First of all, I am very sorry that I didn't write for such a long time now. I won't bother you with all my reasons but I have to admit that at the moment I'm focussing more on other stories. Still I hope that I can continue this story now without any more long breaks.

Anyway, here we go again. ^^

Quickly Jason had offered me a hand and pulled me back to my feet. Without another word the three of us hurried out of the room and upstairs, just to find some other students already standing in front of the room Tani had stayed in.

"Damn it, why?!" I could hear Reece scream as he angrily punched the wall. Daichi was much more calmer, he just turned around and eyed us observantly. Just then Marilyn left the room, exhaustedly wiping a strand of hair out of her face. "It's no help," she said calmly but with hidden anger in her voice. It was obvious to see how much another death exhausted her.

"W-w-w-who?" Jason stammered wide-eyed but before anyone could answer we heard quickly approaching steps and Artyom stormed towards us. "Tani?" he asked, holding his breath as if he was preparing himself for the worst.

"It's not her," Marilyn simply replied and stepped aside so we all could take a look into the room. Lifelessly lying on the ground, the lapis blue eyes closed for good, was Ari or rather what remained of the boy. Artyom swore under his breath while Panini just closed her eyes and carefully hugged me.

Almost automatically I took out my handbook and checked the Monokuma file for new information. The victim is Ari Matsumoto. The time of death was around 4pm. Besides several injuries the victim got poisoned which resulted in death.

I thought back to the secret hospital room, clearly the murderer must have got the poison from there. But how was that possible when none of the cans had been opened before and neither was one of them missing?

Also I was wondering about the several injuries as well as around 4 pm. Those information were surprisingly vague as if Monokuma didn't want us to be sure about something. Or was it just my imagination? I checked the time and noticed that it was already a quarter to five. At least we could assume that Ari had already been dead when the explosion happened. That made me wonder...why had there been an explosion in the first place?

We didn't have to wait for long until the rest of the students approached at the scene of crime. Akira looked mostly tired as if he couldn't bear all of this anymore, while Tani closed her eyes in sadness. Vivienne just stared at the dead body, the shock clearly written on her face. Finally she had refrained from killing herself and now she was confronted with another corpse.

I wanted to talk to her but she just bit her lip, turned around and fled from the scene. Before I could do anything Daichi already ordered Jason and Marilyn to guard the scene of the crime and approached me. "We need to talk," he said with a glance to Panini who still clung to me. "I won't let go," she proclaimed and I asked "It wouldn't be a problem if Panini stays, right?"

"I guess so," Daichi answered calmly. "I wanted to know what happened to you. We have to assume that the murderer got the poison from the very room we tried to protect, most probably while you were there. So?"

I told him what I could remember which was basically nothing. Then I added that Jason checked the cans but none of them had been opened before and of course none of them were missing either.

"I see," Daichi said, taking some notes. "Is it possible you just passed out without anyone else having something to do with it?"

"I don't think so." I smiled carefully. "This never happened to me before." Daichi seemed to think about that and then finally looked up, eyeing both of us observantly. "Then there is something I don't understand. Obviously someone wanted you out of the way and somehow knocked you out. Yet they didn't steal anything nor killed or even hurt you. Why could that be?"

"Lewis is innocent!" Panini quickly claimed, flashing her eyes at the black-haired boy who didn't even blink. "How did you find him?" he wanted to know.

"I, um..." Panini looked a bit insecure here. "I was actually looking for Lewis. And then I met Jason at the hospital. He and Marilyn had been together, I think… Because he then told me that I should come with him because something had happened and Marilyn were waiting. He was really nervous and I was already so afraid because of his behaviour and when we came to this room… I really thought you were dead!" She hugged me again as if to make sure I really was alive and I softly patted her head.

"I see," was all Daichi said before he left us to interrogate someone else.

"We should better check the cans once more," I said and while we were going back to the secret room I told Panini everything we knew about the hidden poison. Her eyes widened in sudden shock and she asked "You're not poisoned, right? You won't die soon, right?"

That was a somehow disturbing thought as we couldn't be sure how quick the poison worked. Still I couldn't imagine dying so soon and I didn't even want to think about it. "I'm fine," I reassured Panini and watched her more closely. "You're being quite brave," I said, remembering how shocked she had been during the last trials. Yet this time she was calmer as if she could deal with the problem. "I'm just so glad you're okay," she replied, leaning her head against my shoulder. "And Vivi is, too," she added after a moment.

The Panini I knew would have cried for everyone. I noticed with worry that apparently the situation was wearing her out. But as long as she was alive she could always recover from it, I was sure about that. And for now she had to find her own way how to deal with the situation.

We entered the secret room and I saw for myself that Jason had been right. All of the cans were standing there, all of them still unopened. This certainly was strange...

