Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Hello, in this chapter, I'm going to show you how to play the game.

1. In each chapter, someone will die. Between chapters, you will make guesses as to who you think will die in the next chapter and how they’ll die. I will hide clues in each chapter regarding the victim and cause of death in the next chapter. Using the clues, you must make a prediction as to who you think the next victim will be and how they will die.
2. Also, at any point after the first chapter, you can make a one-time guess as to who you think the killer and sole survivor will be. You can only make that prediction once, so once you make it, you will have to pray that your prediction about the victim and sole survivor is correct. There will be clues about who the killer and sole survivor are scattered throughout the story, so keep an eye out for that.
3. To solve the mystery, you will have to focus really hard, so pay very close attention to the story, descriptions of many things, and the things the characters do, say or interact with, as they could be clues. Each death will also have a layer of irony to them, if that helps.
4. There is a poem that will be your baseline for the mystery, so pay attention to each line, gather your clues, and make the prediction you think is most accurate. 
5. Here's another thing to keep in mind, there are red herrings in the chapters, so the most obvious answer could end up being the wrong one. However, this should not mean automatically ruling out anything confirmed to be a red herring, as what is a red herring for one thing could very well be a hint for another.
6. You don't need to know a lot about the Phighting roster to pull this off, both gameplay-wise and lore-wise, although being a member of the Phighting Community will make this easier overall. This book will nudge you towards helpful hints, so be on the look out. Also, for the sake of story and plot convenience, no one has their Gears or in-game abilities.
7. The animals the roster are based off of could also be helpful, so if you see something similar to one of their characteristics or something that animal is known for that you think could be a clue, you can try looking it up or taking it into consideration.
8. As the series progresses you will have to narrow your choices down by thinking about who you think the killer could still be, but you shouldn't base their identity based off of their appearance. Let's just say the killer has been given “plot armour” and that the lighting will always either conveniently be very bad that the cast can’t see the killer or no one will be around to witness the murder when the killer is actually visible.
9. We're trying to trick you, but not all the time. The killer is one of the main victims, and is not an outside source. Once someone dies, they will stay dead and be ruled out as a possibility as to who the killer is. Nobody is getting Divine Resurrected, don’t worry.
10. It's possible for a murder weapon to be directly responsible for a death by dealing the killing blow, but deaths can also be an indirect result of the weapon used. Each weapon can only be used once.
    
    Good luck.

WEAPONS:
-Spear
-Powersaw
-Scarf
-Farming Hoe
-Bowling Ball
-Hunting Rifle
-Soda Bottle
-Axe
-Globe
-Laundry Detergent
-Chainsaw
-Glass Plate
-Laptop
-Scalpel
-Pencil
-Milk Bottle
-Flashlight
-Flag
-Fart Spray
-Feather Duster

(Remember that the item itself is not necessarily what dealt the final blow to kill off the victim and that there are only thirteen deaths so some of these items will go unused.)
(The weapons here exclude the death of the hosts, who die to a pre-set up plan by the killer.)

VICTIMS (bracket represents animal):
-Sword (Sparrow)
-Skateboard (Raccoon)
-Katana (Owl)
-Ban Hammer (Komodo Dragon)
-Rocket (Shark)
-Slingshot (Cat)
-Hyperlaser (Axolotl)
-Shuriken (Tanuki)
-Scythe (Rattlesnake)
-Medkit (Deer)
-Boombox (Cockatoo)
-Subspace (Scorpion)
-Vine Staff (Koi)
-Coil (Wolf)

(ps… i excluded biograft due to it being a hard programmed murder robot and i didnt want to deal with any of that sentient biograft thing so… sorry to all the biograft enjoyers.)

The Addendum of The Murders:

A bright shine in the air, wanting to have fled, the first was flashed until they were dead.

A horrible act seen on a screen till the end, the second was shocked till their vision turned red.

A ray of light with many more to meet, the third let a tickle make their lifespan meek.

Tiny and stinky, a horrible mix, the fourth choked on horrendousness, and went in a nix.

The pain of the element, and from a big height, the fifth went under with an unlucky strike.

A great big heart, with a super long love, the sixth felt sharpness take them above.

Silly and sweet, with a face they called "Mine", the seventh got clumsy and had a bad dine.

The thrill of the hunt, with blood upon their fur, the eighth felt through their body a pain to endure.

With much to their name and a deadly aim, the ninth went down in a dancing flame.

A mystical creature yet with such poor manners, the tenth went down in a star covered banner.

A nightly figure distancing from mentos, the eleventh felt pain fizzing up to a few hundos.

Construction from a tree, meeting with a flighty friend, a bloody stump was how the twelfth met their end.

The thirteenth is the killer with the world and night decimated…

…and so the fourteenth survived and “celebrated”.

For those who are sensitive to gore/violence, don’t worry, None of the death scenes are written to be overly graphic, with limited mentions of blood and also none of the bodies being described in detail. This was an intentional decision so as to allow those who are squeamish to depictions of blood and violence to still be able to partake in this story. (and also because the author herself is also sensitive to graphic depictions of violence.)
And for any phans who may be in medical school/into murder methods, we apologise in advance for any unrealistic death methods you are about to see. No one on the writing team is taking anything related to healthcare or criminology.

Here’s a hint to get you started on the first death: “In adults, the survival rate is 45%-65%”

The form to submit your first guesses is here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSet6E-v-YmEBj5Mg1tbMd_Ra_yZSlnoU9DlFI3otPcYe4vbyQ/viewform?usp=header 

The first chapter will be released soon. I’ll see you there.

(The publishing schedule is to have a week between chapter releases to give everyone time to read the updates and solve for clues at their own pace. Everything in this story was written out a long time prior to it being published.)
(Next Chapter's release date: 26th January, 2026)

Chapter Text

This might be the first thing we ever write as ghosts. Because with the both of us dead, someone’s writing has to be used somehow, so if you see this, try not to think too hard about how a couple of ghosts wrote this.

I’ll never forget the night where we tried to host that fancy dinner party to celebrate the success of the Phighting Tournaments, only for everything to spiral downwards so quickly.

The whole thing happened the night after we managed to send out the invites to a random list of some of the Phighters who took part in the tournaments to come to our mansion for the party where they would then leave right after dinner. The rest of the Flipside team didn’t know about this happening, so at least we wouldn’t have to worry about T.Vee accidentally barging into the dinner party mid-meal and start to try and interview the Phighters or anything of the sorts. While everyone was on their way over, we did use our laptop to check the security cameras around the mansion in case of any signs of any inphernals wanting to disrupt the event.Our laptop had a very bright screen as well, so we would have been able to spot anything if there was and since we didn’t see anything, we took that as a sign that the event would be going smoothly for us.

We were very wrong. 

As the guests were slowly arriving, I took the courtesy to do the welcomes while Dom was busy trying to show people the decorations he had set up for the event, and after everyone had shown up, we brought everyone to the dinner table and just as everyone was beginning to eat and as we were explaining why we brought them here, the lights suddenly started flickering. The pattern was before the lights finally gave out and blew.

“The hell-”
“Did the power trip or something?”
“Vine? Sling? Where are you guys-”
“It’s okay, I’m right here Shuri!”
“Who turned off the lights?”
“What’s ha-”

In the midst of the commotion, two loud banging noises could be heard from the other side of the room which lead to a good amount of chaos and screaming which was immediately followed up with by pindrop silence, which is the last thing I remember hearing before Dom and I died from blood loss and woke up as ghosts.

When the lights finally turned back on again, everyone saw both our bodies. And as expected, all hell broke loose.

“OH SWORDS, THEY’RE DEAD! THEY’VE BEEN SHOT!”
“Who did this?”
“I don’t know?”
“Maybe try to find where the noise came from?”
“I think it came from that broken purple vase over there…”
“Great! Now who’s gonna go check it out?”
“...”
“Fine. I’ll carry all of you, as per usual.”

After a moment of awkward and scared silence from everyone, Ban Hammer would then stand up while taking off his blindfold and walking towards where everyone swore they heard the gunshots coming from just now, only to find a set up trap which was a pistol tied to an egg timer behind the vase, and an envelope on the floor amidst some shards of the purple vase. Since everyone was desperate for answers, he would slowly open the envelope.

“So, what’s it say, Banny?”
“Hold on! Let me open it first!”
“No need to be so snappy! Watch that attitude of yers-”
“I’ve opened it! Do you want to hear the contents or not, you snake?”

Everyone would go silent once again as the contents of a note in the envelope were read out.

“Hello fools. I assume you all got the invitation from the Flipside duo to come to this mansion. Well, guess what, I got here earlier and intentionally set this whole trap up to kill them. You see, I am actually one of you, and I plan on murdering everyone else here. Why? I’m not telling you. I suggest all of you work together quickly to survive, because if I fail to kill everyone before sunrise, I’ll let all the survivors go. The gates to enter and exit are all locked as well, so don’t bother trying to run.”

