I felt sick, hell everyone around me did…

  Cain: “We aren’t seriously actually going to try and figure out how this guy died right? H-how the fuck are we suppose to figure that out!?”

  Penelope: “If your brain was as big as your mouth then it should be fairly obvious… we investigate the building, build a case, and reconnect the dots.”

  Nina: “Bullshit! We don’t even know who killed him! We can’t solve a case without the actual murderer here!”

  Jeremy: “That’s… not entirely true, they never specified what we were actually investigating.”

  Cain: “The hell does that mean!”

  Jeremy: “It means they never disclosed whether or not we need to call out the murderer, look I’m grasping for straws here but we’re definitely just here to investigate this crime and see it done…”

  Yoshiharu: “Jeez… look I’m just gonna go sit down and clear my head, there’s too much going on in such a fast moving space…”

  With that, Yoshiharu walked off, not sure where…

  Cain: “H-hey wait for me! I don’t want to be here right now either!”

  Nina: “Oh you think you don’t want to be here!? What about me! Hey! get back here!”

  Oscar: “Aw for fuck’s sake… someone’s gotta stop them from driving Yoshiharu mad…”

  All three, Cain, Nina, and Oscar followed after Yoshiharu… so I turned to Abel.

  Jac: “Aren’t you gonna follow your brother?”

  Abel: ~shrug~ “I’m not obligated to keep him in check every minute, especially if I'll be more helpful here… if everyone’s okay with that of course…”

  Jac: “Oh trust me we need all the heads we can gather.”

  The following students that dispersed without words were Kanji, Haru, Valentinia, Avrom, Hikari, Shichiro, and Juno.

  I stayed with Jeremy, Makoto, Penelope, Lapti?a, Noir, and Abel to investigate near the body.

  Jeremy: “So what exactly do we know? Other than his cause of death?”

  Noir: “W-which is… suffocation right?”

  Hey wait, why was Noir here? She doesn’t seem like the type to investigate these kinds of things, nor does she seem mentally capable too… maybe it more so doesn’t have to do with the body, more so that she just wanted to cling around Makoto.

  Makoto: “Yes, suffocation is rather broad however…”

  Abel: “Wait… we can discuss the cause of death anytime, but shouldn’t we first figure out how the killer was able to hang him by his feet?”

  Abel made a good point, the life-like mannequin was hanging upside down by their feet, rope around their right heel, and yet it was also nailed to the ceiling. I think it was worth investigating the rope however, it did have a trail after all on the ceiling that led somewhere.

  Jeremy: “Hey wait, Jac where you heading?”

  Jac: “Just some sightseeing…”

  I’d follow the rope to the right coming from the meadows doorway, the rope was attached to something behind a pedestal in the hallway, looking behind it I found what looked like some kind of mechanism in a tense lock, so the victim was caught in a snare, he must’ve trigger the mechanism when his foot move the rope to pull at the mechanism, hence getting his leg caught as the machine activated to pull against the little pressure and tighten, hence wrapping around the victims leg.

  [Snare Mechanism-)

  Abel: “Hey… did you find anything?”

  Abel’s casual quiet tone somehow startled me, we should really get him a bell.

  Jac: “Someone set up a snare here, presumably the killer.”

  Abel seemed to note this down on some loose paper he had on him, it seems our captors didn’t steal everything on our personal.

  Abel: “Okay so… the victim stepped in the snare and then was killed from suffocation, but that doesn’t explain the nails hammered into his foot, how could the killer even reach that height?”

  Good question Abel! Ask me again when I know. I went back to investigate the body, there were no physical wounds on any part of his body besides his head, the entire rim of his head was slit open, but we know that’s not how he died… so why did the killer do that? No, for now I needed to focus on how and why the killer nailed the victim’s foot into the ceiling.

  ~Tap, tap, tap~

  Lapti?a: “Hello? Mind if we- if I talk to you about something?”

  It was the forensic scientist, of course I’d want him to disclose information with me!

  Jac: “Yeah sure, I don’t see why you shouldn’t.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Lapti?a: “C-cool… you seem the most approachable out of everyone here, so let me cut to the chase…”

  My gaze followed his finger as it pointed towards the ground, blood splatters soaked and staining the carpet.

  Jac: “What’s special about that? The blood probably came from the blood dripping from the victim's head.”

  Lapti?a: “N-no… that’s not exactly the case, well not entirely.”

  He’d crouch down and point towards the splatters.

  Lapti?a: “If all of this was from the head, then the blood would slowly drip from his scalp and in one spot, however… There are splatters away from the main spot, which either means the killer caused a mess while slitting the victim’s head open, which is very unlikely because the cuts aren’t deep enough, if we are to believe that the cuts gushed then there should be blood on the walls.”

