Jesse frowned, wondering how his day could have gone like this. 'This' being getting stuck in the middle of who-knows-where with both people he already knew, one of them turning up dead, and a bunch of other people who just so happened to share the same voice and the same name. 'I digress,' he said in his head, brushing away all his questions about the current situation before they even came up, 'I can worry about that later. Let's just look for that cloth and get it over with.'

He looked around the area, wondering who he should go and talk to first. 'Let's see,' he held his chin in thought as he looked at each group in the area. Dark Overalls was still talking to Ineligible, the girl combing her hair with her fingers as they spoke. She seemed nervous. Ineligible was just stern. 'I probably shouldn't bother them,' He thought, 'As much as I'd love to.' Then he looked at the next party he could talk to.

Red was still in her little corner with Petra and Reuben. Her back was against the hedge wall behind her, holding her arms as she stared into space. Petra was watching her with her knees to her chest. Reuben was sitting cross-legged beside the brunette. He was saying something, but Jesse couldn't hear.

He'd just spoken to Olivia and Logic, so by process of elimination, the only other people he could bother were Axel and Axe girl. He turned and walked over to their corner, where they were casually chatting.

In the middle of a murder.

Jesse muffled a snort as he made it to the black haired pair in an unsuccessful attempt to keep them from hearing it. Axe girl turned to him just as he made it up to them. She waved, "Hello, other-Jesse!"

The boy made a face. "Uh, I'd really rather you not call me that."

Axe girl frowned, and crossed her arms. "Yeah, it's a mouthful, isn't it?"

'Not really the reason I had in mind,' Jesse thought with a frown, 'but sure.'

The girl didn't seem to notice. She held her chin in thought for a moment, then her arms fell to her sides. "Alright, what's the word on your tattoo, then? See, look," She extended her left arm, showing off the word tattooed to the inner side of it. "You can call me 'Thief!'"

Jesse couldn't help but laugh. "Why's your name 'Thief?'"

She shrugged, a sly grin on her face as she held her hands behind her back. "No clue." Axel stifled a laugh as Jesse skeptically raised a brow. "...Sure."

Thief clapped her hands. "So! What does your tattoo say?"

"Oh, uh.." Jesse extended his right arm in the same fashion as Thief, "Nonchalance."

Axel's brow furrowed, his eyes narrowing at the tattoo. "Non-what?"

"Hello, Non!" Thief grinned from ear-to-ear as she held out the hand of her tattooed arm, "I'm Thief! Pleasure to meet you!"

Jesse walked closer and silently accepted the handshake. 'She shares the same name as me, and she's a perky woman who acts like today's a normal day.' He smiled as they let go, 'I like her.'

"So what did you need, Non?"

'I might as well get straight to the point.' he cleared his throat, "Do you guys happen to have a human-sized cloth that could, I dunno.. cover up a body?"

The pair gave him a confused look, until Thief glanced at the body and winced. "Ah.." She held the nape of her neck as her head lowered, her gaze switching from the floor, to the body, to Jesse. She laughed nervously. "No, sorry. I've got nothing."

Axel shook his head. Looks like he didn't have any cloth either. Jesse blew an annoyed raspberry. "I see." He looked away for a moment, then turned back to the ravenettes. "So how are you guys? You doing okay?"

The two friends shared a weary glance. She shrugged. "Considering someone just died and his girlfriend-" Jesse quirked a brow at this, "-thinks I killed him? Plus the fact that a bunch of other people share my name?"

Axel crossed his arms. "We could be worse."

"Wait," Jesse held up a hand, "'girlfriend?'"

Thief immediately pointed at Axel, eyes wide. "That's what he told me!"

Jesse craned his neck to look at Axel for answers, as did Thief. Axel only gave them both an innocent shrug. "What? She sounded like she was!"

The boy crossed his arms as he gave his taller friend an unimpressed look, brows raised. Thief simply glanced around. "So she didn't actually tell you that?"

"Does it matter?" Axel asked, crossing his arms as he huffed.

Jesse's eyes narrowed at Axel. Sure, it would explain her reaction earlier, and…

He heaved a sigh and rubbed his eyes, "Yeah, kind of. It just reminded me of something," He looked back up at his (Thief's?) friend, "Why did you call her 'Red' earlier?"

Axel blinked as he uncrossed his arms. "'Red.' Y'know, short for 'redemption.' It's the word on her arm."

"So the tattoo on her arm says 'redemption?'"

"Yeah."

'So Olivia and Logic have the same tattoos, Red and Lukas have the same tattoos…' He held his chin in thought, his brows furrowing. 'I'm beginning to see a pattern here.' He looked up. "Axel, does your tattoo say 'thief' too?"

The other boy's dark eyes blinked in surprise. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

The brunette shrugged. "Lucky guess." He glanced around, then clapped his hands. "Anyway, I've gotta go. Thanks, guys."

Thief smiled and waved. "You're welcome!"

