As the elevator descended down below, Shuichi nudged Kaede's shoulder.
"We need to talk," he murmured.
"What?" Kaede tried to stop her mind from analyzing all 53 possible combinations of conversations that she and Shuichi might have. "Is it about Gonta?"
"Not really," the number went down to 16. "It's about what we talked about before all of this happened...you know, in my lab."
<em>Shit shit shit shit shit...</em>
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry that I lashed out at you like that," Shuichi fumbled with his words, "I didn't mean to hurt you like I know I did...so can you forgive me?"
Kaede's mind reeled. Right, why had she gotten so winded with Shuichi? He hadn't really said anything wrong to him...he had just clarified things about his situation with her. She should be grateful, in fact. It must have been that the lack of talent was making her temper go short.
"I'm sorry too," she smiled at him. "The stress must have gone to me, and what I did was irrational. Will you forgive me?"
"Yeah," Shuichi looked like he had gotten some of his confidence back. "Let's find Gonta's killer, full charge!"
"Yeah!"
<hr>
The talk with Shuichi had refreshed her somewhat, but the view depressed her once more. The class trial room had never felt so empty before. Both Kaede's right and left were devoid of its occupants now--in their place were two tall gray podiums crossing them out. Himiko's cross was a mix of a straight and a squiggly line releasing sparks that covered her soft doe eyes.
Gonta's was much more simple, though---a bright red cross stamped firmly over his face. This pathetic excuse for the large, strong, reassuring presence that helped reassure Kaede for so long, replaced by this stupid picture. She couldn't allow it.
"Let's start with what we don't know, and try to solve all the mysteries of this case one by one." she sighed as he eyed Gonta's portrait warily. "First, why was Gonta in my lab in the first place? Dumping Gonta's body should have been impossible for anyone left here, or anyone from the start, and there was blood all over the place, so I think we can safely assume it was the primary crime scene. Wasn't Gonta guarding Angie?"
"Ooh, ooh! Angie can answer that!" the former Ultimate Artist grinned. "Kiyo came in and said he came to switch with Gonta! He said that he was going to be Angie's guard next, so Gonta could go now?"
"Don't tell me that Gonta believed that." Kirumi countered. "While Gonta was a little...slow, he was very protective of his friends. I refuse to believe that he just left,"
"He didn't!" Angie waved her paintbrush around in the air. "Gonta and Kiyo left for about 10 minutes, and then Kiyo came back and said Gonta said it was fine! And that's how Angie and Kiyo ended up together,"
"Please don't say it like a married couple retelling their first date to their children," Shuichi muttered. "It would have been perfectly fine if we didn't find you with a sickle 3 centimeters from your neck...was he holding that?"
"Oh, yeah!" Angie grinned. "He took it out from his inside his jacket! It was really cool, Angie was super-duper surprised because she didn't know that it was there, and Angie usually has a great eye for finding things people are! Fun, right?"
Kokichi frowned, which showed that he did not think it was very fun.
"Let's put that aside for the moment," Kirumi coughed into her fist, before averting her gaze to the person to the left of Angie. "Is all of this true, Kiyo?"
He had been completely silent while Angie retold the story about how she almost died, staring at nowhere in particular and seemingly completely cut out of the conversation.
"Kiyo?" Kaede prompted.
"Huh?" this seemed to shake him out of his thoughts. "Oh...yes...that wasn't what happened at all."
"Then tell us what happened,"
"When I went into the Ultimate Artist's lab, Gonta was gone already, and Angie was sleeping. She woke up when I closed the door, however," Kiyo explained. "Angie said that Shuichi had asked Gonta to leave the room to talk a moment before,"
<em>Wait...Shuichi? No, he has to be lying. There's no way that's the truth...</em>
"Oh, yeah, Angie forgot to tell!" the Ultimate Artist perked up. "When Korekiyo came in, he said that Shuichi had told him to come,"
<em>Both of them are just using Shuichi as a scapegoat, right? Yeah! Both of them are probably crazy, anyways...</em>
"That isn't true!" Shuichi argued. " I wasn't anywhere near the Ultimate Artist's lab before the murder happened. I was in my lab the whole time, alone...that isn't much of an alibi, I know, that it's the truth."
"If we can't figure out what happened in the hall, can we at least try to sort out the murder weapon?" Kirumi suggested. "And why Kiibo was stuffed in a locker in the Ultimate Pianist's lab?"
"What the hell bludgeons and stabs someone at once, anyways? Tenko's never heard of something like that before!"
"Maybe the killer bludgeoned him in the head, and then stabbed him for good measure,"
"Maybe the killer hit him with a heavy object with a knife sticking out of it!"
"Why add the knife,"
"Because it's fun!"
"No, I think Angie's onto something here," Kaede's mind cleared a piece of mist in her mind. "I think that hitting Gonta in the head with something that had a sharp object sticking out of it...it might just work..."
<em>But what is it?</em>
<b>HANGMAN'S GAMBIT START!</em>
What sort of item would cause a stab and a bludgeon at the same time? Something that was so internal to the crime scene...what was it?
<u> </u>
Something hard, with a...something attached to it? Like, metal?
<u>ROBOT </u>
Good. What was next, though? She thought back to her own head, and it clicked.
<hr>
"IT WAS THE AHOGE!"
