Day 33, 1156 Hours, Library
John and the others looked down upon Jane's body, staring silently at the still student. Monokuma had yet to show up all though the announcement had been made a few minutes ago, signaling that he was indeed aware that the body had been discovered.
When the other's first arrived, John had admitted to closing her eyes, Alexander snapping at him for disturbing the evidence. Alexander was quickly silenced by the other remaining students though, Paris stating that it was a sign of respect. She seemed so confident right now. Finally finding her wings as the rest of them fell to despair. John smiled at her when she glanced his way, the soccer player giving him a bright smile in return, but, John could see the slight frown that was hidden behind it.
"Well if it just isn't Christmas!" Monokuma yelled as he finally appeared, "one of you bastards finally had the balls to off someone without me having to motivate you! After my own heart you are!"
"Stuff it bear," Mary said sullenly.
"Like I care what you say to me when I finally have a true aspiring pupil!" Monokuma crooned.
"Release the file and leave," Alexander ordered.
Monokuma stopped celebrating to look the tactician in the eye, staring him down until he finally broke. After Monokuma was satisfied with Alexander's surrender it turned and left, the ID's signaling the file's appearance.
John watched as the others took out their IDs and began inspecting the file. He patiently waited until Paris looked over to him and let out a short hiss of breath before hurriedly giving him his ID. John thanked her before opening the file and reading the breakdown of Jane's death.
No time of death, died of a broken neck, defensive wounds present, no toxins ingested.
Nothing useful again. John wished that Louise or Billy were still present to give their expertise on the recently deceased but he would have to try his best. John leaned down to inspect Jane's body, carefully prodding and turning her corpse so to retrieve as much information as possible. Which was nothing that the file didn't already tell him unfortunately, he sighed and stood up, looking around to see that no one else was nearby besides Paris who stood to one side searching the area around Jane's fallen body.
When she saw that he was done she asked, "Anything else?"
He shook his head and said, "I couldn't find anything, could be I'm just to inept or that there is nothing but…"
John sighed before climbing the stairs to search the balcony, Paris following him. He looked over the railing, locating where Jane had fallen while Paris searched the ground behind him. John did his best to try and guess what a fatal fall would entail. Landing on the head was bad but this was just one floor. It didn't look like she landed in such a way to properly torque or force her neck to break so…
Someone either landed on her or, while she was stunned from the fall forcibly snapped her neck. Neither were pretty prospects, and combined with the defensive wounds meant that Jane probably saw it coming a long way off, and fought to escape until the end. Or maybe, she fought or her chance to escape alive.
Jane was always distrustful of them since Amelia's death and Perdita's trial. She hadn't developed that close of ties with any of them so she would have an easy team turning on them. He knew Paris wouldn't try murder or kill on purpose; didn't rule out accidently though, Mary always vented her anger but…
There were buts with all of them. They could all have killed her if she attacked them, even accidentally. Heck, John might have ended up killing her if she had attacked him. John paused a moment to consider if he could provide an alibi. Alexander had seen him with his ID and the whole restriction of his movement was only really known between him and Paris. That could be a problem.
But that was a problem for the trial, not the investigation. So, chances are that Jane attacked first, probably trying to ambush the person. John turned to the Archive Room door, which had been left a jar. She could lurk there and attack the first person who came. But this theory lacked something important.
A weapon. There were no knives left out in the open like Wilbur, no book to find like Amelia, because of one simple fact: Jane was killed by someone with their bare hands or by gravity. Either way the weapon Jane might have used was left unknown, and possibly easily retrieved by the killer.
Paris shook John's arm snapping him out of his thoughts.
"You've got something, share," She demanded.
"I think, Jane attacked first but, I've no proof as of yet," he said, approaching the door to inspect it.
If it had been slammed open suddenly then there might be marks left on the wall or…
There.
A small gash in the wood that hadn't been present before. And a small bit of paint chipped away. That had to count for something right?
"Ok, door thrown open, edged weapon caught slightly, she probably either let it go or took a swung at the other person, maybe injuring them," John said, thinking out loud for Paris's sake.
A quick scan of the archive room showed the weapon hadn't been forgotten which would have made things easy but John decided to take a look around elsewhere. They were finding out what happened but they weren't finding the killer.
Paris stayed behind, opening and closing the files which was a smart idea, someone could have hidden the weapon there or maybe Jane could have left a note…? All that mattered was that there was a massive amount of area to cover for a tiny group of people.
