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Post by shinji on May 5, 2012 16:16:42 GMT -8
The crowd which had offended Jira took her response with a grain of salt and a dose of ignorance. Even if she had checked Kenkou's vitals, that did not register with them that she was a medic, much less the head of the Medical division of the Gotei. The party was more civilians than military after all, and Jira wasn't known for rubbing elbows with the public. Granted, there were no more shouts, though the group around the man who spoke out first had put their heads together to hold a whispered counsel while Kusu led Jira away from the body.
Kerai would find the servant whom he was addressing less resistant and hostile than the crowd which Kusu and Jira had been more involved with and how she had initially seemed. Though her face was stilled turned away from the blond's gaze, it was flushed red and her eyes glistened in the renewed lantern light, shiny with tears forming at the brims of her lower lids. "I-I-I don't kn-know," she started then bit her lip tentatively and her brow furrowed slightly as if she was trying to remember something. Eventually her tale resumed, her voice slightly stronger than it had been. "It went dark after we had set the food on the table. I was scared. The lanterns shouldn't have gone out. They were specially made at K-..."
She stopped herself just short of speaking Kenkou's name as if she had choked on the sound. The shorter more plump woman who had been accompanying her stepped out from the crowd which had stationed themselves about the ice sculptures, and placed her hand comfortingly on the taller woman's back. Neither woman had any oddities about their appearance to indicate weapons upon them, at least from a visual examination, to give them the appearance of partners in crime. Still, the gesture seemed to help her regain some control and she continued on. "I was scared," she repeated. "So I wanted to get away from the center of the room where the most chaos would be." She stopped to wipe away tears that had fallen loose from her lashes. "I don't like big crowds," she then confessed. "They make me uncomfortable. I thought it would be best to go back to the servants' section. But I tripped over K-..." Then she burst into full blown tears.
All this was going on in the background for Kazuo who had encountered Mayumi and her attendant. The brevity of the conversation led to a quicker investigation of the cord's trail. Though one end followed along the wall in the opposite direction, the way forward was barred by the guards. The other path which the Dai-Kidouchou had chosen flowed along the wall until it angled inward through the hallway where the servants had been carrying food from. Unlike the entrance which visitors had once trickled in through, this door was unguarded, though people milled about the area and the musicians were still set up just outside it. Even from just the entrance, if one was looking for the cord's length, they could see it led through along the wall into the distant kitchen, never bending in through the closed doors which lined the hall.
"It is odd," Mayumi said, feeling that the comment would go nowhere so it was simply for the benefit of herself, "I get that a lot." She said as much with a smile marking her features though she shook her head in response to the offer of food. "I cannot say that I have much of an appetite for food at the moment. My curiosity on the other hand..." Her words trailed off as she followed Kazuo's path. What else was there to do? He had confirmed there was something off about the lanterns, so perhaps she could see for herself now. Hikaeme followed behind Mayumi much as the latter tailed after the male.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2012 16:30:01 GMT -8
The destination for Kusu and Jira was not far, fortunately; with space between them and the crowd's edge, furthest from the body, Kusu turned to face Jira, and also to put Kerai just within his sight; a slight shake of the blonde's head told him what he needed to, before Kerai resumed attempting to soothe the tears of the young woman who had found the body.
"I'm seeing problems with this mystery, Rokujo-Taicho." Kusu confessed in his low, almost conspiratorial voice. "There are no signs of a weapon either in or leaving the blood. The blood only pooled; there was no spray from the throat, which in my limited experience is not normal. The blood is cool, far cooler than is excusable, unless the man was cold-blooded as some of these others pretend to be. The man was either assailed too quickly for him to respond in any way, or was silenced, as there was no shout prior to his untimely end."
