Er, hello! I don't really have much to say here, ehehe. I think everyone gets at least a minor role? Regardless, it's only part one of the investigation. Prayer circle for poor Akari, anyone?

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Nobody moved.

For almost 10 seconds, it was a pure, untouched silence.

Then the screaming.

It exploded out of Umeko's mouth like a nail bomb, and triggered a chain reaction of shrieks and wails and cries that echoed all around the auditorium. Somebody rushed around the bleachers to throw up.

The screams kept going and amplified and broke glass and windows and souls and-

"Chiemi!"

Chiemi was pulled back to reality by Yohaku, who was kneeling over her with an incredibly worried face. "Chiemi, are you alright? You fell hard against the bleachers edge..."

"I thought you were having a seizure. What kind of SHSL Physic can't handle death?" Conner spoke with the usual cross tone, but his eyes were still glued to Akari's corpse, fear visible in them.

"Um... Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me, ok?" Chiemi laughed nervously before getting to her feet. Her bronze eyes glanced over at Akari, and quickly moved back to the ground. How could this have happened..? Just yesterday, she'd been giggling with her in the auditorium. And now, a day later in the same place, her cold, dead body was lying on the ground.

"A... A-Akari..." A small voice squeaked out from the door. It was Shion.

The poor girl. The first friend she has gets killed the first night there. Some luck she had. Although, looking at the body, you had to feel a lot worse for Akari.

"... This is my fault..." Shion whispered. "This is my fault!" Her voice rose to a shriek, and her face contorted into one of horror. She tried to run out the doors, but the back of her sweater was snatched, sending her bottom first into the ground. The person who had grabbed her was... Umeko?

"Get ahold of yourself!" The babysitter spun Shion around, slapping her across the face. "You can't be scared anymore! You have to help us, got it?!" Umeko's cold, grey eyes bore into Shion, who was currently a sniffling mess.

"She was m-my friend!" Shion wailed, hand holding her cheek. "Akari was my friend! And now she's... Akari is..."

"Stop!" Yelped Umeko. "Stop it! You can cry later!" She shook the girl's shoulders. Shion whimpered for a few more seconds before swallowing and quieting herself.

"O-Ok..."

"Good." Umeko tugged a white hanky from her skirt pocket, dabbing away at Shion's tears. "Rule number one is that you don't let them see you cry. You can go from there." She stuffed it back in her pocket, and stood up to meet the shocked eyes of the others.

"What?!" Umeko snapped. "Tell me, what?" Everyone's eyes diverted from the black haired girl, who huffed and fussed with her school bow.

"Um..." A shaking Iko raised his hand. "... So we should... Investigate...?"

"My thoughts exactly." Olivier pulled a pair of rubber gloves out of his pants pocket while he trotted over to Akari. He squatted down besides her, and started off by prying open her jaws to check the inside of her mouth. "Poor thing. Saburo. Make yourself useful and check the ID card for information."

The blond boy scoffed at him, but was still visibly shaken by the murder, so he did as the forensic investigator said, scrolling through the card. Before he could speak...

"Olivier!" Himakuta gasped. "You can't just do that to a corpse..!"

"Of course I can," The brown haired boy shrugged. "It's just a body. I've worked with them a lot before. If we investigate, we can avenge Akari." He let go of her jaws and started touching her neck. "Just remind yourself this isn't really Akari. It's just her corpse."

That statement was only slightly helpful, but enough so that a few people were able to relax enough to do more than just stare blankly. Himakuta was not one of them.

"But that's not right! Seriously, what in fresh hell is this place?" He buried his face in his hands, groaning.

"Yo, asshole. You gonna let me start?" Saburo shot a death glare at Himakuta before reading the card aloud.

"Victim: Akari Tachibana. Victim age: 16. Approx time of death: 9:00pm. Cause of death: Cranium damage." Saburo finished reading and shoved it back in his pocket. "Alright, what now?"

