Oscar: “Well, what are you dumb lot waiting for?”
Oscar, who had stayed silent until now, was the first to leave for the gate of Olympus, Yoshiharu and Nina followed.
Lapti?a: “Jac, come on let’s hurry…”
I felt him tug at my wrist.
Cain: “Woah hey what’s with all the touching? He’s my camera man!”
Then Cain tugged at my other wrist.
Lapti?a: “Oh… sorry but who are you? I don’t see Jac holding a camera here so he’s still my investigation buddy…”
Cain: “B-Buddy! When did you and him become buddies? Sorry pal but as long as I have my account of him being my camera man, he technically belongs to me…”
What’s with these people and trying to own others!?
Jac: “Can you two just calm down and save this for after the announcement? Look, Lappy can hold my right wrist, and Cain… I guess you hold my left.”
Lapti?a: “I just want to make sure we all get to the building faster…”
Cain: “Likely story…”
I didn’t get why Cain tried making himself out to look like a sad puppy… it was working though. I couldn’t figure out if this was from all of his experience being the ultimate influencer, training his facial expressions, practicing different vocal techniques, and testing new Internet personalities behind a screen, or if he was simply weirdly clingy… really, really, really weird…
————————
The three of us ventured out to the meadows.
Shichiro: “BULLSHIT!”
Avrom: “Hey! Calm down you two!”
Hikari: “Bullshit?! The hell you mean bullshit! You can’t try to pin this on me!”
Oh great now what?
Shichiro: “Yes I can! You stole my flute! You were the only one next to me! And Avrom wouldn’t possibly steal it!”
Hikari: “I already expined to you how I was nowhere near you!”
Avrom: “Yeah Shichi! Please you gotta believe him, I know he’s been next to me all day and I’ve been in between you two the entire time!”
So Shichiro had their flute stolen? What an unfortunate time to lose it.
Jac: “Can you three save this until after the announcement?”
All three of them turned to me.
Shichiro: “Stay out of this!”
Hikari: “No he’s right… Look, we all want to get out of here, and I’ll help you anyway I can to find your flute, just please trust me until we can prove I’m innocent Usui…”
Shichiro: “It’s Shi-Chi-Ro! You don’t get to call me by my family name!”
Avrom: “Shichi please! Let’s just… drop this for now…”
It seems Avrom was the one trying to break things up, social deduction led me to believe that Shichiro had a soft spot for Avrom, but Avrom had some kind of admiration towards Hikari, and Hikari’s pstered smile was still beaming… many would think it was fake, but there’s only one way to get teeth to shine that white.
Shichiro: “Fine… let’s just get this thing over with, we’re going to the building over there right?”
She pointed towards the gate of Olympus building, and was already walking over there forcefully dragging Avrom with her.
Jeez… if these are my cssmates then I most definitely would’ve graduated alone.
——————————
All eighteen of us gathered at the gate of Olympus building, Penelope being the st one to arrive, everyone was on edge of course… tense and afraid of what their anxieties were telling them.
Abel: “Hey Cain… I was wondering when you’d get here…”
Cain wouldn’t let his grip on my wrist go until Lapti?a did, but that wasn’t the most worrying thing here.
Jeremy: ~hiccup~ “H-hey Jac! T-took you long enouvv…”
Jac: “…Are you drunk?”
Jeremy had a wine gss in his hand.
Makoto: “Please forgive me Mr. Miyata I tried stopping him but he insisted on one sip, and well… it appears our ultimate wine maker here can’t handle alcohol well, I humored him and he took one sip, just one sip and he started slurring his words!”
Haru: “Yep! I’m the one who found him the wine bottle by the way! I’m amazing at being nice I know, I know, you can all thank me ter.”
Nina: “I think we have different ideas of what being “Nice” is… now we’re down a person for whatever these sisters have pnned for us because you got our himbo drunk!”
Jeremy: “H-hey! I’m no h-himm-HIMb ~hicup~ -oo”
~Mechanical Noises~
We had all gathered in as a group moving into the cloudy decor circle on the ground, and that’s when the floor started to shake, break, and elevate.
