What. The. Fuck?!

Slumped against the wall before me was none other than Takeo, beaten and well, a lot of other words to describe what had happened to him. More importantly: how the hell was he hanging on?!

Shouldn't he be dead? It looked like he was barely hanging onto life with all the willpower that he had left in his body. From the looks of it then, it wasn't much! He could keel over at any second!

I still couldn't believe what I was seeing. This wasn't like Leo at all. Leo's death after one of us succumbing to murder someone else was horrible, but Leo was dead, ending any suffering he had endured. Now, Takeo was the next to bite the dust, but unlike having the sweet embrace of death, he was only brought to the doorstep. He might die at any second, but he was still alive after whatever he was put through. The suffering would continue until he dropped dead.

It wasn't comforting in the slightest.

"...please...help..." Takeo had managed to squeeze out with his shaky breath. I almost took a step forward but my body refused to move. He needed medical attention if he was going to survive, but… I just couldn't bring myself to get closer. "Suisei..."

The fact that he was begging, pleading for help did not help at all.

As I looked over Takeo's tortured form, a thought invaded my mind. If I do end up helping him but he dies regardless, wouldn't I become the killer? Sure, I didn't kill him, but I would be the last one to touch him and tamper with his body before he kicked the bucket.

A helpful act to save someone turning them into the killer.

Thanks to that invasive thought, I couldn't be too sure if this was a trap or not. If this was a trap, and whoever left him out like this...it was meant to be a kill steal. Let someone else take the bullet of murder.

Was it though?

If Junkuma thought that someone killing a cockroach was enough to execute Kanata, then someone trying to treat Takeo's wounds being labelled as the killer if the interrogator died afterwards was definitely on the board of possibility.

"..." I had no idea if Takeo was trying to send me a hopeful look or not, but his hand was outstretched. "Please...Sui...I..."

"I'm sorry."

The words poured out of my mouth without much thought on the situation, but making it sound sarcastic was the only thing I could do. I'm really sorry Takeo.

"Suisei...please," blood soon dropped from his mouth. "Forget about…the roles..."

No can do. The rules for this motive said not to break under any circumstances unless the week was up or the following day after a murder.

I couldn't risk it.

I can't risk it.

"You need to-" he coughed, spluttering more blood onto the floor.

In order to stay in character, I apologise for what I'm about to say. "I can't trust someone who has been stalking us in the shadows the past couple of days. It could be a shitty trap for all I know."

"Suisei…"

"I ain't lending you a hand, I'll let someone else who cares know about your defeat interrogator."

He never said a word after that, but he was still alive and I don't know how long he would be. There was a high chance that he wouldn't make it, but everyone else had the right to know. With speed I didn't know I could walk at, the sound of the bells rang throughout the halls.

DING DONG BING BONG

"You know how they say: the early bird gets the worm?" the familiar, cold voice of the robotic scrapheap made itself known over the speakers. "It seems that one of you has really gotten that idea nailed down in practice!"

Wait, did he mean Takeo? But I just left him a second ago. Did that mean…?

I turned around, almost rushing back to the interrogator if it wasn't for what the bear said next, "you guys better move your asses to the gym. Upupupupu!"

The gym?! I had a really bad feeling about this, but I put that aside as I hurried my way to the gym, the sinking feeling became more concrete. There was only one reason that the malfunctioning robot would say that, but my brain continued to find excuses.

Just accept it. There's no other reason.

As I arrived in front of the gym, I saw many others in front of it. Okay, it wasn't that many. A few people were missing however, but they could be in the gym. Everyone who was present during the garden incident was present save for Akahana. Though we did get some others joining us today, Seno and Hudson that is.

Yet, as I scanned the looks of everyone here, despite roles assigned, it was clear that none of us were prepared for this. Seems I got here just in time.

Tadakatsu was about to say something as I walked past, heading to the door. Murder or not, we had an persona to feign. Just a little bit longer. "Let's just face the music already."

Getting in front of the door, ready to burst into the gym, I noticed that there were...drops of red dots on the ground. That didn't bode well as I finally opened the door.

As I opened the door, entering the gym I almost froze.

On the floor, laid Maria. In the middle of the large, red painted pentagram she had painted earlier...with a knife sticking out of her. Her red hair was free flowing instead of being in the usual pigtails she wore. Her long flowing white robe that had seen better days now had large red splatters all over as it had been tossed to the side with a large tear in the fabric.