John descended back down to the library to search the area directly surrounding where Jane had died, finding nothing as he spiraled outwards. He ran into Atsuko who nodded to him.
"Discover anything?" the lucky student asked.
"Jane attacked, she was killed in self-defense not that it matters," John said, looking around.
"Really? Well, I'm not finding anything in here so you may want to go check somewhere else while I finish up," Atsuko suggested, to which John nodded.
"Anyone go to her room yet?" John asked, Atsuko shaking her head no before she moved on.
John went the opposite way of her and left the library, breaking into a run a few seconds after losing sight of Atsuko when he remembered that time was of the essence. He ran down the halls, his footfalls the only sound. Usually someone else would be with him, helping him look. John moved on from that thought and pressed forwards to Jane's room.
He ignored the modified sprite on the door and barged into the room. It was disorganized, paperwork and blueprints scattered everywhere. A large mess that would take hours to sort through. He grabbed a few sheets from piles here and there, broken journal entries written in the margins of designs for new effects that could be made with new machines.
He searched faster looking for anything that might be of use to the trial. He began tearing the room apart in his rush and he forced himself to slow down. He might be burying anything useful if he kept that up. It was hard switching to slow and methodical, but there was no other effective way. Jane seemed to keep, no, have kept her thoughts scattered apart on the various pieces of paper in absolutely no logical order to anyone but her.
Here and there he found an older one, more optimistic about the outcome before finding one with just the word despair written on it over and over. It was an unfortunate chronicle of increasing mental instability that Jane suffered from her time here. John lingered on another page, this one written all over with the word hope. This reflected Monokuma's obsession with those concepts John thought, which led him to question whether or not Monokuma had truly had no hand, or paw, in this.
John moved towards the desk Jane had received and found that there was a paper that had been written over with new words. John tried to read but couldn't make out more than something about learning the truth and trusting no one and…a destroyed room.
That fucker did have a paw, hand, whatever in this!
Okay motive for Jane attacking found, self-defense taken to far the reason for her death, now the only thing left was to find who.
Of course it couldn't be an easy thing.
John had been with Atsuko for the time, meaning that Mary, Paris, and Alexander were the main suspects. Mary had anger issues and could get carried away but John doubted her ability to break someone's neck unless she fell over the edge as well and broke it with her added weight. That left Alexander and Paris. Both could snap someone's neck, they had the strength from physical training after all as a soldier, well tactician but still a soldier, and athlete.
Paris was probably incapable of killing on purpose or getting carried away she had such a kind personality. And Alexander had made such a goal of getting everyone out that it was unlikely that he would change now right? Right?
John was suddenly faced with the fact that this might have been a complete accident, that Jane was not supposed to have died. Which meant that they hadn't intended for this to happen and they were going to die without ever having the intent to try and escape through the murder rule until after they had killed someone. A horrible punishment just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
John still wasn't sure who had done it but time was running out and it would be best for him to move on. He exited Jane's room and decided to try and found the others to get their side of the story and see if he could clear up who had done it simply by who didn't have an alibi.
John stopped short.
They didn't have time of death or a way to determine when she was killed.
Alibis meant squat at this point as she could have been killed hours ago like Amelia and no one would know. That could be the very reason Atsuko was willing to hang out with him, so she had an alibi for-
Stop. No, Atsuko wasn't that kind of…
No, he can't rule her out and he can't be ruled out by the others.
Damn, damn, damn!
John let out a loud growl of frustration as he turned and struck the wall behind him startling Mary who had walked up from behind him.
"What's wrong with you?" she asked, eyeing him with suspicion.
"I realized that a train of thought I had that I believed was pointing to a culprit is moot because we don't actually have time of death," he responded, rubbing his hand.
"Oh, what was the thought?"
"Alibis, I was with Atsuko the entire day but, Jane could have been killed yesterday for all we know."
"Maybe it was suicide?"
"She looked very frightened for someone who knew she was dying then."
"Maybe she realized she didn't want to die."
John huffed at that and turned from the artist to begin heading to anywhere in the hopes of finding anything when Monokuma's voice drifted over the intercom.
"Alright you bastards, it looks like you're just shooting the breeze now so let's so that in the trial room! Investigation is over! Get your asses in gear and move!"
John groaned and began heading towards the Central Hall, Mary following behind him.
Jane had become very scared and isolated as her stay within the school had dragged on, but she had tried to reach out and reconnect before despair claimed her death had followed shortly after. It was time to find her killer.