September 13

Blackgate High School

10:00 AM

Victoria von Graye

When the next morning came, I woke up early and decided to make my way over to the school. I had agreed with Sky and Lily the day before that we would meet at the scene of the crime so that we would be able to investigate more. After all, we had quite a bit to get done when it came to talking to witnesses. I was hoping that we would be able to start off the investigation by hearing more about the victim. We were still in the dark about who he truly was, and I was looking forward to potentially getting a name.

As I walked into the building, I frowned to myself and took in a small breath. I looked over to the right of the entrance and saw that Sky and Lily were already inside. They were standing alone, but someone was approaching them. I recognized the person in question as Detective Umber, and I gave her a brief wave before fully joining up with other two.

"Hey, Victoria!" Lily chirped before flashing a grin in my direction. Sky simply nodded to me, and I responded with a wave before glancing over to Detective Umber.

Sure enough, she walked up to us soon afterwards, and she had a gentle smile on her face. "It's nice to see you," Detective Umber greeted, but I got the sneaking suspicion that there was something more pulling at her gaze than usual. In fact, when I looked closely, I could see that she seemed guilty about something. I didn't know what it could have been, but I had the sneaking suspicion that I'd hear the truth about it one of these days.

"Are you on this case alongside Detective Hayes?" I questioned, using his title rather than just his first name for the sake of maintaining formality.

Detective Umber nodded. "Yeah. We're still looking around the building, but the investigation has made a little bit more progress," she said. "Detective Hayes is over at the detention center for the time being, and he's talking to the defendant. As for the investigation taking place here... We still don't have a name for the victim, but I can say that we've figured out one other thing about the crime scene."

"What is it?" Sky inquired, tilting his head to the side. I could tell that he was nervous about what she was going to say, but I couldn't exactly blame him. This could have been a key fact to the case, and I was rather anxious to hear it as well.

"We found another source of blood at the crime scene," Detective Umber explained. "We aren't sure whose blood it could be, but there's a small splatter of it a small distance from the body. We have no way of identifying the source of the injury, to say the least, but... It's something for us to keep in mind."

"A small splatter makes it sound like a very small amount," I commented, tilting my head to the side. "That means that the person who bled in the area must have had a pretty tiny injury for it to be such a small quantity of blood."

Detective Umber nodded her confirmation. "We don't know whose blood it is, but we're sure that it came from a pretty minor injury. I'm hoping that we'll figure it all out soon enough, but until then, you'll just have to look out for anyone who could potentially have gotten hurt at the scene of the crime," she told us.

A distant cry of her name rang through the area, and Detective Umber let out a sigh. "Alright... It seems like I have to go back and see what's going on at the scene of the crime, so I think I'm going to head out now. I'll see you soon," she said. She gave us one final wave before turning on her heel and dashing around the nearby corner.

As Detective Umber left us behind, I looked over to the other two in my group. "Well, I guess it's time for us to spend time talking to the witnesses," I told them. "We should start with Yuri, Anton, and James. I'm sure that they're going to have the information that we need... At the very least, they'll be able to tell us a little bit, and I'm willing to accept that at this point."

Lily nodded her agreement, and she started to lead us away from the entrance to the school. Soon afterwards, we arrived in an area that branched off into another hallway, and I could see a large gymnasium there. We passed by closed glass doors that presumably led to the cafeteria before arriving at the gym, and I saw that the area was mostly empty.

There were a few people inside though, and I most notably saw that Anton, James, and Yuri were sitting at the far end of the room on the floor. I walked into the room fully and saw that there was a large set of bleachers on the wall closest to the doors. Of course, they had been pushed together, creating a large stack that reached about halfway up to the ceiling, so nobody was able to sit on them. It certainly made sense as to why the three of them were spending time on the floor rather than sitting on the bleachers.

"Hey, you three!" Lily declared before dashing up to the trio. She closed the distance effortlessly, leaving Sky and me to run to catch up with her.

Yuri was on her feet in an instant, and a wide grin broke out on her face. "Hey!" she exclaimed, her hands clapping together. "I'm so glad to see that you're here! We have so much to talk about!"