Cain: “WHA! What the hell is going on!”
Haru: “Uh it’s obviously an elevator dumbass, what? You to use to traveling on your private jets?”
Cain: “On the contrary… Gas prices on jets are expensive! Which is why I switched to taking private trains, coal prices aren’t so bad when you’re not the one paying for it!”
Penelope: “Ugh… you’re an idiot with your money…”
Abel: “That’s why I’m in charge of his spendings…”
Kanji: “Jesus fucking Christ can you all shut up?!”
Hikari: “Hey dude why the sour look? Aren’t you supposed to be a happy clown?”
Kanji: “No I’m a sad clown, and you’d know what’d make me happy? If you took a long look in the shitter and figured out where your common sense went…”
Juno: “If you don’t All shut up I’ll give you a reason to.”
And just like that Juno had everyone in silence, no one was going to talk back against her.
—————————
We all patiently waited until the floor below us was locked in pce, almost like we were carried by a cloud as we stared in awe at the area around us! There was quite a big stage in front of us, but the construction between us and the stage were these podiums, eighteen to be exact lined up in a circle.
Atropos: “HEYO! Hi! Hello! Over here! Look at me!!”
Cthulhu mask was in the middle of the podium circle.
Atropos: “Please take a stand at your designated seats! And if you don’t… then I’ll punish you!”
She pulled out a gun, which of course caused us to cautiously find the podium with our name pte on it.
Oscar: “So what exactly are we doing? We investigated a dead body, and now are we here to host a presentation?”
Atropos: “Yes! And no! You will be presenting something though! And that’s presenting evidence, cims, and other things during this institutional trial!”
We all froze… a trial?
Nina: “A trial? … as in court?”
Lachesis: ~Appearing on Stage~ “I shall take things from here before Atropos leads you all astray, but yes… You can call this a court trial, it’s self expnatory but I’ll expin it to all of you in the simplest way I can: You have all discovered a dead body, as per the rules you will now be forced to figure out what happened via a trial, a trial that uses evidence and jury to be exact, you are the jury that shall present evidence.”
Oscar: “What? That’s stupid! We don’t even know who killed him!”
Jac: ~I’d raise my hand~ “Hang on, what exactly is the point of this trial? Are we actually trying to find out who killed the victim?”
Lachesis: “I don’t know… are you?”
Jac: “…No… No, we're here trying to figure out just how he died, piecing the story together, not trying to find the culprit itself.”
Lachesis: “If that’s how you see this case, then you better see it through…”
Kanji: “Hold it! What makes you think any of us are just gonna py your game? And what are these fucking rules you puke about!?”
Atropos pulled the bolt of her pistol… which shouldn’t exactly be possible but I wouldn’t put it past them to customize their firearms.
Kanji: “…duly noted…”
Penelope: “So that’s it? All we have to do is solve the case on how the unworthy fell victim to their own stupidity? Sounds easy enough.”
Lapti?a: “…Did you even investigate with us?”
Penelope: “I investigate with those that are equal to my status, and higher than my standards, none of you meet either of those things… So I took the liberty of investigating it on my own!”
Noir: “Oh great now we have to listen to Mrs. Monopoly…”
Lachesis: “It seems you’re all ready to proceed with the trial, the case of how Lucifer Saikon, the ultimate traitor, was killed.”
^Light within the Night. Darkness clouded by Brightness. One question. Two Answers. Under one Eclipse.^
Jac: “Okay so… we should establish the victim before we get into the nitty gritty.”
Makoto: “The victim is Lucifer Saikon correct?”
Penelope: “Yes my little fine dressed mutt.”
Noir: “M-MUTT!? He’s not a mutt!”
Jac: “Ugh we’re getting off track…”
Kanji: “Yeah we already know that the guy died from suffocating right? So can we be done now? He died from suffocation! There we figured out how he died…”
Haru: “Dumbass! We're also supposed to figure out how he was killed by the culprit! Not just the initial cause of death.”
Atropos: “And you should all figure out what the culprit did to prepare for their scheme, and what they did after!”
Oscar: “Wait we didn’t agree to that did we?”
Atropos: “Who’s holding the weapon here?”
