Chapter Four: Sharp Things Hurt

Finally getting to things. This has been half finished in my notebook for months...

The door of Kirby's cottage opened with a creak. The puffball poked his head in, took a photo, and then walked in, beckoning Dedede to follow.

"Nothing seems to have been touched." Kirby noted aloud. "So they obviously either just wanted to kill me, or found what they were looking very quickly."

Dedede rolled his eyes. "Isn't it strange saying they tried to kill you when you're still alive? Maybe they just wanted to injure you."

"Or maybe they got scared and ran away before they could finish the job." Kirby replied, taking another photo.

"Really? If they wanted to kill you, Kirbs, they would've stabbed you in the heart or the back instead of the side."

Kirby sighed. "I don't know what their motives were, Nick, but whatever they were, it's clear that they wanted to hurt me. Now, take the camera, and search the kitchen. I'm gonna look under the bed and in the cupboard."

He handed the camera to the penguin, and then got down on his hands and knees to see if he could find anything.

Dedede nodded and did as he was told. He creeped into the kitchen as if he was trying to be quiet, surveying his surroundings.

The kitchen looked exactly like he would expect: clean, but with a few out of place objects and dishes in the sink. Also, there was a plate of gingerbread cookies on the table.

In the meanwhile, Kirby found something of interest.

"Hey, Dedede! Over here-ow!"

"Ow?" The penguin walked over to see Kirby on his knees, rubbing his head.

"Ow... I hit my head..." He whined. "B-But! But I found something!"

He dug under the bed again, and after a few moments of feeling around, he pulled out a yellow, crescent shaped blade.

"A Cutter blade?" Dedede asked curiously, getting closer. As he did however, he soon noticed some new details. Flecks of crimson red blood, and a redish tinge.

"This was obviously used to stab me, and the attacker, in a hurry, tried to wipe off the blood and hide it under the bed!"

Dedede deadpanned him. "... Seriously?"

"Hey, it's just a theory." Kirby replied. "Anyway, we don't even know who it belongs to!"

Dedede took the blade and examined it closely. "Mmm... Yep, nothing."

"Now, to the kitchen!" Kirby smiled, jumping up and snatching it back.

"I see you've made gingerbread cookies." Dedede noted, following the energetic puffball into the other room.

"Yep." Kirby agreed. "But that's not important. Let's see if we can find anything useful to our investigation..."

He fumbled with the blade absent mindedly.

"Actually, on second thought, the killer wouldn't really have come through here, would've he?"

He spun the blade around once again... Only to accidentally cut himself and drop it with a small gasp of pain.

Dedede rolled his eyes and picked it up.

"Kirby, you have to be more careful. Sharp things hurt, you know. Go wash it."

As Kirby complied, Dedede had a look around. Just as he thought there was nothing else to see, he spotted something metallic under the table.

"Hey Kirby, is that one of yours?"

"One of mine, what?"

"A frying pan on the floor."

Kirby turned off the taps, wiping his paws with a tea towel. "Dedede, I keep all my frying pans in the cupboard... You can check; there's five of them. In order of size."

Dedede started carefully looking through the cupboards. Kirby really was a cooking master; he had spices arranged on a rack in order of what seemed to be spiciness. The cutlery was polished and stacked with extreme care, and there were five frying pans hanging by their handles, each with -as Dedede noticed as he took one of and examined it- a small star inscribed into the back.

Kirby had picked up the pan from the floor, copying Dedede's examination.

"Hmm... This definitely isn't one of mine. It could be one that I borrowed from Magolor, but I'm almost certain I brought that one back... And I'd never leave a good pan on the floor!"

Dedede took the pan from Kirby, looking on the back. Sure enough, there was a cog shape inscribed into it.

"Kirby..."

Kirby jumped up and snatched it back. "Perhaps Magolor will know why this I here!"

He turned to Dedede triumphantly. "It all makes sense now! I mean, I have a small theory on who tried to hurt me! Quickly! To the conspiracy room!"