As he set the letter down, everyone would slowly start to realise what was going on.

“Wow… this killer really isn’t playing around, are they?”
“...are we all gonna die-”
“No shit we are!”
“Okay! Okay! Everyone just- calm down, we might be able to coordinate someth-”

The lights then flickered again in another pattern. A short flicker followed by a long flicker and two more short ones, a pause, a short flicker followed by a long one, darkness again, a short flicker followed by two long ones then another short one, a single long flicker and then it went dark again, three long flickers together and finally a short flicker with two longs ones and another short one before the light finally died out for good. 

“I DON’T WANNA DIE-”
“Shuri! Vine! Stay close to me!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
“...uh-”

In the midst of the chaos, someone would feel their sleeve being tugged on before they were dragged behind a corner that led to a staircase, thankfully catching a glimpse of the horns of the ones dragging them around to be two familiar red and blue sets of horns in whatever light was coming through a nearby window before conversing with them in a hushed tone.

“...What are you two doing-”
“We’re trying t-”
“Okay first of all, lower your damn voice. You’re going to give away our posit-”
“Okay! Sorry, sorry…”
“Thank you. You were saying before I had to tell you to be quieter?”
“Rocket managed to pick up a flashlight. We’re planning to sneak up to the balcony to try and signal for help!”
“And you had to drag me along with you two?”
“What’s wrong with that? We just didn’t want to leave you down there on your own-”
“Sword I want you to know that I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself in that situation if you had just left me there-”
“Can you two please stop bickering? I get the whole ‘brotherly rivalry’ thing? But we have something more important to focus on here!”
“...sorry.”
“Fine. It’s going to be a bit of a long climb since we do have to climb… three or four levels? To reach the top.”
“Fine by me. As long as it means we get to live.”
“Don’t worry Med! We’ll be fine!”
“I hope so.”
“...wait, Rocket. If the balcony doors are locked can you use your lockpicking skills to open the doors for us?”
“Really? Using the toolkit of my youth-”
“It’s for our lives!”
“...Fair point.”
“Anyways, we should be reaching the top about no-”

The moonlight streaming through from the large glass doors would prove Sword’s point as the balcony came into view from the staircase. The three of them would quickly walk over to the balcony’s sliding doors, and to their relief, the doors were unlocked. Opening them just enough for everyone to squeeze out, they would all walk out onto the balcony while Rocket would fumble around to try and find the flashlight.

Except it wasn't with him anymore.

When the three of them turned around, they were all blinded by a figure pointing the flashlight at them on its brightest setting which was enough to temporarily blind everyone. In that blindness, Sword would end up walking a little too close to the balcony’s railings, where the killer would then quickly push him off before Rocket and Medkit could recover from the flash.

He would eventually regain his sight and focus, but by then it was already too late, hitting the ground and dying instantly.

Alright! That was the first chapter for everyone, ending with Sword indirectly dying to the flashlight!

—

Breakdown:

"A bright shine"- immediately points towards the flashlight thanks to the word "shine" which connotes light being involved someway or another.

"in the air"- This is meant to direct the readers toward the Avian-Based cast members. Birds can fly, hence "in the air" and of all the birds in the cast (Sparrow, Owl and Parrot), Sparrows are *arguably* the weakest of all the birds here. 

"wanting to have fled"- referring to how Sword was the one who proposed signalling for help

"flashed till they were dead"- he was flashed leading him to become blinded, which led to him being pushed off and becoming the first victim.

—
The Irony of the Death:
Having a bird falling to his death is ironic enough, but the fact that it's a SPARROW, which are birds known for being active in the daytime who died to light adds another layer to it.  

—
Hints from previous chapter:

(none due to him being the first murder, however, at the end of the chapter explaining all the rules, the line about survival rates was taken from a wikipedia article about sparrows. Sword is represented by a sparrow. 

—

Red Herrings from previous chapter:

(none due to him being the first murder)

Chapter Text

Back on the balcony, Rocket and Medkit had also recovered from the flash, only to look around and realise that Sword wasn't on the balcony with them anymore. They would end up peering over the balcony and immediately saw what appeared to be a mess on the ground.

“What the- Was that there before?”
“I don’t know, it… that did not happen. That did not just happen-”
“Wait, is that him?”
‘...”

That was enough to get the both of them to rush back downstairs to meet up with everyone else where they were greeted by half relieved, half agitated questions just as the lights turned on again.

“There you three are! Why did you disappear just n-” no one got the chance to finish their questions before hearing a very distressed “SWORD’S DEAD” from Medkit.

Pin drop silence would fill the room as everyone realised the weight of the situation. The killer had already begun picking off of them one by one. Vine Staff was the first one who spoke up afterwards, with a shaky “...how did he?-”

“Well, the three of us managed to find a flashlight that had a high brightness so when the lights went out just now, we thought that we could sneak off while the killer couldn’t see us and use the flashlight to try and signal for help, except that once we reached the balcony, I noticed the flashlight wasn’t with me anymore and when we turned around, we saw the killer holding the flashlight which caused us to get blinded… and by the time our vision recovered, well…” Rocket would have to stop himself thanks to him starting to choke up due to his emotions. Medkit would reach out to gently grab onto Rocket’s shoulder as an act of comfort, but it was very obvious that he himself was also badly affected by his brother’s death, only being able to stare blankly at the wall while trying to comfort Rocket.

"Are you sure you're telling us the truth? None of this makes sense, and I'll have you know that I, for one, am never wrong!" 

"Yes, of course I am!" Rocket yelled back "Why would I lie to any of you about this?! You-... You have no business throwing any accusations right now."

"Is that a way to address Blackrock's greatest mind? Or... are you just getting defensive?"

"You know damn well what I mean. Sword was our best friend, why would we even- What made you think it would've been us?"

"It all adds up, doesn't it?! Blinded by a flashlight? Now dead? Oh, that makes so much sense. Well I'm sorry, your cute little narrative didn't even manage to fool half of us."

"Tell me, in what world would I EVER even THINK of killing Sword?-”

“Look- let’s not argue any further.” Skateboard would try to step in and mediate. “There’s a killer somewhere in this room and no one wants to die, so, can you just lead us to where the body is? As proof? It’s not that I don't trust anyone here, it's just that I- I think we all want some evidence to at least know who we can trust.”

“Skate’s got a point. If we can see the body as proof, that could help us figure some things out. I say we go look for the body.”
“Rocket? Medkit? Could you two take us to where he is?”

After a short moment, the two of them would slowly lead everyone out of the mansion.

As everyone was heading outside, they would walk through the main doors of the mansion, failing to notice a small mark scratched into the doorframe that read “X=F” as Rocket led everyone to where the mess was underneath the balcony, and sure enough, everyone saw Sword’s bloodied body on the ground, dead, but with everyone focusing on the body, no one saw a small piece of paper on the wall that had the letters j,w,u and f written onto it.

Some of the phighters had to turn away immediately after seeing the body while others would slowly stand around it in silence, either out of shock or trying to examine and investigate.

Skateboard would try to stand a little closer to the body. “With how his limbs are positioned… There's no denying it. He must have fallen to his death. I don’t think it’s possible for the killer to have had the time to break that many bones and position him like that in the span of a few minutes when the lights were out just now. I know what deaths due to falls look like… trust me, I’ve seen some things while working on my rescues.”
“True. Besides, I don’t see any signs of an external force or weapons being used to break or dislocate his bones, so that rules out any other means of murder used on him, where the killer would then have to do the extra work to make it seem believable that he fell to his death.” Ban Hammer would walk up from behind Skateboard, examining the body as well.

“...Look, can we maybe discuss this inside the mansion? The wind feels pretty cold and ticklish, and I don’t feel safe out here… and now it’s also starting to drizzle, great.”
“I’ll go back in with you. Can’t risk leaving anyone alone in these types of circumstances.”
“I’ll come too, I’m getting the creeps just standing out here…”

One by one, everyone would slowly head back inside the mansion, not wanting to stand around outside where they felt vulnerable, and as everyone slowly left the scene, someone would linger behind, standing alone in the darkness and in the rain that was quickly getting heavier by the second. He would eventually come to his senses, slowly crouching down next to the lifeless body of his brother, until he was sitting down next to him in the grass. Finally, he was unable to hold it back any longer. 

Tears would freely fall onto the body in front of him as he silently wept, mourning the loss of the one person he could safely call his family in such a violent world.

Back inside the mansion, Rocket was one of the first people to start trying to search around for any sort of information or clues that could be useful to figuring out who the killer was. While searching the cabinets in the living room, he would just so happen to open a cabinet with a powersaw inside of it.

