"Forbidden Love" (Saiouma/Oumasai story)

•Chapter 19: Goodbye...•

"I'm the one who tampered with the crime scene."

Silence.

Nothing else more than silence.

Everyone stared at the blonde girl in shock.

Kaede wore a confident semblance, but Kokichi could feel the immense fear building up inside of her.

She held tight onto the small desk, her knuckles turning white as she did so. She desperately wanted someone to break the overwhelming silence, the suffocating silence that made her regret her decision. She glanced at Shuichi, the despair that swam in his eyes made her chest tighten. Was she going to jail after this? There was no way to know, but this felt like the right thing to do and that's what calmed the girl down. She was making the right choice and she knew that, she was doing it for her friend, for his happiness.

"We wish to know more information about this...stunning confession..." Junko spoke up.

"I-I can explain. It was the orphanage, they threatened me! And Harukawa-san was threatened too. They told us that of we didn't do what they said they would sell us to professional assassins." She let out a shaky breath.

"I would like to know the things you tampered with, if that's possible. The reasons to why you did it will be discussed later." Celestia said.

"O-of course... Ok so, you might already know but...Mrs. Saihara wasn't strangled to death, she was injected a lethal poison that could kill you in a matter of seconds. Harukawa-san was the one who did this. She shot the needle with a crossbow, I...don't really understand how she was so good at aiming but I guess that doesn't really matter right now."

"So this girl...Harukawa Maki...was really a kid from the orphanage?" Mukuro questioned.

"Yes. She was. I went to the orphanage to play the piano every Saturday and she was always there."

The freckled girl nodded as she wrote down everything that was being said. She then turned to look at her sister.

"So Miss Harukawa's testimony has a high possibility of being true." She stated.

"Yeah no duuh, I can clearly see that." The pink haired girl said as she rolled her eyes. "Continue with your testimony miss Akamatsu."

"Right...so um...after Harukawa-san had shot Mrs. Saihara, something none of us expected happened. Ouma stole Mr. Saihara's gun while he was focused on his wife and shot him." Kaede turned to look at Kokichi with a sad expression. "But...it was in self-defense. It was his and the seven other kids' lives or the man's. He...he did the right thing." She gave him a sad smile and looked at Junko.

"Unfortunately, you have no right to decide that." The blue eyed girl said dryly, "If you want to help him then finish your testimony."

"Hmph, once they were both dead, Ouma and the others ran away, that's when we changed some things. First, I grabbed a rope, tied it around Mrs. Saihara's neck and pulled, in order to leave a rope burn. Then, we took the gloves out of their hands and burnt them-"

"They were wearing gloves?" Kirigiri interrupted.

"Uh, yes. They were. But, as I was saying, we took them off and burnt them, so when the police investigated the crime scene, they would think it was Ouma's gun. After that, I still don't know how, but the nuns were able to get the substance out of Mrs. Saihara, but...she was already dead. T-They warned me that if I ever told anyone about this...well...I already told you, they would sell me..."

"Right..." Junko mumbled, putting her index finger on her chin. "Hmm, I wonder why the assassin girl didn't say anything about this..."

Kaede awkwardly stood there while the judgers discussed some things.