Chapter 2: Part 20
Death was something Sayaka would never become accustomed to. Seeing Junko stabbed, Tsumugi flayed alive, and her own death stuck with her. She thought that all those days of partying and spending time with friends would be enough to repress those traumatic images, but face to non-face with Kaito's dead body reminded her of the reality she was stuck in. Her skin went pale as she began to dry-heave. She leaned up against one of the walls of the maze as the rest of student body arrived at the crime scene. A mix of shock, disgust, and panic all emanated from them. All except one person.
"Well, this is a fine mess," Celestia commented on the scene.
Celestia stepped closer to Kaito's body, something even Gundham and Peko were a bit hesitant to do. After giving the astronaut's body a single glance, she turned her attention to the ending path his body was blocking. She stretched her leg out and stepped over Kaito's body. Celestia took a few more steps down the path before someone shouted.
"What the Hell are you doing?!" Mondo shouted, his anger barely being held back.
"I'm simply checking what's at the end of this pathway," Celestia responded. "That was supposed to be the motive for the whole maze, correct?"
"Ok, y-yeah, but…come on," Leon said. "Our friend just died."
"Then we best get to work, shouldn't we?" Celestia said with a nonchalant smile. With a nod of her head, Kirumi, Peko, and Gundham all followed behind her. Once all four of the dark individuals disappeared, the rest of the group began the investigation.
Shinji knelt down next to Kaito's body. He wished he could place his hand on his friend's body as some sort of sign of respect, but the large amount of blood and chunks of brain matter and bone held him back. He sighed before noticing something odd. Down by Kaito's ankles, there was a thin white string that stretched across the entrance of the path and disappeared into the bushes.
"Step back!" Mukuro called out from behind Shinji, and even yanked him back before he had the chance to move back.
Mukuro held her hand up to keep everyone back as she followed the string's trail through the bushes. The trail would eventually make the soldier stand up to her feet and bring her to what it was attached to. The string was wrapped around the trigger of a single-barrel shotgun. The shotgun was balanced upon two branches and was aimed around the level most of the students' heads would line up. Mukuro grinded her teeth and set her sights on Kokichi. While still holding onto the shotgun, Mukuro charged at Kokichi and grabbed a hold of his collar.
"YOU DID THIS!" Mukuro growled in Kokichi's face.
Kokichi, of course, was not intimidated by an armed soldier accusing him of murder. He kept up his usual smug grin as he held his hands up.
"Woah, woah, buddy," Kokichi barely could keep his laughter back. "The investigation has just started and you're already accusing me? That's hardly a smart idea."
"You were the only person that could've gotten in my lab! You've been through this maze before! You knew where to put this gun!"
"Mukuro, we can't say anything for certain until we investigate this area," Chiaki said.
Mukuro turned to look at the gamer. "If you guys want to stick around here, fine. But I'm dealing with Kokichi."
Mukuro began to drag Kokichi by the collar.
"Woah, where are we going?" Kokichi asked.
"Oh, we're just going to have a talk," Mukuro spat out before the two of them disappeared around the corner.
This left the rest of the group to put the pieces together themselves. No one wanted to be the first person to actually start investigating. Not while that involved looking at the macabre sight of Kaito's exposed brain. Mahiru looked over to Hiyoko, who was still hugging onto Angie tightly. Angie caught sight of the staring photographer. As if to temporarily put their rivalry on hold, the artist held her hand to Mahiru. Mahiru nodded and joined Angie in giving Hiyoko and comforting hug.
Mondo had grown sick of the inactivity. Knowing that everyone's nauseous due to Kaito's body, Mondo made the sacrifice to take off his own jacket and lay it over Kaito. That kept everyone from having to see the gore any longer while also giving his friend an attempt at dignity in death. Once that was done, Chiaki stepped forward and faced the remainder of the group.
"OK, we have to start going over the crime scene," Chiaki said.
"I mean, outside of the gun, what else is there to talk about?" Leon asked.
Chiaki pondered for a moment before looking at Miu. "Hey, Miu. Do you have any security cameras set up out here?"
"No, but I did set up a camera by the entrance," Miu explained. "We can check who unlocked the door from earlier."
