"What?" Danny's eyes went wide with shock, then gained a sad look, "I see... Where is he?"
"In the storage room, right in front of the door," I answered, turning away when Danny goes to open the door to peer inside. I regret not getting to know Grant more, but it still was hard to see him like that. I looked around trying to focus my attention on other things, like maybe that Mono-teacher coming towards us... Wait! "Hey, what do you want!" I asked angrily, these guys can't mean anything good.
"Relax, my star pupil, Sanyu," the Mono-teacher said waving, oh no it's him, "I'm only here to explain the basics, Danny my man," 55 said, pointing finger guns at a bewildered Danny.
"I brought everyone else," behind 55 I see Veliah and the rest coming, I noticed a few people looking away or cursing at the sight of the bloody footprints, the rest just looking disappointed, "why's the monokuma teacher here?" She asked, the others looking curious now as well.
"I'm here to explain the 'investigation time' for you all," as 55 said this, he produced a clip board, "here's the monokuma file," 55 held it out, slowly Kojiro took it, "ok, so now that someone is dead, you're free to sleep," I could feel the weight on my shoulders lift, "but I wouldn't recommend doing it just yet, we still have a investigation to do. Not everyone has to sleep just yet so if you want to investigate or maybe destroy some evidence, you can do that," and the weight was right back on, "ok, my dudes, I'll be in my room if you need anything," and 55 left. The air was thick with tension from the decision to go to bed or investigate.
"Well I'm going to bed," Haruna stated readying to hurry off.
"You can't, we still need to investigate while everything's still here," I said, Haruna shot me a glare.
"I don't care, I mean there's 14 of us, what difference would it make if I left," she defended. Unsure of what to do I looked for help, just when I was about to give up Yuzuru spoke up.
"I think we should investigate," he said somberly. Looking at Yuzuru I remembered the incident that made him and Grant friends, this must be hard for him.
"It would be in our best interests to investigate now," Evan said, he then went to Kojiro, and asked for the clip board, "I see," Evan said to himself, and walked off seemingly following the bloody footprints, handing the clipboard back. This piqued everyone's interest, everyone crowded around the clipboard to see what it said.
Victim: Grant Kingsmen
"The cause of death was a blow to the head, and blood loss from thin repeated stab wounds."
"The murder took place in the storage room."
"There is a blood trail leading out of the room."
"There is a thick chain lying on the body."
"The blood in the room is not all from Grant."
OBTAINED TRUTH BULLET: Monokuma File
"There isn't much..." Kenta noted, "they are very confident in us, aren't they?" I hope not, my deduction abilities are good, but not enough to bet my life on. Coming out of my train of thought I briefly felt a hand reach around me and yank the board from Kojiro.
"Let me see!" It was Yuzuru, he seemed more fired up than before, "blood trail?!" That piece of information seemed to shock him, looking around widely he then found the blood trail and took off following it.
"We should split up, a few follow the blood trail, and others inspect the main crime scene," Yukihiro suggested, there were noises of agreement, and everyone divided into groups. Haruna, Yukihiro, Kenta, M, Alan, Kojiro, Yoshiki, Akira and I stayed behind to investigate the initial crime scene, everyone else followed the footprints. I stopped when I noticed Yukihiro staring at the door.
"Is something wrong?" I asked her, she seemed surprised that I'd ask.
"It's about the door timers, we don't want it to lock in the middle of the investigation," Yukihiro said, she brought up a pretty good point. Unless the door timers stop for investigating, we could lose evidence, and time.
"Don't worry, I have a solution for that, I figured it out after Sanyu and Danny got trapped," Yoshiki said walking into the storage room, tiptoeing around the crime scene, and coming back with a wooden door stop, "we just have to stop it from locking," Yoshiki put the door stop down, effectively stopping the door from closing, "I didn't bring it up before, because I didn't want someone to use it to sneak around," he explained. Yoshiki was right, someone could easily have used it to make a alibi with the door timers, I mean seriously it was that simple to get around the door times! What other simple solutions am I missing? But this brought another thing to mind, I need to be careful around these guys, they're actually pretty smart. I put that worry aside and proceeded to the door only to be scared shitless by a high pitched scream.
"What the hell?" I yelled startled, I ran inside to see Haruna screaming. She looked ok, if a bit spooked, Akira rushed over to her helping her get out of the room. I guess Haruna got scared by the body? I mean this is pretty terrible.
"Well that was unnecessary," Alan said, he seemed to be staring sadly at Grant.
"It must be hard seeing this," I tried to comfort, but apparently I interpreted wrong.
"Huh? Oh I don't care, I expected this," he crouched over the body, "I just wish my chains weren't considered evidence, I want them back."
Well it seems he really didn't care, and honestly that made me a little mad, I mean someone's dead! And he just wants his 'jewelry' back, "It doesn't matter, we should move it anyways," I say going to pick the chains up, but suddenly Alan grabbed my wrist stopping me.
"Sanyu, you sound like a nice guy, so I'm going to give some advice," he let go of my wrist, "don't touch my stuff, or something bad might happen," I felt a chill at how serious he sounded, what's going to happen if I do touch his stuff? I was then thankfully distracted by the storage room door opening to reveal Yuzuru.
