"I'll help guard the body with ya," Mondo offered, quietly. "I'm not much doing otherwise." He had been the first to break the silence since Monokuma left, which snapped Makoto back into reality.
"I SHALL STAY HERE AS WELL!" Taka volunteered, loudly.
Kyoko, instead of saying anything, walked forward to examine the body. Makoto followed her, hesitantly. He had just assumed that he would be helping her investigate like last time.
The two of them crouched down next to the body, and Makoto found the notepad he had used last time in a pocket of his hoodie. Must have forgotten to take this out...
"The file is downplaying these wounds," Kyoko squinted. Gently moving some of Aoi's hair aside, she frowned. "Her hair is wet as well."
Makoto scribbled that down. "How about the rest of her?"
Kyoko began patting down parts of Aoi's clothes. "It looks like she was dried off, post mortem. Just enough to get dressed."
"These weren't the clothes she was murdered in?" Makoto asked. "How can you tell?"
"Well, look at these wounds," Kyoko explained. "The neck is almost completely crushed, which, along with other signs of asphyxiation, is the leading cause of death. But the wounds on her head are bloody, and there's nothing on the outside of the clothes. And while her hair is still damp, these clothes are externally dry."
"Makes sense," he replied, scribbling the information down.
"The neck wounds appear to have been done with a rope," the detective added. "While the other wounds were done with blunt force."
Mukuro watched the two of them. She felt... rather powerless at the moment. She had been the cause of many, countless deaths for years. Never once had she been asked to look back at someone post-death. Never once had she come across a corpse where she didn't know what happened to it.
Even moreso, something new was in her chest as she looked at Aoi's body.
"Hey, does anyone want to go for a swim with me?!" Aoi asked, excitedly. "Makoto? Sakura? Um... Mukuro was it?"
The girl had been so nice to her. She had walked with Mukuro to the pool, asking her about Naegi and talking to her like a normal person.
She'd never felt sad looking at a dead body before today.
"So, we have the changed clothes, the crushed windpipe, the blood on her head..." Makoto summed up. "If she was wet, it doesn't seem like she was killed here. She must have been brought here after by the killer to hide the body."
"Who the fuck even knew about this room?!" Mondo growled.
Everyone's eyes traveled over to Mukuro, and she suddenly felt very much defensive.
"I was shown this room once by Junko when we were first locked in," She explained. "It was used by the headmaster as a bunker of sorts, but he stopped using it after the whole school was turned into a shelter. To be honest, I had forgotten about it until I realized we had looked everywhere else for her body."
"Of course, that could be a lie if you had hid the body here last night," Byakuya replied.
Makoto wanted to rebut, but Kyoko beat him to it. "That isn't the most logical explanation," the detective said. "If Mukuro was looking to hide the body here, she would not bring myself, Makoto, and Kiyotaka into this room to show us it in our search. It defeats the purpose of hiding the body. Furthermore, I had discovered this room yesterday in my own investigation. I showed Naegi and Chihiro, but decided to keep it secret from anyone else."
"You knew about this room?!" Mukuro asked, looking from Kyoko to Naegi, shocked. Makoto looked away, guiltily.
"Well, so that makes you four the most likely suspects," Byakuya replied, smugly. "If I didn't know about it, I doubt any of these other plebians would have found it."
"I know you're insulting me, but I'm glad to say I knew nothing of it," Yasuhiro added. "I was in my room the whole day."
"For now, maybe we should try and figure out where the clothes she was murdered in have gone too, and where she was actually murdered," Makoto suggested.
"That seems wise," Celeste agreed. "You two came through last time, I'm sure you will this time as well."
Meaning she doesn't plan to help, Mukuro grimaced. "I'll help too."
"That's good," Kyoko added. "If you'd come with me, I'd like to ask you some questions." She turned to Naegi. "You and I should split up. You proved valuable in the last investigation. I expect you to leave no stone unturned."
"M-me?" Makoto asked, dubiously. "I really think it's only because I had retained my memories."
"Nonsense. Come with me, Ikusaba."
Makoto as the two girls left, and then turned back to Aoi's body. He took a deep breath, and found his well of determination in his chest.
