Chereads / Fantasy Detective / Chapter 10 - Main Case #1: Town Hall Death (1)

Chapter 10 - Main Case #1: Town Hall Death (1)

{Main Case #1: Town Hall Death}

{Case time limit: 2 days}

{Case Description:

{A little accident occurred during the Town Meeting! Figure out whodunit and catch the culprit with cold hard evidence!}

{Reward: 

__One World stone (1/???)__

{Penalty: Death}

 -----------------

Chikao couldn't move. His feat stood frozen to the ground and unmoving. The only moving parts of his body were his dilated eyes and his blood-pumping heart. His mind told him to move, but he couldn't. His legs were in a crisis trying to decide whether to run or freeze in place of where he stood. The same could be said about the rest of the group. Ayuka had a shocked and disturbed facial expression while Aoi had two hands covering her mouth with petrified and staring eyes. Even Taro, who had just awoken, was surprised to see what the rest of them saw. 

The flash that fell from the height of the roof was lying on the floor. In the front vision of the prince, before the podium, and the central point of the meeting room was a male. This male was lying face down on his stomach and was left unmoving. Stiff as the bones that he had inside along with his still and cold hard flesh. His features weren't at all impressive or remarkable, but one detail stood out to everyone who was scared shitless. 

The male had a knife, lodged into his back, right through the heart.

No one who saw the scene moved. They feared their movement to cause even more horror to what they saw. Even the prince, who was sitting right in front of the scene couldn't keep himself composed anymore and had to sprint out of the room. Leon followed the prince out of the room, muttering something to his little brother who covered his eyes hesitantly before taking his previous seat; not looking at the body, but the floor. The meeting council was surprised, but most were composed within seconds before getting to their feet and pacing off to assist the crowd. The professors (Asuna, Shizu, and Yukihara) got up and started to calm the crowd. At the same time, Shinsaku got up but seemed extremely tired as he tried to get up and calm the crowd, but was having extreme trouble due to some type of fatigue that no one was aware of. The king and queen were still sitting down during this chaos, nodding his head in disappointment while the queen was telling him something, looking desperate. By the time Chikao was even able to comprehend what was happening, an announcer could be heard yelling at the back of the room. 

"EVERYONE! STOP WHERE YOU ARE!" He shouted into the device that the entirety of people could hear. Seeing most people becoming less violent in trying to get out he continued. "Due to protocol, we are not allowed to let you leave until we make sure everyone is here. This is for safety reasons, and to lower the amount of suspects who could have possibly been up there to cause this." The people near the locked doors had now completely stopped hitting the doors and looked up at the announcer. "The professors have told me that they would see who was outside and catch the culprit who pushed the person from the roof." Looking confident, Chikao could only assume that he trusted the professors to catch the person who was able to climb the extremely tall building somehow and somehow get a body up there too. 

'Do they really think that someone was on the roof to push the body off through the ceiling window?' Chikao asked himself, not expecting to get a response.

[I mean. It's the only logical explanation for how the body was able to get up there and somehow fall into the exact middle of the room]

'I guess.' Chikao thought, but still thought, 'How would that be possible?'

[Don't ask me]

[Actually] The system corrected itself.

[They could use magic]

Taking a second process, Chikao responded to the system. 'Oh yeah. I forgot that magic exists,' Chikao paused before sarcastically adding. 'Great.'

Not paying attention to the system, Chikao dedicated himself to his own thought process. 

'How could anyone get up there? Just eyeing the building, anyone could tell that it was at least a 3-story building. Even if you have magic, what kind of magic would you use to get up there? Is there a type of teleporting magic in this world? Being able to teleport means that almost anyone could have done this. If not, is it like elements? There are professors of each element, so that could be possible. What kind of element would have worked? You obviously can't use fire. Could it have been ice magic? You could use that to make a makeshift bridge. Or perhaps you could use the wind to somehow fly? No that would mean that you'd have to use magic to literally hold up your own weight, not to mention the body. Nature could easily lift a body by making some kind of tree to hold up the body and themselves, but is that even possible? Agh. I really don't want to agree with the system, but I've got to admit that I should've learned more about magic from Professor Yukihara. Damn it.'

[Yay]

[You agreed with me]

'Oh fuck you.' Chikao rolled his eyes at the system, almost forgetting about the problem at hand. More like the dead body in front of the room.

[Oh yeah] System typed to Chikao with a bit of emoji that was pointing up and a lightbulb above its head.

'What and also when could you use emojis?' Chikao asked about the chaotic system.

[Whenever I want ig] The system added a shrugging emoji next to its words, continuing.