"Good," Chiaki said. "Do you have the tablet on you?"
"Yeah, Nagicuck has it," Miu said. She looked behind and tugged on Nagito's chain. "Nagicuck, get my fucking security tablet."
Nagito readjusted his footing as he reached his hand into jacket pocket. He narrowed his brows together as he fumbled around trying to get a grip on the correct item. Miu, immediately losing her patience, yanked on Nagito's chain.
"Hurry up!" Miu shouted.
However, this was poor decision on Miu's part as yanking on Nagito's chained collar caused him to lose balance just as he retrieved the tablet. Nagito would fall to the ground, flinging the tablet across the air before it crashed down to the ground as well. Mondo would rush over to the tablet to pick it up…only to be met with disappointment. With a solemn expression, Mondo held up the tablet to the rest of the group to show it was shattered. Any attempt to turn the device on would result in nothing.
Miu's face turned red with a fiery anger. She yanked on Nagito's chain, practically hanging the poor boy.
"YOU FUCKING BUTTERY FINGERED BITCH!" Miu shouted. "YOU FUCKED IT ALL UP! NOW WE CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHO KILLED KAITO!"
Kaede and Nekomaru had to intervene, with Kaede smacking Miu's hand to lose her grip on Nagito's leash and Nekomaru helping Nagito up to his feet.
"Knock it off, Miu!" Kaede said.
"You could've killed him!" Nekomaru said.
"But he just ruined our only chance to figure out who did this!" Miu said. "Now we're fucked!"
"Miu, calm down," Sayaka said. "There's got to be other clues around here."
Mahiru was briefly listened to what the group was discussing and briefly glanced down at the camera hanging around her neck. That's when she got an idea. Deciding that Angie could be trusted for the moment, she let go of Hiyoko and approached the group.
"Hey, Miu?" Mahiru spoke up to the inventor. "Do you have one of your drones on you?"
"Uh, duh!" Miu said with a roll of her eyes. "Of course, I do! I got one of my Aerial Mobile Voyeurs in Nagicuck's poc-"
Miu paused and turned to her man slave. She reached her hand into his interior pockets and pulled out a relatively small drone. "Yeah, I do. It's not like it will be helpful."
"Well, can we at least try something?" Mahiru unhooked her camera from the camera strap. "Is there any way we can try and take a picture of where we all were before the gun fired?"
Shinji placed his hand against his chin. "That's not a terrible idea, but this a maze. Remembering what our exact locations were."
"I think we should still give it a try," Chiaki said. "We can at least get to as close as we can."
"Sounds good to me," Leon said. "I wouldn't even have to move much anyway."
As the group began to branch out from the end of the maze, Sayaka paused for a moment. She noticed, just by the side of exit of the maze was a cutout of a ghost poking out of the bushes.
"Was this what Kaito was screaming about?" Sayaka asked.
"Y-yeah," Nekomaru said. "Every time we'd run into one of these cutouts, he'd jump out of his own skin."
"Dude was actually scared of ghosts the whole time," Leon commented before frowning. "S-still…he didn't deserve…this."
'Did the person who placed the shotgun there know about the cutout?' Sayaka thought to herself. 'Would they have known about Kaito's fear of ghosts or was it just by chance?'
After a moment of thought, Tenko tugged on Sayaka's shoulder.
"Come on, Sayaka," Tenko said to her friend. "We got to get back to our spot."
"Right, sorry," Sayaka before following Tenko back into the maze.
Mukuro opened her door in a rather unique way, by chucking Kokichi against it. The poor boy wouldn't even have a solid second to rest on the floor before Mukuro picked him up once again just the chuck through the door to her Ultimate Lab.
"You know," Kokichi said with a bloody nose, "I'm sure all this abuse won't help you with interrogating me later."
Mukuro grabbed Kokichi by his collar and lifted him back up to his feet. "Shut up," she said as she made her way to the back wall of the lab where all of her weapons were stored.
Mukuro would move along side it before stopping at the locker reserved for her shotguns. She noticed that the lock that kept the contents of the locker safe from the rest group was unlocked, just barely hanging onto the handle with its hook. Mukuro took off the lock and swung the door open to see that her fears were correct. When normally there were five shotguns hung up, there were then only four, and one of the boxes of shotgun shells was torn open. Mukuro placed her hand into and felt there was one spot where a shell should've been.
