Chapter 1: This Could Be Anywhere In The World (Deadly Life 1)
"Someone's dead!? What do we do? What do we do!? What am I supposed to do!?" Izumi said, hyperventilating. Saya's eyes darted around the room as the fear and panic began to set in. Junichi scrambled back to his feet from his back while he was laying near the dropped chandelier, still covered in Surumi's blood. He screamed again, running out of the room, almost collapsing as he ran.
"Junichi, please wait!" Koba shouted, reaching over to try and grab Junichi, but Junichi barreled past him, slamming into his arm like it wasn't there and running past Touki and Izumi. "Junichi!" Koba screamed, running out of the room just past him.
"Oh fuck, man. Oh fuuuuuuck!" Sora said, grabbing his hat hard enough that it began to wrinkle in his fingers. "I…What are we supposed to do!"
"How am I supposed to fuckin' know!? It's not like I saw a damn thing!" Yuuto argued with Sora. Chiwa was currently hiding underneath a table, with Airi trying to coax her out.
"Chiwa… Chiwa, please listen to me. Can you come out of underneath the table?" Airi asked. At this moment, in spite of her alarming appearance, she actually spoke with a certain softness as she tried to talk Chiwa out from under the table.
"N-no! I'm not dying too. I need to protect Socrates!" Chiwa shouted, gripping her stuffed rabbit tightly.
"Alright! Which one of you assholes did it?!" Asana shouted, rolling her shoulders. "If none of you fess up, I'm gonna start breaking arms!"
"Y-you can't just threaten people to get answers!" Miyuki exclaimed from behind Asana.
"How the fuck was any of us supposed to know a goddamn chandelier was going to fall on somebody!?" Daichi shouted as he approached the rest of the group. "How the hell do you do that without someone else noticing!?" He shouted, pointing a finger to the chandelier. "And how was any of us supposed to cut the power!? This could have been a freak accident!"
"Oh~ Someone did it alright!" Monokuma popped in with a belly laugh. "And it was one of you~" He announced, pointing a finger between all the students. "And Junichi and Koba. They were both suspects but they ran out of the room, so I can't point at 'em."
Soon, eyes began darting in different directions as everyone began accusing different people of being the one to do it, with equal denials. Sora immediately blamed Izumi, Daichi pointed fingers to Rinne and Airi, Asana glared over at Rokuro, who tried to blame Saya. Airi took to blaming Daichi in response while Miyuki suspected Yuuto. The accusations filled the room while Saya was trying to focus all of the questions bubbling through her mind. Others were asking why Junichi ran off and how he was the most suspicious because of it.
Saya took a deep breath before slamming her yardstick against the table. "Everybody stop!" Saya shouted, everyone suddenly turning quiet.
"Monokuma, what did you want us to do for this 'trial?'" Saya asked, twirling her yardstick in her fingers as she took the front of the group to stare down the bear. "What's required of us for this trial to proceed?"
"Wellllll… I guess a class trial is kinda like a regular court trial. You'll all act as your own lawyers, sometimes as prosecutors, sometimes as defendants, sometimes as suspects. But there's only one 'session,' we barely have breaks, there are no consultant fees, or depositions to sit through as a reference for your evidence. You just get the information you find in your 'investigation' of the crime scene." Monokuma explained, rocking back and forth on his paws. "Don't worry, though. I always make sure you guys get enough time to find evidence to actually figure out the real culprit before I dump you into the trial grounds. But if you take too long, I'll get bored and throw you in there regardless."
"So you're allowing a brief investigation period?" Saya asked.
"Yeppers, just check some things out, get a couple of stories, if I think you got it, or if you're wasting my time, I'll end the investigation and we'll all get in a slow, dramatic elevator ride and do the class trial! The 'truth bullets' are just sort of a reference guide for things I think you guys should keep in mind, but it'll only tell you things you've found out yourself, you're not gonna learn something if you didn't see it yourself." Monokuma explained.
