"No way..." Koshimizu said, dangerously calm. Mitsuhiko was rather sure that, if Monobear hadn't been the one accused, Koshimizu would have jumped from his seat to strangle the culprit. Too bad the bear's claws and nimbleness made it impossible to punish him physically.
Besides, attacking the bear wasn't the same than attacking the masterminds.
"The masterminds killed him? But how can that be? I thought they were all locked in the Fourth Floor" Hasegawa said, looking at the bear in confusion.
"She is right! You can't think these cute little paws grabbed a gun and shot somebody" Monobear waved them and tried to pick up random stuff, quite clearly failing on purpose "Damn paws lacking in the thumb department!"
"Of course the bear wasn't used to kill Veritas. One of the masteminds themselves had to do it" Mitsuhiko frowned, not quite in the mood for the bear to clown around, especially when there was a reason for the masterminds to be nervous.
"And which one of us did it?" Monobear tilted his head "If you're going to accuse us then you'll need a name. You can't blame everything on the bear and think it's enough"
Had that been a confession? To Mitsuhiko it had sounded like one, in a way. "How do you expect us to know?!" Kobayashi protested but Monobear didn't care about that problem in the slightest.
"Ask Hikari-kun, he is the one who says one of us did it"
"Are you completely sure Monobear was the one to mangle the body?" Romi inquired to Mitsuhiko. The hunter nodded without hesitation, there was no other answer to the murder.
"Upupupu...but that is impossible! Look at these paws; do you see any blood on them? I'm a clean bear" Monobear showed both hands, and indeed, there was no trace of blood in any of them. None of the commanders was impressed, though.
"There are several Monobears around the building, if it wasn't this one then it was another" Koshimizu argued.
"Come on, bastards! Let's get this done over with. It's time for me to join your trial" Monobear's eye glowed "Hikari-kun! There are many holes in your argument. I will destroy everything you have!"
Nonstop Debate
Lilith's Wires / Silencer / Bullet on the Wall / Body Discovery Announcement / Blood on the File
MONOBEAR: I was in the Kitchen when you entered?
MONOBEAR: Gyahaha! What nonsense!
MONOBEAR: I wouldn't be able to see anything...
MONOBEAR: ...if I had been in the Cafeteria
KOBAYASHI: You must have some way to see...
KOBAYASHI: ...even if it isn't near the shooting scene?
MONOBEAR: Nope!
KOSHIMIZU: Monobear can't have crossed through the soot.
MONOBEAR: I'm made of felt!
MONOBEAR: The soot is going to stick to me
MONOBEAR: I'll also point I move through the ventilation system
MONOBEAR: But there's a certain pest in there right now.
MONOBEAR: Lilith wouldn't let me be in there
MONOBEAR: Being anywhere other than the Hallway...
MONOBEAR: ...would mean I didn't mutilate Veritas!
"So, your argument is that because you can't have seen what happened to Mimori-san you can't have mutilated the corpse" Mitsuhiko summarized "Did I get it right?"
"Say whaaat? Is your brain made of sawdust and dust? It can't be so hard to understand" Monobear quite obviously was trying to avoid the issue now. Maybe, after four trials, the masterminds understood that when Mitsuhiko focused on the arguments it was almost sure he'd manage to find a way to break them.
"...shut up. Guys, the masterminds had a way to keep tabs on Mimori-san and on the duel, all that without even having to move Monobear. They could have left the bear in the Cafeteria yet they would still see everything easily"
"The masterminds can't have left the Fourth Floor" Romi reasoned "They have a control panel for Monobear there in the Fourth Floor but it sounds to me you have something else in mind"
"Yes. There's a room in the Fourth Floor that'd allow them to know what was going on. I'm talking about...
...the Security Room
...the Armoury
...the Monobear control panel.
...the Waiting Room
...the Security Room
"...I'm talking about the Security Room. It's very close to the control room. It isn't too hard to suppose one of the masterminds kept an eye on the cameras while another controlled Monobear"
"Yeah! There are three masterminds, that's more than enough" Kobayashi smiled, that made perfect sense! Monobear grunted loudly but kept his composure.