[Did you see the new items that you got?] The system asked.

'Do you mean the stone thingy? Yeah, I got it.' Chikao responded in a questioning tone.

[No, I mean the other thing] The system added a faceplanting emoji.

'...'

[Oh c'mom]

'...' Chikao stayed silent at first while thinking. '...The Profile Index was it?' Chikao asked, unsure.

[Good. You have memory] A sighing system emoji was added.

'What does the Profile Index even do?' Chikao asked the system.

[A Profile Index is basically an Index of the people you meet in this place. It has information that you know or heard about. This also includes basic information that the system provides to each person.] The system emoji had glasses this time with a book in its hand (The book was held upside down for comedic purposes).

'So a character profile.' Chikao's facial expression was changed to a 'Are you serious right now' kind of thing.

[Yes and no]

[The people you meet are not characters from a book]

[This ain't a novel] The emoji was now an imposter emoji of Chikao rolling his eyes.

'You sure?' Chikao questioned the system with a tilted glasses look without glasses.

At this point in the conversation, the professors who went outside to help find the culprit (Professor Yukihara, Asuna, and Shizu) had returned to announce their findings. The group of well-dressed individuals caught Chikao's eyes as they were walking quickly to the announcer. Professor Yukihara whispered to him. The announcer's facial expression changed from neutral to shocked. Taking a couple of coughs, the announcer put the device to his mouth and started to speak again.

"MAY I HAVE EVERYONE'S ATTENTION." Pausing for one moment with everyone's attention, the announcer continued. "The professors have returned and have found that there were no traces of anyone, or anything being up there, except for the person in question." Immediately after finishing his sentence, the bickering and whispers of the nervous and anxious people spread. Before it could get worse, the announcer added. "BUT DO NOT WORRY! That also means that it is highly likely that the culprit of such horrendous crime is among us and we can now find and exploit them before they run away." The announcer's words left most with mixed feelings such as Chikao himself. 

'It's great that we may be able to catch this person, but that also means that we are in a room with a murderer.' A little shiver ran down Chikao's spine despite his ignorant attitude.

"Hey. Chikao." Chikao heard from his right side. The same whisperer, which was Ayuka, continued to say. "You might want to figure out a way to get out." 

Chikao didn't understand Ayuka at first so he just stared at her, in silence with an awkward facial expression. 

"Didn't you say you were like a detector or whatever it was called? Either way. They are most likely to be doing a check on everyone and to identify them. If you get caught up with that, it'll be like the first time you got here when Taro questioned you. Just so you know, people here aren't friendly with those who don't have an identification card." Ayuka whispered quietly and quickly.

"Okay first off. I am kind of a detective, and second, I know what you mean about the whole people thing." Chikao then asked again. "But how would I even get out?"

"There's a window to your left you idiot," Ayuka remarked at Chikao while rolling her eyes, but only slightly. "When the time comes, step on Taro and climb over. It's simple, really."

[Yeah]

[Very simple Mr. Detective]

'Not you too System.' Chikao complained before responding to Ayuka. "Alright," Adding on with a follow-up question, Chikao asked again. "Also, how the heck did you know that without even taking your eyes off the professors? You've got eyes on the back of your head or something?" 

Ayuka, not appreciating his sarcasticness, responds, "If I did then I wouldn't have been dealing with sneak attacks by Aoi. And for your information, we've used this type of exit before." 

"Sorry, but not really sorry, but I have to question the reason why." Chikao tried to ask nicely, but being the asshole he is, it came out as a sad remark.

"We had a little misunderstanding with some people and they thought Taro was a gang member and was holding me and Aoi captive," Ayuka muttered under her breath a curse after hearing the little stifling of Chikao trying not to laugh out loud. 

[Damn that actually sounds about right]

'Agreed.' Chikao thought while trying his best not to laugh out loud, but was practically failing as he held his stomach.

All of a sudden, a loud voice came from the back of the room which seemed to be from the announcer yelling again.

"ATTENTION EVERYONE! This is a message from our lovely headmaster, Professor Yukihara!"

Handing the device over, the headmaster starts to speak into the device.

"We will be doing an identity check to check certain people in order to get better information on perhaps the culprit of this case. Please be ready with you're identification card in hand and form a single straight line in front of me." The headmaster calmly stated before handing the microphone over to the announcer who took it nicely out of their hands. Saying a couple of words to the announcer, the headmaster walked down to the middle of the seating where the rows had been split and people started to create a line down the path.

"Holy shit. You were right, Ayuka." Chikao said to Ayuka as he cursed away any doubt he had.