"I'm here to help," he said walking over to help search the room. Minutes later I saw Yoshiki go to the door, he noticed me too.
"There's too many people," I heard Yoshiki say to me, before exciting, "I'll investigate somewhere else."
I wanted to do something to help, even if it was just rechecking over things. It made me queasy, but I decided to investigate the crime scene more. Grant's body was spread out on the floor, back to the ground, eyes wide, he must have been taken by surprise, but how? Blood was everywhere, like the killer got too carried away with the act, it's obvious that almost all of it came from the stab wounds, maybe a little from the head wound?
I looked to see Kojiro still with the Monokuma file clipboard, he seemed a bit nervous, "You okay, Kojiro?" I asked.
"Yeah, just a little nervous," he said, "I'm feeling a little paranoid," Paranoid, what for? It's not possible, did Kojiro kill Grant!? "Hey, I know that look, you're thinking I killed Grant! Well I didn't, I'm a new person now, got that!" He stated. Wanting to get back on track I looked over his shoulder to quickly read over the injuries, then went back to the body. The stab wounds were small and thin, and quite cleanly cut, the cuts covered his stomach and chest with butcher like results, but he also had cuts and stabs on his forearms. I knew from experience that the position of the cuts on the arms were from trying to protect himself, had there been a fight? I looked closely at the body for any suggestions of a fight, but nothing came to me besides the fact his clothes were in a disarray and all of his pockets turned inside out.
OBTAINED TRUTH BULLET: Resistance
"Has anyone seen the murder weapon?" Yuzuru asked, searching through some boxes.
"For the sharp object, no," Kenta replied, "but the blunt object for the head wound is definitely the chains."
"These are Alan's chains right?" Yuzuru brought up, "That's a little suspicious," we all then looked at Alan. Yuzuru was right, it was suspicious.
"I'm not an idiot, if I wanted to kill someone I wouldn't use such an obvious weapon," Alan said, agitated. He also made a good point, like Yuzuru, I didn't realize how hard it was to convict someone, but I guess we have a suspect. I noticed Kojiro and Kenta looking at the body, talking about something, and pointing at the body with pens.
"Is something wrong with the body?" I asked
"Actually yeah, look at these wounds," Kenta said, using a pen to pick up the chains, my vision was unfocused from lack of sleep so I couldn't tell what he was showing me, so I leaned in closer, "there's a burn-like wound under the chain, I don't think it was there before?" This caught the attention of M, who rushed over.
"Let me see," M suddenly said, crouching over the body. In a second my hand was swatted away by M, but before I could protest M explained, "it's poison, don't touch it," M said it like it was nothing, but it still made everyone jump back, keeping their distance, "I don't know what kind it really is, but it is some sort of acid, because it makes the most sense with these wounds," M looked up from Grants corpse, and at Alan, "Right?" Is this why Alan stopped me from touching it?
"Why should I answer that?" Alan snapped, "Maybe the killer put it there,"
"If that's true then the killer's hands are going to melt soon, it's best if everyone who touched the body or chains with their bare skin, to go wash their hands," That sent Yuzuru scurrying out the door, and Yukihiro calmly, but quickly, following him. Yoshiki, Kenta, Kojiro, Alan, and M stayed behind and continued to look at the body, "the poison's been diluted, so it may take a bit for it to effect the killer's hands, even if they were wearing gloves," M concluded.
"Not just the killers," Kojiro said, curious as to what he meant, I came closer. Grant's hands had the burns too, his entire palm and fingers were a blistered red, but strangely the back wasn't affected, could Grant have touched the chains?
OBTAINED TRUTH BULLET: Strange Acid Burns on Hands
As I watched everyone go to work, I soon realized that I wasn't doing much to help, considering five people could easily cover the small room. I went outside and stood at the door, closing my eyes I remembered how tired I still was, but I've made it this far, no reason to quit now. I decided to go see how the other group is doing, so I started following the blood trail, it led straight to the laundry room.
"Sanyu, you've come to help us?" Danny said waving me over to him, Veliah, and Yoshiki was with him, but no sign of James or Evan, I should find them next.
"I guess, I'm actually just wandering around," I said, "have you found anything?"
"A towel and some clothes are missing, at least we think," Danny said, "the clothing missing is from the students in the original killing game, they each had a basket with like five pairs of the same clothes," Danny showed me a hamper filled with old discarded pants and shirts, "but a few things are missing from each set."
OBTAINED TRUTH BULLET: Missing Clothes
"Why?" I ask, why steal clothes? Did the killer change clothes? But we would notice that?
"Maybe to disguise themselves when they killed?" Veliah interjected, her answer made more sense then mine, so that may be what happened. I was even more confused than when I came in, so I bid goodbye to them intending to go back to the storage room, only to bump into Yukihiro, on her way back from the bathroom, "Hey are your hands ok?" I ask.
"Oh yeah, I mostly did it just to be safe," she explained.
"Have you seen Evan or James, I haven't seen them in awhile?" I asked.