"We use it to investigate, of course." Olivier answered.

"Cranium damage? But... The knife..." Kin raised a shaking hand towards the body.

"That's some weird shit." Natsuko muttered, all signs of her perky personality gone again.

"Isn't it? Just let me check that..." Olivier tugged down the corpse's shirt to investigate the knife wound further.

"H-Hey!" Chiasa called. "You can't just pull down someone's shirt like that..."

Olivier sighed, rubbing his temples. "Chiasa, this isn't a someone. It's a corpse. It'll be better in the long run. Haru, come here. I need someone strong for this."

Haru awkwardly patted the tomb builder on the shoulder before ducking her head and hurrying over to the body.

"Good. Now just pull this knife out for me."

"W-What?!" Haru gaped at the boy. "You're out of your mind!"

"I'm not. If you don't do it, I'll have no choice but to assume there's a sinister motive behind it." Olivier responded curtly.

Haru made a few troubled noises before hesitantly reaching forward and taking the knife's handle in her hands. With a deep breath, she pulled her arms back, yanking it out of Akari's chest. Luckily, no blood spurted out of the body, but that didn't stop the terrified squeak Haru produced as the old blood dropped off the blade.

Sensing when someone was at their limit, Olivier gently took the knife from Haru. "Good job. Maybe you'd have better luck collecting alibis with the group?" Haru remained still before nodding and hurrying back to the group. Olivier stood up to face the group, knife in hand.

"We need to make a plan to make sure this goes smoothly. Conner, you help me with the body. Himakuta, you and Iko look for evidence. Kin, collect alibis with Haru." He finished curtly and looked around at the nervous crowd. "If anyone has any ideas on what in fresh hell happened here, feel free to tell me. In addition, if you have any information or ideas of what to do, I'm interested in hearing it."

There was silence, before Chiemi nervously raised her hand. "Uh... You're going to think I'm nuts, but I feel like we should be checking out the cafeteria. I... Can't explain why, but I feel like we just should."

Olivier nodded. "I'll take anything right now. Umeko, you and Shion follow Chiemi to the cafeteria. The rest of you should look around. Remember everything you can."

Slowly, the group dispersed. Olivier was a voice of order in a nightmarish situation, and they clung to that.

Conner stuffed his hands in his coat pockets and made his way over to Olivier. Kneeling down beside the other boy, he looked over the corpse. "Alright... So what do I do?"

"Look around the body for any other clues to what might have happened. If you see anything suspicious, tell me. I'll be looking up here." Olivier started poking through Akari's hair, gloved hands patting her skull.

Conner looked towards the body, swallowing his nerves before looking away and letting his eyes search the area around her instead. Noticing something odd, he inched closer to her, tugging a small piece of paper out of her pocket.

"That's... Weird." He mumbled.

"Hm? What did you find?" Olivier turned his head to look at the playwright.

"There's a note. It's kind of ripped up, though." Conner smoothed it out the best he could and read it aloud.

"Hi Aka-chan! I just wanted to say thanks for helping me this morning :3 I was thinking maybe we could get something to eat? I can make you crepes! Sorry for slipping the note under the door, I just couldn't find you, hehe. Anyways, I'll be in the cafeteria! Just come find me whenever! -Shion."

Conner finished and looked at Olivier. "Let me guess- This isn't going to be the case-solving piece of evidence?"

A smile ticked on the edge of Olivier's mouth before disappearing again. "Most likely. How did you guess? Watch a lot of Law and Order?" He went back to pawing through Akari's hair, picking through pieces of bone.

"Nope. I'm a playwright, remember? For an investigator, you don't remember stuff well. I write mysteries sometimes, too. And the most important thing to remember when writing them is that you can't make it easy." Conner put the note aside.

