You know, you might be thinking right now: 'that title is way too long, you actually had to make it an acronym for the chapter-select and it still barely fit you absolute twat of an author'.

Well, I'm hurt on a deeply emotional level, but I stand by this title because I find it funny.


Chapter 71: The Dubious Tale of a Dead Man, a House Party, and a Heist on the Horizon

Zoh closed the door behind us as I sat down. We had very similar expressions at that moment; something that looked like a general sense of confusion and vague irritation.

"Ahri, what just happened?"

I just sorta shrugged and mumbled: "I dunno… but I think we just became advertisement actors."

He sat down next to me and pondered for a moment.

"What if they make us do those confusing perfume adverts?"

"That's your main concern in all this?"

He turned his head to me and began to say something, then caught himself, then started again, then stopped himself again, then finally exclaimed: "Oh yeah, human rights! I forgot about those. Pretty sure this goes against at least one of them."

"I'm not sure about that. Rights on Runeterra are like bread. They're massively different depending on where you are, and the places without them tend to have a high death toll."

"Well, I plan to have exactly the rights I want wherever I go! If anyone disagrees I'll drop something heavy on them. Like a brick. Or an anvil… or a building…"

"So you're going to go threaten the… uh… large guy, to get out of doing adverts?"

"Exactly!" he exclaimed while standing up and filling his body language with resolve. As he headed to the door, he added: "And don't even try to stop me with stupid shit like 'rational ideas' and 'avoiding unnecessary conflict'!"

"Oh, no, you go ahead, honey. I don't want to do that stuff any more than you. It'll cut into my leisure time, and you know how I like to spend that time."

"Yeah, you're not exactly reserved about that subject."

As he was about to open the door, someone knocked on it.

"What convenient timing." Zoh noted while opening the door, revealing Lux. For some reason, she was wearing a very formal dress, though it retained her usual colours.

"Hey guys! Mind if I come in?"

"Of course! Come sit with me." I greeted while standing up, even though I couldn't remember if that was a part of proper manners in Demacia.

As she came in and sat beside me, Zoh waved for attention and queried: "Sorry, Lux, but I was just leaving. So, does this involve me?"

"It doesn't have to, I guess."

"Okay, good. I'll be off then. Cya!"

He hurried out; a man on a mission. I just had to hope that he wasn't actually going to drop a house on anyone, though I couldn't rule it out.

"So, what IS the outfit about?"

"A family friend is having a formal party and we had to send someone."

"And you just got unlucky?"

"I was the only one not doing anything today."

"Couldn't think of an excuse!"

Her entire body animated, rage tearing across her face as she exclaimed: "Well I said I was going to kill Yasuo today BUT APPARENTLY THAT'S NOT A GOOD EXCUSE! And then I got a lecture about how 'you shouldn't have such an insatiable bloodlust targeted at a co-worker' and how 'trying to kill anyone in such vicious ways is honestly quite unsettling and I'm not sure where you got it from'!"

I realised I was leaning back quite far at that point, naturally not wanting to be near such a fountain of rage.

"Okay, okay, Lux, calm down. I don't want you to 'Demacia!' all my furniture into a pile of ash."

She paused, apart from some disconcerting eye-twitching, before finally releasing her tension and calming.

"I just… I just hate him so much."

"I get it. Must suck having a counter so hard, huh?"

"Is that what you think this is about?"

"No but to be honest with you I can't remember the real reason. I probably would remember if it wasn't for… literally so fucking much happening."

She contemplated for a second then nodded: "Fair enough. Anyway, whatever, it doesn't matter, will you come with me? I really don't wanna deal with those snooty rich guys on my own."

"Of course! But if anyone tells me the wine is only for tasting and not drinking it will be a fight."

"It's classy!"

"It's wasteful!"

We glared at each other for a moment, although I wasn't sure if she actually cared or was just joking.

"Plus, it's not in my nature to spit."

