Robotic Heart

Chapter 9.

--•--

Everybody turned to look at Kirumi.

"Exactly what are you trying to imply, Kokichi?" The maid questioned.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Maki frown, now she looked upset. Behind her eyes you could sense a small sense of distress.

"I said what I said. They found a peice of black fabric, if I'm not mistaken you wear that fabric." He smirked as he replied to her.

Suddenly Maki's dark shadow creeped back onto her face, her eyes seemingly glowing red as she death stared at Kokichi. Opposite of Maki, Kirumi seemed to be completely calm,  a neutral look on her face, unexpected for someone who just got accused for murder.

"Many people here have black fabric as apart of their clothing, I just happen to be apart of that group. I'm not following why you decided to point to me all of the sudden."

She does have a fair point . . . heck, even I'm wearing black fabric, but I know I didn't kill somebody and stupidly drop a scrap of my clothing.

Kirumi nodded, staring at the rest of the group.

"Well, no comment? Then I think that's cleared up, I don't see why I would be a suspect in the first place but at least you now know." She spoke.

"Alright, well we still haven't cleared up Himiko, Kaito and Maki from being suspects." Korekiyo started.

Tenko tensed up again, showing obvious anger for the tall male.

"Enough of accusing Himiko! She didn't commit the murder you degenerate male!" She angrily yelled.

"Tenko, please tone it down," Kiibo spoke, "but I do agree with you. Himiko possibly couldn't have committed the murder, me and Shuichi got the evidence when we were doing a thorough inspection of the water tank and the area around it."

Wait, we did? OH! How could I have let that slip my mind?!"

"WHAT?! You're telling me Mister Detective and you knew the whole time and didn't even fucking mention it?!" Miu shrieked.

"I-im sorry, it must've somehow slipped my mind due to pressure and stress . . ." I quietly said.

"A-anyway, Kiibo is right, Himiko couldn't have possibly got Ryoma into the tank because there wasn't any way she could have. When we were investigating the stairs, we found a door that was on the side of it, facing the wall. When we opened the door, there was a small shallow space, small but just big enough to fit Himiko. At first we considered Himiko had stashed Ryoma into the stairs and then switched places with him when she fell into the water, putting him into the water while she hid in the staircase . . ." I spoke.

". . . but?" Tsumugi asked.

" . . . but there wasn't any possible way she could've done that. With the time limit being 60 seconds before the pirhanas fell in, and with Gonta going up to see the water filled tank, it was just impossible. Also with the time limit, there's no way she could've pulled out Ryoma in time and stashed herself in, in the matter of just 60 seconds." I finished speaking. Himiko let a small sigh of relief, knowing she was in the clear.

"Aha! Now you guys can't accuse her of killing Ryoma anymore!" Tenko squealed in happiness.

"Correct, but we still have the two suspects." Korekiyo spoke.

As before, all attention turned back to Kaito and Maki. Sure, Himiko being cleared narrowed down our suspects, but we still had 2 more to choose from, and as far as I knew neither of them could even be the murderer.

"Hey! I told you already, we didn't do it!" Kaito yelled back at the glares from our fellow peers.

"Neheheh, you keep saying that Kaito, yet you had not provided us a valid alibi." Kokichi giggled.

Here we go again . . .

--•--

"Wait, so you guys didn't kill Ryoma?" Tsumugi asked.

"Yes! We've been telling you since the beginning that we didn't fucking murder him!" Kaito said with frustration. Kaito and Maki were cleared after a while of arguing and distributing information we didn't know anymore. I won't lie, I was glad that they were cleared, it made me happy to know they didn't kill him. But there was now another problem, we didn't have any leading suspects, so now it's back to square #1.

"So who the hell do we accuse now?" Miu asked.

"Now now," Kokichi started talking once again, "it seems we haven't solved the mystery of the peice of black fabric and the abandoned inner tube that was left in the pool. Kirumi, are you sure you aren't related to either of those?" He giggled.

Maki slammed her hand on the podium. "Drop it Kokichi, she didn't commit the murder nor does she have anything to do with those items." She glared daggers at the boy.

"Are you sure Maki? Because we can test that theory right here right now." The boy mischievously giggled. I stared in confusion until I understood what he was saying, out of his pocket, he pulled out the peice of black fabric that had been causing arguments. Maki glared even harder and scarier than her previously.

"So then, shall we have everybody who has black clothing see if this matches?" Korekiyo said.

Kokichi started passing around the scrap of cloth, people showing it that the cloth didn't match their clothing until it got to Kirumi. Kirumi still had a calm face on. I assumed it was her pokerface, and damn does she have a good one.

Kirumi picked up the cloth, it didn't match her clothes. Just as she was about to pass it, she got stopped.

"Wait a minute, isn't that the same material as your gloves?" Kaito asked Kirumi. Kirumi froze, not moving.

"Busted!" Kokichi giggled.

"Yes, it seems to appear this is infact the same material as my gloves. But may I ask since when my gloves being the same material as this cloth make me a cold blooded murderer?" She pointed at Kokichi while speaking.

"Kirumi, you should really stop painting yourself more suspicious than you really are," Kokichi retaliated, "would you mind explaining why there's a missing chunk on one of your gloves?"

"Are you that stupid or are you messing with us?" Maki glared as she spoke, "She just said that peice of cloth was hers, I'm not sure what you want her to say."

"And does she wanna explain how it got cut off from her gloves?" He replied to the intimidating girl. Maki went quiet, a very clear pissed off look on her face as she looked over to Kirumi for an answer.

"Well, this is quite an interesting position to be in," Kirumi began to speak again, "I will accept being a prime suspect, however do not think that I won't fight to prove my innocence. I myself do not know how that peice got ripped from my glove, sorry but it's the truth."

Ugh, we aren't getting anywhere with this, we still have to find the murderer but we aren't getting anywhere. We need more information if we don't wanna die . . .

I wasn't sure what to do at this point. There's only one direction to go, and that is to get more knowledge. I started to speak, hoping things would get at least a little clearer.

"So, what about the inner tube?"

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