"Understood," Saya said, turning to Izumi. "Igarashi, your suspension is lifted. We're investigating the murder of Surumi Takeuchi."
"Are… you still?" Izumi asked nervously.
"Ignore the incident earlier," Saya said. "Nothing before this matters. This Killing Suite became real the second that chandelier fell."
"Uhm… Okay. I just… Is this really happening? Do we have to… go investigate a murder?" Izumi asked, still shaken.
"I thought we would have the help of a detective, but it seems you and I are the designated investigators since everybody is too busy with accusations at the moment and Koba has run off…" Saya said. "I think the... first thing I have in mind is to see if it was really an accident or not. We'd have to figure out how the chandelier was connected to the ceiling."
"Well… uhm… shouldn't we check the Monokuma File, first?" Izumi asked.
"Good point," Saya said, nodding and turning back to her student handbook, going to the truth bullets menu and opening the notification for Monokuma File #1.
Monokuma File #1
Victim: Surumi Takeuchi
Time Of Death, 2:52 PM, Massive impact damage has crushed several bones in her body and glass has sliced her flesh, the death was instantaneous. There was no sign of tampering or poisons of any kind.
"I don't think I've learned anything I didn't know by reading that," Izumi commented.
"She was killed instantly, no prior wounds. That chandelier did the job, there was no other murder weapon covered up by the chandelier falling on her. I think it would state if she had any unusual wounds like stab marks or poisoning." Saya surmised.
"So… so the chandelier was the murder weapon," Izumi said.
"Right, and the question becomes how it was connected to the ceiling."
"Hrm… the chandeliers at my father's restaurant were connected to these winch thingies that were connected by support beams. He told me there was more than one point of failure on them because of safety standards after the last few earthquakes." Izumi said. Saya nodded as she continued to study the ceiling.
"So there may be a counterweight in here that had been compromised. Can you help me find where the cable connected to the chandelier was connected?"
"I-I'll try!" Izumi said, trying to keep her eyes away from the fallen chandelier.
"If you're right, there should be either two cables or one looped to two different connections," Saya said as Izumi ran to where she found the cord, sitting somewhere near the stage, just in front of the curtain.
"It… it looks like it's only one wire connected to two mounts! There's a bracket to connect it to the ceiling, but then it draped down to somewhere around here. I only see one cord, not two." Izumi called.
"Is the cord sliced or frayed?" Saya asked.
"Uhm.. what?" Izumi asked, confused. Saya jogged over to her and looked at the same cord she was looking at.
"I want to see if the cord was frayed, like it was slowly giving way, or was it sliced cleanly through with some kind of blade," Saya explained, looking down at the cord, it was strange. The side near the chandelier wasn't cut, it seemed to be cut from near the end of the cord, where the still not found winch bracket was. As the cord got closer to Saya's hands, it became stained with blood. "It looks like a clean cut like it was sliced." She said, running her fingers along the bundles of rope. "And the rope itself has blood on it… Was someone else wounded, or did Surumi's blood travel this far?" she asked
"Well, that's the thing… nobody else said they were hurt or anything, so maybe it was just Surumi." Izumi contended. "So… we found the end of the cable, now what?" Izumi asked instead.
"Find where the winch is, and see where in the room it would be, and it's ease of access from the ground floor, I'll be searching the floor for any objects that I can find," Saya explained.
"Objects?" Izumi asked, looking at the red curtains of the stage, which seemed to be hanging off by a few rings like it was roughly pulled to one side.
"I heard something fall a couple of seconds before the chandelier dropped. I want to see if I can find what would make a metallic sound like what I heard." Saya explained.
"Alright, I'll shout when I find the winch," Izumi said, climbing up onto the stage and behind the curtains as Saya began to search the floor. There was blood everywhere, but a gap where Junichi's body landed on the floor, right next to it appeared to be something blue, but she was too far away, and too nearsighted to see what it was right away. Saya walked at the speed her heels would carry her until she reached down to pick up the object in her hands.
