DIE HARD [1st Investigation]

[akudamods]

It's been almost a week since the X-Class Akudama found themselves in Dotonbori, and the days since Bunny and Shark's little announcement have gone on, seemingly falling on deaf ears. But now, as the sun begins to rise and turn the hanging smog red across the sky, it truly seems that blood is in the air. Not a soul is around on the streets... who will be the first to venture out?

Comments

KARAOKE BAR - INSIDE (4 CLUES)

[akudamods]

[depleting]

[ Given that sunrise is vampire bedtime, Satsuki stumbles out of her room half-awake. But this seems really important, so she's here...

She is not going to touch the bodies, instead passing them by to the inside of the bar and once more using her sensitive nose to try and see if there are any interesting scents (such as blood) that lead anywhere in particular (like a blood trail). ]

[akudamods]

[There is a bit of a smell! How often does Satsuki come to the karaoke bar?]

[depleting]

[ She may have scoped it out a couple of times over the week... as a potential place for a certain type of meal. As such, it isn't one of her most frequent destinations, but she has been in and out of it a few times. ]

EVIDENCE

[akudamods]

[Right then! In that case, she'd know that the smell is leading her to a bathroom on the top floor. But first, the lobby may catch her eye...

Two drones are collapsed on the floor, looking a little dead... They're Debbie's. Or, I suppose, they were.

Also a bench is missing but we'll get to that.]

[depleting]

[ Oh no, it's actually a quadruple murder...

Where in the lobby are the drones collapsed? Nearer to the front doors, or farther in? And when Satsuki approaches them for a better look, do they have any obvious sign of exterior damage?

[akudamods]

[They're right by the door! Don't trip.

The drones are a little beat up - a scuff here, a dent there. But it's nowhere near the amount one would think it'd require to destroy a metal object like this - they may not even be inoperable, truth be told. It probably warrants an even closer look.]

[depleting]

[ She takes a picture of their initial position, and then she crouches down. If she were to pick one of those drones up to examine it more thoroughly, what would she find? ]

[akudamods]

[The drones were in their hoverboard form when she found them, so there's a few things to note. One is the aforementioned scuff is really more like a scrape, likely caused by impacting another metal object.

Another is the cracks. This drone has a lot of folding parts. Something is stuck in them.

Finally, the drone's eyes - while normally these glow blue, they're full of static now. That does mean the power is on though... and the drones can ostensibly be commanded, whether through voice or a holo-keyboard that you might be able to trigger on with enough prodding. (It's probably the big bear nose. Boop the snoot!)]

[depleting]

[ Satsuki will start with the folding parts. Maybe the thing stuck in there is keeping it from moving properly!! Can she pull it out without causing more damage, or breaking whatever has been caught there? ]

[akudamods]

[Most definitely! Though... who knows if this really could have been enough to stop the drone from moving. It's a bit of blue fiber. Though there's also something in another crack. Assuming she wants to yank out all the things, she'll find a couple strands of blonde hair as well.]

[depleting]

[ She sure does! She isn't quite sure what to do with this, so for the moment, she'll just... put these aside.

It doesn't seem to have helped the state of the drone; after a bit of additional prodding, she eventually finds the nose button and presses it. ]

[akudamods]

[A blue holo-panel springs to life, complete with its hard light keyboard. Now you can see the screen, and with it, the last messages to be received by these drones.

Which is a bunch of garbled code that looks like utter nonsense. Um?]

[depleting]

[ Oh.

Does it look like there's any rhyme or reason to it, like a cipher, or is it just utter nonsense? And is it too long to feasibly transcribe? ]

[akudamods]

[Definitely too long, and not really a cipher either. If there was any kind of reason to a code like this, the best guess would probably be a jamming signal.]

[depleting]

[ Yeah... If it's that long and random, that's probably it...

Assuming there's nothing left to find with the drones, Satsuki will straighten up and give another sweep of the lobby. Time to notice that suspiciously empty space where a bench used to be? ]

[akudamods]

[Now it's just a bench that you used to know....

....But then again, there's still that bathroom stink?]

[thefifthchild]

[Glaring at whatever that flower thinks he's doing, Damian is going to walk inside the karaoke bar. He's not shaken or scared or even sad but he is... sombre. And livid.

Time to look for any clues in the karaoke bar itself. ]

EVIDENCE

[akudamods]

[The drones Satsuki found are of course still at the entrance, but a short ways away from them, there's something small that you may not notice if your attention was focused on the 'quadruple murder.' That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

It's a scalpel. Though it's actually... kinda broken, it's still clearly recognizable as one.]

Re: EVIDENCE

[thefifthchild]

[Damian will kneel down, picking it up with two fingers.

Hmm. He'll swap out his lenses and scan this broken scalpel for any traces of blood or other DNA evidence.]

[akudamods]

[Look at you with your fancy toys. The scalpel is nice and clean on the surface, but the scan will indeed detect traces of blood.

While you're looking at it, you will notice a couple other strange things. One, the tip of the scalpel is broken off and is not in the area. Two, the blade itself is chipped to the point it will not be particularly useful for cutting.]

[thefifthchild]

[Do the traces of blood match the damage to the blade, indicating that it was broken and dulled while being used as a weapon?

Second question, are there any traces of soap like someone intentionally tried to clean it?]

[akudamods]

[The blood is pretty much on the entire thing, so there's no way of telling.

Fortunately for everyone's sanity, this was not a self-cleaning scalpel. Soap was indeed involved.]

[thefifthchild]

[At least the scalpel hasn't gained that power. But it does mean someone washed it and then left it out here intentionally...

Okay, he'll bag the evidence.]

AREA CLEAR

[akudamods]