September 12

Blackgate High School

4:15 PM

Sky Amaya

I walked into the school building slowly, trailing after both Lily and Victoria. I couldn't help my nerves, and I already had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next. I barely understood what was going on, but I knew that it couldn't have been good if Yuri sounded so panicked.

Up until she called us, we had all been lounging around the agency and enjoying ourselves while going about our daily business. Mr. Morix had been quietly paranoid because Chrysalis wasn't answering any of his messages, but I didn't know how to calm him down. Chrysalis had left a while beforehand to pick up Yuri from school, but since neither one of them made it back to the agency, he was freaking out.

Yuri's call had helped all of the pieces to slip into place. Something had happened at the school, and they weren't sure fully what could have taken place. I hadn't been the one to answer her call (that was Victoria), but I could still hear her noisy panic from my place on the other side of the room. In the car on the way to the crime scene, I heard from Lily that Chrysalis was alright, so Mr. Morix was calmed down as well. That was a good thing, of course, but I couldn't help my overwhelming concern about what in the world could have been going on to cause such an uproar in the first place.

When we arrived at the school, I glanced around with a frown. There were too many police officers to count, but I was almost alright with that. After all, the school itself was rather large, so chances were slim that we would wind up running into too many issues with being overly crowded. I took that as a good sign because I didn't have anything else to hold to.

The crowd around the school was difficult to move through, to say the least. I didn't know how we were going to even begin to come close to finding the body if we couldn't get into the building, so I looked to Lily and Victoria for reassurance. Neither one of them seemed to have an answer for me unfortunately, so we remained where we were until a new person stumbled free of the chaos.

"Hey! Detective Hayes!" Lily exclaimed, waving one hand above her head to catch his attention. The young man in question let out a gasp before walking closer to us. He looked incredibly pale, but he was still doing his best to keep his composure despite how much was happening.

"You're here!" Detective Hayes yelped, his eyes going wide with surprise before they softened into something more natural. "Mukuro was arrested for the murder! Yuri told me that you were coming, but I was still nervous about it all... She, James, and Anton are being interrogated right now, so I'm afraid that you won't be able to talk to them for a while."

All of this information was more than too much for me to handle, and I felt like I was going to fall over under the weight of how overwhelming this was already. I glanced over to Lily and Victoria once again with hopes that they would know what to do from here. Victoria seemed anxious as well, but Lily wasn't allowing the situation to get the better of her. She gestured for us to follow her into the building, and I knew that she was trying to find us a quieter place to talk. I was silently thankful for her efforts, knowing that I was going to wind up with a terrible headache if we stayed outside surrounded by so many people for much longer than we already had.

Lily and Detective Hayes took us into a classroom near the front of the building. I could still hear distant chattering outside, but I figured that it was better than where we had been. There were posters scattered about the room with motivational phrases painted on them, and I could tell based on the large number of textbooks slammed on most of the desks that this was a history classroom.

"Let me tell you what we know so far," Detective Hayes began. "But I will admit that it isn't much in the long run... We don't even know the victim's name yet."

"You haven't found that out?" Lily asked, her eyes going wide with surprise. "I suppose that the crime was incredibly recent, but... You would expect the victim to have something to do with the school given where he was killed."

Detective Hayes shook his head. "No... He's never associated with the school at all. We don't know who he is or where he could have come from, but he's here, and I guess that's what matters given that we're going to have to put up with that throughout the rest of the case," he replied with a shrug.

"Start from the beginning," Victoria instructed. "We haven't heard anything aside from the fact that there's been a murder. Yuri wasn't able to tell us much more than that before she was forced to go and take care of other business."

"The victim was found in the trophy hall area of the school," Detective Hayes explained. "The glass was shattered, and the shelves were broken as a result. There was a trophy found right next to his body, and he appears to have died to a blow to the head. I can show you the crime scene in a bit, but I have to warn you right off the bat that it isn't a pretty sight... The broken glass makes it kind of precarious to navigate."

"I can only imagine," Victoria commented with a sigh and a shake of her head. "Still, there has to be a reason that Mukuro of all people was suspected. She's so nice, and I know that she wouldn't even think about hurting a fly, much less an actual human being."

