EVENT+ The Mystery of H+ Academy - Story

[yerm]

Hmm, I got some good theories on some people and absolutely nothing on Eric yet. Anticipating him making a big splash soon

 

[Chomiczewska]

I read the other 3 chapters and feel like I learned barely anything, thank god I won a clue yesterday lmao

 

[boo]

How many acts are there in total? Because I still don’t have a clue who the killer is despite the story saying I got all the info I need from the crime scene.

 

[Chiharu]

How many acts are there in total? Because I still don’t have a clue who the killer is despite the story saying I got all the info I need from the crime scene.

however many it takes to wrap everything up

 

[Vampire]

I think I'll try to make a guess after Act 5 is posted up and we get a little more information. I've already got an idea or 2, but I'm scared. LOL
We do have 3 chances, but... I dunno.....

 

[Vampire]

Not you guys "Wow"-ing me! Now I'm doubting my ideas! LMAO

 

[Seriously]

Not you guys "Wow"-ing me! Now I'm doubting my ideas! LMAO

 

[sm maid]

I have a WHOLE conspiracy theory.... don't know how much longer I should wait to try my guess though

 

[Chiharu]

ACT 5 ​

As the four of you make your way up to the 3rd floor where Naomi said they had found Mr. Smith, Violet hesitantly inquires, “Mr. Smith, is he?...” Unable to bring herself to finish the question she trails off.

Answering her unspoken question, Naomi says, “he’s dead. Whoever did this sure was out for blood. I mean, I get why they’d kill Amelia, but Mr. Smith was pretty well liked.”

That was true. Mr. Smith was one of the teachers in your grade, and his laid-back attitude had garnered him the status of “cool” teacher. As long as you weren’t breaking any rules and turned in your work on time, he didn’t care what you did. But there was something else about Naomi’s statement that caught your attention. “Hmm, you get why they would kill Amelia?”

“Well, yea, it’s no secret that despite being the most popular girl in school, she had a lot of people who hated her. I mean, come on, I know you’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but it’s a fact that she was a major bitch.”

Violet bristles at her callous remark, “even if it is true, how can you say something like that...And also...I just don’t get it, how can you be so unfazed and keep smiling like nothing happened? Aren’t you scared??”

At that, Naomi shakes her head and lets out a laugh, “Of course I’m scared! Who wouldn’t be in a situation like this? But at times like this, you gotta keep your cool. Nothing good will come from cowering in fear or panicking.”

You nod in agreement. “Yes, she’s right. Panicking will only benefit the killer. But more importantly, Naomi, I have some questions for you.”

Naomi quirks an eyebrow at you, “oh? What’s this, am I being interrogated?”

“Yes, you could call it that. Alice told me that you asked her for a favor earlier. What exactly was this favor?”

Naomi turns to Alice and pouts at her, “Eeeh? Alice, that was supposed to be our little secret...Well, I suppose it can’t be helped. Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything nefarious. I heard some gossip around the school that Amelia was blackmailing a student and getting them to do her homework and even pay for her stuff. Horrible, right? So, I wanted to ask Alice if she knew anything about it and if it was someone in her grade. After all, it’s my job as a journalist to report on this kind of stuff~”

You blink in surprise, this was the first time you’d heard of such rumors. But then, you never paid much attention to school gossip. Still, this sounded like it could be important. Turning to Alice, you ask her if she knows anything about this supposed blackmailing.

She opens her mouth to respond, pauses for a moment, and then shakes her head. “Alice doesn’t know anything.”

You can’t tell if she’s lying or not, but for now, you decide to believe her. If your exchange in the library was anything to go off of, pressing her for answers wouldn’t lead to anywhere anyway. “I see. Let me ask this then, Naomi, Ren, what were you guys doing before you went to the library? And Naomi, where did you go afterwards?” You pause in thought for a moment before adding, “Aah, Violet, you only left my sight for a few minutes shortly after we got here, but I also need to know where you were during that time.”

Violet looks surprised, mouth forming a small O shape, as if she hadn’t expected you to ask her that. “Huh? Well, I guess you would have to ask me that. I was thirsty, but I didn’t bring anything to drink with me, so I got a drink from the vending machine and gulped it down on the spot.”