Even her large satchel had been thrown to the side, the contents within the bag sprawled along the floor. An open bible with the pages ripped from that have been scattered across the room, a pair of reading glasses looked like they have been crushed along with some writing utensils as an old worn teddy bear was peaking out of the satchel as the silver rosary that Maria had been wearing was now around the small, little bear.

I looked over to the three that were within the room, the first was Charlotte, staring down at the body with Fumi who tried to frown but was clearly failing (at least struggling). The last person looking down at the body however was the ghastly Sunako.

She just stared and stared. It was a good thing that all that hair was blocking her face, I could not see what was behind those dark locks. Rage? Sorrow? Whatever she was feeling, she couldn't take her eyes off of the bishop.

It must have affected her deeply.

Can't say I blame her. "Stop staring," I frowned in a harsh whisper, glaring over to the person at my side. He was going to say something, break character...I think. Best to stop him now before he did something stupid during a time like this.

Seno, who was also staring at the body, jumped, holding his hands in front of me before pointing at the ghostly spirit that floated over Maria's body, like the grim reaper waiting on a lost soul to guide to the afterlife.

"Ma...ma...Maria!" Anju cried out, almost stumbling headfirst as she rushed to the bishop with an odd knife sticking out of her.

Maria was gone now. Maria Toscano was dead.

What made things worse for us who were in the garden, was that Maria was the one to die. That meant one thing, one very clear thing. Someone had killed her when she ran back inside.

It was that fact that hit us the hardest.

"Man, and just as I thought you guys were really going to pass a week by being friendly chums," the mocking tone of the bear broke into our conversation. He really did pop out of nowhere. "Seems you guys really have the murderous intent to get out of here huh. Drive is a good thing to have, especially for you, you pieces of scrap. There's hope for you yet!"

It wasn't long before a beep came from the e-handbook and it was what I thought it was. More spam from the bear.

Junkuma Spam #3

Victim: Maria Toscano, Ultimate Bishop

Time: The time of death was around 7:17 am.

Location: The body was found in the gym, laying in the middle of a pentagram.

Cause of Death: Stab wound to the abdomen.

Oh, he changed it from Monokuma to Junkuma now. That wasn't important, what was important was that there was yet another killer among us. But that time, that time of death was what shocked me the most. Of course, Maria ran back inside earlier, we saw her run back inside and that…

"Fucking hell, that was probably as soon as she ran back inside, wasn't it?!" Kyogen gripped his head, staring at his e-handbook.

Tadakatsu gripped nothing but air. "I'm sorry, Maria...I should've followed you as soon as you ran off..."

The stewardess had put her hand on the yanki's shoulder, looking towards the pathetic attempt at a robot chuckle to himself. That reminded me...

I gripped my e-handbook. I needed to tell them about Takeo. Was now the time? But, what if...no, I had to tell them. Takeo was hanging on for dear life and would die any second now.

"Upupupu, you guys gotta get to investigating. I wonder where the rest are-"

Fuck it. It was now or never. They needed to know about the interrogator.

"So what about the other one?" My question took the rest of the room by surprise as Junkuma just scratched his chin, those three blades that popped out of his 'paw', repeating the action, letting a horrible scraping noise fill the room that made me want to kick the rust bucket.

Anju looked incredibly shocked. I wouldn't blame her, I would be too. "Wha...what?"

Kyogen just stared, with an unreadable look, like someone just told him the person he hated the most in the world just died. "You fucking serious?"

"Another one? Suisei, what do you mean?" Tadakatsu walked forward with a concerned look as I could only shrug. With the bear so close, it was best to keep our acts on high guard.

I pointed my thumb back to the door, "Takeo's in the hallway bleeding out."

That definitely got looks from everyone. All except Sunako. She continued to look down at the bishop.

"Then what are we doing here?" Fumi stomped on over, "we have to get over there before things get worse!"

"I agree," nodded the flight attendant, scratching her chin with her painted nails. "We need...get a move on..." Please don't drop right now, Yozora. We need you to stay awake for a little while longer.

Kyo seemed to agree as he marched towards the large double doors of the gym. "Let's get a fucking move on already!"

Hudson seemed to agree as he stared me down. "Then why don't you lead the way."

"Tch, fine." We all began to leave the gym, as quick as we could. However, the only one not following when I turned back around was the medium who stayed by Maria's side.

