Despite her lack of announcement earlier, Monokumadi came over the intercoms to announce that Addie's body had been found. Was it just not working before? Spade didn't know.

Gradient "magically" (meaning, he made himself known after shadowing silently for the past hour) appeared behind them, and seemed annoyed that his knife had been taken from him.

"Hey, that's mine!" He stepped forwards, unbothered by the bloody mess as he aggressively yanked the bloodied blade out of Addie's stomach. Some dark blood splattered out, and dripped from the knife as Gradient cleaned it off casually with his sleeve. He stepped out of the blood, leaving red footprints on the floor as he walked back to the door.

While Akik had been near emotionless a majority of the day, he now looked like he was about to have a panic attack. His hand clutched his chest, his breathing trembled, and his eyes stared at nothing.

"Akik? Are you alright?" Spade gabbed his shoulder, looking at him with concern.

Akik shook his head. "Nonono... I'm... I can't do this anymore."

"Hey, stop, it's gonna be okay-"

"I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!" Akik shoved Spade away from him, using the momentum to immediately run down the hall away from the crime scene.

"Akik, wait-!" Spade rounded the corner of the doorframe, accidentally almost knocking Xerc over. Spade managed to catch a glimpse of Akik slamming his dorm door shut before he disappeared.

Xerc stared for a moment before he spoke again. "...so what were you trying to show us again?"

Spade didn't want to investigate anything right now, really, but he knew he probably should. It's possible that, because Monokumadi didn't announce the unfamiliar body on the fifth floor, she had no idea there was another body. Meaning, assuming she and the mastermind behind the killing game were the ones cleaning up the crime scenes, the body would remain there.

I'll just hope that Akik's alright, Spade thought with a silent sigh.

"Let's figure this out, I guess," Spade said, stepping towards the body.

"Don't."

Spade turned to Xerc in surprise. "What?"

Xerc leaned against the wall, eyes on the open page of his sketchbook which his pencil darted across.

"I already know who did it, there's no reason to search," Xerc said solemnly. "You go check on Akik if you want to."

Spade stared at him in surprise, but then nodded. "Okay."

-

Spade knocked on Akik's dorm door.

"Akik, are you alright?"

"Go away!"

Akik's voice was muffled by the door, but the tearful waver of his tone was unmistakable. While Akik hadn't been the most purely emotionless person of the group, he'd still kept himself together before this, so his breakdown was honestly a surprise to him.

"Akik, please, I know it's hard right now," Spade said. "But we can make it out of here. You were the one that told me that, right? Where'd that optimism go?"

"How can I be optimistic right now?" Akik snapped bitterly. "Everyone's basically dead! I essentially killed two innocent people! There is nothing left to be optimistic about, Spade."

"You didn't kill Tonix and Fabian, Akik," Spade said. "Fabian dug his own grave by trying to kill Tonix, and Tonix obviously was hanging on the edge already. None of that was your fault!"

"But it was. Fabian would've never killed Tonix had I been with him. And if Fabian didn't kill him, he wouldn't have been tried! They could both still be alive had I not left Tonix alone!"

"Had he not killed Tonix, he would've killed someone else," Spade sighed. "He had motivations, and was prepared to execute his plans based upon them. None of that was your fault." He exhaled again. Gods, this was exhausting. "Please, just let me in, at least? The trial won't start without you, anyway, so you'll have to come out eventually."

Akik didn't respond. But eventually, the door opened. His face wasn't wet from crying - he'd probably tried to hide it - but his puffy eyes said all he needed to know. His eyes were distant, hands shaking.

"...let's just get this over with." His tone was raspy, almost.

Monokumadi's voice pierced Spade eardrums again. "Doesn't seem like anyone cares about the crime scene at this point, so let's just skip on ahead to the long-awaited class trial! Head on down to the trial room, students, I'm waiting~!"

Spade glanced at Akik again before following him down the hall.

-

Seven portraits stood with X's painted over them. Four people now stood in the trial circle.

Monokumadi sat with her legs crossed as usual, that grin still plastered on her face. "Alright, everyone, let's get-"

"No need, actually."Xerc spoke up before she could finish her sentence. "I did it."

Everyone stared at Xerc. It really wasn't much of a surprise, but it was really that he'd admitted it immediately. The trial'd barely started, for crying out loud.

"Xerc, you-"

"It was me," Xerc glared at Spade, who'd tried to reason with his apparent suicide mission. "But hear me out before you kill me."

Silence filled the room. Monokumadi seemed intrigued.

Xerc inhaled deeply. "I did kill Addie. But I didn't do it out of cold blood. That kid was a monster. You may not think so, but I saw her with my own two eyes. You notice how her blood was oddly black? That's because she's not natural. She can't be. She's possessed, or supernatural, or something. But I killed her to protect everyone. Just... know that. I'm not a killer. My only motive was saving the rest of you. So that you all had a chance before she picked you all off."

He looked down at the ground. "That's it. You can get rid of me now. I don't care anymore."

Spade stared in a shocked, frozen trance. Akik didn't reveal anything beyond his icy facade. Gradient was playing with the knife he'd taken back from Addie's body, the bloodstains still evident on the silver blade.

Monokumadi clapped. "Welp, that's all she wrote, folks! Since Xercantoli here's given himself up, let's just skip to the fun part!

"The ultimate punishment for the ultimate artist!"

-

1027 words

Short chapter, sorry :(

Anyway yup it was Xerc and no one actually claimed it to be Xerc so no cookie for you >:(