Ren crosses his arms with a huff, “I was in the cafeteria. You can ask Eric if you don’t believe me, he was there too and saw me leave, got it?”

Naomi shrugs casually. “I was nowhere in particular, I was just walking around. I’m sure someone saw me, but I didn’t see anyone. Wasn’t really paying attention to my surroundings. And speaking of surroundings-” She comes to a stop in front of the door to the faculty room. “We’re here. I guess the interrogation is over.” With that, she pushes the door open and you guys step inside.

The sight that greets you upon entering the room is Mr. Smith slumped facedown at a table. If you didn’t know any better, you’d assume he was just asleep.

Taking in the other occupants, you see Sydney off in a corner, a frown on her face and gaze fixated on nothing in particular. Min stands awkwardly a few feet away from her, looking as if he wants to say something. Hana paces back and forth lost in thought while Eric watches her with a bored expression. Kara sits off to the side fiddling with the hem of her sweater. Upon entering the room, all of them shift their focus to the five of you.

Hana rushes over to you guys, a smile of relief on her face. “Oh, Naomi, you’re back. And with Ren and Alice too...thank goodness you two are alright. We were worried sick.”

Tuning out the background noise, you pull on your gloves and approach Mr. Smith’s body. Gently lifting his head up, you see a brownish-red ring of about 1cm encircling his neck. Releasing him, you spot a bottle of whiskey on the floor next to his chair. Picking it up, you see that it is half empty. Setting the bottle back down, you say to no one in particular, “he was strangled. Looks like it was done with a thin object, such as a cord or necklace. There are no signs of a struggle, so he either was taken by surprise, simply too drunk to fight back, or a combination of both.”

After giving your report, you dig through his coat and pants pockets, frowning when all you come away with is some spare change, a pair of car keys, and a pack of cigarettes.

Taking note of your expression, Eric walks over to you and asks,“what is it?”

“His ID card is missing. That must be why the security system activated. The only way to turn it on manually is by using a staff ID card...no doubt the killer intended to keep us trapped in here.”

Hana furrows her brows at this, “but why would they want to keep us here? Did they think they could just murder all of us and escape before anyone noticed we we never came home?”

You shake your head, “that’s just it, they weren’t thinking. It’s clear they were in a state of panic and weren’t thinking straight. This wasn’t a calculated crime.” Turning around to face the other occupants of the room properly, you say, “I’m going to go look for the ID. Hana, Kara, Eric, come with me. The rest of you stay here.”

This declaration is met with a, “Huh? Is the ID important to figuring out who the killer is?” from Hana and a, “How do you know one of us doesn’t have it right now? Can’t you just have everyone empty their pockets?” from Eric.

The ID wasn’t important. It wouldn’t lead you to who the killer is, but that was not why you wanted to look for it. In reality, you simply wanted a way to carry out interrogations without raising anyones guard. Of course, you didn’t tell them that, instead you said, “yes, I think the ID will be useful. And it is not necessary to check, no one has it on them.” That last part wasn’t a lie, you had checked everyone’s expressions when you mentioned the ID, and nobody seemed nervous. It was clear that the killer had already disposed of it.

Not giving anyone time to respond, you exit the room, three pairs of footsteps following behind you. Deciding to let someone else spark a conversation, you keep quiet as you lead the other three down a flight of stairs.

You don’t have to wait for long for a conversation to start, because the silence is quickly broken by Kara’s timid voice. “U-um, so where do you think the ID might be?”

“The security system turned on shortly before Amelia’s body was found, so the ID must be on the 1st floor.”

Eric places his arms behind his head, “geez, still can’t believe someone actually killed her. You know, Amelia and I went to the same middle school.” Pausing, he glances over at Hana before continuing, “Hana went there too. You know, things were completely different back then. Right, Hana?”

Hana glares at him, the dark expression out of place on her normally gentle face. “I don’t see how that’s relevant, Eric. The past is the past.”

It is clear she doesn’t want to talk about her middle school years, but Kara quietly asks,“um...were you guys close?”

Eric scoffs, “not at all! Even back then, the three of us ran in completely different social circles.” He pauses in thought, “but you know...Amelia, she was pretty different back then.”

