Digital Clue
VI: This is getting serious
madjack89: Alright, I'm ready to just finish this story! It has been hanging over my head for months, so now I'm just gonna finish it up! So expect fast, super-human updates on this over the next few days!
Takuya: How much more could you possibly do to us?
madjack89: About…six more chapters of stuff.
Takuya: …
Yoshi: You know, I noticed something from this story.
Kouji: What?
Yoshi: You guys from Frontier complain a lot, don't you?
Takuya, Kouji, JP, and Zoe: …
Jeri: You know, that's a very good point.
Mimi: Yeah, these guys seem to be big complainers.
Yoshi: You don't see us complaining that much.
Jeri and Mimi: Nope.
madjack89: Ha ha, you guys are so right! I should write about you more often!
Kouji: For the love of god, no!
Yoshi: Complaining!
Kouji: too angry for words
madjack89: Alright, while Kouji's head explodes from anger, I shall answer reviews!
-
Dawn of Glory: Sorry! I had to! You understand sadistic authorness, though, so I don't have to explain that! Thanks for reviewing! (Sakura, Nausicaa, get away from those cigars! They poison your health!)
Kuroi Bara-676: Sorry, had to be done! Oh, so you and gothic k-210 are the same person! I'll have to store that in my memory bank. (storing…) Okay, all done! (lol) Continue reading to find out who are the last three to be killed (that's right, three)! On another note, I don't know of the story "And Then There Were None." Is it horror, because if it is I can't read it. I can't handle horror. (shock)
DigiBleach: Heh, sorry! But at least he's not dead in F2R! Glad you like the story, and Jeri is creepy!
blackandblood: Yeah, poor Kouichi. I'm not really a Takumi fan, so that won't really be in this story. I don't have anything against Takumi, I'm just a big Kouizumi fan! Anyway, Marcus can be a moron at times (but that is why we love him)! Thanks for reviewing!
hazeleyedharmony: Yes, praised be the Lord, the puppet is dead! (lol) That was a pretty nice phone call, wasn't it? (It's like Crispin Freeman having a conversation with himself!) Yeah, Kouichi's in the Digital World, and instead of going to the Dark Area, he went to the land of fluffy kittens and rainbows! (Though that might scare him worse…) Thanks for reviewing!
-
madjack89: Okay, time for Digital Clue: part six!
Takuya: I can't believe we've hung in for six chapters…
Yoshi: Complaining!
Takuya: You know what, Yoshi? Shut up!
Yoshi: …
—
"Easy, Kouji," JP said, watching warily as Kouji just stared at Kouichi's body.
Kouji didn't say anything. He just turned around and walked to the other side of the room, being careful not to step on too much glass from the fallen chandelier.
"Who would do this?" Zoe asked quietly, still holding the gun. "Who would kill Kouichi?"
"Who would kill Sora and Matt?" Yoshi retorted.
Takuya glanced at Kouji, feeling some pity toward him. He walked across the room, stopped behind Kouji and said, "Hey buddy, it's gonna be okay, you know? I mean, it's just a story. Go to F2R and you'll see Kouichi right as rain."
Kouji didn't respond, and for a moment Takuya thought Kouji hadn't heard him. Then Kouji suddenly turned around and punched Takuya in the face. Takuya fell to the floor, clutching his nose. "Why is it always the freaking nose?!" Takuya cried.
Kouji took a few sharp breaths and said, "Okay, now I feel better."
"Nice one," Yoshi commented, smirking. Everyone else just glanced at Takuya. No one tried to help him up or anything. (Ha, poor Taki!)
"You all suck," Takuya muttered to himself, getting back to his feet.
"Hey, wait a second," Mimi said suddenly, getting back to the plot. "How did Takuya and Yoshi get stuck in the lounge?"
"We found a secret passageway leading from the conservatory to here," Yoshi replied, pointing at the swivel wall they'd entered through. "We both came in that way and found Kouichi dead!"
