A/N: Here's Chapter Five Deadly Life Part Five. Please read, review, and enjoy!
Danganronpa 4: Next Generation Killing!
Chapter Five: United We Stand, Divided We Fall!
Deadly Life Part Five: First Floor Travel?!
"It's great that Keebo's in the clear, but now we don't even have a murder weapon." Ryoma reminded the others, causing Keebo's mouth to droop.
"You're right…" Keebo sheepishly admitted, his lips drooping as the enthusiasm left his eyes. "Unfortunately, we're back to square one."
"It's still likely that Kiki died on the 1st floor…" Sokyu surmised. "Now we just need to figure out who killed her, and with what."
"With the wrench no longer an option, it's anyone's guess what caused the cranial trauma indicated by the Monokuma File."
"We sure could use a hint coin right now…" Tsumugi lamented. "But where would we even find one?"
"Perhaps if we knew what Kiki was doing, we could deduce how she died." Kirumi suggested.
"Ah, that's a good idea, Kirumi." Shuichi nodded. We don't have enough clues right now to make any educated guesses. Any new information we can deduce will be a great help. "Perhaps if we try to retrace Kiki's steps and figure out where she was going, we'll be able to figure out how she died."
Keebo nodded. "Very well, then let's discuss Kiki's movements before her murder."
I know there's a clue that'll tell us where Kiki was headed before she died. If we just keep talking about it, that clue's bound to turn up! We just gotta keep focused and leave no stone unturned!
"So what was Kiki doing on the first floor?" Keebo's musing interrupted Shuichi's thoughts.
"Maybe she had some business in one of the rooms…" Ryoma suggested.
"Okay…so when we came down here…the rooms available to us were…" Tsumugi began before Kirumi finished her sentence.
"The Main Entrance, Data Room, Headmaster's Office, Nurse's Office and Bio Lab."
"But the Data Room, Headmaster's Office, and Bio Lab were all locked." Gonta pointed out.
"Maybe she had business in the classrooms?" Tsumugi suggested.
"Or maybe she found a way to unlock the door in the Main Entrance." Keebo contemplated. "If that were the case…then the culprit could have killed her to keep her quiet!"
"What about the Headmaster's Office?" Ryoma stared at Sokyu. "Hey Sokyu, you've been in the Headmaster's Office. Is there any reason for Kiki to have been in there?"
Sokyu merely shrugged in response. "How should I know? Like I said, I wasn't there long enough to get a good look of the place."
"But where else could Kiki have gone?" Gonta hummed, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Maybe after she got attacked…she fled to the Nurse's Office to treat her wounds!"
"I agree!" Shuichi nodded at Sokyu. "There's evidence to suggest that Kiki went to the Nurse's Office. While investigating the first floor, I found footprints that led from the body to the Nurse's Office. Their size and shape are consistent with Kiki's sneakers."
"Could she have even walked all the way to the Nurse's Office?" Tsumugi's brow furrowed skeptically.
"You said there was some evidence to prove that she walked to the Nurse's Office." Ryoma recalled. "So, what is it?"
"The evidence that proves Kiki went to the Nurse's Office?" Shuichi hummed, rewinding his memories of the investigation until the evidence he needed flashed before his eyes. This is it!"Though I didn't investigate Kiki's body thoroughly, I did see that the soles of her sneakers were covered in blood!"
"That is correct." Kirumi nodded. "I too noticed that Kiki's shoes had blood on them, so it's entirely feasible that she could have walked from the hallway to the Nurse's Office."
"Yes, that seems to be the most logical conclusion." Keebo concurred before his brow furrowed in confusion. "We now can surmise that Kiki went to the Nurse's Office prior to her death. But for what purpose?"
"I told you guys it was probably to treat her wounds." Sokyu reminded them, a hint of ire bleeding into his voice.
Kirumi cocked her head. "Is there any evidence that shows Kiki used any medical supplies from the Nurse's Office?"
"Hmm…" Ryoma hummed. "That seems like the question we have to answer in order to proceed with this trial."
"Yeah…Gonta agrees…"
"Let us discuss then the likelihood that Kiki sought medical supplies in the Nurse's Office."
The others nodded at Keebo's suggestion before Ryoma continued the debate.
"We know that there were footprints from the hallway to the Nurse's Office…but where does that leave us?"
"If Kiki did go to the Nurse's Office…then perhaps she did use some medical supplies!"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you nitwits…" Sokyu sighed, his eyes narrowed in annoyance.
