Extermination (Mafia)

Toad

"Well, it's gotta be Toad!"

Luigi accusingly glanced at the small messenger, his eyes narrowing. He finally was beginning to understand his motive.

"W-What!? What do you mean it has to be me!?" Toad frowned, an annoyed and frustrated look on his face. "Why in the world would I murder Mario, my hero? Why would I kill Toadette!? She is my girlfriend!"

"Then earlier, why did you say it with such resounding knowledge that 'I'd be okay'!?" Luigi pointed out. "You said it like you were confident. There wasn't any doubt in your voice that I'd be in danger!"

"That was because I didn't think the murderer would target you!" Toad shot back, annoyed that his attempts to comfort someone had been shot down so easily. "You weren't contributing much to the conversation, so I thought they'd come after maybe me instead!"

"We're all...passive people..." Rosalina murmured under her breath. "Besides Toad and Bowser...But Bowser has made rash decisions...and Toad lost his loved ones..."

"So we're back at square one?" Bowser questioned, sighing heavily. Luigi shot him a defeated look.

"Maybe I was wrong," Luigi exhaled sharply, irritated that his lead had turned out to be false. "But then now what? I didn't kill anyone...That's all I know."

"Right. You didn't do it, Rosalina didn't do it, and I didn't do it," Toad reminded him. "The only person who can be held accountable is Bowser!"

"...No, that doesn't feel right..."

"...You know, while we don't know who was the true cop," Bowser narrowed his eyes in concentration. "Dixie was trying to say that Toad was not suspicious. Maybe she was trying to confirm one of her fellow mafia."

"Oh, that's a crazy theory!" Toad scoffed. Him and Bowser had not gotten along very well this whole time, and that wasn't going to change now. "You're going to think that I'm the mafia based off of that!? We don't even know if she was actually the mafia, for all we know, Yoshi was suspicious. To be honest, I find Dixie more credible because Yoshi didn't find anyone!"

"But she was so...so skittish," Luigi pointed out. "It didn't even seem like she was telling the truth. At the time, I didn't say anything, but...well, maybe it's just cause I've known Yoshi longer, but I doubt he's the mafia. Even so, Toad...I don't want to believe you're the mafia."

"I told you that it's Bowser!"

"But I can't believe that either," Luigi shook his head. "I don't know what to do..."

"We have no other leads," Bowser reminded him. "Why don't you just follow me? I promise, you won't regret it. It's got to be Toad, you said it yourself!"

"Not true!"

"...I'm sorry, Toad," Luigi sighed heavily. He didn't want to make a decision, but Rosalina was being passive and he frankly was just unsure of everything now. "...I think it is you. Am I wrong?"

"Yes! You're one hundred percent wrong!"' Toad rolled his eyes. "Now can we please accuse Bowser?"

"Doesn't it have to be majority for us to win?" Bowser frowned, reminding them of the rules of mafia. "I also think it is Toad. Well, Rosalina? Do you agree?"

The blonde princess hesitated, biting her lip. She hated that she was the deciding vote. Toad glanced at her helplessly, and Rosalina sighed.

"S-Sorry...B-But I believe...it is you...Toad."

"Well...Well," Toad covered his face in utter disbelief. "You're...YOU'RE WRONG! NOW WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!"

The lights blacked out, and Luigi quickly screamed. He held onto Rosalina, fearing for their lives as they couldn't see anything in the pitch black.

A voice sounded over the intercom before anything could happen.

"Play fair," The voice scolded, and the lights turned back on. Toad was standing with a knife, a distressed look on his face.

"After all the work I went through to make sure you both made it through, this is how you repaid me?" Toad growled, gesturing at Luigi and Rosalina hysterically. "I purposely blamed Bowser, I had the perfect scapegoat! Why couldn't you guys just buy into it like you were supposed to!"

"Oh my god. It was actually you!?" Luigi said in slight disbelief. Even though his hunch had been correct, he still couldn't believe it himself. "You...You killed Mario!! How could you betray him like that!"

"I didn't want to kill him! That wasn't part of the deal!" Toad exclaimed, a mournful look on his murderous face. "Dixie and Birdo weren't very good at listening. They killed Mario, Dixie incidentally killed Yoshi...and Toadette visited Boo. I didn't want any of that to happen!"

"Why would you even do all of this?" Bowser snarled. "If you didn't want those people to die, why join the mafia?"

"I'm sick of seeing you all mistreated," Toad brought his hand to his belt. A gun was concealed on his waist, and he brought his hand to it secretly. "Rosalina was killed by Daisy, so we all got our revenge there. I couldn't kill you, you're just a sidekick who deserves better! I only wanted to kill Daisy, Boo, Pauline and Donkey Kong, really..."

"Donkey Kong?"

"Diddy looked up to him almost religiously," Toad rolled his eyes. "He was my friend, and then he ditched me to hang out with Donkey Kong, so naturally I had to get rid of the competition. Of course, Dixie ended up pulling her stunt, so I figured I'd take him out of his misery..."

"You're...a psychopath," Rosalina recognized, fear growing in her crystal eyes. "Planning out...our deaths and everything..."

"I really tried so hard to let you live," Toad grimaced. "Haven't you noticed? But it has to end now. You can't sweet talk your way out of this one!"

Toad pulled out his gun, firing it blindly towards Rosalina. He couldn't bear to watch it burrow into her chest, so he closed his eyes. Therefore, he didn't notice that it never hit Rosalina, and he didn't realize that the bullet had bounced off of Bowser's protective shell. When he opened his eyes, he saw a large turtle charging towards him, enraged.

"You're not hurting any of us!" Bowser roared, immediately tackling Toad. Without his stealth, Toad wasn't a match against the larger and stronger Bowser. He struggled under the Koopa King as Bowser easily grabbed the gun from Toad's hands.

"No, please! After all I did, you're going to let him kill me!?" Toad cried out, looking desperately at Luigi and Rosalina. They grimaced, a resigned and pitiful expression on their faces.

"...Yes."

A bang resounded throughout the room, and Toad stopped struggling.

"Is...Is it over?" Rosalina asked cautiously, her eyes wide. She had witnessed so much more death than anyone else, and she wished that everything would end. Thankfully for her, the mafia would fail to rise again... "Is he...dead?"

Luigi modded.

"I think so. It's over."

hey everyone! hope you enjoyed :))) sorry for the delayed, delayed updates lol.

question of the chapter: did you figure it out first? or did you think it was someone else?

go and check out the other parts if you're bored lol.

thank you so much for reading! will be posting the epilogue soon (hopefully).