Chapter 15 - Danger Zone (Part 3)

Blossom could only stare at the bodies, her legs frozen, and her voice lost. Gumball and Dee Dee were lying dead on the floor of the arcade. She felt like throwing up at that moment but sustained that feeling. She suddenly remembered something, Oh no! Dexter and Darwin! They're going to be so broken...

Suddenly, Steven, Finn, Bubbles and Dexter dashed through the open door, but froze at the horrible sight in front of them.

"Oh Glob! What the- what happened in here?!" Finn exclaimed, staring with horror at the scene.

Bubbles gasped "Oh no... Not again!" she started crying silently. Blossom walked next to her to comfort her sister.

"A- another two people?! But why? And how?!" Steven wondered.

"Why would someone do this?!" Buttercup exclaimed.

"Dee Dee?" Dexter muttered as he stepped closer to her sisters' body. He stood on his knees and checked her sister's pulse. Nothing. "I... b- but I-" he couldn't even talk without choking on his own words. "T- this wasn't s- supposed to happen..." he finally broke down in tears, most of the others feeling bad for him, since they had never seen him having actual emotions.

Darwin finally appeared on the room "Guys, what happ-" he looked at his brother's dead body "G-G-GUMBALL!" he screamed and ran towards his brother's body and broke down crying "Who would this to my brother?! Reveal yourself, you coward!"

"But for real though, who would do something like this?" Finn asked, refusing to even look at the bodies one more time. "Killing two people again?! That's too harsh..."

"That's right!" Monokuma appeared out of nowhere, making everyone jump in fright "One of you killed these two 'innocent' people... wait-" he looked at the crime scene "How did one of you maggots actually managed to kill two people again?! Well, whatever. I just came here to give you the MonoFiles."

He was about to leave the room when Mandy grabbed him by his arm "Ahem."

"What do you want, blondie?" the bear asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"The riddle." she simply answered "What's with it?"

"The what?" he inquired, looking confused "Ugh, stupid teenagers and their stupid codes." he shover her aside and walked his way out of the arcade.

She growled "Stupid teddy bear..."

Silence filled the room for a couple of seconds.

"Uh..." Finn uttered, breaking that silence "Who'll read the Monokuma Files?"

"I will, if no one minds." Mandy immediately volunteered. She cleared her throat "Monokuma File #5 - The victim is Dee Dee, the happy ballerina. It seems like the front of her head and chest are covered with holes, as if flesh had been ripped out. Her body was found on the floor of the arcade at exactly 09:18."

Clue: Monokuma File #5

"Oh god..." Steven covered his mouth in horror. He felt like he was gonna throw up because of what he had just heard.

"So gruesome..." Finn commented.

Since no one else volunteered to read the next file, Robin sighed and took it upon himself to read it. "Monokuma File #6 - The victim is Gumball, the optimistic blue cat. He died of a gunshot on his forehead. His body was found on the floor of the arcade at exactly 09:18"

Clue: Monokuma File #6

"That's not too bad." Finn commented again.

"That information is not enough. Robin, since you're the oldest one here, you do an autopsy of the two bodies and see if you can find something the files might have missed." Mandy ordered, already taking the leader role.

"Okay, I can do that." he replied, before heading towards the bodies to start the autopsy.

"As for the rest of us, let's find out the most clues we can." she said, before leaving the room.

Blossom turned to her sisters "I guess we'll do this one together, huh?"

"I guess so." Buttercup replied, barely any emotion on her tone "Let's just get out of here. I can't watch this anymore."

Before leaving, Blossom stared at Dexter and Darwin one more time. The latter was still crying as much as he was when he found the body, while the former was whipping his last tears out of his face. He was visibly angry.

She sighed, Poor guys...

With that, the powerpuff girls left the room.

While on their way to search for some clues, Blossom decided to review the sequence of events that had happened. "Okay girls, let's do a quick recap about what happened here." she cleared her throat before starting.

"Firstly, at exactly 8 AM we all found that strange riddle that seemed to have been left by Monokuma. At that point, Dee Dee and Gumball were still alive, right?"