"Fine! I have access to the cameras but that doesn't mean anything"
"I have a question" Hasegawa raised her hand, seemingly having thought about something for quite a while "Why would the masterminds force a trial if they killed Veritas? It would be a chance for us to catch them, that wouldn't make sense"
"If they hadn't done a trial we all would have suspected of them anyway" Koshimizu said "Even with Mimori-san helping them if there hadn't been a trial we wouldn't have believed anybody else did it.
"But why did Mimori-san accept to help them?"
"...she must be an accomplice to them too, but I don't mean only to this murder" Romi shook her head "Mimori-san must have been helping them all this time"
"Since the beginning?!" Mitsuhiko snarled. That was...actually possible, but he wanted to believe Mimori had been brought into the masterminds' puppet strings recently.
"Mimori-san and Fukuyama-kun were partners, then" Koshimizu thought for a moment "Let's think for a moment, some weird stuff Fukuyama-kun or Mimori-san did should give us some answers"
"The Chemistry Laboratory. That's the core of everything accomplice-related. Any answer for that yet?" Kobayashi asked but nobody in the room could give him an answer to that. That damned laboratory continued being out of reach for all of them in terms of how everything related to the accomplices actually happened.
"Forget that"
"Now that I think of it, when Mitsuishi-kun died Mimori-san had said she hadn't seen anything because Monobear had distracted her" Kobayashi said.
"I had always thought it was a bit weird Fukuyama-kun managed to do anything without Mimori-san noticing. If Mimori-san being the masterminds' accomplice along wuth Fukuyama-kun is true that'd explain why all that could happen" Hasegawa closed her eyes "We were all played for chumps"
"Why was Mimori-san an accomplice too? What'd be her motive?"
"We can't know, but this should mean Mimori-san is with the masterminds right now" Koshimizu pointed upwards "She must be in the Fourth Floor"
"I have already told you all she isn't up here!" Monobear shouted. Practically all the commanders scoffed at that.
"As if we're going to believe that" Romi sneered, but Mitsuhiko shrugged with doubt. While he didn't believe the masterminds had no idea of Mimori's location, he did at least believe she wasn't up there.
"I t-think we're deviating from the topic" Kobayashi said "Why did the masterminds try to frame Hikari-kun?"
"Maybe for convenience? They had a gun like Hikari-kun's, why not to use it because that way they could frame him"
"There'd be other ways to frame him" Hasegawa said but before she could continue a growl erupted from the end of the table. Monobear had banged the table with his paws, growling as menacingly as he could.
"Frame this, gun that, what's wrong with you all?! All that is something any of you could have done. There's nothing I –we- could have done to frame him. Who says Mimori-san didn't do all that?"
"Are you now going to try to blame everything on Mimori-san?" Romi inquired, narrowing her eyes in contempt.
"Exactly! She must have done everything. Forget the bullet and shoulder triviality, I can't have framed anyone" he declared. It was by now obvious the masterminds were quite high-strung for some unknown reason, getting angry and all. Had that always been like that? Was that the true personality Enoshima had, if she was really up there? He didn't know how she really was.
Or...was something going on, something Mitsuhiko didn't fully understand yet? All he knew was that something abnormal was going on with the masterminds, something beyond the whole 'being a person that's already dead'.
What the heck was wrong with the Main Board?
Nonstop Debate
Blood in Yurie's Room / Body Discovery Announcement / Silencer / Ventilation Shaft / Bullet on the Wall
MONOBEAR: Every piece of evidence against Hikari-kun...
MONOBEAR: ...is something Mimori-san could do.
KOSHIMIZU: Being the accomplice would give her...
KOSHIMIZU: ...access to stuff the rest of us couldn't have.
ROMI: Such as the crime weapon?
HASEGAWA: She had access to Veritas' clothes
HASEGAWA: She was in contact with the body, at least
MONOBEAR: She could even have taken anything...
