A Rondo of Fate and Mystery - Investigation Chapter
Mashu woke up to the sound of wind howling and raindrops drumming against the window relentlessly. She braced herself for the possibility of spending another whole day in this weird mansion even before she stood up and walked to the window. The darkness that made it impossible to see any sign of dawn in spite of the late hour was enough of a sign to darken her mood, her inability to contact Dr. Roman proved to be the confirmation. The storm was still raging strong and there was no sign of relief. Nitocris stirred under the sheets of her bed:
"Weather is still terrible, eh? Makes me miss the humidity of Kemet."
"You never had storms like this?"
"Well, we had summer storms in the delta of lower Kemet, and then there were the life-bringing floods whenever they went overboard. But at least it was never this freezing cold..."
Mashu gave a weary sigh.
"It seems we have to strain the hospitality of this Ronove for another day. I'm going to wake up Sempai."
"Do that, I don't feel like standing up already...," Nitocris replied, turning away.
In contrast to the picture of the night, the lights in the hallway were already lit. It seemed that the butler already walked his tour through the mansion. Without further thinking about it, Mashu went to the door right next to theirs, knocking softly.
"Sempai? Robin?"
There was no reply. Not even an irritated grumble of Robin. So she knocked again.
"Sempai? Robin?"
"Anything wrong?"
For some reason Battler was walking up to her.
"Ah... not really," she admitted ",Sempai is a heavy sleeper, though I am a little surprised I haven't managed to get Robin's attention. It's not that he did anything that would have left him all that exhausted yesterday."
Battler sported a grin.
"Then time for playing nice is over, isn't it?" he knocked forcefully against the door, "Hey! Sleepyheads! What's with this attitude? History doesn't save itself on its own!"
Still no answer.
"Speaking of which, what are you doing on this floor?"
"Me? Uh, Ronove is kinda already bustling in the kitchen and asked me to fetch everyone for breakfast."
"I see," Mashu turned back to the door.
Something was not right. She'd hate to admit it, but Battler's jokes of the day before somehow got to her. This was a tad too much like in the mystery stories she liked so much.
"Please, excuse me, Sempai, I'm coming in!"
Of course nothing happened, the door was locked.
"I go get Ronove," Battler declared and went down the stairs with a troubled expression.
By the time the demon butler arrived, nothing had changed. Mashu all but pleaded for anyone to give a lifesign and she dreaded about using her spiritual link to check Ritsuka's vitalities.
"Has someone slept in so soundly?" the butler mused.
"I'm worried, please!", Mashu urged.
"Right away, young lady."
Ronove took out his Master Key, opened the door and... it stopped immediately with an audible clang. The chain was still in the way.
"He values his privacy, your friend, huh?"
Mashu scratched the back of her head.
"Well, truthfully, we all agreed to lock ourselves in," she took a peek inside, "Sempai?"
Barely anything of the room was visible through the tiny gap, but for some odd coincidence, it happened to be the bed Ritsuka was using. He was still lying there, peacefully, his eyes closed and facing the ceiling. And his neck dyed red. That was odd, Mashu thought madly as her heart plummeted into her bowels.
"Sempai! Sempai!" she shrieked.
"What's going on?" Nitocris finally arrived, attracted by the ruckus, but still rubbing her eyes.
"Something is wrong with Sempai!" Mashu half shouted.
"It seems we need to break in the door, sorry Ronove," Battler observed, already taking a few steps backwards for a charge.
"No need for that," Nitocris interjected timidly, "Allow me, please."
With that she switched into spirit form and phased through the door. Taking on corporeal form on the other side again, she pulled back the chain and allowed the rest of the group to enter.
Mashu was the first to charge in right towards the bed of Ritsuka, at which's side she collapsed.
"Sempai! Sempai! Please...," but there was no helping it.
No amount of begging could have woken him up from this kind of slumber. There was a thin dark red line going through the entire length of his throat. This must have been the source of the large pool of blood that had soaked the sheets of the bed.
Her tears were blurring her vision, but her mind was still racing. Mashu whirled around, facing the others:
"Don't move! Don't touch anything!"
Ronove was still standing at the door, obviously not having any intention to disturb the crime scene. Nitocris had hurried to the second bed that must have been Robin's, but since that turned out to be empty, she was just watching Mashu from afar. Only Battler stood right behind her, watching the scene teary eyed, but with vengeful determination.
"I'm sorry," he said sheepishly, "I was just joking yesterday, I never truly wished for this."
"But it happened," Mashu said, "Someone murdered him and likely Robin as well."
"How can you be so sure of that?" Battler asked with a frown, "I see no other corpse."
"You have seen Nitocris disappear, didn't you?" Mashu asked back, "Robin is the same. A spirit. If he dies, there will be no trace."
"Still...," Nitocris seemed doubtful, "... killing a Heroic Spirit without leaving a battlefield behind... this must have been one skilled assassin."
"Uuuu ~. It was the witch," a new voice suddenly joined in.
Battler seemed distraught that not only Jessica and George, but Maria must have been attracted by this tumult as well. He hurried to the door, trying to shield her eyes from the gruesome scene within.
"Please stay downstairs, this no place for a child to be!"
It seemed to have been already too late though. And Maria showed herself troubled disturbingly little when facing the crime scene.
"But you've seen it, didn't you? How the witch killed them with magic! That's what happened! Beatrice exists!"
"Sure, that would be a fancy fantasy story. But I'm afraid it can't be that easy."
