When Leo woke up, he found himself laying down on one of the booths in the restaurant.

"Ah, you're finally awake," Alice said as she leaned over him. "Elson and I were beginning to get worried."

Leo groaned as he sat up slowly, rubbing the back of his head. "How long was I out for?"

"Not too long. About 20 minutes?" She handed him a glass of water before standing up. "Elson should be back soon with a change of clothes. You...you reek of blood right now. Fortunately, none of it got in your hair and we already cleaned your face off."

Leo sighed and nodded as he drank the water, throwing his head back before he set the glass down as he finished. "Where are the others right now?"

"They're investigating the murder, we should join them as soon as you're ready," Alice smiled faintly as she carefully clasped one of his hands in between hers. "I'm sorry that you were the one standing below him. That must've been horrifying."

Leo blinked in surprise as he looked at their hands before pulling them away. "A little bit, I guess. It was just...very surreal."

There was a flood of light pouring in as Elson opened the door with a change of clothes hanging over his forearm. "Sorry! I got pulled over for questioning since I was the only one gone during the body discovery."

Leo smiled as he shook his head and stood, accepting the clothes. "It's fine. Thanks for bringing it over." He ducked behind a booth to put the new change of pants on, struggling a little as he realized it was slightly smaller. "Oi, oi, are these my clothes? I don't remember jeans being this hard to get into."

Elson sat in the booth behind him. "About that..."

Leo put the shirt on afterwards, realizing that it was tight as well. "What the hell? This shirt is a large too...just like mine. It doesn't feel right."

Elson nodded. "That's because those are my clothes. You locked your cottage, but I figured that we were relatively the same size so you would fit."

"That explains the pants, but what about the shirt? We wear the same size, so it shouldn't be a difference."

"Allow me to explain!" Dagger's voice rang out as he walked into the restaurant, eyeing Leo up and down before smirking slightly. "Interesting."

Leo scowled. "What do you want?"

"Well, I'm here to tell you something that you may find useful." Dagger snapped his fingers as Erik scrambled in, quickly setting up a whiteboard and handing him a dry-erase marker. He reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a pair of round, black glasses, putting them on.

Yeah, those are definitely fake.

Dagger started to draw diagrams on the board. "You see, as the host, I have a lot more responsibilities placed upon my shoulders to take care of my beloved guests. I have to take into account your dietary restraints, exercise habits, who guys like. For example, did you know that Raven hates seafood but will eat tuna on occasion? Elson over here has an inferiority complex when it comes to body type so he spends approximately 0.568% of his day looking at himself in the mirror and doing planks every morning to achieve abs. And, of course, even an idiot would pick up on the idea that Eve and Brody totally have the hots for each other, but are socially inept."

Alice tilted her head curiously. "So what did this have to do with the clothing?"

"I'm glad you asked! As your host, I must make sure that your comforts are met all the time. After all, this is still a vacation! What kind of a low-rate hotelier would I be if I didn't take the time to pay attention to my guests' wishes? This includes, of course, your clothing."

Leo adjusted the shirt uncomfortably. "I see."

"I take into account your clothing preferences and your precise measurements. For example, Elson is fond of wearing v-neck navy t-shirts, a conductor's hat, as well as black pants with Converse-like boots. In addition, he covers up his hands with white gauze and wears a black necklace-like cloth around his neck. Therefore, that's what his wardrobe is mostly made of. I always include some plain white t-shirts, button-ups, and jeans for everyone. His measurement for his waist is 33.6 inches. His shirt size is a large, of course, but if we were to be precise, his chest measures at 38.6 inches, while Leo's chest is at 40.8 inches. For his underwear—"

"And that's enough!" Elson exclaimed loudly, ears red. "So that's why our clothes don't fit each other, huh! For the meantime, I think Leo will be fine in these clothes. We should go investigate for now."

Dagger pouted. "I was going into the juicy details, but fine." He started to walk out of the restaurant, stopping suddenly. "Killman!"

Erik had been sitting in one of the chairs nearby before he suddenly shot up and rushed to clean up. "Y-yes!"

"Hurry up. If I make it to the hotel before you catch up," his eye glinted, "then I'll make sure you wear the thing for the trial." With that, Dagger left, the door closing behind him.

Alice sighed as she helped Erik pick up a marker before turning to Leo and Elson. "Shall we get going?"

Leo watched Erik pitifully scramble around as he put things away. "Do you have anything you could help us with?"

Erik blinked as he looked up at him from his hands and knees. "I...he took control of the security cameras so I wouldn't know much," he mumbled. "But, please! I'm really on your side. It hurts me to know that one of the people I was trying to save ended up dying in such a horrible fashion."