He spoke quickly, which made Kusu nearly incomprehensible with his more silent voice, but that was all for the better; no need to feed the crowd's fears by having anybody overhear. Instead, Kusu provided Jira a pleading look: though he had taken the initiative to gather the information he had, he didn't actually know what to do with it, or if it even meant anything. The would-be investigator needed the medic to confirm any of his suspicions, and he needed her to be the leader she was and instruct him on what to do; being only an average Agent in the Onmitsukido, and a jailor at that, Kusu was completely lost on what the best way to handle this situation was, except to keep the population at large clueless of the investigation thus far: this was the most basic rule in keeping general populations calm.
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2012 17:27:01 GMT -8
One would have thought that Kusu's manservant had adequately began to spread about Jira's identity of being a healer previously, but it seemed the throng was keen to find her actions suspicious. The woman was still seething as Kusu began to speak.
Jira frowned, contemplating over his words as Kusu began to unravel the tale of his findings. Having been sliced at the throat, a spray would have been a natural, and for the blood to be already cooled? She didn't understand it. After all, Jira was no investigator.
"Most peculiar..." she murmured softly, letting the facts her laid out before her tick through her brain. She turned her head, noting that Kusu's manservant was still speaking to the female servant, whom she had previously observed.
"It stands to reason that the moment the lights went out would have been an ideal time to strike. Can we ascertain that he was still talking and alive before the room darkened? I admit I was not paying attention to the party at the time..." she let her sentence drift off at that point, returning to her thoughts for a short moment before interjecting again.
"The body was already beginning to show signs of cooling when I seeking for signs of life, which indicates that the individual acting did not waste time. Clearly, this attack was planned and coordinated. The moment the lights went out, it would be natural for a party's host to soothe his guests, but I believe the attacker had already struck. Between acting fast, and the proximity of the ice sculpture-" she stopped speaking immediately, turning away from Kusu to look at the ice sculpture.
"How convenient would it be if a murder weapon melted away," she frowned, eyebrows knitting together. Would it be possible to slit someone's throat with a shard of ice? She had no experience with such things, but in a hypothetical situation...if the attacker did manage to find such a shard sturdy and sharp enough for the deed, then dropped it to melt into the pooling blood that was hot enough to wash it away (especially now that all this time was wasted), it could be plausible.
She returned her pale eyes to him, awaiting a response, a reaction to see if he thought such a thing was possible.
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2012 18:07:23 GMT -8
Kazuo wandered along at a casual pace, eating from his platter as he went. It wasn't entirely clear whether he knew Mayumi was there or not, as he was rather absorbed in his task. Fortunately, his lack of fancy dress worked rather in his favor in this case. He was dressed discreetly enough that he hopefully wouldn't draw attention, not that he was thinking of such things. The guards primarily seemed concerned with the main entrance and the body anyway, and Kazuo didn't particularly care about either of those things. He had his mystery; Why had the lanterns gone out? His lanterns, in a way.
Passing by the musicians and servants, he entered the kitchen and continued following the cable. There didn't seem to be any sign of breaks or tampering so far, so, he could only assume that something had occurred at the source. The servants all had easy access to and from the area, but a noble might have had a harder time moving through without being noticed. Still, if something had been done at the source of the lanterns power, it wouldn't have been possible for the suspect to go out, kill a man, and then come back in and turn them back on in the period that the lights were out. So that meant...
"Two minds at work..." He muttered, half to himself. A coordinated effort. Whether Mayumi was following along with his mutterings or puzzling things out for herself, he didn't really notice. "Manual interference is the only possibility... Registered staff, or were new faces brought in for the party?" He wondered. Someone might have paid off one of the existing staff members, but, with all of the work going on for the party, it was quite possible that their host had brought on some new workers, any one of which could have been a potential collaborator.
Still, none of that would matter until he reached the source, so, he continued on.