"Mukuro found the body," Detective Hayes answered. "You see, she was trying to find someone who was supposed to be here. Unfortunately, she never found the person that she was looking for, and she stumbled upon the body instead. The police found that to be suspicious because of the given corner where the victim was killed."

"The trophy hall must have been away from the main chunk of rooms, so they probably found it odd that she was there at all," I assumed, looking down at the floor. I admired the patterns of dark red, blue, and green that made up to woven carpet below, figuring that it was easier to look at the floor rather than think about what had happened to the victim.

Detective Hayes nodded his confirmation. "Yeah, that's right... We don't know who the victim is though. For some reason, he isn't associated with the school in the slightest. It's confusing," he went on. "If he was somehow involved with the school, we would have already heard about the connection. He isn't a teacher here, and he wasn't wearing any forms of identification. Since the death was so recent, we don't even know if we can check records of missing people."

"That's so strange," Lily remarked with a shake of her head. "I mean, why would he be here if he wasn't associated with the school at all? I somehow doubt that he was a parent of a student. That counts as being involved with the school, doesn't it?"

"It would count, but... We don't have anything that could tie him back to the school. It's so strange," Detective Hayes asserted once again. "I'm sure that we're going to learn who he is soon enough, but until then, all we can do is wait for the evidence to come in."

"Something about this case seems fishy to me," I murmured. I didn't have any evidence about the case being strange, but I still felt as if there was something wrong just beneath the surface. There were undoubtedly a few details that we didn't understand quite yet, but it left me with a bad feeling. There had to be an explanation for everything, but how did it all come together?

"Come on," Detective Hayes suddenly said, gesturing for us to follow him. "I can take you by the crime scene. After all, I know that you're going to need to be familiar with it all if you're going to find the real culprit."

The walk to the trophy area was quiet. Much to my surprise, there weren't many people in the area at all, so that gave us the power to look over the space without any risks of being interrupted. I was glad to be in a silent space once again, and I let out a sigh of relief when I realized just how quiet our investigation was going to be. I knew that it would be far from eventful, but I couldn't have minded in the slightest, to be perfectly honest.

As soon as we arrived, I was able to take in the victim in his full glory, and I already hated the scene of the crime. I looked down at the body and forced myself to not be sick. The victim was crumpled on the ground with a pool of blood around his head. It was upsetting and concerning to see, but I knew there wasn't anything I could do to change it.

The body was surrounded by broken glass, and the trophy that had killed the victim was resting nearby. I could see something dark hidden among the glass as well, but most of it was masked by the victim's body. There was more blood around that space of the corpse, though I couldn't identify why in the world would be the case.

The victim himself was wearing all dark clothing, and his hair was a deep brown color. It was strange to me that he was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants in a school, and I was sure that he couldn't have been a teacher. Such attire was far too casual for a teaching professional as far as I was concerned. Something about his whole appearance struck me as odd, though I couldn't even begin to say what was so strange. There was just this lingering sensation in the back of my mind that said there was something off about the whole situation.

"The victim hasn't been moved since the body was discovered," Detective Hayes told us. "We suspect that he was killed instantly after he was hit by the trophy. This one in particular is the heaviest one in the collection, and it's placed on the top shelf most of the time. When the glass was shattered, the shelves all collapsed inwards as well, and that caused the trophy to fall down from its regular position. We aren't sure about it the culprit used the trophy to hit the victim from there or if the trophy simply caused the damage when it fell, but..."

"Regardless, there must have been somebody responsible for the crime," Victoria concluded. "Even if the trophy simply fell, somebody must have broken the glass. Something like that wouldn't just shatter out of nowhere. I can tell by how thick it is that the glass was incredibly strong, so it would have taken a very heavy object to come anywhere close to dealing this much damage."

Detective Hayes nodded his agreement. "If we aren't looking for the person who hit the victim with the trophy, we're looking for the one who found a way to shatter the glass. Either way, we need to figure out how the victim died," he told us. "We aren't sure about when the victim exactly died, but we suspect that it was likely at some point after the school day ended."