Alice crossed her arms as she looked down at him. "If you're on our side, then tell us everything that you know."

Erik looked down at his hands. "But...but...he'll get mad."

Elson frowned slightly. "Come on, you just said you were on our side. Tell us everything, big boy."

Leo sighed as he held a hand out. "Don't pressure him. He doesn't have to tell us anything."

"No, it's fine. They're right," Erik stood and brushed off his pants. "If I want to gain your guys' trust then I have to start somewhere. First of all, this murder wasn't spontaneous. There were a lot of things that had been placed in certain places beforehand so that the murder would be as smooth as possible."

"So it wasn't a spur-of-the moment decision..." There was a sinking feeling of dread in Leo. "That means they've planning this for a very long time."

"Exactly. In addition, I was ordered by Dagger to check on the stage that Phoenix built the night before the morning fashion show. He didn't want anything to break that would kill everyone, but...he told me to leave things alone if it was set up to hurt one person. When I went to check, I found an infrared sensor attached to the lights that didn't belong. I didn't remove it."

Alice grimly turned to the two of them. "So that means we have our first suspect, right? The person who built this stage for us: Phoenix Bright. Let's go explore the stage; we can look at the body as well."

With that, the three of them left the restaurant and headed to the beach. Alice pointed up at the top of the stage. "I can talk to Phoenix while you two check out the body."

Leo took a deep breath as he went up the steps slowly onto the stage. "Sure." The overwhelming stench of dried blood hung in the air as he approached the body. "We have to examine this...all by ourselves?"

"Ah, not really," Elson said as he took his hat off and used it to cover his nose. "You were out for it, but there's a file on our tablets that gives us a few clues to go off of. I brought mine, so check it out."

Leo accepted the tablet from Elson as he started to scan the clues.

Cause of Death

The victim is Legend Rowe, the Ultimate Fashionista.

Victim was discovered at 6:36 A.M., on the beach near the restaurant.

Apparent cause of death is a single slash to the throat.

Additionally, there are four stab wounds to victim's body in the abdominal region.

Approximate time of death is 9:24 P.M. the night before.

Traces of slow-acting poison are present in victim's digestive system.

No broken bones were present during the time of the victim's death.

"Poison?" Leo pondered as he finished reading the file. "We were never introduced to poison on this island."

"Does it matter? He was murdered with a slash to the throat, right?" Elson asked as he slowly knelt down in front of Legend's splayed body.

"Still...if he was killed with a slash to the throat, and the files already tell us the truth, then why would they go out of their way to poison him? It can't be to skew the autopsy since we already know the cause of death."

"You're right," Elson muttered as he carefully examined the body.

Leo cringed slightly as he watched. "You're not affected by this at all?"

"Oh, of course I am. I think this is horrible, but...I'd much rather just give myself up for analyzing the body rather than make someone else go through with the analysis. Besides, my hands are wrapped in gauze, remember? If anything I should do it. I'm the most sanitary."

"Ah...right."

Elson nodded before he carefully cupped the back of Legend's head, grimacing. "That was a hell of a fall, you know? Part of his skull is dented in. I wonder how he got up there in the first place."

"You think he was killed up there?"

"How else would he be up there then, if he didn't die there?"

"Perhaps they moved the body?" Leo suggested.

Elson finished examining the body, standing up. "Supposing that was right...where would he have been killed then? And how did the murderer get the body all the way up there without leaving blood everywhere? Also, can you reach into my pocket and get the roll of gauze in there? I'm going to put the clean ones on."

"Ah...sure," Leo nodded as he carefully reached into Elson's pocket, taking the small roll out.

They both turned around suddenly as they heard footsteps, noticing Alice with Phoenix trailing behind her.

Alice covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. "O-oh my god, I thought you two were totally doing something else there for a second." She burst out into a fit of giggles as Elson's eyes widened, his cheeks flushing red. "It looked like Leo was grabbing your di—"

"La la la la la la la la la!" Elson shouted loudly in an attempt to cover up the rest of her sentence.

Alice wiped the tears from her eyes as she finally stopped laughing. "Okay, okay. Sorry. What were you guys talking about earlier?"

"We were wondering where he was killed."

"Hmm..." the Ultimate Pop Star pondered before hitting a fist against her hand. "I know! What if we examine the curtain roll? Would that help us to figure it out?"

Phoenix looked at the body before she glanced away. "Look at the position of his body. He fell parallel to the way the curtain roll was placed. That means he wasn't hanging over the curtain roll with his body perpendicular to it."