MONOBEAR: ...from when you bastards explored the Fourth Floor
MONOBEAR: There's not a single thing linking me to the crime
KOBAYASHI: Not even the bullet thing is definite
KOBAYASHI: Is there really nothing only the masterminds could have done?
"There IS one piece of evidence Mimori-san couldn't have influenced in any way, something that shows the masterminds' direct involvement with the efforts to frame me" Mitsuhiko said, trying to put some obvious resentment in his words.
"But it would have been something big to make us believe it was you" Kobayashi added "There aren't many things that could fit that"
"There is one. Think about this: what made me a suspect?"
"The bullets and the...the..." Koshimizu realized immediately what Mitsuhiko was talking about. He clenched his teeth, he hadn't thought not even for a moment to doubt the integrity of the body discovery announcement "Those bastards...!"
"Right. The main reason you all decided I was a valid suspect is because of the body discovery announcement. We all have been basing stuff around that announcement for quite some time already"
"That is right. We wouldn't have hesitated taking the announcement as a way to narrow suspects in this case too" Hasegawa nodded.
"And that's what the masterminds used to frame Hikari-kun? They outright lied with the announcement?"
"If neither Hikari-kun, Kobayashi-kun nor Koshimizu-san is the culprit then yes, it was all a lie. They must have thought we wouldn't have any reasons to doubt the announcement"
"And we didn't" Kobayashi murmured "I completely fell for that..."
Monobear had frozen once the commanders realized he had manipulated the body announcement discovery. Everyone expected him to protest and argue, hopefully digging a deeper hole, but he just didn't say anything at all. "...well?" Mitsuhiko asked.
"Come on, give us an answer" Romi prompted but they still received no answer.
"You can't just stand there and say nothing! Are you not even going to try to refute our suspicion?" Koshimizu frowned, still furious over the way he had fallen for the announcement.
After a minute of complete silence from Monobear Hasegawa sighed. "Seems like we'll have to continue by ourselves. It isn't like there's any believable excuse they could use, either. They screwed up"
"I think our most important matter here is Mimori-san's disappearance. Without her I don't think we can know everything about Veritas' death"
"We know one of the masterminds killed him. That should be enough"
"Yeah, but there are two or three masterminds, are we going to take such low chances of success?"
"There's not a single clue that indicates which one did it" Mitsuhiko grouched, hoping that, if they were forced to pick one, they got lucky "Either way, by know I think it's safe to say we have solved the case. And since there are no objections..." Monobear stayed silent "...then let's summarize this all"
"But what about Mimori-san?"
"We'll discuss that later. So, this is what happened!"
Climax Inference
Before I start you must understand the culprit was not one of us. In fact, the real culprit is one of the masterminds behind Monobear and the hijacking of our reunion here, but it would have been impossible for them to get away with their crime without help. That's why they had an accomplice helping them, somebody they already had used to their advantage before: Kyrie Mimori.
She was tasked with completing the plan to frame me for the murder of Veritas. The culprit carried the corpse after murdering him in Yurie's room, leaving him in the Cafeteria, and went away after providing Mimori of anything she may have needed to complete the plan without getting too hurt.
She didn't have to wait for long. I arrived to Camp Monobear, where I was going to my bedroom. She stood there, and once it was clear I had seen her she raised the gun the culprit provided her. She didn't aim to kill, though; the plan was to provoke me into shooting her.
If I had to guess, the masterminds' plan was to make me imitate the bullet wounds Veritas had, knowing I'd only try to incapacitate Veritas instead of killing him. It was not a very good plan, they couldn't guarantee I would do it like they expected, and I think the culprit didn't care about Mimori's wellbeing in the slightest. The plan could go wrong in many ways and it did:
I shot Mimori on the shoulder, which didn't fit the wounds the culprit had done already. Knowing I would realize it unless the wounds were identical, the culprit used Monobear to extract one of the bullets and insert it in the corpse's shoulder.