Oscar: ~groaning~
Abel: “So… can we all agree that the culprit killed the victim while he was hanging upside down?”
Valentinia: “What? No that’s stupid, how could the killer suffocate the victim while he’s upside down? Obviously the culprit suffocated the victim before hanging them upside down!”
Abel: “What makes you say that? You weren’t even there to investigate the body with us…”
Valentinia: “Duh! I did my own investigation of course! And also because my intuition says so…”
We won’t be able to proceed if a debate like this keeps spiraling… I gotta put an end to it!
{Non-Stop Debate}
1. Abel: “The killer set up a snare trap.”
2. Abel: “Then he waited…”
3. Abel: “Till the culprit was caught to suffocate him.”
4. Valentinia: “No that’s not how it happened!”
5. Valentinia: “It would make no sense for the killer to attack the culprit while they would be in a fight or flight situation!”
6. Valentinia: “That’s why the killer first attacked the victim before hanging them up!”
7. Valentinia: “And there’s absolutely nothing that proves that the killer set this up ahead of time!”
…I found it… the wrong verdict! I knew what was wrong with one of their arguments!
1.Abel: “The killer set up a snare trap.”
2. Abel: “Then he waited…”
3. Abel: “Till the culprit was caught to suffocate him.”
4. Valentinia: “No that’s not how it happened!”
5. Valentinia: “It would make no sense for the killer to attack the culprit while they would be in a fight or flight situation!”
6. Valentinia: “That’s why the killer first attacked the victim before hanging them up!”
7. Valentinia: “And there’s absolutely nothing that proves that the killer set this up ahead of time!”
[Snare Mechanism-)
{Counter}
Jac: “NO THAT’S WRONG! Look Valentinia I don’t mean to be mean… but kindly stop talking unless you actually know what you’re talking about, because we have proof the killer did set this up ahead of time, and killed the victim while they were hung up.”
Valentinia: “Oh yeah? How?! Go on you little rascal! Your boyfriends can’t save you from my smarts!”
Jac: “Then what can you tell me about the snare mechanism?”
Valentinia: “The uh- … s-snare what now?”
Abel: “Yeah, Jac and I found this domino effect machine behind one of the pedestal’s in the hall, the rope that suspended the victim in the air traveled on top of the roof, to the wall, then behind the pedestal where once the initial loop around the victims heel tugged away at the device behind the pedestal, that’s when the machine would pull back and snare whoever activated it.”
Valentinia: “Oh is that so? … o-oh is that… so?”
Haru: “Aw don’t feel so bad! I’m sure you’ve gotten many customers for your talent!”
Valentinia: “Y-yeah! I’ve read the fortunes of many patrons! I just got things wrong tonight, but my intuition never steers me wrong!”
Haru: “Oh I think you misunderstood, I meant that you got your customers through your lewd look! There’s no possible way they actually paid to be next to you cuz they were confident in your abilities, I mean come on you look like a pole girl for crying out loud…”
Kanji: “Can we go back on topic…”
Abel: “Right, so we can clear up any misconceptions about how the victim died, they were snared in the air and suffocated.”
Avrom: “How so though?”
Abel: “…Eborate…”
Avrom: “There’s blood in the ground right? If the killer suffocated them then the victim’s blood shouldn’t be anywhere on the ground, isn’t it more pusible that the killer first cut the victim’s head open, then suffocated them?”
No… that can’t be it, because!
[Suspicious Blood Sptters-)
Jac: “Look at this, Lappy proved without a shadow of a doubt that this blood was as old at the blood on the victim’s lips, and the blood in one goop are still a bit fresh, it’s more pusible that the killer’s snare gave in and the victim fell, the force of gravity caused the blood from the victim’s mouth to gush out, and then the killer reascended them.”
Avrom: “So where did the rest of the blood come from?”
Cain: “Duh, from the head of course!”
Avrom: “Exactly, why did the killer do that then?”
Cain: “Oh good point…”
Nina: “Maybe to create a bigger scene?”
Kanji: “Why can’t we all be as smart as you…”
Nina: “Hey I know that tone! No need to be mean about it!”