"Putting aside Sokyu's insult…I didn't see any bandages on Kiki's body."
"Then…Kiki wasn't in the Nurse's Office after all?" Gonta wondered.
"It seems that way…" Tsumugi sighed. "If there weren't any used medical supplies…then I guess nobody went inside the Nurse's Office…"
"That's wrong!" Shuichi narrowed his eyes, pointing at the young cosplayer. "I don't know if either Kiki or the culprit used any medical supplies…but there is proof that someone entered the Nurse's Office. Hidden among the different medical books, I found…a manga."
"A…manga…?" Keebo shook his head. "Wait! That wasn't there the day I gave Kiki that wrench!"
"But if it wasn't there before yesterday…then it must have been placed after nighttime!" Kirumi deduced.
"But…whose manga would it be?" Gonta bit his lip, humming in contemplation.
Who's the likely owner of the manga? It probably wasn't Kiki…it's definitely not me…it's very unlikely that it'd be the mastermind's…That's it! "It's possible that the manga belonged to the culprit."
"Ano…excuse me…" Everyone turned towards Tsumugi, who was biting her lip anxiously. "Just by chance…could the manga you mentioned be an Inuyasha tankobon?"
"Ah…yes…" Shuichi slowly nodded, furrowing his brow. "But, Tsumugi…how do you know that?"
"Yeah, weren't you investigating one of the other floors?" Ryoma inquired.
"Well, yes, but…you see…"
"Just spit it out." Sokyu demanded.
"I loaned that manga to Kiki the other day!"
"What?!" Shuichi gasped.
"I-It was before we went to the sauna." Tsumugi stammered, gripping her right arm anxiously. "She was so nervous about patching things up with you…I thought loaning it to her would help calm her nerves…"
"Or maybe…" Sokyu narrowed his eyes. "You left it there on purpose."
"What?!" Tsumugi shrieked.
"…Gonta confused…" Gonta frowned, asking, "Why would Tsumugi take a manga she loaned Kiki and place it in the Nurse's Office?"
"To give herself an alibi after she killed her."
"N-No! I wouldn't kill Kiki!" Tsumugi fervently shook her head as her podium pulled to the center.
"That seems…incredibly convoluted…but if she is the culprit, it could explain why she placed the manga in a location that doesn't make any logical sense." Keebo admitted.
"Guys…this is…all a mistake! I wouldn't kill Kiki! Honest, I never laid a finger on her! I don't know how the tankobon got to the Nurse's Office, but I'm not the killer!"
Is it really true? Shuichi wondered. Did Tsumugi really create such a convoluted plan? We need to clear that up, first and foremost!
"I'm not the killer!" Tsumugi cried, gripping the railing in agony.
"We can't think of anyone else other than you…who could have placed that manga!" Sokyu pointed at the trembling Tsumugi.
"Does anyone else have a large enough supply of manga?" Ryoma wondered. "Maybe they grabbed it from their collection."
"Tsumugi is the only one who talks about manga or anime in any regular capacity." Kirumi recalled. "If anyone could have placed that manga, it's her."
"E-Even so…I haven't seen that manga since yesterday!" Tsumugi stammered.
"Just admit it, you miserable otaku." Sokyu spat. "You attacked Kiki, chased her to the Nurse's Office…and chased her out of it while she was trying to patch herself up!"
"That's wrong!" Shuichi swiftly came to Tsumugi's defense. "I don't think Tsumugi chased Kiki through the Nurse's Office at all."
"Why not?" Sokyu countered. "It'd be a perfect cover-up for someone as geeky as her!"
"Why, thank you!" Tsumugi smiled. "It's not every day I get called something as endearing as geeky!"
Everyone stared incredulously, sweatdropping at the cosplayer. Shuichi cleared his throat in an attempt to get everyone's attention.
"A-Anyway…the point I'm trying to make is that other than the out-of-place manga, nothing was out of the ordinary in the Nurse's Office."
"Nothing out of the ordinary?" Keebo inquired. "No trash on the floor, no cabinets half-open, nothing missing from the drawers?"
"No, nothing." Shuichi shook his head. "Given the evidence, it's highly unlikely that Tsumugi, or anyone else, pursued Kiki in the Nurse's Office-"
"Sit, boy!"
Shuichi trailed off, stunned by the outburst, as well as its source. He brow furrowed, the young detective staring incredulously at the girl in the center.
"Even if one of us couldn't have chased Kiki through the Nurse's Office, there's still someone who could."