Mukuro looked back at Kokichi and slammed him against the lockers. "OK, just admit it! You did it!"
"Oh, come on," Kokichi laughed in the soldier's face. "You really think I'd be so boring to do the old shotgun trap trick? My last "murder" was involved a crushing device and tricking security cameras into thinking Kaito was dead instead. This is such child's play."
"I don't care how much you try to deny it, you're the only person that could've known the layout of the maze and you were the only one that could've gotten the gun."
"What about you? It's your room. You could've done it."
"Don't be stupid!" Mukuro moved her hand to Kokichi's throat. "The evidence is going to prove you guilty."
"Nihihihi," Kokichi laughed. "Sure. Keep telling yourself that. Get everyone else killed. See how that goes."
Mukuro growled before letting go of Kokichi. The purple haired boy rubbed his neck and let out several coughs before standing back up with a smile. Mukuro glanced down at the open lock in her hand. She figured that it made sense that Kokichi would've found a way to open the lock for her gun shelf, but she still couldn't wrap her head around how he could've broken the lock by the front door.
"Is everyone in position?" Chiaki raised her voice loud enough to reach across the rest of the maze.
"Yeah!" Leon shouted.
"Ibuki and co is ready to go!" Ibuki shouted.
"We're right where we need to be," Angie said.
"Same here!" Taka said.
"Miu, is the camera ready?" Mahiru asked loudly.
"Yeah, yeah!" Miu said as she strapped Mahiru's camera in and placed one of the drone's legs against the picture button. "Don't get your panties in a twist!"
"OK," Chiaki said. "Go ahead and take the picture."
Miu threw the Mobile Voyeur into the air and quickly used the remote to turn it on. The drone hovered in the air for a moment before Miu used the controller to raise the drone higher into the air.
"Does everyone see it?" Miu asked.
"Yes, Miss Iruma," Hifumi said.
"Yeah," Rantaro shouted.
"Good," Miu said. After raising the Mobile Voyeur just a few feet higher before she finally pressed the button for the drone's leg to press down on camera shot.
The flash of the camera could be seen by everyone in the maze. A few of the students would rub their eyes as the drone lowered back down to Miu's hand.
"Alright, bitches!" Miu shouted. "Come here and take a gander! Hope I didn't catch any of you jacking it!"
It would take some time, it was a maze after all, but the group would all gather together around the middle of the maze to meet up with Miu. Miu unstrapped Mahiru's camera from the Mobile Voyeur and handed it over to Mahiru. The photographer would open the gallery to view the bird's eye photo of the maze. Immediately, Mahiru frowned.
"Celeste, your group didn't even move," Mahiru said. "You all just stayed at the end of the maze."
Celestia, Kirumi, Peko, and Gundham all stepped forward from the back of the group. "I simply felt that it was more important to see what was at the end than to go retrace our steps."
"Well, what even was it?" Mondo asked.
"Hmhmhm," Gundham chuckled to himself as he crossed his arms. "So, you wish to know what we have found, do you? Well, fret not! For I have been entrusted to hold onto this secret in my shroud of shadows! The truth shall be revealed to you all soon enough!"
Mondo blinked. "What?"
Kirumi stepped ahead of the animal handler. "What Gundham means is that he's holding onto what we found until we're done with the class trial."
"Why? Wouldn't it be important to the trial?" Kaede asked. "It is the motive, right?"
"Yes, but there's some…oddities with the setup of this motive," Peko said.
"Look, why don't we all just focus on the picture?" Mahiru asked with some irritation. "Now, Gonta, Leon, and Nekomaru, you were with Kaito, right?"
All three men nodded.
"OK," Mahiru looked back at the photo. "And…Angie…you guys made it to the end of the maze as well?"
Angie nodded. "Yes. My group were actually the first to arrive at the end of the maze."
"W-we were hoping to wait for the rest of you," Teruteru said as he fidgeted uncomfortably.