"Yup. Then we split and went to look for a supposed key that would open the door out of this hell of a school." Buttercup continued.

"And meanwhile we all heard the sound of a loud gunshot coming from the third floor! It was around 09:13 AM, I guess." Bubbles continued.

"Then me and Robin ran towards the arcade and then the body discovery announcement rang... it rang! It happened again!" Blossom realized.

"What happened again?" Buttercup asked confused.

"The body discovery announcement rang when only Robin and I found the bodies. Just like on the previous case when Bubbles was actually the first person to find the body." she explained.

"Wait, so that means someone saw the bodies first again, right?" Bubbles asked to make sure.

"Exactly. I wonder who..." Blossom scratched her chin.

Clue: Sequence Of Events

Clue: Body Discovery Announcement

"Hey, Bloss." Buttercup called "Do you think the riddle has anything to do with all of this?" she asked.

Blossom nodded. "Probably."

Clue: Monokuma's Riddle

The girls walked until they arrived at the door of the Dog Room.

"Do you think there'll be something in here?" Bubbles asked, slightly trembling, remembering the giant Rottweiler that lived there.

"There's only one way to find out, right?" Blossom said, while slowly opening the door of the room.

What they found there surprised them in a very negative manner.

"B-b-b-b-" Bubbles tried to speak but only came out as stammering.

"Blood...?" Buttercup muttered what her sister couldn't.

There was not only blood inside the big rottweiler's glass cage but also some of it coming out of it. The girls stared in shock as they got closer to the cage where the dog was surprisingly sleeping peacefully.

Clue: Blood

"Holy cow..." Buttercup uttered "If this wasn't the place of the murder then I don't even know what to think of this."

"Girls, let's split and see what we can find anything useful." Blossom immediately ordered and her sisters did as she said.

The leader of the powerpuff girls was searching through the dog's glass cage when she found something weird.

"The feeder timer... it's broken."

She inspected it and noticed it had stopped it's countdown at 26 minutes.

"But... how?"

"Weird, right? It was already like this when I came here." Finn said, appearing out of nowhere, making her jump in fright.

"Gosh, Finn! Don't do that!" she exclaimed "When did you arrive?"

"What?! I was here the whole time! None of you saw me, for real?"

"As you can see, we obviously did not!" she replied. "Anyways, this is very weird. Why would someone break the dog's feeder timer...?"

Clue: Dog Room's Feeder Timer

"Blossom, I found something!" Bubbles shouted.

"What is it, Bubs?" she asked while walking towards her sister along with Finn.

"This." the blue powerpuff girl showed her sister a bloody mop "Oh and hi, Finn!"

"A bloody mop, huh...?" Finn scratched his chin.

"I think we can safely assume that the killer tried to clean all the blood to erase suspicion, but they obviously couldn't clean it all." Blossom assumed.

Clue Updated: Blood

"Buttercup, did you find anything?" Blossom asked.

"I did." she replied "But it doesn't make sense."

"What do you-" Blossom stopped talking when her sister showed her a small pink knife "A tiny knife... isn't that one of the same ones-"

"From that claw machine on the arcade? Yes, it is. I just found it lying here on the ground." the green powerpuff girl responded.

"It looks like it wasn't used at all." Blossom commented.

Clue: Pink Knife

"We should go search the other rooms. We're kinda running out of time here." Buttercup said.

"You're right. Let's go, girls." she said "Bye, Finn."

"Bye."

"Since Gumball died of a gunshot and the gun was nowhere near the crime scene, I think it would make sense if we went to the only place we can find that kind of weapon. The armory." Blossom said, as they were already walking towards the armory.

When the girls entered the place, they found Steven there looking at a certain pistol with an intriguing look.

"Hey, Steven. What are you looking at?" Blossom asked.

"Um? Oh hi, girls. It's just this certain pistol... I think it was the one used to kill Gumball." he said.

"Why do you think that?" Bubbles asked, as the they were walking towards the boy.

"Just check this." he said, motioning for them to go take a closer look.

Blossom narrowed her eyes at the pistol. Beside it there was the timer that said when the object was taken and put back. And there were also two pieces of paper, both written "Gumball".

