NEW MUTUAL?????? EPIC!

Every inch of you is perfect from the

to the

Hymns of Death

Pre- investigation

Before Apson could ask a question to Hiru, he heard a horrified scream coming from inside the cafe. The group ran in to find Joost backing away terrified as he hid behind the dark brunet. Jere and Marko covered their mouths as they glanced down before the light blond ran off to the plant to vomit behind it. Slimane stood there, feeling the color draining from his body.

"Oh, my god," Vasil felt his body trembling. "N-No way..!"

Apson couldn't help but glance down at the body. Her golden dress was scruffed and her headpiece was scattered next to the double doors. Her ring appeared to be stolen but what caught his attention was that there was a small silver chain necklace in her dark brown hair but also a red glove next to her body.

"Oh god," Salena whispered to herself, her hands covered her mouth. "Besa's dead."

Everyone present in the room fell silent as they stared down at the lifeless body. Apson and Joost stood there in shock as they glanced at the body, Klein felt sick to his stomach as he sniffled and bit his thumb. "I can't believe this, how could this happen?"

"Whoever did this," Bambie struggled with their words, squeezing their arms tightly while Nemo consoled them. "Is a fucking sicko."

"Is there a chance that we could, you know, do a funeral?" Ferman suggested, raising his hand.

"Is that even possible?" Tom asked, sighing as he shook his head. "Without alarming security, I think it's going to be a no, bud."

Apson stopped as he observed the room, noting that Joost was consoling Marko who was twisting his cat bracelet to distract himself from the situation. Bojan and Jere were talking to one another as they tried to piece together why this would happen so early. Isaak and Slimane were asking others if they knew what had happened to understand.

Apson knew that he and Joost needed to investigate.

The Dutchman turned around and found Hiru as he pulled the suspect into the cafe, her eyes watered as she whined while struggling to be freed From the right grasp. Everyone stopped as they found them, shock struck them cold.

"Hiru, w-what are you doing?!" Apson asked them angrily.

"Come now...Apson," Hiru smiled sinisterly. "Let me show you how the game works.."

Two people got up, slamming their hands on the table. "You goddamn psycho! Let her go now!" Teya rebelled as she had Luke to back her up. "You got the WRONG person!" He shouted.

"Seriously? Are we doing this? Come on, we are smarter than that!" Damiano groaned and shook his head.

Conchita tried to calm the room down. "Everyone settle down, fighting isn't the solution."

"Apson, let's go. Now." Hiru demanded.

The dark-haired bit his cheek and shook his head. "No."

"Eh?"

"This isn't going to work! We can't sacrifice our friends like this, I don't want to torture them!" Joost refused as he yelled out, his shaky breath turned into tears as he sat down against the chair, biting his fingernails.

Kaarjia shook his head. "You think we should trust them? They could be a part of this whole thing!"

"Finally! Someone gets it!" Teemu exclaimed. "I'm not rude, I just don't trust them!"

Hiru smirked as they threw Salena to the floor and rushed to Jere. "You think I'm the culprit?"

"With that look, you could be!"

Isaak covered his mouth and shook his head. "Salena couldn't possibly do this! She is not that kind of person! It must be you!"

"Oh please, please, save your tears for when the TRUE criminal gets what they deserve for this slaughter! I'm not the one you should fear..Salena should be.."

"WHAT?!" The woman shook her head, sobbing frantically as she rushed to Apson. "I'm innocent! Please just listen to me!"

"Why should you trust her? That criminal slaughtered Besa in cold blood!"

Harun got up, slamming his hands on the table as he stared coldly at Hiru. "Without any proper evidence, you have no say to blame her for this crime and I believe with a fair trial, we can say who has committed this crime."

Slimane closed his eyes and sighed. "If this person is speaking the truth..then should we turn her in?"

All fell silent as they stared at Salena and then at Toge before hearing hands slamming down at the table. "No!"

Everyone turned and saw a distraught Marko, angrily staring at Hiru. "We cannot end it here!" Marko rebutted, and Nemo stood behind him. "You guys have no evidence! No proof that Salena did this! What if that person is lying to frame it on her?!"

"I agree! Salena deserves a fair trial!" They shouted.