"You had to make it worse."

Zoh's POV:

Later that night (21:43):

"You can tell that I'm cool by how I'm perched on the ledge of a building at night. And how I talk to myself."

I pulled a bit of a confused face then realised: "Oh yeah, they usually talk on the inside. Damn, I'd be a shit superhero."

Not to mention the fact that I was literally about to rob a building because I didn't want to do advertisements and there was a vague chance this would help. Generally speaking that would be more of a 'bad guy' thing to do, but heroes didn't need to concern themselves with such petty details.

"Now, the task at hand. Getting from this building to that one."

I scratched my chin and briefly peered down to the street far below; still bristling with life under the synthetic light of the city. It was beautiful, as always, but I didn't want to get any closer to it. Since that'd include me falling, which would hurt a lot at that height.

Back on task, I could think of three solutions to my problem: a rope, teleportation, or a really long and impressively sturdy plank. Looking around, I found neither a rope nor a plank. Sadly, teleportation was being incredibly uncooperative that day, so I couldn't do that either.

"Sometimes I almost feel like planning for things more than five seconds before doing them could be helpful…"

Like a bolt of lightning from above, I was struck with the most genius idea anyone had ever had in the history of ever. With a sufficiently powerful push, I could activate anti-gravity mid-air and fly over. I just needed something to provide the push.

That was when Jinx peered over my shoulder and exclaimed: "Watcha doing?!"

"AHWHATTHESHITFUCK- oh hey Jinx how are you?"

Good save, me. Smooth.

"Ohhhh, you know, the usual stuff. I robbed a bank and I'm just waiting for Cait to leave the scene so I can put all the money back."

"Why would you rob a bank and then just give it all back?"

"Deeply emotional and philosophical reasons."

"I don't believe you. Anyway, I don't suppose you can think of any way for me to get from this building to that one across the way."

She stomped up to the edge of the roof and made an extremely exaggerated thinking face before suggesting: "A plank."

"I didn't bring one."

"You're robbing a building without a plank? AMATEUR!"

Her rage seemed completely genuine, which shouldn't have surprised me with who it was coming from. I didn't get a chance to defend myself before she declared: "Well, looks like there's only one option! I'll blast you across with Fishbones!"

"No- NO DON'T YOU-"

Ahri's POV:

Trying to act fancy was way harder than it sounded. I could do casual, I could do seductive, I could do friendly, and pretty much everything else. But fancy? That's not so easy, because no-one agrees how to do it. Ionian fancy is entirely different to Shuriman, which is entirely different to Freljordian fancy, which is on an entirely different level to Demacian fancy.

How is one person supposed to remember all of them?

That was pretty much going to be my argument if anyone pointed out that I was doing something wrong… again. I'd already been chewed-out for leaning on a fireplace that, as I learned a bit too late, was an antique and very, very old.

As the grumbly old man stomped back to the conversation he'd come from, I dropped my apologetic smile and tried to kill Lux with a stare.

"Didn't think of maybe warning me?"

"I wanted to see what he'd do. Woooorth iiiiit."

"Really wanna throw this wine over you right now."

"Oh, don't let me stop you. This carpet is very expensive and you-know-who paid for it."

I was weighing up the decision when a glass-shattering screech rang through the mansion, sounding like a teenage girl who'd snuck into a scary movie. Thankfully, it didn't break my wine glass. If someone was in trouble, the last thing I needed was another five-minute lecture.

It wasn't a particularly big party, but the dozen-ish people who were there made it easy to find the source of the wail. We rushed past the noblemen cowering next to the door and into the study, to find a man dead on the ground with a knife in his back. There'd clearly been a struggle, considering what a wreck the place was, but I had no idea how we hadn't heard. The study was almost directly above where we'd been, after all.

"Oh dear! Someone has killed…. Who is this?"

Everyone looked at each-other for a clue, but evidently nobody had one.