Lily placed one hand on her chin, a frown on her face. "I know the schedule of the school pretty well thanks to Yuri... Classes start close to seven in the morning, and they end at about 1:30 in the afternoon. Most extracurricular activities run for about forty-five minutes after the school day ends, and then the students are given the chance to go home," she declared.

"Yuri was staying after school today, so she was busy in the period of time where the victim could have died," Victoria commented next. "Hm... I guess that it would only make sense if the victim was killed after the school day ended. There would have been too many people around at first, but if the victim died after everyone streamed out, then there wouldn't be the risk of accidentally being caught in the process."

"So we should be looking for someone who could have killed the victim between 1:30 and 2:15," I concluded. "Is there anything else that we should be aware of, Detective Hayes?"

"Up until the body's discovery, Mukuro was with Yuri, Anton, and James in the front office. James Devine was transferring to the school, and he was supposed to meet with administration today about moving into the building after being tutored on the set of his television show for a few years," Detective Hayes went on. "None of them heard the glass shattering from the nearby trophy case, so the victim must have died in the forty-five minute period of time that you mentioned a moment ago."

Victoria looked down to the floor soon afterwards, and she crouched down to examine the body more closely, taking care to not cut herself on the broken glass by accident. "There's something hiding under his torso," she commented, gesturing to the place where there was another pool of blood away from his head. "It's something black..."

Detective Hayes decided to lean over, and he pulled the object in question free with a strangled gasp. I could see what had made him so nervous a moment later, and I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from crying out in surprise. It was a knife, specifically a switchblade. The weapon was small, but it was still dangerously sharp, and I could easily see how something so tiny had caused so much bloodshed.

"Do you think the knife was involved with specifically killing the victim?" Lily questioned. "If it wasn't involved with taking his life, it must have been used to inflict that injury either before or after his death."

"I think it was after," Victoria commented. "Look at where the blood is. It's only in the one spot, and if he had been stabbed before he was killed, there would have been stains everywhere. Instead, you can only find blood around his head and stomach."

"I agree that the head wound was likely what killed him," Detective Hayes said. "Though I don't know how the knife could factor into all of this... I think that there's something else off about the way that he's stretched out though. It can't be just me. It seems like he's laying on something else, and I don't think it has anything to do with the knife."

Detective Hayes crouched down to see what could have been responsible for the odd way that the victim was laying down on the ground. I frowned to myself and swallowed nervously. "Be careful of the broken glass," I advised him, not wanting to see him hurt by the debris that covered the area.

Lily frowned at my words, and she placed one hand on her chin in contemplation. "You know... There are a few pieces of glass on the floor on this side, but for the most part, the glass is inside of the trophy case," she remarked. "That means that the killer probably threw something at the glass from the outside, causing it to burst primarily towards the trophies. I mean, I feel like that's obvious, but... It's proof that this was definitely deliberate. If the glass simply shattered on its own, there would be equal amounts of glass on either side."

Victoria nodded her agreement. "Yeah, that makes sense... How strange to think about though. I mean, if you look here at the crime scene, there's nothing that would have been heavy enough to cause such widespread destruction. The object used to shatter the glass must have been huge. I mean, there's nothing left of the central pane of glass. It was completely destroyed so easily," she remarked.

"The only objects here that would really be considered heavy are the trophies, but those were on the inside of the case. Even if they were used to break through the glass, it's not like they would have been able to move around on their own. If the killer had access to the keys needed to open up the case, there would have been no point to the culprit using something heavy to smash their way inside," Lily continued. "So, our culprit is someone who couldn't use the keys to get into the display case. They felt as if there was no option for them aside from smashing their way in using brute force."

"We still don't know why anyone would want to get in there so badly," I pointed out. "There has to be a reason for why the culprit was so desperate to break into the trophy case. I somehow doubt that this is something as petty as simply wanting to take possession of the trophies inside. There are better ways to get in than smashing it. Besides, I doubt that they would have let go of the object used to break the case if they were really trying to get at the trophies."

"You're right," Victoria confirmed with a nod. "If they wanted the trophies, they would have been careful not to shatter the shelves that the trophies were standing on. Since the shelves were broken, chances are that the killer threw an object at the case rather than simply using it as a battering ram. That makes a lot more sense, wouldn't you agree?"