It appeared to be some kind of large blue keychain, Saya didn't know what it was called, but she had seen it in school multiple times before to secure objects together, climbers would use a larger one to secure a safety rope to another safety rope.
"Shit, that's a carabiner, right?" Yuuto spoke up, walking past the rest of the students who were back against the wall to not interfere in Saya's investigation. "I saw a couple of those in the store."
"Is that what they call it?" Saya said, pushing her thumb against the spring, opening the carabiner to see how it worked. She would need to put something in it, then let go of the spring to secure it in the metal loop. "This was dropped from the ceiling… Akada, do you see any way for a culprit to rappel from the roof somewhere?"
"Are you asking to see if I can find any climbing mounts on the roof somewhere?"
"...Dude, the roof is like 30 feet up, there's no way to tell if there are mounts up there." Yuuto replied to Rokuro, who was approaching after him.
"I can tell if I climbed it," Rokuro said.
"You're… going climb the walls?" Saya asked, befuddled.
"You think I can't do it!? I have the grip strength to hold two of me. I can climb this dinky ass wall and check the ceiling out for ya, Saya!" Rokuro exclaimed.
"...Very well. Check to see if you can find something that would let somebody rappel from the ceiling. I don't know it that would require a mount or some kind of bracket… but anything would help." Saya requested.
Rokuro cracked his knuckles and went to the nearby wall. Saya thought that since it was smooth, he couldn't really climb it, but he began to wedge his fingers against the wall, squeezing any crack or tile he could come across and deadlifted his body into the air. "You think I'm the Ultimate Climber for nothin'!? I can climb anything!" he called as he climbed.
"Well goddamn, I can't do that shit," Yuuto said, shocked as Rokuro climbed up onto one of the ceiling beams, and held his hand up to look at the one across from him that contained the chandelier bracket mount. "Nothin' up here. There's no ropes, hooks, or anything. If someone was up here got down safely without the use of any safety devices." He explained. "That, or nobody was up here in the first place!"
"Saya! I found the winch! I also found some other weird stuff, please, come here!" Izumi shouted across the hall, getting the Class President's attention. Izumi was leaning through the curtain's side, gesturing Saya to come closer as Saya clambered onto the stage, skipping the stairs, and slid back behind the stage.
"What did you find, Igarashi?" Saya inquired.
"Look at the door. It doesn't have a lock on it, but it won't budge. Did someone bar it from the other side?" Izumi asked. Saya tested the door, turning the knob and trying to pull the door. Instead of pulling the door open, it nearly pulled the frame off.
"Something is causing the door to be stuck to the frame. If it were barred with a broom, then I couldn't pull or push it at all. But something is stuck to both the wooden frame, and the door itself…" Saya said, running her fingers along the door until she felt a strange, hard substance near the bottom of the door.
"There we are. Some sort of adhesive. Did the culprit glue the door shut escaping from the room?"
"That doesn't make sense. Everybody was in the room when the lights came back on. I was with Touki, and we stayed in the lounge until the lights went out. Everybody else was already in the room when Surumi got killed…" Izumi pointed out.
"Did anyone come back through the lounge?" Saya pressed further
"I didn't see anybody. If they glued the door shut, they would have to pass through the lounge right? I didn't see anything!" Izumi exclaimed, putting up her hands.
"That's… odd. I wish I knew what this adhesive was… and where they got it."
"I know," came a voice behind the two, slightly startling Izumi. Saya turned to see Airi, standing with a gloved hand in her pocket. "It's an epoxy resin designed to set quickly under specific circumstances."
"How do you know that? Wouldn't that make you suspicious to bring that up?" Saya asked
"If I did it, I wouldn't be bringing this fact up to you. I would have claimed it was a two-part epoxy and that the culprit set it earlier in the day. But that epoxy belongs to me, it was stolen from my lab. And it was used within the very same minute Surumi was killed." Airi began.