As we returned to the scene of the crime the others had already left, only Jason and Marilyn were still looking around and I asked them if they had found anything interesting yet. Clearly the explosion we heard earlier must have been in this room, one half of it was completely destroyed, the walls were soot-blackened and partly crumbled down. The bed was nothing more but a broken frame, the little night table had fallen to its side, some medication were scattered next to it. Looking more closely I even spotted some parts that looked like robot limbs, probably from one of the Monokuma-nurses, I thought to myself.

Marilyn waved with something that looked like a torn up piece of some kind of bag. "I found this," she said and her expression darkened a bit. "I think it could be from Ari's backpack." Apparently this was all that was left of it after the explosion.

"A-and I found th-this," Jason stammered, showing us a sheet of paper. "N-next to the c-c-c-corpse." Parts of the paper were burnt away but we still could read a little note written in a truly terrible handwriting. "...friends….situation I decided….kill myself….bastard or….we will meet again...then, goodbye..."

"No way!" Marilyn said, holding the letter closer to her eyes. "Is this a suicide-note?"

I looked down at Ari's body, for the first time watching it more carefully. He looked pale, the usual relaxed grin had vanished, instead I could still find some pain in his expression. What our handbook had called several injuries were ugly burns, covering one half of him. Also the arm on his good side was for some reason covered in bandages and unnaturally twisted.

"Poor Ari," Panini whispered, holding me closer. Silently I patted her head, wondering what exactly had happened here. "Does anyone know about his arm?" I asked but all of the others just shrugged and I decided to find someone else who could maybe answer my question.

Finally we left the hospital and made our way back to the hostel. Right in front of it we spotted two figures and I approached them with some questions.

Tani still wore some bandages and for the first time I really noticed how thin she had become. Despite her usually rather aloof attitude he was now leaning on Artyom as if it was too exhausting to even stand on her own feet. "Are you all right?" I asked and she just nodded without even a sharp comment.

"When did you leave the hospital?" I wanted to know and she told me "When Ari was taken in. I was really tired of stayin' in the hospital all the time. So I left and he could get my room." "Did he have some kind of accident?" Artyom asked confused but Tani just shrugged and then grimaced as it hurt. "Dunno. He was hurt but I didn't ask what happened." This could be interesting, I should probably find someone who knew more about it.

"That was the last time you saw him?" I wanted to know and as she nodded I turned towards Artyom. "I didn't know he was at the hospital," he told me. "I last saw him this morning. He asked me if I knew what would be the best to feed a deer with."

"Thank you," I told both of them before I looked at Tani's exhausted face. "I guess you should better rest until the trial."

"I will make sure of that," Artyom promised. "Let's get you your pills."

"Pills?" I asked and he quickly explained how Tani still needed to regularly take her medication. "Don't worry, at the pharmacy should be many left," he told the girl and she just closed her eyes. "Ari was annoyin'," she murmured and I remembered how often the two of them had some little fights. "But he didn't deserve this," she continued. "Not at all."

Leaving the two of them behind Panini and I went upstairs to our rooms. For the first time I really noticed how many of them were abandoned by now and I knew that at least one more person would never get to sleep in their room again.

I had hoped to find some kind of evidence in Ari's room and apparently someone else already had the same idea. Reece still looked angry as he rummaged through Ari's stuff.

"Why won't this ever stop?" the small boy asked as we approached him. "Damn this bear!" I remembered that he and Ari had often hung around together so I enquired if he knew anything about the reasons Ari came to the hospital.

"Oh yes, that was a bloody mess," he said, sitting down on the bed and staring down at his own hands. "It was still about this stupid competition. Ari just couldn't give up on it. He somehow tried to capture that deer but in return it attacked him. Luckily I had been close but that beast had seriously battered him. It almost ripped of his arm."

"And so you brought him to the hospital?" I asked and he nodded. "Daichi helped us, too. But it was all in vain." He punched the wall in frustration, making Panini flinch slightly.

I could see how Reece started to blame himself and I tried to distract him from his dark thoughts by asking if he had found anything of importance in Ari's room. Reece regained his composure and told us about some utensils he found. Apparently Ari had tried to make some new bombs which wasn't actually unusual for him.

After Reece left I checked for myself but besides some forgotten leftover food and an unsettling amount of lighters I didn't find anything else interesting.

I would have loved to check on Vivienne once more before the Trial, I really wanted to know how she felt about Ari's death. But before I could go and look for her the screens all turned on once again. Ding-dang-dong!

"Attention please! Time's up! Everyone gather at the basement door! Everyone! Another breathtaking Class Trial is about to begin! Upupupu..."

Who could be the murderer? Will we ever find out? I do hope so.

Anyway, reviews are always appreciated, they show me that someone cares about this story.