  [Bloody Head Cuts-)

  Jac: “So that means what exactly?”

  Lapti?a: “It means the body fell on its head when the killer was done suffocating him.”

  [Suspicious blood splatters-)

  Jac: “Wait not when the killer slit its head?”

  Lapti?a: “No, because there are blood traces along his lips, the killer most definitely caught the victim in a snare, suffocated him, then something went wrong hence the victim fell to the ground and the blood in their mouth splattered.”

  [Coughed up Blood-)

  Jac: “So then… why slit his head open?”

  Lapti?a: “To cause confusion maybe?”

  That wouldn’t make sense considering everything we know, there’s no reason to cause confusion if we’re given the cause of death beforehand?

  Jac: “Hey Lappy, can you tell me anything else about the body?”

  Lapti?a: “Nothing in particular, unless I’m given any actual tools to examine the body all I can deduce is that the victim wasn’t killed by any kind of strangulation or intense physical force, perhaps just covering his mouth and nose killed him…”

  [No Signs Of Physical Trauma-)

  Jac: “So where exactly can we find the weapon?”

  Lapti?a: “W-weapon? Do you mean if the killer used some kind of… cloth?”

  Jac: “Yeah exactly, you know you’re pretty smart for someone who looks and sounds so timid.”

  Lapti?a: “…What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Jac: “It means I want you to come with me as I search for it, after all it may have the victim’s or killer’s DNA on it.”

  Lapti?a: “So you just want me around for my talent?”

  Jac: “More or less, but unlike everyone else you’re quite reasonable.”

  I just needed to ease him into helping me investigate, truth is I didn’t want to bother having to fetch him every time I find something regarding the victim or killer’s identity, best to bring him along with me for the simplicity of it all.

  Lapti?a: “Fine… I don’t have much to investigate here anyways.”

  ————————

  I had to search in places away from the crime scene, hence why I led Lapti?a to the basement area… hey wait a minute, there was a fourth door now positioned right in front of me, but earlier that wall was just a wall! So obviously I went in and found myself in a room with a glass floor, it’s where all the water you could see from the floor gaps in the basement flowed, so this was our water supply huh?

  Lapti?a: “…Do you hear that?”

  Jac: “Hear what?”

  Lapti?a pointed to the right where he saw something blocking one of the pipes, so I walked over to it and found a handlebar on the wall, hence I pulled it down to reach in and pull it out.

  Jac: “Don’t let go Rose.”

  I’d jokingly tell Lapti?a as he held my waist so I wouldn’t fall in. I reached forward and pulled out a… foldable step seat? I’d fold it open and set it down before closing the wall back up.

  Lapti?a: “Why would someone throw something like this in the water supply? Especially since it blocked one of the pipes.”

  It was suspicious… I don’t exactly know why we were allowed such close access to the water supply, I mean we could end up containmenting it at any time! But at least we found this thing.

  [Foldable step seat-)

  Lapti?a: “Hey… could you help me get a sample from here? The killer may have dispatched the weapon you're looking for in here, so if there’s any trace left we should get it now.”

  I was now holding his waist as he scooped three vials of the flowing water, there wasn’t much left here for us now. The two of us went back upstairs…

  Noir: “Back away!”

  Oh great what did I miss?

  Penelope: “That’s what I should be asking of you…”

  I moved towards the noise, the study, reading, whatever room with the valves and chalkboard was where the noise was coming from.

  Kenji: “Jesus fucking Christ can you all shut up and let me lay down…”

  Lapti?a and I saw the situation unfold, Noir and Penelope were grabbing at each other's necks.

  Noir: “The hell are you to tell me that when you treat Makoto like one of your dolls!”

  Penelope: “Maybe because he is?”

  In the room were Makoto, Penelope, Noir, Kenji, Juno, and Haru. I wonder where Jeremy and Abel were…

  Haru: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

  Jac: “Can someone tell me what happened here?”

  Haru directed his attention towards me,

  Haru: “My Aussie brother! What are you doing here?”

  Jac: “I- hey wait I’m not from Australia my accent came from my mother.”

  Haru: “Well I’m a tlingit! Proud Aussie!”

  Jac: “…I think you have your ups and downs mixed up, along with your east and wests…”

  Haru: “Nah I’m definitely an Aussie even without the accent! Sure was suspiciously cold though for Australia…”

  Kenji: “Alright shopping cart stop confusing the good boy and let me explain to him what’s going on here.”

  Kenji would take my shoulder and point towards Penelope and Noir who were being broken apart by Juno.