“...what the-”
“Ah, here you are, standing next to a cabinet with a chainsaw. And here I was thinking you were supposed to be innocent?”
“It’s not what it looks like! I promise!”

Unfortunately (or fortunately) for Rocket and Subspace, more and more Inphernals would start to slowly stream into the mansion as well, right into the argument.

“Well, what do we have here?" 

"The killer, caught red-handed by ME!" 

"I'm not the killer, I haven't done anything! Ask Medkit about it!" Rocket frantically tries to explain. He looks around trying to search for Medkit, who is suspiciously missing.

"Ah yes, Meddy, your alibi, who conveniently disappears when you're holding a weapon-”
“Alright, alright, just let me do my job and-”

"Hey! Let's not jump to conclusions! Who's to say this wasn't planned?"
"Yeah! There's no way the killer would be that stupid to try to kill again when there's people moving around, let alone with something as loud as a powersaw!"

"Yer' awfully quick ta jump to conclusions today, Banny!"

"Everyone! Break it up! Let's not fight amongst ourselves in such a dangerous time, please!-”
"Do you seriously want us to all die? Rocket's obviously the killer, just let The Warden get it over with!"
"Or maybe, it's like what Shuriken said. This could all just be a set-up!"

"And what would a stupid kid like you possibly know??"

"Stupid? That's rich, coming from-"

“Okay. Everyone, please. One of us is a murderer and if we don’t focus and try to figure out who it is now we could all end up dead by morning! Can everyone please just cooperate with each other?”

"And so? If we let Rocket go, we're obviously going to be endangering ourselves!"

"...but Sword was close to him, so why would he kill his own best friend?”
“... They even announced his death..."

"I don't trust that scientist, Vine."

"... Me neither."

"But.. What if Medkit was behind it?"

"There's no way. Have you seen how those two act when they’re together in Phights?"

"I mean-”

The discussion would die down the moment they heard the doors to the mansion open once again, where Medkit would silently walk inside, fully drenched thanks to him being outside in the rain. That was the first thing everyone noticed until he spoke up while moving over to rejoin everyone in the living room.

“Don’t ask.” It was painfully obvious that, despite his best attempts at masking whatever under the same flat tone, there was still a certain raspiness to his voice that betrayed the fact that he had probably lost it outside once he was sure no one would be able to hear him cursing the Inphinity for his brother’s death. It was confirmed when he was deliberately avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room, since the moment anyone did try to make eye contact with him, the redness and puffiness in his remaining eye proved everyone right. There really was no way that he was the one who had killed Sword. All everyone could do was stand there and watch him venture off on his own, climbing the stairs that led up to both the second and third floors, before Rocket quickly followed him just to make sure he wouldn't do anything to himself or get himself murdered upstairs.

With the accusations and arguments all proving themselves to be pointless, everyone would end up breaking off into small groups either on their own or with loved ones, planning to either wait the night out and hide or try to investigate and find the killer themselves.

As for Rocket and Medkit, the two of them would eventually find themselves back on the third floor to hopefully try to find any leads about Sword’s death, before accidentally running into Scythe while searching for clues or evidence that could give them answers. After a brief apology and a quick “we should get going”, the two of them were about to leave when-

“‘Kit. I need to speak to ya for a moment. On yer own, preferably.”

“...I-”
“No. Medkit isn’t in a proper state now- if anything how can I trust that you won’t do anything to him while the two of you are alone? You could easily-”
“Rocket. It’s… fine. Just search ahead on your own first. I’ll catch up with you after-”
“Are you insane? You-”
“Ya be quiet before I cut yer throat. I’ll promise, ‘Kit isn’t dyin’ while he’s with me.”

Before Rocket could protest any further, Medkit would just silently walk past him to catch up with Scythe, casting one last apologetic glance back at Rocket for leaving him alone for now.

That would leave Rocket walking around and searching on his own until he found a small room on the same floor as the balcony with a laptop on a table inside. He would walk up to the laptop and turn it on, but didn’t see that the wall behind the laptop had six sticky notes on them hidden behind the screen which had a series of numbers written on each one. 01110101, 01100101, 01110011, 01110010, 01100100, and 01110100, before logging in to the laptop which had conveniently had no passcode needed. He would have assumed it was suspicious if it wasn't for the fact that right after he clicked on the log in button, he was instantly shown footage from a CCTV that was overlooking Sword’s body that was recording in real time which had left him with no time to react or think about the lack of security on the laptop.

The very sight of the body made him feel both sick and enraged, that lead to him ambling to the nearby window to hopefully try and breathe before he either vomited or broke something, but just as he opened the window, he would end up getting shoved out from behind by the murderer, and, well… You know what happened to him. 

That marks the end of the second chapter, with Rocket dying to the Laptop! Congrats to those who got it right.

—

Breakdown:

“A horrible act”-referring to the aftermath of Sword’s murder being the what was shown on the screen 

“Seen on screen”- the laptop is the only weapon which has a screen, immediately pointing readers to the laptop being the weapon.

“Till the end”- referring to how the last thing Rocket saw was Sword’s body for the second time before he died.

“Shocked until his vision turned red.”-As if seeing his best friend dead in the aftermath wasn’t enough, being forced to see it again, triggering strong emotions and ultimately leading to the set up for his death. Seeing red also refers to how seeing red can mean anger, referencing Rocket’s short temper, but also means death.
—
Irony of the death:
Rocket ended up dying in a similar way to the same person he was the most agitated about losing. 

—

Hints from previous chapter:

-The narrator mentions that their LAPTOP has a very bright screen

-Right before the guests arrive, the hosts use their LAPTOP once again to check if the CCTV systems were working for security reasons 

-The lights were flickering in Morse code:
First time: .-. --- -.-. -.- . - (rocket)
Second time: .-.. .- .--. - --- .--. (laptop)

—

Red Herrings from previous chapter:

-when the hosts die, a purple decorative vase breaks. This is meant to be a red herring that references Ban Hammer, which was meant to trick readers into thinking he was the one who would die.

Chapter Text

After Rocket was pushed out the window and fell to his death, the rest of the victims continued to search for clues on their own, completely oblivious to what had happened to him.

“...So I know that the three of ‘em would have climbed the stairs and would’ve came over here, and when they were on the balcony, the killer would have then pushed him off…”
If you want to catch a murderer, you have to start at the crime scene. Ban Hammer knew the scene of the first murder would have some evidence he could use to help with the investigations, right?
Unfortunately for him, there were no traces of the aftermath on the balcony other than some footprints that belonged to Sword, Rocket and Medkit when they first reached the third floor, and a flashlight left on top of a cabinet, bulb smashed, casing broken and wiring mangled beyond repair and use, an obvious sign that the killer wanted to destroy any means of calling for help afterwards while also destroying evidence. He would try to see if he could pick up on any evidence or clues on who the killer was from the flashlight, but unless he could get a decent fingerprint from the flashlight and also manage to get samples from the others in these conditions, it was practically impossible to narrow the list down with just the flashlight. The flashlight’s label would still be readable, but just barely, showing that it was 1500 lumens in brightness, which means that they were telling the truth about getting blinded temporarily. 1500 lumens was enough to cause disorientation and temporary blindness.
But with no more new leads, he would eventually decide to go downstairs to try and search for more information, but as he was walking down the stairs, Ban Hammer would fail to notice what looked like an ominous figure dragging an axe around on the third floor behind him.

See, Hyperlaser wanted to try and investigate.
Or at least that was the plan until he found a display shelf of porcelain animals in one of the hallways and ended up taking a small detour to look at them. That detour ended up becoming a solid minute of him just admiring the collection, specifically the cat figurine when he heard footsteps coming from one end of the hallway heading towards him.
“I did not expect to find you here, Hyperlaser.”
Katana would now be standing in front of the display shelf next to Hyperlaser, admiring each animal figurine that was on it. The two of them would stand in silence for a little while before Katana would slowly begin to walk off, only to be stopped by Hyperlaser.
“Katana, would you mind if I followed you around for the rest of the night?”
“I do not think you should have to burden yourself unnecessarily with your urge to keep me company, unless you wouldn’t mind my presence.”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
“...Then I suppose you can. It would be safer for both of us. We have the same intentions and we could protect each other, if necessary.”
The two of them would cast one last glance at the display, before finally walking off together.
"...You remind me of my dear kitty, Katana."
"A pet? I did not strike you as the kind of Inphernal to own such a thing...and pray do tell how we are similar..?”
”Haha, perhaps another time…”

Subspace would be on his own, roaming some of the hallways in an attempt to try and catch the killer in the act. If the murderer saw a potential target, of course they would try to go for the kill. Sure, he may end up dying in the process, but he had managed to pick up an axe to use as self defence, which would at least grant him some time to try and find others if he was able to injure the killer enough for him to escape.
Though, he was still scared for his life. There was no denying that. As much as he did want to try catching the killer, a part of him wished that he was in the lab working on his inventions instead of being locked up in a mansion overnight with a murderer running around.
“...why is Gamma never around when you need it the most.”
As he was exploring the mansion, he was searching through some cabinets trying to find anything he could use that would help in figuring out who the killer was, he would end up finding nothing in the rooms he was searching through, eventually giving up and deciding to try and search another floor, running past a marking on the staircase railings that looked like a cloud with a blue speck inside the cloud.

