Better that it be Kasumi.

    “Kasumi, I need you to go fetch Cap,” Aquila said. “Let him know that it’s urgent, but don’t tell anybody else what’s going on, or let them know that anything is wrong. I’ve got Natsuki.”

    Kasumi nodded and rose to her feet. Aquila shut the door to the room and its carnage and sat down beside Natsuki.

    “How are you doing?” Aquila asked.

    “I still feel sick,” Natsuki replied. “A fine detective I turned out to be. Throwing up at my first crime scene.”

    “I’d be more worried if you didn’t,” Aquila said. “After my first kill in my war I was sick for two hours. Made me wonder if I was fit to wage a war against anybody. Part of me always wishes I’d decided that I wasn’t.” She paused. “Don’t worry, I closed the door. You don’t need to worry about seeing it again.”

    “And the second time?”

    “It was easier.” Aquila frowned. “And I’ve always wished that hadn’t been the case too.”

    Natsuki shook her head. “Your war...you told us about your war, you never hid what you did in it. But, I never really understood what that meant until now.” She motioned at the closed door. “You did that to people?”

    Aquila closed her eyes and nodded. “Over a hundred and forty times.”

    “But you’re such a good person,” Natsuki said. “How does somebody like you do something like...like that?”

    “You have to be very lost,” Aquila said. “So lost you forget everything you ever stood for. So focused on your pain and anger that anything you do, no matter how terrible, seems justified. And then, when you finally find your way out, you discover that you did things so bad and caused suffering so horrifying that you can never be forgiven for it. All you can ever hope for is to atone.” She smiled despite herself. “I nearly died doing that. Twice. I’m lucky I didn’t – Kasumi would have killed me for it.”

    Natsuki chuckled.

    Aquila winced. “Damn. I should have asked Kasumi to fetch my coat. I keep a water bottle in the right inside pocket. You could use that right now.”

    “I’ll manage,” Natsuki said. “Open the door. I need to get used to this.”

    Aquila shook her head. “No. You worry about feeling better.”

    “You’re the one who keeps telling me I’m a genius and that I should have been the detective in a mystery story. Well, here’s the crime scene, and I need to be able to pull my weight.”

    “You’re not going in there,” Aquila stated. “The only ones going into that room are going to be Cap and I. Speaking of which, where are Kasumi and Cap?”

    “I am going in there,” Natsuki declared. “You need my brain, and I need to be able to stand in that room without losing my lunch. So get up and open the door so that I can do what I have to.”

    “No.”

    Natsuki glared at her. “Are you seriously going to tell me that I wouldn’t be of use to you in there just because of a little bit of vomit? I’m already feeling better – open the door and let me prove it!”

    Aquila sighed. “Detective Natsuki would be invaluable in there. You would probably see things and put clues together that Cap and I would miss. What you can do isn’t the problem. It’s what you can’t do that is the problem.”

    “And what can’t I do?”

    Aquila gave her a kind smile. “Fly.”

    Natsuki blinked and stared at her. “What?”

    Aquila heard footfalls approaching. She turned to see Cap and Yuri coming down the hall, Yuri breaking into a run as soon as she saw Natsuki on the floor.

    “Natsuki!” Yuri cried, taking Aquila’s place beside her. “Are you okay? What happened?”

    “I’ll be fine,” Natsuki said. “There was a murder. I just wasn’t ready for what I saw, that’s all.”

    Cap blinked. “A murder?”

    Aquila motioned to the door. “It’s behind there. Look, but do not go inside yet.”

    Cap opened the door and peered inside. “Oh,” he said.

    Yuri looked up at him. “What...how bad?”

    Cap took a deep breath. “You remember I told you that I sometimes still have nightmares about the war? Some of them are about stuff like...in there. You don’t want to see it.”

    Yuri looked into his eyes for a moment and then nodded. “Okay.”

    “Where’s Kasumi?” Aquila asked.

    “She said she had to go fetch something,” Cap said. “Oh, there she is.”

    Aquila turned to see Kasumi jogging down the hall, a dark bundle under her arm. “I figured you want this,” Kasumi called as she slowed down, handing Aquila the bundle.