"So who killed him?" JP asked.
"Well, isn't that the million dollar question today!" Yoshi said sarcastically.
JP was about to respond to Yoshi angrily when he noticed something. "Uh, Zoe, you have a gun."
"Yeah," Zoe replied, holding it up. "I used it to open the lock."
"But, isn't that the same gun that I got from Matt earlier?" JP asked. "The one Kouji locked in the cupboard in the study?"
Suddenly, Zoe realized what he was getting at. "The cupboard was unlocked!"
Everyone immediately rushed to the study to see the open cupboard for themselves. Zoe dropped her gun on the floor in her hast, and it landed among the wreckage of the chandelier. (PLOT POINT!)
In the study, everyone saw that Zoe was right. The cupboard had been unlocked, though they'd made sure the key was thrown outside.
"How did you know that the cupboard was unlocked?" Mimi asked Zoe suspiciously. "How did you know that you could get to the gun?"
"I didn't know!" Zoe replied defensively. "I thought that I'd be able to break it open, but it was already unlocked! With all the panic going on, I didn't realize that someone must have unlocked it until JP mentioned it!"
"A likely story," Yoshi muttered.
Before anyone could add more, the doorbell rang. Everyone stood motionless, afraid to answer it. "Maybe they'll just go away," Mimi whispered. The others held their breath, hoping she was right.
Their hopes were dashed when the bell rang again a few moments later. "Damn it," Mimi cursed.
"I'm gonna open it," Henry suddenly stated, startling everyone.
"No!" the others hissed at him.
"We haven't figured out who the murderer is yet," Takuya added.
"Well, whoever the murderer is can worry about that," Henry retorted. "As for me, I have absolutely nothing to hide, because I didn't do it!" Henry then strode over to Kouji and held out his hand. "Give me the key," he demanded.
Kouji hesitated, but eventually relented and handed the key over to Henry. Then Henry strode down the hall to open the door, the others following anxiously behind.
"You know, he's kind of hot when he gets all authoritative like that," Yoshi muttered to Jeri. Jeri nodded in agreement.
Henry, still in macho mode (lol), took the key, turned it in the lock, and opened the door.
"Hey there," Marcus said, before getting the door slammed in his face.
A second later, Henry opened the door back up, macho mode gone (aw…). "Um…alright then," Marcus said, not questioning Henry's behavior. "Hey, there's this car parked down the road, and I was wondering if the driver came in here for any assistance. Plus it's raining, and it's nice and dry under this porch."
"Yes, the driver did come," Henry answered.
"NO HE DIDN'T!" the others cried, overpowering Henry's statement.
"Uh…is there some sort of disagreement going on?" Marcus asked, confused.
"NO!" the others said loudly.
"Yes," Henry said quietly.
Marcus just stared at the group. "Can I just use your phone?"
"Why does everyone want to use the god damn phone," JP muttered under his breath.
"Of course you can use the phone," Kouji said, stepping in. "You can use the one in the stud…in the loun…in the library!"
"Alright," Marcus agreed, beginning to get freaked out by everyone's behavior. As he walked in, he glanced at Zoe and said, "Hey, don't I know you from somewhere in the context of the fanfiction?"
Zoe shrugged, not really caring anymore.
Kouji quickly led him into the house while Yoshi and JP ran to shut the study and lounge doors. Marcus glanced at everyone's almost creepy smiles and said, "Are you all high? Because I'm pretty sure you're all way too young to get high."
"Speak for yourself!" Yoshi said huffily.
"We're not high, we're just a little jumpy," Kouji said, glancing at the chandelier. "That chandelier fell and almost killed us."
"Oh," Marcus said, satisfied enough with this answer.
Kouji led Marcus into the library and said, "Alright, you can make your call here. Feel free to have a drink. Oh, but not the cognac, just in case," he added, referring to JP's earlier theory of Matt being poisoned.