Abel: “We should probably go over that… it’s puzzled me as well…”
Yoshiharu: “Agreed… let’s see what we have to work with.”
Crud… we need to figure out why the killer cut the victim’s head open if we wish to understand their method.
{Non-Stop Debate}
1.Nina: “Perhaps they just wanted to create a spectacle to boast about their kill?”
2. Kanji: “Idiot… they obviously did it to cover up their blunder…”
3. Oscar: “How do we know that it wasn’t an accident?”
4. Abel: “An accident?
5. Abel: “No of course not, it’s more pusible to believe they simply wanted to hurt the victim more.”
6. Haru: “Maybe they just like blood!”
7. Makoto: “Self inflicted perhaps?”
8. Jeremy: “M-maYBe thE kILLeR hAd SuCH a GoOoD tiMMe tHat ThEY gOT cARRiEd aWaY!”
…I can’t believe I’m agreeing with you…
1.Nina: “Perhaps they just wanted to create a spectacle to boast about their kill?”
2. Kanji: “Idiot… they obviously did it to cover up their blunder…”
3. Oscar: “How do we know that it wasn’t an accident?”
4. Abel: “An accident?
5. Abel: “No of course not, it’s more pusible to believe they simply wanted to hurt the victim more.”
6. Haru: “Maybe they just like blood!”
7. Makoto: “Self inflicted perhaps?”
8. Jeremy: “M-maybe he just had SuCH a GoOoD tiMMe tHat ThEY gOT cARRiEd aWaY!”
[Coughed Up Blood-)
{Consent}
Jac: “Hey Kanji, I think you might be onto something.”
Kanji: “Of course I am… I didn’t investigate the scene for nothing.”
Abel: “Wait you did?”
Kanji: “Yeah, no one was there though so I just decided to do it on my own… and the most bizarre thing happened! The body fell but I caught it in time, thankfully no blood got on me… but then I heard this weird sound, a cranking sound, and then snap! The snare activated again before a voice said something along the lines of, “Third Try” or something stupid like that.”
Lapti?a: “T-that changes everything!”
Kanji: “It does?”
Lapti?a: “It does… because now we know for certain the killer had a failsafe for if the victim did fall or escape, the snare would reactivate if any of those conclusions happened.”
Nina: “So that means the victim could have fallen!”
Kanji: “Exactly, the victim fell, blood went spt, so the killer had nothing to lose… hence they made a distraction to cover up the blood that came from the victim’s mouth.”
Avrom: “But… why? Wouldn’t others have the same information we got?”
Kanji: “Jeez you’re naive… hey middle tits!?”
Lachesis: “Are you referring to me?”
Kanji: “Yeah! Look, answer this question! Would anyone but us have the tablet of information you gave us?”
Lachesis: “Interesting… to answer your question to keep this a fair trial, no… The only reason you have this information beforehand is to make it as fair as we can make it for the newbies.”
Kanji: “Exactly my point, others would’ve thought the victim died from blood loss, not from suffocation, but because we knew that ahead of time we can write off the blood dripping from the head, does that satisfy you blower?”
Avrom: “…Yes…”
Kanji: “Good, now then let’s move on shall we? My mouth is getting tired from educating you all…”
Nina: “Sooo… what exactly did the killer use to suffocate the victim then?”
Abel: “…Why does that matter?”
Nina: “Cuz suffocation is hard of course! The victim should’ve been able to fight back, no he did fight back according to the snare mechanism resetting!”
Oscar: “That’s… fair, suffocating them should still be hard to do with the victim hanging upside down! So why was it so easy for the killer?”
{Non-Stop Debate}
1.Nina: “The killer gagged him!”
2. Cain: “What kind of kinky shit are you into?”
3. Nina: “What! No! I’m just saying the killer first gagged the victim…”
4. Nina: “Then used the vomit to choke them!”
5. Shichiro: “Okay that’s just gross…”
6. Hikari: “But not impusible! You’re doing great Nina!”
7. Noir: “But that falls under poisoning right?”
8. Noir: “And there's no evidence to support that the victim was poisoned!”
No… theirs definitely something wrong here
1.Nina: “The killer gagged him!”