“...I just think it’s best we find a place to wait the night out. We can try to plan further from there, like whether we’ll try to escape, investigate later on or just stay hidden the whole night.”
“Aren’t we just turning ourselves into sitting ducks if we do that Vine? Think about it, the killer could just barge into where we’re hiding and kill all of us at once!”
“Being a sitting duck is one thing, but the hunter not being able to find the ducks in the first place is another, isn’t it Shuri?”
“...I think I’ll side with Vine here. It’s too dangerous for us to be roaming around like this with a murderer somewhere in this house. Besides, us being together doesn’t guarantee safety. Remember? Sword went with Rocket and Medkit and he still died!”
The three of them would eventually find a bedroom that was large enough for the three of them to wait the night out in, but would fail to notice that the eyes on one of the paintings in the hallway were sinisterly aimed at Slingshot the whole time.
“...so what now?”
“We just wait.”
The three of them would sit down next to each other in a small circle in a corner.
“...Look. Vine, Shuri, if I don’t make it out of this alive, promise me you two will take care of the cafe for me-”
“Don’t say that! We’ll get through this, I know we will!”
“Yeah, Sling, we’re all scared right now, but we can pull through!”
"Well, if you two are that confident, then I do think we'll be alright as long as we stay together in this room."
The three of them would gradually ease up, continuing their conversation, a nice distraction from the situation outside.

“....Y’know, I asked to speak to ya for a reason ‘Kit.”
Scythe and Medkit would be walking down one of the corridors of the mansion before entering another room, which only added to Medkit’s paranoia both from knowing Sword wasn’t around anymore and the fact that his boss, who was also known for being a wanted murderer, was deliberately isolating him from the rest by taking him to this random room.
“So, ya’ know how to modify gears and create prosthetics. Think yer able to build us an escape beacon?”
“...”
His focus would be somewhere else entirely, scanning the room despite keeping his head down the whole time where he spotted a scarf left lying on a windowsill.
“...’Kit. I’m bein’ serious here. If ya build that beacon…”
Speaking of windows, it was when he glanced outside the one next to him when he caught a glimpse of something that looked a lot like a body, but they weren’t anywhere near the balcony.
“..., it could be our only way out of thi-”
Without thinking, he would instinctively bolt towards the door, which was thankfully left ajar, making it easy for him to escape the room and run off to wherever his instincts end up taking him. Just somewhere he can be on his own and wait the night out without going insane.
The last thing he heard was Scythe calling him to come back before he could no longer hear her thanks to the distance between them, leaving Scythe on her own.

“There’s gotta be something we can find around here…”
“...We’ll survive this, won’t we?”
“Don’t worry. We’ll survive the night, I’m sure we can!”
Skateboard, Boombox and Coil would be searching through one of the rooms of the mansion in an attempt to try and find any leads about the current situation together.
“Man...I still can’t believe that there’s a murderer in this building.”
“And we don’t even know who it is! Honestly guys, this is getting kinda scary…”
“I can’t believe any of this either, it was just supposed to be a nice dinner party, and what do you know? Suddenly we’ve got people dying left and right!”
“Yeah! Besides, who would eveAAAAA-”
Just as Skateboard was searching through a drawer, a trapdoor underneath him would open, causing him to fall into a small hole a few meters deep into a room, presumably connected to the basement of the mansion.
“Skate! Are you alright?”
“...I think? Man that fall-”
“Is there a door or somethin you can use to get out of that room?”
“I don’t- I don’t think there is-”
“We’ll find something- just stay put Skate!”

The two of them would quickly leave the room and start searching the other rooms nearby for anything they could potentially use. Boombox was searching through some drawers when he saw a shadow appear in the reflection of the window that was holding a feather duster.

But before he could try to scream for help or run, the killer would start tickling him with the feather duster they were holding. With everything he felt, Boombox started giggling uncontrollably and just as he opened his mouth wide enough, the killer would shove the handle of the feather duster down his throat, holding him down the entire time and making sure it was deep enough that he couldn't breathe properly or remove it on his own without an immense struggle that would leave him too weak to survive, before fleeing the scene.

And try as he might, he would struggle to save himself but would inevitably die afterwards.

Third chapter over… and for anyone who was wondering “how does someone die to a feather duster?” here's your answer!
—
Breakdown:
"A ray of light"- referring to Boombox’s personality of being extremely compassionate, selfless, and always striving to help others. (taken straight from the phighting wiki)
"Many more to meet"- he's young and an independent artist, which meant that since he died this young, he could have gone much farther in his music career and met many more people in his life before his death
"let a tickle make their lifespan meek"- a direct reference to how his murder played out.
—
The Irony of the Death:
Someone based off a feathered being (cockatoo) died to a feather duster of all things, coupled with the fact he's an indie music artist and that suffocation was how he dies is also ironic.
—
Hints from the previous chapter:
-The wind is described to be "ticklish" as everyone slowly leaves the scene of Sword’s murder.
-The marking “X=F” is a Caesar Cipher shift of +8/-18, and using this shift on the note near Sword’s body would give you the letters to Boombox’s name.
-In the previous chapter, before Rocket turns the laptop on, the sticky notes have binary written onto them. Decoding the binary initially gives you nothing, but unshuffling the letters spells out "duster"
—
Red Herrings from the previous chapter:
-Despite the powersaw causing a mass commotion in the previous chapter, it ultimately goes unused.

Chapter Text

After a good amount of searching, Coil would unfortunately return to where Skateboard was without anything on hand, thanks to the fact this mansion somehow conveniently didn't have any ladders or ropes anywhere in the building whatsoever, only to look into the hole the trapdoor led to and realise that Skateboard wasn’t in that small room anymore.
“...where did he-”
“Hey man guess who was able to-”
“Skate how did you-”
“After you and Boombox left I took a better look around that tiny room and realised there was a ladder that was painted the same colour as the walls and I didn’t see it at first thanks to how dark it was in there bu- wait… where’s Boombox?”
The two of them would pause for a moment before instantly rushing out of the room to search for their friend, and they did find Boombox eventually, just… not alive.
Once they had found his body, Skateboard would end up crying while hugging Coil for some sort of grounding, while Coil himself would be fighting back tears while trying to console both Skateboard and himself…

Meanwhile, Katana and Hyperlaser would be off investigating together, roaming the halls of the mansion while looking for anything that could help with the investigation. While searching, they noticed that a section of the wall along one of the shorter corridors was painted in a slightly different colour than the rest of the interior, which prompted the both of them to try and get a better look at it.
“This doesn’t… look like a normal-”
The wall would suddenly do a 180 and rotate the moment Hyperlaser put a small amount of pressure on, effectively separating the both of them from each other.
He would look around the new hallway that the rotating wall had left him in. There wasn’t much setting it aside from the rest of the mansion other than even more paintings and display shelves housing glass sculptures and awards. Hyperlaser would try to stand up and look around, but in the process of exploring this new section of the mansion, he would accidentally knock over a glass figurine of an axolotl, where it shattered on impact with the ground.
On the other side of the wall, Katana was trying to figure out how it worked to try and get Hyperlaser back from the other side, only to end up accidentally walking into Scythe’s path as she was passing by as well. The two of them would stare at each other in silence.
“...’been a while.”
“...far too long.”
They would linger for a while before walking off in separate directions.

This killer really did know what they were doing. Lack of any usable evidence, being careful not to leave fingerprints and also was able to avoid all the cameras surrounding the mansion? If Ban Hammer could manage to get his hands on just one piece of workable evidence in this mansion, he could very well start narrowing down his options on who to arrest the moment the doors unlocked at sunrise. Which psychopath even managed to set up that pistol trap and rig the lights in the first place without getting caught by security immediately? Surely the security team involved with the Flipside weren’t slacking off that much, right? He was about to give up and instead try searching outside the mansion when he noticed a shadow holding an axe at the end of one of the corridors. Ban Hammer would watch the shadow’s actions for a moment, trying to wait for the murderer to be off guard before he would lunge at whoever was around the corner in an attempt to catch them red-handed for carrying a weapon around.
He would manage to tackle whoever that was and knock the axe out of their hands, holding the alleged murderer in a deadlock.
“I knew it was you all along you-”
“That axe was for self-defence you empty-headed-”
"Self defence? You could easily hurt someone with how sharp that axe was!"
"Oh please, your stupidity is far more dangerous than anything I'd be able to do to anyone in this mansion!!"
“What if I asked your previous colleagues to prove your innocence then, maybe I’ll ask Medkit?”
“You really see the need to involve that traitor just to confirm my innocence? Please! Given how unstable he is right now, I even doubt that he’ll be able to give you a coherent answer!!”
“Don’t test my patience-”
This argument would continue until the both of them had reached the stairwell, and after one last hard and long glare at each other, Ban Hammer would leave to go search the second floor but not without dropping a barely audible “momma, please save us all”, leaving Subspace on his own, where he then quickly left to try and patrol the top floor to try and catch the real killer on his own, silently cursing about how he might need to go back later to get that axe back again.