He returned the wave, then turned back to face the lake, and the rest of the area. Red's corner was at the left, and Ineligible and Dark Overalls were at the right- closer to the crime scene, where Olivia and Logic were busy talking. Now, Jesse could either talk to all of them in a full circle from the crime scene by talking to Petra, Red and Reuben first; or he could just go ahead and ask Dark Overalls what her stupid tattoo said, because there was no doubt in Jesse's mind that her name was also Jesse.

But, even with that, Jesse chose to talk to Petra, Red and Reuben. 'I don't know what Reuben's tattoo is.' He thought as he walked left, 'And though I could guess for myself, I still wanna see. I could be wrong, for all I know.'

Reuben's head snapped in his direction as he got closer, the grass beneath him making noise as he walked over. "Hey, Jesse." He said quietly. Weird. Reuben's not usually like this.

"Hey." He looked over to the two girls in front of him. Red was still in the same position as before. Her hair was a mess (and was also, Jesse now realized, cut in basically the exact same style as his). There were dark circles under her eyes, and there were still tear stains lining her cheeks. She gave him a half lidded glare. He titled his head and looked at her in the exact same manner. 'If you want me to go away, that's too bad. I'm staying here.'

She only blinked, as if she heard his thoughts and that was her response. Then she looked down and let her hands drop to her lap, where she began to twiddle her thumbs.

Then he looked at Petra. Unlike earlier, she was standing up, but that wasn't the only thing different from when he saw her earlier. So much anger radiated from her that Jesse almost felt like not talking to her and just leaving her alone. Almost. She leaned against the same hedge wall as Red with her arms crossed and glaring at someone who must've been behind Jesse. He turned to follow her gaze, to see Thief holding her left arm and shuffling about where she stood. Axel himself seemed uneasy.

'I wonder what they did?'

"What is it?" Red asked from where she sat, although it sounded more like a croak.

Jesse blinked, "I just have a few questions. That's all."

She craned her neck to look up at him, the same angry look from earlier still on her face. "Go on."

"First off," Jesse turned to Reuben, "Do you have a tattoo on your arm?"

Reuben nodded as he held up his right arm, pulling the pink jacket sleeve in the process. "Yeah, here." He pointed to the tattoo, which had the word 'NONCHALANCE' on it, just like all the others. The younger boy's eyes lowered to Jesse's own right arm. "You have the same one?" Jesse nodded, briefly showing him the tattoo before turning to Petra.

"Your tattoo says 'justice,' right?"

She stopped glaring at Thief and Axel and turned to him, tilting her head as she put a hand to her hip. "Who told you that?"

"Logic did." He pointed at the boy at the other side of the lake, "Do you happen to share that tattoo with anyone else?"

She jerked her head in Dark Overall's direction. "Yeah, Jess-" she stopped herself, "The girl in yellow stripes has the same tattoo."

Jesse looked at the girl in dark overalls. 'So, Justice then.' He blinked, then looked back at Petra. "Okay then. Next question," he pointed a thumb at the corpse, which Olivia and Logic were standing over, "Do you happen to have a human-sized cloth that could cover that up?"

When they looked at the corpse, Red drew her knees to her chest, Reuben winced, and Petra frowned. She closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. "Yeah, I've got some cloth." From out of her inventory she brought out two capes. She handed them both to Jesse. "Logic and I found these in this hut we woke up in."

"You woke up in a hut too?"

"We all did." Red said suddenly. Both Petra and Jesse looked down at her. Her eyes were fixed on them, but her head was kept low. Then she hugged her knees and looked away.

That reminds him. He mentally grinned as he spoke, "Third question. What's your relationship with Lukas?"

She glared at him. Not the reaction he was expecting, but he'll take it. "Why do you care?"

He shrugged. "Just asking. Axel said you were his girlfriend." Red's face expressed shock for a second, but it was gone in an instant, replaced with a glare. Petra's and Reuben's surprised eyes immediately went to the girl, who said nothing. He crouched so that he was at eye level with the brunette. "I just wanted to confirm it."

She shifted and buried half her face in her knees. All Jesse could see now were her glaring eyes, which were almost covered by her dyed-red bangs (this girl seemed to have a thing for the color red). There was silence for a few moments, the two having a staring contest as it happened. He smirked. Her eyes narrowed. "He was - is - my best friend." She buried her head in her knees, muffling her reply. Jesse only barely managed to hear her. "End of story."

Jesse glanced at Reuben, who was very obviously pitying Red. He pursed his lips as he turned to look at Jesse, eyes sad. He only returned the gesture with a dull look. Reuben's eyes hardened into a glare. Jesse responded with an 'oh well' face as he shrugged, then he stood up and turned to Petra. "Yeah, that's all I've got for now." He flashed a grin and held up the capes, "Thanks for these!"

Petra raised a brow, "You're welcome." He could've sworn it sounded more like a question, but he brushed it off. His grin grew wider. Then he pocketed the capes and walked away, humming a happy little tune as he did so.