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Post by shinji on May 8, 2012 11:03:46 GMT -8
The woman which Kerai was comforting eventually subsided into small blubbers with the occasional hiccup. The plump woman had stayed by her side, assisting Kerai in his attempt. Meanwhile, the case of the flickering lanterns was leading out of the kitchen. The cord was attached to the kitchen walls all the way through yet another hall lined with doors. The hall was long and the lanterns had stopped in the kitchen, yet the cord did not. It was just visible from the light that filtered in through the entrance to the kitchen. At the end of the long hallway, there was a closed door, western style. The cord was wedged between the door frame and the closed door. All the while, no one sought to stop Kazuo nor Mayumi as they played detective outside the main room.
By now Mayumi had determined that it was more likely that someone had interfered with the lanterns than they had gone out by accident. Kazuo's behavior was odd... well, given the situation for him. He was focused. Then again, there was every chance that Mayumi was misreading his intentions, if it was him she was reading at all. She felt a strong sensation of being creeped out as Kazuo's search led to the kitchen. It was empty. And the last of the lanterns stopped in the room they were currently in. Mayumi wondered if Kazuo would continue all the way into the hall and whether or not she would follow him. There could be anything lurking inside the door where the cord entered, not to mention all the other doors lining the hall. The Misaki in her wondered if a murderer was going to pop out from one and stab them all. She shook her head slightly to clear the thought. Mayumi would follow simply for the sake of finding information or experiencing something first hand so she could report back to Nii-sama.
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2012 12:06:12 GMT -8
As Jira considered the possibility of a melting blade, Kusu bit gently at his lip, running his eyes over the pool of blood. "An interesting idea, but as cool as the blood is, the weapon would still be visible. And a blade of ice wouldn't account for the missing spray. You had time with the body; did you notice anything odd about the wound? Something that may hint to the nature of the weapon? Had the wound already begun to coagulate?"
It was a considerable bevy of questions, and asking them all wasn't necessarily fair; it had been a hectic situation, and to expect Jira to have looked for anything of the sort while trying to heal the man was asking for much, especially when it didn't seem the mystery extended this far. "A pity nobody was here who's duty it is to examine for such things. Asking jailors and medics to investigate, it seems almost a bad joke." There was an exasperated sigh at this... and then an epiphany.
Turning in place, Kusu looked to the guards to stood at the door... and did little more than this. Putting his eyes to the crowd, Kusu sought the sight of more guards - and found none who belonged to the house but serving staff. "There are no investigators." He murmured finally, glowering back toward the guards. "They prevent us from leaving, but do not contribute to resolving the case. A Hell Butterfly would have been sent for back-up, not a runner; we should have others on the job. Are they being kept out?"
The questioning was asked aloud simply to allow Kusu to hear the thought process, not because he actively sought an answer from Jira; it seemed odd to him, though, that nobody had even taken the time to cover the body, much less begin investigating in the name of the house. Something was drastically awry...
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2012 17:55:38 GMT -8
Jira shook her head, frowning while her mind clicked and whirred. "If the weapon was a shard of ice, it would explain why the blood was so suddenly chilled, because the heat of the blood would have surely melted the weapon quickly. And, if the weapon was large enough, it could hypothetically cool the blood quickly as it melted. Although, I am at a loss...the blood seems to remain as it is...and I see no signs of coagulation..." she peered through narrowed eyes, utterly confused.
"I am trying to recall his wound, and I seem to remember it being a clean, decisive slit, and I don't recall any signs of clotting, which in itself is strange because despite the severity of a wound, some clotting should occur in a manner of a 2-5 minutes." She rocked back and forth on the balls of her heels now, in obvious agitation. None of this made sense to her.
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2012 6:50:35 GMT -8
Kazuo didn't seem to notice the lack of people in the kitchen or the hallway, though, he usually didn't notice people even when they were around. He paused at the closed door, eating a rice ball from the platter which he still carried. Strange that it was set so far back from the room, but, he supposed they didn't want whatever mechanism that the cord was attached to being stumbled upon by guests and kitchen staff. Completely ignoring the rather foreboding atmosphere, Kazuo stepped forward to try the door.
