What laid in front of everyone's eyes was nothing like they'd seen before.

The first murder in this school had been a simple stab, there had been a lot of blood but the body itself looked alive.

The second murder had been a little more horrifying but only because of how the body had been made to hang, other than that it had been similar to the first.

This one however, the body, Benedict's body, was beyond recognition almost. The dogs had removed all the skin from the poor boys legs and had even began to feast at the face before they had been sentenced to die by the spears that had caused their bodies to drop.

The remaining ten students who stood in the hallway, their eyes peeping into the small, dark room where the body of Benedict laid, could think of nothing else but feel bad for the body.

Adam was thinking differently though, "does this count as a murder?"

Everyone stared at him with a little confusion but some of them, especially Jacob, could understand what he meant.

"You're right, the dogs killed him, not one of us, which means we don't need to hold a class trial right?" Marco said as he held onto Simon as to keep steady.

His wounds were a little better now, he was standing alright but he was unsure on his balance for the time being.

Jacob lowered his head a little as his mouth shaped into a slight smile and his right hand gestured to the roof in time for a laugh to be heard from the speakers.

"Wishful thinking, guys!" Monokuma said and soon enough he dropped down from above the students as Jacob raised his head.

"Wait, but none of us did it, right?! Joy and Jacob saw it in front of them" Abby said.

"And who said I am the type to follow rules? There was a killing and so a class trial will be held!"

"I'm guessing we have to find the person who let the dogs kill Benedict then?" Jacob said.

Monokuma made a smile, "exactly!"

Jacob let out a sigh and leant against the wall behind him, "Please, that's boring. Can we just move along?"

Everyone stared towards Jacob either in confusion, annoyance or shock, but Monokuma gave off a growl.

"Oi, we're holding a class trial! My word goes, you either follow that or get punished!"

Jacob moved his right hand through his hair and gave off a small sigh before standing up properly, "Alright then, but there isn't much investigation to be done when the crime was eaten by dogs."

"We can still check though, don't act better than us by not letting us work!" Lexi said as she marched up towards Jacob.

Jacob made a large smile towards Lexi, "Oh, so you do want to convict another friend of yours, how brave."

Lexi's face went dark as her figure froze but her right hand soon raised itself and went for Jacob's face only to be caught by Jacob's left hand and throw aside.

"I also don't act better, I am better. Be glad I'm still helping."

Lexi let out a small gasp at her arm being thrown aside, Abby taking the girl away from Jacob before anything else happened.

"What happened, Jacob? You're being irrational right now."

Jacob met eyes with Adam and went to reach his hand out for the boy but Adam hit his hand away which caused Jacob to smile.

"I have said this before, but we're stuck between life and death and yet everyone wants to go do their own thing in hopes of surviving. It's irrational to pretend to be normal!"

Jacob put his hands into his pockets and began walking into the animal shelter, "Now, you wanted to investigate, so shall we get started? I promise you it won't help."

Everyone gave off their small grunts, half the students staying where they were but the people who immediately followed Jacob were Adam, Simon, Marco and Stacey, except Stacey didn't come to investigate. She stood at the doorway, her eyes slightly teary and was staring at the body even though she felt grossed out by the mess.

"You knew him for little over a week, come off it" Jacob said without taking a look at her.

Stacey wanted to try speaking but her facial expression was only capable of returning an annoyed, flustered face as she walked out of the doorway and headed for the dormitories.

Jacob had been right, the investigation this time was pointless. The only things everyone could figure out was that the dogs had been hungry for a long time, it was most likely because Monokuma didn't feed them and no one could get to them otherwise until now which was 11 days after coming here.

The cages the dogs had been in were also controlled by a terminal in the second floors control room, it seems that when the third floor opened a part of the wall opened for a new terminal to control the cages and the back door in the animal shelter.

The back door in the animal shelter contained a large amount of dog food in many different types; dry food, cans of meat, rolls of meat, and more.

That was all the clue in the Animal Shelter that everyone could figure out, and this caused panic.