Before Marcus could ask what that meant, Kouji closed and locked the door. Marcus stared at the lock, then at the door, figuring he could break it down if he had to. (That's our Marcus!)
Then he walked over to the phone, but before he could pick it up, it started to ring. He looked around for a second, then picked it up. "Hello?"
Meanwhile, the others were gathered in the hallway. "We should've told him," Henry said.
"And what good would that do?" Yoshi asked. "What would Marcus do about it? It's Marcus!"
"What's done is done," Kouji interjected, settling the matter. "Let's just clean this up," he added, gesturing toward the chandelier. The others agreed and had already moved the big part of the chandelier to the side of the room when Marcus started banging on the library door.
"Hey, let me out! I can have you arrested, you know!" Marcus called, feeling like waving his authority around a bit. "I can book you for false arrest, and obstructing an officer in the course of his duty, and murder!"
Kouji quickly unlocked and opened the door. "What do you mean, murder?" he asked, smiling nervously.
"I just said that to mess with you," Marcus said, chuckling. The others chuckled nervously, feeling relieved. "Anyway," Marcus continued, getting to his point. "I wanted to let you know that Ken called for some reason. No idea why."
"I'll answer it," Kouji said quickly, walking into the study.
"Why is Ken calling you?" Takuya asked.
"I don't know," Kouji replied defensively, shutting the door behind him and leaving the others with Marcus.
"Well, can someone give me a tour of the mansion?" Marcus asked suddenly.
"Why?" JP asked.
"Because I want to see what kind of party could make Yoshi miss her shift so she has to ask me to cover for her on my day off," Marcus replied bitterly, glaring at Yoshi.
Yoshi was about to refuse to give Marcus his tour when she got an idea. "Yeah, you can have a tour," she said slowly, glancing at Henry. "Henry can show you around."
"I can?" Henry asked, surprised.
"Of course," Yoshi replied. "You can show him the dining room, and the kitchen, and the ballroom."
Henry smiled nervously, still not getting what Yoshi was doing. "Okay," he agreed hesitantly, grabbing Marcus by the shoulders and pushing him toward the dining room. "I can show him the dining room, and the kitchen, and the ballroom."
Once the two of them were out of sight, Yoshi whispered, "Alright guys, I have a plan. Follow me."
"Before that, I have a question," Takuya said. "Since when did the Data Squad start taking over regular police duties?"
"Job cuts," Yoshi answered, leading everyone into the study.
While that was taking place, Marcus was looking around the dining room, inspecting every nook and cranny. Henry just stood near the doorway, looking nervous.
"So you all got invited to this party, yet no one bothered to invite any of the other Digimon characters?" Marcus asked.
"I guess that's the gist of it," Henry replied sheepishly. "Want to see the ballroom?" he asked, changing the subject.
Marcus stopped in the middle of the hallway. "Actually, I think I want to see what's in those two rooms," he said, pointing to the study and lounge. "Seems like all the action's going on in there."
"You'd be right about that," Henry muttered to himself.
As Marcus began to head toward the study, Henry said, "You know, there's really nothing to see in that room, why don't we just head somewhere else?"
"No, I really want to see what's going on in here," Marcus said, reaching for the doorknob.
In a last attempt at stopping Marcus, Henry got in front of him and said, "It's all too shocking!"
"I'm sure," Marcus muttered, shoving Henry out of the way and opening the door.
In the study, Jeri lay on top of Matt's corpse on the couch, pretending to make out with it. She even grabbed his arm and curled it around her waist to make it look real.
On the other side of the room, Takuya was pretending to make out with Sora's corpse. He was grabbing it from the front while Mimi propped it up from the back, hiding herself behind a curtain. Mimi also wrapped her arms around both Sora and Takuya, making it look like Sora was holding Takuya.
Marcus and Henry could only stare wide-eyed at this scene for a moment. Then Marcus said, "I knew Sorato would never last," and shut the door.