"Hm, cable length could lead to fluctuations... Attenuation would need to be measure..." He muttered to himself as he followed the cord with his eyes, "Power source, or a control mechanism, or..."
Assuming it was unlocked, he would enter the room and look about for the source of the mystery. Should the door be locked, he would simply place his fingertips against the lock and mutter the incantation for "Sho", to blast the lock out of the door with a wave of force.
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Post by shinji on May 10, 2012 13:57:12 GMT -8
As Jira and Kusu were discussing the circumstances of the deceased body which were puzzling, the sound of Kazuo's Sho forcing the locked door open echoed down the long hallway, through the kitchen, and finally faded into the room where the partygoers were still grouped together around the deceased. As the music had ceased much earlier and people were more or less whispering now, even the diluted sound of what was taking place across the ground floor of the manse sounded like a sho gun shot fired at point blank. The woman who Kerai had been comforting up to that point flinched visibly, but it was the other woman at her sighed who gasped in realization. Regardless, both started to hurry away from the blond and toward the servant's entrance to the hallway that led back through the kitchen to the area from which the noise had come.
Back at the scene of the incident in question, Kazuo would be greeted with the sight of a walking corpse. Or so it would seem to anyone who had seen Kenkou's deceased body laying face first on the floor in the main room, but here he stood, very much alive and well. Even as he saw the Dai-Kidocho and Mayumi, the rotund man clapped his pudgy hands together and laughed boisterously. "It seems you found me," he finally exclaimed as he wiped a joyful tear from his cheek. "Well done, well done." Around him stood several servants dressed in dulled red and silver compared to Kenkou's fine garments. One of the servants held the final length of the cord in his hands.
Mayumi couldn't say that she was surprised at Kazuo's actions, though she was somewhat mortified. As the head of the Kido Corps, he would no doubt be excused for the destruction of property, especially given the circumstances, but still the young woman couldn't imagine herself doing something similar. Regardless, it had the effect that he had been looking for, and Mayumi could just make out some of the room from around Kazuo. Enough that she very nearly screamed. She managed to muffle it so it simply came out as a squeak, but Hikaeme was already at her side, bracing her.
"But you should be... dead," Mayumi practically whispered once Kenkou had finished speaking.
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2012 14:29:12 GMT -8
The sound of the forced door drew Kusu's attention, as well it should; in these high stress times, every little thing needed to be attended to, and the sound of probably violence was a strong trigger to Kusu, who felt compelled to try and keep the peace.
Kerai was hot on the heels of the maids, as curious as anybody to learn the source of the commotion, and Kusu too turned to move, briskly, toward the noise, albeit after a look to Jira. "Be careful, Rokujo-Taicho." There was no telling what madness may ensue if violence broke out, but a Taicho would surely be able to keep herself safe from a group of nobles... right?
In any case, the Onmitsukido agents were hot on their way to the scene, for better or worse.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2012 15:32:49 GMT -8
Having really nothing else to do at this point, well nothing better than mulling over the oddity that was puzzling her, Jira followed after Kusu.
"Of course, Natsume-san," she replied, taking care to use his proper name. Her eyes warily flicking about as she melded into the crowd toward the source of the noise. After all, there was a killer among them, so she would have to be very careful.
Or perhaps not.
Having gotten a good look at the source of the commotion, she saw a door had been blasted open and what looked like the very man she just saw dead upon the floor. Shifting her gaze quickly back to whence she came, she would check to see if the corpse she just examined was still on the floor.
Regretfully, she was a bit further into the crowd, and could not hear what was being said over the general buzz of the party.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2012 18:51:03 GMT -8
Kazuo paid little attention to the occupants of the room, save for the one holding the cord. Aha. So, somebody had manually interfered. The power source itself was irrelevant at this point, seeing as somebody had apparently disconnected it, or tampered with it in some way. Why? Well, he didn't really care. The lanterns were working as intended, and that was the truly important thing, corpses be damned. It would have been very irritating if something he had helped develop wasn't working properly. He considered giving the servant a lecture about proper operation of the devices, but, he was distracted by the fact that he was down to his last rice ball, and the platter was almost empty.
