AN: Well, I am sorry about the lack of new chapters lately, so here's a double update as a form of apology. Life is just so chock full of stuff that just needs doing that I am having trouble maintaining it all. Don't worry, this story will be completed, and thanks to those who favorited/followed my work. Now, let's get to what you actually want to read.
Day 23, 1746 Hours, Storage Room
John looked up as Monokuma appeared after the arrival of the last student to the place where Rowland had been murdered, it was Barry who probably took his time coming, and Ferris was still missing. There arrival had been sped up with the addition of a black and white cord which led the way straight to Rowland's corpse, cutting the time it took to reach the local drastically. Turning his attention to the bear, John resisted the urge to punt Monokuma as the animatronic spoke.
"That was the quickest murder yet! Not even a day after the motive and someone's dead!" Monokuma stopped to giggle, before he switched to looking disappointed, "but come on, this kill was virtually painless, unlike the others, I mean, put some flair into it people, like Adam and Perdita."
Chloe growled, but before she could vocalize further Atsuko said, "Wait, Ferris isn't here yet we have to wait for him."
"Nope!" Monokuma said cheerily, "He's not joining us at all, so it would be pointless to wait for him."
There was a ripple of panic through the assembled students, Atsuko stepping towards the bear but being lifted off her feet by Chloe before she could take any further actions.
"Anyways, here's the file and get investigating bastards! This one's a doozy!" Monokuma stated, before vanishing from view.
The ID in his pocket vibrating signaled the updating of the files which John made a note of as he looked around at the other students. Chloe was still holding Atsuko off the ground, despite the smaller girl having stopped her struggles since Monokuma had vanished. Alexander was pinching the bridge of his nose, and had leaned against a shelf. Barry had moved to look at Rowland, looking him up and down before leaving back the way he came. Jane had fled the minute Monokuma had left.
Mary had taken up a post besides Rowland's corpse, seeming to have assigned herself the role of guard since Rowland was unavailable now. Billy and Louise had already approached the corpse ad were beginning their inspection, while Paris had a stunned look on her face. Having noted how all the other students had reacted, John decided to get the investigation going, taking out his ID and opening the M. File app.
"Rowland Chadwick died at 1716 hours from a single stab wound that severed his spinal cord from his brain. There were no other injuries," John read before clicking down to a file that was colored differently than the others, "Ferris Dalton was severely injured, his fate is unknown."
"So we have another body to find?" Alexander said straightening up, "Then a team should be formed to find it."
"It doesn't say he's dead," Atsuko snapped, now on the ground, "and neither did Monokuma, he just said he couldn't join us."
Alexander paused before nodding slowly and saying, "Yes, that is a possibility, in that case we will still need a team to track him down-."
"Then let's go," Atsuko said before moving down the way where the blood trail led, Alexander hesitating before following her.
That left John, Paris, Mary, Chloe, Billy and Louise around the body. Deciding that they should really get moving as to not waste time, John approached the two who were inspecting the body, Paris following while Chloe took up a guard position like Mary.
"The Monokuma File was actually fairly specific with regards to Rowland, right?" John asked Louise.
"Yes, exactly as it said," Louise said from where they had shifted Rowland to the ground from where he had been leaning when he died, "no injures beyond the slice to the back of his neck. Unfortunately, without any scrapes to suggest he slid down we have to assume he was at that level, and the cut could have been made by anyone, I'm sorry I can't be of more use, but if we find Ferris…"
She trailed off leaving the end of her sentence to the imagination. It didn't take a long leap of brainpower to guess what she had left off. She realized that she had caused a stir and she blushed, the ashen look to her skin from lack of sleep not mixing well with the red.
"Ah, ah, I mean, uh, I have somewhere else to be," Louise said before standing up and moving off through the shelves, vanishing from view.
"I hope she gets her head on straight before the trial, she's going to be worst then useless in her current state," Chloe said.
"I don't care what she's like as long as we catch whoever killed Rowland, they probably stabbed Ferris as well the bastard," Mary said darkly.
