What if it Repeated? (Oumasai/Saiouma)

Chapter 28- A Twisted Trial

"Good, now let's start with a basic explanation of the class trial...!" Shuuichi fazed out again. This information wasn't important. He was familiar with what the class trial was. He had witnessed far too many.
"So... where do we begin?" Shuuichi glanced up, it seemed the explanation was over. It was time for the trial. Why did he have to do this again...?
"What about discussing what actually occurred?" Kiibo offered.

"It's obvious what occurred! Momota was fucking stabbed in the back by one of you lowlifes!" Miu snapped as though Kiibo had been stupid to suggest anything.
"So we're saying that the knife IS the murder weapon?" Kaede questioned causing Miu to give an exasperated noise.
"Of course it's the murder weapon! It was sticking out his back! What else was there, air head?" Kaede looked mildly offended, but pushed on with her reasoning,
"Not necessarily. There was the injury to his head that could have been the cause."

What was the point of attacking Kaito in two different ways? That didn't make sense... unless one wasn't fatal.
"Then which came first? Both looked to be fatal." Shuuichi added.
"Does it even matter? Kaito died anyway." Kokichi drowled into the empty silence. Shuuichi perceived him for a second before Rantaro answered the question.
"If we don't have that information we won't be able to find the culprit, we need an order of occurrences." Kokichi looked At Rantaro in scrutiny, but didn't press the point and only stared at the group as if they were there for his entertainment.

"If we assume that the culprit came into Kaito's room already prepared with the knife, the stab wound would likely to have been first." Ryoma piped up, his voice a booming growl.
"But how would Kaito have gotten the head wound?" Tsumugi cocked her head in confusion, "it seems unnecessary, not to mention cruel to attack an already dead body!" Those words sat with Shuuichi. That's right, it would be unnecessary. This lead into another piece of evidence.
"What if the knife came after the head injury?" Shuuichi said and the room went into a thoughtful silence.

"That does seem the most logical." Kaede nodded in agreement.
"The room was trashed also remember." Angie said, nodding as well, "Momota must have hit his head during the big battle that went on!" She waved her arms theatrically as though she could see the scene playing out in front of her very eyes. Kiibo seemed lost in thought and opened his mouth to speak,
"Yes that is probably what happened, but that still doesn't explain the knife, it's still unnecessary in this circumstance, Kaito died from blunt force to his head."
"What if Kaito was still alive at that stage." Maki looked murderous. Her eyes were dark and only allowed a small slither of light to shine onto them.

"S-still alive!?" Himiko stammered, "s-so does that mean the knife was the murder weapon?"
"I'd say Kaito was simply knocked out by the blow to his head, then the culprit finished him off with the knife when he couldn't defend himself." Shuuichi said carefully.
"I would have to agree, there would be no point to harming the cadaver, but it would make sense if Momota was alive." Kirumi stated.
"Ok ok, that's pretty epic Shuuichi, but like why didn't the culprit pull out the knife first up, hmm? There would have been no need for Kaito to bump his head on whatever." Kokichi brought up a good point. That was a good question, but he thought he knew that answer to it.

"Because the culprit didn't have the knife at that stage."
"How can you be sure?" Tenko said in awe, obviously surprised.
"The state of the kitchen." He said, "the knife rack had been completely moved from its original position and the mess suggested that the taking of the knife was done quickly and without much thought."
"Shuuichi, are you saying that the culprit knocked out Kaito and THEN went to get the knife?!" Kokichi gasped his mouth agape and wide eyes staring, "but who would be stupid enough to not come prepared to their own murder plan? They must be soooo dumb!" Kokichi said in a high mocking voice. Although Kokichi seemed to be acting cocky, could this be his way of weeding out the culprit?

"That's enough." Kaede said, "we should continue on the matter at hand instead of... this." She waved a hand in Kokichi's direction, looking quite annoyed. Kokichi also looked thoroughly annoyed at the interruption and looked back at her with narrowed eyes. Shuuichi couldn't help but feel slightly frustrated by Kaede also. If only she had left it a little longer, maybe there would have been some prominent clue as to who had committed the murder. "If we take what Shuuichi said to be correct and the culprit took the knife, then we need to figure out alibis. Who was where?"

"Himiko, Angie, Tsumugi and I were in the dining hall around and hour or so before the body was found and we didn't see anyone go into the kitchen during that time." Tenko replied first and the group nodded in reply,
"We would have seen if anyone had gone to the kitchen, we were sitting right in front of it." Tsumugi added.
"I was with Shuuichi the whole time in my lab." Miu said quickly after, in a rush to get suspicions off her.
"Were you really though?" Kokichi spoke up again, "You could have gone and killed Kaito when Shuuichi was using that machine. He wouldn't have noticed you leave AND supposedly the machine stopped working, trapping Shuuichi inside."

"... what...?" Miu, "You absolute rat! Just shrivel up and die, why don't you, I didn't kill Momota and I am not lying about that machine breaking!" Kokichi looked like he was analysing Miu, taking in her expression to her mannerisms,
"What machine are you talking about?" Kiibo stared in confusion at the three of them. Many around them shared this similar expression.
"Just a prototype for a virtual reality, you know, something fun to take our minds off this shit show." Kokichi lied easily offering a small smirk at Shuuichi.

"Does this mean Miu is killer?" Gonta questioned, his face in a look of horror mixed with sadness.
"We don't know that for sure, but she is definitely suspicious." Kiyo answered cooly, fixing his hat to perfectly cover his face.
"G-g-guys c-come on!" Miu shrieked,
"You'll get your comeuppance soon wench!" Kokichi sung in a sing song voice, grinning like an idiot.

"Upupupu~ so much fighting! But this isn't going to go anywhere if I don't take this into my own hands!" Although the words almost sounded angry, the bear looked overjoyed. What could he be planning? "We'll take a short intermission and then the contents of your secret tasks will be brought out into the open! Of course the owners of the tasks will still be a mystery and it will be up to you guys to figure out which belongs to who~ what is truth what are the lies?! Who is the blackened among the spotless!? We'll find out one way or another after the break!"