INVESTIGATION 2

[umbralant]

INVESTIGATION 2

Sometime during the late hours of the night, the clouds rolled in with their load and let loose upon the unsuspecting streets down below. It's the end of another week in Krakow, another week in this unending night and another week where The Lady's motive lay in wait. As the bell tolls seven, the rain continues to soak the city below as fog crowds the air, although it's not nearly as suffocating as the kind found blanketing a large portion of the city.

Are you awake this fine morning? And if you are, just where are you hanging around today?

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[umbralant]

[Mikami is going to have to shower twice and wash his clothes thrice after this, because everything is pretty disgusting all around. But anyways, the chunks laying in the puddle on the ground are pretty irregular in both size and shape. Torn apart is closer to the mark than cutting; there's nothing neat about these although for a couple of fish that look comparatively undamaged (that is, aren't reduced to bits), it still looks like a chunk or two was blown out of them.]

[inordertobelieve]

[ Okay.He hates this. Why did his God leave him and let this happen---- no, he can't finish that thought. He knows. So all he can do is endure, right.

He's going to mentally say goodbye to his current pen here, because he'll use it to poke at the fish a little to get a better look at those comparatively okay ones.

Blown apart... how? Are bits missing more from the center or corners of the fish? Did someone eat these?????? ]

[umbralant]

[Uh... so like this is where I talk about small bombs and--

Okay no, let's rewind. It's more like a centre chunk was taken out. Mind, these fish aren't huge either (think goldfish sized) so even the most dainty of bites would not make something that looks like that. When I say it looks like a chunk was blown out of them, I mean it.]

[inordertobelieve]

[ Looking over at the aquarium holes, we begin to understand this. Maybe.

Does the chunk roughly match a bullet size? ]

[umbralant]

[It doesn't, no. Furthermore, the skeleton is more or less intact (from what can be seen, anyways) so it's more like just the flesh was blown off.]

[inordertobelieve]

[ ........ what even???

Alright. Alright this is weird. And that means that they need to preserve it and look at it. So Mikami is going to go backstage to grab some clothes as a makeshift cloth and..... actually wrap some fish chunks in them to bring them to trial.

He hates this. He hates his whole life.

Also is there anything else amiss around the aquarium. He's brought a gas lamp for sight, so he can see a fair bit.]

[umbralant]

[There's... quite a bit actually. First off, let's start off with the burnt smell tinged with something coppery; considering how fishy it is in the area, it would be easy to miss it all things considered but it's definitely around. In the light of the gas lamp though, it would be easy to see a number of extinguished candles on the ground around the tank area.

Mikami might also notice something on the walls closer to the entrance, although he'll have to move closer to see what's up with that.

Where to?]

[inordertobelieve]

[ Let's examine the mysterious something! Shine some light on it! Literally! ]

[umbralant]

[Woo! For one thing, the smell of burning and copper gets a little bit stronger as he gets closer to the wall and mysterious somethings.

Said mysterious somethings are numerous holes in the wall, each with a bit of blood leaking from them.]

[inordertobelieve]

[ This makes a lot of things clearer to Mikami, but just to be sure - are these holes directly across from the tank?

[umbralant]

[Okay so because I sat here like here staring at this and wondering how to describe this, have a diagram.

In writing, the only way I can express it is "sort of but also not too much".]

[p_q]

[OK so I guess a while later after everyone else has mopped up some of Raven's fishy-ass mess with their clothes and feet and occasionally other accessories, Ulquiorra will lazily make his way to the scene of the crime. He doesn't really have much interest or investment in solving this, but might as well see for himself.

Nothing wrong with death tourism.

Anywho, he's not going to bother picking up fish chunks just yet, but he'll hang around for a bit taking everything in. Somebody really had themselves a bloody ball all up in here. Also, that is some weird exploded fish. Is there any pattern to how the fish were blown up, which bits were blown up, or are we going to have to start conducting fish autopsies.]

[umbralant]

[For pattern, not particularly? Some of them are definitely messier than others although it still looks random at best. Most of the damage is with the flesh for sure; the skeletons seem more or less intact (although some really exploded ones will be messed up).

Fish autopsies are possible if someone actually wants to bother and I can't believe this is a sentence I typed.]

[p_q]

[Fish skeletons are delicate, so either someone was making fish fireworks or... whatever. Ulquiorra eyes the leftover fish for a moment and then does a quick sweep of the aquarium; are there any other tanks or fish affected in any way, or is ground zero just. The one spot of mess.

Like dang, that's some localized blast radius.