Jessica and George, since they were ones bringing Maria along, were also the ones taking her back downstairs now. The rest of the group made a short sweep around the crime scene, but there was little to find. Absolutely no sign of a battle was visible and neither was the weapon that had killed the boy. There was also nobody hiding in the closet, for that matter. Worst of all, they found the key to the room on the nightstand and Ronove assured them that outside of his Master Key there was no other one that could unlock this room.
"Do you think what I'm tinking?" Battler asked nervously.
"I'm afraid I do," Mashu replied, "This is a closed room murder..."
The chance that the witch was behind it rose with this train of thought, the owner of the mansion was well versed in the genre after all. But since they found no obvious trace of any kind of trick, a second possibility crept up inside her, one that pained her even when speaking it out:
"It might have been a Servant..."
"I assume you are not talking about the butler, eh?"
"No.. more that the murderer was one of our group."
A Servant could phase through the door without leaving it unlocked and a Servant was also capable of defeating Robin. Of course as a Demi-Servant and a defensively orientated one at that, both things would have been impossible for her. Still, suspecting her fellow Heroic Spirits of betraying her Sempai like this felt awful.
After concluding the investigation like this, Mashu took Ritsuka's key and Ronove locked up the room again so that the place may remain untouched. It was then when Ibaraki and Elizabeth joined them as well, obviously attracted by the commotion around Ritsuka's room. Mashu saw herself forced to break the news to them and watched their reactions. Elizabeth seemed uncharacteristically distraught, whether because of Ritsuka's fate or because something as ugly as this dared to happen two rooms away from her she could not say. Ibaraki asked whether this would have any effect on breakfast.
"It will, I'm afraid. Finding the killer has to come first," Mashu replied, slightly irritated about her priorities.
"How to start?" Battler asked. "Ronove said that he kept the door locked and allowed no other visitors inside, but if it is a Servant like you said, then not even the storm will have hindered their escape."
"If it is an outsider from the singularity, then there is little we can do until the storm passes. But if it is not..."
"... then we have a chance to corner him here!"
"Indeed. It should be best to split up and search the whole mansion for signs of the culprit or Robin, if he is still alive."
Battler looked towards the other Servants who watched in silence, grimacing slightly.
"We shouldn't let our guard down when dealing with someone who could potentially take down Robin Hood."
"I agree. We should arrange mixed groups of each room and between humans and Servants."
They went downstairs together and with everyone assembled in the dining room, groups were easily selected. It was decided that someone should guard the door, which was now the job of Elizabeth and Maria. With them already there, they could also afford to have a smaller group consisting of George, Jessica and Ibaraki to comb through the ground floor. For the second floor Battler and Nitocris became one team, as well as Mashu and Ronove. The latter Mashu thought necessary both to keep an eye on the butler and because she wanted to take a look at the attic afterwards.
The survivors were unaware that now that their eyes were averted from the crime scene, Beatrice made her return to the locked room of Ritsuka and Robin.
"Well... as it seems your companions think they have it to do with simple spirits, not with the magic of a witch," she spoke to the corpse, "It seems we need to convince them a little more, don't we? I guess this means I have to borrow you for a bit. Come... Arise..."
She summoned her pipe and waved it towards the dead Master like a pipe. And with such a gesture, the boy opened his eyes...
Shortly afterwards Mashu, Battler, Nitocris and Ronove arrived. Since they had already inspected the crime scene, they ignored the locked room and concentrated on the other ones. Mashu and Ronove looked into the room of Ibaraki and Elizabeth first, while Battler and Nitocris searched the study of the witch. They agreed to meet up at the room of Mashu and Nitocris afterwards. Though due to the study being a much more complex place to search, Battler and Nitocris finished their room far earlier. It was then, while Battler was still looking under the bed, unsure what exactly to search for, when Nitocris already went out and witnessed it...
... it was her dead Master, phasing through the closed and locked door, with empty eyes and if pulled by invisible strings by... a being that looked just like the witch of the portrait. The pharaoh was too awestruck to call out, too intimidated to intervene. She only collapsed on the floor, watching Ritsuka disappear upstairs.
"What's going on?" Mashu walked up to her, having returned from the study along with Ronove.
Nitocris only pointed towards the stairs, her arm trembling.
"The... the wich... she... she took our Master!"
"She did what?!" Mashu cursed, unbelieving that it was a witch, but accepting the possibility regardless.
Without further heed, she raced up the stairs in a whirl. The door to the attic was open and golden butterflies inhabited the entire room. And amidst all the occult trinkets stood the Golden Witch, Beatrice, a victorious smile on her lips as she was cradling the lifeless body of Ritsuka.
"Oh, I'm sorry my dear. You want to have this puppet? Too bad it is already mine!"
"I won't let you disappear like this," Shielder hissed.
"Mashu! What's going on?", Battler's voice echoed from below as he was racing up the stairs.
"Tch, too many eyes with their poison won't do," the witch's face twisted.
And before Mashu could have any chance to intervene, both the witch and Ritsuka's corpse turned into countless butterflies, merging with the rest of them and darting for the window. Their wave was so powerful that they didn't only burst open said windows, but toppled over the cupboard right next to it, making it crash on the ground with opened doors and emptied insides. By the time Battler arrived, only the cold chilly breeze of the storm and the obvious sign of destruction remained. Mashu was collapsing on the floor, right at the place where Ritsuka had been only a moment before, tears quelling out of her eyes once again.
"I cannot... this... Sempai... he is...," she pointed towards the window, "The witch took him... just like that..."
"How can this be possible?" Battler cursed.