Everyone who was still waking up and getting ready was now wide awake and had hurried to the dining hall. Someone even dragged Kagami along, so now they were all at the crime scene.
Reiji has clenched his fist and closed is eyes "Crap."
"Who would do such a thing to poor Izumi-kun." Aika sobs.
Yuna, who's embracing Kaida, sighs "I wish I knew the answer to that."
Naomi doesn't seem fazed by the scene. As a hunter she's probably looked dead creatures in the eyes more than once.
Seiichi speaks up "Either way, I think we should investigate the crime scene to find out who killed Izumi-kun."
"I was hoping you'd say that!" Monokuma appears out of thin air, as usual "You'll get some time to investigate before all of you have to participate in the class trial. And since you're not detectives, but just a bunch of helpless amateurs, I've decided to be generous and brought you a little gift!" Monokuma beams as if he's the kindest person in the world "The Monokuma file in your e-handbook contains information about the murder. Good luck!" And he's gone.
Ren doesn't waste time looking up the file in his Monopad.
The victim is Izumi Masao, the Ultimate Exorcist.
The body was discovered in the dining hall.
The estimated time of death is around 9.30 pm.
External wounds are four stab wounds and a slash in the back, resulting in death.
The cyan-eyed boy puts the Monopad in his pocket and kneels down next to Masao's body.
"K-Kimura-kun, what are you d-doing?" Yukiji questions.
"Investigating." He states bluntly.
Naomi kneels down next to the body as well and inspects the wounds "Leave it to me, I have experience with wounds."
Ren nods, he knows Naomi will be able to do this.
Kagami steps forward "I'll keep an eye on the crime scene, just to make sure the culprit doesn't dispose of any evidence."
"Okay, let's investigate this together." Reiji tells Ren.
The chess player nods "Sure."
Everyone splits up. The two boys investigate the crime scene first.
There's a pool of blood on the floor, but it's dry. It must be true that Masao has been dead for a while before they found his body.
They find a kitchen knife not too far away from the body. There's blood on it, but it doesn't seem splattered like you'd expect.
"The culprit must've killed Masao with this kitchen knife." Reiji states.
"No, I think they left it as a red herring to put us on the wrong track." Ren mumbles. He takes out his Monopad and uses it to take a photo of the knife.
"How could it be a red herring? There's definitely blood on it." The rapper huffs.
Ren glances at him from the corner of his eyes "Izumi-kun was stabbed in the back, so the knife would've hit a lot of arteries, which means that the blood wouldn't flow out nice and slow, it would be a fountain and definitely leave spatters of blood."
"That seems reasonable enough. Let's see if we can find anythin' else." Reiji states.
"Let's question some of our fellow classmates as well to see if they have alibis." Ren continues looking around. There are spatters of blood on the floor and the nearby tables as well.
Except for two, thin rings on two table-legs just behind the body. Those seem to have avoided getting splattered. Ren takes a quick photo of it before moving on to talk to Kagami.
"Fujioka-san, could you tell me what you were doing around the time of murder?" Ren asks.
"Hm? Sure." Kagami says "As you may have guessed from my sleeping habits, I'm a night owl, so I was wandering around the school around 9 pm. I ran into Seto-san on my way, she said she had forgotten her e-handbook in her lab. Just before the time Izumi-kun was killed I ran into Matsui-san, who was getting a cup of tea to sleep better. I accompanied her to the kitchen and back to her room. We chatted a bit before she went to bed. After that I went back to my own room, I think it was almost nighttime then, because the announcement went off not too long after that."
Ren nods and adds the information to his Monopad. He walks to Naomi "Endo-san, where were you when the murder occured?"
"I was in my room. Of course, there's no one to confirm it so you'll just have to take my word for it." Naomi replies briefly before going back to investigating the corpse.
"Let's look in the kitchen to see if there's really a missing knife." Reiji suggests.
The ravennette nods "Good idea."
They walk to the kitchen and there is indeed a knife missing. Ren takes a photo of it before he walks to the sink. There are droplets of water in it.
"Water in a sink is pretty normal, Kimura-kun. I wouldn't waste my time on it if I were you." Reiji says.
Ren shakes his head "This could mean the culprit cleaned something here." He takes another photo.
"Eh, Kimura-kun, take a look at this." Reiji is standing next to the trashcan and holds a paper towel in his hand, there's pink blood on it.
"Interesting." Ren mutters, taking a photo.
"What does this mean?"
"I don't know yet. I need more evidence to piece it together, but this is definitely strange." Ren puts his Monopad back in his pocket "We should look for Matsui-san to have her confirm Fujioka-san's alibi."
While looking for Kaida, the two boys run into Yuna who tells them she was discussing some things with Tatsuya, and the latter confirms it when they run into him. Maeko had been checking the desks of the other classroom with Yukiji. Haru doesn't have an alibi, not really surprising anyone, because he was alone in his room. Chuya tells them she had left her Monopad in her lab and went back to retrieve it, running into Kagami on her way. Ginjiro and Aika were in their rooms. Ichiro and Seiichi were talking. On their way Reiji tells Ren that he was in his room.
They find Kaida in the infirmary with Ichiro, the latter confirms Seiichi's story and Kaida does the same for Kagami's.
"So the murder hadn't occured when you left the dining hall?" Ren asks the calligrapher.
She nods "When we went back there was nothing." She seems to recall something "Well, I did almost trip, if it wasn't for Fujioka-san I would've ended up face-first on the floor."
'Weird.' Ren furrows his eyebrows 'Matsui-san doesn't seem like the person to trip easily...'
Kaida's voice snaps him out of his thoughts "Also, we discovered something here." She walks to a cupboard and opens it, there are multiple surgery tools. She carefully picks up a scalpel "Here, look at it."
Doing as he's told Ren takes a closer look and notices there's some blood on it. He takes a photo of it while Kaida holds the scalpel.
"While it does seem plausible that this is the murder weapon, it's weird that there's only a small amount of blood on it. If it really was used to kill Izumi-kun, it would've had a lot more blood on it." The bluenette mutters, she's probably thinking out loud.
Ren nods "Thank you, Matsui-san."
Said girl nods, as if she's saying 'no problem'.
"Kimura-kun! Watanabe-kun!" Maeko runs towards them "I found something fucking interesting in the storage room!"
Both boys exchange a look and follow the firebreather to the storage room.
"Look." Maeko points at the bloodied rope Yukiji has in her hands.
Ren takes a photo of the thin rope, it seems to be made of a very fine material. Reiji asks them "Where did you find it?"
"Between the fishing supplies." Maeko answers "But why the fuck would someone put a bloody rope there?"
"We'll figure that out during the class trial, now we just need to gather as much evidence as we can." Ren tells her "Thanks for showing us."
Maeko nods "Anytime."
Bing bong, ding dong!
"Investigation time is over! It's time for the long-awaited class trial! Please go through the red door on the first floor of the school!" Monokuma announces.
'So that's what that red door was for.' Renthinks to himself. Then he turns to Reiji and says "Let's go."