"We're fucked" Simon said.

"Come on now, we'll figure it out" Abby said and her gaze met with Jacob, "Won't we now?"

Jacob didn't try making eye contact, he was on sitting backwards on a seat with the back of the seat against his chest. His eyes were closed and it seemed like he was thinking.

"Hey, Jacob, you'll help right?!"

Jacob began moving his head slightly as Abby repeated the words but the girl began moving towards him with her hands reaching out. Jacob stood from the chair and pushed it towards Abby as to stop her from moving forward as he sighed.

"I'm waiting for the announcement to start the trial, alright? You'll all discuss things there."

"You mean we will" Samuel said, a little drop from his usual voices volume.

"No, I don't" Jacob said, his eyes directing towards Samuel with a smile, "I mean you as I said."

"You're part of this too!" Lexi said.

"I never said I wouldn't help, I clearly said you'll discuss, not solve things."

"Are you saying we can't find out what happened?" Joy said.

"I have my bets placed on that, naturally the perpetrator knows who they are, but other than that who knows."

Everyone had their own face of disgust but none of it could be said as the sound of the bell tolled around the room four times and Monokuma's face greeted them.

"Such a lovely time, and such a lovely day if I don't say so myself. It's time for our lovely trial time! I have even changed the room as a way to be nice, so please join me in here."

Everyone stared among each other while Jacob didn't bother hesitating and made his way for the trials doors. He was soon followed by the other nine students and once making their way to the back of the school building where the large doors were already wide open they stepped onto the moving escalators and were brought down once again to the front of the large red doors.

Jacob opened up the doors with a push of both his hands and the doors flung inwards to reveal the large, circular room.

The flooring had changed since last time, it used to have the centre floor lowered by a few inches, and for the second trial it had been raised, but this time it was equally balanced. The room was also empty except for Monokuma's high seat and the podiums which now had a tall sign of Benedict's face painted over it, a large red cross marked over it.

The flooring itself was now digitally painted with several rectangles. The half of the floor towards the red door had two rows of five rectangles, and the other half of the floor was identical but the rectangles were different colours. The rectangles near the red door were blue and the others were red.

The walls were also digitally painted over with pictures of different types of monsters and cards from various trading card games.

"Is this meant to be a dedication to Benedict?"

"Isn't that best?" Monokuma said as he jumped up from behind his high seat on the far side of the room and his body landing on his seat, "After all, the poor soul needs to be respected."

"Just stop it, let's please get this over with" Jacob said, "then everyone can relax and maybe, just maybe, be a bit reasonable."

Everyone stayed quiet to his words as they moved to their parts of the podium and began staring at each other and the signs representing their dead friends.

There was a momentary silence, no one knew where to start and even if they did start they were scared of what the end result would be. They'd been through this twice now, but who could possibly get used to being the reason a friend died?

"Where should we start?" Carlos said, "We need to figure that out before anything."

"In the other cases we tried figuring out things like the murder weapon, and other clues that seemed obvious but helped in the end" Abby said.

"Except those things don't help here, Benedict wasn't killed by a weapon" Adam said, his eyes looking around the podiums before setting his eyes on the voiceless Jacob.

"The dogs killed him!" Samuel said as he leant on his end of the podium with his hands clenching it tightly, "The dogs should be titled the killers!"

Monokuma let out a light laugh, "I've already killed those naughty, god forsaken animals: the person you title as the killer is the one who planned this and let it happen!"

Joy took a deep breath and looked out at everyone, "Then should we discuss why the animals were so angry? They seemed to be at least."

Marco, his body seeming to feel capable of standing up, was standing in his rightful podium next to Adam with his hands holding onto the podium in case he felt gravity pull him down.

"They obviously hadn't been fed in a long time, we had no way to get to them until the third floor open. Why didn't Monokuma feed them?"

"Should I do everything, it's all your fault you didn't hurry up with the entertainment!" Monokuma said.

