#kezao

Kezao tilted his head at the trees, the smile faltering from his face slightly. So, they thought he did it? Of course he was obligated to respond. So, the reserve course student simply opened his mouth, cleared his throat, and spoke.

"Oh... Well, yes. Yes, as a matter of fact. I did clean it up in the shower."

He bowed his head, the same smile still on his face, and the reserve course student massaged his temples with a hand. He knew what this meant, he knew that he had to say something else to clear his name, lest he be executed. Kezao tried sorting through his thoughts to find just the right thing to say, and after pondering, he looked up again and spoke in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"So. You're insinuating that I, Kezao Kai, killed Ryuu and Sumi? That I stabbed them, or at least one or both of them, and walked through the blood, and attempted to clean it up, followed by me washing my jacket in the shower? You think that I, without a good motive, killed the two of them, in order to escape? Well, let me be the first to say..."

Kezao bowed his head, his hair falling in his eyes. When he looked up again, he looked almost relieved, congratulatory.

"You're absolutely right. I did kill them. I didn't kill Manami, however. B before you go on accusing m me, I feel I need t explain myself."

The reserve course student swallowed, trying to hold back the tears building up in his eyes by the second. It had lead to this. Everything had lead to this.

"You see, I invited Ryuu-san down to the basement. I h had no intention of k killing anyone. I wasn't l lying about that. I just wanted to t talk to him, make him feel better and... you know, tell him about m myself? But he had his dagger with him, and he kept on twirling it around, and I got n nervous. So, then, what did he say?"

Kezao paused, waiting for some sort of reaction, before continuing on.

"There are so many people I want to save. I thought he would kill me, but then his knife fell, and I went to pick it up. He... he made a grab f for it, so I stabbed him accidentally. I was putting his body in his chair, I wanted to see if he was okay, but then... Sumi came in. I t think she wanted to see what all of the commotion was about, but... she saw me, and I panicked. I ran up to her and... w well... Uh..."

His gaze drifted off to the side momentarily, before he kept on speaking.

"A anyways, they were both dead. I... tried to respect them, I set up their bodies in their seats, smudged everything up, and disposed of the knife before going up to the bathroom and trying to wash everything off. T there's still blood on my shoes. I.... felt guilty. I went over to a chair and tried to rest, but I couldn't. U ugh... I'm sorry."

The story was given, and Kezao slumped over his table, sniffling miserably. After trying to collect himself, the individual looked back up.

"I'm an idiot. I f fully recognize that I'm an idiot, and I honestly would have confessed earlier if... If I didn't want to solve the Manami case, and if I... wasn't so scared of everyone hating me. You have every reason to, Makoto, Conor... I'm sorry, Makoto. My words mean nothing, I know, but if I'd have traded my life for Ryuu-san's, I would have. I'm... not used to people liking me, either, so... Never mind. Please take care of yourselves, and find out what's going on. I believe in you."

Wiping at his eyes with his sleeve again, Kezao bit his tongue, though his speech wasn't yet done.

"Use this as a wakeup call, everyone fails in the end. Even me, I haven't helped at all, I don't think. But on another note, I had nothing to do with Manami's murder, and I'm still voting for Yuu. I hope that I convinced you of at least that much."

A brief pause.

"Anyways, I know you want to punch me. I just don't want to start a fight, I never did. And I deserve it, too, for trying to pull something like this. Just... I think my execution will hurt enough, already, and I'd rather not go to it in pain."

Kezao reached out and took his jacket, pulling out his keycard and setting it on the table before slipping it on.

"If anybody wants that, they can take it. Again, take care of yourselves, and I'm genuinely, deeply s sorry a b bout..."

Despite how calm he had been up to his point, his stuttering returned, and he sniffled. He remained silent for a good few seconds before turning his gaze back to the others.

"Please, vote for me. I'd appreciate it, because..."

A faraway look crossed his face.

"I'll get to see her again."

And then he stood up and gave a small bow to the others, trying to smile.

The trees had waited patiently for both of them to show their jackets...Lucy had been a bit hesitant which was odd...but all they had to do was wait for Kezao before they could figure out if they were any closer to finding out who killed Ryuu and Sumi….the trees were hopeful that they would find out who did it.

“A-All we are a-asking is to see if your j-jacket isn’t stained is all….you d-don’t have to take it off for long...but if you are hiding something……I understand you have a nice office back home b-but…”

When Kezao spoke up and then took his jacket off and showed it to be clean both the trees attention went back to Lucy….she was the only one who hadn’t taken her jacket off….but something was still off….Kezaos jacket was wet but free of blood.

Nikki noticed the oddness so they spoke.

Of course Kezao was done. The reserve course student stretched out his body as far as it would go, and he stared up at the ceiling, wondering when everything would finally stop being so fucking loud. Yuu was angry at him, of course, of course he would be, Kezao had kept on accusing him. Was he being unfair? The reserve course student didn't fucking care. He simply waited as the rest of the people got into disputes, then those disputes were resolved, then more questions came up. And how he was sick and tired of it. He was glad, from looking at the trees, that he managed to cheer them up to some extent, and their questioning made sense. Slowly, everyone began showing the courtroom their shoes, and Kezao only rolled over, getting on his knees and pushing himself to his feet.