That's where the masterminds started to get sloppy. Monobear wasn't made for intricate actions; so many telltale signs were left. All that lessened the chances of anybody believing I had killed Veritas. There was no time to do anything else, as Mimori came running through the Cafeteria doors.
And the plan continued to go wrong. As soon as Mimori entered she stumbled onto Lilith's grasp. Sensing she had caught somebody, Lilith lifted Mimori to the ventilation shaft and dragged her away. Both Kobayashi and I heard the noises of that action, and Mimori was taken to parts unknown.
The culprit must have been pretty annoyed the plan had gone wrong, so drastic measures needed to be taken. Knowing how much we relied on the body discovery announcement, they lied through it to make me look like the culprit. And it worked quite well!
That is how it all went. It was a very careless plan, and as such the truth has been discovered. The culprit is one of the masterminds controlling Monobear!
Mitsuhiko finished. It was a bit complicated to tell, but it seemed the commanders understood well enough his reasoning, and although Mimori being an accomplice to the masterminds had been received grimly, it was the only scenario that could have happened.
"That makes sense. The masterminds are pretty much the only ones with a motive and a chance to kill Veritas. Shall we finish this now?" Koshimizu said.
"We can't vote! We don't know which mastermind killed him. Monobear already said we can't use him as a scapegoat here" Romi reminded him, making the medic sulk in his seat.
"That is cheating and everyone knows it" Kobayashi muttered, but there was nothing to be done on that regard "So what, are we going to sit here for the rest of the day?"
"Hold on!" Finally, Monobear said something "Upupu...gggrrrk...you seem awfully convinced of the truth behind your words, Hikari-kun. Beary, beary convinced"
"It's the only truth, what else did you expect?" Mitsuhiko said, but Monobear laughed uproariously.
"Amazing! Such confidence, such bearvado! I can bearly contain my excitement!"
"...what's up with the badly made puns now?" Romi whispered to Koshimizu, who could only shrug. Monobear was focusing directly on Mitsuhiko, and it was clear by now there was a point to his scorn. Until the bear said what he had in his head there was nothing anybody could do.
"Do you have any objections?" Mitsuhiko asked with dread. He still had an ace in his sleeve, so it was possible he was safe here, but one never knew what could go wrong with Monobear.
"Of course I do! You keep saying it over and over but I haven't seen anything proving I, the mighty Monobear, had anything to do with all this"
"But the masterminds-" Hasegawa started, attracting the bear's wrath. He strolled up to her, somehow managing to look adequately menacing.
"We are. In the. Fourth Floor. Are you saying we somehow managed to do all this from the Fourth Floor?"
"Monobear was used to-" Koshimizu tried to give an argument but Monobear didn't want to hear anything from him, either.
"Anybody could use anything to create the wounds. See these claws?" to demonstrate Monobear unsheathed them, almost thrusting them onto Koshimizu's face. The medic recoiled to avoid getting hurt from such reckless actions.
"There's no blood in them but we all know there's more than one Monobear in here"
"Then show me that other Monobear! Because I have absolutely no blood on me and I never had. Did you hear that, Hikari-kun? Want to see my fur?"
"You're about to throw a tantrum. Have some dignity, okay?" Mitsuhiko said dully, but in his head he was relieved. This was the argument he had hoped it'd be, and while he didn't know where the bloodied Monobear was he could at the very least prove a version of the bear had mutilated Veritas.
"I'm waiting, Hikari-kun! Where's the other me?"
"...I don't have it. I don't know" Monobear grabbed his snout, ready to laugh as mockingly as possible, so the hunter hurried to add: "But I don't need that to prove it. I can do it already, with proof I have right here with me"
"Nonsense! It's despairingly impossible, unimaginable, hopeless, impassable-"
"How good is that proof of yours, Hikari-kun?" Kobayashi whispered to Mitsuhiko, who assured him it was enough to shut the bear up.