Luckily, I had an idea: "Everyone line up and we'll do a headcount from the guest list. Butler, do you still have it with you?"

"Of-of course. Here you go." His trembling made grabbing it from his jacket and handing it over a bit more awkward than it needed to be.

"Okay, staff first. Butler, obviously, yep. Cleaner?"

"Here."

"Kay, she's here. Guests now: Lux, yup. Jack?"

"Present and breathing."

"Good to hear. Rook?"

"That's Lord-"

"Yeah, yeah, you're here quiet now. Me, uh huh. Meredith?"

"Here. A bit smashed from too much wine, though."

"Well it's nice to know you're having a good time. Groktor'Rech, of Soul's Agony- what the fuck did I just read."

A tiny, frail lady in wheelchair raised her hand.

"I have questions but okay carrying on… Mjelnor?"

"The 'm' is silent."

"You're just trying to confuse me now. Brent?"

Lux piped up: "That's the uh… that's the guy crying by the door."

"Oh, right, okay. At least that dog is comforting him."

"Deitrice?"

"Hello!"

"Annnnd oh shit there's two names but one dude. Are you Frank or Lars?"

"Lars."

"Alas, poor Frank."

There was a collective sigh of sadness for Frank when Groktor mentioned: "But, wait, doesn't Jerriah, the owner of the house, spend all his time in this room and never let anyone in? Couldn't it be him?"

"He could be anywhere; maybe not even at home right now." I theorised, but Rook shut me down: "No, Groktor is right. He spends ALL his time here. If there's another soul in the house, he does not leave this room. No-one has seen him for years; not even I, his brother, know what he looks like these days."

"Oh shit Lux, we're in a murder mystery. I love those books…"

"You any good at them? Like, work it out before the characters do?"

"HEY! I see that look and I hear that tone, you're expecting me to say no! I'll have you know I'm actually very good at figuring them out so you're all in safe hands."

Jack put his hand up: "Is that your only qualification for investigating this? Shouldn't we just wait for the police?"

"We don't have time for that! There's a murderer out there and we need to avenge… whoever is on the floor."

"That's definitely Jerriah. He's much too old to be Frank."

Lars tried to lean on a table, missed, nearly fell over, then composed himself and, hoping no-one noticed, exclaimed: "Well surely then Frank must be the murderer!?"

"Not necessarily. He could very well have been killed just like Jerriah."

"Are you saying that… the killer could be one of us!?" Lars questioned with a dramatic inflection, causing the entire room to gasp.

"What? No. Most of you were in the same room when he was murdered, you couldn't have done it. The only suspects are Brent and Frank. Lux, take the rest of them to the main room and try to get any sort of relevant information on the suspects and Jerriah."

"You got it!"

"Brent, come here. It's time for your interrogation!"

Zoh's POV:

The sudden ringing in my ear scared the ever-loving shit out of me and made me bash my head against the top of the vent.

"What was that?"

"Sounded like it came from the vent."

"Damnit all a bird's got in the vent again."

"Hey, if you wanna go up there and clear it out that's on you, but I ain't getting my face pecked to shit like De'Glaus."

"Eh, you're right. I'll go report it to maintenance."

Never before had I been so glad that birds were dumb enough to constantly get stuck in building vents.

With the threat passed, I was free to find out what that incessant ringing was. Turns out, the stealth suit had a phone. When and why I had added that feature was beyond me, but I decided to answer it anyway.

"Uh, hello?"

"Zoh, I need help."

"What- Ahri? How the hell did you get this number and since when do you have a phone?"

"I've got the one from my Academy skin and this is just your regular number."

"Ah… this stealth suit is an amazingly confusing thing. Anyway, what's the problem?"

"How do you interrogate someone?"

"…. Say again?"

"How. Do. You. Interrogate. Someone?"

"Riiiiiiggggghhhhtttt… I think it's best if I don't ask. Uh, well, you could try torture but you can't really be sure the info you get is correct. They might just tell you shit to make the pain stop."

