First Murder Investigation

Fuyuhiko, Nekomaru, and Sakura were all standing inside Classroom 1-C, staring up at Ryoma's lifeless body. Fuyuhiko appeared to be arguing with Nekomaru, with Sakura playing peacekeeper.

"Don't fuckin' lie to me! I saw you with that same rope in the hallway! You strangled that bastard!" Fuyuhiko spat at Nekomaru.

Nekomaru stepped back, in shock. "I did not kill him! My job is to make people better as their manager. How does this improve Ryoma at all?"

Fuyuhiko shot back, "Then why did I see you giving him the rope he's currently hanging from?"

Sakura put her hands out towards the two, stepping between the two guys. "Enough! Both of you. Please."

As the rest of us funneled into the classroom, most of them looked up at Ryoma in shock. Even Hiyoko and Tenko had nothing to say.

Once everyone was inside, Monorakun climbed out from under the teacher's desk and stood on it to address us.

"Congratulations! Ryoma's dead! You know what that means, right?"

Kyoko quickly answered, "The Class Trial is coming after we conduct our investigation."

Monorakun clapped his stubby little hands. "Corr-recto! Now, I'm sure you know all the rules for this, but I'll be a generous host and reiterate them for the others."

Monorakun dropped to all fours and began pacing back and forth. "Everyone will now begin this Investigation with the Monorakun File, which should be arriving to your E-Handbooks right about...now."

My E-Handbook went off, and a new section appeared. "Monorakun Files", at the end before "Settings". Opening this file, I saw "Autopsy Report". Nothing the time, it was 10:35am.

"Victim: Ryoma Hoshi. Estimated time of death between 9:45am and 10am. Cause of Death: Lost his breath. The victim's feet were bound together with a large, thick rubber band. There are no other injuries noted on the body."

... That's it? Aside from the time of death, anyone could tell the rest of this from even a casual glance around. Disappointed, I left it open, but looked back at Monorakun.

However, it was Kyoko who spoke up first. "This isn't much to go on."

Monorakun turned his gaze towards Kyoko. "True, but it's a start. The rest, you'll have to figure out yourselves. Gather alibis, look for evidence, and when the time comes, you can meet me at the water fountain, where we'll meet up for the Class Trial."

Kyoko narrowed her eyes. "And if we all refuse to partake in any of this?"

Monorakun's red eye glowed. "If you don't like the rules, feel free to complain to your father about it. After all, he runs this school, right?" Monorakun then feigned shock. "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot. You can't. Because he's DEAD, isn't he?"

Kyoko, to my surprise, merely blinked twice at Monorakun, and didn't even verbally respond to his words.

Monorakun quickly moved on. "Anyway, your first clue will always be the Monorakun File, which also signals the start of your investigation. There's no set-in-stone time limit, but that doesn't mean take your sweet time, either! When I feel like you've had enough time, I'll call for everyone to meet at the fountain in the Courtyard. Meanwhile, feel free to look for evidence, gather alibis from your fellow students, or hell, even take each other to Pound Town for all I care! Now, start your investigation!"

Monorakun then disappeared from existence, leaving us all in the room alone, with Ryoma's corpse still dangling in the room.

Teruteru turns towards Tenko, a grin on his lips. I knew a pervy comment was coming before he even opened his mouth.

"So, Tenko, Monorakun said there's no rule against partaking in the martial combat of love. With that said, would you love to be my sparring partner?"

Tenko...I couldn't really read her face, but she definitely wasn't happy. Only one word escaped her lips.

"What." It came out in the International Girl Speak for "Um, you wanna try that again, boy?"

Teruteru smiled and put his hand on the outside of her thigh. "Ah, don't wor-"

"Eeeee-yaaahhhh!!"

The next thing I saw was Teruteru, flying upside-down, out of the room, and slamming into the wall opposite Classroom 1-C, then sliding down the wall and landing on his head. Tenko, in one swift motion, had grabbed Teruteru's wrist, removed his hand from her outer thigh, spun 180 degrees, and threw him out of the room, over her shoulder, the way you would throw a heavy bag of garbage into a dumpster.

Teruteru hit the ground, and to my surprise, merely chuckled to himself and scrambled to his feet. I ignored his comment towards Tenko, and focused again on the task at hand.

Sakura and Nekomaru had already gotten Ryoma down from the noose, and had carefully laid him out on the floor, under Kyoko's watch.

I got Kyoko's attention. "I suppose I should start investigating the body, am I right?"

Kyoko shook her head. "I may be an Ultimate Detective, but I specialize in homicides. I've got this."

I glanced downwards in disagreement. "I've spent most of my life examining the deceased. I mean no disrespect, Kyoko, but I must ask to be the one to examine Ryoma."

Sakura came over to the both of us. "Is there a problem here, Shishano? Kyoko?"

Something then occurred to me. "Kyoko? There is something about this classroom that strikes me as odd. I cannot quite place my finger on what, though. Would you mind investigating this room, while I inspect Ryoma for clues? I feel you would be better suited than I for figuring it out."

Kyoko looked around the room, then nodded slightly. "Yes. Something is, indeed, wrong with the setup in this room. I shall investigate this room, and trust your skills with Ryoma."