"- inaccessible, inconceivable, insurmountable, preposterous, unattainable, unthinkable, unworkable-"
"Then do it before he finishes reading the thesaurus" Romi said.
"-useless, contrary to reason, hardly possible, hundred-to-one, impracticable, infeasible-"
"Okay, I got your point, it's despairingly impossible" Mitsuhiko raised his voice, stopping Monobear's long spiel of synonyms "Too bad that's not true-"
"I'm not listening!" Monobear shouted as high as he could before continuing what he was doing. This is infantile. I better get done with this as soon as possible or I'll lose my patience.
Panic Talk Battle
MONOBEAR: -irrealizable, no-go, no-way
MONOBEAR: -no-won, not a prayer-
MONOBEAR: -out of the question-
MONOBEAR: -unachievable, unobtainable-
MONOBEAR: -unrecoverable...
MONOBEAR: Un-un-un-un-un
MONOBEAR Graaaaar!
MONOBEAR: Did you understand?!
MONOBEAR: I'm not listening!
MONOBEAR: You got nothing!
Monobear had nothing to do with the murder
Blood on the File
"Shut up already! Look, I have this" Mitsuhiko took out the file he had received. He would have thrown it to Monobear's ever-grinning face if it weren't because the penalty would have been his life.
"That's one of the files I made. Are you so desperate you're trying to find evidence where there isn't any?"
"There is evidence here, but it's not in the inside. It's on the outside. Look here" Mitsuhiko showed the smudged blood he had seen when he had received the file "It's a bit hard to see, but this is blood. There's no doubt about that"
"So what?"
"Remember how these files came to our possession. Monobear stood in the hallway, right there in the entrance, but refused to come in. Instead, he left them in the entrance, so I had to take and give everyone their copy. Are you all following me so far?"
"I see! This blood can't have come from the corpse or the duel, right?" Hasegawa said, her mood brightening considerable. This was a small clue that was turning out to be much more important than anyone could have thought.
"Exactly! There's no way the files came in contact with any spilled blood, so what's the only moment this blood could have appeared here?"
"...are you sure you had no blood at all in your hands? All blood was fresh, it's not unthinkable you stained it yourself" Romi said, quite sensibly. Monobear, realizing this was pretty much the only chance he had to refute Mitsuhiko's proof, jumped in.
"Yes, exactly! Too bad you can't prove a thing-"
"I touched absolutely no blood" Mitsuhiko said with insurmountable conviction.
"Say whaaaat?"
"I said I touched no blood at all. The only one who touched these files was you and me, Monobear. And since it wasn't me then it can only have been you. The Monobear that mangled the corpse was the same one that gave us the files, and he tried to hide the blood by staying away from all of us. Is that enough or do I need to say anything else?"
Monobear stared at Mitsuhiko for a moment before getting off the table and leaving the Meeting Room without saying another word. The voting phase wasn't even initiated, and none of the commanders was going to try and bring Monobear back, either. All in all, it seemed like the trial had been a complete failure for the masterminds.
"...so...now what?" Kobayashi asked, expecting Monobear to return in any moment.
"I suppose it's over. With some luck the bear won't be back until we can at least know who the mastermind who killed Veritas is" Koshimizu said, standing up "Besides we haven't finished investigating all the secrets of this place. Let's take the chance to go and do that right now"
"Wait! We still have no idea where Mimori-san is" Hasegawa reminded them "I'd like to ask her a few things"
Mitsuhiko hummed and closed his eyes. As he saw it nobody in the Meeting Room would be able to find Mimori-san. She was in Lilith's possession, so unless Lilith willed it there was nothing they could do. "Lilith? Are you here?"
She was. From the grate on the ceiling wires descended, Lilith's head hanging upside down from them. "I heard everything. Thank you all for your cooperation"
"Our...cooperation?" Romi frowned.
"I didn't expect any of you to actually try to deal with the masterminds. Maybe you all can be useful for our goal"
"Do you have Mimori-san stranded somewhere in the ventilation ducts?" Koshimizu inquired. If Lilith could have shrugged she would have done it.
