Chapter 13 – Possibly Going Downhill
"You heard Monoplus. We have a lot of work to do. Normally I would want someone to accompany me during investigations but this time's gotta be different. I trust you two to follow my requests" I said.
" We have time, there's no need to split up especially since we haven't start investigating yet. Let's take a look at Sue's profile" Fei suggested. We flipped over to the other page and read Sue's cause of death.
The victim's body is Sue Fong .The victim burnt alive. Her Instruction was to not eat starch food. Time of death is 11:44 am.
"She died not too long ago. That's a shame, she could have been saved" Xavier stated.
"Well she isn't, she's dead now. Whoever killed her is going to pay" Fei said strongly.
"Umm, Xavier can you go and collect everyone's alibis please. I'm counting on you"
"No prob, I'll start off with you two. What were you doing last night?" Xavier asked. "The time of death is this morning so you should ask what were you doing earlier this morning" I corrected. Xavier nodded and asked again "What were you doing this morning?"
"I was the first to wake up this morning. I immediately went to the kitchen and started cooking dinner for everybody. I made pea soup with boiled potatoes. After that I ate breakfast with Shawn and after that I discovered Jasmine's body in the warehouse along with the rest. I was with Shawn the entire time after"
"Where were you and Shawn?" Xavier asked.
" In his dorm room talking" I replied.
"Ah, what about you Fei. Tell me your story" Xavier said curiously. " I woke up and did a morning jog with Cj. After that jog I headed straight to the dining hall to eat breakfast. That's the last time I saw my sister to be honest" Fei answered.
"Ok you both sound innocent. I'll ask the others" Xavier said before leaving. I looked over to Fei and asked "Could you go and look for Ricardo? I have no clue where he is. I feel like you'd have a better chance to find him than I do".
" You sure? You're going to take this seriously right?! Just a while ago it looked like you weren't in the mood to investigate" Fei said seriously. "Please do it, I feel like doing this one on my own" I said feeling my chest becoming heavier by the moment. " I'll try my best to find him. I expect you to do the same" Fei said walking away.
When I was finally alone I sighed in relief and sat on the floor for over ten minutes dozing off. " Things are only turning for the worse. Not for the better. Should I change my perception of things?"
"Killing is the right thing to do. I want to escape this place and go back to living a normal life. I don't care if anyone is watching this live. Being a good person has no benefits here, you won't gain anything but heartache. Come one Alisa come one"
...…..
I stopped thinking my craziness and giggled. "It's a good thing Ms Kirigiri can't read minds. She'd be so disappointed in me".
"It's thinking like that made Zoey, Olivia and Flora killed" I thought.
I stood up and took another look at the MonoFile. Jasmine died in the morning and Sue died near noon. "The time of death is stated in Sue's MonoFile but not in Jasmine's. That means the time of death is important for her case. Then why tell me her instruction then. It's easy to tell that she was murdered in the morning…. Monoplus wouldn't dare!" I shouted in shock.
" The punishment for disobeying a instruction isn't death. It's losing an arm, Jasmine didn't lose an arm, she was just hit by a bat. Something needs to be clarified. Monoplus come out here!" I shouted.
Monoplus appeared the moment I shouted his name and said " I'm not going to tell you if Jasmine broke the rule or not. That one is too obvious. I'm a man of my word see". He disappeared right after saying that.
His words answered my question though. "Jasmine didn't disobey her instruction and that's why she still has both her arms. The time of death is unknown. I know I saw Jasmine this morning during breakfast but that would be disobeying her instruction and her arms are intact. Monoplus is a man of his word. The culprit definitely did something slick here. Cosplay sounds like the trick" I said to myself.
"If the culprit dressed as Jasmine then the culprit must be a girl. If any guy pretended to be her they'd be found out easily. Sadly all of the girls are dying off quickly. The only ones left are me, Julie and Shawna. One of us is the most likely suspect"
Clue Added: Suspect List for Jasmine
I flipped to Sue's page and reread her cause of death. Burn alive and died 11:44 am. "Why did she die at that time? Jasmine was already enough"
I stood up and left the punishment building feeling exhausted. I haven't even done anything yet and I'm already tired. I headed to the dorm rooms to search Jasmine and Sue's rooms. When I entered Sue's room I was surprised to see Shawna in there by herself holding a MonoID in her hand.
"Found anything?"
"Yeah I think, I was looking at Sue's MonoID that was strangely on her bed underneath the sheets. I turned it on and saw that it was on an recording feature. There are a couple of disturbing records on this thing" Shawna said throwing me the MonoID. I looked on the screen and played the first record I saw.
"LEAVE ME ALONE! I'M GOING TO BED!"
"That's awfully rude and surprising. I didn't expect Sue to shout" I said surprised.
"She voice record herself and timed it on midnight for some reason. Was she suppose to meet someone last night or what?" Shawna asked.
" I don't know but thanks for sharing this. You should be like this all the time" I grinned.
"Be like what? A victim, because you guys thought I was the mastermind until now is the only reason I'm still alive. That rule not to hurt the mastermind came in handy" Shawna sighed.
"Wait, I still suspect you. I find it too convenient for you to be the Ultimate Game Master" I said.
"Designer not Master but keep thinking that" Shawna said leaving the room.