"Come on, everyone's going," the billiards player grabbed hold of the medium's arm, however, as she went to pull the ghost, the haunting look of the wraith glared the kuchisake-onna down.

McCrimmon didn't back down, returning the death stare. Were we about to witness the battle between the slit-mouthed woman and the VHS spirit? "Leave her alone, it's good if someone kept an eye on Maria." Fumi huffed, "we're wasting time just stand here. So hurry up."

Charlie didn't move however, she only sighed. "I'll stay here. Just in case..." tilting her head back towards the ghost, Sunako had already turned her attention back to the dead little bishop. So we left the two with the body.

As I brought everyone (save Sunako and Charlie) to where I had just left Takeo, basically for dead. An obstacle came before us, wasting more time than I would like.

"Heeeey, where are you guys going? Isn't the body in the gym?" came the unsurprising drunk tone of Nanako. Who else was drunk so early in the morning.

Turning around I noticed that she was holding a bottle, now that I thought about it, did the shops sell those? Focus. Wait was that a vb long nec- WHAT THE FUCK?!

I couldn't help but stare at Nanako and I wasn't the only one.

"What's wrong with all of you?" she slurred her words like she was already onto the next bottle and about to be thrown out from the bar. "Is there something on my face?" she asked with an included hiccup. Fake as it was.

"Sort of..." I heard the Mad Dog of Shibuya mumble behind me. He wasn't wrong and neither was she.

The pyrotechnician held her head. It looked like she was going through a hangover and she probably was if she was really drinking alcohol.

"Come off it, what's really on my face."

"Touch your cheek and find out." Surprisingly, even though that was what I was going to say, the stylishly dressed Kyogen was the one to say that aloud and of course, the drunk put her hand onto her cheek as she sobered up in realisation.

On Nanako's face, from cheek to cheek, was a very light scar, like an additional, permanent smile.

Similar to the one Charlotte had.

Nanako dropped her bottle, about to scream if it weren't for Isabi running up to the taller girl. "It'll be okay, Nana! Isabi will help you!"

Tadakatsu jumped in too, holding the pyrotechnician's face as he inspected her wound. "Compared with Charlotte's, her wound is very, very light. It should heal up in a few days, hopefully..."

I have no idea if he was lying or not and frankly, right now, I don't think I should pry into that and make things worse. I think I did enough over the past few days.

"Did Charlotte do this? That bitch." Kyogen already stomped back towards the gym. Thanks to the internet personality and the reporter, Kyogen's efforts were slowed down a bit, but that might be because he wasn't really planning on it, but who am I to say.

"Do you remember what happened?" asked the green eyed promoter, standing close.

"I...I can't...I don't remember anything from last night. I remember Renji almost becoming mince meat but after that, I only remember chugging down a bunch of these bottles the bear gave me and...I don't know. I did wake up feeling like shit though..."

"That's alright," the brown haired stewardess fixed up the messy bun in her hair as she tried to hide a yawn. "It'll be dangerous to... be alone right now...best you stay with...us..." It must have been hitting Yozora hard.

"We're running out of time, we need to get to Takeo before something worse happens," Tadakatsu stopped us all, focusing our attention back on the important matter at hand, but recalling Fox's words from yesterday, it made me feel like a fool. Gonna slap myself later.

If that was the case of course.

Anju shuffled in place. "We should go." Yeah, we should. Now with Nanako in tow, hanging in the back with Fumi and Isabi among others, we headed back to the corridor where I found Takeo last time.

By the time we returned to Takeo, the interrogator was slumped over and a sharp, imaginary pain decided to whack me in the chest.

"Were...were we too late?" mumbled the white haired reported as she took a step back.

The yanki sighed, "perhaps we were."

"Is he dead though? Or did he just pass out?" Yozora slowly made her way to the front, while the troublemaker scoffed.

"Are you blind? Look at all of his wounds!" he gestured over the horrible wounds he had suffered through. "How the fuck can he survive all that?"

The puzzle solver tilted her head. "He's an interrogator ain't he? Isabi thinks that he should have training to withstand it too?"

"...I need a drink…"

"What the hell is going on here? I don't recall requesting paparazzi but I don't mind."

