"So. Did you kill Gonta?"
"No,"
She didn't really believe Kiyo when he said that, five minutes after he attempted an attempt at Angie's life, but she let it slide for the moment. The evidence would talk for itself.
Of course, she had taken a big risk in untying Angie and letting her come down to take a look at the crime scene. They had to untie her for the class trial anyways, and it would be pretty hard to continue the investigation if a few people weren't following at all. She was taking an even bigger risk in letting Kiyo help her, but his eye for detail and his way of putting himself in the killer's shoes were important assets. Considering, of course, he wasn't the killer they were looking for.
Monokuma came to deliver the Monokuma File once again, and the clear grey photo on it made Kaede's heart bleed once more. The head on the body was a bloody mess, beaten to almost unrecognizable.
"He must have been hit by something really large," Shuichi pointed at the dent in Gonta's head. "And I think this is a stab wound?"
Sure enough, there was a small but deep cut in the middle of his head, probably the thing that was causing all of this blood loss.
"What does the Monokuma File say?" Kirumi reached for it, and Kaede gave it to her, not being able to comprehend a single word of it because of the shock.
<ul>The victim is Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist.</ul>
<ul>The victim's body was found in the Ultimate Pianist's lab.</ul>
<ul>The time of death is approximately 11 am.</ul>
<ul>The cause of death appears to be being bludgeoned in the head and stabbed.</ul>
<ul>No other part of the lab was disturbed.</ul>
Tenko clicked her tongue. "This is absolutely useless. At least give us the murder weapon!"
"It's not completely useless." Kaede traced a finger over the last line. "No other part of the lab was disturbed. If you were going to jump on someone large, strong, and with strong reflexes like Gonta, you would expect some sort of struggle. Frankly, unless one would have a perfect plan on how to do it, it would be pretty hard to commit the murder."
"Or unless the perpetrator convinced Gonta to die quietly, or maybe kill himself," Kiyo offered. "It wouldn't be very hard if he or she knew exactly what to say. While it is unwise to say ill about the dead, Gonta's wasn't exactly the smartest tool in the box,"
"That makes sense, if someone just wanted their talent back but was too scared of getting found out and executed. The only problem with that is how could Gonta have inflicted these wounds on himself. If it was hanging it might be a different matter, but this looks more like an attack to me," Kirumi put a gloved hand on her chin.
Kaede moved away from the conversation and moved towards the piano. Its cover was covered with a thin layer of dust---she hadn't had the time or the drive to practice lately. But what her eyes moved to weren't the keys of the piano underneath, but to the body of the instrument itself. The open part, showing all of the crisscrossing piano strings, didn't hit her as right. It just seemed different...
"Strings!" She yelled. "The piano is missing a couple of piano strings! Maybe the killer cut them and took them,"
Shuichi came over. "Maybe the killer used strings, but didn't want to risk their cover being blown if he or she went to the warehouse to get them. They had to improvise."
"Kyaaah! Kiibo!" Angie wailed. "Why are you in here?"
She was pointing at the locker, in which the Ultimate (deactivated) robot was stuffed. His eyes were dark and dull, as Kaede had anticipated, but what was interesting was that he was tied up with dark gray metal strings that looked strangely familiar.
"There they are," Shuichi remarked, almost a little bitterly.
"I think this is why the body announcement rang when only Kaede and I stepped into the lab," Kirumi looked up from the body. "Even though Kiibo is deactivated, he is technically a witness to the crime scene."
"But why is the robot <em>here</em>?" Tenko did the face that she did when she was pissed. "Tenko thought Tenko left him in the cafeteria! And why is he tied up? Tenko is so confused!"
<em>Aren't we all,</em> Kaede thought.
"Perhaps it was a trick of the killer of some sort," Kiyo sauntered over to examine the robot. "They had to change the number of people who saw the body, or make sure the body was found as soon as possible,"
This case was getting more and more stressful by the minute. What was the point of it all? When she found out who the killer was, she was going to punch him or her hard in the face, because all of it was just eating at her happiness.
"That's it, kiddos!" Monokuma's loud and obnoxious voice boomed from the speakers. "Assemble in front of the elevator!"
"What? That's a lot shorter than normal! I thought we had two hours!" Shuichi argued.
"Well, the murder happened really fast, didn't it? So I had to match up to the pace! Don't complain to me, complain at the murderer for being so efficient!" the real Monokuma appeared by the door once more. "C'mon! Pip pip!"
"Eh? What about Kiibo?" Angie asked. "Does he count?"
"Well, he's a student too, so he's all yours!"
"That sounds really unfair," Kaede whined. "Kiibo is what-" she took her monopad out and swiped a couple of times-"89 kilos? How in the world are we supposed to lug him all the way to the class trial room?"
"That's your problem! Hurry up!"
"Where's the degenerate male going? Somebody stop him!" Tenko shrieked, pointing at the wide open door behind Monokuma. Sure enough, the former Ultimate Pianist could see a glimpse of prune-colored hair for a second before it went out of view.
"Kokichi?" Shuichi called.
"Atua's voice was silenced, so Angie doesn't know what Kokichi is going to do! Angie wants to finish the class trial quickly so that Angie can hear Atua's voice again!" questionably sane person number 1 said.
"I long to reunite with sister too..." questionably sane person number 2 added.
Kaede decided to ignore them before she really started to believe that God and Sister started to mess with her head, too. She stared at the doorframe, trying to acknowledge none of the sounds that her classmates were making, the only melody playing subconsciously in her head was...the sound of wheels?
Kokichi reappeared, pushing the (now clean) trolley that Ryoma had used to push Miu a bajillion years ago. He smiled, before carefully maneuvering the ride over to Kaede.
Kaede grinned in response. "Let's get this party started."