"Huh?" Shuichi tilted his head with an awkward smile. "W-What do you mean?"
"Isn't it obvious? The spirit of the hanyou Naraku came out of the manga and detected Kiki's purehearted miko abilities! He feared her power and killed her before she could be properly trained by Kagome and Kikyo!"
"…You've got to be kidding!" Koto and Kiri groaned, simultaneously facepalming.
"Baka…" Mokubo muttered, shaking his head in disappointment. "She chooses to let her hobbies derail things now of all times?!"
"She's being even more of an idiot right now than Kaito ever was." Maki sighed.
"Well, she's not the only one to make such a nonsensical argument…" Makoto smiled awkwardly, recalling the time in the Neo World Program when Gundham tried to rebut Hajime's point about the Octagon's secret passage. Not to mention Hiro's claim that Kyoko was a ghost…
"Hopefully Shuichi will be able debunk her ludicrous hypothesis just like Hajime shattered Gundham's babble…" Kyoko prayed as they watched Tsumugi resume her argument.
Rebuttal Showdown -Truth Blade-: Tsumugi vs. Shuichi!
"If the killer isn't one of us…"
We've already settled that debate! Shuichi thought, barely hiding his exasperation at Tsumugi's return to that argument.
"Then we should look at other suspects."
What suspects are there if not the seven of us?!
"The manga left behind was an Inuyasha tankobon…"
What does it matter which manga was left behind?
"So the culprit must be one the yokai or hanyou in the Sengoku Jidai!"
How would a mythical being be responsible for Kiki's murder?
"And Kiki's pure heart leaves Naraku as the most likely culprit!"
Will Monokuma even allow us to vote for a fictional character?
"He murdered Kiki before she could be trained as a miko!"
"Ah…" completely lost, Shuichi asked "Even if any of us had a clue who this Naraku is…how could he have come out of the manga?"
"Obviously he used the power of the Shikon Jewel!" Tsumugi exclaimed, though this only confused Shuichi even more.
Now I'm even more lost! What does a piece of jewelry have to do with a mythical murderer?
"He used its power to create a portal between the Sengoku Jidai and our modern era…"
Why go through the trouble of time travel to assassinate a nineteen-year-old girl?
"…emerged from the pages of the manga…and hit Kiki over the head!"
And why wouldn't he just use magic to kill her?
"Her blood splattered everywhere!"
Shuichi's eyes widened as he replayed Tsumugi's last argument in his mind. He narrowed his eyes and pointed his finger at her, his voice slashing her argument to ribbons.
"I'll cut through your words!"
"Even if we were to entertain the idea that a hanyou could have murdered Kiki, it would have been impossible for them to do so?"
"Huh?" Tsumugi cocked her head, befuddled by Shuichi's argument. "But why?"
"Because blood hadn't splattered everywhere…it was confined to one place: the trash can."
"Huh?! The trash can?!"
"But why would blood only be concentrated in the trash can?" Kirumi wondered.
"Maybe she spit up blood when she arrived at the Nurse's Office." Ryoma suggested.
"It's possible…" Sokyu nodded. "Maybe when she got hit on the head, it caused her teeth to cut the inside of her mouth and spat up blood into the trash can."
"Hmm…" Gonta crossed his arms and bit his lip. "Could Kiki have cut her mouth and spat up blood…? Gonta…doesn't know the answer to that…"
"I think we need to discuss this development in more detail." Keebo suggested. "Only once we can agree on the source of the blood can we move forward in this debate."
Shuichi nodded, concurring to himself, We need to determine the source of the blood in the Nurse's Office. Was it Kiki's, or was it someone else's? Depending on the answer, this trial could reach a completely different conclusion!
"The blood in the trash can…" Gonta mused. "Where did it come from?"
"Keebo, you were in the Nurse's Office the other day, right?" Ryoma turned an inquisitive gaze towards the robot. "Did anyone other than you and Kiki spend time in the Nurse's Office?"
Keebo shook his head. "No, according to my memory banks…there wasn't anyone who came to the Nurse's Office while I was there."
"If anyone had been injured, I would have known of it and treated it personally." Kirumi claimed.
"Well, I guess that settles it then." Sokyu sighed.
"Yeah…" Tsumugi's shoulders sagged. "There's only one person that blood could have come from."
"Kiki…" Gonta grimaced. "It had to be Kiki's blood."
"That's wrong!" Shuichi pointed his finger at Gonta, startling the bug enthusiast and grinding the debate to a halt. "It might not have belonged to any of us."