"OK," Mahiru said before looking back at the photo. Obviously skipping past Kaito, Angie, and Celestia's group, Mahiru took note of the positions of the rest of the groups. Taka's group was close to the end of the maze, but towards the left-side wall while Miu's group (taking both Kokichi and Mukuro into account) were just a little further back on the right-side wall. Ibuki's group was practically in the center of the maze while Chiaki's group was towards the front left corner of the maze. Then there was Sakura's group, just past Chiaki's group on the right corner of the maze.
"OK, so that doesn't really say much," Tenko said as she looked over Mahiru's shoulder.
"It will most likely have some secrets if we look closer," Taka said loudly.
"We'll get into that when we get to the trial…I think," Chiaki said.
"Yeah, why don't we head back?" Kaede asked.
The group all nodded to each other and began to make their way out of the maze. While making a turn, Sayaka noticed a small, green strip of confetti on the ground. Stepping closer to it, she saw how well it reflected the light of the sun. She would've guessed someone just stepped on that piece of confetti and it got carried along with them, but then she noticed there was more pieces of confetti all spread out across the maze.
"Hey, wait," Sayaka spoke up as she picked up the green confetti. "Check this out."
Only some of the group actually stopped to see what Sayaka was holding while the rest continued to the maze's entrance. Gonta leaned down and adjusted his glasses to take a good look at the confetti before looking around to see more laying around.
"Gonta not see that before," the gentle giant said with a gasp.
"What do ya think they're for?" Mondo asked.
Chiaki tapped her chin for a moment before speaking up. "Maybe the person who set the trap placed them there."
"Ok, but why?" Kaede asked.
Chiaki tapped her chin once again. "If I were to take a guess, they could've used it as a guide to know where to go in here."
"You saying they've been in here before?" Mondo asked. "Damn, maybe that Kokichi kid did do it."
"Let's not make accusations before we have all the evidence," Chiaki said. "Let's keep going."
Sayaka nodded and followed Chiaki, Gonta, and Mondo out of the maze. As they caught up with the rest group, they would return to actual school lobby. While there, Ryoma picked up the lock Mukuro used for the chains. He had a puzzled expression across his face as he flipped it over in his hands. Sayaka noticed Ryoma examining the lock and carefully approached him.
"Is something wrong, Ryoma?" Sayaka asked.
"I'm just wondering about something," Ryoma said, still looking at the lock. "Mukuro swallowed the key to this thing yesterday. Only way to get through is with a crowbar to break it."
"Yeah," Sayaka said. "Where do you think they put the crowbar?"
"That's the problem," Ryoma said before turning around and showing Sayaka the lock. It wasn't broken or twisted or had any sign of tampering. It was just open. "Someone didn't use a crowbar."
"What?!" Sayaka gasped. "Did they pick the lock?"
"I don't know. That could possible."
"Ok. I'll go look around. Maybe there are some lockpick or hair pin in-"
Before Sayaka could finish her sentence, the school's intercom ringed out. Everyone stopped in place.
"Weeeeeell, looks like your investigation time is up!" Monokuma said with giddy glee over the intercom. "All students must now make their way towards the elevator so we can get this get this bad boy going! And be quick, I am an impatient bear. You don't want me to go feral, do you?"
"Wha-wha-what?!" Ibuki gasped in terror. "But we barely even found anything!"
"This is bullshit!" Mondo growled. "He's trying to get us killed!"
"Everyone, calm down," Chiaki said firmly.
"How do you expect us to do that?!" Hiyoko snapped, pushing herself away from Angie's grasp to face off with the gamer. "None of the clues you found mean anything, idiot!"
"Not now, but we can figure it out in the trial," Chiaki responded before gently placing her hand on Hiyoko's shoulder. "Even when it seems impossible, we always figure out the truth. We just have to stay strong."
Despite the truth to Chiaki's words, Hiyoko was still infuriated. She smacked Chiaki's hand off her should and returned to Angie's warm embrace. Chiaki sighed and turned to the rest of the group. Thankfully for Chiaki, the rest of the group seemed to have more confidence in her words. Celeste even stepped forward with a smile.
"I can't wait to see how you uncover this case then," the gambler said.
With some renewed vigor, the group left the lobby and headed towards the elevator.
