The First Motive, And The First Kill

When Jason arrived at the A/V room, he saw he was the first to arrive, and he entered the room. The room looked the same as he when he explored it, with multiple DVD players, a big screen, and two big speakers, but he quickly noticed a box, that contained DVDs, one for each student. He quickly inserted the DVD that had his name on it and activated it.

When it started, he saw his mother, elder sister, his two twin little sisters, and his agent were sitting in the living room in his family's house.

Then, his mother said:

"Jason, as always, you make me proud, and this time you managed to get into one of the most famous schools in the world! I hope you'll finally have some friends at your age, who are as talented as you"

"You better impress those Japanese people, or else I'll go there, and beat the shit out of you myself!" said his elder sister

"Don't forget to get Junko's signature for us! Good luck big bro!" both of his sisters said simultaneously.

"Go and show them exactly who Jason Harris is! Show them that 217 IQ of yours!" said his agent.

A small smile appeared on Jason's face. While they weren't his original family and agent, he still was rather fond of them. They were one of the only things in this life that were different than his past life. However, what he felt for them wasn't a familial love, but more like a fondness for friends.

Then, the screen became black, and then, he heard the bear's voice said:

"Jason Harris, the Ultimate Chess Player. What a loving and supporting family for such a talented boy. But, one day..." the bear's voice said, and then, the screen changed, and then there was a picture of the living room destroyed like a tornado passed through there.

"What happened to such a lovely family? FIND OUT AFTER GRADUATION" the bear continued, and the last four words appeared in red, with black in the background.

To say that Jason was surprised was an underestimation. However, you couldn't say he panicked too. While he did was worried for them, it didn't have a big impact on him.

'So that what he meant by a motive... he wants to increase our desire to leave, so we'll kill each other. That is certainly raising the risks of a murder occurring. And it also puts me in great danger, more than the others. I'm considered smarter than the rest of the students, so if someone will try to kill, he may try to kill me, as I have a higher chance to discover the identity of the culprit. I'll have to be more careful from now on...' Jason thought, and then noticed that while he was watching the DVD, the others also arrived, and most looked terrified right now.

"W-What the fuck is this!?" shouted Mondo

"This can't be real, right? It has to be fake, right!?" said Aoi

"No way it's real... no way..." said Leon

"I can't take this anymore! Let me out of here!" shouted Toko

Most of the others had a similar reaction, and then Kyoko said:

"I see. This is what Monokuma had meant by 'motive'..." she said with her usual stoic tone and expression.

"Indeed. It's the classic prisoner's dilemma" said Celestia

"Huh?" Hifumi asked

"It means that the fear of possible betrayal increasing the likelihood that other people will decide to betray as well" explained Celestia

"T-That sounds like us... everyone says they'll work together, but in the end, we're all afraid that someone might betray us..." said Toko

"Don't say things like that! That's exactly what the mastermind wants!" exclaimed Kiyotaka, but even he looked shaken.

"You may say that, but there's a chance that you're planning to betray us yourself!" said Leon, eyeing Kiyotaka with suspicion.

"Stop it! That's exactly what the mastermind wants! They want us to fight each other!" said Sakura

"You're right... we all need to calm down..." said Chihiro

"Maybe if we'll all talk about our videos, that will help us to calm down... I'm sure that everyone is like, super curious anyway" said (fake) Junko

"Maizono-San... what was in your video?" Makoto asked Sayaka, however, he didn't receive an answer from her.

Her eyes were lifeless, as she continued to stare at the screen. Then, Makoto tried to touch Sayaka's shoulder, and then, without any warning, Sayaka loudly shouted in fear, and run out the room. Jason saw Makoto quickly running after her, and just sighed in disappointment at his actions. Jason could tell that Sayaka was up to no good, but Makoto, in his naivety, still decided to follow the girl. Jason hoped that Makoto knew what he was doing, or else, he'll end up as a body.

Then, slowly, everyone started to go back to their rooms.

~~~ Time Skip ~~~

At night, Jason was woken up by the ring of his doorbell. He quickly stood up, and went to the door, only to see that someone inserted a note under his door. The note said:

"There's something I want to talk to you about, just the two of us. Please come see me in my room in five minutes. Check the nameplate to make sure you get the right room, okay?

Sayaka"

'It looks like I'm being targeted as I thought... It also seems that I was right about her being up to no good, and now she wants to kill me. Does she think I'm that stupid to go to her room? It's obviously a trap. I'll go and confront her about it first thing in the morning. I just hope that she won't do anything else' Jason thought and went back to sleep.