But still! The mystery was solved. At least, his mystery was, and he no longer cared about any of the rest of it. It wasn't very clear if he was even aware there had been a 'murder' in the first place. Plucking at the last rice ball, he stared off in to space as he ate it, debating how he could invent a tamper-proof lantern. It was very difficult to plan around human stupidity.
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Post by shinji on May 12, 2012 12:28:35 GMT -8
"Oh well, yes! I suppose I should explain," Kenkou replied to Mayumi whispered statement which was easily heard due to the lack of response of Kazuo, though the hallway was soon filled with people. Eight to be exact; Kazuo, Mayumi and Hikaeme at the head, then the two servants, then Kusu, Kerai, and Jira. Kenkou stared at them all with a merry twinkle in his eye before he inhaled as if about to say something important, and then, "Well, I am not dead!"
Mayumi's eye twitched.
"Perhaps they need more than that, Kenkou-sama," stated the formerly sobbing servant whom Kerai had been comforting only moments ago. She was now dry eyed and smiling. "Hmm, yes, I suppose I can do this thing you ask!" The woman didn't bother to point out that she hadn't asked anything. "Very well! The body in the main room is a gigai! It was under the food tables, hidden by the cloth draped over them. My servants all helped to execute the plan." He pointed to the man holding the cord to the lamps in his hand. "I had these lanterns special made to require a fresh source of reiatsu to be lit. All it takes to put them out is him letting it go! When the lights went off, I rushed to the back while the servants dragged the body to the main floor by the ice sculptures and 'killed' it. We put it by the ice sculptures so that no one would hopefully notice that it wasn't the right temperature!"
Mayumi had to consciously check to make sure her mouth was not agape after Kenkou's explanation. He had faked his own death? Why? True, he gave an explanation of how, but not a reason for why he had done it. Mayumi was too shocked to ask of her own accord and Hikaeme couldn't do such a thing given the circumstances and though her expression was neutral as always, Mayumi thought she looked a little pale. Perhaps it had been the treatment of an artificial body which had gotten to her.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2012 12:37:47 GMT -8
As the noble gave the run-down on how he had faked his demise, both Kusu and Kerai were dumbfounded; how was one to take this? On the one hand, faking one's death was certainly a crime of some sort - or, so Kusu imagined - but on the other, the man had immediately fessed up.
"But to what purpose?" Kerai stated, a little louder than he'd meant; despite his more people-oriented personality, the blonde was equally as flummoxed, unsure of what to make of the entire situation. Had the entire party been a ruse to fake his own death as so? This entire ordeal was beginning to cause Kusu a headache...
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2012 16:57:35 GMT -8
Thump-thump
The vein in Jira's forehead twitched painfully to the rhythm of her heartbeat. Anger and annoyance wrapped up into one migraine inducing party. Feeling light headed from the pain, she slipped through the party, past Kusu and swept into a chair before her legs buckled. Her face was whiter than usual, and many of the party goers gave her simpering looks. Perhaps they pitied the female, thinking her to be sick or overcome with shock.
She was overcome with something, alright.
"It was a damn gigai, how did I miss that.." she hissed between clenched teeth, putting her throbbing head between her hands. She felt it was best to put herself as far from the party host as possible, lest there be a real homicide.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2012 19:03:49 GMT -8
Completely ignoring what was going on around him, Kazuo finished off his rice ball. Staring down at his empty platter for a long moment, he finally turned, and wordlessly made his way out of the room, his mind having moved on to other things now that his mystery was solved. Returning to his original goal of the buffet table, he set the platter down and began eating once more. The food was looking more manageable now, and it seemed that nobody was refilling the table still. He also had no help, however, everyone busy doing... Something unimportant. So, he fought on alone.
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