"Um, if you say so."

And then they began yelling at Soren, and the reserve course flinched, his mind blanking. The acid in their voices, how enraged they both appeared to be... It scared him, and it was only reluctantly that Kezao went over to his podium, hiding underneath it until the anger subsided. Conor was apparently being accused now, but Kezao... no, it couldn't be, could it?

He peeked out from underneath the table, only his eyes and hands visible. Ever so slowly, he sat back down on his chair, resting his chin in his hands.

"Ahem, can we please be civilized? I have a theory about the culprit, and I don't want the courtroom to... you know... Start yelling? Anyways, I'm still inclined to vote for Yuu, but the evidence is there. I don't know. What do you think, I'll follow your lead."

Kezao then nodded at the request to show his jacket, and made to untie it before being interrupted by Lucy. She was protesting showing off her own jacket, but Kezao simply looked down at his podium, removing his jacket and holding it up to show to the courtroom. It was completely free of blood, both inside and out.

"It's wet, if you can't tell. Funny story behind that, actually..."

The reserve course student set the jacket down on the table, folding his hands and smiling at the rest of the court.

Once the trees had seen the proof Conor didn’t do it...they looked at Makoto who as well was free of blood on her shirt and her shoes were as well clean...obviously she didn’t do this. Both trees sighed and then looked around the room for the next few with jackets...it would take forever to just ask people to show them and then them be ignored again…. Theo was going to speak up again as he saw the only other two who had jackets at this point but once again was cut off by Nikki.

“Lucy and Kezao, your turn. Show us your jackets. Prove it that you’re innocent.”

Nikki’s stare moved between either suspect they named… They’re really tired but they will not lose focus… Not until the answer is found...

The trees had been rather uncomfortable with the fact the eyes were on them for awhile until Kezao spoke again and then looked at Theo...and Theo didn’t understand why until the trees watched Kezao jump from his chair and run around the room… yelling different words as he passed Yuu. Both trees just stared and tried not to laugh but did so anyways..you go K man…

Theo had been glad that someone had finally stepped up and did something crazy but effective...I mean it wasn’t the best way to approach something but it was better than just sitting there and continuing to dwell on everything that they had been thinking….why was Yuu so insistent on showing he didn’t do this when so much added up against him…..but Yuu did have a point that he had no blood on him...but that still didn’t mean he didn't do this….who else could have it been? And what did he mean by what isnt in the viewing room…

Nikki wasn’t even mad that this occurred, honestly. They were amazed that despite the silliness that seemed to appear from Kezao, he has actually said it.  Nikki was honestly grateful that someone agreed that Yuu really did have involvement in Manami’s case.

And Yuu continued to deny it. Nikki rolled their eyes and spoke.

“Guys, just ignore Yuu and stop focusing on Manami’s case, we know the answer anyway. Now let’s focus on the cases of Ryuu and Sumi. That being said. Have you forgotten how many times we asked for everyone to show their shoes?  I think this is prime evidence that will help us lead to the killer of Sumi and Ryuu. It’s odd to put in a way, but we have the chance to compare it literally from the evidence that is here, so please, cooperate with me and stop ignoring it.”

And clearly Taj didn’t cooperate with them, so Nikki has been pondering on what they’d do to prove their point. The astrologer stared at Theo, and leaned in then whispered in his ear.

Theo nodded to Nikki when they whispered in his ear and he nodded as the two of them got up and went over to where Taj was now….Nikki bent down to check Taj’s shoes to prove once and for all if he had been involved in this before speaking up.

“Okay, his shoes are clean, it doesn’t show any sign of blood. If anything, his size is close to Sumi’s...”

Once returning to their seat, Theo hugged Nikki like usual before pondering more on the shoe talk...Makoto had said something that was a good idea honestly...whoever killed Ryuu must have been close to him so….

“C-Conor…..M-Makoto...c-can you p-please s-show us your shoes…? Just to p-prove if the t-theory of someone c-close to Ryuu killed him along with Sumi…?”

Soren had spent most of his time tossing lettuce over to his new pet turtle, who seemed to be rather unaware of the process going on around him. Still, he heard the accusations, the rebuttals, the arguments and decided that now was the time to chime in again.

“First of all, Makoto, you can indeed discard me. I hated Manami as much as the next man, but if I really wanted to kill her based on that, I would have done so a lot sooner, and for the sake of argument, I’m going to describe exactly how. A single, upwards arcing open palm strike to the nose. A fatal blow that anybody in this room not named Taj Mandala would have enough strength to pull off. There’d be little if any blood and no weapon to trace. A pretty neat crime, but I suspect that it wouldn’t even need to come to that…”

Hearing talk of the ID cards from the trees, Soren sighed and decided to play another of his hand.