Everyone in the study instantly relaxed. Jeri quickly got off Matt and brushed herself off while Takuya and Mimi let Sora drop to the ground.
"Ew, he tasted like corpse," Jeri whined, looking around for a drink to wash the taste out of her mouth.
"I'm asking JP for a toothbrush later," Takuya muttered.
Meanwhile, in the hallway, Marcus was headed to the door of the lounge. "Well, it was shocking, but nothing you really had to hide from me," Marcus said to Henry. Henry just nodded, still feeling shell-shocked from what he'd just witnessed.
Marcus opened the door to the lounge to find Yoshi and JP curled up on a chair, making out. On the opposite chair, they'd propped up Kouichi, put a hat on his head to hide the mark left by the wrench, and spilled wine all over him to make him seem drunk. They'd also placed the empty wine bottle in his hand.
When they realized Marcus was there, they stopped, plastering big smiles on their faces. Marcus stared at them for a second, then said, "You made me take your shift so you could go to a party and make out with JP?!"
"Well, all the girlies say he's pretty fly for a white guy," Yoshi replied, smirking.
"You swore you'd never speak of that again," JP growled, glaring at Yoshi. (Ha ha, JP!)
Marcus sighed, noticing how drunk Kouichi looked. "And what'd you do to him? He doesn't even drink!"
"Oh, Kouichi is a party animal!" JP exclaimed, putting as much enthusiasm as he could into his voice. "You should've seen him at the wrap party for Digimon Frontier! Oh yeah!" Actually, all he did there was stand near the snack table looking uncomfortable, but lying is lying!
"He's not driving home, is he?" Marcus asked.
"Oh no, we'll get him a car," Yoshi said reassuringly.
"A long black car," JP added without thinking.
"A limousine," Yoshi said quickly, correcting JP's statement.
"Whatever," Marcus muttered, leaving the room.
As soon as he shut the door, Yoshi and JP glanced at each other and said, "Last time," referring to making out.
Back in the hallway, Kouji was just coming out of the library and saw Marcus exiting the lounge. Panicking, he ran up to Marcus and said, "Look, I can explain."
"Don't bother, I already saw what you guys are doing," Marcus said, waving Kouji off.
"You did?" Kouji asked, glancing at Henry.
Henry nodded as Marcus continued, "Yeah, I guess I can see why Yoshi would want to be at this party."
"You do?" Kouji asked, confused.
"Besides," Marcus added, "I can't stop her from having fun now and again. It's a free country, after all."
"I didn't know it was that free," Kouji said.
"Alright!" Henry said, interrupting Kouji. "Let's get you back to the library so you can make that call, Marcus!"
"Okay," Marcus agreed, walking back into the study. Kouji quickly closed the door and locked it again.
"Uh, what just happened?" Kouji asked, noticing everyone else coming out of the study and lounge.
"Don't worry about it," Yoshi replied. "Let's just finish searching the house."
Everyone else agreed, and soon they were all back with their designated partners in their designated areas.
—
"As they say, let's return to the scene of the crime," Takuya said, following Yoshi into the kitchen. Yoshi rolled her eyes and walked to the far side of the room while Takuya inspected the opposite side.
Takuya walked along the wall, searching for anything that could prove to be a hiding place. Finally, he saw a small door set in the wall with a little handle near the top. He reached for the handle and pulled on the door…
Only to get hit on the head with an ironing board, which was being stored in the small closet space. "Ow," Takuya muttered, rubbing his head.
Meanwhile, Yoshi opened the door to the meat cooler, wondering whether the murderer would really return to the scene of the crime. It seemed empty, but Yoshi stepped inside to take a closer look, grabbing a hook on the ceiling for support.
The hook turned out to be a handle, for Yoshi pulled it down slightly. Yoshi stared in wonder as a doorway opened up at the back of the meat cooler. "Sweet, another secret passage," she said, motioning for Takuya to join her.
Yoshi was staring down the long dark passage as Takuya stepped up next to her and said, "Well, you can go in first. After all, you discovered it."
