#it wouldn't be a theorizing session of mine without me overlooking obvious evidence lol

[stillthewc]

I know I usually leave my opinions of each chapter contained in the tags, but this one gave me an incredibly big epiphany about the narrative as a whole, so I feel the need to talk about it in-depth. I'll throw in a "read more" as a spoiler buffer for both the murder and overarching narrative, and here goes:

Due to the lack of evidence pertaining to Hana's death, and the increased focus on who got who's secret because of it, I couldn't help but zone in on everyone's for the sake of this case. However, what really got my attention was this paragraph right here:

Sure, maybe I'm misinterpreting this section, and it simply means Katsumi realized nobody got Hana's secret, but my initial reading was that Hide wasn't discussed once. Quickly, I realized something: that's probably why Daisuke's secret was thrown in: it wasn't simply a "plot twist" for the rest of the class to uncover, but was more of a necessity than anything.

You see, I'm convinced Hide's secret was never given out, specifically because he's not actually physically there.

Ever since that "lotus" experiment was introduced back in "Lockdown", I've been thoroughly on the train of thought of "Hide's a shared hallucination by the rest of the class, and isn't real". And, since this trial got me curious, I decided to look back at previous chapters to see if my thoughts held any weight. And, while it's since switched to "only Katsumi can see him", holy shit is there a lot of evidence pointing to this being canon.

To start, how about the introduction? Most of them merely consist of Hide being in the background making small quips, but either being completely ignored by the introduced student or talking to Katsumi after the fact. However, Hotaru and Daisuke both are introduced to Hide by Katsumi, with their reactions being less "friendly" and more "confused by the empty pocket of air Katsumi's claiming has a person standing in it".

In fact, despite everyone trying their best to be understanding of Katsumi's delusions, a ton of students make small quips about his existence:

But the biggest one to me is during Chapter 2, when given a photo of Eren, Keiko and Hide goofing off. Everyone's surprised with how Hide looks and, with the text taking on new meaning, what once read as "Hide looks way different than he does now" instead becomes "Oh, so that's what that imaginary friend of Katsumi's looks like!"

There's a ton more evidence than just this (like Pyuko's question to Monochan in Chapter 2 being less about Hide being a Reserve Course student and more about themselves, or "What Hide did wasn't your fault" now sounding like he tried killing himself and is in the Chapter 3 coma, or Hide being the only character to have his back to the camera in the trial CGs), but I'll leave things there for now. With this new narrative in mind, I'm sure my reading experience is going to be a lot different now 😉

I'll Bet My Life On It

The fourth trial begins, but everyone quickly realises how little information they have...

Ready for the insanity to begin? I hope you're ready! This trial was a LOOOOONG time coming and I'm so excited to finally release it! Hope you guys enjoy! <3

(also please yell in my inbox I love yelling in my inbox)