The first thing you heard at this ungodly hour was Kin hollering. Something about her already knowing about the body so you’d better leave her the expletive alone about it.
Wait, knowing about the what?
Not long after you pushed yourself out of bed—real or makeshift—King Kuma’s voice rang through the halls.
“A body has been discovered! Time to get to investigating if you don’t want to spend the whole trial flailing around!”
That was all he had to offer. Swallowing bile, you hurried out the door to see where you needed to go.
It was the third day of King Kuma’s motive. You’d made it this far, but someone had still cracked in the end. At least you didn’t have to worry about the motive affecting your own loved one... if you had in the first place.
Finally you entered the courtyard. Several of the others were already crowded around the body on the ground, but even with an obstructed view it wasn’t hard to tell who had bit the dust this time. Still, you drew closer.
Nikko Ingo lay twisted and dead in the grass.
This really had happened again... So you had no choice now but to investigate, huh?
[[Investigation asks are now open. Please send in asks to the blog to investigate the body, scene, other players, etc. Some details may require more skill to find than others.]]
Some of you who were close enough may have noticed the faint rumble. Not enough to hold your attention for long. There were other things to attend to, like trying to convince Kei and Eiji to let some of their teammates share the loot, or just fending off the boredom and anxiety.
At least, until you heard someone screaming that the prison tower was on fire. Your feet carried you to the courtyard, where indeed smoke seemed to be pouring from the tower. But it wasn’t like the kitchen was on fire or anything. You could all very much survive without a primitive prison.
...No one was in there, right? You probably would have heard a little more screaming if so. And it really wasn’t that much smoke—in fact, it already appeared to be dissipating. Maybe it was best to check inside. The place was so tall all of the nasty, choking gases would be above the first floor, anyway, right? And could you even get carbon monoxide poisoning in a video game?
A few of you ducked inside. It was only moments before you saw...
King Kuma.
“Oh, did all that surprise you? Don’t worry, there’s just something special set up on the second floor!”
“Aren’t you excited to see?! It’s still a little hot, but the smoke shouldn’t be dangerous as long as you don’t hang out there for too long! Why don’t you go and check it out?”
Assured that it was safe—not that King Kuma was particularly trustworthy, but he’d have trouble getting you to kill each other if you died of smoke inhalation—you sidestepped a few obstacles on the first floor and approached the stairs. Something smelled terrible. Just what was that bear planning?
The heat and smoke were still enough to make your eyes water as you reached the second floor. It wasn’t hard to figure out what King Kuma was so excited to show you...
Since Ikue Masamune’s body sat there burning.
Some of you had trouble leaving, and some of you were back down the stairs in seconds. King Kuma still stood in the same place, cackling.
“Now don’t be mistaken! I didn’t do that! It was one of your fellow students! I didn’t even get the chance to use the real fancy motive I had planned, hmm...”
“Oh, well! Someone’s still dead!”
“We’ll be holding a class trial to determine the killer shortly, so you’d better hurry up and investigate! You might need a few buckets of water...”
“I’ll also provide you with a basic file of the death information—the Kuma File! It’ll show up on your Save menus soon!”
“For now, have fun! So glad we have kids getting into the spirit of the game so soon, upupupupu...”
[[Investigation asks are now open. Please send in asks to the blog to investigate the body, scene, other players, etc. Some details may require more skill to find than others.]]