He didn’t even know how far he had run, or which part of the mansion he was in, but once he had exhausted himself fully, Medkit’s only goal at this point was just to find some area he could be on his own for the night, which he was able to quickly find in the form of a small supply closet in a more deserted corner of the mansion.
He would barge into the closet without thinking anymore, shut and lock the door behind him, used anything he could find to barricade the door, which was only just one blue umbrella propped up such that it would jam the handle, but hey, better than nothing, and stand there in the room staring off into space for a moment, feeling non existent gazes judging him in the darkness. Everything felt like too much was happening in such a short amount of time. It hadn’t even been a full hour and somehow, the two people he trusted were both already dead.
He would end up slowly sitting down on the floor of the supply closet. Somehow, he felt everything and nothing at once.
Unable to hold it back any longer, he would finally let himself freely but silently cry over the deaths of both his brother and his friend.

“...how long has it even been…”
The minutes in the bedroom felt as hours as the three Thieves' Denizens were idling and waiting for time to pass. Slingshot would be the first person to try and stand up to stretch a little, when he noticed something on a dresser on the other side of the room. When he walked over to get a better look, he realised that it was a working flip phone.
“Hey- wait, the phone is picking up on some signals!”
Vine Staff and Shuriken would look at the screen of the phone, which was a flip phone with a number pad from 1-9 and had letters from the alphabet in groups of three on each number except 1, with the home screen showing the phone number which was 2695464-2255.
“This might- no, is our way out!”
“If we go upstairs, we might be able to get a strong enough signal to call for help!”
“Wait- are we sure this is even safe?”
“It should be alright? We have each other-”
“Yes, but, remember what happened earlier?”
“...look, can we just- try to call for help without instantly assuming the worst is going to happen?”
After a few moments, the three of them would slowly sneak out of the bedroom to go and call for help.

But right after they had climbed the stairs to the third floor, by some cruel twist of fate, a rotating wall would end up separating the group, trapping both Vine Staff and Shuriken and causing the both of them to get trapped in a separate room from Slingshot, which of course, led to him panicking.

In that state of panic, he failed to react in time to someone approaching him from behind. The killer threw a plastic bag over his head before fitting the fart spray inside and just starting spraying it into the bag. With how much spray there was in the bag, as well as the foul odour, it would only serve to fuel his state of panic, and finally, he ended up dying due to the lack of oxygen.

The killer would then quickly dispose of the body by just throwing him out a nearby window, along with the spray bottle and pocket the phone before leaving. 

Yep. This might very well be the most unserious murder method in the whole book, but what can I say? At least it got the job done, which concludes the fourth chapter with Slingshot dying thanks to fart spray of all things.
—
Breakdown:
"Tiny and stinky"- referring to the bottle of fart spray. its small and easy to hide/discard and also is stinky (as expected)
"Choked on horrendousness and went in a nix"- direct reference to how Slingshot got choked/suffocated, which was how he died.
—
The Irony of the Death:
Slingshot is a cafe boss who has a low tolerance for nonsense and is used to baking, so the idea of him dying to something commonly used in pranks and smelling very bad (180 in terms to the smell of something in the oven which is what he's used to), is where the irony comes into play. Also he's a cat, and cats are known for being highly sensitive to smells.
—
Hints from previous chapter:
-One of the paintings in a hallway had its eyes aimed at Slingshot as he was walking past with Shuriken and Vine Staff to go hide.
-The marking that Subspace runs past is described to look like a blue dot (referring to Slingshot's light blue horns) in a cloud (the fart spray)
-In the previous chapter, Slingshot states that “if I don’t make it out of this alive, promise me you two will take care of the cafe for me”, and guess who died in this chapter?
—
Red Herrings from previous chapter:
-An unseen figure Ban Hammer didn’t catch (later shown to just be Subspace) dragging an axe around is a red herring as the axe is never used in this chapter
-The scarf Medkit spotted while with Scythe was also a red herring.

Chapter Text

By the time Shuriken was able to break both him and Vine Staff out from that secret room the rotating wall trapped them in, it was already too late. They had heard everything from inside that tiny room and knew what happened.
The both of them would desperately be calling out in hopes of hearing Slingshot respond to them, despite knowing full well that the possibility he didn’t survive the encounter with the killer was real and also the most realistic outcome.
Their worst fear was confirmed after they looked outside the window the body was thrown out of and saw their youngest brother dead. The phone was also nowhere to be found, which meant that the killer must have either destroyed it or taken the phone with them, which meant that the plan to call for help could no longer be followed through with. The both of them would end up hugging each other while crying freely over Slingshot’s death, Vine Staff attempting to pat Shuriken on the back to comfort him despite her own anguish while Shuriken was silently making choked remarks that there was no way Slingshot was dead, but really, the both of them knew he was long gone…

“...still can’t believe Boombox’s dead.”
Skateboard and Coil would be off exploring, or more like roaming, around the mansion aimlessly now. With Boombox dead, the both of them didn’t exactly feel like investigating anymore, but they didn’t want to hide the night out as well, which lead to the both of them just walking around different parts of the mansion with no particular goal other than to just survive the night and make it out alive.
“Look, if we find out who this killer is, I’m making sure I’m going Beast Mode and beating them up the moment we get outta here.”
Coil partially expected Skateboard to follow up with his usual “I did NOT just hear you call it ‘Beast Mode’”, but wasn’t exactly surprised when Skateboard didn’t respond to his comment at all, rather he would just silently continue walking alongside Coil as he said that.
“...in all seriousness of the current situation we’re in, I’m honestly just as shaken up as you are about Boombox, Skate. I mean, we were all close to each other, and for Boombox to just die like that, it was a sudd-”
He held his arm out to block Skateboard from walking straight into a tripwire rigged across the room that he spotted, which was most likely linked to some sort of trap that would have killed them both if they hadn’t seen it and walked into it. They couldn’t see any other mechanisms that were linked to the tripwire, which only added to the sense of fear in the room.
“...I don’t think we should be lingering around here anymore-”
The sound of something breaking in the distance would startle the both of them, and with a quick glance at each other, the both of them would instantly turn around and run as fast as they could to try and get away from whatever or whoever caused that noise, and as the two of them fled, they would run past a coat stand with a farming hat hung onto it while trying to get to safety.

In another section of the mansion, Scythe would be looking around for a particular inphernal. She wasn’t looking forward to working with him thanks to his attitude, but if she wanted her plan to work, then his skillset would be just the thing she needed. Luckily for her, it didn’t take too long for her to eventually find who she was looking for.
“Bingo…” she would slowly approach him from behind, feigning not knowing who he was, despite knowing exactly what she was here for.
“Say... Do I know ya from somewhere?"
"Of course! Who hasn't heard of me?? For I am the genius Subspace T. Mine!"
"Hm... Ya certainly do live up to the description he gave me… But, I do have a proposal for ya. With all those little robots yer makin’, I don’t suppose ya could build me an escape beacon?”
“HAH! You really think Blackrock’s Greatest would just take orders from someone like that? I-”
“Say another word and I’ll gut ya. What would ya do, run back to yer little robots and cry?"
"I-I refuse to answer such a stupid question!!"
“Really now, so why doncha-”
Subspace would end up leaving the room, slowly backing away from Scythe before quickly running out the nearest door before Scythe could finish.
“...buzzkill.”
Thankfully, it didn’t take long for her to find someone new she could potentially ally with for the night. Even if they were enemies, everyone wanted to survive at the end of the day. Surely, even the great Warden of the Banlands wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to get out, right?
"Evenin', Banny."
"Quit calling me that!"
"Slip of the tongue, Hehe. But, I do have a proposal for ya. Whadda’ ya say we team up and try to build ourselves an escape beacon? I would’ve had ‘Kit do it for us but he fled like a startled animal on me and that fool from Blackrock declined my offer…”
“...Fine. But don’t think this truce is saving you from the law.”
"Knew ya would take the offer. Y'know, for how much of a meathead ya are, ya do seem to prove as a rather useful ally at times."
"...Whatever. The second that this is over you and I are going to have a long chat behind bars."
"Hah! In yer dreams..."

