Third Murder Investigation

Everyone gathered...well, outside the Kitchen door. Only Fuyuhiko would actually enter the Kitchen proper, due to the smell within.

"C'mon, don't tell me you all are a bunch of pussies over a bad smell! Get your asses in here!" Fuyuhiko sneered tauntingly at the others. No one made an attempt to enter, not that I was surprised.

Monorakun eventually scurried his way past the crowd, and made his way to Teruteru's corpse. "So, someone cooked the cook, eh? The irony."

Toko managed to speak up from the back of the crowd. "S-s-so can we have the stupid Monor-rakun file already?"

Monorakun looked our group over, scurrying amongst us (as most of them refused to come near the Kitchen door), then sat on his haunches at the Kitchen door entrance and said, "Nope."

Ummm...excuse me?

Before I could speak, Fuyuhiko did instead. "The fuck did you just say? We have a dead body here. Give us our damn File!"

"Nope." Monorakun repeated, in the same tone.

I heard Sakura speak next. "Why are you refusing to give us the Monorakun File? Isn't that in the rules, Monorakun?"

Monorakun turned his head, likely to face Sakura. "Because not everyone is here yet."

Wait...what? Who's missing, then? I couldn't see anyone except Fuyuhiko and Monorakun from this angle. Who could be missing, then?

I took a peek outside. Fuyuhiko was still arguing with Monorakun. Sakura and Nekomaru were standing next to each other. Mahiru, Toko, and Hiyoko were grouped up. Rantaro was standing in the corner. Tenko was standing in the Dining Hall doorway. Mondo...

Wait, where was Mondo?

Sakura seemed to notice at the same time. "Mondo is not here yet. We should look for him. Perhaps he is still in his room."

Mondo was never an early riser, from my experience, so this was not out of the question, but I suddenly had a bad feeling in my gut.

Monorakun responded to Sakura's comment. "Yep, Mondo is not accounted for, so my programming forbids me from giving you the Monorakun File on Teruteru. Go find him; I'm staying right here."

We all split up to look for Mondo. Korekiyo, Mahiru, and Hiyoko searched the First Floor. Tenko, Toko, Nekomaru, and Sakura took the Second Floor. Rantaro, Fuyuhiko, Kyoko, and I were left with the third floor.

Kyoko and Fuyuhiko took the lead, with Rantaro and I following. Rantaro had his E-Handbook open in the Group Chat page, in case someone found Mondo and alerted us via chat, but so far, no one had found Mondo yet.

Upon arrival on the Third Floor, we decided to split up, with Kyoko checking the Dance Hall, Fuyuhiko checking the Dojo, Rantaro taking the Shop Room, and me taking the Track Room. This left the Kyoko and Fuyuhiko taking a left at the first intersection, while Rantaro chose to go straight, staying with me.

I took a peek out the window to the Courtyard, but only saw Korekiyo looking around. I glanced at Rantaro, who peered down at his E-Handbook before shaking his head. We parted ways at the next intersection, with him heading straight towards the Track Room and me making a right, then a left towards the Dojo.

I opened the Dojo door, and saw no one at the punching bags or the dummies. However, when I turned to look at the mat, that's when I found Mondo. And my heart instantly sunk.

Mondo was resting on his neck and shoulders, his legs bent upright against the wall. His eyes stared lifelessly at me, his head at a very bad angle.

I instantly opened my E-Handbook to alert the others. Looking at the time, it was 8:15am.

* Shishano Kantoku has entered the chat.

Shishano Kantoku: I found Mondo. He's in the Dojo, dead.

Rantaro Amami: Oh no! On my way now! I'll round up Fuyuhiko and Kyoko. Stay put!

Korekiyo Shinguji: How unfortunate. And what a dilemma we find ourselves in: one body in the Kitchen on the First Floor, and another in the Dojo on the Third Floor. Clearly, Shishano will not be given enough time to investigate both bodies. Someone will have to volunteer.

Kyoko Kirigiri: I'm almost to the Dojo now. I will handle Mondo; Shishano can go back to Teruteru once Monorakun is done with us.

Shishano Kantoku: Understood. Being experienced with bodies in Teruteru's disposition, I feel I would be better fit to handle him. No offense.

Kyoko Kirigiri: None taken. Let's gather everyone at the Dojo and wait for Monorakun.

*Shishano Kantoku has left the chat.

Not to my surprise, it was actually Monorakun who scurried into the Dojo first, choosing to stand under one of the punching bags hanging from the ceiling. Rantaro, Kyoko, and Fuyuhiko were not far behind, however, and eventually, the rest of the group joined up with us as well.

"Welcome to the Dojo! Home to Mondo, the Ultimate Ghost Rider!" Monorakun greeted the others.

When no one responded, he shrugged and said, "What? They're both dead bikers, aren't they? Did I miss something here? Hmmmm..."

Toko...er, Jack Syo spoke up. "Awww, someone killed Bugle Boy? Dammit! His hair always made me crave those chips!"