"He could have also been tucked into the curtain," Alice suggested.

Leo looked up at the curtain, frowning slightly. "Speaking of which, where are the bloodstains?"

Elson, who had gone behind the curtain to change the gauze on his hands, suddenly popped his head out from behind the curtain. "It's here!"

The three of them quickly rushed to where the Ultimate Conductor was, pointing up at a single patch of blood up high on the curtain.

"I wonder what that says about the position of his body," Leo pondered under his breath as he watched Elson take a picture of the bloody curtain.

"I overheard Aspen talking about the supermarket earlier. Shall we go investigate there?" Alice asked.

Leo nodded grimly as Phoenix looked towards the stairs. "You guys go on ahead. I want to figure out why the lights turned off by themselves."

With a farewell, the three of them started to walk down the road, entering the supermarket as they noticed Nova examining the shopping carts.

"What's going on, Nova?" Leo asked as he approached her.

The Ultimate Astronomer looked surprised before she shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothing, I just remembered seeing a shopping cart at one point parked to Legend's cottage two day before his murder. I thought maybe that would be a clue, but it seems that all ten of the shopping carts are here."

"Do you think it was his, perhaps?"

Nova's serious expression morphed into a scowl. "Seriously, how the fuck would I know? I didn't see the damned thing after that so who gives a shit?"

Leo held his hands up defensively. "Okay, okay! Jeez," he mumbled as he decided to take his leave.

Elson was examining the shelves with Alice—rather, it looked more like Alice was giving out orders while he was scaling up and down the shelves. "Can you see if there's anything on the top shelf?" she asked.

The Ultimate Conductor grunted as he climbed higher, sweat dripping down the side of his head as he examined the area. "Nothing."

Alice whined in exasperation as she sat down on the floor. "We're never gonna find anything this way!"

"Come up with a better plan, then!"

Leo bit his lip in frustration as he sat down next to her and looked around, scanning the lower shelves. His eyes suddenly noticed something as he leaned forward and reached into the very corner of the towels, picking out two bloodstained cloths. "Look at this."

Elson's eyes widened in awe. "How did you find those? I looked everywhere and I couldn't spot anything!"

"It was in the corner...there was a small gap that I saw some blood through." Leo separated the two cloths and began to examine it. "This is...a face towel, right? Why would it be here?"

"To hide evidence?" Alice suggested as she took the other fabric and began to scrutinize it. "This looks like...it was torn off of somewhere? It looks like something that belongs to clothing." She sighed as she put it down. "It's covered in blood so we can't possibly know the color before it was stained."

Elson stood. "That means we should go to Legend's cottage then, right? I mean, there's no other place on this island that would contain fabric right?"

Alice nodded as she stood. "Let's go, perhaps there's something we can find there."

Leo stood and followed the other two as they ran towards the cottages. Elson tried to open the door, finding out that it was locked. "Shoot. How are we supposed to get in?"

Alice went to the side of the cottage, examining the window before she tried to open it. To their surprise, the window opened slightly. Her eyes brightened. "We can go in through the window then, right?"

"Excuse me?" Dagger asked as he walked up to them, scowling. "I won't let anyone disturb my guests' privacy, even if they're dead!"

Leo blinked slightly as he pointed at the door. "That's locked and we need to get in."

"Oh, really? Well, you shoulda just asked!" the host exclaimed as he took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. "Here."

Leo entered the room, suddenly covering his mouth and nose quickly as soon as he caught a whiff of blood in the room.

Elson walked in, face turning green as he held his stomach. "Oh my God, I'm going to puke." He quickly pulled up his shirt in a futile attempt to protect his nose from the smell.

Leo swallowed back the bile that had built up in the back of his throat as he looked around the room. He ran his hands over the edge of Legend's bed, noticing a deep gash in the bedding where some fluff from the bed had begun to come out.

"Broken mirror, stab in the bed...could there have been a struggle?" Alice asked them.

"It's a high chance," Leo admitted as he opened the closet, noting the clothes in the closet. "Hold on, there's clothing in here that doesn't even belong to Legend. Why is Raven's outfit in here? And Phoenix, and Brody's, Eve's...he even has yours, Alice!"

Elson nodded. "You didn't know? Legend liked to fix up outfits for people, so these are all of the ones he had yet to sew up."

Leo nodded slowly as he closed the door.

Alice sniffed the air. "The stench of blood seems stronger than it should be...after all, there's bloodstains on the floor and his dresser but that doesn't explain the stronger stench in some places." She opened the door to the bathroom before screaming out, lurching backwards into Leo.