"A..fair trial?!" Hiru scowled, glaring at everyone sourly before rushing towards Jeangu and shaking him aggressively. "You all speak of nonsense! A trial means that one error could cause her to get away from it!"

"But a fair trial could solve the problem and give Besa proper justice!" The Surinamese folded his arms in retaliation against Hiru's offer. "With no trial, it'd be pointless!"

"Besides are you forgetting about Innocent before proven guilty," Michał cautiously glanced around the room. "Pretty sure that's, like, common knowledge."

"To some, it is," Loreen chimed in, folding her arms. "But it's best that we should have Salena be innocent until we can prove that she is innocent or guilty."

Hiru glared at everyone before turning around, noticing that the Finnish was helping Salena up which made them shove Jere aside as they snatched Salena's arm and dragged her to the auditorium room by her arm.

"Damnit, go stop them," Jeangu shouted. "Before they make it worse!"

Apson, as well as the others immediately ran towards where the duo was going. Joost tried to stop the person but couldn't because he couldn't make it to the door in time, he ran into the double doors just as Hiru closed them.

"That motherfucker!" Jere opened the doors and led the others to find Hiru glaring at the projector. "Don't you dare lay a hand on her!"

"Kakaka..you don't understand it," Hiru glared down at the group. "This is The Game, you have to follow the rules."

"But we can't officially start if the whole group isn't here! We still have time for a fair investigation—!" Marko was interrupted by the projector starting up as Hiru laughed frantically.

"Well now, idiot, if we don't have the Vote now then THE culprit will kill their next victim..and here's your murder!" The mysterious stranger pulled Salena by her arm before slamming her on the ground.

The group felt uneasy by them as they turned around to find the double doors blocked off, No escape was possible. The screen opened up to the purple cat sitting on the high throne-like chair. Joost shivered as Apson had him close to his side as he approached the screen with a stern look on his face.

"I see..you may want to start the 'voting' section?" The narrator asked before the cat pressed the button. "Well now..let the vote begin now!"

The group stopped as the floor opened up, letting two tablets show up, and turned on to find a white screen appearing with a choice of three buttons; red, blue, or green. Hiru smirked as they started to think about the options on the screen.

"No, don't you dare! You cannot pin any of this onto her!" Jere argued aggressively as he slowly walked up to the figure.

"Kakaka.." Hiru laughed, as they turned to glare at Jere before selecting the green button and submitting it.

Salena's eyes widened as she began to walk backward in fear of being punished wrongfully. Joost, fearing for her, held her tightly. Apson started sprinting towards Hiru before they could choose any more choices on the screen.

"Hiru! You're wasting your time!" He yelled out. "How do you know that this is her fault?! Your evidence could be fabricated!"

"I'm a liar, Apson?" They smiled before slowly choosing the green button again.

"No!"

Before Apson could undo it, the tablets went back into the ground, closing the floorboards as the projector screen changed to the purple cat shuffling the cards in a bowl. The group stood there in fear as Salena continued sobbing frantically Hiru stood there with a satisfied smirk on their face.

"We have a winner, everyone!" The narrator called out as the cat pulled up a card. "And the winner is.."

The card was set down on the table as the camera moved down and watched the card flipped to reveal none other than—

"NO ONE!"

Hiru was shocked and appalled by the showing of an empty card. Apson's eyes widened before they were relaxed as the purple cat began laughing hysterically, the cartoon showed tears spilling out while it laughed. "What?! No! I-I thought I picked—!"

"You think that you could execute someone that quick?" The Narrator scoffed before showing the Cat shaking its head disapprovingly. "It's not that easy! A trial must be held before we can choose a suspect and call them a blackened or a culprit."

"See, kusipää?!" Jere yelled angrily. "We told you so!"

Hiru stared blankly at the projector before it turned off and let the lights go back on, which made them stare down at Salena before turning to glare at the group and running off. Jere sighed angrily before walking up to the woman and helping her up, consoling her.

Joost walked up to his childhood friend and put his hand on his shoulder. "Apson does that mean—"

"Joost, you and I need to investigate this."

"But we aren't professional detectives! What if we get things wrong?"