He doesn’t know how much time has passed.
Every second in that closet feels like an eternity to wait. A single sob escapes him as he slowly tries to look around the room. There's no light source in the room other than the gap between the door and the floor, where only a small amount of moonlight was shining through. The supply closet was mostly empty other than a cardboard box with an empty glass milk bottle sitting on top of the box, with its barcode reading 22-09-14-05. There’s nothing else besides that.  
He doesn't have the energy to search through the box. Hell, it could be a trap for all he knows.
He would slowly sit up from the floor. There was a notable small puddle of tears on the floor for where he effectively cried himself tired and if anything, he just feels like falling asleep now and sleeping till sunrise.
But he knows his paranoia won’t let him even if he tried. Even though he’s tired and sleepy now he knows that even if he tried to get as comfortable as he could in these circumstances, he could end up being the next victim if the killer barged into him just resting and unable to defend himself.
The best he can do for now is just to close his eyes and try to rest a little. And try not to doze off in the process.

After a good amount of trying to figure out how the rotating wall was activated the first time, Katana would eventually manage to trigger the mechanism again, hoping to at least meet up with Hyperlaser afterwards so they could continue trying to investigate, only to be greeted by the sight of broken glass on the floor which was definitely not a good sign and some footprints in the carpet that must have been his acquaintance’s. Following the trail while constantly checking around for any signs of danger, Katana would eventually find an intersection in the hallways where three hallways met in a single room overlooking the pool in the back of the house via a large glass window which had a fishbowl next to it. The room itself was mostly normal, except that the window was broken and upon further inspection, the pool’s cover had closed itself and the boiler was on fire with a bowling ball next to it.

As earlier, Hyperlaser would have ended up in the same room, but when he was trying to explore on his own and hopefully find out how to meet up with Katana, he didn’t see a tripwire rigged across the room, where he accidentally walked into it, setting off a trap which involved a bowling ball that was set up such that by the time it made impact with whoever was in its path, it would cause them to be knocked off balance and fall out the already broken window (which for some reason wasn’t fixed beforehand to the guests arriving) and into the pool. That was the exact thing that happened to Hyperlaser, falling out the window and into the pool, and the bowling ball itself ended up falling onto the boiler, damaging it and causing a small fire to start, which caused the pool cover to start closing.

And by the time Hyperlaser was finally able to find the surface, the cover had closed fully, sealing his fate as he slowly lost consciousness and drowned to his death in the pool.

Into the single digits… the correct guess for this chapter’s death was Hyperlaser with the bowling ball indirectly killing him.
—
Breakdown:

"The pain of the element"- Referring to both the incident that caused the burn scars (fire-based) and also the pool water (chlorine water which would definitely be uncomfortable for an axolotl)  
"from a big height"- links back to how it involved being flung out a window
"went under with an unlucky strike"- "went under" ties in the death via drowning and "strike" is a common bowling term which refers to the bowling ball being the weapon used.
—
The Irony of the Death:
Hyperlaser is a burn scar survivor where the incident in the past that left him with burn scars all over his body which also caused him to go legally blind and permanent damage to his gills despite being an axolotl (where both his gills and some parts of his eyes would regenerate under normal circumstances) + The fact that he's the only amphibian-based member of the roster who dies to DROWNING off all things adds a double irony to the situation.  
—
Hints from the previous chapter:
-The glass axolotl breaking is foreshadowing. Hyperlaser is represented by an axolotl as stated in the admin page.
-The umbrella Medkit uses to prop against the door is blue, and with both Rocket and Slingshot dead, Hyperlaser is the only remaining character who has blue as one of the colours primarily used in his design.
-Slingshot's phone number (2695464-2255), which if translated through a number pad correctly, would give 226669555444664-222555555 as the full length version, which spells out BOWLING-BALL

Red Herrings from the previous chapter:

No intentional red herrings from the previous chapter.

Chapter Text

He would stand there, almost like he was in a daze, gaze slowly alternating between the broken window and the tripwire on the floor. Katana didn’t know exactly what he was feeling now. Just minutes ago he and Hyperlaser were off investigating together and now he’s dead.
“Another time” would never arrive. He was never going to hear about that dear kitty, go out for some tea, or visit Blackrock with Hyperlaser.
He would stare at a broken glass plate near a small cabinet, looking at the shards and the way they reflected the moonlight off of them, before finally walking off silently into one of the hallways.
Guess he has one more person to avenge now.
What he didn’t see was a hand slowly reaching out to grab one of the shards of the broken plate, an incarnadine light reflecting off the shards of the plate amongst other colours, all refracting thanks to the almost crystal-like way the plate was crafted.

“...’m starting to think that we should be hiding the night out instead of walking around like this.”
“Yeah, I mean, if this place didn’t already give me the creeps with how scary this place looks at night, people dying too? It’s just- I don’t know…”
“Is this related to, uh, Boombox…”
“...I guess so-”
Coil didn’t need to hear anymore. He would immediately pull Skateboard into a tight hug in an effort to console him further about Boombox’s death. He knew full well that this wouldn’t be able to rid all the pain the both of them felt about their friend dying but it was genuinely better than nothing. He would feel Skateboard jump a little at the sudden gesture, before he hugged him back even tighter.
“...thanks man, I really needed that…”
“Hey, it’s not a big deal. As much as we needa focus and try to survive, it’s alright to feel sad about what happened. And if it helps, we still have each other to survive. Hang in there not just for ourselves but for him as well, okay?”
The both of them would stay like that for a little while before deciding to take a small break from their wandering, sitting down on a dusty-green coloured couch and continuing to talk.

Another two Inphernals would be searching for supplies elsewhere in the mansion attempting to create a makeshift beacon they could use to signal for help. With the two of them teaming up, you would assume they were actually working together instead of bickering the whole time, right?
Their team up did not stop the bickering at all.
If they weren’t miserably failing at finding supplies they could use, then they would be arguing with each other.
"Oh~ What's Banny doin' this time?"
Ban Hammer would be looking at a few scattered feathers on a table behind the two of them.
"Ya' really should pay attention to our objective, ya know?"
"I'll save you all by finding the murderer right now! Much more useful than building an escape beacon!"
"...It seems that the Warden only ever does pointless things-"
“You! Wait til' my momma hears about this... I'll have you-"
"How frightening~!" it’s as if ya haven’t already said this before… Well, ya ain't gonna be findin' anythin' with that big head of yers'!”
"You-"
Ban Hammer would eventually just drop the argument entirely. With the death count rising the more time they wasted, the best option he really had now was to just keep an eye on Scythe and just try to build that beacon. All his previous attempts at gathering evidence proved to be useless and they couldn’t call for help so maybe this really was the only way everyone could survive the night via getting rescued.
The bickering would finally stop as the two of them walked in silence, planning to try and search some of the more quiet and secluded areas of the mansion, only for the silence to be broken by a single remark from Scythe:
“...this is why I wanted ‘Kit to do it for me…”

With the encounter he had just had, it was no surprise Subspace was even more terrified now.
The Inpherno’s most wanted criminal walking up to him and trying to team up with him via building an escape beacon? If anything, that was most likely a trap to isolate him and kill him off while no one was looking.
Complaining to himself whilst heading back downstairs to try and retrieve the axe he had previously, he would navigate back to the room it was in before he lost it, only to realise that it was gone. After a bit of searching through any potential spots it could be hiding in, he would eventually find it in a cabinet, which was weird since he initially had just left it on the ground when he first let go of it. Did the killer pass through this room recently?
He didn’t have the time to think about it when he heard footsteps in the distance, and fled the room in fear of dying. He may have had his axe and his plan to catch the killer on his own… but not this time. Not when the mansion seemed to be getting quieter and quieter.

…just hang in there. You’ll get out of this just fine. And if you don’t? At least you’ll be “reunited” with them, right?
That was what Medkit tried to tell himself over and over again in an attempt to form some kind of rational or at least half-rational thought in his head. He genuinely felt sick and nauseous and wanted to do nothing more than curl up and try not to go insane while waiting for sunrise to come and save him from this hellhole. The tears on the floor had dried with how much time had passed, and the longer he stayed in the supply closet, the safer yet more dangerous it felt inside it. It was the only space largely untouched in the mansion and was tucked away in a quieter corner which meant that the killer would most likely miss his hiding spot, but at the same time, it was almost suspiciously quiet which would be a nice place to set up some sort of trap to kill off someone… but if it was a trap, then surely he’d be dead by now?
At least waiting it out was safer than running around outside with a murderer on loose.