That done, he'll pace on over to look at the body briefly, matching things up. Is there any hint of bruises, or damage or scuffing or something to her clothes that might indicate a rude encounter with small fishy bombs??]

[umbralant]

[All of the other tanks look fine! The fish are just swimming away in their watery habitat, unaware of their nearby brethren having faced the fate of being in pieces on the ground. It pretty much is just ground zero that's affected. RIP.

There's no signs of any damage or scuffing to her clothing beyond the hole caused by the knife. There also aren't any bruises or other obvious wounds on her body besides what's already visible on the autopsy report.]

[p_q]

[... She's really quite pristine for a girl who's dead in the middle of a hail of bombs and bullets, huh. His eyes narrow a little. But he isn't invested enough to bother directly dealing with the body and the usual horde of vultures buzzing around it, so he'll only glance in once in a while for that.

Instead, he'll sigh a little, take out the knife he snagged from the opera restaurant kitchen, find the nearest elevated flat surface and dig into a fish or two, disdainfully. And by dig into I mean we are doing quick fish autopsies now, he's not eating anything, natch.

Is it possible to tell where the blasts originated in each fish and the force involved? Like would it be enough to crack aquarium glass or whatever.]

[umbralant]

[Fish autopsies \o/

...Well, about that. Force is probably a bit much unless Ulquiorra has some kind of Hollow PhD in physics or something but it definitely looks like the the blasts just originated from inside the fish. In some of the worst cases, it may have looks like their poor little hearts exploded, literally.]

[p_q]

[Hahaha, well more like he'd just compare it to blasts and effects he's seen in the past because boy does everyone in Bleach like their explosions, but to be fair he's much more acquainted with shit that can blast through a whole-ass person(s) and buildings so his estimates are way more on the upper scale of things.

That is to say these fish are probably really small-time bombs to him. Granted, it's debatable how helpful he'll be with evidence in the first place. For the moment this is purely for his own edification.

Blood-based abilities (probably) are powerful, but apparently not powerful enough. Hmm. Is there any residue or blood left in these, or are they cleaned out?]

[umbralant]

[You could say that they're small bombs.

The worst exploded of them would have less of their blood although part of that may just because there's less of their body there in general, but some of them do look pretty clean, all things considered. Of course, there's also a number of less exploded ones that still have a decent amount of blood in them, and no other weird residues can be found either.]

[moonfang]

[Zangetsu is done napping and GARBAGE BAG PONCHO HOLLOW returns. If they're going to have to have another dumb trial, he should at least look at the murder scene, right?

What he doesn't expect is there to be snacks everywhere]

... Sweet! Sashimi!

[he's going to pick up one of the less exploded fish and swallow it whole. Evidence? What evidence?]

... blech. Not great. Needs salt. [oh, hey, Ulquiorra is here] What happened to these fish? They look like they blew up.

[p_q]

[Wow, the trash has taken itself out to the... fishy-smelling trash heap over here. He truly is surrounded. Woe etc. Ulquiorra just stares at the bedecked Hollow for a moment -- there's a minor twitch in his expression that could be irritation at being interrupted or at Zangetsu just barging in, but it passes soon enough.

He's already put down the fish again and is cleaning the knife more or less by shaking the blood and fish guts off. It'll receive a thorough cleaning later, but for now...

Well, for now, he could make use of the new tool in front of him. If he really wanted to.]

You certainly become trashier every time I see you. [a brief incline of the head towards the body-tank combo and the bloody wall beyond] The usual games. If you want to know, then figure it out for yourself.

[moonfang]

[Zangetsu finally sees the body, and he frowns] ... Poor kid. [he doesn't think he'd ever talked to her, but she seemed nice enough. What did everyone have against girls...? He spots the holes and runs his fingers over them, frowning again] Why is the wall bleeding?

[p_q]

Hmph. Spare me. She's more than likely responsible for at least some of this mess.

[... is part of his conclusion here, anyway.

He doesn't know the intricacies of who has what -- the three blood users -- just yet, but there's enough clues here to guess at least one of them. He sounds pretty unimpressed, though, on the whole.]

Did you forget which powers were forced on us that quickly?

[moonfang]

Eh? Whadya mean by that? She's dead. How much of this could be her fault?

[he blinks, and then remembers!!]

Oh, that blood ability! So... what, these are some sort of blood bullets? Wicked.

[just out of curiosity... he's going to poke his finger in the bloody wall and taste it. Does it taste fishy?]

[umbralant]

[It sure does, and it also tastes pretty burnt and ashy too, if you're gonna go that far. Because you are also eating ash.]