"I don't know he's done anything yet, so we can't do that."

"You could try doing some mind games. Ya know… try to trick them into a confession. Or try sweet-talk them; act like a buddy just trying to help them out. Though that second one doesn't really work if they're doing it alone."

"Okay, thanks. Love you!"

"Love you, too."

Immediately after she hung up, I realised that we were both idiots and called back.

"Yeah?"

"Or you could just Charm him into giving you the information since that's something you can easily do with a hundred percent success-rate."

"… Yeah… Good idea, I'll do that. Bye!"

"Bye."

Mental note: ask for the full story of what Ahri did today at some point.

Anyway, carrying on with my sneaking, I couldn't help but let my mind wander a tad; mostly thinking about how wrong everything seemed to be going. Sure, the world was, mostly, back to normal, but it didn't feel like the wounds were healing.

Except for the literal wounds on the planet, which were sorting themselves quite nicely.

It was everything else that concerned me. The Institute was weaker than ever, nowhere near strong enough to deter a war if relations get worse. If they could even get worse at that point. I guess we just had to count our blessings that war hadn't already begun.

I couldn't say if the Summoners thought that somehow this money-making scheme would help or if they just wanted to make as much money as they could before it all blew up… maybe even something entirely different. Whatever the reason, I would have to find out. Based purely on the lack of choice we had, I had an unerring hunch that it wasn't for a good cause.

Finally finding a grate large enough to squeeze through, I put a moment of thought into how to remove the grate. I reared back to punch it just as someone walked into the room. Okay, that's fine, surely he wouldn't be there very long, right?

Then the bastard put something in the microwave and set the timer to ten minutes. First off, since when were microwaves commonplace on such a backwater planet? Secondly, what kind of painfully inefficient microwave took ten minutes to do anything? Third, if something is going to take ten minutes, why would you wait around doing nothing? Surely you'd occupy yourself with SOMETHING just to pass the time?

Well I wasn't about to go find another goddamn human-sized grate, so my only option was to slowly remove the screws. Fucking fantastic.

Ahri's POV:

"Well, it's definitely not Brent."

"Clearly. So how long is he going to be staring at you like that?"

"I dunno, Charming isn't an exact science. But it is getting kinda creepy. Brent, go re-join the rest of the group."

He got up and strolled past us, getting a bit too close to me for comfort.

"Goodbye, mistress."

Lux found it very funny but I was mostly just grossed-out.

"Don't laugh."

She was trying her best to keep it in, but I could hear the giggling behind her voice: "If I do will you punish me, mistress?"

"Don't test me, Lux. That is definitely one of my fetishes and I promise you Zoh would let me do it!"

Her expression dropped and cheeks flushed.

"Better. Now, back to the case… where the hell could Frank be?"

"That's a tricky one. We know he didn't exit through the door, so he's either in here somewhere or there's a secret exit."

"Are you telling me we might be in the same room as a MURDERER?!" I exclaimed, accompanied by an over-the-top gasp.

"Oh no! Whatever shall we do if he attacks us!?"

"I might feint!"

"I'll point away to distract him and run- pfffahahha I'm sorry, I can't. Hah, okay, let's find this fucker."

I summoned my Orb and began searching the room, while Lux went to the other side. Sadly, Frank was not hiding under the first thing I came up to, which was an armchair. Just sat against a wall with not much nearby.

Interior design oddness aside, I carried on to the next thing which was one of those big globes in the wooden frame that all fancy people seemed to own. I gave it a spin, just in case, and it span fine.

"You ever get really disappointed when a globe doesn't show you what's on the other side of Runeterra?"

"Every time. Surely Zoh must have found out at some point, though?"

"He did, but he doesn't ever say what's there. If you ask he just gets a smug grin and says 'that's for me to know, and you to never find out'."

"Wow, what a dick."

"That's what I said but he just made a bunch of dick jokes."