"A good observation." Olivier ignored the jab at him in that statement and pulled out a few bone fragments from Akari's hair. "No doubt, she was killed by head trauma. The knife seemed to have been stuck in after Akari died." Olivier kept going as he sorted through her hair. "My best guess is that it was used to try to throw us off. The culprit must not have known that the cause of death is also broadcasted." He bit his lip. "Something I don't understand is this," Olivier brushed his hands over the white foam that was on Akari's clothes. "I'm not sure what this is."

Conner leant over, squinting at Olivier's fingers. "... That's the stuff they put in fire extinguishers. There was a fire in this store I was in once, and the worker used an extinguisher on it. That's exactly what it looks like. Smells like it, too." He crinkled his nose.

"It smells like a children's wading pool." Olivier noted before wiping off the foam and looking around the body.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt..." Conner pointed behind Akari. "But that might be something you're interested in..."

Olivier looked to where the other boy was pointing. There, written out in crimson red on the ground, were the words "Snow White".

Neither one spoke for a moment. Then Conner broke the silence. "I take it that this one might be a little important?"

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Meanwhile, a group of three had headed off to the cafeteria. Umeko had a still-trembling Shion clutching her arm while Chiemi lead the way.

"Why are you taking us here? If I find out you're trying to throw off the investigation, I won't forgive you." Umeko spoke curtly while petting Shion's hair as if she was a child as they neared the cafeteria.

"I'm not. I just had this feeling, you know? It comes with being a medium." Chiemi shrugged and pushed open the metal doors to the lunchroom.

Whatever feeling Chiemi had, it was right. Benches were knocked over, and the wall was covered in dents, and there was a huge blood splatter against the far wall. Shion squeaked, Chiemi gasped, and Umeko merely ground her teeth together as everyone took in the scene.

"Oh my god..." Chiemi muttered bringing a hand up to cover her mouth.

"... We should look around. See if there's anything of importance." Umeko mumbled, pulling Shion along. Chiemi followed.

Umeko and Chiemi started looking under tables, inspecting dents in the walls, skimming over everything while Shion, still repressing a panic attack, was clinging to Umeko like a lost child.

"Hey..." Chiemi pointed below the table she was investigating- knocked over, gleaming silver. "Look at this."

Umeko and Shion turned their heads in unison. There was a dented red fire extinguisher on the ground, tube hanging loosely from it. The pin was a few feet away.

"It looks used," Umeko remarked, walking over with Shion still following her like a shadow.

"I guess it would explain all this white stuff." Shion stuck out a hand to touch the white substance on the table.

"Haha, I thought that the culprit might have tried to kill Akari with whipped cream!" Chiemi giggled. Umeko furrowed her brow.

"Gross," She spat. "Don't joke about that."

Chiemi looked surprised. "Eh? No no, I didn't mean any disrespect! It's just my sense of humour." She brought back her hands in self defence, raven necklace bouncing around her chest.

"Doesn't matter. Don't do it again." Umeko sighed.

Nobody wanted to acknowledge the bloodied wall. It was the elephant in the room. Finally, after more fruitless investigating, Chiemi shuffled over to look at it.

"Ah... That's terrible..." She mumbled.

"Why would this be here if Akari's b-b-body is in the auditorium..?" Shion spoke quietly.

Umeko adjusted her glasses. "There was obviously violence here. To be honest, I think we've done all we can here. Follow me back if you wish." Turning quickly on her feet, Umeko excited the cafeteria.

Shion scurried behind her, not wanting to lose the most reasonable person available. Chiemi, looking back at the blood, couldn't help but remember that just yesterday, she'd been in here with two friends-could she call them that?-, enjoying herself thoroughly.

Not anymore, she thought sourly. And as if the killer might still be hiding in the room, waiting to pounce, Chiemi ran out, slamming the door behind her.

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Ok, I am so, SO sorry for the wait! I promise such a thing won't happen again!

This is part one of the investigation chapter. Let's hope for a shorter wait next time, right? See you all soon!

PS: I'm still up for that prayer circle.