CHAPTER FIFTEEN: ETERNAL VOID
"It's just as I feared," said Mario. "Yoshi is gone. The killer may still be alive…" He, Shy Guy and Bowser wore intense, worried expressions. One of them was guilty.
"Have you ever considered the possibility," said Shy Guy, "that the killer is not one of us, and the murders are coming from someone who was here before any of us? Someone, perhaps, who invited us here with the intention of killing each and every one of us?"
"No," said Bowser. "And I don't plan on thinking on those grounds at this point. I'm sticking with the original theory."
"I agree," Mario replied. "It's too late to change everything like that. You may be right, Shy Guy, but a killer whose location and identity are completely unknown… I can't deal with that. I don't want to. It has to be one of us."
"In that case," said Shy Guy, "we must take the necessary precautions."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I don't know. Got any ideas?"

Chink! Chink!
Three pairs of handcuffs restrained the three men, now bonded together constantly. They sat in a circle around a glass coffee table in the living room, eyeing each other suspiciously. The killer was among them, and through this method, they would either find the culprit or do nothing until they all died. Nobody wanted either to happen.
"I'm hungry," said Shy Guy.
"I guess we're eating," Bowser replied irritably.

They clumsily ambled into the kitchen in a circle like a group of sky divers. Taking their chances, Bowser and Mario allowed Shy Guy free from his handcuffs until he could get food and silverware. They quietly watched him slurp large forkfuls of spaghetti under his mask. By now they no longer cared how he ate; in fact, they were rather disgusted. By the time the meal was over, Shy Guy's mask was covered in tomato sauce, which he messily smeared off with a napkin before belching loudly. They hastily snapped him back into his bonds and then went back to the living room.

It was several hours before anyone spoke.
"Wanna play checkers or something?" Bowser asked sarcastically.
"NO!" Shy Guy exclaimed. This unexpected outburst caused the other two to stare at him for several seconds before he spoke again.
"Sorry," he said. "I just get really moody when I'm bored. I've never sat down doing nothing for so long."
Nobody replied. Shy Guy began to tap his feet on the floor. Mario sighed.
"I gotta use the bathroom," Shy Guy said after a while. Bowser and Mario groaned.

They freed Shy Guy for the second time and stood outside the door silently. Several minutes passed.
"What is taking him so long?!" Bowser complained. Mario knocked on the door.
"What are you doing in there?"
"What do you think I'm doing?" Shy Guy called back.
"Wasting time is what you're doing," Bowser replied. Shy Guy was silent.
"Well, hurry up in there," Mario said loudly, leaning against the door.

Time snailed by. Some time later, Bowser, almost asleep and sitting uncomfortably against the bathroom door, asked Mario the time. Mario opened his eyes and checked the clock on the wall.
"Quarter to five," he said.
"He has been in there for half an hour," Bowser moaned. "This is ridiculous. Let's go in there."
"No way, we have to respect his privacy! What if he's the killer?"
"I don't care, this is stupid." Bowser slowly got to his feet, bringing Mario with him, and rammed against the door with his shoulder. It burst open with ease, nearly causing Bowser to fall over. Mario gasped.

Shy Guy was not on the toilet. In fact, he was nowhere to be seen. Mario looked down at the floor to find his robes, shoes and mask lying in front of the sink.
"He took his clothes off?" Bowser said.
"Bowser, I… I think he's dead!"
Large, red letters decorated the wall opposite them:

PLUNGED INTO THE ETERNAL VOID

Neither of them knew what this was supposed to mean.
"Why does he say that? And where is his body, if he's dead? Bodies don't just disappear like that."
"Who knows," said Mario. "Shy Guy isn't human or any other commonly found race, if you ask me. Death might be different for him."
Depressed, the two of them tossed the extra cuffs aside and made their way back to the living room, bonded until confession or confirmation. Shy Guy may have been the killer, Mario thought. I guess we'll find out sooner or later…

