Ibuki does make incredible music. The vast majority of her music is really good, actually. The music she played in the Titty Typhoon was "bad" on purpose.
She noticed Hiyoko was feeling awful. The death of Mahiru had gotten to her, and Fuyuhiko made her feel guilty. So, Ibuki played music she knew Hiyoko would like, or at least laugh at.
She did it for the person who she thought needed it most and would appreciate it most in that moment.
since orenronen didn't finish his translation of chapter 3 of sdr2 (at least not yet) and birdmanronpa starts at chapter 4, the only source for the chapter 3 trial comes from kuzuhiko's blog. (kuzuhiko has suddenly password-protected their blog, but there is a mirror, fear not!) however, kuzuhiko only has subbed videos available for the trial, rather than screenshots. and if you're unable to view the videos, then you have no way of seeing chapter 3's trial at all.
fear not! I haven't screencapped it, unfortunately, as that would have taken ages, but I have written out a rather detailed summary of the events of chapter 3's trial. if you would like to read it, it's right here below the cut!
WARNING: OBVIOUSLY, BIG SPOILERS AHEAD FOR CHAPTER 3 OF SUPER DANGAN RONPA 2.
Begins with Monobear explaining the rules, as usual. Komaeda comments that he doesn’t have a clear grip on this trial, and Owari agrees. Nanami asks Hinata, as the main witness, to recount what he saw. He describes everything that happened this morning as we already saw. After a full recap, including help from the others, Komaeda states that he doesn’t believe the story, because Hinata was the only one who saw the broadcast and Ibuki’s body the first time; he then accuses Hinata of being the culprit. Hinata disproves this by showing his movie ticket, which states he didn’t see the motive until after the murders occurred and therefore couldn’t have set them up in that sort of imitation. Komaeda admits that he never actually suspected Hinata; he just wanted to prove that his testimony was concrete.
Owari says there’s no doubt that Ibuki climbed up the ladder of her own free will, and Hinata agrees. Owari declares her death a suicide. Kuzuryuu then says that the killer must have killed Saionji in the time Hinata left the live house unattended, but he says it was only about 10 minutes, which is not enough time to kill her and string her up like that. Kuzuryuu theorizes that the killer had already been hiding out in the live house—they locked themselves in with the drumstick, and when the 4 broke in, the culprit was still inside. They went unnoticed, and pretended to join the crowd after them when everyone else came in. Therefore, he states that himself, Nanami, and Tsumiki have an alibi. Komaeda adds that Nidai is probably out, as well. Komaeda and Owari were out of commission in the hospital, and Gundam was spotted outside near the motel; therefore, Souda and Sonia are the only suspicious ones.
Hinata disproves this—the door wasn’t actually locked with the drumstick, but rather with a glue-like substance put between the two doors, which therefore allowed the culprit to leave, close the doors behind them, and effectively seal them from the outside while making it seem like they were sealed from the inside with a broken drumstick. This removes the alibi for Kuzuryuu, Nanami, Tsumiki, and Gundam.
They discuss the time issue in killing Saionji again and how impossible it was. Komaeda proposes that Saionji was already dead the first time Hinata entered the live house, even though her body wasn’t there. The evidence he uses is the scrap of black paper hanging from the light fixtures that one of Gundam’s hamsters retrieved for them. Hinata determines the scrap of paper tore off from the roll of black wallpaper covered in posters that was found in the storage room. He then concludes, with nudging from Komaeda, that Saionji’s body was there the whole time, already tied up and concealed by wrapping the wall paper around the entire pillar to hide her body. Therefore, all the culprit had to do in the 10 minutes Hinata was gone was to rip down the extra wallpaper, making it seem like her body appeared out of nowhere.
But why? The culprit was making it look like they had copied the movie, where the “scarecrow” who hanged themselves died first, and the “lion” who was strung up died second. The gang determines that the culprit was trying to confuse the order of the murders. In actuality, Saionji died before Ibuki. Nanami proves this by bringing up the fact that Ibuki had blood on the bottom of her slippers, meaning she stepped in it. Gundam disputes this, saying there was no blood to be seen anywhere; Hinata proves that Ibuki stepped in it, and then the culprit later cleaned it up off the stage. Additionally, Souda theorizes that the air conditioner was tampered with to make it harder for Tsumiki to determine the times of death; she agrees.