"Can you tell us about what you saw when you discovered the body?" Sky questioned, getting right down to business in the blink of an eye. "We want to hear about everything that you could have found suspicious at the time."

Yuri nodded after giving James and Anton a brief glance. "It was after the extra clubs at school ended. I was leaving the building when I ran into Mukuro, James, and Anton. They were trying to get James settled in so that he would be able to attend classes here," she began.

"We were supposed to meet Niamh and Chrysalis here," James sighed while shaking his head. "Niamh is going to be in my class, so we figured that she would be able to help Yuri get me settled in. Chrysalis was meant to be picking up Yuri after school, and yet... They never came by, and we don't have any idea as to why. Apparently, they wound up back at Niamh's house together, though I still don't know how that could have happened."

I frowned at their words, placing one finger on my chin. I didn't know what I was supposed to make of all that, but I figured that I would be able to talk to Chrysalis and Prosecutor Wood some other time. Chrysalis had been back at the agency when I dropped by that morning, but she had been asleep at the time, and Mr. Morix insisted on letting her rest. I didn't know what could have made her so tired, but she was clearly exhausted, so I didn't want to disturb her. Besides, I was sure that I would be able to talk to her another time.

"W-We were walking to the office when M-Mukuro offered to t-try and find them..." Anton began, fiddling nervously with the gem that rested just above his collarbone. "I-I don't know what h-happened... We just h-heard Mukuro s-scream... And then..."

"She found the body," Yuri concluded with a frown. "It was in the trophy area, but I'm sure that you already knew that. We aren't quite sure of how he died, but I have the feeling that you'll be able to put the pieces together regarding that for us."

"Mukuro was arrested because she was the one to discover the body. Everyone thought that it was strange that she stumbled upon everything by accident, so they decided that she must have done it," James went on with a shake of his head. "I know that she never would have done something like this... I don't think that anyone could have looked at this case logically and thought that she did it."

"I-I was with her b-before she l-left to find them..." Anton murmured. "She p-picked me up s-so that we could g-go get James... H-He was there too..."

I let out a gasp, frowning to myself. "You mean to say that she has an alibi?" I asked, just to make sure that I was understanding this case sufficiently. When they nodded, I was left contemplating how this could make sense. Why would the police insist that she was responsible when it was so blatantly untrue? I didn't think that it made much sense in the slightest. If they had looked at the case critically, it would become clear that she couldn't have done it.

"I guess they think that she did it while we were separated, but I don't think there was any time for her to do something like that," Yuri told us with a small shrug. "I have no idea how that would even be possible... We surely would have heard the sound of shattering glass, but the first thing we heard was her screaming, and there was nothing else. The glass must have been shattered with something too, but there was nothing there for her to use to shatter it. That all adds up to tell me that something is going on here."

"Mukuro shouldn't have been arrested, but I guess that there's nothing we can do to change that now," Sky sighed. "All we can do is try our best to free her of the detention center... Is there anything else that we should know about the case? We're going to have to go and talk to her soon, but we might as well ask for any remaining details before we do that."

Yuri paused for a moment, playing with the edge of her hair, before she shook her head. "I can't think of anything..." she eventually told us. "I don't know if there's anything else that we can tell you about. I mean, all we did was find Mukuro. She was the one who found the body. There was nothing there that struck us as strange, to say the least."

"Hm... If there wasn't anything for you to catch on to, then... I guess that all we can do for now is take a step back and try to talk to Mukuro," Lily concluded with a light shrug. Suddenly, she let out a gasp, and she snapped two of her fingers together. "Actually, I do have something to ask you three about!"

James tilted his head lightly to the side, and Anton imitated the action from his side. I have to admit that it was absolutely adorable, and it was a clear sign of how close they had gotten. "What is it?" James questioned.

"We learned before coming over here that there was another source of blood found at the crime scene... Would you happen to know anything about that?" Lily questioned. "I mean, there was obviously a lot of blood found around the victim, but there was something else nearby too. It was a small splatter of blood from another person, but we have no idea as to who it could have come from."

Yuri, James, and Anton all glanced to each other before shaking their heads. "Nope," Yuri replied. "None of us got anywhere near the broken glass specifically because we didn't want to get cut and bleed all over the area. I know that Mukuro is smart enough to not to anything like that either."