Billy glanced at her before weighing in on what he found, saying, "There's no hesitance in the strike but the method of killing when compared to the others shows a bit more compassion, regret, but I can't offer anything else, everyone panicked with that last motive, no one would be calm after hearing that they would be dismembered if someone didn't die."
John grunted and began looking around while Paris thanked Billy for what he could tell them. John noticed that nearby was the radio, Ferris had had it when he saw him last. Picking it up, he couldn't help but hiss when he saw that there was a bit of blood on it. Perhaps Ferris had bludgeoned the killer with it. In any case it meant that Ferris had discovered the killer in the middle of their act, and had paid for it with blood at the least.
John began following the cord, Paris behind him while Billy inspected the body further under Mary's and Chloe's watchful eyes. John followed the cord s his thoughts on what had happened. Rowland was stabbed while leaning over, by an unknown weapon, and Ferris happened upon the scene while this was occurring. Ferris then hit the murderer over the head, no, if that was correct someone would have a head wound then, and no one did.
Realizing that he was probably wasting time moving so slowly he began running, Paris matching his pace as they followed the cord back to where it had been cut, John assumed. Eventually they reached the end severed part way through a line of shelves.
Paris had leaned down to inspect the cord while John walked around looking for other things of import.
"It's sawed through," Paris stated, "although how they managed not to alert him is past me."
"They might have held onto the rope to keep it taught so he wouldn't notice," John offered.
"Wouldn't it bounce around and slacken as they approached Rowland though?" Paris asked.
"I guess," John said, "But it's our best theory right now."
Paris nodded, joining John in his search which he ended quickly.
"This place is too big to find anything," he said, slamming one of his fists down on a shelf, "not only that but there's practically everything in here, they might have picked up a knife or something and dumped it in a random bit of shelving and we wouldn't be able to find it."
"It would have dripped," Paris countered.
John paused to think before nodding and saying, "Maybe Alexander and Atsuko found it then."
Paris nodded and suggested they go find them, which John concurred to. They set off, following the cord back to find the crime scene deserted, Rowland's body left unattended now that the others had decided there was nothing else of import that could be gained by searching the brianiac's body. Paris slowed down to look at Rowland's body, but John kept moving, following the blood trail to where Alexander and Atsuko were hopefully, and Paris soon rejoined him in his run.
They eventually found Alexander standing near a wall by an open vent while Atsuko's legs stuck it out of it.
"Why is she in the air vent?" John asked, addressing the elephant in the room.
"This is where the blood trail led," Alexander said, shrugging helplessly, "and she insisted on following it although she can't seem to figure out how best to fit inside as to be able to maneuver properly."
John nodded, looking back down as Atsuko began to try and wiggle her way back out, Paris helping her by grabbing her legs and yanking the girl out much to Atsuko's surprise.
"So you guys are sure this is Ferris's trail?" John asked.
"Yeah, no one else could crawl inside these vents, besides me and Louise, I guess," Atsuko said, looking in disgust at the filth that now streaked her clothes, "although if he was injured I don't know why he'd want to crawl through all that crap."
"To escape," Alexander said, "he was injured with an extremely hostile combatant so retreat would be his best option."
"Then he'd be heading for the nurse's office," John stated, "we know Shi-ru would treat any wound you bring him, he bandaged Paris after Jane bit her."
"When did that happen?" Atsuko demanded, "Today?"
"Yes, so, Ferris might not know that but it's our best bet," John responded.
Atsuko nodded before taking off for the cord that led back to the front.
"I will follow her, the sooner we locate Scientist Ferris the better," Alexander said before pursuing the Lucky Student.
John sighed and said, "We should go check out other areas of the school as well."
Paris nodded agreement and they too followed the blood to find the cord that led back to the entrance. It was a short time before they arrived, finding the Shi-ru who had been malfunctioning that seemed to have recovered at that point. John considered stopping but the Shi-ru shook its head and motioned them on. John heeded its silent admittance of ignorance and moved on, Paris following him out into the hallways of the west wing.