"The culprit was trying to open the case for a reason aside from the trophies," Lily concluded. "And to get inside, they threw something heavy at the case. They didn't use it up close, in other words. That means that the culprit was likely safe from scratches caused by the glass that was sent flying everywhere, so we can't use that as a clue to figure out who the killer is... The culprit lashed out for an unknown reason, and I think that finding the truth behind why they were so desperate to get into the trophy case will be at the center of this case. If we want to figure out who the killer is, we're going to have to find the reason for their need to break into the trophy case."

"Is there anything else inside of the trophy case that could have possibly been thought of as useful?" I questioned. "I mean, if there was another object in the trophy case that the killer wanted to get to, then I suppose it would make sense... But that doesn't exactly explain why the victim was right there."

"As of now, I think that we can assume that the victim was right there when the glass was broken. If not, the victim arrived soon afterwards," Victoria said. She looked down towards where the victim was laying on the ground among glass shards and blood splatter. "I don't understand what the reason could have been for all of this though... Something about this case is bothering me, but I don't know what could be so wrong."

"This murder is most certainly unorthodox," I murmured, unsure of how else I was meant to describe the events that had transpired. I shook my head to try and banish the thoughts of how nervous I was about this. I wasn't sure who the culprit was or why they had lashed out, but I had the sneaking suspicion that there was far more to this case than originally met the eye. I didn't have any evidence of such, but there wasn't exactly any other way for me to come to conclusions at the moment. After all, we didn't even know the name of the victim. How could we find out more when such a basic fact still eluded our grasp?

Detective Hayes suddenly let out a gasp, and I saw him pull away from the body. He seemed to have identified the source of such strangeness involving the victim, and he didn't appear to enjoy it in the slightest. In fact, his eyes were wide and reflective, barely taking in what was happening around him. It was concerning, and I could barely keep from clamping down on my lip with my teeth out of pure nerves.

I realized what had him so upset a moment later as I set my eyes upon the object that he had uncovered. It was a gun. The weapon was on the smaller side, clearly meant to be hidden, but I didn't know why it would be at a school of all places. It didn't make sense in the slightest. Guns weren't allowed on school property as far as I was aware. In fact, we had passed a sign on the way in to say that no weapons were permitted inside of the building. If that was the case, why was there a gun here?

"This shouldn't be here," Detective Hayes said firmly, almost as if he was reading my thoughts about the gun. "There's no way that the gun is supposed to be here... But why is it here?"

"The gun is small enough to be easily hidden... I can't help but wonder if the culprit knew that and deliberately tried to hide its presence," Victoria commented, a heavy frown appearing on her features. "I suppose that I don't have any evidence for such, but..."

Detective Hayes shook his head as he glanced down at the gun. "No... I think that you're right," he commented softly. "When I was trying to pull it out, I could tell that it was stuck in something. I think that it was inside of a container made deliberately to hide it from view. The victim was trying to keep it from being spotted by most people... But why would he need a gun on a school campus? If he was killed after hours, then that only makes this more suspicious... Just who is this man?"

"He shouldn't be here," Lily said firmly. "There's no way that a man with a gun is supposed to be at a school out of the blue like this. If he was an officer of some sort, we would have already been made aware of such. We would have found a source of identification or noticed that he was wearing a uniform, and yet, we haven't seen either one of those things."

"There aren't any signs of identification on him at all," Detective Hayes told Lily with a frown. "It's like he was trying deliberately to keep his identity from being discovered, but... I don't understand what the reasoning behind that could be. Why was he at this school out of all places? Is there something that makes this place special?"

"There's got to be a reason behind him being here of all places, but we're going to have to be patient if we want to find the truth behind that reasoning," I concluded. "Until then, I suppose that all we can do is wait and look at other areas of the building... There has to be a clue about what's going on somewhere around here, and we're going to have to find them."

"I will tell you now that the case isn't going to court tomorrow," Detective Hayes cut in. "Tomorrow is going to be another investigation. The police don't think that they have enough time to come to solid conclusions about the case if the trial is tomorrow, so... You're going to have another chance to come in here and look around. Maybe we'll know who the victim is by then too, but there are no promises."