"Most of the blood went into the display case, but there were a still few pieces on the floor near the body," James explained. "I'm sure that you noticed that when you were looking around the crime scene."

I nodded. "Yeah... We did notice," I assured him. "Still, I have to say that it's rather strange... I mean, it's natural that there would have been blood coming from the victim, but... If there was more coming from someone else, that's incredibly strange. The fact that it wasn't from any of you three or Mukuro only makes this case more complicated."

"It's proof that there was someone else who went to the scene of the crime," Lily concluded. "And that person could have easily been the real culprit. As soon as we're able to figure out who the owner of that blood is, we should be able to find out who the killer is. We'll have to see if we wind up finding that person by accident."

"We could always go by the crime scene briefly and see if we can find the specific place where the blood was found," I offered. "I mean, that wouldn't exactly help us to figure out who the person responsible for it was, but... I think that it would do us some good regardless. We could see just how much blood was dropped, and that would help us to gauge the severity of the injury in question. We already know that it was small, but that isn't exactly very descriptive, huh?"

Sky nodded his agreement. "Alright," he agreed before looking back to Yuri, James, and Anton. "We'll see you all later... But before we go, I want to know... Do you have any ideas about who the prosecutors are on this case?"

The three teens looked to each other before shaking their heads. As usual, Yuri stepped up as the spokesperson for their shared opinions. "Nope. We came down here because the police asked for us yesterday, but no prosecutors have come by yet. We assume that they'll drop by later to ask us about what we saw, but until then, all we can do is wait," she replied.

"In that case, we'll leave you to it so that we can go by the crime scene one more time before we go to visit Mukuro," Lily declared. "Have a nice day, you three. Feel free to reach out to us if you find out anything else that we should be aware of."

We all waved to one another before Lily led me and Sky away from the gymnasium. I allowed Lily to take us back by the entrance of the school before we headed off in the direction of the trophy area from the day before. Soon enough, we were back to the familiar spot, and the powerful stench of blood assaulted me as soon as we were close enough. I recoiled in response, allowing one hand to come up to pinch at my nostrils. The body was still stretched out on the ground, clearly having not been taken away by the forensics team yet. We had gotten lucky to see it before it was moved to a lab for further testing, though I suspected that it wasn't going to be there for much longer.

I glanced down at the floor to see that there was a particular spot of blood that had been surrounded by white tape. The forensics team hadn't yet taken the body away, so it was the only source of tape at the scene. There truly wasn't much in the small patch of blood, but I was positive that it was the source from an outside source that had been brought up previously. It simply had to be.

I looked over to the body before glancing to the patch of blood at my feet. There was a small distance of about five inches between them, and I was sure that it couldn't have come from the victim. All of the crimson that stained his body and the surrounding space was very close to the specified injury. There was a clear difference between the two spots on the carpet, and I couldn't help but wonder what the source of the other patch of blood could have been.

Lily crouched down next to the blood, close enough to examine it while not fully touching it. She tilted her head slightly to the side. "Hm... Yeah, I agree that this couldn't have been the victim's blood. Granted, we already know that because of the forensics testing, but it seems clear to me that it couldn't have belonged to him," she concluded before rising back to her full height. "I don't think that we know of anyone who could have been hurt at the scene of the crime... I mean, we've spoken with James, Anton, and Yuri already, and none of them were hurt."

"We would have heard already if it was Mukuro that got hurt too," I pointed out. "The police would have brought it up, but they never mentioned anything. I mean, the source of the blood wouldn't have been unknown if it had come from Mukuro. They easily could have compared the DNA between the two different sources to conclude that it was hers."

"We know for sure that it must have been someone else then, but... Are there any other people who we know were even here?" Sky questioned. Silence followed his inquiry, prompting him to let out a sigh. "That's what I thought... On one hand, it means that we have proof that there was an outside party who was at the scene of the crime, but we have no idea who it could be."

I paused for a moment, cupping one hand around my chin. "Maybe it would be a good idea to go and see Mukuro... I have a few questions for her, and I know that you two do as well," I suggested. "I don't think that we're going to find this answer from Mukuro, but I'd also like to try and figure out why her arrest was so rushed. Anyone who put thought to this case would know that she couldn't have done it, and yet, here we are, and she's in the detention center."