The only pair left now was Ineligible and Justice. 'What a weird name, Justice.' He mused as he walked over. The girl was biting her lip and glancing around. She was sweating bullets. Ineligible, on the other hand, had his arms crossed. 'I liked Dark Overalls better.' Justice's eyes landed on Jesse as he got to them. She gave him a small smile, "H-Hello!" Ineligible turned to him slightly, and Jesse gave them both a grin.

Ineligible rolled his eyes, "What do you want?"

Jesse pouted and sent the boy a glare, before turning so that he was facing both of them. "What've you guys been talking about?"

"O-oh." Justice started combing her hair again, "uh.. Eli was just-"

"Eli?"

She shrugged. "It sounds nicer than Ineligible."

Jesse raised a brow as his eyes briefly looked to Ineligible. A small smile was on his face, but it faded as quickly as it came. Justice continued, with a little struggle. "A-anyway, Eli was j-just asking about what I s-saw." She bit her lip and glanced to her left nervously, "Y-you know, wh-when…" She coughed into her fist, the word 'that' coming through there somewhere.

"So what did you see, exactly?"

Justice opened her mouth to answer, but Eli beat her to it. "Don't bother asking her." He said rather sardonically, "She's just going to be a stuttering mess." The girl frowned and glared at Eli, but the taller boy sent it back. She shrunk, then bit her lip and looked away. The misty-green eyes of the boy lingered on her for a while, then went back to Jesse, who was watching the spectacle with a mix of utter confusion and amusement. He frowned. "What?"

A pause, then Jesse shook his head. "Nothing. Could you tell me what she saw, then?" Eli nodded.

"You know where Lukas died, right?" Jesse hummed in confirmation. Eli took hold of his shoulder - catching Jesse by surprise - and moved it, so that both boys were now facing the scene.

Lukas's body was lying face up, several feet away from both the lake and the entrance with the orange wool block on the gate. Eli pointed at the scene, "Do you see the hole in one of the hedge walls? Specifically in the wall between the red and the orange entrances."

Jesse squinted, to see that there was, in fact, a hole in the hedge between the two entrances. "It's hard to see, but.. yeah, I can see it." he glanced at Eli, "That's the 'hole in the hedge' she was talking about earlier?"

Eli nodded. He looked back at the hole. Seeing Olivia stand a few feet away from it, and knowing that they're both the same height, the hole was at just the right height for him to see through. He turned and looked at Justice, comparing his height to hers. They were the same. "So you saw everything clearly? Your view wasn't, y'know," He checked the hole to see if there were any leaves or branches in the 'window.' From where he was, it didn't seem like there was anything there. "obstructed or anything?

"N-not at all. I-I s-saw them very c-clearly." She bit her nails as she spoke, "Th-they were p-pretty close to the hedge t-too, s-so that helped."

"So what did you do?"

She gulped. "I.. I tried c-calling out to them t-to s-stop but…" She gripped her hair, most of its curly locks resting on one shoulder. "Lukas got d-distracted. I g-guess that was when sh-she g-gained the upper hand, 'cause.." Then she shrunk again, mumbling something neither Eli nor Jesse could hear. The latter boy sighed and waved his hand.

"Alright. I'll see you guys later."

"Actually," Eli spoke up, "We're coming with."

Justice blinked. "We- we are?"

Eli turned to her, giving her a rather frightening glare. She made a scared squeak, then followed. "O-okay."

Jesse raised a brow, then quickly turned and walked to the crime scene. He took out the capes from his pocket as he walked over. "Hey, Logic!"

"What?" The boy looked up, only to get two capes to the face, knocking him down to the floor. Luckily for him, he didn't land on the body.

Logic sputtered as he struggled to get the tangled cloth off of him. "What the hell?!" Jesse laughed. Olivia frowned as she helped Logic with the cloth. Once it was off him, he gave Jesse a glare, but it only got the boy to give him a mischievous grin. Logic only sighed, giving Jesse his thanks before covering the body with the capes.

Once the deed was done, he stood up and placed his hands on his hips. "So what now?" Jesse asked. Logic shrugged and was about to speak, but Eli beat him to it.

"Well, you can do two things." The taller boy crossed his arms. "Either you help me investigate more of the area, or help Justice find out what everyone else was doing at the time of the murder." Justice had yet another surprised look on her face, as if to say 'wait, what?'

"I'll investigate!" Jesse said immediately, not giving Logic or Olivia any time to consider their options. The latter two sighed, Logic face palming in exasperation.

After a brief pause, the boy's arms dropped to his side. "Alright, fine. We'll get everyone's testimonies." He looked between Eli and Jesse, "Good luck looking around." Then he, Olivia and Justice left their circle, leaving the other two behind. After watching them split up, Eli turned to Jesse.

"This place isn't going to investigate itself, you know."

Jesse nodded, then Eli walked south, to the other side of the lake.

A/N: this chapter is super short wth

i think the timezones are what's messing with the updated/published thing. hmph.

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