Carrying on, I got to the window. Or, at least, the outline of a window. It, like all the others in the room, had been professionally boarded-up for, seemingly, years. No murderer was gonna be getting through any of those, and especially not without leaving a mark.

After that I reached a bookcase, stacked from top to bottom. Perhaps there was some sort of hidden entrance? All I had to do was pull on all the books with disturbed dust on them.

But putting them back would take too long, so I just flung them into a pile behind me.

"What happened to 'do not disturb a crime-scene'?"

"Look, Lux, I want to find out who the murderer is as much as the next girl, but I also want to get home in good time. Being around all these poncy shits has built up a lot of frustration in me and I gotta work it out."

"That's what you're thinking about right now? Someone died, Ahri!"

"You could've said that at literally any moment for the last few years and been correct."

"That was war! This is murder…"

I paused for a moment and sighed: "You're right, I'm sorry… welp, there's no hidden door. I guess that would've been too easy."

None of the books were particularly notable. There was a very clear focus on chemistry of all sorts, but that didn't seem particularly notable. From what I'd heard, lots of Demacian nobles studied sciences in their spare time to seem more clearly above common folk. Dicks.

The last thing of note that we hadn't checked was the desk, which had been tipped in the struggle. Scattered across the floor was an array of papers, books, and utensils.

"Lux, help me look through these. There may be clues."

Zoh's POV:

Slithering like a sneaky little shit from the barely-open vent, I dropped to the floor and prayed to the gods of not-being-heard that I would, you know, not be heard. That absolute DICKHEAD was still waiting for the damn microwave, and was between me and the door. Luckily, he didn't hear me drop to the floor or the vent close behind me. From that point I could have, and should have, just snuck past him and out through the open door.

But this was about principles, so I knocked him the fuck out before leaving. Looking back on it, I'm not sure why he annoyed me so much, though it seemed likely that he was the metaphorical straw.

Emerging into a painfully drab hallway, I surveyed for threats. Nothing of note apart from a guard at the end to my right, but I was invisible so I wasn't concerned. Unless Piltover had invented and distributed thermal-vision…

I waved with pretty much my entire body, bursting with unrivalled enthusiasm. He didn't react so he was either extremely rude or couldn't see me.

Pretty much the only useful thing in that entire hallway was a list of directions on the wall beside the staircase door. By the looks of things, that floor was mostly for the company's legal personnel. Strangely, I couldn't find any mention of executive areas.

What the hell would a company need legal staff for if not to cover for executives breaking laws? Something was fishy. Very fishy…

The guy from earlier walked by me, eating his microwaved fish-sticks and nursing a headache.

Well, if I were a shifty bastard and wanted to hide something, I wouldn't put it at the top of the skyscraper. Too obvious. The basement was also pretty obvious, but slightly less. So, in my view, that was probably a good shout.

Sure was a lot of fucking stairs, though.

And I barely even got a floor and a bit down before some new sort of hell emerged through a door. Long scratches followed in her wake, the damage disagreeing with her esteemed demeanour. Elegance obscuring danger. Sophistication belying butchery.

She could see me.

"Um, hello. I was just… cleaning these steps… Seem to have misplaced my cleaning tools, though."

"Do not take me for a fool. Few people on the planet are capable of stealth technology, and not one of them is a janitor." She began stepping towards me with murderous intent in her eyes. Naturally not wanting to be murdered, I backed away.

"You don't know me, knife-lady. I cou-"

"I do know you, Zoh. Part of my job is studying all possible threats to my family's interests, and you are near the top of my list."

"Firstly, I'm offended to not be at the very top. The Void ain't got shit on ya boi here."

"Truly insufferable." She sighed while launching grapples at the wall behind me. Why they came from her hips was anyone's guess, really.