"When am I not right." Ayuka confidently and calmly said. "And you should probably go as soon as possible."

"Alright, but what about you guys?" Chikao questioned what would happen to the rest of them.

"Don't worry. Most of the council members are aware of who I am and will understand if I explain to them." Ayuka said, again, calmly.

"Okay..?" Not really having any time to question, Chikao started to move over to Taro who was sitting down in his seat by the tall window.

"Hey, Taro, Ruma." Ayuka had said before Chikao could even say anything to the giant. "We have an E-F-A."

Behind Ayuka, Chikao could see the stars coming out of Aoi's eyes as she gasped in excitement. "We have an E-F-A! Let's go!" Turning to Chikao, Aoi puts her hands in fists and holds them close to her chest in excitement. "Good luck Chikao!"

"Um...Okay?"

"You ready then," Taro asked with one hand out for Chikao.

"For what..?" Chikao asked again, still not knowing what the fuck was going on.

"Ayuka, you've gotta explain to him beforehand next time," Taro said to Ayuka.

Ayuka responded with. "Just do it. I kinda want to see him suffer for his little attitude that he's got."

"Huh? Wait what!"

"Alright, here we go," Taro said before grabbing Chikao by the arm and yanking him onto his hand. After Chikao was standing on Taro's hand, Taro literally used just his arm force to launch Chikao the the 2 story window.

"WHAT THE FUUUUUCCCCKKKK!!!" Chikao yelled on his way up and down before landing on the window's edge.

[AND SAFE] System typed with the emoji now having a baseball cap on.

"What the fuck-" Chikao tried to say before someone yelled something so fucking inaccurate. 

"THE CULPRIT IS TRYING TO GET AWAY!!!"

"Oh shit," Chikao said before things were being thrown at him.

"GET HIM!!" Someone in the crowd yelled.

"OH SHIT OH SHIT!!!" Chikao yelled while trying the open the window, which he did successfully. After opening the window, Chikao saw that the drop/view was about 2 stories tall and he probably would die from the fall. Luckily for him, it seemed like there was a huge bush and trash bags below which made the fall a little bit easier. 

"Do I really have to jump?" Chikao asked himself.

[Do you really have to escape-] Chikao couldn't even read the rest of the system window before some kind of object that was thrown by the crowd hit him square in the back and pushed him straight out the window.

'I'm fucked.' Chikao thought.

[Yes you are]

------------------

{Main Case #1: Town Hall Death}

{Case time limit: 2 days}

{Case Description:

{A little accident occurred during the Town Meeting! Figure out whodunit and catch the culprit with cold hard evidence!}

{Reward: 

__One World stone (1/???)__

{Penalty: Death}

-----------------

10th Chapter special!!! (Every ten Chapters will have this)

Chapter special lore:

This is basically where most characters will trauma dump or just classic memories from certain characters.

(This section may include clues for readers)

Backstory One:

Masako Ayuka was a smart young girl who lived with her single father. Her mother had died at birth which meant that she wasn't the most social. She was an only child who helped her father at work every day at the family restaurant. She would gladly help her father with shopping and getting things for the restaurant at the marketplace.

One day, Ayuka's father told her to go to the market to pick up some important ingredients. Taking the normal path to the market, Ayuka walked through the busy market with her little red backpack. On this day, the market was extremely crowded, so Ayuka had to take side routes through the alleys. Ignoring the reminders from her father that he always told her, she cruised through the dark alleys. In the end, she had walked off course a bit and found herself at the town church. The road here was not crowded and so Ayuka continued walking to see if she could find her way back on the path. That was until she could smell hefty smoke from around the street corner. Following the smoke, Ayuka found herself at a burning house that was covered in bright blue flames. At this point, she could hear screams coming from the house. Eyes widening, Ayuka didn't know what to do. She looked both ways for someone to help, but the wind blew as the streets were quiet. All Ayuka could hear were the screams that were coming from the burning house. Frozen to where she stood, Ayuka didn't move and was unable to process what to do next. 

"SOMEONE HELP ME!!! PLEASE!!!" A scream could be heard from the interior of the house which broke the frozen seal over Ayuka's cold body. Running into the burning house, Ayuka frantically looked for the owner of the voice. Climbing up a fleet of stairs and turning the corner, Ayuka saw a young girl. This young girl had long black hair that was lying on the floor. She was lying down on her side while reaching out towards the opened door that appeared to have extreme burning and one huge blue flame that engulfed everything in its path. What made Ayuka panic was seeing that the girl's legs were on fire with bright blue flames daring to swallow the young girl's legs. Ayuka ran over to the girl and pulled on her arm, pulling her away from the burning room but was stopped by small pleas from the girl. 