2. Cain: “What kind of kinky shit are you into?”
3. Nina: “What! No! I’m just saying the killer first gagged the victim…”
4. Nina: “Then used the vomit to choke them!”
5. Shichiro: “Okay that’s just gross…”
6. Hikari: “But not impusible! You’re doing great Nina!”
7. Noir: “But that falls under poisoning right?”
8. Noir: “And there's no evidence to support that the victim was poisoned!”
[Aspergillus Fumigatus-)
{Counter}
Jac: “NO THAT’S WRONG! Lappy and I found a bottle of aspergillus fumigatus in the study room.”
Noir: “A what?”
Jac: “Fungus essentially… But some of it was missing from the bottle, and Lappy has confirmed from testing the blood that there was indeed some fungus in his blood, more specifically the aspergillus.”
Nina: “Oh so he was poisoned!”
Lapti?a: “Well not exactly… because there was also uranium in his blood.”
Juno: “Uranium?”
Oh yeah! Uranium! That’s because…
[Radon Gas-)
Jac: “Lappy and I investigated the celrs, and found a fourth door that led to the water supply, Lappy then tested the water and found traces of elements that acmute to radon gas.”
Nina: “Soo what does that mean exactly?”
Jac: “It means that the victim was already sick before being poisoned by the fungus.”
Shichiro: “How can we be so sure of that?”
Jac: “Excuse me?”
Shichiro: “The order of events, are we sure the fungus wasn’t the first thing that poisoned the victim?”
Lapti?a: “Yes… because I tested it…”
Shichiro: “…”
Jac: “Anyways, we can deduce that the victim was poisoned through the water supply, then suffocated with fungus to further the infection, killing them.”
Juno: “Hold on a moment!”
Jac: “Hm?”
Juno: “Are we suggesting that we know how the killer poisoned the victim?”
Nina: “It’s obviously a cloth right?”
Avrom: “Sure the killer could’ve forced the victim to breathe the fungus in with a cloth, but we can’t be so sure… there are other means after all.”
Abel: “Why do I feel like we’re about to go spinning around again?”
Ugh… this is hurting my head… I just wanna close my eyes and sleep all of this off… sleep? … yeah… let me just-
Jac: “…”
Jak: “…”
{Non-Stop Debate}
1.Avrom: “Syringe, the killer poked a needle and injected the fungus into him.”
2. Cain: “Obviously they fed him some kind of rotting food!”
3. Abel: “All of this would be much simpler if we just cimed it was a cloth…”
4. Oscar: “But we can’t be certain of that!”
5. Kanji: “Sometimes it hurts to be too certain…”
6. Jeremy: “I KNOW! ORANGE!”
7. Haru: “Aw, our little drunk is so happy!”
8. Nina: “He wouldn’t be drunk if you hadn’t found him that wine!”
Hahaha! I got it! I know what I must do! I’ve lied in court countless of times before!
1.Avrom: “Syringe, the killer poked a needle and injected the fungus into him.”
2. Cain: “Obviously they fed him some kind of rotting food!”
3. Abel: “All of this would be much simpler if we just cimed it was a cloth…”
4. Oscar: “But we can’t be certain of that!”
5. Kanji: “Sometimes it hurts to be too certain…”
6. Jeremy: “I KNOW! ORANGE!
7. Haru: “Aw, our little drunk is so happy!”
8. Nina: “He wouldn’t be drunk if you hadn’t found him that wine!”
[Potential Murder Weapon-)
[True Murder Weapon-)
I’ll manipute the credibility of this trial!
Jak: “Nah! All of you are just completely wrong because the weapon really is a piece of cloth!”
Jeremy: “H-hey were you just dozing off befo-“
Jak: “Shut up! Now then let’s move away from this topic and discuss the elephant in the room!”
Avrom: “No hang on! If we recount this wrong then we’ll never be allowed to leave!”
Lapti?a: “There is fabric around the rim of the bottle if that helps…”
Jak: “This just proves that the killer tipped the bottle over a cloth they used to suffocate the victim! Now then, the elephant!”