"Don't be stupid, Shuichi." Sokyu spat. "If it didn't belong to Kiki, or to any of us, then where did that blood come from?"
"When we first investigated the 1st floor, we found a refrigerator with blood packets inside."
Kirumi's eyes sparkled in realization. "Are you suggesting, then, that the culprit merely took one of the blood packets and spilled its contents in the trash can?"
"I fail to see the logic in such a move." Keebo admitted. "What could the culprit have gained from doing so?"
Why did the culprit use blood from the refrigerator in the trash can? It wasn't to redecorate…it wasn't to fill the packet with Kiki's blood…it wasn't to perform a transfusion…That's it! Shuichi exclaimed "It was to falsify the scene of the crime."
"By spilling blood in the Nurse's Office, they'd make us think Kiki was attacked there." Ryoma deduced. "That's what you figured out, right, Shuichi?"
Tsumugi's face paled. "I see…and by placing the manga I loaned Kiki there…they hoped to implicate me as her killer…"
Kirumi nodded, though Gonta's furrowed brow made him appear a little skeptical. "Gonta…still confused, though. If the blood packet and manga were meant to make us think she was killed in the Nurse's Office…then why did Kiki's bloody footprints from her body to the Nurse's Office?"
Keebo crossed his eyes, confused by the conundrum in front of them. "…That…is quite the discrepancy. If Kiki wasn't killed in the Nurse's Office, then what explains her bloody footprints?"
Shuichi cradled his chin in his hands and closed his eyes. Those footprints…something was off about those footprints…what was it again?
As the musings of his fellow survivors faded from his senses, the image of Kiki's footprints appeared in his mind. Once he started analyzing the picture, numerous jumbled thoughts started to clutter his brain. He took a deep breath, organizing his thoughts and rearranging them into a more coherent order.
D-I-R-E-C-T-I-O-N! DIRECTION! I see now!
Shuichi opened his eyes, reawakening to the trial around him. Before anyone could say anything else, Shuichi's booming voice turned their attention to him.
"Kiki's footprints…they're facing the wrong direction!"
"Wrong…direction…?" Sokyu asked, tilting his head in confusion before Shuichi nodded.
"That's right…the trail of footprints I found…they don't lead to the Nurse's Office at all. Rather, they lead from the Nurse's Office back to Kiki's body!"
"Wait!" Tsumugi shrieked. "They go from the Nurse's Office to Kiki's body?!"
"This is…rather illogical…" A clearly confused Keebo commented.
"Yeah…" Gonta nodded. "You're saying that Kiki's footprints show her walking out to the hallway…but not to the Nurse's Office?"
"Yeah…they only showed her walking in one direction: the wrong direction, as a matter of fact. If we assume that Kiki was killed in the Nurse's Office, then her footprints should show her walking from the hallway. Instead, they showed her walking in the opposite direction."
"But…" Kirumi inquired, grimacing in confusion, "If Kiki never walked to the Nurse's Office, then how did those footprints get there? They are, after all, unmistakably prints from Kiki's sneakers."
Shuichi hummed, searching through the depths of his mind for the answer. If Kiki didn't make those footprints, then how did they get there?
Psyche Taxi!
"Huh?"
Shuichi blinked, the hum of a motor awakening his subconsciousness. Glancing around, he saw a long stretch of highway, splitting in half a desert that stretched as far as the eye could see.
"W-Where am I? What happened to the Class Trial?"
He glanced down, his eyes widening in shock at the leather seat his body was resting on, as well as the black steering wheel and dashboard in front of him. Feeling a gas pedal underneath his right foot, he looked to the side, catching a slight view of the vehicle he had unknowingly come to pilot.
"What the hell?! Why am I driving a yellow convertible?! In the middle of the desert?!"
He didn't have time to contemplate the matter further, as a disembodied voice echoed in his ears. Confused, he looked around, but found nobody who could have spoken in the current environment.
"Three…Two…One…GO!"
Before he knew what was happening, Shuichi's foot pressed on the gas of its own accord. Shuichi screamed, gripping the steering wheel for dear life as the convertible sped ahead. He was just barely able to keep it on the road, causing the car to jerkily change lanes in a heartbeat.
"Calm down, Shuichi! Calm down, or you'll crash."
Shuichi took a deep breath, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. As his nerves settled, his control of the vehicle smoothened correspondingly.
"Okay, you've got control of the wheel, now if only I could figure out where this road led…" Shuichi trailed off, squinting his eyes and staring down the horizon. "What…what's that…?"