"Joost as long as we ask the right questions and look at things thoroughly," Apson turned to face him. "We can solve this case and help Salena in the best way for her to survive."

Klein hesitated before sighing and glancing around, noticing the disarray of Salena as she cried in her hands with Silvester and Jere next to her, trying to console her. The blond looked back at Apson and smiled with confidence, beaming. "Alright, I'll do my best to be a good detective, what's the best place to find clues first?"

Apson smiled softly. "That's the spirit, Joost. Let's get started on this investigation."

Investigate.

- HALLWAY -

As the duo walked out of the gym, they were met with the same bloody handprint that slid to the cafe and the same piece of white fabric. Could it be Salena's? She did have a white fabric in her hand as well.

"Apson," Joost kneeled looking down, noticing a black roughened bag next to the white fabric. "Was there a black bag before we went into the cafe?"

"A blackbag? No, why?" Mussa walked over to the blond, his attention was on the bag. He picked it up and observed it closely.

"If we didn't see it before, could it be that...someone dropped it on their way to someplace? Like the gym?"

"Maybe someone stole this, had it on them for a while, before running out of the cafeteria—" The Dutchman stopped as he opened it, finding a camera inside. "Wait."

"Oh! A camera, I figured it'd be harder considering that most culprits would hide it somewhere like their room or in a public bathroom. I don't know why but I heard it somewhere in a newspaper or heard it on TV." Joost shrugged as he turned and tilted his head curiously.

Apson's eyes widened as he turned on the camera, examining it before going into the gallery and looking through it. With further inspection, he found out that it was used recently, the photos were of Besa. A final few moments before her killer attacks her. What caught his eye was the hand in the third photo, the same red fingerless glove with those red nails. "Joost?"

"Hm?" the blond walked over, looking down at the same photo.

"Did you notice something off with Salena's appearance?"

The blond thought for a second before his eyes lit up. "She does love wearing white and red, and she has these cool red nails—"

"She had two gloves, right?"

"Yeah, she did? Wait, she had one on her..left hand, I think."

"Then, do you believe that Salena could've done this?"

"No, did you even pay attention to how Hiru was acting? They acted like a total nutcase," Joost argued, folding his arms as he sighed. "Then again, if it was her doing, then we should ask some of the others to see if they saw anything from Salena or Hiru!"

"Exactly, this could mislead us to convict Salena. We just need more information and evidence," Apson nodded. "Let's go ask some people, okay?"

"Alright! Lead the way!"

- CAFE -

"You didn't see..anything?" Apson asked the two girls in front of him who sat down at the table.

Olga, Yulia, and Lena shook their heads and went back to talking with each other. Apson sighed and shook his head before going to speak with Isaak and Slimane before seeing a woman walking up to him in concern. "Uhm, excuse me..are you a detective?"

"Yeah, why? Do you have any tips?" Apson turned to find her playing with her parasol.

"A couple! If you don't mind!" She glanced down before glancing at him again. "I'm Jamie-lee, and if you need to know, I saw someone coming out of the...kitchen—No wait! The Disposal room!"

Disposal room? Apson thought before hearing her speak again. "See, I thought I'd be happy to venture around the room before I noticed that someone in a kimono with a white tote bag and wearing a pair of chunky black Mary Jane."

"What...?"

"They had these cyan-blue eyes, dried blond curly hair in pigtails, wearing a kimono, and those chunky Mary Janes! I swear, I'm not crazy! I saw them!"

"I believe you! I do! But where is this Disposal Room?"

"Just down the hall, but be careful I saw some of those press-on nails come out of their bag. I think it was dark red nails or Dark Cherry brown nail color."

Apson nodded before shaking her hand. "Thank you, this will make it much easier for this investigation."

- DISPOSAL -

The door opened as Apson walked in and found Joost talking to Marko, Mihkel, and Kristjan. The blond turned and waved his hand happily for his friend's attention. "Hallo! Hallo! Apson, these guys have very good things we can use!"

"What did you get so far?" The dark-haired Dutchman walked to them and crossed his arms.

"Apson, if I'm correct," Veisson started. "The suspect went into here, dragging their clothes, and burned them in this furnace. But what struck me as odd is the fabric...the fabric is not white but rather red with yellow."

