Part 40: Super High-school Level Update #36

We're finally free to move and explore the school on our own! As Naegi suggested (not to mention several dozen of you guys), we should go look at the crime scene a little more carefully now that Togami isn't rushing us around. There's someone along the way, though...







Piropirorin! Yamada found evidence of the culprit, nyoro!



Heh heh heh. My stats just went up again...
Evidence of the culprit... what did you find?



I can’t tell you yet...



I will just say this is evidence that will make even the culprit give up!

Is he... serious...?



...Oh, right. Celes-dono also said she witnessed something...
Witnessed something...? What did she witness?



...She wouldn’t tell me. What do you think? Is she just bullying her favorite boy?
Um... where is Celes-san right now?
The dormitory area... She may or may not be there...

Which is it...?

The dorms are far away, and we have things close by to investigate first. Let's go check the crime scene again.





Kirigiri seems to have stepped away from the body for now. Let's ask her how she's doing.



Kirigiri-san... how goes the investigation?
...I’m almost done.



But... I must go somewhere... There is something I must do unrelated to the investigation...
Something unrelated to the investigation?
What can... that be?



You shouldn’t worry about it. Instead, concentrate on the murder...
B...but...



Finally, let me tell you one thing.
Try looking at Fujisaki-san’s body again, closely.
You should also know Fujisaki-san doesn’t have her Electronic Student ID Card on her. I think we should try figuring out where that disappeared to.
...That’s it. I wish you luck.

Kirigiri-san kept to her word and left the girls’ changing room without telling me anything else.

Look at the body again, huh...

Also... Fujisaki-san’s Student ID Card disappeared?
That is... certainly interesting...






Kirigiri never led us on a false track before, so we better do as she suggests.



Kirigiri-san told me to look at the body again...

She may be expecting something from me, but... there’s a limit to what someone like me can learn from it...
I guess I’ll do the best I can.
Um......





Fujisaki-san’s hands... are tied by what looks like a rope...
Using that rope, she was hanged in a crucified form.

...Hey, what’s that?



...There’s an electric plug attached to it!?
So this... isn’t a rope?

Also... now that I’m looking at it calmly, that’s not the only thing that’s interesting about the body.



What killed Fujisaki-san... is this wound in her head...
In short, someone hit her on the head and killed her, right?

Hmm... So she was crucified... and killed by a blow to the head...
When I first saw it, nothing felt out of place, but...



After seeing Genocider Syo’s file... something bothers me...

...What could it mean?




Anyway, the key to answer this puzzle is...
The true identity of this “rope-like thing” that was used to crucify Fujisaki-san.

To find that answer, I should go and investigate “that place” once more.

And while I’m at it, maybe I’ll check that investigation file one more time...





One last strange thing to check out in this room.



It’s a poster with some blood stuck to it... When I first looked at it, only the blood caught my eye, but...



This is a poster of a big-breasted gravure idol model, isn’t it.
Somehow, it doesn’t quite fit a girls’ changing room...

Well, who can say what Monobear deems fit or unfit? Naegi did want to check out the boys' changing room, just for kicks, though.





Hmmmm...



Huh? This poster...



It’s a poster of the popular boy band, “Tornado”...
Somehow, it doesn’t quite fit a boys’ changing room...

“Tornado” is a pun on “Arashi” (“storm”), one of the most popular idol boy bands in Japan.

...Wait a second. Now that I think of it, the poster in the girls’ changing room was...!

That’s strange, no matter how I look at it...

The poster in the boys’ changing room is of a boy band, and...
The poster in the girls’ changing room is of a gravure model...

Could it be... that the posters were exchanged...?

But if that’s the case... by who and for what reason...?

I should... ask someone who is more familiar with the changing rooms...




I can think of two people who are intimately familiar with the changing rooms, and one of them is closer than the other. First, though, one more strange thing about this room.





There’s a mysterious stain on the carpet...
What is this a stain of?




And now, let's go talk to that person.





Oogami-san, you come to this changing room a lot to exercise, right?
Since this room became available to us, I have been here nearly every day. From time to time Asahina joins me.
In that case, there is something I want to ask...
Were the posters in the girls’ changing room and the boys’ changing room exchanged?



I am sorry, but I do not remember. I have never paid attention to the posters on the wall...
I see...



But there is one peculiar thing about this changing room...
It is my habit to drink protein coffee after I am done training...
Did we... have something like that here?
In the storage room. It may be a luxury item but I could not help myself.
Every day, I make protein coffee and drink it after I am done exercising, but...
Yesterday, I spilled some on the carpet, and it made a considerable stain...
A stain...?
But... the carpet in this changing room is clean...



...That is correct. I have noticed it myself earlier. The stain mysteriously disappeared...
I thought someone might have cleaned it, but...
It looks far too clean for that. It is as if the stain have never been there in the first place.




I think we're done here. Before going down to the dormitory, there's one place Naegi wanted to check again on the second floor.



Sure enough, here's the single thing we've seen connected to an electric cord so far.



Huh? It doesn’t turn on...

Oh, I see. It isn’t plugged in.
The cord can’t reach the outlet from this distance...

But... when I saw it before, this lamp was used in this same place...



That’s right! Togami-kun said he used an extension cord then!

But... that extension cord is gone now...
That means that... maybe...




Naegi also wanted to confirm something in the Genocider Syo file, so let's go take a look at that again.





I want to check that file on Genocider Syo one more time...

Um, I think it was around here...
.............
...Huh? It’s gone...!

Did someone take it out?
But... who could have done such a thing?

I can think of no one... but Togami-kun.

That's it for the second floor! On to the dorms, but first - we do meet some people on the way there.





We should have revealed our embarrassing secrets to each other yesterday after all...!



Uuu! I’m sorry, Fujisaki-kun... you were a victim of my own incompetence!!

That was Ishimaru, somewhere in the first floor hallways. Hagakure is a little more difficult to find.





Oh, Oh! Why are you here, Naegi-chi...?



Me? I’m not doing anything important, ‘right? I most certainly wasn’t checking the contents of that letterbox!

Okay, then. On to the dorms.



...but we'll collect the final pieces of evidence to be gathered there next time.