Speaking of running around, that’s what Vine Staff and Shuriken were doing. Having directly seen the aftermath of Slingshot’s death, they knew the only safe option was to just hide somewhere and hope the killer wouldn’t find them. The phone was also gone, so they effectively had no more methods they could use to call for help.

As they were rushing through one of the corridors, they would end up setting off another trap thanks to not noticing a tripwire rigged up across the hallway. The trap itself consisted of a farming hoe angled such that it would fall sharp edge down onto anyone who walked past and hit them on the head, which would leave them with injuries severe enough to be fatal, and unfortunately, the one who just so happened to be in the fall path of the hoe was Vine Staff.

Shuriken would instantly kneel down next to his dying sister, trying to help prop her up against the wall so she could try to lean onto it after she had tried to stand up and immediately collapsed after the initial impact thanks to the disorientation and dizziness caused by the wounds. She was still alive, but it was very clear she wasn’t going to make it to sunrise.

“...sis- I can’t do this, not without you and Sling- I can’t live without you two!”
He would be fighting back his own tears in an attempt to stay strong in front of his sister, only to notice Vine Staff was also on the verge of crying, knowing that her death was inevitable, and in a last bid to comfort her brother, she would gently reach out to hug him one last time.

“Shuri… please, before I go, just remember I love you.”

With that, she finally slipped under, right there in Shuriken’s arms, completely saddening him as he held onto her and burst into tears, crying for his newly dead sister.

How sad, but on the bright side, at least it’s over for this chapter with Vine Staff dying to the farming hoe.
——
Breakdown:
“A great big heart”- referring to Vine Staff’s personality
“Long standing love”- foreshadowing her long ties with Slingshot and Shuriken as the three of them are siblings.
“Felt sharpness take them from above”- the hoe was purposely sharpened and it fell from above onto her which is a direct reference to her death.
——
The Irony of the Death:
Vine Staff is known for enjoying gardening and she died to a tool that is very commonly used in gardening/farming.
——
Hints from previous chapter:
-The farming hat that was left on a coat stand represents both her (love for gardening/farming) and also the weapon used. It was a FARMING hoe that killed her and that was a FARMING hat.
-The barcode on the Milk Bottle in the previous chapter when translated (1=A, 2=B, etc), spell out “Vine”
-The bowling ball trap had a fishbowl next to it, and there are only two members of the cast represented by fishes being Rocket and Vine Staff, but with Rocket already dead, that leaves Vine Staff as the only remaining fish.
——
Red Herrings from previous chapter:
-The Milk Bottle, despite being mentioned and containing one of the clues, is not used as the weapon in this chapter.

Chapter Text

He would be sitting on the floor of the supply closet, partially trying to stay alert for any signs of danger while also closing his eyes in an attempt to rest a little at the same time.
Just as Medkit was about to finally fall asleep, the sound of footsteps approaching would scare him fully awake. He would look around the room for anything he could potentially use for cover or hiding if it was the murderer who was about to kill him off, but would end up hiding behind that single cardboard box, curling up behind it in an attempt to hide from whoever was about to find him and closing his eyes to try and block out anything. Pretend he was asleep or anything that would work to spare him a few more seconds-
The door of the supply closet would be kicked down in one swift motion.
The thing was, he probably could have managed to stay hidden if it weren’t for how hard he flinched when the door got kicked open, immediately curling up on the floor and praying that whoever did that didn’t manage to get a glimpse of him.
“‘Kit? Ya know I saw ya flinchin’ like a startled deer!”
He wouldn't respond to Scythe’s remark, choosing to stay hidden while trying to control himself with how much he was panicking at the moment.
“...’Kit. I know yer there.”
He would stay as still as possible as he heard his boss slowly begin to walk to where he was curled up, ignoring the feeling of non-existent gazes staring him down. She’s standing right next to where he’s hiding-
“I’m warnin’ ya one last time. You come out of where yer hidin’ or when we get outta this mansion in the mornin’, I’m makin’ sure I put ya horns on my wall.”
That was what caused him to finally stand up and follow her out as she explained what had been happening for the past few hours while he was in the supply closet and what their current plan was, with Medkit staying next to Scythe while Ban Hammer was leading them to another area of the mansion to search around, only for the doctor to look behind him as he swore someone was watching him, but the only thing in the hallway was a single painting which for some reason, seemed to be eyeing him.
As he was standing there trying to figure out whether he was actually being followed or if it was just his paranoia acting up again, he would feel Scythe tug on his sleeve and an either judgemental or sympathetic glance from Ban Hammer, which led to him just ignoring it and moving with the rest of the group.

It took a little while for him to calm down, but Subspace would eventually be off roaming the halls of the mansion once again… only to get distracted by a painting on one of the walls inside a bedroom.
The painting itself depicted an Inphernal from Lost Temple slumped over a table, shot in the head and bleeding out all over a table mid card game, and in their hand, were five cards. Two of which were Aces, two were eights and the fifth card was face down, with a drop of the dead Inphernal’s blood staining the back of the card. He took a while longer to admire the artwork before finally deciding to leave the room, but on his way out, would accidentally knock a hunting rifle off a mount on the wall… and also leave the axe in the room by pure accident as well.

Skateboard and Coil would still be in that room, their planned “short break” had managed to become a full conversation and both of them were that engrossed in it that they had fully forgotten about the fact they were supposed to be searching for anything that would be useful now.
"...Hey, you remember that time I pranked you in Craterdust?"
"Come on man, you do it too much, which one are you talkin' 'bout?"
”The one with the uhh- The gum! Spearmint gum!"
"Oh, you-"
"You should've seen your face! 'Oh it's- Why is it so minty?!’-”
"Hey, cut me some slack! I was expecting somethin' sweet, who knew it would've been so... Spicy!"
"Ah yeah, that one... Though I won't say it'll ever be as good as spearmint gum!"
"Oh, shut up dude!"
The two of them would continue their banter, feeling safe again for the first time since the death of their friend.

Shuriken was on his way down to the basement of the house, fully planning on killing the murderer on his own. If Slingshot’s death wasn’t enough, he had just seen Vine Staff die right in front of him, and now all he wanted was revenge. He had found a letter earlier from someone addressed to him, telling him to meet them in the cellar of the mansion which was in the basement, where the person who wrote the letter would give him information on who the killer was as, written in the letter, they had managed to figure out who it was. He knew it could be a trap, but with his current state of mind having seen both his siblings die, he was more desperate for answers above anything. And besides, if it really was a trap, his vigilante skills would probably let him survive the encounter.

On his way to the cellar, he would end up walking past Katana, who asked him where he was going out of concern, given how Shuriken looked at the moment but was met with silence from the younger Inphernal as he silently walked past Katana without giving him any of the usual tired-yet-cheerful banter he usually did when they were in the Phights.

He made his way towards the cellar door, walking past some other storage rooms and as he entered, he noticed how dark it was there before hearing a voice, but he couldn’t pinpoint whose it was. It didn't sound like anyone he knew from the tournaments who was invited to the mansion.

“Shut the door.” As he closed the door behind him, the voice would continue. “Did anyone see you come down here?”

“I passed by someone,” he would whisper back, “but I didn’t bother to hold a conversation wi-”

A stick with a sharpened piece of a broken plate attached to it would suddenly shoot out of the darkness and pierce Shuriken in the throat.

“IT’S YOU-” were his final words as he stared the killer in the eyes one last time before he died right then and there.

Well, at least he’s with his siblings now… right? The correct answer for this chapter was Shuriken, with the weapon being (part of) a glass plate.

——

Breakdown:

“Silly and sweet”- referring to his personality around his siblings
“With a face they called ‘mine’”- this is meant to be a way of showing his love to his siblings as quoted from the wiki, ‘sentimental inphernal who cares more about his family than he does about himself’
“Got clumsy”- referencing how he died due to letting his guard down
“Had a bad dine”- Dine is meant to imply dining, and how did he die? That's right! To a glass plate.
——
The Irony of the Death:

Aside from Cafe Work, Shuriken also works as a vigilante, so his vigilante skills, coupled with the impact of watching both his siblings dying, ended up failing him when they were needed the most.
—
Hints:
-In the previous chapter, the sofa is described to be “dusty lime green”, the colour lime green is Shuriken’s (at least, Silver Shadow’s) iconic colour.
-A broken GLASS PLATE is mentioned, where after Katana left the room, a hand was described to quickly take one of the shards.
-As Vine Staff was dying, Shuriken mentioned “not being able to live without her and Slingshot”. Guess who dies right after?
——
Red Herrings:
-red feathers are described to be scattered around one of the rooms, being a red herring to make people think that Katana (the last alive Avian) would somehow be involved in the next death.