After ducking under a decapitation, I spun around and threw a stun grenade at her. With an eardrum-splitting crack and a flash that blackened the area, it found its mark. Even with forewarning and protection, my ears were ringing from the experience. Likely just as much as everyone else in the building…

Except her, since she seemed entirely unbothered by it, going in for another attack without so much as a pause. Okay, she was definitely augmented in a more advanced way than just 'knife leg'. A different strategy was needed.

It was pretty difficult to make a plan while avoiding her constant attacks, even though the suit's automated systems did a fair amount of the work in that regard. Either way, I needed a moment to breathe.

To me, it seemed as good a time as any to test out some new technology I'd been tinkering with. Lobbing the device at the closest wall just as she managed to grab me by the shoulders, the entire staircase was instantly frozen in a relatively thin layer of ice. Us included.

Her face was a bit close for comfort, so naturally I had to make it worse for myself: "I hope you're not expecting a kiss."

The ice on her started to crack, sending a fresh wave of 'oh fuck' through my veins.

Luckily, I had come up with a plan.

Ahri's POV:

"Got anything?"

"Only that he was strangely interested in make-up, of all things."

"He also seemed to be planning a trip to Shurima."

"Eh, makes sense."

Took me a second to realise what was wrong there, before I asked: "Wait, how does that make sense?"

"Well, skin that pale would burn in the Shuriman sun. Some make-up stops that."

"Wouldn't he just use sunscreen?"

"That's a new invention; he's a recluse, he probably didn't even know it existed."

"But that's just the thing, Lux. Why would a recluse suddenly decide to visit Shurima suddenly?"

She shrugged as she stood, then began wandering around. I followed her up and similarly began searching for anything we'd missed. Everything in the room had been thoroughly searched already, so I wasn't exactly hopeful.

That was, until I noticed something about the globe. Usually, they were off-set slightly on their axis, but this one wasn't. Maybe it had a secret liquor stash inside?

Lux must have noticed, as she approached from behind me just as I found the latch to open it. The top half lifted off with ease, revealing a chemistry set. It certainly made sense, given all the books, but why was it hidden?

"Odd place to keep such a thing, and what's that?" She asked while pointing to a clump of skin-coloured paste that looked like it had the consistency of wet clay.

"Hmmm, not sure." I prodded at it a bit, coming to a new conclusion. Not wet clay, more like skin.

Lux joined in, remarking: "That's a bit of a strange feeling, huh? Why would anyone need this?"

"I'm not sure, but I have an idea."

Taking hold of the mass, I wrenched it from the surface of the chemistry set, revealing a pad that had been hidden beneath it.

On the underside of the clump was a button that had clearly been attached to the pad at one point.

"My dear Lux, this is what progress feels like." I sighed with relief while flinging the object aside, confidently slamming the pad.

Zoh's POV:

The ice was definitely doing its job. Despite having broken free from her own encasement ages ago, knife-lady was consistently slowed by the lack of a solid 'footing'. That allowed me to more easily evade her, while using everything at my disposal to drive the fight ever upwards. I'd need to be as high as I could get for the plan to have its best chance at success.

That said, avoiding death was not easy with her around. Her relentless attacks came with pinpoint precision and concerning speed. The ice gave me more time between her offensives, but did nothing to slow her once she was headed to me.

I was making good progress upwards, but it wasn't fast enough. She was rapidly adapting to the environment, landing an ever-greater amount of small slashes. Didn't seem like I'd have very long before she would land a blow against something vital, though I wasn't sure that was her aim. Whoever knife-lady was, she was an absolute master of her trade with almost as many tricks as myself, yet a far greater proficiency with them.

Maybe she was just testing me? Or trying to capture me? Pretty sure I would not handle interrogation very well…

That in mind, I hurried up a bit. The top was in sight, which meant I was almost high enough to enact my genius plan. It was perfect: I would blast myself out of the window at the peak of the stairs with explosives and land safely somewhere in the city! Hopefully, far out of knife-lady's reach.