Komaeda proposes the theory that Ibuki killed Saionji, and then killed herself. Nanami points out that this is impossible because of the wallpaper trick, which happened after Ibuki was dead. Komaeda then asks: if it wasn’t suicide, then what was that broadcast Hinata saw?
Nanami confirms with Souda that the camera has no recording device, so it must have been happening live. Hinata reminds everyone that he saw the broadcast just before the Monobear morning announcement. Tsumiki suggests they find the people who have no alibi for that time, and Sonia agrees. Everyone agrees that sick Komaeda and Owari are the only ones with an alibi, since everyone else was sleeping (or “sleeping”) but Hinata disagrees, stating that he and Tsumiki have an alibi since they were together, considering Tsumiki had woken him up before the announcement and stayed with him from then until he saw the broadcast.
Komaeda thinks there’s another reason the culprit set up a copycat murder, other than to confuse the order of deaths. Nanami agrees something is strange—the lion in the movie was pinned up by arrows, but Saionji was just tied up with regular tape. Tsumiki suggests that the culprit simply used whatever supplies they had at hand, but Nanami says if they were really going for a copycat murder, they would have set it all up exactly right before carrying it out. Nanami then concludes that Saionji’s murder itself was not planned.
She also wonders why Saionji went to the live house at all. Several think she was forced out; Akane insists she was dragged out. Hinata says she wasn’t because her key was hidden in her kimono and she locked the door herself; Akane points out that her kimono was all disheveled. Hinata explains that it’s because she couldn’t dress herself without Koizumi’s help. Sonia recalls suggesting that Saionji go to the live house to use the full-length mirror there to tie her obi properly. Nanami then guesses that her death was an accident; she just so happened to walk in right as the culprit was about to kill Ibuki, and they were then forced to kill her to shut her up. The culprit then quickly tried to make it look like this was an intentional copycat murder.
Everyone wonders what the killer’s original plan was. Komaeda is asked to offer his opinion, and he talks about how he thought Ibuki was the murderer, and was only playing dead when Hinata saw her the first time so that she could then get down, tear down the wallpaper revealing Saionji, then actually kill herself. But he says this is impossible, because if she had done so, she would have left bloody footprints all around. The theory that Ibuki was playing dead was disproven ages ago, however, which Kuzuryuu points out, and Komaeda laughs it off as him being stupid and that they should ignore him. But Hinata realizes something—why didn’t Ibuki leave any bloody footprints at all, not even on the ladder that she supposedly used? Tsumiki says Hinata watched the broadcast of her using the ladder himself, but Gundam and Nanami wonder if there was something strange about the broadcast?
Hinata realizes that the ladder he saw in the broadcast was completely clean, but the ladder he saw on the stage had blood on the left side (the side facing the camera). And the broadcast definitely was not recorded, so the only possibility is a second ladder. Gundam points out that there was only one ladder in the live house, so Nanami states that it must have been somewhere else. Hinata realizes that the broadcast must have taken place in this other place, rather than in the live house. He states that the culprit took the camera out of the live house to do this. To hide the fact that the camera was gone from the live house, they smashed up the monitor in the live house, and Hinata in his panic didn’t check the remains. Then by the time he returned, the culprit had brought the missing camera back, smashed it up, and no one had ever known it was missing.
Since the range between the cameras and monitors isn’t very large, however, it could only have taken place somewhere nearby the hospital. Hinata realizes it must have been the hospital’s meeting room. The culprit made the live house look more like the meeting room—there used to be a red curtain on the stage, but the culprit hung a black curtain from the supermarket on the live house stage, similar to the one from the meeting room. The floors already happened to look the same. Additional evidence includes the candle from the video, since the lighting would have been different otherwise. But does this mean Ibuki was killed in the hospital?
No. The video was a fake. The person who climbed the ladder with a bag over their head was not Ibuki; it was the culprit. But who would have gone to such lengths to trick Hinata this way, and lead him away from their setup and straight to the crime scene? And why?
Hinata knows who. Do you?
The culprit is…
Mikan Tsumiki.