Kyoko and Sakura then turned to address the others, with Kyoko speaking with Sakura briefly before speaking. "Shishano will inspect Ryoma for clues, and I will search this room for any clues. However, we should have at least two people stand guard in here, to help prevent a second killing, as well as to deter any sabotage attempts. Sakura has volunteered to being a guard, but we need one more person. Who else volunteers?"

Nekomaru offered to be the second guard, but Fuyuhiko shot that down, stating he could not be trusted, since he was seen with Ryoma right before the murder. Nekomaru started to argue with him, but Mondo intervened, stating he would stand guard, since he had no real connection to Ryoma and would not take crap from anyone. Everyone agreed, so we started our investigation.

First, I carefully took off Ryoma's jacket so I could better check for other injuries, as the injuries around his throat were rather obvious. Lifting his shirt, I saw no bruising on his chest, back, sides, or his arms. Therefore, no one had a knee to his back while strangling him; there would be bruising present between the shoulders.

I carefully opened his mouth, but found nothing inside his mouth or throat. I pulled off his hat and examined his head, but saw no injuries, front or back. So no one knocked him out and strangled him, and smelling no chemicals, I concluded he must have been conscious when he was strangled.

Indeed, the only injuries I saw were to his throat, where the noose was. Not even signs of struggle on his hands, which would be expected if Ryoma was trying to pull something away from his throat. No bruising, no rubbing, and no scrapes on his hands. Which, as it would seem, means that he wasn't trying to struggle or fight back against his attacker.

Mahiru approached me from behind, accompanied by Mondo. "Shishano? If no one's asked you yet, I need to get your alibi. Where were you, and what were you doing, between 8:30am and the time of the murder?"

Interesting that she specifically mentioned 8:30am, as that is when I met up with Gundham. It is likely, then, that she already spoke with him, to confirm his alibi, and that Gundham mentioned talking to me then.

Smiling inside, I flipped my hair back a bit, faced Mahiru better, and answered her question.

"As I am sure you saw in the Group Chat, I arranged to meet with Gundham in the School Store at 8:30am. I did, indeed, meet with Gundham. We discussed several different topics, but Ryoma was not one of them. Afterwards, Gundham left me to feed his hamsters, so I was going to return to my room from the School Store. As I passed Classroom 1-C, I saw Ryoma alone in Classroom 1-C."

"About what time was this, and was Ryoma still alive?" Mahiru interrupted me.

"Yes, Ryoma was still alive. It was..." I thought for a moment. "About 9am, I would guess. Anyway, I passed Nekomaru in the hallway, who had a rope in his hands. He mentioned that Ryoma had requested that Nekomaru bring the rope to him, as it was important in his plans to get everyone out of here."

Mahiru nodded. "Yes, that makes sense. That rope, by the way, came from Nekomaru's room, from his training supplies, so your words validate his. He often uses that training rope for climbing exercises, tug of war, or other similar exercises. Please, continue."

I nodded. "Anyway, I let Nekomaru get on with his errand, and talked with Himiko outside her dorm room. She is considering performing a show of sorts for us, but is not certain what kind of escape performance to display for us. We spoke together, in the hallway outside Himiko's room, until the alert went off."

Mahiru was silent for a while, then nodded. Mondo led her away. As I wrapped up my search of Ryoma, finding nothing else except the lack of struggle wounds and the obvious strangling injuries to his throat, which seemed more consistent with hanging than being strangled from behind, Kyoko approached me cautiously.

"Shishano, if I may? I want to show you something over here."

I walked towards the side of the classroom, where a scuff mark appeared on the wall, far too high to have been done by someone standing on the ground. Even kicking from the ground, the mark appeared too high to be reached.

Kyoko and I looked at each other in quiet understanding. Only Ryoma could have done this, with the bottoms of his shoes kicking against the wall. Glancing at the opposite side of the room, and making a mental pendulum in my mind, it would seem the teacher's desk would have been high enough, to make enough momentum, to get Ryoma high enough to make this scuff.

Speaking of the teacher's desk...was that a shoe print on it? No...three of them. Two of them were very close to each other, pretty much touching each other, and a third was off to the side, making a straight line with the first two. The prints were far too small to be Nekomaru's, but about the right size for Ryoma's. But why would Ryoma-

My thoughts were interrupted by Monorakun's alert. "Alright, you've had enough time, now make your way over to the fountain. It's time to start this Class Trial!"

Without a word, we all filed ourselves towards the Courtyard, where Monorakun waited in front of the fountain. Monorakun's red eye glowed brightly, then dimmed itself out. Suddenly, the fountain dried itself up, and slid itself backwards, revealing a spiral staircase underneath the fountain, going pretty far down.

"Alright everyone, follow me down the stairs to the Courtroom! I'll explain how the Class Trial goes once everyone gets to their seats! And remember, point the finger at your own peril, because EVERYONE'S lives are on the line here!"

Down the stairwell we went, step by step, with nothing but our footsteps and breathing giving away our existences. Our only source of lighting were jagged red lights, resembling Monorakun's own red eye, along the ceiling, creating an eerie reddish glow amongst everyone as we descended deeper.

Finally, we exited the stairwell and spread out along the landing. A black door, with a red jagged handle on the right side door, greeted us. Monorakun jumped up, pulled the handle down, and opened the door for us.

And the First Class Trial was set to begin. Would we find the correct Blackened, or would I join the others in eternal slumber?