"I don't like the idea that someone forced her into being suspected," Sky murmured with a shake of his head. "I don't know what could have made her seem so suspicious. I mean, she found the body, but there was a source of blood from an outside party found so close to the corpse, and yet, it wasn't enough to convince the police that she was innocent. Something is clearly going on here, but I don't have the slightest clue as to what it could be."

"Until we can figure out who the blood belongs to, we're kind of a loss," Lily sighed with a shake of her head. "I really want to know who the victim could possibly be. I mean, all we really know right now is that he shouldn't have been here at the crime scene, but that isn't exactly enough for us to go off. There are millions of people who shouldn't have been at the school. We're just going to have to wait for the forensics team to figure out what's going on."

"Let's go and see Mukuro for now," I declared. Lily and Sky both nodded their agreement, and we all started to make our way back to the front of the building. I didn't know what we were supposed to make of the different pieces of this case. Between the victim's unknown identity, the strange cause of death, and the foreign patch of blood, there was a lot to put together. Mukuro's sudden and rushed arrest only complicated matters, and I couldn't help but wonder what was going to wait at the end of this mysterious path.

September 13

Detention Center

12:30 PM

Victoria von Graye

When we arrived at the detention center, the three of us waited silently for the guard in the visiting area to fetch Mukuro so that we could speak to her. The air was oddly thick and tense, but I couldn't blame them for being nervous. There was clearly still a lot for us to figure out, and there was no way that talking to Mukuro was going to solve all of our problems about this case.

Soon enough, the girl in question appeared on the other side of the glass. She was clearly exhausted, but I couldn't blame her in the slightest. I was fully aware of just how exhausting a stay at the detention center could be. I had been forced to rest in a room there for quite some time when I was arrested for suspected murder after a killing the year prior, and I knew for sure that I never wanted to repeat that experience. I felt bad that Mukuro, someone even younger than I was, had to go through it after something so awful.

"Hey!" Mukuro exclaimed as soon as she saw us. Her eyes brightened, but there was still clearly exhaustion lingering beneath the surface. Despite her attempts to banish it, I could see just how tired she was. "I didn't think that you would be coming by so early. Do you want to talk to me about the case?"

Lily nodded her confirmation. "We do, as a matter of fact," she replied. "I want you to tell you about what happened when you first found the body. I think that's going to be an important place for us to start when figuring out the truth of this case. Give us all of the details that you know, okay?"

"I don't think there's all that much to talk about," Mukuro admitted with a loose shrug. "I was just trying to find Niamh, and then I found the victim by the trophy case. He was already dead when I got there. I'm equipped to handle these situations, but since it caught me by surprise, I wound up screaming. You know all the details from there. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary when I was looking around the school. Nearly everybody had already left the building by that point in time, and the people who were still around were mostly in classrooms. I don't know who could have possibly done something like this. I didn't see anyone suspicious when I was wandering around the building. Sorry that I can't be of more help."

"It's okay. You don't need to apologize," I assured her with a shake of my head. "You know... I do have to say that there's one other odd thing about this case. It feels like your arrest was forced. After all, there's clear evidence that you likely didn't do it. There's blood from another person near the body, but we aren't sure about who it could belong to. It makes you seem innocent for sure though."

Mukuro frowned at my words before shaking her head. "That's so strange... I don't think that it's a matter of the prosecution having it out for me either. I mean, they weren't even there at the time that I was arrested for this crime," she murmured. "Even if they had been there, I don't think that it would have changed anything about them being involved with the arrest. I doubt that they would want to accuse me of murder like this."

I glanced over to Sky and Lily before turning my attention back to Mukuro. "Could you tell us who the prosecution consists of?" I questioned. "We haven't been given the chance to talk to them because we haven't seen them anywhere."

Mukuro nodded in response. "Oh, yeah. I suppose that me talking in vague riddles doesn't exactly help when you don't know who you're up against in the first place," she remarked before letting out a light yet forced laugh. As soon as she had calmed herself down from the high of her own forced giggling, she spoke once again. "Prosecutor Burke, Prosecutor Shield, and Prosecutor Cruz are on this case."

