Alive: Peach, 11 others
Dead: ?
Peach dashed out into the hall, tears beginning to form in her eyes. If only she had decided to stay home…she brushed by Waluigi as he dashed to see who was dead.
"Good, he's alive!" she thought. But then she realized that that only increased the likelihood that someone she really cared about, like Mario, was dead. Luckily, she noticed the plumber's red hat as she descended the stairs. The screams were coming from the lounge downstairs.
"NO! No No No No! It just…she can't be…" sputtered an angry Toad. "Where's Shyster? We need a medic!" By now everyone had arrived to the scene of Toadette's death. She had apparently activated some trap to activate by placing herself under a weak point in the roof. The result of the trap was that Toadette had been steamrolled by what used to be Thwomps.
"Um…Shyster, well, he doesn't exist." Peach said. "When you guys left, I checked up on Shyster. He…well, he was made of wood. He was just a puppet."
"What do you mean? No! We just talked to him! He's clearly playing a prank on you! Shyster! Where are you!" Toad cried, now hysterical.
The other survivors stayed deathly silent.
"Toad, I don't know how to say this, but I found this in a compartment. In his head." Peach replied.
"So…there's no key at all? Toadette died for nothing? I…I can't believe this." Toad responded.
Mario asked, "Let me see that, Toad."
Wario responded, "No way! I get to read it first!"
"SHUT UP! Toadette just died and you two are arguing over who gets to read a stupid note first? You disgust me. I'll just read it to you." Toad snarled.
He continued, "The key does not exist. If you're reading this, then you've either figured this out, or most of your friends are dead."
"We…weren't supposed to know…" DK murmured.
Birdo mused, "That means…that the murderer planned this out. More of us are going to die."
Daisy spoke up. "What I don't get is how the murderer is going to escape if there is no key. He or she must be here."
Diddy questioned, "Wait…where's Shyster? It's him! I know he's planned this out!"
Wario laughed. "Ha! It couldn't possibly have been him! He's made of wood! Leave him out of this!"
Luigi came to a sudden realization. "Bu-But we're all alone in here. Trapped with the murderer!"
"Luigi, don't you see! We're not trapped with the murderer! One of us is the murderer!" Bowser exploded.
"Hmm…something about Shyster seems familiar…" Waluigi muttered. I don't know what it is…
Yoshi added, "Not to interrupt or anything, but what do we do now?"
Toad responded angrily. "Well, isn't it obvious? We find out who killed Toadette!"
Mario asked, "But where do we start? This is a huge mansion!"
"I think we should start with taking a closer look at Shyster. I can't shake the feeling that he's connected somehow…" Diddy stated.
"Sounds good." Toad responded, dripping with melancholy.
The group of twelve trudged back upstairs, heading to the last room, where Shyster McGuy had disappeared.
Upon arrival, Toad began to inspect the "body" of the Shy Guy.
"I…I can't believe that I bought that dumb story." He laughed cynically.
"What are you talking about, Toad?" Peach asked, a worried tone present in her voice.
"Oh, you of all people should know, Princess." Toad growled. "After all, I should've known it was you."
"What was me? What are you talking about?" Peach inquired.
"I don't think Toadette was the only one you killed." Toad said, with a biting tone in his voice.
"I didn't kill Toadette!" she pleaded.
"I think you did. Right before you killed Shyster! You probably had him knock himself out, thinking we'd flee for the key, then 'disposed' of his body, and replaced it with this dummy!"
"No, I…I know it sounds unreasonable, but…" Peach sputtered.
"You monster!" shrieked Toad, rushing at the Princess in a poorly thought out attack.
"Stop it! This is madness!" cried Mario, separating his friend from his love. "You're jumping to conclusions! Let's just calm down, and we can figure out who did this. Attacking each other will only make us weaker."
"I refuse to be in the same room as her!" yelled Toad.
"Well then, you can take the room on the opposite end of the hall." Mario stated flatly. "You will leave our presence. When you're ready to apologize, we'll welcome you back."
"Sheesh, don't treat me like I'm five." Toad muttered, stomping off angrily. A door down the hall slammed, and silence once again pervaded the house.
"Let me take a look at Shyster…he seems familiar…" grunted Waluigi. "Oh Wario, you must remember this guy!"
"What do you mean?" questioned Wario.
"He's from your company! I remember him from a tour of your factory! You know, the one not too far from here…" Waluigi tapered off.
"Oh yeah! That guy! I remember him! Sometimes, you know, I kinda forget. I make so many knickknacks that I forgot all about this Shy Guy dummy!" Wario laughed.
Mario added, "I think we may be on to something, Wario."
"Wha-you think I'm-a the murderer? Based off what? That a doll came from my factory? Come on." Wario stated. "It's-a ridiculous!"
"Not when I didn't trust you in the first place." Mario argued. "Let's go, Princess. I think we should leave."
Peach thought, and responded, "I trust you Mario. You'd best be right about this."
The two left, and opened the door to a room slightly closer than Toad's.
"Well, now that they're gone…" Waluigi muttered.
"Yoshi want Wario gone!" Yoshi stated.
"Birdo agrees!" enunciated Birdo.
Nods of approval sent Wario away, and he took the room next farthest away.
Waluigi commented, "Someone should make sure he's not plotting. I'm the only one he'll let in, so I'll go room with him."
And with that, Waluigi was gone from the room. Noticing that everyone was leaving, Yoshi and Birdo decided to slowly leave the room, and set up bedding in their own room.