We turned to see Astin walk in with Renji sniffling right behind her, rubbing his face as soon as he noticed the corpse of Takeo. As soon as he noticed, Astin did too. She looked between the corpse and us for a few seconds before turning her attention elsewhere. "Can't say I'm surprised. He looks better with that mask."

"First Roach, now him!" sobbed Renji and sobbed he did. He wailed loudly as he fell down on his knees, already assuming the fetal position. "It's not fair...why won't you let me rejoin Roach!"

Thankfully he wasn't throwing himself into dangerous machinery this time as Seno sat by his side, patting him on the back. Man, he was so quiet I almost forgot he was even with us.

Suddenly, the moving piece of wasted scrap popped up. "Hmm, quite a situation you guys got here. You're wondering if he's dead right? Well there's a simple solution!" I almost took a step back along with Anju due to his surprisingly cold tone, right as those three sharp blades came out of those metallic paws. "You kick him!"

When none of us reacted, the bear sighed heavily in disappointment. "You guys are no fun. I should have made you guys funnier with your roles." he mumbled, dragging himself towards the unconscious form of Takeo, however whether or not he was unconscious was yet to be seen. "I'll show you guys if this bastard is dead or not!"

Pulling one of his very long arms back, Junkuma threw a punch. It was so incredibly fast that I could barely keep up with it. The junked bear's fist, or I guess paw, hit the wall with incredible force! While the wall didn't break or anything major like that, it did leave a large and I mean large crack.

Mental note not to piss off this bear, or break a rule. Not only could he fire a laser from that one, bulging eye but also had the physical strength to back it up despite the oddly long and thin limbs with one missing leg to boot.

However, the bear's punch missed Takeo, it almost grazed him and I wouldn't be surprised if that punch could have made his head disappear. Something told me that if the bear wanted to, a head could be blasted off with ease.

Not once did Takeo even more, not even when those the bear's sharp 'claws' lifted his head up. "...he's dead." Junkuma dropped the head without any ceremony. Like dropping dirty socks in the washing basket or a wrapper in the trash.

There was our confirmation. Takeo Ikeda was dead.

Hudson huffed, "now is the time for you commoners to go around and look for clues isn't it?"

"Aren't you going to help?" Isabi poked the split singer who just gave her the dirtiest of looks.

"I shall do no such thing."

The promoter stepped forward, glaring slightly at the higher-than-thou version of Hudson that was on display. "You're not getting out of this one."

He just turned away with his arms crossed, ignoring the grip of the green haired girl. "Forget it. Just leave him, he'll just slow us down."

"I beg your pardon," frowned the man with the incredibly long name, almost grinding his teeth together.

"You have ears don't ya? You know what I said but I'll spell it out for ya. You couldn't even solve this case even if you tried. Us 'commoners' do a much better job than your pathetic excuse of an investigation."

Hudson slammed his foot on the ground, hard. "How preposterous! Like a feeble-minded peasant like yourself could even fathom to handle something that requires a high level of skill like this is laughable at best. Yet here I am, unable to laugh. I'll show you what happens when someone of proper class like myself comes down from the heavens to push you sheep in the right direction."

Without a word more, he stormed off, back in the direction of the gym. "Now that's how you motivate someone with their head shoved up their own arse." Kyogen's laugh echoed throughout the hallway as Fumi walked right on by.

"You better help me keep an eye on him," the green haired promoter huffed as she followed the singer along with the troublemaker who could only grin as he followed right behind.

With those three gone, we turned our attention back to the black and white bear.

"Welp," stretched Junkuma, reaching high thanks to those long, noodly arms. "Guess you guys just have to solve this murder eh?"

Before I could even get a word in, the sound of the e-handbook made itself known and with a quick check, the details like before appeared on the screen. The murder announcement also went off, but I was too focused on the information provided to us.

Junkuma Spam #3

Victim: Takeo Ikeda, Ultimate Interrogator

Time: The time of death was around 7:29 am.

Location: The body was found leaning up against the wall in the hallway next to the laundry.

Cause of Death: Succumbed to one of many possible wounds on his body.

Looking at the time of death, I couldn't help but notice what was put down. Maria's death wasn't too long ago and this time was probably when Takeo did indeed kick the bucket...to think, so earlier, right as Maria ran back inside...

We did spend a bit of time around Maria's corpse. Perhaps if we were faster? Or rather, what if I didn't run away?

"So he passed away when we were all focused on Maria..." I sighed, looking down at the interrogator's tortured body, just wondering how much pain he sat through with all those wounds.

