Sitting there across from the door was Kirumi Tojo, but I couldn't register what I was seeing at first.
It looked like the maid. Her dress was right. Even the way she was seated suited her, even if it was more of a seiza from what she could see than something more Victorian like the sandy blonde-haired girl generally leaned towards.
But it was hard to focus with how her bleeding head was seated in her hands like it was a teacup.
I wasn't sure when exactly Miyuji let out a blood-curdling scream, but as Angie and Kiyo showed up it must have been loud enough to be heard from the hall. The body discovery announcement only played as soon as Kaede and Ryoma joined us. If anyone was able to speak I wasn't able to tell due to my shock. This isn't the first time I've seen dead bodies but this still shocked me.
Kirumi wasn't dead a few minutes ago. She was fine and helping everyone. So how could this happen?
Who on Bionis would risk killing someone while investigating another murder? Did they not know about the first come, first served rule? No one could graduate from this. This was just a senseless act violence. I thought to myself.
By the texture of cotton wraps through my clothing, I guessed it was Kiyo who tried leading me away from the scene, to give me a chance to sit down and collect myself. But I couldn't make it to an actual chair, instead slumping down against the opposing wall to sit on the floor upon reaching the hallway.
But not seiza-style. I clutched my legs to my chest in hopes of the pressure would help keep the vile burning at the back of my throat at bay. It didn't matter how dirty anything was right now.
I managed to get the confidence to walk back to the bloody room when Kaito put his jacket on my shoulders. Even if Kirumi's murderer wasn't one who needed to be found they couldn't risk a killer anonymously hiding among them, and it may relate to Maki's death too.
Nothing was changed about the corpse yet. As Kirumi was in charge of checking Maki's body there was some confusion of who should take over for this one, and it wasn't a task anyone wanted either. I decided to take the autopsy myself and it was agreed that Kiyo would be with me even though he looked reluctant to do it himself. At least there was no need for him to close Kirumi's eyes the way he had for Himiko, but since the maid was posed in such an unnatural fashion even if her eyes were open it wouldn't have made things any easier.
None of her clothing was damaged, only bloodied, so we assumed for now her cause of death was the wound to her neck. The anthropologist probably used the term 'decapitation'. I managed to put the candles back to their proper spots. I didn't have to light them since Keebo was there and using another one of Miu's final gifts to us. The room was already lit with his cushy pink glow, completely at odds with the gore it illuminated.
I managed to get a hold of myself. But before I could ask if everyone knew about the rules regarding two separate murders Kokichi started yelling from the crawl space underneath us.
"WHOA, HOLD UP NOBODY ELSE MOVE UP THERE OKAY! NOT UNLESS YOU'RE AROUND THE EDGES."
"What are you talking about Kokichi?" I asked.
"I'll show you what I'm talking about!" The supreme leader exclaimed.
Regardless of his claim nothing seemed to change, the only sound was some grunting like he was struggling to reach something. A floorboard knocked a little when a small smack sounded beneath it, but given the pained cry that accompanied it, that wasn't the intent.
"Ow ow ow, that stupid plumber made this look soooo much easier. Did anyone see the board that moved? 'Cause I'm going to need someone to gently put some weight on that one or something OK?"
"I think I did." Kaede spoke up.
"O-Oh, nope, someone who isn't Kaede please." The purple-haired boy muttered.
In hindsight, his words were probably well meant. But the pianist didn't have hindsight to keep her rational. She was just a very stressed young woman dealing with a sudden wave of frustration over every stressful thing that life had thrown at her, mistaking his concern for mockery.
And unfortunately for them both, the voice that caused the unintentional insult was right under her feet.
"I said I can do it Kokichi!" She shouted as against his suggestion she stomped on the board as hard as she could. The once secure floorboard giving way under her took her by surprise as she fell forward for a moment, looking down at Kokichi's terrified expression through the new gap.
She couldn't breathe before Gonta lifted her from behind. With his other hand the entomologist caught the other end of the board that flew up, the corner only a few inches away from Kaede's eye. Kokichi's face still nearly as white as his coat as he took a relieved sigh from what I could see.
"I said gently! Jeez, for someone who has good hearing you really don't listen well do you? Hey yo, TERF war, you're on Kaede watch duty now OK!" The supreme leader called up again, his cheerful mask back in place, pointing at Tenko best he could from where he was. Or rather at what little of her green ribbon he saw.
"'Turf war'? What's that supposed to mean?" The aikido master asked.
"Oh, I think you know exactly what I mean Tenko." The purple-haired boy mocked. "So why not do your freakin' job already and keep at least one girl here safe? You've reeeeally been bad at it so far, since we've lost like half of you by now."
Tenko turned to look at Gonta as she put her hands on Kaede's shoulders, ready to led her traumatized friend somewhere less dangerous to recover again. "Gonta can you please just drop the board on him?"
"What?! No, that could really hurt Kokichi! Board very heavy. But nothing was loose before..." The entomologist said.
"I think the crosspiece was sawed through on that side, resulting in that seesaw effect we just witnessed. But how and why would someone do that? The warehouse should still be locked, so where else could someone retrieve a saw? Are there any suitable for this in Angie or Maki's labs?" Keebo replied, eyes and the rest of him still having a surreal pink glow as he spoke.
"Uhh... yes! There should be saws that could do this in Angie's lab! Angie often uses wood for sculptures, and it'd take a looot longer if she only had small chisels to make them." Angie explained. "But Angie locked the doors last night, so no one else should have had access to them she thinks. Nothing has gone missing either."
"No worries Angie, I don't think that's it. Maki has a bunch of serrated blades and stuff that'd probably work and hers can't be locked. She's also the only one who'd be able to tell us if anything's gone too." Ryoma answered, looking only a little troubled at the idea these two deaths really could be connected.
"This isn't the only booby-trapped room either! The other two rooms also have the same crosspiece cut. All the rooms are connected down here, and I think I found what was just used to kill Kirumi too." Kokichi said.
Me, Kaede, Tenko, and Miyuji agreed to come under the floorboards to see the murder weapon for ourselves. The supreme leader was a little upset but as there was no helping it he showed us where the weapon was, following a trail of blood to the room next door. The room Angie had been checking out before.
There was the missing katana, still dripping with Kirumi's blood, along the wall just below the gap in the floorboards you could use to enter the room above it at the end of it's bloody path.
The katana that leaves a sticky gold residue on anyone's hands who touches it. Gold like what I saw on Angie's before? That doesn't sound right. Why on Bionis would she have killed Kirumi like this? They were supposed to be on the same side. And how could something so rusty cut well enough to do… that. Unless... the killer's trying to frame her. I thought to myself.
I didn't still didn't know if the gold flakes on Angie's hands were connected to the katana used to kill Kirumi even when it was time to head down to the trial room for the class trial. No one said a thing as the elevator headed down to our destination with all of us on it. As I got onto my podium with the one on my left now occupied by a portrait of Kirumi's crossed off face, images of both Maki and the maid's corpses flashed in my mind.
Maki and Kirumi... two of the most mature students in this academy have died. I thought to myself.
Images of Angie and the blood-stained katana flashed in my mind.
Not only is the first come, first served rule in play, but someone is framing Angie for Kirumi's death... I have to expose them as both a killer and one of the traitors!
Finally, images of everyone flashed in my mind.
I already know who that traitor is, I will make them remember! They won't get away with these murders... even if they didn't commit one of them. It's time to fight... I'll fight for the sake of everyone still alive in this trial of truth and lies!