  Kenji: “So vampire there was dragging Mr. Doormat around, and weasel had a problem with that, so she confronted vampire about it, and they got into a little scuffle.”

  Makoto: “My suit is going to need to be thoroughly ironed after this…”

  Juno: “Alright you two break it up before I do it for you…”

  Penelope: “Is that a threat?”

  Juno: “Oh if it were a threat I wouldn’t use words to warn ya.”

  As far as I could piece together, Noir had a problem with how Penelope treated Makoto, hence the squabble leading to Juno having to intervene. Seems like Kanji and Haru were here first however, how Juno ended up discovering this scene was up in the air to me.

  Makoto: “Can we please just get back to investigating the crime? All of this fighting is bad for my mental.”

  Abel: “After all of that I would’ve thought you’d be at least a bit more concerned over how much of a ruckus you’ve caused…”

  Noir: “Hey wait you’re blaming him!”

  Abel: “Well… if we’re being specific… then yes, none of this would have happened if he just told you two to stop being such idiots…”

  Penelope: “Oh and who made you in charge of such thoughts? You are in no position to be painting such a horrendous image.”

  Makoto: “No, Abel has a point…”

  And with that Makoto took his leave, seemingly to distance himself from this situation, right at that moment Juno had to tighten her grip around Penelope and Noir’s arms.

  Juno: “And just where do you think you two are going? He clearly wants to be left alone…”

  I should probably take this time to investigate this room while I’m at it.

  Jac: “You’ve found anything?”

  Lapti?a had completely dodged the situation to prioritize the investigation,

  Lapti?a: “Yeah check this out.”

  He had this proud look in his eyes, like he was happy to be showing me his findings, and what he had found was a bottle of aspergillus fumigatus, a fungus that can create or worsen diseases, especially if you already have a weak immune system.

  [Aspergillus Fumigatus-)

  Jac: “Do you think this is what killed the victim?”

  Lapti?a: “Maybe, but it’s definitely not the only thing that killed the victim.”

  Jac: “Care to elaborate?”

  Lapti?a: “Oh right, I never told you what my test results were huh?”

  Jac: “You were actually able to test your samples?”

  Lapti?a: “Well of course, they never confiscated my only friend here…”

  I watched as Lapti?a pulled out what looked like a thermometer, and yet when he dipped the tip into one of the water vials the digital screen started to calculate and gave results of different chemicals, elements, ect and ect as you probably get the point, but the one thing that made my heart drop was the result of radon gas. I immediately bolted to the dining room, busting the door open and telling everyone to stop where they were! They all looked at me like I was crazy, but I walked over to the kitchen sink and turned the water valve… nothing…

  Cain: “Yo caramel, what’s got you so on edge?”

  Lapti?a: ~exhausted panting~ “We found radon gas in the water supply, that’s why he panicked thinking about the possibility that you guys might’ve just poisoned yourselves…”

  [Radon Gas-)

  He was right, the moment I saw that radon gas had contaminated the water supply I immediately thought the worse.

  Valentinia: “Radon gas in the water supply? Wait where did you two find the water supply?”

  I would explain everything.

  Yoshiharu: “So that complicates things then right? I’ve had time to clear my head and I’ve been thinking that simply suffocating someone hanging upside down shouldn’t be an easy way to kill someone as it’s been made to seem, not only because you’d have to make sure for certain that once they pass out they’re truly dead, but also because the victim is still hanging upside down!”

  Jac: “Which is exactly why Lappy and I think that the victim was suffocated with some kind of cloth, a cloth poisoned in something.”

  [Potential Murder Weapon-)

  Yoshiharu: “And where is this cloth?”

  Jac: “That’s what we’re trying to figure out… but the water supply being poisoned has to do with something…”

  Yoshiharu: “Do you have any evidence of that?”

  Lapti?a: ~Hand raised~ “Actually… yes… I tested the blood and it does show traces of uranium… and aspergillus fumigatus, meaning that these things were indeed injected into the victim's body.”

  [Mix of Poisons-)

  Yoshiharu: “But do we have any way to know how the killer got this into the victim’s body? The victim could’ve had this done to him before he was suffocated, and was simply targeted because of this.”

  Jac: “Look we’ll answer this at the trial, we’re still figuring things out.”

  I took the time to investigate the dining room the same way Lappy and I investigated the study room, and that’s where I found a bloody razor blade in a PB&J sandwich.

  [Bloody Razor-)

  …

  Atropos: “Attention! Hello! Hello! Hello! It’s time for the trial! Please move yourself to the gate of Olympus or face the consequences!”

  Dammit… I didn’t feel like we had enough evidence, but I suppose we’ll just have to see what happens.

  —————