"The victim's identity has got to be the most important fact for us to find out at the moment," Victoria declared. "I feel like everything will start to fall into place after we determine who the victim really is, but until then, we'll have to see if there's anything else we can use."

"I think that it's mostly perplexing because there's no reason logically for his identity to be this much of a secret," Lily sighed. "I mean, in most cases, the victim has a reason to be there, but that's not the case here. The lack of easy identification is only complicating things, and I can't help but wonder why he would want to keep his identity a secret. If he really did leave anything that could identify him behind..."

"I think I know what you're saying," I murmured. "If he came here with the intentions of hiding his identity, then that means that he was planning on doing something unfavorable from the very beginning. Why else would he want to hide who he really is? It wouldn't make any sense."

"But what would he want to do?" Victoria questioned. "I don't think that it makes any sense... Facts in general regarding this case are pretty limited, but this sure isn't helping. I mean, we can tell that there was something to shatter the glass, but that doesn't exactly help us to reveal who the victim is..."

"We're going to do our best to discover who he is through other methods," Detective Hayes assured us. "We'll use photos if we have to. Dental and medical records could help us to find out who he is too... I can promise you that we're going to try and learn who the victim is, and as soon as we're aware of such, I'll tell you everything."

"Thank you for the offer, Detective Hayes," I told him with a light smile. "I appreciate it... Maybe we could go and see if we can speak with anyone else who was involved with the case. I'm sure that there are witnesses around here somewhere. I'd love to speak with Yuri about what she knows before we call it here for the day."

Detective Hayes hesitated before looking to the ground once again. "I don't think it's going to be that simple... I bet that she's still being interrogated, and the same probably applies to the other witnesses. Mukuro is undoubtedly talking to the police right now too, though she's at the detention center rather than here at the scene of the crime," he explained. "I don't know what's going on here though... There are so many facts about this case that simply don't add up, and I haven't even been given the chance to look through the rest of the building. What if other mysteries pop up while we're trying to find more evidence about the murder itself?"

"I'm sure that you're going to be able to figure it all out soon enough," Lily assured him. "You know what you're doing, and I know that you'll be able to help us free Mukuro soon enough. We aren't going to let her suffer in the detention center for much longer than she has to. That much I can promise."

Detective Hayes sighed before nodding, but it was still clear as day that he was dejected. "I don't know what to do... Her father is busy on another case, and I don't even know what I'm going to tell him when he hears about everything that's happened here today," he murmured before shaking his head. "But that's not important right now. We have to try and find the truth about what happened."

"I don't think we're going to be able to get much more done here today," Victoria said, glancing over to Lily before her gaze settled on me. "I mean, we can't talk to any witnesses because of the nature of this case, and there's nothing we can do to learn more about the victim or what happened at the scene of the crime either. All we can really do is pull back for now and wait until tomorrow comes. We have more time to investigate the crime tomorrow, so I think that we should take advantage of it."

"We really don't know much right now, huh?" Lily asked before letting out a humorless laugh. "I'm beyond glad that the trial isn't being held tomorrow. I know that we would be toast if that was the case... Hey, now that I think about it, I haven't seen anyone from the Prosecutor's Office here today. I guess that they haven't been able to assign anybody yet to look into this case."

I nodded my agreement. "That would make sense... Here's to hoping that the prosecutor will be able to help us out tomorrow," I muttered under my breath. "Still, there's nothing else we can do here today, so let's go back to the agency and try to get ready for tomorrow. We're going to have quite a bit to look for tomorrow."

"I'll see you tomorrow," Detective Hayes told us, waving one hand as we started to walk away from the crime scene. I could see him looking down to the gun out of the corner of my eye, and I got the sneaking suspicion that he was going to be trying to learn as much as possible about the weapon before returning to the school again the following day.

"This sure is a mess," Lily commented as we walked out of the school. That was an understatement, to say the least, but I didn't say that. After all, both Lily and Victoria were already aware of such, and I wasn't going to push her on it. There was nothing we could do about the crime until the following day, so all we could do was wait.

I sure did hate waiting though.

My head hurts but shhh update

-Digital