Part 40: It's Elementary

_{content warning: emetophobia}

The thread voted to bring Sheep along with us.

[BGM: Bullfighter]


Of course you can come! The more the merrier.

I don't think that saying's apt here.

Whatever, my point is that I'd be happy to have you help.

Thanks! I promise I won't get in the way.

[BGM: Silence]


And with that, things were set. People had objections with giving out a gun, but we were granted a taser, just in case. We left the cafeteria and started to look around the school for Dog and Horse. Based on where the others had been searching, we decided to start by looking around the second floor. That was where they likely were before the announcement.

We tried looking through some rooms, but after a while, I came to a classroom I had difficulty opening.



Is this locked?

I can't imagine that to be the case. Here, let me try.

Ox stepped in front of me and tried to open the door, but it was to no avail.

Why did you think you could open it when I couldn't?

I don't know, I just wanted to try!

Annoyed, Ox started pushing on the door, and to my surprise, it did start to open. It seemed something was just in the way of the doorframe. As I made my way into the classroom, my heart sank as I realized what it was. I heard a shrill scream, but no sound escaped my mouth. How could it?



It was clenched close, in order to keep myself from vomiting all over the floor. The only proper reaction to finding a body. Death is never pleasant. At most it might be slightly gratifying, if it's someone getting their just desserts, but even then there's a bitterness to it. But no, generally death is accompanied by sadness. Or fear. And I felt both, but not nearly as much as I felt confusion.

[BGM: Steadfast Gallop]


Because the dead body was none other than Horse's, a seemingly unkillable man.

What on earth?

No!!! Why, why did this happen?

Seriously? How did this happen??

I-I don't know.

I can't... I can't, I can't I can't I can't!



It's my fault, it's my fault... just like before, it's my fault.

Sheep, easy, hey, it's okay, it's not your fault.

What do you mean, “it's just like before”?

Ox, not the time!

It was my fault he died. And this, it's just like that, if I had searched with Horse and stayed with him, he wouldn't have...

Sheep, snap out of it! I don't know what 'last time' is, but you certainly can't be expected to watch over everyone all the time. You're not responsible for Horse's death whatsoever.

...I think I need to sit down for a bit. Do you mind if I just... stay in the corner of the room? Not looking at the body?

Of course.



Sheep sickendly limped over to the corner of the room. She didn't look okay. I wanted to talk with her more, make sure she was alright, but... Now wasn't the time for that. Not when someone had just been killed.

Great job guys, we've now traumatized this poor woman.

It looks like he's been shot to death. I guess there are more guns in this building than the ones we found earlier.

Or not. Maybe this was one of those guns. Looking at this wound, I would guess this was a pistol shot. And with a location like this... yeah, that'd cause him to bleed out rather quickly. Right through the chest.

But that's weird, right? That a gun was apparently fired and that we didn't know about it. This school isn't that big, we should've been able to hear a gunshot.

The amount of blood is also suspicious. Don't get me wrong, it's disgusting, but for someone who should've bled to death there should've been more blood than this.

Maybe this isn't where he was originally shot?



But we didn't find a blood trail, nor any other place with a lot of blood pooled everywhere.

Yeah, it's really weird, isn't it?

That's not even touching on the weirdest part of all.

Which is?

[BGM: Dog Days]


Remember how we found the body? It was blocking the door, he was completely slumped in front of it.

Yeah, that was pretty annoying. So what though?

A wound like this isn't instantly fatal per se, especially for a man of Horse's size, but he shouldn't have been able to move after being shot. And yet, he was completely blocking off the only exit from this room.

Did he have his tablet on him? That way we could check what his personality is!

Already checked. Couldn't find the tablet.

Oh. Damn.

Damn indeed.



You don't think the Jade Emperor did this, do you?

That would completely defeat the purpose of his own game.

And if we're keeping Snake's 'playing your outs' theory in mind, if the Jade Emperor did do this, it would mean he was fine with just killing us at random for no reason, meaning we're all as good as dead anyways.

It's probably best to assume that one of us did this. But how?

Hm... you could go out the windows, but they 're probably blocked off just like all the other exits. When we found the door, he was properly slumped against the door, so I don't think only opening the door a little bit would do it.

And like you said, he couldn't move much after taking a shot like that.



It's almost like a “locked room mystery” you see in those dumb detective shows. I never thought I'd ever see one of them in real life, though.

With this puzzle in mind, I looked around the room. It was, for all intents and purposes, just a standard classroom. And yet, looking around, a thought crossed my mind.

Ah, I've got it. I know how this happened.

Oh? Do continue.

We've just got to examine one simple part of the room.