"Quite ironic how he died after hanging on for so long, upupupupu," the bear laughed in the same, distorted way, but it was a lot colder now. It gave me a shiver. "Now, I'll leave you kids to it. Make sure to solve this mystery!"

Astin scoffed, not even looking at where the bear used to be. "Of course he would disappear right now."

I rolled my eyes, "you should be used to it by now." I could feel the glare already on me, but I got where she was coming from.

"Please...enough you two," the white eyed reporter pleaded and it seemed the remaining delinquent here agreed.

"Now is not the time, we need to split up into two teams. One will investigate the body first and the other will investigate around the other areas of this school in hopes to find something that the killer might have hidden away from the body." he then turned to the timid girl in a suit. "Anju, I would like you to lead the search team."

"Search...team?"

He nodded, "a reporter of your skills will have an easy time looking in the nooks and crannies of this place."

"And who will go with her then?" I crossed my arms right as the bastard pointed at a handful of people.

"Yozora, Isabi, please go along with Anju and take Renji with you as well." Isabi gave the biggest salute that it almost came off as being something a smartass would do while Yozora went ahead and grabbed hold of the tearful drink mixer. "Since we're going to be searching the body and eventually make our way to the gym once more, Nanako, I would like you to tag along with Anju."

The drunkard just raised her bottle. "Sure thing, boss." Let's ignore the fact that she was nervously touching her cheek right now.

"Seno, Astin. You're with Suisei and me."

A silent agreement went around us all as Anju's team already began to head off around the academy in hopes to find something that could be counted as evidence. Now that left us four with the corpse.

Seno had already sat down, crossing his legs while Astin leaned up against the wall. How helpful. "So we should start with checking the body, right?" the idol asked as Tadakatsu and I were already on either side of the corpse.

The taller, red-eyed teen on the other side ignored Astin for a bit as he asked me a question. "Are you sure you're fine with this?"

"Of course I am. Now shut up and let's search the bastard." Rather, I should be asking you that question.

"Let's start off by inspecting his wounds."

Much like when I saw Takeo clinging on for life, he went through the ringer. Loss of fingers, a lot of slashes, a couple of stabs, a missing hand and the whole eye thing.

"Hey, didn't he wear a necklace?" the powder blue haired idol jumped in. "I recall him wearing one."

Actually, "he did. I could have sworn I saw it on this waste of space earlier." Though, that could have been me being too focused on the state he was in.

"We should focus on the actual death for now rather than fashion choices," the usually angry Tadakatsu shook his head. It was also true though, that had no effect on the murder. "Hmm."

"Finally found something?"

Upon hearing my question, he shrugged. "More or less."

Hm, before he went into the details, it might be a good time to ask that question back at him. "Sure, if you can handle it considering the fool we're inspecting."

"I can handle it." Ah, from the look in his eyes, it was the same Tadakatsu I knew before when it came to the interrogator. Yet, I found myself agreeing with that look. Maybe it was because of the talent, either way, that wasn't important. "Let's start with the removed features."

I pointed towards the cut off hand and the missing fingers belonging to the one still attached to the body as they were scattered on the ground. "Considering Takeo is probably one of the more physically stronger ones among us, they probably cut his hand off for that reason alone. Holding him back or some shit, making him easier to deal with. The fingers on the other hand, perhaps for the same reason, can't do much with missing fingers or a hand."

"He isn't strong," Huh? What was that? "Takeo isn't strong. He's skill is mainly in torture. If he and I were to fight seriously, without restraints or holding back, I will emerge the victor time and time again."

The serious look in his eyes was very convincing, but that raised a question. No. It wasn't the right time though, I'll ask later when this blows over.

"The removed hand and fingers seems to be more of an afterthought, to stop him from trying to tend to his wounds, which brings us to his leg," I looked down at the twisted leg. The leg was twisted the other way to the point it faced behind him, at least from the surface. Tadakatsu immediately grabbed hold of the pant leg, moving it up, revealing something about the leg.

Not only did it have scars on it, but the leg was only twisted from halfway down the calf, around the ankles, that was mainly the part that was twisted here. That was kind of a relief in a way. What an illusion it caused. "Whoever twisted this perhaps did so to ensure that Takeo wouldn't be able to reach the infirmary."

A hand, fingers and a completely twisted ankle...