Mukuro couldn't help herself. Kokichi was the single most irritating person she had ever made…Well, not exactly. Her sister still held that title, plus the two girls that always happened to be in were way in of her love, but Kokichi was quickly making his way up there. And as a result, Mukuro wasn't to be rough with him. Very rough with him. By the time she dragged him into the elevator, Kokichi had a busted lip, a crooked nose, and a bruise just under his left eye. However, that didn't stop Kokichi from giggling like usual. In fact, he was giggling even more. To Kokichi, these were badges of honor. After all, criminals get brutalized all the time. To him, this was just proof he made it.
"Stop laughing," Mukuro ordered.
Of course, Kokichi didn't stop. "Nihihi," Kokichi said before smiling up at Mukuro. "Sorry, but at this point you really should get used to it."
Mukuro rolled her eyes. 'Whatever, you'll be dead soon anyway.'
The two of them were finally joined by the rest of the student body. Despite how massive the group still was, missing Kaito left a bit more space than the last time they gathered by the elevator. A bittersweet fact for sure. As they all settled into the room, Leon noticed just how beaten up Kokichi was.
"Yo, what happened to your face?" Leon asked.
Kokichi tilted his head towards Mukuro. "What do you expect, yo?"
"So, how did your investigation go, Mukuro?" Kaede asked.
"Fine," Mukuro responded before yanking on Kokichi's collar. "I got everything I need to fry this twerp."
"Y-you think Kokichi did it?" Mikan asked.
"I know he did," Mukuro corrected the nurse.
"Let's not rush to conclusions," Chiaki said.
Mukuro glared at Chiaki. "I don't need you to talk down to me, Nanami."
"To be fair, she has been in more class trials than you," Peko said.
Mukuro locked her sights onto Peko, but before either of them could get into a scuffle, the elevator rose up to their current floor and opened itself up to them. Mukuro shoved Kokichi into the elevator before following him inside. The rest of the group would be lined up by Taka to enter the elevator one at a time. As the group began to file in, Sayaka felt the pressure pile on her. They truly did have less time with their investigation when compared to the last trial. She pulled out her Monopad and checked over the investigation file again.
'I have to be missing something,' Sayaka thought to herself. 'There has to be more clues to this case! The killer had to have left something by accident.'
She scrolled up and down on her tablet and yet, nothing came to her. It was just what she had already known. Kaito was shot by a shotgun, there was a tripwire, a fake ghost, and some confetti. Sayaka let out a groan of anger and shoved the tablet back into her pocket.
"Sayaka?" Tenko stepped alongside the pop idol. "What's wrong?"
"What do you think?" Sayaka said sarcastically. She quickly noticed how rude her tone was and frowned. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just…I'm scared we don't have enough clues."
Tenko shook her head and held Sayaka's hand. "Why are you scared? We thought we were at a dead end in the last trial, but you found out how they all pieced together. You got that knack for finding connections Kaede and Shuichi do. I know you can do it again."
Sayaka sighed. "Tenko, this isn't something we can screw up."
"We won't. You won't." Tenko smiled at her friend before heading into the elevator.
'OK,' Sayaka thought to herself. 'Tenko and Chiaki are right. We just have to put the pieces together. I just need some of that idol confidence again.'
Sayaka took a deep breath, straightened her posture, and held her hands together before stepping into elevator. Once everyone got on, the iron doors shut behind them, leaving them in darkness once again. The only things that let them all know they were still alive were their arms brushing against each other and the sounds of the metal gears and chains shifting and pulling as they descended down into the darkness.
The holiday season is around, and I happen to work at a grocery store. So, I'm getting my ass kicked in directions. Still, I want to get these chapters out for you guys. I promised that Chapter 2 would end this year, and I plan on keeping it. That being said, I feel like I dropped the ball on this part. I mean, all the clues are in place, but once again I feel like my descriptions, vocabulary, and characterization sort of died down here. I'm sorry if it's too awkward at times. Speaking of which, I'm worried this trial could piss people off. Some twists and turns that all trials have. I can't say too much, but please try and understand the direction I choose. But, maybe I'm just freaking out over nothing. Anyways, I hope this season is better for you than it is for me.
Leave your reviews/comments below and I'll see you soon.