I also had the thread vote on this one; however, I intentionally left off the closet since we've already done Snake's route... so we already know the closets are locked (and why), so there's no point in it even being an option The option that got the most votes was to check some nearby textbooks.

The textbooks?

Yeah, look at how they're placed. Someone's clearly moved them recently.

Well, it's a school Mouse, textbooks are moved all the time.

Just let me look through them.

I went over to the textbooks and started opening them up, flipping through their pages. It took a bit of persistence, but sure enough I found one with bloodstained pages.

Aha! I knew it was used in the crime.



I'll admit, I'm a bit impressed. But why is there blood all over this thing?

Elementary, my dear Oxen. You already mentioned the lack of blood, both here and in the hallway, correct? Well, I agree that Horse was not actually killed in this room. Rather, he was brought in here, and made to lean against the door.

And to hide the fact that the body was moved postmortem, the killer used these textbooks as makeshift rags, wiping away the blood in the hallway!

First off, not only is 'Oxen' as a pun atrocious, it also doesn't work because Oxen is plural, and I am only one person.



Second, you're probably right about wiping away the blood, but I still don't see how that solves the doorway problem.

Well, you see, the thing about that is, uh, I haven't figured that part out yet.

Amazing deductions.

It was at least something!

It was, in fact, something. I shall grant the floor that much. Anyways, the specifics of how the body ended up like that probably don't actually matter much, the point is that someone shot Horse and now he's dead.

Yeah, I don't really get any of this. The biggest mystery is who killed Horse, and I don't know if solving the door mystery will help with that.



That might not be so much of a mystery.

You know who did it?

No. But I might be able to soon. Think about it- we heard about the Butcher's Knife, right?

Right.

Well, it's hard to tell with the current wounds, but its possible that this body has already been stabbed. If that's the case, then at the end of this round, the culprit will move an extra 3 spaces.

Huh. That makes sense!



For now, we should go back to the cafeteria and tell everybody what we found.

Gotcha. Sheep, are you good to go?

I'm ready to leave this place whenever you are.

The trek back to the cafeteria was grim. How could it not be, having already faced down death? When we got back, we explained the situation to the group.

…

[BGM: A Bite That Persists]


H-Horse is dead!

How horrible!

How unfortunate.

Wait, does this mean someone's really trying to hunt us down and kill us?

Perhaps.

Tiger, no one's used any of the weapons, correct?



Nope! I've been looking over them this whole time! Check to see if any of the weapons have been used, if you want.

Then that means there are more weapons than just the ones we found.

Christ, how many weapons did that kid put in here?

And we didn't find Dog, did we? I bet he did it!

What reckless accusations you make. It is just as likely that he is another victim.

Another victim!!



Everyone, everyone, let's calm down.

The Round is almost over, and I don't know about you all, but I still haven't input my action. We should all split up and select 'Run'.

Bunny's right. Let's all go into separate rooms and use our tablets. Then we can check everyone's movements, and that might help us figure out who's used the Butcher's Knife, if anyone.

After that, we can start planning and figuring out what our next steps should be. Sound good?

Let's go with that.

And just like that, we split up. I went down the right hallway, and Rooster followed near me. I entered into a nearby classroom and turned on my tablet. There, I pressed the RUN button. It was a difficult situation all around, but if we could pull through, the group could still use the Minor Trinkets to pull away as a group! After making my move, I returned to the cafeteria. Everyone seemed to be returning at about the same time.



After a bit, however, I noticed someone was missing. ...Well, another person was missing.

Is Pig back yet?

I don't see her around?

How long does it take to press a button?

She might just be slow.

Did anyone see which room she actually went in? If all the nearby ones were occupied, perhaps she was forced to visit one a bit farther.

How much farther would you need to go?



Settle down, all of you. For now, let's just focus on the race results. We can deal with where Pig is after that. The most important thing is seeing if anyone moves irregularly. If we see that, we can start figuring out what's going on.

We were scattered around the cafeteria. However, the moment the television turned on, the entire focus of the room shifted. All eyes were glued onto the TV screen. How could they not be? This could show if Dog was alive, if he was the one with the Butcher's Knife, if someone else had the Butcher's Knife, and more. At this point, I didn't even know what I was hoping for.

[BGM: Silence]


Round 4 has ended. Now, let us see how the race has progressed.

The Rat has RUN one space.

The Ox has RUN one space.

The Tiger has RUN one space.

The Bunny has RUN one space.

The Dragon has RUN one space.

The Snake has RUN one space.

The Horse has failed to make a move.

The Sheep has RUN one space.

The Monkey has RUN one space.

The Rooster has RUN one space.

The Dog has RUN one space.

The Pig has RUN one space.



Now, Round 5 has begun. Do your best, and choose wisely.