Clue Added: Sue's MonoID
After searching the room myself I saw nothing out of the ordinary so I went to Jasmine's room. I checked her wardrobe to see what was in there. Jasmine is probably the only one who has a wardrobe in her room. I saw many spares of the same clothes she normally wore. A Hopes Peak Academy P.E shirt and black jeans.
"All someone had to do was change their hair color and hair style and they could pull off Jasmine's look. Maybe I can do it too" I wondered.
Clue Added: Jasmine's Clothes
I saw nothing strange in Jasmine's room so I left it and headed to the warehouse where Jasmine's body was. Cj was beside Jasmine's corpse looking at his MonoID. I surprised him by pinching his forehead.
"Oww!"
"CJ how are you feeling?" I asked curiously.
" Not so good. Jasmine's dead. It hit me pretty hard" said Cj depressingly.
"She's not the only one. Imagine how Fei must feel right now. He must be devastated losing his beloved sister" Cj said sadly. "Oh please, that guy looks fine. He hasn't shed a single tear" I said disappointed.
I spent half an hour beside Cj chatting about Hopes Peak until a unexpected topic came up. "We escaped this place once before. But we're here again. Whenever we sleep in Mr. Naegi's house we end up back here. What do you think?" Cj asked.
"Nothing of it. What are you insinuating?! Is the hope fanboy starting to doubt his idle" I wonder.
"Maybe, I don't know. I still have a ton of faith in him. He's been through two killing games and came out glowing like a star. I on the other hand am struggling to hang on to hope" Cj sighed.
"Keep holding on just for a little bit longer. For me and the rest who are around you" I encouraged.
Cj and I cut our conversation short when Xavier walked up to me and stated everyone's alibis this morning. When he was finished I told him " You wasted your time Xavier. The murder didn't take place this morning. I doubt that's the case. You should have asked about last night?"
"I knew it, I had a feeling that last night was important so I asked for that too" Xavier said happily.
"That's good, fire away then" I replied.
"First off Paul and I did some paintings in my room all of last night. I finally finished that painting I was working on with all of us but now's not the time to show it off" Xavier said.
"You already know Fei's alibi and for Cj. That guy was a mystery. He didn't want to tell me anything at first but he ended up saying that he was playing games with Sue and Fei. Terry was in his room sleeping and the same goes for Shawna too. Julie was in the library reading an mystery novel all night. In fact she's asleep in her room right now" Xavier stated.
Clue Added : Xavier's Report
Shawna has cameras all over the school doesn't she? I almost forgot about those. She probably still have them if Terry hadn't took them down yet" said Xavier. Xavier and I looked for Shawna and found her in her room around her computer.
"Shawna do you still have your cameras up?" I asked.
"Yep, but they aren't useful. The camera in the warehouse was taken down by Terry and I didn't put any cameras in the punishment buildings yet. I was going to but it's too late. I only have one useful footage" said Shawna. "Sweet, what is it?" I asked.
"I wont show it to you now. I want to see the look on your face in the trial when I show it to you hehehehe" Shawna giggled.
Clue Added: Shawna's Secret Photo
"I don't have anything useful for Sue's death yet. Hers puzzles me. Why kill her of all people? Why kill at all? Different culprits? The time she died it was already clear that Jasmine was murdered. They weren't going to get a free class trial" I sighed.
I went to the kitchen and boiled some tea to calm my nerves. Dealing with two murders is more stressful than I expected it to be. Probably because no matter what we are going to lose more of our friends. If we catch the culprit they die, if we don't catch them we die. Being on the good side really feels like a deadlock. I took ten minutes to sit down and sip my tea until it finished.
After that I headed to the dojo where I saw Paul and Terry sparring with each other. "At a time like this. Seriously guys!" I said to myself. I paused their fight and asked "Why are you fighting now? We have better things to do!"
"Paul here said that using weapons is a sign of weakness. I am showing him that I am still a chad even without weapons" said Terry. "You proved nothing. We both know I was going to win" Paul said casually. "Enough have you two seen Fei?"
"Oh yeah, I saw him in the computer room. Over ten minutes ago. Maybe he's still in there" said Terry.
I headed to the computer room but he wasn't in there. I continued to look all over the school. The main building, the library, game room and now I'm heading to the library. Before I opened the door I felt a chill running through me. I quickly turned around with a smile on my face. I didn't see anyone though. It felt like Izuru Kamakura was behind me just now. "I am getting desperate".
"I don't have anything for Sue's death. Jasmine's death feels empty" I sighed. "Who burnt Sue? It can't be Fei, Shawn or me. Cj, Shawna, Terry, Paul, Xavier or perhaps Ricardo. I wonder where the hell that guy is"
All the monitors around the school lit up with Monoplus's announcement.
"Times up! Time sure moves fast when you don't need it to be. It's a more jerk than I am. Anyways everyone who's alive better make their way to the gym. Time for a Class Trial. I can't believe it came to this. I even gave you a juicy motive too huh. Whatever start walking!"
"Times up already, no way" I said shockingly.
We all slowly dragged ourselves to the gym exhausted and sad of what took place. "Sue, Jasmine, me, I can't take much more of this. I'm losing it, Miss Kirigiri please help"