They followed the hall back to the central hall before John realized that there was a question he should have asked and veered towards the store Paris following quietly.
John walked up to the Store Shi-ru and said, "Are all the vents connected?"
The penguin looked up at him and said, "Yes, if you fit in the vents you can get anywhere, well, anywhere Monokuma will let you get anyway."
"So is it possible that Ferris made it to the nurse's office through the vents?"
Shi-ru shook his head and said, "You need to find out for yourself."
John made a disgusted sound and veered off, exiting as Paris thanked Shi-ru for his information. John continued into the South Wing heading towards the nurse's office to find Atsuko and Alexander coming from the other way.
"It's empty," was all Atsuko said, before moving off towards the dorms, probably to check the rooms for Ferris.
Alexander nodded and said, "I will check Citizen Rowland's room, try and locate where the weapon came from if you can?"
He vanished before John could answer, so the everyman and the soccer player busied themselves with figuring out all the places where sharp objects could be found, as well as where Jane, Louise, and the others could have gotten off to. Heading to check the cafeteria, they ran into Barry.
"All the knives are there," Barry said, "but feel free to double check me."
He continued walking vanishing towards the central hall. Deciding to fact check the musician, John and Paris looked in on the knives. The sink was dry and all the knives were in their proper places. John felt time winding down and decided that it might be prudent to leave Barry to what looked like a check on all the places with sharp objects. It might be a good to check out Rowland's room, even if Alexander was already doing so.
That and it was getting late and they might not have enough time to reach anywhere else besides the dorms. The clock was nearing nine, or 2100 hours according to the time Monokuma kept using. Paris agreed with him that checking the dorm was the best course of action and they left the cafeteria, the clock winding ever closer to the time of the trial.
They arrived as Alexander was leaving, receiving a reproving look from the tactician, although he sighed and waved them away, Atsuko following him out quietly. Noting this, John stepped inside the room of the former brit, whose sprite change was simply him lying down on the ground with a pixelated lily in his hands. It was out of place compared to the other more graphic death sprites, but the sentiment was the same.
The inside of Rowland's room was not what John had expected. It was far from the utilitarian nature Rowland usually displayed. It had pictures of Rowland's family scattered throughout. There were books, which ranged from Books of scientific theory to those of the rules for roleplaying games, with plenty in between. There were models of dragons and other fantastic beasts. It was all in perfect order, of course and it was all well maintained, it had to be Rowland because unless you asked Shi-ru personally to clean your room the dust would simply accumulate.
What was most surprising was there were drawings tacked up as well. Some of them looked as though they were personally drawn by Rowland while others bore the obvious traces of Mary's work. A search of the room revealed nothing beyond the lingering feeling presence of the deceased, and they left, making sure everything was back in its place out of deference to Rowland's memory.
They walked back out into the hall closing the door. They walked back, John pausing to inspect Ferris's door. The screen was on and displaying Ferris standing in the middle with a few wounds across his person with a meter across the top that might have been a life meter. It was less than a fourth of the way full and the entire screen was flashing red every so often.
It was then that Monokuma's voice sounded over the intercom calling them all to the central hall. John walked with Paris, taking their time as the trial came ever closer. They reached the hall after a few of the others, Chloe, Alexander, Atsuko, and Mary were present already when he and Paris arrived, and Billy showed up soon after. Barry was next to arrive, and he was followed by Louise. Jane was the last to show up and she hugged the edge of the platform, remaining removed from the group even as Shi-ru began lowering it.
Rowland was one of the main forces that had been driving their attempt to escape and gain knowledge on what happened to them. He was a good friend once you got pass his standoffishness, and would be missed, although he supposed all the students who had passed were missed, even Perdita, maybe not Perdita. Anyways the fact that Ferris had been caught up in this and may be bleeding to death much like Wilbur was simply compounding the tension.
The elevator stopped and the door opened. Marking the beginning of the trial that would determine their fate and whether or not Rowland's killer would be brought to justice.