"I may not be Lily anymore but a few of my directives continue intact. Killing one of the liabilities is still not allowed. Keeping her inside the ducts would lead to death" That was not a calming answer. 'Liabilities' didn't hint anything good from Lilith regarding the commanders' wellbeing. Mitsuhiko still didn't understand what was Lilith's new objective, or why she was wrapped the Headquarters with her wires, but there was no time to wonder that right now.
"Okay, let's think. Mimori-san must be in a place where the masterminds can't see her. She can't be anywhere inside the Headquarters"
"She could be outside" Kobayashi said "In the sports shed or in the Greenhouse or..."
"It's impossible for me to reach any place that is not directly connected to a ventilation duct or where the masterminds aren't in" Lilith informed "Please keep that in mind while you're trying to find the hostage" The hunter cringed. The way Lilith talked was completely devoid of any positive emotions. Mimori was a 'hostage', for what, he didn't know. It was most likely for Lilith's plans, whatever they were.
"So the place must be connected through the ventilation system" Koshimizu said "So...we're pretty much limited to the Headquarters. There must be a place that can't be watched through a camera and is inside the building"
The commanders thought about that for a moment. There weren't really any options here. The only place they could think was the bathrooms, and Hasegawa then said she had checked them already. "Could there be a hidden room somewhere?" Mitsuhiko suggested.
"One the masterminds don't know of? That's not likely, unless Monobear just got out of here to search for her" Romi said.
"The only option for that would be the bricked Third Floor. If she's there then...how are we going to reach her?" Kobayashi said, looking at Lilith with distrust as if she could grab him without a word to drag him into the ventilation system.
"Is she in the Third Floor, Lilith?" Mitsuhiko asked. Lilith moved like a pendulum, the hunter somehow interpreting it as an insult. It was like she didn't care at all if they ever guessed right "Come on, what did Mimori-san do for you to take her as a hostage?"
"She cooperated with the masterminds, of course. That is enough for me to punish her"
"Punish her?"
"1774: If you can't save the commanders, then get rid of the problem. The new objective is to kill the Main Board" Lilith narrowed her eyes, a mechanical screech coming from somewhere in the ducts "She isn't one of them but she helped. All I can do is try to kill her...indirectly"
"Kill her?!" Kobayashi exclaimed. That was exactly what Monobear would do! Had Lilith changed so much she was willing to do something the masterminds would do?
"Then it can't be the Third Floor. I don't think there's any way there to kill anybody, even if it is indirectly" Koshimizu reasoned "If I remember right from the time I studied here, all that is there is the Headmaster's Office"
"But then where would she be?"
"What about the roof?" Romi theorized.
"The Roof? You mean the terrace at the top of the school? I'm sure there's a camera up there, the masterminds would have seen her" Hasegawa said.
"No, I don't mean that. I mean the roof"
"The..." Mitsuhiko thought for a moment. It could be possible. No cameras, directly connected to the Headquarters, accessible from the ventilation system...and it was a place where Mimori-san could die. If she fell from the roof it was almost sure she could die "...that could actually be..."
"Is Mimori-san in the roof?" Koshimizu asked to Lilith. The way she stopped moving and froze with a sheepish expression answered that "Let's go"
"Wait, Lilith has her wires tying up all the paths to the outside. We won't be able to reach Mimori-san" Hasegawa said, getting them all to stop "Lilith, please, let us bring Mimori-san back"
"And why should I?"
"Think of it this way: Mimori-san is one of the masterminds' moles. She must know many things the rest of us ignore, and with her help we should be able to make them pay"
Lilith started to retract back into the ducts. "You can't guarantee she'll help you guys"
"Thanks to the masterminds' plan she got shot. I think she won't want to cooperate with them after that" Kobayashi said. Lilith stopped, hesitating on what she should do.
"Do you promise to make the masterminds pay?"
"We will" Mitsuhiko said, trying to convey as much seriousness as possible in his tone. Lilith stared at him for a moment before returning to the ducts.