Bowser commented, "Good, now that that clown Waluigi is gone, I can say that I hate Wario without offending anyone."
Luigi responded, "Oh yeah? Well you didn't have to spend a summer camp with him! When we were kids, Mario and I were room-mates with Wario and Waluigi. Waluigi wasn't so bad, but it was impossible to wake up Wario in the morning! So we were always late for breakfast. Then, Wario ate all the food! So while we went hungry, Wario feasted, eating eggs, and bacon, and toast, and…I heard the food there was really good too!"
Bowser rubbed his stomach. "Oh, I'm hungry! It's time for dinner!" he realized. "Want to come with me to see if we can find any food?
Daisy responded, "Nah, I'm not hungry right now." She then went into the room next to Yoshi and Birdo's, and Luigi decided to follow her.
Before he left, Luigi asked, "If you find anything, bring me back something."
DK responded with a simple thumbs-up. The trio of DK, Diddy, and Bowser traversed downstairs to the kitchen.
Opening the refrigerator, Bowser found a simple note. It read:
Food in Basement.
Bowser sighed. Of course the food was in the basement! He turned to the two Kongs and said to them, "Let's go to the basement."
The trio quickly found the basement and descended the stairs.
They were shocked to hear a sort of snapping sound, and saw a large Silver Chomp rolling towards them. Bowser was hit with a dilemma: try to dodge or stop the Silver Chomp?
Seeing as Diddy and DK decided to stop the Silver Chomp with brute force, Bowser realized that he must contribute to their effort. He quickly found that it was a losing battle.
Bowser turned to leave, but saw that Diddy and DK didn't. Before the Silver Chomp flattened him, Bowser snagged Diddy away from the Silver Chomp. Diddy glared at Bowser in anger. He angrily asked, "Why didn't we save DK? We could've stopped the Silver Chomp!"
Bowser shook his head. DK could not have been saved. It was useless trying to explain this fact to Diddy, but Bowser decided to return to the basement to get food. Luckily, the trap wasn't reset, and Bowser was able to carry a few crates of food, along with Diddy's help, back to the kitchen.
On the way back upstairs, Bowser bumped into Yoshi. Yoshi exclaimed, "Yoshi hungry! Where food?"
Diddy gestured to the crates sadly. Picking one up, Yoshi waddled over to where the kitchen, where the other eight residents were. Bowser, Diddy, and DK had beaten them to the kitchen by only a few minutes, and the others had just found the note stating that the food was in the basement.
"Got food!" declared Yoshi gladly.
"Well, actually, you did nothing, Yoshi. Diddy, DK, and I got it from the basement." Bowser commented.
"Wait, where's DK?" Peach inquired.
"Bowser killed him!" Diddy angrily outburst.
"I-Is that true?" Luigi asked.
"No! I saved Diddy! DK and Diddy were about to be crushed by a Silver Chomp, and I pulled Diddy away from it. DK wasn't strong enough to stop it, and I didn't think the three of us combined were strong enough either." Bowser replied.
"I'm still suspicious." Said Mario.
"Well congratulations Mario, one of us killed our two friends and you're suspicious? Good job!" Diddy sarcastically remarked.
"I think it's time we start dinner!" Birdo quickly interrupted.
Toad sat by himself in a corner while the rest of the group began preparing a meal of spaghetti.
It was a quiet and uneventful dinner. Everyone sat with the one with whom they arrived.
Diddy walked up to Toad and began to try to talk to him. "You know, you can't pout forever. At some point, you've got to get over it."
Toad responded, "How can I try to calm down when I know that Peach killed my best friend? It's not possible!"
Diddy replied, "I had the same reaction with Bowser. It all seemed so obvious. Bowser had led us downstairs, and then didn't try to fight off the Silver Chomp. At first, I blamed him. But now, well…now I'm not sure what I would have done in his situation. I'm not saying he's innocent, but I think you've gotta give Peach a chance."
Toad dismissively remarked, "I'll forgive who I want! I'll decide who I think is the killer! And right now, I know it's Peach!"
At this point the conversation had become far too awkward for most of the people who were dining to stay. Soon, Diddy and Toad were the last two left.
Diddy responded, "But now, no matter what happens, you're a target. Everyone's fed up with you, so if you go down…it's not like there's an instant suspect. And if you're right, and Peach is the murderer, then I can guarantee you'd be next on my list. The only thing that might save you is if Peach decides to keep you around a little longer just so that people don't suspect her."
"Well you know what? I'm done with this. None of you will listen to me! I'm going to my room now, and if you try to follow me, I'll give people reason to believe I killed DK and Toadette. Ya hear?" An angry Toad responded.
The rest of the residents of 1221 Independence Gulch, Isle Delfino stayed in their rooms for the rest of the night. Well, all except for one. One person looked at the room around them. Waluigi, one of the people sleeping there, woke up as he heard the murderer tiptoe over
Noticing the knife in the murderer's hand, Waluigi tried to scream. The glint of a knife's blade was the last thing Waluigi as a clean slice was all it took to leave the thin man without a head. Snickering, the murderer carefully placed the head in the arms of the dead Waluigi. "Someone would be in for a surprise when they discover this." The murderer thought. The murderer then decided to go to bed and wait for the next day. Three down.
Alive: Mario, Peach, Luigi, Daisy, Bowser, Wario, Diddy, Yoshi, Birdo, Toad
Dead: Toadette, DK, Waluigi