Shuichi's eyes widened as a rainbow-colored, semi-transparent box with a white question mark in the center sat directly in his path. Before he could swerve out of its path, his front bumper collided with the strange container. Rather than cause him to crash the car, however, it merely disappeared, causing Shuichi to sigh in relief.
"What a relief…but why was that box on the road in the first place?" Shuichi pondered before he saw an entire trail of boxes straight ahead. "Hey, there's more of those strange boxes. Should I be trying to hit all of them?"
With nothing better to do, Shuichi followed the trail of boxes, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction as he saw each one disappear. Eventually, the trail vanished, causing Shuichi to furrow his brow.
"Okay, I've hit enough for all of them to disappear…now what…?" Shuichi looked up at the sky, his eyes widening at the orange text that floated among the clouds. "Whose blood was on Kiki's sneakers? Wait, why am I being asked that?"
Before he could ponder it further, the landscape transitioned to a city with building glowing in neon lights. As he passed through a neon arch, the disembodied voice echoed the words displayed on the sign on the arch.
"THINKING TIME!"
"Thinking Time…? Think about what?"
Shuichi's brow furrowed, the young detective completely confused. As he continued to mull over the conundrum while driving through the neon city, he spotted three feminine figures in each lane of the road.
"What the…hey!" He tried to warn, instinctively honking a horn that did not exist. "Get out of the ro…"
Shuichi trailed off, spotting each of the women holding up a sign above their heads. Squinting, Shuichi realized that each sign had a different inscription.
"Kiki's…The culprit's…The refrigerator's…" Shuichi's eyes widened in realization. "Wait a second…each of those signs is an answer to the question. And if the blood wasn't Kiki's or the culprit's…then it must have been in the refrigerator!"
Gently applying pressure to the brake, Shuichi shifted to the rightmost lane and slowed the car to a stop. Upon stopping just in front of the woman, she circled around the car and opened the door. Once she slid inside, closed the door, and buckled her seat belt, she pressed a gentle kiss to Shuichi's cheek.
"Good!" She whispered upon removing her lips from the blushing boy's face.
Too embarrassed to think about what happened, Shuichi simply pressed on the gas pedal and sped ahead. He kept his eyes focused on the road ahead of him, watching as the scenery changed back to the desert and another trail of question mark blocks appeared on the road.
"Okay, so I just have to keep collecting those blocks for a while…" Shuichi realized as he turned the steering wheel to shift the carto follow the trail of boxes.
Shuichi did his best to ignore the young woman sitting in his car's passenger seat. Instead, he opted to focus on maintaining a tight, controlled grip on the steering wheel. Eventually, the trail of boxes vanished, and the neon city appeared on the horizon.
"How did the blood get on Kiki's shoes?"
Once he passed through the arch, the disembodied voice echoed in his ears again. "THINKING TIME!"
Slowing the car to a reasonable speed, Shuichi saw three more women standing in the lanes of the road. He took note of the different signs each of them held.
"From her fatal injury…From the blood packet…From a previous victim…I wouldn't even know how another victim's blood would get on Kiki's shoes and stay fresh…Kirumi's diagnosis makes it unlikely that Kiki's blood is on her shoes…so it must be from the blood packet!"
Once Shuichi made sure he was in the middle lane, he slowed the car to a complete stop. The buxom woman circled around to his side of the car and leaned over his door to kiss his left cheek.
"Good!" She whispered before vaulting into the lefthand back seat and buckling up.
Shaking away his embarrassment, Shuichi sped away, leaving the city limits for the desert ahead. It wasn't long until another trail of boxes appeared. Shuichi sped up, collecting each one as it collided with his front bumper. However, he soon found himself having to swerve out of the way to avoid another moving car in the distance.
"…That was close…" He sighed in relief. "Even if those boxes are safe to touch, I'm pretty sure I will crash if I touch one of those cars…" He groaned, seeing more appear in the distance. "Great…I'll have to avoid them while collecting more of those boxes."
Shuichi proceeded to swerve in and out of the occasional traffic, making sure to collect as many boxes as he could when safely between cars. Eventually, the boxes disappeared, and Shuichi swerved calmly around the last visible car. Letting out a sigh of relief, he looked up at the sky to the question that had appeared from his latest collecting spree.
"Who created the bloody footprints?"
Shuichi bit his lip in concentration, which was harder to do when two beautiful girls were staring at you in your car. Trying to block out the sensual, feminine atmosphere in the vehicle, Shuichi sped past the neon arch into the outskirts of the city.