Yoshiharu: “There’s an elephant?”
Jak: “Yes! Why did the killer nail the victim to the roof?”
Hikari: “Wait…. How did they even do that?”
Oh you poor soul… time to shut you up!
[Foldable Step Seat-)
Jak: “We found this in the water supply, the killer must’ve tried disposing of it but it got caught blocking a water pipe, that’s how the killer was able to reach the ceiling to hammer the nail in the victim’s foot.”
Hikari: “Oh that makes sense, alright! Alright! Continue expining why the killer nailed them to the roof!”
Jak: “Well that’s the thing… we don’t actually know other than that they just didn’t want the victim to fall again… wait, Kanji you said the body did fall again though right?”
Kanji: “I tried stealing his clothes, they were nice, that’s why the body fell…”
Jak: “…oh… well it looks like we got our understanding of this case then!”
Abel: “So the killer caught the victim in a snare after poisoning the water supply, took advantage by poisoning a piece of cloth in fungus to force them to breathe it in and further the infection that caused them to suffocate, however the victim’s weight caused them to fall hence the killer went to fetch a step stool to nail their foot to the ceiling after the snare reset, correct?”
Jeremy: “…HOLD IT! I G-GOT SOMET- ~Hiccup~ -THING TO SAY!”
Kanji: “Ugh someone knock him out plea-“
Hikari: “Hey let him talk! Even if he’s a little tipsy, everyone deserves a voice here!”
Hikari gave Jeremy a thumbs up, which Jeremy shakily tried lifting his own hand up but instead decided to just put it down to drink his gss again.
Jeremy: “HOw do yOu EXplAiN THE ~hiccup~ scratches under the carpet?”
Lapti?a: “Scratches?”
Jeremy: “Y-yeah! After I did the Hokey Pokey I bumped into some walls! You all should join me next time! But I tumbled and found myself on the floor… that’s where my hands just wanted to feel the nice cold floor! And that’s where I found scratches!”
Abel: “…Were they made by human nails?”
Jeremy: “Beats me! Five cw scratches is what I remember! ~Hiccup~”
…This changes… everything…
Jak: “…Valentinia, remember what you said before?”
Valentinia: “Huh? Why are you calling me out again! I already admitted I may have been wrong…”
Jak: “…Well… what if you weren’t?”
Valentinia: “Oh? Alright, I'm intrigued!”
Lapti?a: “Jeremy, where did you find these scratches?”
Jeremy: “~Hiccup~ I T0LD Yu0! Under T3H carp3T! And some blood…”
Blood? Under some blood!?
Abel: “Wait! Do you know what this means?”
Lapti?a: “We underestimated just how much the killer wanted to hide! It wasn’t just to hide the victim falling! He was trying to hide the fact that the victim was trying to fight back!”
Avrom: “So Valene was right! The victim wasn’t killed while suspended in the air!”
Haru: “Wait! Hey! Notice me for a second! How do we know the victim wasn’t just cwing their way out of the snare when they were first flipped upside like a sow?”
Penelope: “Refrain from talking such nonsense… I’ve had this case figured out from the beginning, but it was such a great dispy to let you all showcase what you have to offer me in terms of assets… therefore I shall show you a rare sign of generosity.”
Makoto: “Thank you Miss Yoshinaga…”
Penelope: “Please mutt, call me master.”
Makoto: “…As you wish master.”
Blush covered Penelope’s face as she raised her hand.
Penelope: “Allow me to recount what truly happened, as I took the liberty of truly investigating this case…”
Atropos: “O! O! Are you going to give us your answer to how you think the murder was done?!”
Penelope: “Yes… Now please I shall only ask for assistance when I truly need it… that is, I’ll only request help from Jack.”
Jak: “It’s Jak now actually!”
Penelope: “Sorry but I don’t know how to pronounce Jack with just a C, I’m not that familiar with urban or rural nguage… I’m more formal than that.”
Jak: “Actually it’s with a K now!”
Penelope: “Don’t make me regret asking for your help…”
Nina: “Wait a minute! Why are you asking for their help?”
Penelope: “Because they understand certain things… Now then! Let’s begin.”