"You're blaming us because we didn't want to kill our friends?!" Simon said.

Monokuma stayed quiet and crossed his small arms as much as he could.

"I suggest ignoring him" Lexi said, "Our main focus shouldn't be on the dogs, they were starving; that much is obvious. The topic should be how their cages opened, that's what's important right now."

"Were they locked close, someone could've broke the lock ahead of time" Samuel said.

"I believe they were electric locks, meaning you opened them from a set of controls like the lights and heating in the Control Room."

"It's the same for the back door in the Animal shelter, right?" Adam said as he leant forward on his podium, "But do we know where the controls for the cage and door are?"

"Could they be in the Control Room?" Marco said.

"We explored that room a while ago though," Lexi said, "It was only the lighting and heating controls."

Samuel went to speak, but he decided to close his mouth and be quiet while everyone talked.

"It could be in the Animal Shelter itself, did we check the walls completely?" Stacey said in a slight whisper.

She had been really quiet lately, more than anyone, but no one seemed to question it, it was understandable why.

"Jacob, Benedict and I were in there, and I believe it was searched before then, there was no set of controls, and I doubt they'd put important controls in a hard to reach area" Joy said.

Stacey stopped talking as she held her hands behind her while Lexi took the girl in her arms for a hug, "Don't worry, just calm down and let us handle this, alright?"

Stacey chose not to respond.

After some silence began to fill the room, Monokuma sat upright and gave off a long and tedious sigh while clapping his paws together, five of the ten televisions in the room turning on to show the Control Room on the second floor, and a new panel extended from the wall to the right of the tall locker.

Everyone's eyes looked at the televisions, their eyes widening a little in understanding.

"So it showed up once we unlocked the third floor then?" Adam said.

"You guys need to pay attention more! Dumber than my fake sister, gosh" Monokuma said and lazily sat back down.

"Then anyone could've opened the cages, right? Anyone that wasn't at the Animal Shelter" Lexi said.

Adam raised his head a little and looked at each person around him before speaking, "Actually, I believe only one person touched that panel, wasn't it you Samuel?"

Samuel rose his head as he stuttered to speak while he shook on the spot a little, "W-wait, what? What do you mean?"

Adam held the podium before him as he leant towards Samuel, "I mean, you went to the control panel so you could open the door in the Animal Shelter for the three who went there, right? You could've chosen to open the cages too."

Samuels face went a little purple as she shook his head, "N-No, I wouldn't though!"

"You are the one who went there though," Jacob said, finally speaking, "I remember Joy asking you since we were going to the Animal Shelter."

Samuels's hands gripped the podium tightly as he lowered his head to look at the ground, his legs shaking a little, "I-I didn't, I wouldn't..."

Samuel went to speak again but he was stopped by Jacob who straightened up and rubbed his right hand through his hair, "But of course, you're not the one we're titling the killer, I wouldn't let that happen, not when we could all die."

Everyone's eyes hit Jacob as he finished talking, "He's not the killer?" Adam said.

Jacob gave off a loud sigh, "Even you? I thought you'd be smarter than to go for the obvious."

Adam looked back at Samuel, his eyes looking over the scared boy, "But he had the chance to do it, and the only one who we know was at the panel."

"I agree, he is the one who went to the panel, but he is not the killer" Jacob said.

Adam tilted his a head a little in confusion, "you're going to have to explain that, you can't let the dogs out unless you're at the panel."

Jacob leant his head back as his right hand hit his forehead but he brought both his hand and his head back down soon enough, "Fine, I'll explain. But first, can Monokuma zoom in on the panel itself, I know there are words written on it, and I'd like everyone to see them."

Monokuma patted his right paw on his right ear as the televisions showing the control panel changed view to above the panel with a close up view. There were 3 buttons on the small panel, and a screen on the wall above them which showed the inside of the Animal shelter, but the screen was not properly seen through the view the televisions were showing.

The buttons themselves, however, had pieces of paper taped above each one with writing on them.