"Enough games!" She declared, visibly frustrated, while leaping at me. With a great thud and the sound of unleashed electricity, she landed right ahead of me. I wondered what fresh hell I had just been thrown into as I noticed the electrical tethers attached to various parts of my body. Whatever kind of pseudoscience bullshit enabled these things to exist and prevent me from moving too far, it didn't matter. They worked, and for a moment I was forced to fight.

Dodging, dipping, ducking, diving, and dodging my way around her opening onslaught, I eventually saw an opportunity and seized upon it: I managed to grab one of her legs and lob her at the wall. I don't think either of us expected just how much additional strength the stealth armour gave me; she went right through the wall like a brick through a window.

I hoped, for a fleeting moment, that she was gone. But then she grappled back in.

Luckily for me, her time outside the building had dissipated the tethers, allowing me to haul ass up the stairs. She tried to catch up, but it was too late. I dived out of the window while activating my shield. Piling all the explosives on the side facing me, I let it go while detonating the explosives.

It worked just as planned! I'd received a fair few more wounds from the shrapnel, but I was alive and the shield had protected the building from nearly all the blast. And thanks to an emergency teleporter I installed in it, I'd be able to recall it as soon as the interference cleared up.

My smug look was broken by the realisation that I was going much further than expected. By that I meant that I had gone cleanly past Piltover was above the ocean.

Fun fact: I couldn't actually see the land when I did eventually smash into the water like a fat kid cannon-balling the pool. The problems didn't end there, though, as the innumerable chunks taken out of my armour meant it quickly began filling with water.

I was about to take it off when I got eaten by a Leviathan the size of a small continent. Which pretty much summed up how my day was going…

Ahri's POV:

A secret room! There was always a secret room! And what a perfectly sneaky way to open it!

From what we had gathered already it seemed to be a complete chemistry lab, which I supposed the smaller set from the globe was hinting at. But not only that, it also had a tunnel to escape through!

Other notable objects were a bust of Jerriah, a bin full of more of the putty from the globe, a lever that obviously closed the secret entrance, and a giant chemistry set in the centre of the room with a mess of tubes connecting various jars with many colourful liquids.

"So, I guess we've found how Frank got out. Now we just need a motive." I declared, attempting an atypical detective accent.

"I'm not so sure, Ahri. I think we have the wrong guy."

"Oh? Explain, please."

"How would Frank know about this escape room? And what's with all this weird chemistry stuff?"

"Shit, good points… Maybe the clue is finding out what this stuff is? I'll check the out this… contraption.

"I'm gonna have a look at the bust. Who knows, I might open like the globe."

I nodded and we both got to work. Immediately what I could tell was that this thing was meant to mass produce whatever it was it made, given that the ingredients could be easily refilled. And, you know, the bin full of the stuff in the corner.

I noticed some research notes on the floor next to it, which revealed that very specific amounts of each chemical were needed to produce the correct result. That gave me what I needed to get it functioning and, in a few short minutes, have it filling a large beaker with more of that putty. Except, it was much more liquid now.

"Ahri! This isn't a bust! It's a mould of Jerriah's head!"

"And this putty isn't always putty. It starts as a liquid and, I'm assuming, solidifies with time."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yep. Let's check it out."

We headed back into the main room and, with a bit of a tug, the mask came off and Frank was revealed to be the victim.

I put the mask aside and concluded: "So, that's everything, then? Jerriah is the killer. He wanted to escape to Shurima with everyone thinking he's dead, so he created a mask of himself and put it on his victim."

"All that remains is to find out why he didn't want anyone knowing he'd gone to Shurima, and to catch him."

"Okay. Let's tell everyone what we've learned, then get after him. I do love a good chase."


Hey look it's the bottom of the page.

And yes, I recognise that it's been a while. However, I have a lot of good and bad news that will have to wait for the next one. All I'll say here is that 72 will be the final chapter, but won't be the end of me writing LoL fanfiction.