Yep. All three would make it hard to make it upstairs and that wasn't including the gouged out eye and the depth perception that would have caused.

The internet personality pointed at the scars, trying his best to convey how confused he was. "From these scars, these are very, very old. The twisted ankle here is the most recent thing that happened to the body."

"Then what about the eye?" Looking at Astin proved to be useless, she was focused on adjusting her new cool jacket. Ah yes, the ripped out eye and those facial scars. I had a decent idea about it.

Tadakatsu lifted the deceased Takeo's head. "I cannot think of any particular reason for why the eye was gouged out, asides from removing vision and aiding in the same reasons as the previously mentioned injuries. Overall though, these helped lead to his death."

"What about the scars? Gonna ignore them too?" I shot sarcastically, but Tadakatsu just shook his head, already moving on to address the issue.

"On top of the old scars he already has, only two other scars here are recent, however, they're not fresh. Perhaps a few days ago if I were to guess."

"You sure do know a lot about a dead body," I scoffed with a glare. Though, that was very useful.

"This isn't the first time I've witnessed people with wounds like these."

Seno then pointed to the arm, bringing the conversation back on track before it could even get off track. Ah yes, the arm with a few missing chunks out of it. "That doesn't look like it has any ties with the murder...hm?"

"Is there something wrong, Suisei?"

"His hand dumbass," I pointed out the one with the missing fingers. "I don't recall it being bloody like that." Flipping his hand around, of course it had a lot of blood on its palm (which was understandable), but even on the back of the hand, even past his knuckles.

I sort of gathered why it was bloody on his palm, but why the back?

My mind was probably blurry, even trying to think about how I first saw Takeo was a lot more distorted than what I was seeing in front of me.

Sighing, the yanki turned his attention to the torso. I guess my mind was indeed making things worse in the moment when he counted the wounds. "This is an odd pattern, the amount of slashes to his body are quite light. The only deep wounds here are the stab wounds."

Astin walked over, looking the body up and down. "Odd how the cuts are mostly in patterns." That was true, they were in patterns of two or three.

"Good observation, Astin!"

As the bleach blonde asshole applauded the currently vain girl, I couldn't help but look at the wounds, he was clearly stabbed.

One the right side, the same side as the arm with a couple of chunks missing from it, there was a stab wound, a pretty big one compared to the ones on the left side. There was a stab wound on the left side, two in fact. However, they didn't seem as powerful or as deep as the one on the right.

I would rather not shove my hand in there to find out either.

"The wound on the right is deeper." Tadakatsu was already inspecting the gaping hole. "It also seems to be a bit bigger too."

"No shit. Perhaps the bastard that killed him used the same knife they used to stab that fake bishop?"

The short haired Seno shrugged but not the other guy. "Probably, though that wouldn't open the wound like that...I think."

"How reassuring." I rolled my eyes as I stood up. There was nothing else to inspect while the mute had a feel around on the corpse.

Before calling it a day for inspecting the interrogator, Astin was the one to put her hand on the maskless bastard's shirt. "There's something under his shirt...eh, you guys do it. I can't get all bloody for my upcoming photoshoot."

As the strongest one among us got to work on ripping the shirt, something caught our eye. "The fuck is this?" I wondered aloud for all of us as the red-eyed bastard pulled out what appeared to be a holster? It wasn't just a single holster though, there were two of the fucking things.

Thankfully though, both holsters were empty. "Why was he wearing this? Why the fuck does he have this on him? Did he have a fucking gun on him? This fucking bastard." I almost kicked the corpse if it wasn't for Seno jumping in the way last minute.

"Suisei, calm down. One of these holsters wouldn't be able to even fit a gun in there and besides, if there was a gun, I doubt that Junkuma would have let him have his way with it. It would be too easy...I hope." The split toothed yanki tried to calm me down, but that damn laugh came back.

"Upupupupu. No need to fear, a gun would be too easy." As quickly as the bear's voice came, it was already gone, yet, the laughter that echoed out into the void didn't feel me with comfort.

...It didn't mean that I trusted that bear's words.

"We would have heard a gunshot if he did have a gun." Astin pointed out and yeah, that was true. I looked back down to the holster and what Tadabastard said was true. One of the holsters was way too thin for a gun.

So what was it for?

