[nope] day 19 - Kaiba

[afailedmurder]

[At some point during this bloodbath of an investigation, Akechi will bring Kaiba aside for a discreet chat.]

It may not matter with the bodies piling up as they are, but I should warn you: McGonagall knows you were with Tomoe last night.

Comments

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

She knows we planned to go out together. I imagine she can't say for certain whether we met up or not.

[that said, he looks neither surprised nor particularly positive about those odds]

You were with her; how much risk do you think there is of being called out?

[afailedmurder]

There's no way she'll keep quiet if she knows something.

Besides that, there was something I wanted to ask you. Are you actually good with computers, or do you just like to break things?

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

I could approach her if it wouldn't just be a waste of time.

And yes, I am very good with computers, despite...everything here. Why?

[afailedmurder]

It's definitely a waste of time.

I found something while we were searching around. McGonagall didn't see me take it; I don't believe she knows what it is.

[He pulls out a small thumb drive and plugs it into his tablet. Booting it up shows profiles, not unlike the ones for the current group, but with broken image links and corrupted text. However, there are some titles still readable in there: "Ultimate Husband," Ultimate Wife," and so on.]

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

[Kaiba peers at the screen, scanning through]

...What is this? These aren't the same as our titles.

[afailedmurder]

They most definitely are not.

["Ultimate Cat Owner," "Ultimate Orphan," "Ultimate Raccoon." He stops on that one, but it doesn't say anything useful.]

There are voting records in here as well; even with the text scrambled, you can tell these aren't ours. And there's too much data on the drive for it to really be all text, but that's about as far as I've been able to go with it.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

If there are images being opened in a text editor, that would explain some of the strange strings...

Have you copied off the data yet? I'll assume that it's not one of those things where the files are deleted once they've been manipulated.

[afailedmurder]

I did. There doesn't seem to be anything insidious about it, though I suppose we'll see if I'm also posting strange links tomorrow.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

...Regardless, given some time, I can get this to compile. Let me make a copy.

[despite his tablet having seen better days, it is still technically all intact!]

[afailedmurder]

Sure.

[Hands the drive over.]

I haven't told anybody about this yet. I'm going to show Saihara and Graham, but the rest can go rot for all I care.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

[plugs it in and copies the files over]

They'll be too busy gnashing their teeth over how they can't somehow blame Graham again to notice, anyway.

[afailedmurder]

They're going to target the two of us in his place, you know. I doubt it even matters who did what.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

Obviously. I'm hoping someone will have cared enough about the little girl to at least entertain the idea of bringing whoever knocked her off to "justice," but I'm not holding my breath.

[folds his arms with a wince]

Your alibi's pretty solid, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

[afailedmurder]

[laughs a little too hard]

Do you actually think those hypocritical shits give a rat's ass about alibis or justice?

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

No. That doesn't mean I'm just going to roll over and take whatever happens.

[afailedmurder]

Oh, I didn't expect you would! You have a lot of negative qualities, Kaiba-kun, but that isn't one of them.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

Enough with the sweet-talk, you're going to make me swoon.

You didn't find anything else in that room with McGonagall?

[afailedmurder]

There was a map. It had markings on the greenhouse and the wine cellar. I haven't had the chance to check either place yet.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

[not as rudely as he could be]

Is anything keeping you from doing so now?

[afailedmurder]

I'm going to do that next.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

Think you can handle it on your own?

[again, his tone could easily be a lot more rude; he's almost semi-friendly, for Kaiba]

[afailedmurder]

I am a detective, after all.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

That does seem to be the trend around here.

Let me know what you find, then.

[afailedmurder]

Of course. Let's touch base again tomorrow and exchange information.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

Understood. I'll be around, unless someone gets overenthusiastic.

[DAY 20]

[afailedmurder]

[at some point Akechi stops sexually harassing poor Saihara for like five minutes to come check in with Kaiba]

I see no one was overenthusiastic.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

[look, just keep distracting him, it's for the best]

Ah, but the day is young.

So did you actually check out those maps or did you find yourself too "busy"?

[afailedmurder]

I did! Though I'm rather annoyed to report that I didn't find anything of any value. Perhaps the map was simply outdated...?

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

It's possible. Could've been a scavenger hunt from some past group of kidnappees.

[afailedmurder]

How about you? Did you find anything interesting in those files?

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

Depends on your definition of 'interesting'. The files seem to be part of some other logic puzzle, but as you were already aware, the titles and names referenced weren't us. They were linked to information that had been deleted from the network, thus the corruption. So, if you'd been thinking that at least all this had been prepared specially for us, you're going to have to think again. Nothing functionally useful, though.

[afailedmurder]

I see. The implications are certainly interesting. Actually, I didn't mention this before because it seemed pointless, but...

[Pulls a folded scrap of paper out of of his pocket. It's a Junior Jumble, with light marks where letters have been repeatedly written in pencil and erased.]

This was taped to the door. Another puzzle... well, of a sort.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

Aren't you the puzzlemaster today. Did you find out the password is 'butts'?

[afailedmurder]

Not at all, though—

[squints at the puzzle]

It seems that one was already tried. Despite not having any of the correct letters for it.

But no, in fact. it was a simple, unlocked door.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

Then what's the puzzle for?

[afailedmurder]

Perhaps a better question to ask is, what are any of the puzzles for?

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

Wasting our time so we'll spend our energy thinking about them instead of attempting to leave this place.

[afailedmurder]

That's a possibility...

But you're right, let's focus in on the more important matters at hand. I hear you've pulled the wool over McGonagall's eyes.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

Don't be silly. I simply chose to confess privately rather than be exposed in front of everyone. Many people enjoy honesty.

[afailedmurder]

Of course, it's none of my business what you talked about.

[whatever you say, idgaf]

But that could be very convenient. If you, me, McGonagall, and Saihara-kun all coordinated, we'll be able to take out anybody we like. Those two will want it to be a murderer, naturally, but somehow I feel like that won't be an issue.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

There are a lot of them. Saihara suggested drawing straws. But I'd go between Ein and Ulaz as the easiest options.

[afailedmurder]

That sounds doable. I'll check in with Saihara. He's going to want to do the right thing, but he can be convinced.

[blueeyeswaifudragon]

At least one of them murdered Illyasviel von Einzbern. So there's that.