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SHOWDOWN
Mario and Bowser, bitter rivals, stared at each other intensely over the coffee table. They would not leave each other's sight.
"This has been fun, Bowser."
"Indeed it has," he growled.
"Bowser?"
"Yes?"
"I've been wanting to tell you something for a long time now, and now that either one of us may be in our last moments… I think now is the time to tell you."
"I'm listening."
Mario leaned over the table with a serious expression. Bowser's grin grew wider.
"Bowser… you're not so bad, now that I've gotten to know you."
Bowser's grin faded. "What… what do you mean?"
"I misunderstood you all those years. I thought you were a terrible monster with no heart, but… you're just like any human, no matter what you look like. I'm sorry."
His grin reappeared. "Thank you, Mario."
"Don't mention it."

"Mario…"
"Yes?"
"I have a secret, too…" Bowser leaned closer and whispered to Mario's ear:
"I'm the killer."

It seemed like several hours went by before anybody spoke.
"I'm impressed, Bowser."
"Thank you, Mario."
"How did you do it all?"
Bowser's grin became wider than ever. "It wasn't easy, Mario. It began one night when I was in my castle, plotting.

"I knew that capturing the princess again was a no-go. You always saw right through me when I did that before. So, I formulated a plan. I would hire my Koopa workers to build a mansion in secret and decorate it in a way that would hide who its owner was, then I would invite you to it where you wouldn't be found. They finished it in record time, and I was pleased. But, I thought, I guess I have to invite that Luigi, too, because he was also a threat to my plans. I was hit with an idea! Why not invite every well-known Mushroom Kingdom resident? The chances of anyone suspecting me were slim, especially if I were to go too.
"It worked perfectly. Everyone showed up. I would be able to kill each and every person one by one, until I was the only one left and I was free to rule the kingdom. I came prepared, of course. I brought with me –" he held up a blue rod with a red gem on the end "—a magic wand, capable of bending reality in a way that was under my control. It was easy to use and easy to hide. I tested its powers by possessing one of the paintings on the walls to follow my exact commands at my time of choice. It worked! The painting killed Daisy, and without leaving a mess. Beforehand, however, I played a special trick involving the knife that killed your brother. I had hidden it under Wario's hat in the kitchen, so that Wario may search for his hat and discover the knife, make the connection, and use it to murder whomever he pleased, namely you. I also tested Wario's cleverness and persistence by filling the cupboard in the kitchen with treats and blocking them with a forcefield with the use of the wand. But Shy Guy, whom I had secretly given the wand without his knowledge in order to pin the blame on him, switched the knife with the wand before Wario found his hat. Shy Guy then created the Mario dummy and completed his scene in the bathroom involving a puppet of your likeness and an engraving on the wall; meanwhile, everyone else was mourning Daisy downstairs. When the puppet was discovered, Waluigi stole the knife in its body and violently murdered Luigi. This was not at all part of my plan, but I was pleased nevertheless. Waluigi's next target was you, but in order to gain your praise and lower suspicion of myself, I stopped you from being killed.
"The murder of Donkey Kong wasn't part of my plan either, but it was very helpful indeed for my son to murder him at that time. He was onto me; he had me figured out. Junior, out of spite, got rid of my main threat and cleared my path to victory. This lead to a rivalry between Diddy Kong and Junior. Later, I killed Toad at breakfast in order to raise suspicion of Diddy Kong being the killer. However, I had a plan. I deliberately made my careful choice of glass while serving Toad a drink quite viewable by everyone else. The glass choosing distracted them from what really killed Toad: the butter on his toast. I had poisoned the butter but made it look like I had poisoned the water. I was now a prime suspect, though, even when I had proved the glass and myself innocent. For this reason, I locked my own son in the cellar with the full intention of saving him the moment my name was clear. I didn't think ahead, though – it was already too late when I realized that Junior coming back to life all of a sudden would make me even more suspicious than I was before. I was forced to keep him in the cellar until I had devised a plan to get him back out without the knowledge of the others. I never completed the plan; it was impossible.