Sensing that this could be leading somewhere, you inquire, “oh? How so?”

Crossing her arms with a bitter smile on her face, it is Hana who answers, “She was painfully shy, kind of like Kara . She barely spoke to anyone and was known for being a loner.”

Eric nods in agreement. “Yea, believe it or not, Hana was the popular one back then, she had all the boys in our class wrapped around her finger. All she had to do was bat her eyelashes, and they'd be at her beck and call in an instant.” Eyeing Hana, Eric adds, “hmm, but you’ve changed since then, Hana. You’ve turned into a goody-goody. Amelia changed too.”

Hana grits out, “Eric, you got expelled during our last year, so you wouldn’t know this, but it was during that year that she changed. She hit puberty during the summer and suddenly became super confident and popular. The two of us developed something of a rivalry during that time. It was your typical rivalry, where we played nice but talked bad behind each other’s back...at least, that’s what I thought.”

Clenching her fists, she continues. “But then one day our class decided to hold some dumb popularity contest. It wasn’t a big deal, but Amelia was so determined to win that she saw the need to sabotage me. Somehow, she found out I’m terrified of spiders and put one in my bag. It was just a toy, but when I found it, I started bawling my eyes out and had a complete meltdown in the middle of class. It was humiliating! I became a laughingstock! That’s why when I transferred here last year and saw that she was here, I decided to just keep my head down.”

Eric lets out a low whistle, “woah, brutal...but you know, that sounds like a pretty solid motive for murder to me.”

Hana whirls around to face him, fire in her eyes, “don’t try to turn this into something it’s not! Yea, I’ve held a grudge against her because of it, but I wouldn’t murder someone over something dumb that happened in middle school.” With that, she stormed ahead of you guys, making it clear she was done talking about the matter.

Eric scratches the back of his neck awkwardly, “well, guess it’s still a sensitive subject for her. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

You shake your head, “no, it was useful information. And speaking of information, can you guys tell me where you were before Amelia’s body was discovered? Kara, Alice said you talked to her in the library, where were you before you went there and after you left?”

Eric shrugs, “I was just chilling in the cafeteria. Ren was there, he can vouch for me.”

“O-oh, before? I was in the bathroom. After I left the library, I went to one of the classrooms. But...um…” Kara hesitates, looking as if she wants to say something else.

“What is it?”

Nervously twisting one of her braids around her finger, she says, “well...I-I don’t know if it’s important, but when I was in the bathroom...Amelia and Sydney came in, a-and they started arguing...I-I was too scared to come out because I didn’t want them to know I heard them, s-so I just stayed in there the whole time...”

You quirk an eyebrow, now that was interesting information. “Arguing? What were they arguing over?”

“Um, it was over Min...Sydney seemed really mad at Amelia...”

You let out a thoughtful hum. This case just kept getting more and more interesting.

@Gamer Squad
Pretend this was posted on time

 

[Vampire]

I have conflicted ideas now, but whatever, I'll send my first guess, at least.....

 

[sm maid]

I guess... I'll wait
this just confused me more

 

[OutroTearTheFirst]

 

[sm maid]

this is the look of someone who has a guess

 

[OutroTearTheFirst]

this is the look of someone who has a guess

 

[Chomiczewska]

Okay I have to ask: do we have a washing machine in our pocket? We touched Amelia bloody head in act 2, but we keep putting those same gloves on again and again

 

[Seriously]

this is the look of someone who has a guess

inb4 it's the look of somebody who's just had their very first guess... confirmed to be correct

 

[Chiharu]

Okay I have to ask: do we have a washing machine in our pocket? We touched Amelia bloody head in act 2, but we keep putting those same gloves on again and again

U have multiple gloves

 

[Chiharu]

@Gamer Squad

For the how factor, please make sure you are specific with your guess. For example, even if the victim died from being shot, I would not accept it even if it is technically correct. You must specify the circumstances. For example, did they shoot themselves? Was it an accidental misfire from someone else? Were they shot from afar?

 

[yerm]

I don't know if you can answer this but I'm a little confused about this short period of time that Violet isn't with us. As I read it, she's been with us the whole time from detention until we go to look for the ID. Did I miss part where she left us briefly or did this take place before the story?

 

[boo]