The first button was worded with 'Unlocking and locking the cages', the second button was worded with 'Locking the entrance door', and the third button was worded with 'Unlocking and locking the back door.'

There was another piece of paper taped above those three pieces of paper which said 'Entrance door must be locked to open the back door.'

Everyone stared up at the different pieces of paper seen on the panel, their eyes scanning over them but not seeming to understand how it helped until Adam spoke up.

"It looks poorly made, did someone besides Monokuma put them on?"

Monokuma remained silent even though the silence suggested they were waiting for his answer.

"Since the bear itself chooses to confirm or deny it, we'll go with the assumption that he didn't."

"So one of us put them on, most likely to trick Samuel, is that what you're saying?"

Jacob gave off a small nod to Adam's words but Adam immediately spoke back with a slight rage to his voice, "Isn't it dangerous to assume that without proof? For all we know it could've been Monokuma!"

"Well, then we'd be at a dead end anyway since that wouldn't help us, I prefer taking risks than giving up, alright?"

Adam went to reply, but chose to stay quiet as he gripped his podium tightly, "Just continue."

"Thank you" Jacob said, "Rather than pointing at the killer immediately, it's better to know the secret of the panel itself. Can you tell me what is wrong with it, Samuel?" Jacob said.

Samuel seemed to not want to respond as he held his podium tightly in his grip, but soon enough he lifted his head up, showing his distraught face which had slowly returned colour.

"T-the buttons..." he began saying.

Jacob gave off a small smile as he nodded, "Yeah, they're wrong. Well, two of them are."

Samuel lowered his head back down as Jacob looked up at one of the five screens showing the panel of three buttons.

"The button that opens and closes the back door, and the button that opens and closes the cages, they're backwards. Whoever wrote those messages purposefully did this so Samuel would press the wrong button."

Samuels hands tightened on the podium as he bit his lips and everyone switched their eyes from the television, to Jacob and then to Samuel before repeating.

"H-he's telling the truth" Samuel said, almost forcing the words out.

"He was the one who pressed the button, I have no doubt about that" Jacob said, "But the one who tricked him is the one deserving the title of killer, what do you think Joy?" Jacob said.

Joy's eyes picked themselves up from Samuel and turned to meet Jacob's as everyone else's eyes except for Samuel and Stacey turned to Joy.

Joy began letting out a slight chuckle as she rubbed her hair back with her right hands fingertips, "What are you talking about, exactly?"

"I'm talking about the fact you are the one who asked Samuel to go to the control room, he had no other reason for going there."

"Only that? Are you blaming me because I asked him a favour? In the end he pressed the wrong button, you can't say that was my fault."

"As I just said, the buttons are wrong in the wording."

"Then prove it! Don't blame people without proof, and even if you can prove it, there is no proof that I titled those buttoned with the pieces of paper."

Jacob let out a slight sigh and met eyes with Monokuma who seemed to be way ahead of him. The five screens that were presently turned off began to turn on and show the inside of the Animal Shelter, then Monokuma back flipped from his chair and fell down the back, only to show up soon after at the control panel shown on the televisions.

His paw pressed down on the far left button which was titled as the door that opened the cages, but instead of the cages closing up, the back door opened instead. Monokuma then pressed the second button which was meant to be control the back door, but as his paw pushed the button down the cages closed themselves down and locked.

Monokuma soon disappeared from his seat as Jacob smiled at Joy who didn't seem to be stunned from the events.

"You still have no proof that I tampered with the controls in any way."

Jacob straightened up and his hands slid into the pockets of his pants as he walked from his side of the podium and began walking anti-clockwise around the podium.

"For starters, none of us knew about the control panel in the Control Room, it appeared randomly, and until it was shown just a few minutes ago, most of us didn't know of its existence. I knew, naturally, but somehow you did too."

Joy stared towards the walking Jacob who was coming her way with his slow walking pace, but her gaze averted immediately as he stopped talking, "W-well, I just did my own exploration as well, is there a problem?"

Jacob