Chapter 3: Investigation Life 1

I have never seen death before in my life. I thought if I ever saw a corpse, I'd be prepared, but no matter how long I could have waited, I could not pretend not to feel that I felt when I saw Jaden Turner's body. Nobody saw me in my room as I backed up and tried to catch my breath. I tried to slap myself hoping it was only a dream, but I knew it was real.

I gathered up all my strength to leave my ruined room and join up with the others outside. Everyone else was already there surrounding Jaden's deceased body.

"What happened?!" I asked.

"I don't know." Tom answered. "Christine, Ken, and I were looking for a way out of town, but before we could begin, we found Jaden's lifeless body."

"Are we sure he's dead?" Adrian asked. "It could be a trick."

"I just checked." Ken said. "He's definitely dead. Looks like something hit him really hard in the back of his head."

"Does anyone know where he fell from?" Tom asked.

"The broken window is from my room." I confessed.

"Wait, he fell from your room?" Dan asked.

"That sounds suspicious." Stephen said.

"Statement: I agree." Audrey said.

"Hey, don't look at me." I defended. "I'm not a villain. There's only two people in this town: Monokuma and the Mayor. How do we know neither of them killed Jaden?"

Monokuma jumped out of nowhere making a buzzer sound. "Wrong! Hate to break it to ya, but neither me nor the Mayor killed Bob the Builder."

"And we're just supposed to take your word for it?" I asked.

"Johnny boy, trust me." Monokuma said. "I'm a stickler for the rules. Even at the forest, no park ranger would bother checking in on me. And according to the rules, neither me nor the Mayor can harm any of the citizens unless they break a rule, and so far, Jaden has had a clear record. What I'm trying to say is, we didn't off him."

"Then who did?" I asked.

"Who do you think, Encyclopedia Brown?" Monokuma asked. "The killer is… ONE OF YOU FOURTEEN!"

We were stunned in silence. We looked at each other, although, most of them were looking at me.

"Yesiree, folks." Monokuma continued. "One of you guys is a murderer. Now, all you need to do is figure out 'whodunnit'."

"Could you explain the whole process again?" Charlotte asked. "We need to know as much of the rules as we can."

"Man, you kids are dense." Monokuma said. "Fine. Here's how it works: you all have three hours to investigate. Find as many clues as you can. When time is up, I expect all of you at the courthouse where you can compare notes, contradict statements, and vote on who you think the blackened is. The outcome is decided by a vote. If you guess right, then I shall punish (or execute) the blackened. But if you guess wrong, then I'll punish everyone except for the blackened and he/she will get to leave Hope City with their head held high awaiting for the future."

"This vote you're talking about," Charlotte said, "Does it have to be unanimous?"

"Of course not." Monokuma said.

"Well, sorry, Johnny." Charlotte said. "Looks like we might be in trouble if most people think you're the blackened."

My breath was stalled again. I wake up, and the first thing I learned is that a friend of mine was killed by another. Now, because he apparently fell from my room, I'm the prime suspect. Judging by the looks, Charlotte, Tom, Vanessa, and Ken are dead set that I'm the killer. The others seem to be 50-50 on the idea. It was clear that I had to investigate this on my own. I have to succeed, for my mom's sake.

Before he left, Monokuma presented each of us with a black folder. He called it the Monokuma File. He said that it gave us the report on Jaden's death. I thought it might be worth a look. I opened it up and read the file.

"The victim's name is Jaden Turner, the Ultimate Architect. The time of death is sometime between 9 pm last night and 7 am this morning. The victim fell from the third floor bedroom. There is also a sign of a spiking blow to the back of his head."

I couldn't find anything useful in this stinking file. I put it away and moved on to observe the body. The Monokuma file was right. There really was a blow in Jaden's head.

Suddenly, I was greeted by Owen Sampson, the zoologist. He seemed kinda nervous about approaching me.

"Hey, listen…" Owen said, "Everyone decided we should investigate in pairs. That way, we can confirm each other's findings and make sure we don't mess up any evidence."

"Won't that be a problem?" I asked. "After all, most of you are suspicious of me. Aren't you risking your life by being with me?"

"Hey, if I die, then their suspicions of you being the killer are confirmed." Owen chuckled. "Sorry, I shouldn't be laughing around a dead body. So, what did you find?"

"Well, Jaden has a hole in the back of his head. He couldn't get that just by falling. But the strange thing is the lack of glass shards. There should be some around his body since he crashed through the window, but I can't find any."

"That's strange." Owen said.

"That's not the only thing." I said. "Yesterday, Sabrina told me that the windows of the hotel can't break. So how did the one in my room just shatter?"

"Maybe the killer replaced it." Owen said.

"What?" I asked.

"Maybe they just removed the strong glass in your window and replaced it with one of those breakable ones in the hotel storage area."