"Ha ha, very funny," Yoshi muttered, rolling her eyes. She then began to walk down the long corridor, followed closely by Takuya. They soon came to another dead end and this time knew immediately to push the wall.
Like last time, the wall swiveled open, letting Yoshi and Takuya through the wall. They looked around for a moment and realized they were in the study. They glanced back at the wall and saw that a large portrait that had been hanging on the wall was merely a doorway for the passage.
"Well, that's anticlimactic," Yoshi said, shutting the portrait door behind her. "But at least we didn't find any more dead people."
"If we ignore the two corpses that are already here," Takuya muttered sarcastically, glancing at Sora and Matt. "Let's just try the ballroom again," he added, exiting the study along with Yoshi.
—
"So, find anything yet?" Zoe asked Henry, crouching down to check behind a dusty armchair.
"Nothing but junk," Henry replied, shaking his head. "You?"
"If I'd found someone, I'd probably scream my head off and punch them in a wild frenzy," Zoe said flatly, now searching behind a pile of boxes.
A silence fell over the pair for a minute. Then Henry said, "Hey, I'm sorry you had to see Kouichi like that."
"Aren't we all," she mumbled, clearly in an irritable mood.
"Just saying," Henry muttered, continuing his search.
—
While the others continued their searches, a gloved figure opened the door below the staircase quietly, revealing a large switch. The figure pulled the switch down, and the power for the entire mansion instantly shut off, leaving everyone in the dark.
Suddenly, the mansion erupted in shrieks and screams from the surprised guests. All except for Zoe, who was creeping quietly down the stairs toward the billiard room.
She opened the door slowly, glancing around inside. "Close the door," a voice suddenly commanded from the shadows. Zoe stared curiously into the room, but could not figure out the person's identity.
"Were you recognized?" the voice continued.
"Pretty much," Zoe muttered. "At least, like, four people know who I am."
Suddenly, the gloved figure leapt from the shadows, throwing the noose around Zoe's neck. "It's you!" Zoe managed to gasp before the figure pulled the rope tighter, strangling Zoe.
—
"Aw man," Marcus muttered as the power went out. "How do I make my stupid call now? I didn't even want to make a call, Madjack suggested I make one when I got here!"
Suddenly, lightening flashed outside, lighting up the room briefly. And behind Marcus, the gloved figure was holding the lead pipe above Marcus's head, ready to make the killing blow.
—
Suddenly the doorbell rang. After a brief moment, someone answered the door.
On the porch stood Yolei, wearing the uniform of a singing telegram. "Alright, do I really have to sing?"
BANG!
Yolei fell to the ground, instantly killed by the gunshot.
—
"Why didn't I think of this two minutes ago?" Kouji muttered to himself, running quickly down the steps. Then he thrust open the door under the stairs and switched the electricity back on.
The lights instantly came on again, and the shrieking and screaming stopped. Kouji waited as the others gathered together in the main hallway, looking nervous. Then they all noticed Zoe lying in the billiard room, a rope around her neck.
Without giving her a second glance, they moved on to the open library door, where Marcus lay on the ground, a lead pipe next to his head.
After a moment, JP said, "So who was shot?"
"I thought I heard the front door slam," Yoshi said, turning to the front door. "Oh god, what if the murderer ran out?"
Everyone raced to the door and Kouji wrenched it open. They stopped when they noticed Yolei on the porch, a bullet wound in her chest.
"Three murders," Takuya said softly.
"Six altogether," Henry added.
"This is getting serious," Kouji said, turning abruptly to face the others. "Alright," he said, smiling cockily, "I know who did it."
—
Takuya: How could you possibly know who did it, Kouji?!
Kouji: You'll see next chapter, won't you?
madjack89: Yes, we shall all learn more about these vicious killings in chapter seven. Hurry and get those reviews in, by the way, because the next chapter may just come tomorrow. Alright, until then, see ya!