"THINKING TIME!" The disembodied voice echoed before another batch of three women appeared in the distance.
"…The culprit…Kiki…Keebo…Well, it definitely wasn't Keebo, and based off the evidence we have, it's unlikely that Kiki made the bloody footprints…so it must have been the culprit!"
Shifting into the leftmost lane, Shuichi came to a gentle stop right in front of the flirtatious girl. She circled around to the right side of the car and got in. Once she closed the car door, she leaned over and kissed Shuichi's cheek.
"Good!"
She smirked before buckling up, allowing Shuichi to speed ahead. Desperate to get his mind off his embarrassment at being kissed by three sexy girls that he didn't know, his mind wandered to the trio of questions he was indirectly asked during this strange fever dream.
"Let's see…how are they related? The blood came from the refrigerator…it was put on Kiki's shoes after being removed from the blood packet…by the culprit!" Shuichi gasped, the gears finally turning in his head as everything clicked together. "It connects!"
As soon as those words left his mouth, the desert highway seemed to crack. Before he could figure out what was happening, it shattered, and everything turned to black.
I…I'm back at the Class Trial… Shuichi realized, glancing around to see everyone's concerned stares. Confused, his brow furrowed as he wondered, But…why was I dreaming about picking up girls? Shuichi shook the thought from his head. But that's not important right now…I know the answer that'll push us further towards the truth! "The culprit was the one who created the bloody footprints!"
"Wait!" Tsumugi nearly shrieked in shock. "You're saying the culprit forged Kiki's footprints?!"
Shuichi nodded. "That's right. They took off Kiki's shoes and brought them to the Nurse's Office. Once they were inside, they opened a blood packet and coated the soles with blood before tossing the packet into the trash."
"I see…" Ryoma realized "Once the shoes were coated in blood, they could've walked them along the floor back to the body to create a fake trail, then just put them back on her feet."
Kirumi nodded. "That would explain why the blood from her fatal injury and the blood on her shoes didn't connect with each other."
"I see…" Keebo realized "Then, to create a scapegoat, they placed the used blood packet bag in the trash and planted the manga to frame Tsumugi."
Tsumugi sniffled, her lip quivering in shocked sorrow while her podium pulled back from the center. "How dare they use that Feudal Fairy Tale for evil!"
Everyone sweatdropped. That's…not the issue, Tsumugi…
"Okay…Gonta understands that…but still…" Everyone turned towards Gonta, who questioned, "If she wasn't killed in the hallway or the Nurse's Office…then where was Kiki killed?"
Where was Kiki killed…? Shuichi hummed, mulling over the options in his mind. It wasn't in the Entrance Hall…it wasn't in the Headmaster's Office…it wasn't in the Bio Lab…That's it! "Kiki wasn't killed on the 1st Floor at all. It was a different floor!"
Sokyu stared incredulously at the young detective. "Wait, you're telling me that Kiki wasn't even killed where we found her body?!"
Shuichi nodded. "Yeah, the culprit probably just moved her body after killing her, so we'd focus our search on where she was found."
"If that is the case…then we cannot simply limit our discussions to the 1st Floor." Kirumi concluded. "We need to discuss what we found on the other floors of the school."
"Very well." Keebo agreed "Let's discuss what we found on the other floors."
As the others fell in agreement, Shuichi felt a sense of relief from their minimal progress. We still don't know where Kiki was killed or what was used to kill her…but what we have is a start. Now we just have to narrow down the floors and figure out where she was attacked and murdered!
"Wait!" Koto and Kiri exclaimed. "Kiki wasn't killed where her body was found?!"
"Why are you two so surprised?" Maki raised an eyebrow in minor surprise as Mokubo nodded.
"Ace did the same a couple weeks ago. Switching the crime scene isn't exactly the most novel of murder cleanup tactics."
"Indeed." Kyoko concurred, recalling, "I've seen any number of cases where the body was moved after death."
"Yeah…like Taka and Hifumi…" Makoto frowned, recalling the double murder he personally investigated that led to Kyoko taking her first leap of faith with him after having their memories suppressed. Shaking the bittersweet memory away, he continued "Anyway, let's keep watching. Shuichi should be able to narrow it down until they finally determine where Kiki was killed."
Kyoko reluctantly nodded, her and her family turning back to the TV. They now know that the culprit moved her body to the 1st Floor and falsified evidence to avert suspicion. Now they need to use the process of elimination to deduce the true murder scene. Good luck, Shuichi…everyone!