"It says that the pistol was taken at exactly 08:56 and was put back at 09:15." Steven said, checking the timer.

"But... but that was exactly three minutes before we found the body..." Blossom noticed.

"Plus, it says here that Gumball was not only the one who took it but also the one who put it back." Bubbles said.

"But that's just impossible! He died before that, right? He couldn't have put it back." Blossom said.

"Well, comparing the handwriting of the first note with the other one you can clearly see it's different." Buttercup said.

"Couldn't he have disguised his handwriting?" Steven wondered.

"Maybe... this is weird..." Blossom commented, before pulling her handbook out of her pocket and taking a photo.

Clue: Pistol

Clue: Armory Timer

Clue: Armory Sign-in Sheet

The powerpuff girl then felt her E-book vibrating. She checked it "Guys, looks like Robin finished the autopsy. Let's go."

As the four of them were walking back to the arcade, they stopped on their way when they saw Darwin crying silently in the weight room.

"Poor Darwin..." Bubbles commented "I feel really bad for him and Dexter."

"Yeah, me too..." Buttercup said, looking slightly sad "I'm think I'm gonna talk to him. Remind him he's not alone on this situation."

"Okay then. But don't forget to meet on the arcade after that." Blossom said, before leaving with Steven and Bubbles.

When they arrived, they immediately walked towards the raven-haired boy.

"So, Robin," Blossom spoke up "Did you find anything important to this case?"

"Oh I sure did." he started explaining "On Dee Dee's back I found around five stab wounds that weren't deep enough to kill her. I also found some marks on her neck but I couldn't figure out its causes. The rest is all on the monokuma file. Now, on Gumball's body, apart from the obvious gun wound on his forehead there were also some rope burns on his hands. Oh, and how could I forget this." he showed them a note.

Blossom read it out loud "Hello, Dee Dee, could you please meet me in the dog room? From, Mandy."

The three kids gasped.

"Could it be Mandy the one who set this all up?" Bubbles inquired.

"We cannot be sure, but it isn't impossible." Robin replied.

Clue: Robin's Autopsy

Clue: Note

"Where did you find it?" Blossom raised a brow.

"On Dee Dee's pocket." he replied.

"Hmm..." she muttered, while taking a picture of the note with her handbook. "Do we still have time to investigate?" she asked him.

"Maybe. You're going to see what more you can find?"

"Yeah. I haven't really searched this place and it is the place of the murder after all!" she exclaimed. "I won't take too long."

She went deeper in the arcade and searched through the game machines to see if she could find something important to the case.

"Let's see, let's see..." she muttered to herself before suddenly facing the claw machine with all of the knifes.

She observed it and saw that it was still full of capsuled that contained tiny knigpfes inside.

She then stared down at the trash bin nearby and remembered something.

~Flashback~

This machine didn't have a button like the other ones. It only had a joy stick that was used to move the claw everywhere.

Gumball did exactly that. And moved the joy stick towards a blue round capsule "This seems a little bit easy..." he uttered before catching one capsule "Got it!"

The capsule was sent out of the machine and Gumball picked it up. After five minutes of failed attempts to open it, he finally succeeded. What was inside made the four pupils gasp.

[...]

"I don't care if they kill or not." Gumball said "They shouldn't exist." he said with a firm expression while throwing the tiny knife along with the capsule it came from in a trash bin nearby.

~End Of Flashback~

She stared at the trash bin again, now with more attention, and noticed that both the blue round capsule and the knife Gumball had taken off the machine were gone and there was only a pink round capsule left.

"It's gone..." she muttered under her breath.

Clue: Missing Knife

The intercoms crackled to life "Hello!" Monokuma greeted, gleefully "The search time is out! It's time for our fourth class trial! Please meet in the elevator room."

Blossom sighed and started walking back to the exit when something caught her eye.

There was one game that had its little screen, where there could be seen the time when it was last played, turned on.

It was marking 09:11 AM.

"But this... this was around the time of the murder..." she uttered. She quickly pulled her E-book out of her pocket and took a photo.

Clue: Game Machine's Timer

"Hey, Blossom!" Robin appeared, looking hurried "We have to go now or Monokuma will punish us."