"No I haven't actually, Yuzuru came with me, maybe he'd know?" Yukihiro paused in thought, "Oh! I did see Akira and Haruna go into the cafeteria, maybe they've seen them?"
"Ok, thanks," I left to go find them, as I walked into the cafeteria I noticed that the door stopper idea was in play here too, inside I see a sleeping Haruna, Akira seated next to her looking through a notebook.
"What's the notebook for?" I asked, she jumped at my sudden appearance, "and should Haruna be sleeping outside the dorms?"
"Sanyu, don't sneak up on me," Akira looked at me annoyed, then let out a sigh, "Grant signed out on the log book, but not signed back in, so unless this was premeditated than the murder must have signed out too," Akira said, "despite what that Mono-teacher said, the dorms are still locked, so I'm just going to watch for Mono-teachers and wake her when they come around, for some reason there seems to be less of them now," She handed the notebook to me, looking inside I read the names.
Pg 3
Alan- restrooms- Alan
Evan- baths- Evan
Yoshiki- restrooms- Yoshiki
Akira- storage- Akira
yuzuru- restrooms- yuzuru
Veliah- restrooms- Veliah
Erased
Grant- storage-
alan- storage-
Veliah/Sanyu- incinerator-
OBTAINED TRUTH BULLET: Log Out Book
Instantly I noted that a space was erased, and after a good inspection, that a few of the names were written differently, that could be useful, "Have you seen James and Evan?" I asked, handing the notebook back.
"Yeah, they were heading toward the baths," she answered. The baths, why?
"Ok," I exited the cafeteria, but not before apologizing to Akira for scaring her, she let out a bark of a laugh at that. I continued to the baths to find James and Evan standing at the door, "What are you two doing?"
"Sanyu, great to see you," James greeted, "have you found anything out? Because Evan here is practically giving me a free ride with this investigation," he laughed, Evan seemed a bit annoyed at the loud voice, but didn't say anything about it.
"Well, Akira showed me the sign-out book, and it turns out Alan's chains were poisoned," I informed, "and Danny told me some clothes are missing," Evan looked in thought, James leaned back against the wall waiting for something.
"I see," Evan said, nodding, this is apparently what James was waiting for.
"Me and Evan were following a blood trail," he interjected, I looked around, I didn't see a blood trail? "I didn't see it at first ether, see Evan it's not obvious to everyone! Anyways, it's on the wall, if you look closely you'll see bloody fingerprints from the laundry room to here," with that new information I could now see faint red dots consistently peppering one side of the hall low to the ground, "We think the killer went into the baths, because the trail stops here."
OBTAINED TRUTH BULLET: Bloody Fingerprints on Wall
"Why don't you go in then?" I asked.
"We would if we could, but the door timers have already gone," to emphasize his point, James jiggled the handle to no avail, "we went and got a Mono-teacher about it, and they said they'd unlock it, so we're waiting," so I waited also, it didn't take long for the click to alert us. Opening it we went inside and began to investigate, the floors were wet, and the air steamy, like someone had taken a hot bath. The place really didn't have much to offer other than being humid, distracted I stepped in a puddle which made me slip, and land hard on my back. The fall knocked the air out of me, so for awhile I didn't feel like moving so I just laid there until I noticed a silvery glint in my eye, rolling over I reached under a stool to pull out a pair of sharp intricate silver scissors.
OBTAINED TRUTH BULLET: Silver Scissors in Baths
"I found something," I said, when I could breathe again. I held it up catching the attention of James, and Evan.
"Why are you on the floor," James asked, helping me up, I waved it off saying it didn't matter.
"Where did you find those?" Evan asked, holding his hand out.
Giving the scissors to him, I answered, "It was under that stool, but it wasn't hidden or anything."
"What is it?" James asked.
"Possibly the murder weapon," Evan theorized, I responded quickly to that.
"The murder weapon, here?" I doubted.
"Why is the murder weapons here?" James wondered, "What if the killer wanted to wash off the evidence and dropped the weapon?"
"Let's save it for the trial," Evan replied, "we should regroup with everyone and see what else has been found-" Evan was cut of by the loud sound of speaker feedback.
"It is time for the class trial!" The voice announced, reverberating through the building.
"Ok," James shrugs and walks off with Evan to the big red doors of the trial room elevator, uneasy I follow close behind, joining up with Danny and surprisingly Yuzuru, who seemed a bit down.
"Don't worry Yuzuru, I'm sure we will get the killer," I reassured, as the elevator shook to life and descended. My stomach growing more uneasy and my head was swimming, the effects of the adrenaline from seeing Grant dead, wearing off, reminding me once again how tired I am.
"You're damn right you will," Yuzuru spat, "you better promise me you'll find the right guy, and don't stop until you really do," he seemed to get more fired up with each word, grinning he gave me a hard slug on the shoulder. Soon the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened slowly to reveal the class trial room.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE UPDATE! It's a bad habit of mine to write future chapters before the present ones, so that's why I got this one out so early... Hopefully I'll get better at dropping clues in the next investigation... Also do you think the 'obtained truth bullet' is to much? I'm a little iffy on em
Beta Notes: This Trial Has Caused Me Much Pain.