~~~ Time Skip ~~~

In the morning, Jason went straight to Sayaka's room. However, before he knocked on the door, he immediately noticed something.

'Wait a minute... isn't it supposed to be Makoto's room?' Jason thought, and then checked the map in his e-handbook, and saw that he was right, but it didn't change the fact that Sayaka's nameplate was on the door to Makoto's room. Jason immediately understood what happened and thought:

'So that's why she specifically said to check the nameplate... Makoto, you naive fool' he thought and knocked on the door. Receiving no answer, he tried to open the door and saw that it was open, so he entered the room and closed the door behind him.

The room was messy, with multiple slashes traces on the floor and walls, and a golden sword and its sheath on the floor, indicating that there was some kind of a fight in the room, and the sword was involved in it. Then he noticed that the door to the bathroom was open, but he noticed two other things about the door.

First, he noticed that the screws from the doorknob were removed, indicating that someone used a screwdriver to do so. Seeing that, Jason immediately checked the tool kit in Makoto's room, only to see that the screwdriver in it wasn't used, which meant that another boy was in here tonight.

The second thing was, that it seemed that the door doesn't fit the frame properly, which seemed weird for Jason, but he understood that it was because of this, that someone removed the screws off the doorknob.

Then, he finally stepped into the bathroom, and saw something he didn't expect to see. It wasn't some other boy who was on the floor, but Sayaka herself was there, laying on the wall dead with a knife in her stomach, which wasn't any knife, but from what it looks, it was one of the kitchen knives Jason saw and used at the kitchen.

Her wrist also looked swollen and red, indicating that she may have broken it, but something else caught Jason's attention about her wrist. There was some kind of golden powder on her wrist, which Jason noticed was similar to the sword's color, which Jason understood that it meant that someone hit her with the sword, and broke her wrist.

Another thing that caught Jason attention was her left index finger, which had blood on it. Jason found it weird that her hands were spotless, but her left index finger had blood on it, so his eyes trailed around her body, until he saw something behind her back, on the wall. There was a writing in blood that said:

"11037"

'11037? I can't think of any special meaning to it... wait a second. It looks like there is a line connecting between the 11 part, even though it's pretty faint, which forms the letter N. Now it's N037.

And more than that, if someone were to write something at that angle, everything he writes will be written upside down. So, if I were to turn it around 180 degrees, I'll get...

I see. It seems that in her dying moments, she decided to tell us who the culprit is. However, I can't rely on only one evidence, so I need to check one more place, to confirm whether it is him or not...' Jason thought, and then exited the room. However, when he closed the door, he saw Makoto running to his direction.

Seeing him, Makoto asked:

"Harris-Kun? What are you doing here? Wait, do you know what happened to Maizono-San!?" he asked in a panic.

Jason just sighed and said:

"I believe that you should look inside and check for yourself" Jason said, and left to the place he mentioned earlier. As he walked to the place he thought of, he could hear the scream of Makoto.

When Jason arrived at the place he thought of earlier, the trash room, he saw something that confirmed his assumption.

Normally, no one would be able to get access to the incinerator within the trash room, as there is a big metal gate blocking access to it, and only the person who's in charge of the trash can open it, and so it happened, that when he first checked the trash room, the bear chose him to be the one in charge of the trash for the first week. As he looked from where he stood, without opening the gate, he saw that the incinerator was on, although he turned it off yesterday, and saw some fragments of glass on the floor, near the button that turns the incinerator on. He also saw a shred of a bloody sleeve next to the incinerator.

'From what it looks like, someone threw through one of the holes in the gate what seems to be that glass ball Yasuhiro always carrying with him, hit the button to turn on the incinerator, and threw his bloody shirt to the incinerator, but a piece of his shirt tore off. It seems impossible to hit the button all the way from here, however, there is one person among us who is capable of doing it, and that person is the culprit, just like the person whose name Sayaka wrote...' Jason thought and exited the trash room.

As he exited the trash room, an announcement from Monokuma was heard:

*DING DONG DING DONG*

"A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use as you like, the class trial will begin!"

Then, he felt a vibration from his e-handbook, so he checked it out, and then he saw something different in the school regulations, as a new rule was added, and Rule No. 7 became Rule No. 8:

Rule No. 7: When a body is discovered by three or more students, an announcement will play, to inform everybody of the body's existence.

Rule No. 8: Additional rules may be added if deemed necessary.

'So they discovered the body... it'll be interesting to see who will be able to figure out the culprit's identity... although I already have an idea about who will play an important role in the discovery, and who will just watch... only if no one will discover, then I'll intervene' Jason thought and proceeded to write everything he discovered about the murder, including the culprit's identity, in the Notes function.