Before we could think of anything more, Seno's clap got our attention as he pointed to Takeo's pocket. "Something in his pocket?" What was this? Skippy or Lassie?

The silent internet personality put his hand into the pocket of the interrogator once more, pulling out what seemed to be…

"Crumbs?" the three of us wondered aloud. What were crumbs doing in his pocket?

"Aren't those bread crumbs?" Once again, the idol joined in which helped caused a light-bulb to go off above all of us.

Coughing, Tadakatsu looked between the rest of us before settling his attention onto Takeo. "Then that would mean...he had access to the cafeteria and kitchen if he had these on him."

I found myself giving odd looks at the body now, "so you're saying that this fuck was eating food while we tried to manage the garden and buy overpriced snacks? What a bastard."

"Wouldn't the gift shop have things like bread to sell?"

To answer Astin's question, Seno shook his head, forming an X shaped cross with his arms.

"I'm pretty sure that little overpriced scam only sells junk food. Huh, I guess it fits his name, the bastard." Should have seen that coming, honestly.

Tadakatsu was ready to get a move on. "It's one place that we need to check, we should get going."

"Nothing else we can do smartass."

The three of us followed Tadakatsu before we stopped in front of the locked cafeteria. "We need the bear, don't we?" Astin asked, looking around for said bear to pop up at any moment.

Seno crossed his arms, tapping his foot as I put my hands near the sides of my mouth.

"Hey you useless piece of scrap metal! Get the fuck over here!"

Dropping from the ceiling with a very loud thud, the bear raised his arms high into the air. "I have arrived!"

"Great!" my voice dripped with sarcasm, "...now open the door."

"Eh?! That's all? Why do you want something like that? It blocked ain't it?"

Tadakatsu put his hands together, bowing slightly with Seno mimicking the same bow. "We understand, but with the murder, the cafeteria needs to be searched and for all we know, missing clues are hidden in there."

Junkuma got his paw to fix up his big eye. "Hm, it would be unfair huh. Very well! I shall 'unlock' the door for you. Please stand back!"

Astin raised an eyebrow at that, even managing to put a picture of herself away. "That was...surprisingly easy."

"No kidding..." I was surprised too.

After giving that robotic bear some space, we watched it do some stretches, useless stretches at that. Once he was 'warmed up', he finally got into position.

Junkuma's large, rolling eye slowly turned from it's usual blue into a scorching red, ready to blast the door into oblivion. As he was about to fire the powerful beam, he reached his arm out, grabbed the handle and opened the door.

"There you go."

We all died a little on the inside.

Probably on the outside too if we showed it, then again, that bear was giving us the oddest look despite the now red eye slowly fading back to blue. "The hell is wrong with you four?"

"Of course...if he was in the cafeteria, he would have unblocked it too..."

Junkuma rubbed the top of his head at this pathetic display. "...well if that's all, I'm going to go...also, you guys are running out of time. Get a move on."

Once that thing dragged itself away, we entered the cafeteria and it felt nice to be back in here, it raised our spirits knowing we had access to food again. Yet, instead of rushing the kitchen like a swarm of moths to a flame, the first thing that caught our attention were the windows.

Rather, one particular window.

Right there, one of the windows that faced out into the world outside this academy (even if that was met with a giant wall) was broken! I never really thought about it before, but ever since we unlocked the ability to walk outside after Kanata had accidentally killed the roach that Renji is now crying over, the metal shutters on all the windows were lifted.

But now, one was broken and it made me want to slap myself for not figuring out to maybe open a window.

"Hey you guys!" a voice from the window beckoned us over. I knew that voice anywhere.

Waving happily, it was Fox! He wasn't alone though as Akahana was having a sticky beak too. "Fooooortunately you guys also noticed the mysterious broken window, huh."

Tadakatsu nodded as he inspected the window. "Yes. It was surprising to see."

Giving the witch a frown, I asked, "are you sure you didn't break this window?"

"Fo- No! Did not! Don't want to be in trouble!" he puffed his cheeks with a small frown that vanished instantly. "Oh. If you're in there, it's open on the other side then?" Seno was the one who nodded while Astin immediately took a seat at one of the tables, already getting comfortable.

As they were doing their own thing, I walked over to another window and tried to open it but to not avail. It was locked. I would need to reach up and unlock it. "All the windows are locked to no one's surprise."