"Breakable ones?"

"You didn't know that? Me and a couple of the others found them while we were exploring the hotel yesterday. I assumed everyone else was told."

"No one told us anything. Can I see them?"

"Sure."

Owen took me to the storage area. There were boxes and dusty decorations. There was also Tom Wilson, the physicist, and Charlotte Grady, the aristocrat. Owen took me to the far end of the wall where three pane glass windows were leaning against the wall.

"These are breakable windows?" I asked.

"Should be." Owen said. "But the strange thing is, I could have sworn one of them had a crack on them. Now, they don't have a scratch."

That was weird.

"Hey, what do you all think you're doing?" Tom asked.

"We're just investigating." I said.

"Charlotte and I already checked the windows." Tom said. "They're clean."

"Yeah." Charlotte said. "Check somewhere else."

I was about to leave, but then I remembered something. "Hey, Tom, you were Jaden's roommate, right? Did he do anything last night that seemed suspicious?"

"Well…" Tom said, "He and I had a bit of a disagreement. He wanted the top bunk, and so did I. I told him arguing wasn't going to get us anywhere, so I left the room for a half-hour thinking in the lobby. Finally, I decided that fighting over a stupid bed was childish, so I went back to concede with him. But when I got back, he was gone. I assumed he was going to clear his head too."

"I can attest to that." Charlotte said. "They were definitely arguing over something. Their room is right next to mine. You're lucky your room is soundproof, Conway."

"How'd you know my room is soundproof?" I asked.

"The Mayor told us when Monokuma gave you a tour of the presidential suite." Charlotte said. "Let me tell you something, if it turns out you are the killer and you die, then I call dibs on your room."

I realized there was nothing left for me in the storage area. I lead Owen to my room. He took a moment to observe the mess of an area, including the glass shards by the broken window, the bloddy sword handle, and the knight's gauntlets on the floor in front of the collapsed armor.

"There's something I don't get." Owen said. "If you aren't the killer, how come you didn't notice someone fell out of a window?"

"I was asleep." I explained.

"Well, if someone broke a window throwing someone out and you didn't notice, you must be a pretty heavy sleeper."

That's when I remembered. There was a time when I barely woke up. I overheard some voices shouting, but I didn't make out who they were or what they were saying. And for some reason, I fell back to sleep like a rock. How could I just fall asleep when I knew someone was in my room?

The last place I could think of to check was Jaden and Tom's room. Once we were there, we ran into the duo of Arthur Pierce, the engineer, and Faith, the futurist. The two of them were holding two things. There was a metal tank in Arthur's lap and a thin hose in Faith's hands.

"Where'd you find that stuff?" I asked.

"In the garbage in the hallway." Faith answered.

"Do you know what that stuff is?" Owen asked.

"Yeah." Arthur said. "I asked Ken about it, and he said it used to be filled with an unknown aerosol."

"Used?" I asked.

"Apparently, it's empty." Arthur explained. "No chance to discover what was in it with the limited resources we have. We also found two gas masks in the garbage."

"And you think all that's relevant to the case?" I asked.

"Given how Faith and I found it outside your bedroom door, I think it's best to consider it."

"Where would anyone even find that?"

"Probably from the boiler room." Faith said. "There were canisters for several different gases there. Probably a gift from Monokuma for whoever wants to kill with poisonous gas."

Suddenly, all of us heard the dinging sound. Suddenly, the Mayor's logo appeared on the screen.

"Attention, citizens of Hope City," he announced, "The time for investigation has come to an end. Everyone, gather in front of the courthouse for your trial."

I couldn't believe it. We can't investigate anymore? But I thought I didn't have enough evidence. I sighed and decided to accept it.

"Well, that blows." Owen said. "We're no closer on finding out who killed Jaden than when we started."

"We'll just have to work with what we have." I said. "You ready?"

Owen sighed. "Yeah, I think so."

In about 10 minutes, Owen, Arthur, Faith, and I made it in front of the courthouse with the others. They all exchanged suspicious looks at each other, but mostly towards me.

That's when the Mayor's logo appeared on the screen. "Welcome. I will open the doors for you all. Enter and pass judgment."

As soon as the doors opened, we all walked in without saying a word. It looked like an ordinary courtroom, but there weren't any benches. There was a circle of platforms for us to stand in and a big space for Arthur to rest his wheelchair at. On one platform, there was a photo of Jaden hanging there with a red X across his face. And towering over us, Monokuma sat on a chair that looked similar to a throne with the Mayor's TV screen logo hanging above his head.

I didn't like it, but if what Monokuma said was true, then one of the others really did kill Jaden in cold blood. And the only suspect so far is me. If they say I'm the killer, than me and twelve other people die. If there was ever a time to kick by brain into high gear and solve this complicated puzzle, now is the time. One way or another, I will find Jaden's killer.