"You're right. Sorry."

With that, they walked away.

When they arrived at the elevator room, they found everyone already there waiting for them.

"Geez, what took you so long?!" Mandy grumbled, folding her arms.

"Sorry, my bad." Blossom apologized.

"I was almost going to start this without you two." Monokuma said through the speakers, sounding annoyed "Now get on the elevator, you brats!"

They did as he said and, after a while, the elevator started descending slowly.

Silence was in the air and no one even bothered to look at each other. Words weren't necessary to know they were nervous as hell for what was coming next.

Not only nervousness could be felt but also the emptiness of the elevator compared to when Jake was killed. Blossom looked around the lift and noticed there were only nine people there. Half of the people that there were in the beginning "We're really dropping like flies..."

And now another two people had been killed. But how? And why? And most importantly, who could've done something like this...?

Suddenly, the elevator's doors slowly opened, revealing the trial room, the place where their fourth trial would take place. As always, Monokuma was seated on his throne.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen," the bear started announcing "our fourth class trial will begin and these nine kids will have to find out the murderer of Dee Dee and Gumball Watterson. Only here on... Cartoon... Network... DANGANRONPA!" he excitedly announced, making all students give him a death glare.

"What?" he asked innocently, as if he had done nothing wrong.

"Asshole." Mandy spat.

Clues:

1) "Monokuma File #5 - The victim is Dee Dee, the happy ballerina. It seems like the front of her head and chest are covered with holes, as if flesh had been ripped out. Her body was found on the floor of the arcade at exactly 09:18."

2) "Monokuma File #6 - The victim is Gumball, the optimistic blue cat. He died of a gunshot on his forehead. His body was found on the floor of the arcade at exactly 09:18."

3) Sequence Of Events: At exactly 8 AM the pupils all found a strange riddle that seemed to have been left by Monokuma. At that point, Dee Dee and Gumball were still alive. Then the students split and went to look for a supposed key that would open the door out of the school. Meanwhile, at around 09:13 AM, they heard the sound of a loud gunshot coming from the third floor. At that moment, Blossom and Robin ran towards the arcade and then the body discovery announcement rang.

4) Body Discovery Announcement: The rules say that when at least 3 people other than the murderer find the body, the body discovery announcement will activate. However, the body announcement activated when only Robin and Blossom found the body.

5) Monokuma's Riddle: Monokuma had planted a riddle that said that if they could find a key somewhere on the first and second floors. If they all solved the riddle and found what it was referring to, Monokuma would let them leave the school.

6) Dog Room's Feeder Timer: The feeder timer that would mark when to feed the big Rottweiler in the dog room was found broken. It had stopped its countdown at exactly 26 minutes.

7) Blood: There was found blood on inside the dog room's glass cage and some coming out of it. There was also found a bloody mop.

8) Pink Knife: There was found a tiny pink knife on the dog room.

9) Pistol: The pistol that supposedly killed Gumball was found in the armory.

10) Armory Timer: The timers on the armory mark the time when someone took and put back a weapon. According to the timer in the armory, the gun was taken at exactly 08:56 and put back at 09:15.

11) Armory Sign-in Sheet: The only name that seems to have sign-in to take and put back the weapon is Gumball.

12) Robin's Autopsy: According to Robin, on Dee Dee's back there were around five stab wounds that weren't deep enough to kill her. He also found some marks on her neck but couldn't figure out its causes. About Gumball, apart from the obvious gun wound on his forehead there were also some rope burns on his hands.

13) Note: Robin found a note on Dee Dee's pocket that said "Hello, Dee Dee, could you please meet me in the dog room? From, Mandy."

14) Missing Knife: A tiny knife from the claw machine that was previously in a trash bin wasn't there when Blossom looked for it again.

15) Game Machine's Timer: There's a little screen on all of the game machines where there can be seen when was the last time someone played. There was one game machine that was saying that the last game had been played at 09:11 AM.

This has to be my favorite case so far. And you'll see why on the trial.

Now, tell me your theories on the reviews, I find them really interesting to read.

See ya!