"Please...don't take me away from..." The girl used her restricted strength to make eye contact with Ayuka. Her purple eyes showed Ayuka how desperate the girl was for whatever she was reaching out to. Ayuka looked between the burning pile and the girl who was still in blue flames that dared to devour her. Making a bold decision, Ayuka picked up the girl with all of her strength and pulled her away from the burning flames. Struggling to go down the fleet of stairs, Ayuka held the girl closer to her which resulted in her burning legs colliding with Ayuka's body.

"AGH!" Ayuka yelled in pain but bared with it and continued her journey. Almost having to walk through blue flames, Ayuka finally made it outside where she finally put the girl down. Taking a second to catch her breath, Ayuka tried her best to get the flames that were on, off of the two of them. Remembering how to defuse blue flames, she grabbed some water that she had in her backpack and started a red fire under it. 

"Hurry up hurry up!" Ayuka manically said while trying to make her little flame a bit bigger with all of her strength. Once the water started to boil, Ayuka immediately poured it onto the girl who was almost covered in flames before pouring it on herself. Once the flames were finally gone, Ayuka relaxed slightly with a huge sigh of relief. While sitting back, Ayuka looked over at the unconscious girl.

'I wonder what happened.' Ayuka thought while looking at the girl who had huge burn marks on her legs. 'I should probably bandage her up.'

Opening her backpack for the second time, Ayuka pulled out a small first-aid kit and a little pill that was packaged into the bag. Opening the kit and the pill, Ayuka got a bit of water and poured some over the burns that the smaller girl had. Putting a small handkerchief over the wound, Ayuka slowly rubbed against the burns to try and clean. Afterward, Ayuka brought out a small bundle of bandages and patched the girl up. 

Thinking to herself, she thanked her dad mentally that he packed her a first aid kit wherever she went. 

The girl showed no signs of awakening which troubled the conscious girl, but she didn't truly know what to do. By the time Ayuka had covered up the girl's legs with who knows how many bandages, the house had already been burnt to almost nothing but mere ashes. With nothing to burn down, the fire died down and at last, was nothing but a small deceased flame. 

At around this time, the girl stirred which startled Ayuka. Grateful that she was awake, Ayuka asked the waking girl. "Are you okay?" The girl who awoke stared at Ayuka with blank eyes. Blinking twice, she started to look around frantically searching for something until Ayuka interrupted her. 

"I'm sorry." Ayuka bowed her head. She didn't know what exactly happened, but she had plenty of evidence of what actually had happened.

"Oh..." The girl looked down to the ground, most likely tearing up. Ayuka unconsciously went to the girl and hugged her. Knowing the feeling of losing someone, she comforted her without speaking a word. 

Backstory two of ????:

There once was a class in the Academy of Mages and Knights; more like a pair. These two were young, but extremely bright boys who excelled in the academy. Yet the two could not be more different. One excelled plenty in the area of magic and the other was the top swordsman. 

The boy who excelled at magic was a small boy with a small presence at school. He was kind and gentle; a true kindhearted soul. 

The other boy was a very tall boy who stood out like a dark spot in a bright light. He hardly spoke to any and only focused on his performance in the art. 

The two may have been at the top of their grade in their young days, but they never spoke or interacted with each other. Yet this changed in an instance when the swordsman had gotten hurt on one faithful day.

It was the yearly hunting festival for the school. Grades 5 and up were the only grades that could participate in this event because it involved real-life combat with monsters. It was the first year that the boys could join. The event went smoothly for both boys and they were able to reach the end of the festival. Yet a problem arose when one of the higher-level monsters that were for grade 12 had gone off and started attacking everything in sight. The boys were in the middle of their last event when the monster came and attacked the taller male. The monster was a strong-scaled snake-like monster. The scales were made out of strong iron, but the soft and vulnerable flesh was the snake's greatest weakness. The swordsman knew that and went to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, the boy was too weak and his sword too dull.

The snake monster launched the boy into the wall, most likely breaking a couple of bones, while everyone else in the crowd cowered away to the exit, leaving the boy by himself. Yet the only person was the magic boy. He hadn't left and had already conjured up a trap for the snake that entangled the snake in a bunch of strong branch wood. This left the snake vulnerable letting the other boy pierce the soft flesh under the hard scales. 

The two boys were exhausted and sat next to each other, passing out from the tough battle they just had. 

-----------------------------

Hint: 

[One of these backstories is relevant to the case!]