“Hey Keita, remember all those trials ago where you were desperately trying to find who took Paltero’s ID?” he spoke to the air that would have been occupied by the forensic scientist, before dropping the article onto his table, alongside another card. “It was me all along. How easy it is to lie.” The two cards that lay on the table did indeed belong to Melosia and Manami. “I’m only doing this to convince you that this wasn’t me. This is me sacrificing an advantage. Truth be told, I wanted to gather the IDs to use them and the rooms they give access to as holding cells for you all. Can’t kill if you can’t leave your room, right? Well, that’s not happening anymore. Also, we talk about this shoeprint, but blood comes out of rubber a lot easier than it does out of fabric. With enough effort, you could probably wash it off if it hadn’t dried too quick. Keep that in mind. Also, Nikki, quit with the hyperbolic defence. ‘He couldn’t have killed because he just… Couldn’t!’” He mocked in a whiny voice. “Seriously, it’s insipid and an insult to Theo’s intelligence, not that you’d care,” he said, turning on the mentioned boy. “I mean, the way you two cling to each other is so pathetic. I mean, it’s like you’re incapable of thinking for yourselves, as if your thoughts come as part of the same post! The way you cling to each other is disgusting, it reminds me of the parasitic relationship between male and female anglerfish. I swear you have a boyfriend or something, Nikki? What would he say about this, eh? Truth be told, the both of you are straight untrustworthy, the motive suits the both of you perfectly and if you want to fight me on this, I’m right here.”

Boy, that was needed, he couldn’t wait for the reaction. They weren’t even the most suspicious ones, but who gives? They needed to stop ruling people out so soon. And speaking of, Kezao had points, Yuu had points, and Soren now had a point.

“Manami Nemoto was horrendously unstable. She seemed incredibly lost in life after Masae’s death, until she started hallucinating her. Break her delusion and she’d probably become suicidal. I wanted to do this, myself, if I’m honest. Yuu, this indeed could be a suicide, but that still doesn’t rule you out. As we know, the claymore is your weapon, the set up was elaborate. Maybe you continually drove Manami to her fate, continually shoving the truth in front of her until she just couldn’t take it any more. The wall paintings would have us believe it, as would her damn smile. You can just tell her last thought was 'yay, I’m finally going to be reunited with my dime-a-dozen 14 year old waifu’. No, maybe you didn’t kill her, Yuu. Maybe you made her kill herself.”

Kezao screeched to a halt around Theo’s podium, and he turned to look at Yuu, his frown intensifying by the second. Who else could it be? The reserve course student was utterly baffled, and he stood there in contemplation for a good few seconds before making another rude hand gesture, aimed at the tosser, and running again.

“OKAY, BUT WHAT OTHER OPTION IS THERE.”

…Thanks K man.

“DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT SHE KILLED HERSELF?”

Okay…

“THAT SHE FELL BACKWARDS ON THE SWORD BECAUSE I SEE NO OTHER OPTION. SHE PROPPED THE SWORD UP AND FELL ON IT. THAT MAKES NO SENSE.”

This was proving to be rather frustrating to Kezao. He was more certain than he'd ever been, and now Yuu didn't bend at all. The reserve course student bit his lip, sliding further down the podium, before he turned to face Yuu once again, frowning deeply.

"Then offer an alternative. She didn't commit suicide unless she fell on the sword, and I highly doubt it would have gone directly through her heart. Besides, she had the knife, and the knife was moved from the scene. That would require an outside-influence."

He was growing more confident by the second, and Kezao simply turned to look at the other people. None of them seemed to have anything else to say on the issue of Manami's death, but the reserve course student cleared his throat, addressing the court at large.

"Vote for Yuu. There's literally nobody e else it could be. Please, I don't w want to risk anyone else. Anyways..."

Now, the topic about shoes came back up. Kezao tilted his head slightly, lifting up his head from its position in his hands and blinking at the trees for a few seconds. Of course, the reserve course student could understand why, but as his gaze shifted from the fallen Taj to Yuu, back to the trees, something seemed to click in him, and the reserve course student bent down and out of sight.

There was a thump from beneath the table, however, when Kezao came back up, he had slid away from the table and risen, brushing off his shirt. And then, the reserve course student looked Theo directly in the eye, giving him a small smile.

"Yes."

...Before he turned and began running counterclockwise around the courtroom. Nyoom. There he go. Kezao was surprisingly fast for someone his height, and he managed the turns with ease. As he rounded N.O.T.O.Y.O.'s podium, he gave her a rude hand gesture, and continued on his way. Each time he came by Yuu's podium, he shouted something.

"WHAT"

Pchoo.

"IF HE"

Kezao kept on going.

"TIMED THE"

...

"ELEVATOR SO THAT HE COULD"

The individual began slowing down at this point, inhaling and exhaling, but on he go.

"KNOW HOW MUCH TIME IT WOULD TAKE"

Another lap, and Kezao completed his thought.

"TO KILL MANAMI?"

His pace had arrived at a jog, and he still kept on circling the courtroom.

"AND HE MIGHT HAVE HIDDEN THE KNIFE ON HIMSELF. MAKE HIM STRIP."