Apson and Joost fell silent as the blond turned to glance at each other. "Wait, Red and Yellow?"

"Mihkel and I have discovered some white fabrics but most of it is..red and yellow pieces of scrap fabric," Kristjan mentioned before handing them a baggie with the said fabrics. "Perhaps it is from a dress-like attire."

Mihkel chimed in. "That is all we got from here. If you need any more help, come to us!"

Joost stopped them. "Wait! Did you get the face of the person?"

Marko shook his head. "No, no we have not. Sorry, my friend. But all I do know is that there is only one person with the Kimono," The Estonian handed over a baggie of burnt press-on nails with an assortment of colors inside. "And press on nails with only these designs."

"Hiru Toge," Apson whispered to himself before grabbing Joost by his arm and sprinting off to go find them. "Thank you!"

- ROOM OF TOGE -

*KNOCK! KNOCK!*

"Hiru!" Apson announced, knocking on the door respectfully. "Come on out and talk!"

"Appie, could they be the murderer? I mean how could they pull this off at such a fast pace!" Joost asked, staring at the door with curiosity.

"I have no idea, Joost, but all I know is that this must be the one. If it is them and not Salena, then we could be on our way to escaping here."

The door opened as a fully dressed Hiru came out wearing a black and white frilly dress with black and white tights, white medium-length gloves, and those exact chunky Mary Janes that Jamie-lee was mentioning. "Yess?" they asked, their voice sounding more sinister than before.

"Hiru, we've found some evidence that may relate to you with the murder of—!"

"Fufufu.."

"What?"

Hiru shook their head. "You don't understand, do you, Apson?"

Joost gazed at Apson with concern, as he bit his nail. Hiru stared into his eyes with a sinister grin. "Apson, your investigation is almost at an end, you haven't checked the restroom, have you? Why say it was me when it was Salena? She has been throwing you off. I know for a fact."

"How, you haven't discussed your story! Why should I believe you?" The Dutchman argued.

"That, I shall save till the Trial," Hiru laughed sinisterly. "Now, check the restroom. There should be a bag just for you."

Before Apson could question them, the door shut. Leaving the two to scurry off to the restroom quickly, hoping that their doubts would be incorrect. They hoped that it wasn't Salena.

- BATHROOM -

Joost sighed, picking at his nails as Apson went inside and searched inside. He walked out with a white tote bag and set it down on the ground. "Well, I found dried blood in the sink and this bag."

"Could it be, Salena's or even Besa's," The blond freaked out, feeling his body shivering for a bit. "Or even Hiru's??"

"Joost, take a breather here. Whoever's blood it is, it might as well be Salena's or Hiru's." Apson sighed before opening the bag to find—

A red tank top, a red fingerless glove, and red press-on nails. With two of them having dried blood on the fabric.

"No, no no..." Joost panicked a bit, biting his nails nervously once again. "It can't be her!"

"This is all Salena's stuff, here, in this bag? How did-Who put this here?!" Apson rose as he saw four people walking towards them.

"Yo, Kaveri! Did ya find anything useful yet?" Jere asked with Bojan taking a peak in the bag before Apson stopped him.

"Heard it was a mixed bag," Vukčević sighed disappointedly. "Damn, whoever did this must be a total pain in the ass."

"Someone is trying to pin this on Salena, that's for a fact." Joost sniffled, glancing down at his hands before turning to look at Apson.

"Even though this may not be good for Salena, we'll do our best to defend her for good. If not, then we have no choice but to try to get her to tell her story." Apson disappointedly chimed in.

Jere's eyes widened, he was taken aback as he sighed and shook his head. "I refuse to believe that! Salena could never do a thing like that, let alone fight!"

Ilija shook his head. "Anyone can fight, Jere, but she just maybe wanted peace but the other just wanted to kill her out of paranoia."

"Damn, so this is not a joke?" Bojan asked, getting close to Jere with a disappointed look on his face. "Fuck, I hate it here."

"We have all the evidence we need, even though it leads to Salena, but still let's hope we can save her." Apson confidently affirms as he grabs the tote bag and heads to the elevator with Joost and the group behind him.