"Lighten up, Sui!" Fox smiled while Akahana just growled when we locked our eyes with one another. She also growled at Fox who tried to pat the wolf pelt she was wearing.

Ignoring him for now, I turned back to the broken window only to notice something in Fox's hands. "The hell is in your hands?"

"A leash!"

If Tadakatsu was drinking, he would have spat it everywhere. Looking back, it seemed Seno was at the bar, four drinks in hand on his way back. He was certainly fast and I did need a drink. "Why do you have a leash?"

"You know how humans tamed wolves into becoming man's best friend? Foooorward thinking brought the idea to tame-"

"You cannot tame a person, Fox." Tadakatsu was already on it, scolding Fox. Better enjoy it while it lasts.

"Hmm you sure? A great sense of smell would-"

"She's NOT a wolf." that got a growl out of Akahana, despite the look in her eyes that just wanted this to stop already.

Fox for some reason turned to me as I popped the drink Seno brought over open. "Do what you want," at that, Akahana almost bit the witch. So close. "I'm heading into the kitchen and you know, actually investigate." When I took a swig of the drink, the way I drank most of it already was like a fish being put back into water. I couldn't really stop myself. Water was fine and all, but sometimes you needed something more.

"Suisei, hold on!"

Seems Tadakatsu was going to join me after he scolded Fox some more or something. Couldn't really care right now as I entered the kitchen. While it wasn't exactly clean, it wasn't that messy either. There was a lot of food spread about, some of it eaten gathering from the leftovers, some were unfinished and a small few were untouched. Free to be consumed by the rest of us.

The fact that someone was eating while the rest of us weren't even able to scrape up enough monocoins to even buy a snack, it didn't sit well. I walked around a bit, hoping to find something of worth when I stepped on something wet. Looking down, I could only hope that this was wine or something, but the amount of it made me doubt. No, I doubted it the moment I saw it.

As soon as I looked up, I spied something in the corner of one of the tables. Leaned up against the ground cupboards, a bunch of food was spread onto the floor, a complete and utter mess.

However that was the least of my problems.

Among the food was an unmoving figure, a small girl leaning against the cupboards with random bits of food shoved into her mouth, the colour drained from her face and then some. It was clear that her eyes were lifeless. It didn't take a genius to realise just who this was and the fact there was a third wasn't something I thought I'd see today.

"Sui...sei?" I heard Tadakatsu's voice behind me and it seemed he took notice of it too. Who wouldn't?

Seiren Tsubame was dead.

It didn't seem like he was alone though, because that darn announcement went off again.

DING DONG BING BONG

"Well, well, well!" a very chipper tone rang from the speakers. "Seems you guys are really into it today. A third body? In the cafeteria no less? Wow, I have to really applaud you guys. A real standing ovation!"

Just as he promised, the recorded sound of a bunch of people clapping played over the speakers, before being rudely cut off and replaced by the bear's voice once more. "Now, you guys are running a bit out of time, so you guys better get to it. I'll even give you a few extra minutes. See you soon~!"

The familiar tone of the e-handbook went off once more, for a third time and hopefully the final time. I highly doubted that though.

Junkuma Spam #3

Victim: Seiren Tsubame, Ultimate Entertainer

Time: The time of death was around 6:43 am.

Location: The body was found leaned against the kitchen cupboards on the ground with food stuffed in their mouth.

Cause of Death: Appears to be due to a lack of oxygen in some way.

Wait. That time. "No wonder that busted up machine said early bird gets the worm." He wasn't just referencing Maria the bastard.

Now we were down to sixteen. Already. How long have we been here and we were already dropping like flies.

There was no time to lose, considering the fact the first trial went immediately if it wasn't for my accidental investigation, we needed to use the remaining time we had now to the fullest.

A search around the kitchen and I did want to inspect the body in the gym.

...

So this was the sort of game this mastermind was going to play with us this time huh. Very well, I should have taken action sooner, perhaps that would have prevented it? I don't know what I could have done besides cause a panic, but we needed to avenge these three. Watch over us, you three. We'll make sure Sunako guides you after this is said and done if you're still here with us.

It was time to solve this mystery.

So the victims of the chapter have been revealed. The missing Takeo and Seiren, even the recently present Maria. Thank you to the creators of these characters, it was very fun to write them! It was a really tough decision to make when planning as I've gotten attached to these poor teens, so once again, thanks for sending them in! While they're gone, they're definitely not forgotten.