"If you all fail then I'll take this in my own hands. There are two hours and half left. Once that time passes, or if it is clear to me you guys won't be able to make the masterminds pay...everyone in this building will die" those last few words were said with a tone that made Mitsuhiko shiver. A failure wasn't going to be tolerated, and they all have survived many problems until now.
They couldn't fail at the last part of the contest.
Monobear wasn't anywhere in sight. The commanders left the Meeting Room, wary but determined to go get Mimori and obtain some answers. Besides, there were many things left to investigate yet, this was their chance. Maybe if we can go outside I'll finally find a way to get onto that sealed area of the Third Floor. We must not let this go wrong!
It was already night. The commanders shivered in the cold breezes they could feel on the Roof. "Yikes, good thing it isn't raining. Mimori-san must be freezing right now" Hasegawa said, rubbing her hands to try to get some heat.
"It's supposed to be summer. It shouldn't be so cold" Romi said "Who will be getting on the roof?"
"I will" Mitsuhiko said. Using Koshimizu's shoulders as footholds the hunter managed to get on the roof. The shingles were slippery, so he had to advance very slowly. There was a blurry dark shape in the distance, and the roof was criss-crossed with Lilith's wires. Grabbing those as a way to aid his crawling, Mitsuhiko continued until he was close enough to see who was there.
Mimori's state was disheartening. The roof tiles all around here were covered in blood. The suit she was wearing, identical to Veritas', was disheveled and almost falling down in several places. The cloth was ripped and there were lacerations all over her body, undoubtedly a result from Lilith's manhandling.
Several blood transfusion bags were strewn over her and over the roof tiles. The amount of blood spilled coming from the bags was unknown, but Mitsuhiko could see the shoulder where he had shot her was inflamed and still bleeding. Her skin felt disquietingly cold, no doubt due to the loss of blood and the low temperature outside. Overall it was possible Mimori wouldn't have resisted for an hour more.
The wires tying Mimori to the roof were loose. If Mimori had any strength to struggle and untie herself it was likely she would have fallen all the way to the Courtyard. It was no surprise Lilith had chosen the roof as the place to keep the hostage.
"I found her! She looks pretty bad here!" Mitsuhiko shouted, carefully removing Mimori from under the wires. "Mimori-san! Mimori-san, can you hear me?"
Mimori weakly opened her eyes, trying to focus on the person who had found her. "Who…?"
"She is alive!" he shouted. It was difficult to drag Mimori, she was in no condition to help herself. The hunter urged Mimori to stay awake.
"I'm sorry, I screwed up. Nothing would have happened if I hadn't-"
"Stop talking! We'll take you to the infirmary first" Mitsuhiko said. Once Mitsuhiko and Mimori were near enough of the rest of the group they took them. Koshimizu hissed when he saw the extent of the wounds.
"If she had received any help immediately she would be much better" the medic, remembering what Mitsuhiko had said about shooting her, tried to examine her belly to see the wounds. Fortunately Mimori had taken Veritas' bulletproof vest too "Even with this vest it's possible she may be bruised, at the very leaat"
"Let me help you carry her" Hasegawa said, leaving aside her cap. Between Koshimizu and Hasegawa they started descending from the Roof to the inside of the Headquarters. Mitsuhiko jumped from the roof to the Roof, panting.
"She looked pretty bad. Do you think she'll be in condition to answer a-anything?" Kobayashi approached to the hunter and asked.
"I hope so, Amy. Mimori-san owes us some answers. Maybe she knows stuff about the masterminds we wouldn't find otherwise"
"Then the masterminds could attempt to kill her" Romi said, rushing into the Headquarters. Mitsuhiko didn't think the masterminds would attempt anything as long as at least one commander was nearby. Their best chance was to interrogate Mimori as soon as possible and then continue with their investigation of the Headquarters.
This was the only chance they'd have to find out everything that stayed unanswered yet. None of the commanders was going to let that chance go.