Jarred, Leo caught her as he looked towards the bathroom. "What did you see?!"

The Ultimate Pop Star took a deep breath as she held a hand over her heart. "It-it's okay...I was just shocked by the bloody clothes in the bathtub."

Leo steadied her before he went in himself, feeling his stomach turn as he caught the strong iron stench of blood staining the room. The floor near the sink was still wet as he looked over at the clothes in the bathtub.

His heart sank as he slowly reached out and checked the size on the label.

It was his.

There was a white button-up, bundled up next to four discarded socks. Two of them were soaked in blood, while the third was covered in sand on the bottom of the soles. There were two knives in the bathtub, one stained with blood while the other remained clean.

Elson peered in, expression darkening as he looked over at Leo before taking a picture with his tablet. "Hey...you didn't do this...right?"

Leo gulped, hands cold. "I didn't. I wouldn't do this."

The Ultimate Conductor bit his lip as he offered a hand for Leo. "It does look suspicious...like someone framed you. You kept your cottage locked though, right?"

Leo took his hand and stood upright. "I do. I don't know how someone would get in. Especially since Dagger adamantly stated that he wouldn't let others in."

"Perhaps it's a mole for Dagger? They get special privileges in exchange for spying on us?"

"I...I sure hope not," Leo mumbled as the monitors suddenly all flickered on.

Dagger sat at the table, a wide smile on his face as he finished his drink before set it aside and folded his hands together. "Attention. Time is up for the investigation! Please make your way to the central island, where the park is. I will be waiting for you all~"

Alice took a shaky breath as the monitors turned off. "Well then...shall we go?"

"Are you scared?" Elson asked.

"Are you not?" Leo turned around in shock to look back at the Ultimate Conductor.

"Of course I am...but we don't have a choice, do we? At the end of this, either we die or the culprit dies. It's a lose-lose situation. I want to spend more time with you guys, though. You're my precious friends. I would do anything to get to make more memories with you guys." He smiled up at Alice and Leo.

For some reason, Elson's cordial smile sent chills up Leo's spine. "I see...let's go."

"Onward!" The Ultimate Conductor cheered as he promptly walked out of the cottage and headed down the road.

The three of them arrived at the park, noticing that most of the people had gathered.

Gin stood near the edge of the plaza, Angel hanging off of his shoulders. "For the last time, could you get off?"

"Nope! You're comfortable!" Angel exclaimed as she hugged his forehead.

Gin rolled his eyes as he turned to Leo with a jaded expression. "So? Did you get any clues? Mr. Suspect?"

Leo clenched his fists slightly at the accusation. "We did."

Gin smiled slightly as he leaned over. "So, while we're waiting, did you notice the footprints in the sand? They were there this morning before the show."

"Footprints?"

The Ultimate Butler nodded. "But, they had no designs on the bottoms. That means they were smooth. In addition, the toes look a little bit splayed on it, I wonder what that could mean?"

Angel raised her hand. "I saw someone running naked last night!" She began to laugh.

Raven's eyes widened as she turned around. "Naked?!"

"Mhm! But, I think it was a dream."

Cassini sighed in annoyance. "Contribute when you have something useful to say."

"Is everyone here? Good! Let's get started!" A voice exclaimed.

Leo shouted in surprise as the floor rumbled and part of the floor disappeared to reveal a staircase leading down into the earth.

"What the actual hell," Yumi muttered under her breath. "You really think we're going to go down this shady staircase?"

Dagger walked out from the staircase, his hand holding chains that had been used to tie Erik up. "Of course! I'm forcing you to go, after all. If you don't, well...each monitor is also mounted with a gun. Unless you would like extra ventilation, then I would suggest you follow me!"

Eve paled at that comment, legs shaking.

The host grinned childishly and clapped twice. "Oh, this is so exciting. I feel like a teacher, you know? This is the first time I get to see your knowledge and wits put together! Let's have an interesting trial, shall we?"

With that, Dagger began to walk back down the stairs, disappearing soon into the darkness.

Elson stepped forward. "Let's go. We can't run from this, can we? We just have to face this now."

Slowly, the fifteen guests headed down the steps, soon seeing an elevator that Dagger was standing in front of.

Dagger bowed humbly as the doors opened with a ding. "After you, my dear guests."

Raven scowled as she walked in first. "Save it, Belmont."

As soon as everyone was inside, the doors shut with an ominous clang. Lights flickered on in the elevator as Leo felt it slowly descend.

He felt his heartbeat get louder and louder with each passing second as he looked around at the grim faces of the people around him, faces white.

Beat.

Beat.

Beat.

Ding.