"Wait, it was in your lab?" Izumi asked.
"Mhm. I use it seal bedroom doors so kids don't try to escape," Airi explained.
"...Are you sure you're a babysitter?" Izumi asked.
"Absolutely. Why does everyone keep doubting me?" Airi wondered.
"There are several reasons. Now, how does this epoxy resin work? You mentioned specific circumstances," Saya pressed further.
"It's a UV sensitive epoxy resin that can set within seconds if you shine a blacklight on it. It's fast setting and fairly strong, but the two-part epoxy is better in almost every way except setting time. The culprit could splatter the resin on the door earlier in the day. Then shine the light on it to set it instantly." Airi explained, getting down onto one knee to inspect it. "I can't really tell from which side they used the light on. The whole thing has been fully hardened."
"Maybe they used it on both?" Izumi theorized.
"Unlikely. The killer would only need to harden one side to fully seal the door, so it'd be difficult to harden both sides," Airi answered.
"I see…" Saya said, putting her hand to her chin. "You said you found the winch, right Igarashi?"
"Huh? Oh! Right!" Izumi said. She led the Ultimate Class President to the corner of the backstage area, revealing a worm-geared chandelier winch inset into the wall, it was connected to a hand crank to raise, and lower the winch, along with a brake to hold it in place. She pointed to a piece of cable hanging limply from the winch, dangling a few inches from the bare crank.
"So, it was cut from this end, that explains why the cable was so long and nearly ripped the curtain off when the chandelier fell," Saya observed.
"It's weird, the chandelier winch usually burrows the cable into the wall, up into the ceiling, and doesn't leave a cable dangling everywhere like it did." Izumi pointed out.
"The cable wasn't connected through the wall?" Saya asked.
"I remember it earlier, the chandelier was connected to the winch directly, not put through a wall or anything. It was kind of like a tightrope, the tension in the winch was one of the things holding it up. Who would do it like that?" Izumi wondered.
"I'm lazy, that's all " Monokuma announced, standing on a grand piano that was backstage. "Wiring the cord up through the wall and the ceiling to hide the cord for aesthetic reasons? Forget that! I could connect the winch to the chandelier and save a load of time!"
"That's kind of… trashy for a high-class hotel, don't you think?" Izumi asked.
"Did I say this was a high-class hotel? Shut up. We had to remodel this whole thing for you losers!" Monokuma raved.
"That means it probably didn't have a failsafe. That's probably several JISHA violations right there," Izumi assessed.
"I'm trying to get you to kill each other, why would I install safety mechanisms for any reason whatsoever? Do you want everything wrapped in bubble wrap, too?" Monokuma taunted.
"He raises a good point, frustratingly…" Saya said, shaking her head. "I have to admit, I'm surprised you know so much about chandeliers and chandelier safety, Igarashi."
"My dad was kind of a control freak about every aspect of his image and restaurant. I uhh... I got the crash course on a lot of things I didn't think I needed to know." Izumi explained.
"I see… so, we have a door sealed with epoxy and a poorly-built winch with a cut cable. Both things would imply that the killer cut and run, but with your testimony that nobody left the room during the murder… I'm not sure what to think." Saya said, sinking into deep thought.
"You think there's more to it?" Izumi asked.
"Yes, but I don't know exactly where to find what I'd be looking for," Saya said, eyes tightening shut as she continued to wrack her brain.
"...Maybe there's something beyond the door?" Izumi suggested.
"Maybe, but we can't get through the door…" Saya said, shaking her head.
And I'm not planning on breaking the door down, maybe we can check the map to see if this room has another entrance." Airi said.
Saya pulled up the map on her student handbook, revealing the layout of the floor. There was indeed two entrances to the room that was barricaded, but the catch was, it wasn't accessible from this side of the dining hall. They would need to return to the elevator, and return in an alternate elevator to head down the opposite hall of the floor. Saya nodded and headed off for the elevator.