Lily let out a gasp. "I didn't know that my brother was on this case...! Then again, it's not as if I would have a way to hear about that... He wasn't assigned to the case as of last night when we first talked about all of this, so I guess that he wasn't put on it until this morning," she remarked with a light sigh. "I agree when you say that they probably wouldn't want to arrest you for this crime. They know that you wouldn't be responsible for something that awful... If you ask me, that only complicates matters further though..."

"If it wasn't the prosecution that thought you were suspicious, then who could have had it out for you?" Sky wondered aloud. "I guess that we'll just have to talk to them about that tomorrow. We'll see who originally gave the order to arrest you. It's clearly suspicious, and I can tell that there's something strange going on here."

Mukuro nodded. "You're probably right in assuming that there's something weird here, but I don't have any ideas as to what it could possibly be... There's not much that I can say on the matter, if I'm being perfectly honest," she confessed. "It's just something that will have to be figured out in the future, but I trust you to take care of it without any issues."

"Is there anything else you want to know from us?" I questioned. "We can do our best to answer your questions even if we aren't sure about the answers quite yet."

Mukuro paused to think about her answer before she let out a gasp. "I do have a question, as a matter of fact. What happened to Niamh? I never figured out where she went, but I've been hoping all day that she didn't wind up in trouble or anything," she said suddenly.

"She wound up back at her house somehow," I answered after a moment of hesitation. "We aren't quite sure how that happened, but she got from the school to her home sometime around your search of the school. Chrysalis went with her as far as I can tell. Mr. Morix was worried about Chrysalis, but she wound up turning up at the home of Chief Prosecutor Bespoke and Prosecutor Lin."

Mukuro nodded slowly. "I see..." she whispered, but I still didn't know what was on her mind. She seemed primarily confused, but I couldn't blame her in the slightest for feeling that way. There were countless facts about this case that I didn't comprehend yet either, and all we could do was make sure that nothing went too wrong while the rest of the investigation played out.

"We're going to have to be careful about this case... If somebody really did deliberately try to pin this on Mukuro, we'll have to watch out for them. For all we know, they could cause problems for us all," Sky pointed out. He shook his head a moment later. "I think that we should call it here. There's really nothing else for us to do until we can learn who the victim is. His identity is still a mystery to us all, and I think that's the most important fact about the case that's still out of our grasp."

"I'm sure that the pieces involving his gun and knife will come into place as soon as we can learn more about him," I agreed. "I don't know why he would have weapons on his person while inside of a school, but given that he wasn't meant to be there in the first place... I guess there's a lot to think about here."

"I'll trust that you can all figure this case out," Mukuro told us with a shaky smile, but I could tell that she was still worried about everything. I didn't think that it was a matter of her not having faith in us. After all, she could have nothing but confidence in us and still feel nervous about the situation that she found herself in. It was a stressful thing to deal with, and I couldn't blame her for being unsettled about it.

"We're going to get you out of here as soon as possible," Lily assured her, clapping her hands together out of determination. "For now, you should try and rest. I can tell that you're exhausted, and we don't want you to be too tired at the trial tomorrow."

Mukuro nodded in response. "Alright. I'll see you all tomorrow," she told us. She rose to her feet, but I could tell that her actions were weighted and heavy. She was escorted away from the visiting area by the guard soon after. Mukuro gave us one final wave over her should before disappearing from view.

I glanced back to Lily and Sky once she was gone. "We should go our separate ways for now," I declared. "I'll see you two at the trial tomorrow. Try to get some rest before then, okay?"

Lily and Sky both nodded before walking away from the visiting area. I watched them go before navigating my way to the entrance of the building for myself. I didn't know what we were going to do about this case, but I prayed that we were able to figure everything out soon. The victim was at the center of this case, and we weren't going to be able to learn anything until we could find the truth behind why he was at the school in the first place. The unknown source of blood was our next clue, and I prayed that we would be able to find the truth behind it sooner rather than later. We were going to get Mukuro out of the detention center. I was sure of it. Still, I couldn't help but wonder how we were supposed to pull that off with how little we knew.

Regardless, we were going to try. We simply had to.

I wrote this instead of paying attention in class woo

-Digital