A/N: Hehe, it seems some reviewers have come up with their own theories—and a certain someone is quite close to dead-on. See if this chapter can clarify anything for you...!

Please review, especially if you think you know who it is! ;)

"So it wasn't England, either?" Italy asked, cocking his head to the side.

Japan nodded. "He told us he didn't do it, and I'm quite sure he wasn't lying."

"I'm not completely convinced he was telling the truth," sighed Germany, "but Japan did allege his legitimacy..."

"We'll just have to trust him," Japan responded with a shrug. "There's not much other investigation we can do. It's not as if we knew where he was drinking, or anything like that, after all."

Germany seemed to ponder on this. "Actually... I think I do." Upon seeing his allies' apparent confusion, he continued. "I'm pretty sure I've caught a glance of him a few times at one of the bars I go to..."

"Well, do you want to check it out, then, Germany?" asked Italy.

"Yeah," Germany replied. "And since we're just asking about England, we don't need Japan's chicanery to keep us out of trouble with Russia."

"Huh?" Italy responded confusedly.

"That means you get to come, too," translated Germany. "Let's go." He headed off, Japan and Italy in his wake.

"Germany! Do they have pasta at the—"

"No."

The bartender swept off the empty counter with a rag. No one was in his service zone; only one group of customers was in the place at all, and they were sitting on the other side of the building, in a booth, eating some chicken wings and watching an apparently unpopular sporting event on one of the many television screens.

Then the door finally opened, and the bartender easily recognized the first of the three visitors.

"Hey, Germany!" he called. "Nice to see you back." He hung his rag over the side of the sink as the newcomers neared the bar area. "Should I set you up with your normal five?"

"Not right now, Nicky," replied Germany as Italy and Japan exchanged confused glances about what their friend's "normal five" was. "What I'm after today is some information."

" 'Kay," Nicky replied, leaning with his hands on the counter. "Nothing interesting's happened lately, but I'll try to help."

"All right. Were you working here last night?"

"As always."

"Did you happen to see a guy—blonde hair, green eyes, thick eyebrows?"

"You mean, uh, Arthur?" responded Nicky.

"Yeah," Germany answered, knowing England sometimes went by that name in public. "Did anything... curious happen?"

"You mean besides his drunk personality?" Nicky laughed. He trailed off, eyes thoughtful. "Well... Yeah, I guess." He drummed his fingers on the countertop. "There was another guy—doesn't come here often, so I didn't recognize him—that spontaneously offered to pay for Arthur's drinks."

"Really?" asked Japan. "What did this man look like?"

"Dunno," Nicky sighed. "He was sitting a ways back, in one of the booths, so I didn't actually serve him. All I knew was to charge him for Arthur's drinks. Which he had a lot more of since he didn't have to pay."

"So someone must have wanted to get him drunk," Japan concluded under his breath.

"Well, could you see what the guy was eating, or drinking?" Germany asked, hoping to get some sort of hint about the meddler.

"No," replied Nicky, "not really. Wasn't eating anything, I don't think." He mused for a second. "I don't know what exactly he was drinking, but I did see a shot glass by his hand. So, probably whisky, tequila... Vodka, maybe."

Germany and Japan exchanged glances at the last suggestion. "I think we know who our culprit is," Germany concluded, nodding at Nicky. "Thanks for your help."

"No problem," Nicky replied.

Japan started for the door, but Germany paused. "...Where'd Italy go?"

Japan turned around. "I don't know."

"Italy!" boomed Germany. He sighed. "Has he somehow gotten lost—"

"Coming, Germany~!"

Germany exhaled as Italy came hopping out of the kitchen, a bowl in his arms.

"Hey! What were you doing in there?" Nicky asked suspiciously.

"Making some pasta, ve~."

"...But we don't have the supplies for pasta here..."

Italy ignored the bartender's last comment and trodded over to the door.

"All right, let's go," sighed Germany, sadly used to things like this.

With the bar's door shut behind the Axis, Japan resumed conversation.

"So," he started, "for some reason, Russia wanted to get England drunk."

"And I think we can assume it's not because he wanted to hear his wailing about lost colonies," added Germany. "So... He wanted England to... forget something?"

"Of course!" Japan replied. "Remember, England said he saw Russia making the Baltics do something."

"Something incriminating," Germany put in. "But he didn't realize someone else had witnessed it until..."

"Until the Baltics left," Japan ended. Germany gave him a glance, so he elaborated. "England said the Baltics were already there, before me. But when I arrived, they hadn't arrived yet. Or, hadn't come back."

"So, Russia has the Baltics run to get something... Or dispose of something."

"The chair legs!" Japan exclaimed. "It must have been the chair legs."

"So," Germany concluded, "Russia arrives early, dragging the Baltics along with him. He brought a rigged set of chair legs to switch out with the real ones on America's chair. He gets down on hands and knees to swap them out, then gives the solid set to the Baltics to dispose of."

"But then he looks across the table," Japan continued, "and finds that England was there. Assuming he saw the act, Russia decides to make him forget what he had seen. And the easiest way to do so?"

"Make him drink," answered Germany.

"So, Russia messed up the chair?" Italy interjected through a mouthful of pasta.

"Yes..." Japan replied slowly, raising an eyebrow.

"But I thought he said he didn't try to mess up America," the brunette continued confusedly.

Germany sighed. "I don't think he did, not at first. We just assumed whoever messed with the chair was who was culpable for carrying on the prank in the first place."

"We shouldn't have made assumptions about it," Japan muttered. "Now we've figured this out, but we're no closer to solving the original problem."

Germany grumbled something under his breath angrily. "You know what? Let's just go tell America this whole thing."

Japan raised an eyebrow. "By now, that's likely to be a total suicide mission."

"Do you have any other ideas?" Germany growled.

"Well, we could continue investigating—without asking questions, of course, so Russia can't hold anything against us," suggested Japan evenly. "If we cursorily tell America we started it, and nothing else, he'll without a doubt explode at us. But," he continued, "if we can somehow get to the bottom of this, and tell him who the more serious culprit is, he should be able to see we're not the ones to hold guilty."

Germany grumbled something to himself.

"That is, if you'd rather not risk your health on something this trivial," Japan finished.

"All right, we'll try investigating some more," conceded Germany. "But how are we going to without asking more questions?"

"We'll go to the scene of the crime ourselves," Japan decided.

A/N: So, it seems our heroes have gone back to square one. Will their investigation be successful? And will they find out who did carry on the prank?

Stay tuned~