    “Oh good, my coat!” Aquila said. She reached into one of the inside pockets and pulled out a metal water bottle. “Give this to Natsuki,” she said, handing it to Yuri. Then she pulled it on and popped the collar. “Now I feel more like my old self...at least, above the waist.”

    Cap looked at her and shrugged. “I guess. I mean, admittedly, it wasn’t made to cover a dress that wide, but...” He looked at the door. “So, what are we doing?”

    “What happened in there was done by somebody like me,” Aquila said. “We need to figure out everything we can, so that we can figure how whoever it is fights. And, because whoever it is uses information stream powers like me, the fabric of reality in that room is full of holes. We go in there hovering. Do not touch any surface – not the floor, not the ceiling, not the walls. Touch the wrong place and you’ll fall out the world.”

    Natsuki stared at the door, a calculating look in her eyes. “So that’s why I can’t go in there. I can work around this – just describe what you see to me and I’ll try to visualize it.”

    Aquila looked at Natsuki for a moment and then nodded. “Okay.”

    Cap frowned. “You do know that my flying is an outdoor thing, right? Fine control indoors isn’t something I spend a lot of time practicing.”

    Aquila opened the door, her feet rising so that she was hovering a couple of inches above the floor. “Well, I hope you’re up for it, because I need your eye for weapons in there.”

    Cap nodded, closed his eyes, and rose into the air. “That’s a really small room,” he muttered, looking inside.

    “Be careful,” Aquila said, floating inside. She glanced around. At least the ceiling was nice and tall.

    “Be very careful,” she heard Yuri call.

    Aquila flinched as Cap bumped into her back.

    “Sorry,” he said. “I think I’d better not move from here. This may be the best I can do.”

    Aquila turned and patted him on the shoulder. “It’s good enough. As Kasumi would say, no being reckless.” She turned back and glided further into the room, looking around. The walls were riddled with holes, and the floor near the bodies was blackened with scorch marks.

    “What a mess,” Cap muttered.

    “We’ve got two types of holes in the wall,” Aquila noted. “The round ones look like bullets, but these others are longer and wider. Perhaps a sabre or dagger?”

    “Bayonet,” Cap said. “Definitely a bayonet. I take it you’re thinking there was something like your ring of swords?”

    Aquila nodded. “People like me tend to use those. So, rifle and bayonet, then?”

    “No,” Cap said. “There’s not enough bullet holes for even the rifles I was using back in the war – the bullet holes and bayonet holes are almost equal in number, so that’s a single shot gun. And the bullet holes are slight ovals. That means there was wobble, which means they came from a smoothbore barrel. It’s a musket and bayonet.”

    “Get me close to the door,” she heard Natsuki say.

    “Natsuki, are you ready?” Aquila asked.

    “I am,” Natsuki called out. “Tell me what you see. Start with the bodies. How many are there?”

    “Four,” Cap replied. “Three guards and somebody else. All male.”

    “The fourth would be the protagonist. Locations?”

    “Protagonist is in the centre of the room,” Aquila said. “The other three are about midway from the centre and the far wall.”

    “Is the protagonist in the exact centre of the room, or is he offset?”

    “Offset,” Aquila replied.

    “When I looked in, I remember him being face-up with his head towards the door. Is that correct?”

    “Yes.”

    “Is there a weapon near the protagonist?”

    “No.”

    “Is there an extra weapon near the guards?”

    Aquila and Cal looked at each other and then scanned the floor. “Yes!” Cap said. “I’ve got one here to the right of the door. It looks like a rapier or sabre of some sort.”

    “Okay, move on to causes of death. What are the causes of death for each body?”

    “The guards were obliterated,” Cap said. “Some sort of energy blast. Most of them are gone, but you can count the legs and make out that they were in uniforms. The protagonist was cut open by an edged weapon, probably a bayonet.”

    “I heard you say that there are scorch marks. How many are there?”

    “Four,” Aquila replied.

    “And are they all on the floor?”

    “Yes,” Aquila said.

    “Are there any bullet or bayonet holes on the floor or ceiling?”

    Aquila looked around. “No.”

    “And how tall is the ceiling?”

    “About twelve feet,” Cap relied.

    “What is the spread and height of the holes?”