How does Hinata know this?
By creating that broadcast trick, the culprit was creating an alibi for themselves. Tsumiki was with him from the time they woke up to right before he saw the broadcast, upon which she went upstairs to rest. Of course, this would make it seem like it was impossible that she could be at the live house to perform the broadcast or the killings, but as we just determined, the broadcast took place upstairs in the hospital meeting room, right after Tsumiki went up there. With Komaeda and Owari down for the count, and Hinata in the lobby (meaning no one could have entered and slipped past him without him noticing), who else could it have been?
Mikan cries that someone as stupid and weak as her could never kill anyone, and several others agree. Owari firmly insists that the same girl who kindly nursed her back to health could never have been cold enough to commit murder. Before long, everyone sympathizes with the distressed Tsumiki, who points out that she is the constant target of bullying and this just fits the bill. Hinata seems like the bad guy now, and no one seems to believe him. Hinata even starts to doubt himself…that is, until Komaeda finally speaks up again, stating he has nothing important to say, just a decisive piece of evidence that will lead them right to the culprit.
He points out the rope that was used to hang Ibuki—a brand new rope, bought from the supermarket. But in his investigation, he noticed that it was split and worn in the middle, as though it had been rubbed against something. But it wasn’t part of the noose, or the part of the rope that hung from the stage lights.
Therefore, he concludes, Ibuki didn’t die from hanging—the culprit wound the rope around her neck and strangled her, then strung up her corpse. But how does this prove the culprit without a doubt?
During the investigation, Tsumiki confirmed that the cause of death was definitely hanging. But the wounds from hanging and strangulation are different, and a SHSL Nurse definitely ought to know the difference between the two. Of course, Komaeda kept this important information to himself the entire time, the bastard. Tsumiki, naturally, argues that she’s no forensic expert and made a mistake, please forgive her! To which Komaeda retorts that “even a drunk med student could tell the difference between hanging and strangulation.”
Several people are still wary, especially Owari, who was nursed so kindly by Tsumiki all this time. Komaeda argues that Ibuki would feel the same, and would therefore be lured out quite easily (in addition to her obedience symptom). Many still seem opposed to the idea, but after some words from Nanami about trust, they seem to begin giving in. And that’s when Tsumiki begins to act…strange.
THAT’S ENOUGH! SHE’S HAD ENOUGH OF BEING BULLIED! It’s unfairunfairunfairunfair. No matter what she does, no one ever seems to forgive her. WHY WON’T YOU JUST FORGIVE HER???
Komaeda seems exasperated that THIS is how she chose to talk herself out of it.
Nanami says they just have to force a confession out of her. She asks Tsumiki for proof that she didn’t do it, and Tsumiki asks for proof that she did. The meeting room thing was only a theory, right?? Why is it always her who’s hated?? JUST FORGIVE HER ALREADY!!! Kuzuryuu points out that she’s emotionally losing it, and he’s right.
Tsumiki asks Hinata how he can tell that the broadcast is faked, hmm? Can he tell the figures apart beneath that hospital gown, huh? With just that lighting? With just that camera angle?
Hinata says that she’s made a crucial mistake—he never said anything about the camera angle. So how is she commenting about it like she knows it?
Everyone seems convinced, even Owari. Tsumiki starts crying, and then—oh, but that’s unreasonable. What about the tote bag, she says? That very unique one of a kind tote bag? She latches onto this one last piece of evidence. Monobear was only selling one tote bag like that, for sure! There were no others! And since the bag was on Ibuki’s head at the live house, there’s no way it could be in the hospital as well for a supposedly “faked” broadcast! She seems quite pleased with herself, giggling happily.
But Hinata remembers something Monobear said to him—the bag was buy one, get one free. So even though only one was being sold, there were two bags, and the second one came with the first. And there goes her last defense.
Why…why do they all hate her so much? Why won’t they forgive her?
Hinata goes through Climax Inference, detailing the entire case start to finish. And when he’s done…Tsumiki starts giggling. She seems bizarrely pleased, describing how she knows this feeling well, the world crumbling down at her feet… the feeling of despair.
The votes are cast, and Tsumiki is declared guilty. And you may now continue to the aftermath.