His eyes scanned the rest of the room, and he noticed that the bookshelves that had been filled with prior facts and history of Hope's Peak were a few books shorter than they had been the day before. He jotted down, "missing books," in his notebook.
He turned to Sakura, "Hey, Sakura, you walked with Aoi to the pool yesterday morning, right?"
"What do you mean?" The martial artist growled, putting Naegi on edge. He understood why; those two had... always been close. There had been times before the Tragedy he had seen them holding hands in the hallway, but he never inquired on the subject further.
"Kyoko and I went past you after we had inspected this room," he replied. "Aoi mentioned going to the pool to you."
"Ah... yes." Sakura replied. "Once Aoi was in the water, I didn't stay. I went to the weight room next to the pool to workout. I was in there the whole day, and I didn't see anyone go through to the pool. Once it got close to night time, I left to get something to eat, and went to my dorm."
Makoto finished writing down her statement. "Okay... thanks."
The boy left to investigate the pool, and was a little surprised that Byakuya walked out with him, stopping Makoto in the hallway.
"I'm only going to tell you this because you appear to be somewhat competent." Byakuya said. "I'm not certain I believe her story."
"What do you mean?"
"I left the library to use the restroom maybe around six o'clock. I remember because it was maybe half an hour after Yasuhiro came in, looking for a book of fortune telling or some such nonsense. About half an hour later, she came into the library with books that she claimed needed to be returned to the archive."
"And?"
"I've been in that library every day since the second floor opened, and that buffoon has never been in there once. Whatever she put in the archive never was there in the first place."
Makoto wrote Byakuya's account down. "Anything else?"
"She left with one book. It was one of the few she had brought in."
"So she left with one of the books she brought in," Makoto scribbled. "Got it."
Something struck Makoto, and he remembered something else that happened to him yesterday. He scribbled a note for himself and rushed off to the library, Byakuya following him out of curiosity.
Kyoko and Mukuro moved into the girl's changing room to investigate while Kyoko asked Mukuro a few things.
"So, you claim that the secret room had been something that had just slipped your mind, correct?"
Mukuro nodded. "Yes. Junko discovered it right after the lockdown, but she never invited me to it again. After a while it sort of just... well, slipped my mind, like you said."
"I see. Can you give me an account for your whereabouts as of yesterday?" Kyoko asked.
"Sure. After Makoto met you in the dining hall to talk about whatever you two had been looking for, we took a walk around the building. It must have been around five. We checked on Asahina, and then Hifumi asked Makoto for help. I ended up going to the storage room, as I figured I would get some working out in. I ran into Celeste, and after a small conversation, I decided to go back to my room for the evening instead."
"Around five?" Kyoko narrowed her eyes. "You two might have been the last ones to see Aoi alive. Was anyone in either locker room?"
"Nope. No one here at least." Mukuro assured her.
"Hmm. Was that here?" Kyoko asked, pointing to a bin for wet towels. It was overflowing with at least ten sopping wet towels.
Mukuro narrowed her eyes. "No, not at all." Moving in a little closer to the bin, she read a small sign above it. "Wet towels will be collected at 3pm daily."
"If you were in here yesterday with an empty weight room, and Aoi was the only one swimming, that is an absurd amount of towels." The detective observed. "Let's check the pool."
The two walked into the pool area to find... nothing too terribly out of place. The water was still, as usual, and only the hum of the pool filter could be heard. Mukuro watched as the detective slowly walked the length of the pool, around the far side, around the other length, and finishing her lap back by the soldier. She beckoned the soldier towards the lifeguard chair, so Mukuro followed.
"The rope hanging down from here, was it like this when you were swimming the other day?" Kyoko asked, pointing towards the rope that would normally be attached to a life preserver.
The rope was carelessly dangling from the chair, hooked around the back, to the pool.
"No, not at all. Think it's related?"
"Possibly. This would match the neck wounds and it's the most easily accessible rope." And," Kyoko pulled two long strands of brown hair off the rope. "Two hairs here. One of these looks like it matches Aoi's. I'm no forensic scientist, but it's a near perfect match. The other... well, not so much. It's the right color, but..."