    “About three feet off the floor,” Cap said. “And it looks like it’s a fairly even spread across every wall but the far wall.”

    “Is there anything else in the room that you haven’t mentioned?”

    Aquila and Cap traded glances. “I don’t think so,” she said.

    “One last question,” Natsuki stated. “When somebody arrives in a story world, would I be right that the rapid displacement of air would cause a small sonic boom?”

    “Yes,” Aquila said.

    “Okay,” Natsuki said. “I’ve got what I needed. I’ll take some more of that water now, Yuri.”

    “I think I’m getting the picture here,” Cap said. “So, the killer arrives and surprises the protagonist. He murders the protagonist, and the noise from that attracts the guards, who he then kills with the energy blasts. Does that sound about right?”

    “That’s about what I’ve figured out,” Aquila said.

    “None of that is right,” Natsuki called.

    “Wait, really?” Cap said. “I thought I accounted for everything.”

    “You didn’t account for you,” Natsuki declared. “You heard the sonic boom of the killer’s arrival and thought it was some sort of tremor, but you didn’t hear any gunfire. That means that the killer had to have used some sort of power to conceal the sound of the fight. And if the sound from the fight was muted, then it couldn’t have attracted the guards. All of the victims had to have been in the room when the fight started.”

    Cap shook his head. “How did I miss that?”

    “Here’s how it happened,” Natsuki began. “The killer appeared in the room in front of the protagonist by the far wall – that was the sonic boom you heard. The protagonist summoned the guards, who moved to protect him. The killer increased their elevation to be as high as possible so that he or she could get the best angle for his shots, put up some sort of shield to silence the fight and probably prevent anybody from leaving, and then wiped out the guards with energy blasts, creating three of the four scorch marks. By now the protagonist had figured out that he needed to start moving, causing the blast aimed at him to miss and scorch the floor.

    “At this time, the killer descended from the ceiling to a height that would give them a better angle for hitting a moving opponent and changed to this ring of muskets you talked about. Most of the attacks missed, causing the holes in the walls. By now the protagonist had drawn his weapon and moved to attack. He made it to the centre of the room before he was hit by the killing blow. The blow knocked the weapon from his hand and sent it flying forward as he fell. Then the killer left this world.”

    Cap chuckled. “Damn, she’s good.”

    “‘Detective Natsuki’,” Aquila said with a smile. “And now we have an idea of how whoever it is fights. Thank you so much, Natsuki.”

    Aquila heard a sigh, and turned to see Natsuki staring into the room with a wistful frown. “I just solved the murder of the protagonist, and we never found out his name. Who was he? Can you read his character description and find out?”

    “I’m sorry,” Aquila said. “Only the living have character descriptions.”

    “That’s a pity,” Natsuki muttered. “I wish I’d had a chance to meet him. So what happens now? Do we summon the guards and tell them everything?”

    “No,” Aquila replied. “Cap is going to leave the room and return to the hallway, and then I’m going to use my powers to get rid of the bodies and carnage. And then we’re going to close and lock the door and walk away. And then we’re going to get something to eat, gather in my guest quarters, and figure out our next move.”

    “What?” Natsuki said. “But four people were murdered! How can you be thinking of food after this? Surely we have to–”

    “We need to think about practicalities,” Aquila stated. “This world has an active information stream. Those four people will be brought back to life as soon as it updates. It will be as though nothing had ever happened to them. The thing we need to worry about is somebody entering this room and falling out of the world. And that means we need to remove anything that would draw any attention to it. If somebody is looking for the protagonist, they should just think that he has gone somewhere else and locked the door.”

    “That’s terrible,” she heard Yuri say.

    “I know,” Aquila said. “I wish I could give you something more satisfying. But we can’t do anything to help the dead, and because we know this hazard exists, we have an obligation to protect people from it. The information stream update should fix the holes in reality caused by the fight. Most of them, anyway.”

    “Would using your powers call the killer back?” Cap asked.

    Aquila turned to face him. “No. This room is saturated in the residue from information stream energy. A little bit more wouldn’t make any difference to an outside observer.” She turned to look back over the room. “You’d better get out of here,” she said. “I’ve got work to do.”

NEXT: “Plan”