Monorakun glanced up at Jack for a while, seemingly confused, then resumed. "Anyway, you've found both dead bodies, so now you can have BOTH Monorakun Files!"

Everyone's E-Handbooks went off at the same time, this time with both Monorakun files. I opened Mondo's first, since I was already near his corpse.

"Victim: Mondo Owada. Estimated time of death between 6:45pm and 7pm. Cause of Death: Crash Landing. No other injuries reported."

So by the time we had our St. Patrick's Day Dinner, Mondo was already dead? Oh no...

I exited out of Mondo's Autopsy Report, glanced at Kyoko, then entered into Teruteru's Autopsy Report.

"Victim: Teruteru Hanamura. Estimated time of death is sometime after 9pm. Cause of Death: Overcooked. Oven was set to 500*F. Blunt force injury to right side of head. Other physical injuries unknown as of time of death, as inside of oven could not be viewed."

Nekomaru spoke up. "Alright, so we've got two murders, and two murder scenes. I'm sure Shishano can't do both at once, so who's gonna step up?"

Kyoko spoke up immediately. "I already volunteered to inspect Mondo, and Shishano will go downstairs to search Teruteru for clues."

Sakura was the next to speak. "Clearly, we cannot have two guards at each body, for that would leave us with four guards and two people investigating the bodies. I say instead, we have one guard for each area, and we split into two groups to search each area. Half of us can go downstairs with Shishano, and the other half stays in here. Does that sound acceptable?"

Nekomaru nodded. "Yeah, that seems like the best bet right now. Alright, no time to lose. I'll stand guard over Kyoko here while she does her thing. Everyone else, either look around for clues or head downstairs!"

Kyoko headed over towards Mondo, with Nekomaru following her. Jack, Tenko, Hiyoko, and Mahiru volunteered to check out the Dojo for clues, leaving me, Korekiyo, Sakura, Fuyuhiko, and Rantaro to head downstairs to the Kitchen.

When we arrived, to my surprise, Fuyuhiko volunteered for guard duty, saying that Sakura should have a chance to search for clues. Sakura gave no objections, and I got to work on Teruteru, gently pulling him out of the oven and laying him out.

Teruteru definitely had gone through heat stress due to the high temperatures of the oven, likely leading to a heat stroke. His skin was very dry and warm, and he had blisters on parts of his body. He also looked like he may have had a heat rash at some point, as traces of red spots could faintly be seen on his face and the backs of his hands and arms. His clothes had sweat stains on them, particularly around the front of the collar, in the armpits, and behind the knees.

Based on this information, I estimated that, assuming the oven was turned on immediately after Teruteru was stuffed in, that Teruteru died within a few hours of going into the oven.

Nodding to myself, I started removing Teruteru's clothing, causing Fuyuhiko to recoil in disgust.

"Dammit, must you undress every dead body you find? That's fuckin' disgusting, you know!"

I glanced at him. "If you don't want me to miss any vital clues, I need to do this."

"Ugh...fine, whatever. Just make it quick; I'm not looking at his naked cooked ass!" Fuyuhiko looked away in disgust.

I carefully removed Teruteru's clothing, and noticed a blunt force injury to the right side of his head. It looked like he was struck with something hard before he died. Other than that, and more of those faint red spots, there was nothing else to really see.

Laying Teruteru's clothes over him (as redressing him seemed pointless), I noticed Korekiyo staring at a table leg. Cautiously approaching him, I saw a small blood spatter on the side of the table leg. Likely, whatever he was struck with, it happened close by, and the angle appeared to be going down the table leg, suggesting the blood came from somewhere higher up than this specific spot on the table leg.

So Teruteru was struck with a blunt object, which caused him to bleed. Some of his blood ended up getting flung onto the table leg, and likely on the floor. His killer then stuffed him into the oven and wiped up any blood on the floor, likely not seeing the blood on the table leg.

Korekiyo, meanwhile, was eyeing me. "Drawing the same conclusion? I believe our poor chef was struck here before he died. I see no blood on the floor; likely it was wiped clean. This would seem to be a crime of passion, rather than a premeditated murder."

So Korekiyo does not suspect that Teruteru's Blackened came into the Kitchen with the intent to kill, it would seem.

"Hey, take a look at this!" Rantaro called out.

Rantaro had the pan used to cook the corned beef in his hand. It now had a messed-up handle; it was loose, making the pan wobble up-and-down in his hand. Neither of us remembered it being loose when we assisted Teruteru with cooking the meal yesterday. Could this have been the weapon used on Teruteru?

Monorakun's face appeared on the monitor. "Alright, time's up. Get to the courtyard for our morning doubleheader! Who wiped out Mondo, and who charred Teruteru? It's up to you all to figure it out...or not. Now, move it!"

Everyone met up at the Courtyard fountain, which dried up and slid backwards, revealing the staircase leading to the Courtroom. Silently, we made our way down the stairs, with Monorakun scurrying in front of us on all fours.

Who killed Mondo and Teruteru? Was it the same person, or two different people? Worse, would we all die if we got one Blackened right, but not the other?

I feared I already knew the answer to the last question.