow together. I don't believe anyone here would be able to unless Harukawa-san taught you..."

Ichika raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I'll think more about that later, for now, we need to investigate." Shuichi dismissed.

***

The two students found their way to Shuichi's lab and walked inside. Shuichi took a look around at his lab. "I need to confirm that the bottle of poison in the hangar came from here."

Shuichi and Ichika both walked up to the poison cabinet and Ichika crossed her arms. "Seems like there are several different kinds of poisons here. And as far as I'm aware, there aren't any other poisons located in this academy. Not even in Harukawa-san's lab."

Shuichi nodded. "Neither have I. I believe this is the only place that has poison."

"Damn Saihara-san, might wanna be careful. Someone toxic might use this to frame yooooouuu." Ichika snickered.

Now is really not the time to be making jokes... Shuichi sighed. He noticed a certain bottle and took it from the shelf. "Ah! This bottle... There's a little less liquid inside than the others..."

"Ooooh, really now?" Ichika took a bottle and put it next to the one in Shuichi's hand. "Looks like you're right, Mister detective!" She chirped. "Now then... Tell me, what kind of liquid is that?"