"But?" Mukuro echoed.
Kyoko held the hair up for Mukuro to inspect. It was long, but curly and frayed. "Not quite a match. Possibly damaged in a struggle."
"That's good right? It means it's the rope used to strangle Aoi?" Mukuro asked.
"Unfortunately, I can't find any other physical evidence to make it definitive," the detective sighed. "Any blood that might have been in the water has been damaged by the pool chemicals at this point. And whatever water that might have been splashed up in an altercation has dried. But, it's a strong possibility."
The soldier frowned and stared out at the pool. "Something still feels off though."
"What do you mean?"
Mukuro walked forward and knelt down next to the corner of the pool. Around the pool was a thin line of black tiles that went around the whole pool. "Well, when I was swimming two days ago, the water was above this line. Maybe it's a fill line. But the water is a square or two below these tiles now."
Kyoko kneeled down and examined it as well. "Are you sure?"
Mukuro stared at the detective briefly, remembering how it felt for every eye in the room to turn on her, and Junko's words about killing everyone.
It would be easy to grab her head and hold it under the water...
After all, just how did those two find out about the hidden room... together?
Mukuro shook the thought. "I'm positive."
"Well, we should make a note of it." Kyoko rubbed her chin. "A difference in the water level could indicate a struggle." She stood. "Alright. Last thing. We check for any sort of evidence in the boys' locker room. Thankfully, we can get in through the pool entrance."
The two checked that locker room as well. However, after turning the location upside down, they found nothing, other than some broken glass in one of the garbage containers. Kyoko wrote it down anyway.
Makoto entered the archive, and began checking every bookshelf for books or files that looked familiar to the ones from the hidden room. If Sakura had put something in here, perhaps it was for a reason.
His eyes scanned over a shelf until his eyes almost passed over some condensation on the shelf. His eyes flew up, seeing a large volume. He grabbed it and pulled it out, immediately cringing at the feel of the wet book.
"This was originally from that hidden room," he told Byakuyua, who simply nodded.
He opened the book to see some pages had been torn out, and a bloody, torn swimsuit was stuffed into the pages.
"Well, it appears we found where the ogre hid the evidence," Byakuya scoffed. "She's woefully bad at concealing that it was her doing.
Makoto frowned. "I'm not assuming anything yet. I want to check something else."
He turned and left for the pool; but in the hallway, he ran into just who he was looking for: Mukuro and Kyoko.
"Has your search been fruitful?" Kyoko asked.
"Y-yes," Makoto said, looking at his notepad. "Here's what I have..."
He relayed the accounts he had taken from Sakura and Byakuya, the missing items from the hidden room, their relocation by Sakura, which included even the bloodied bathing suit.
Mukuro had been impressed by the detective, and she was further impressed by Makoto. He was actually pretty good at this investigating business.
"Solid leads." Kyoko rubbed her chin. "They point to Ogami... however, it contradicts some of the evidence we found."
"How so?" Makoto asked.
Kyoko explained their evidence; Mukuro accounting for Ogami being nowhere near the pool when her and Makoto went for a walk, the frayed rope with two hairs, the change in water level, and the mass of wet towels in the women's room.
"That's right, Sakura wasn't anywhere nearby when we looked at the pool last time," Makoto though, straining his memory.
DING DONG BING BONG
"Hem hem! Tiiiiiiiiime's up children!" Monokuma cried gleefully. "It's trial time! Head for the red door on the first floor! Puhu!"
The three looked to each other, and Makoto was astounded that the two women in front of him could keep such solid poker faces. He knew he looked uneasy, but seeing their resolve remembered he had promised Junko and himself that he would stop her. He'd already failed in letting another murder happen; he couldn't give her the satisfaction of stopping.
They met the other students in front of the red door, and they entered the elevator down into the trial room.
They had to figure out what happened to Aoi. While the last week or so had already seemed so surreal to Makoto, it was hard to come to grasp the reality that two days ago, he and Mukuro had spent an afternoon swimming with Aoi, and now she was gone.
I have to do her justice, he gulped, determined, it's all I can do for her now.