Chapter Text

After the laughter had finally died down, the two Playgrounders would eventually get back to exploring and trying to find anything they could potentially use to either investigate or escape. As they were both searching through a few rooms and hallways together, they would eventually run into someone else who was also roaming around the mansion.
Skateboard would be running around when the sound of him running into something was heard.
"Ouch!-”
"Hey! Who dares to mess with-“
He would spot Katana standing there next to Skateboard.
“...My apologies."
Skateboard would look at Coil, and back at Katana who was watching some shadows on the wall dancing around, with initial skepticism but would notice that Coil was relatively calm. There's a mutual agreement between the two that Katana seems to be passive towards them.
"It's alright man, I kinda rushed into ya anyways."
"I do not mind."
"Excuse my friend here, he's a little too clumsy for his own good!"
"Hey, shut up dude! At least it's not as bad as the time we were on that rescue mission, you couldn't figure out the directions of that map I gave you!"
"That was like, so long ago, I've changed since then!"
“...wait, speaking of that, I remember seeing a map of the mansion when we first arrived and it mentioned an emergency beacon in one of the rooms! We just gotta use that, let the cops show up and we’ll all be safe!”
And with that, the two of them would run off to try and find where the beacon was, leaving Katana alone again.

Between the three of them, they had agreed to try and split up to cover more ground and find resources faster. With Scythe and Medkit searching in another area, Ban Hammer would be on his own searching the basement of the mansion since that was usually where larger storage areas were which would hold more resources that they could use for the makeshift beacon. He was correct about that as he would eventually find the mansion’s main storage room immediately upon arriving.
The room itself was just an average storage area, with extra furniture and boxes of awards, paintings and photos left against the walls or scattered haphazardly on the floor, with some other boxes of supplies or refills for some appliances having their contents strewn around. Just as he was about to start searching through the piles of objects when the door of the storage room would slam shut behind him, throwing the entire room into darkness. When he tried to open the door, it refused to budge no matter how hard he tried to push on the door or the handle. Heck the handle ended breaking with how much force Ban Hammer was using. The door had most likely been tampered with in advance to set this up.
Panic would eventually settle in, and he would start banging on the doors in an attempt to try and get the attention of anyone who happened to pass by or hear him.
Fortunately for him, someone managed to hear him.
“Wh- Is someone in there?”
“On the Swords- Yes? Can’t you tell?”
“No need to snap back at Blackrock’s Greatest like that! How did you even end up in there?”
“Well I tried looking for supplies and the door just shut on me. Tried to open it on my own but it’s jammed shut!”
“I’ll try to get you out- just-”
Subspace would just start using anything he could find near the storage room door. He wasn’t exactly doing this because he genuinely felt like helping Ban Hammer, but rather, this was just so he didn’t get suspicions placed on him for refusing to help someone, let alone the Warden of the Banlands himself, plus if anyone tried to put the blame on him, at least he would have Ban Hammer as his alibi.
After exhausting all his options, being a screwdriver he used to try to pry at anything from the small gap between the door and the wall, a pair of scissors and a pickaxe on a display case, he would remember the axe he left in the room with the painting he was admiring.
“Nothing’s working… But, I do have an axe I left in another room! I’ll go get it!!”
“Good idea! But hurry, damn it! I don’t know how long more ‘till any traps in here get set off!”
With that, the Blackrockian would run off to go get the axe back again while the demi-deity would sit on the floor of the storage cabinet, only to accidentally knock over a bottle of half-used liquid laundry detergent 

With the other two Inphernals who were also helping with the makeshift beacon, they weren’t having much luck either. They were off searching another area of the mansion, and weren’t able to find anything remotely useful for the makeshift beacon, coupled with Scythe needing to (literally) drag Medkit around just to get him to focus on the task at hand.
“Honestly ‘Kit, I’m surprised ya even chose to follow along in the first place.”
“...”
“With how ya were actin’ back there I thought ya were gonna bolt on me again, hehe~”
He would just trail along with his boss out of pure fear. Sure, he knew there was the risk that Scythe was the one behind the killings but being with someone he was at least familiar with above running around on his own with no way of protecting himself.
“...about that beacon. Do we have any ways we could rewire things if needed? If all else fails, I might have to use that blowtorch I saw while I was in that cabinet.”
“Sounds like a plan-”

She was mid-sentence when a rotating wall was activated, separating the both of them and leaving them in different hallways, and since the wall was mechanically activated, no amount of pushing or shoving would get it to work.

“...Rifle?”

The sudden isolation would only add on to Medkit’s already extreme paranoia about the situation. He swore someone was watching him which was only proven when he heard someone else breathing in that corridor he was in which was also slowly getting closer. Feeling the weight of both the many gazes staring down on him and also from the threat of being followed, he just fled wherever the corridor would take him, where it eventually reached a dead end with a single small room at the end of the hallway.

Entering that room was ultimately a big mistake as the killer was silently following him the whole time, and just when he felt safe for a second, was tackled from behind and against the wall, only to look and freeze up upon seeing the killer holding a spear, who was pretty much ready to impale him with that thing at any moment. Despite wanting to fight back, his body refused to respond to anything he was trying to do.

“I knew it was you.”

And with that, the murderer would take their kill, plunging the spear straight into his heart before turning around and walking away, all while staring at the dying doctor as he uttered his final words:

“You’ll pay for Sword’s murder.”

You either expected that or you didn’t. Anyways, that's the end of Chapter 8 with Medkit’s death being caused due to the spear.
——
Breakdown:

“The thrill of the hunt”- points towards a hunting weapon being used, so either the hunting rifle or the spear.
“Blood upon their fur”- narrows the range down to a mammalian-based character who died
“Pain to endure”- both referring to the physical pain of being impaled, but also the psychological pain of everything that happened.
——
Irony of the Death:

Medkit is a deer as stated in the admin page. Deer are iconic for being hunted and for their skittishness, and his paranoia was what was leveraged on to lead him to his death where the killer used a hunting weapon.
——
Hints:
-In the previous chapter when Scythe runs into Medkit, she threatens she would have “his horns on a wall” when they got out. Mounting deer antlers is a common way to celebrate a successful hunt.
-While in the hallway, the eyes on one of the paintings was following/staring at Medkit
-Skateboard and Coil’s conversation is about SPEARmint gum
-The painting Subspace was looking at has an Inphernal from Lost Temple dead, foreshadowing the Faction the next victim was from.
——

Red Herrings:

-The hunting rifle being knocked off a wall mount is a red herring. 
-The painting counts as well, because although it foreshadowed the faction the next victim was from, it also mislead you on HOW the next victim would die.

Chapter Text

“Do you remember where the beacon was on the map?”
“I think so? I remember seeing it on either the first or third floor-”
“We’ve searched the entire first floor, must be on the third floor then… but thinking about it, if it was on the third floor, wouldn’t all the people who went up there previously already have used the beacon right after the first murder?”
“True… but- hey, who knows? Could’ve been the killer who was there, which would be why we’re all still here.”
“...Skate. Are you sure you didn’t remember the map layout wrongly?”
“Hey- I swear I saw it on either of those two floors! But, if we’re really this lost, it might be worth it to go back to the mansion doors to check the map again.”
And with that, the two of them would just look at each other, shrug, then around to head back to the main entrance, walking through a doorframe that was painted red, white and blue.

Meanwhile with Katana, he had gotten back to investigating on his own after the initial run-in with Skateboard and Coil. As of now, he hadn’t been able to find anything useful so far despite the fact he has searched practically every and any room he passed by.
Just as he was about to enter another room, he would see a large patch of blood staining the middle of a white carpet. He couldn’t see who the victim was from his viewpoint, but the sight of that much blood spilled onto the floor and carpet was enough to get him to slowly back off from that room before quickly walking away from the area.
He didn’t know whether or not it was actually blood from someone who had died recently or if it was just a trap involving fake blood and concern, but judging from the pin drop silence, he assumed that whoever that Inphernal was was probably long gone.
And in all honesty, he didn’t want to find out if it was just a trap.
Or how they died, for that matter.

With how long it was taking, he wasn’t surprised if Subspace had straight up left him to die in there. Did walking from one room to another really take that long? Maybe it would, considering how large the mansion was, but shouldn’t he at least be rushing a little? Just as Ban Hammer was fully considering lying down on the floor and just waiting for however long it would take Subspace to arrive with the axe, he saw something shiny in one of the boxes underneath a black flag with crossbones on it and upon getting a better look, realised it was a crowbar.
Now having the materials he needed to break himself out of the storage room, he would jam it between the door and the doorframe and start applying force on the handle, until eventually, the door finally creaked and gave way, opening itself.
“Now to find who set this trap up in the first place…”
He soon left the room after that, tossing the crowbar back onto the floor of the storage room and leaving.

In another section of the mansion, Subspace did manage to find the axe and was heading back to the basement to get Ban Hammer out of the storage room, but as he was heading back, came across a drone that was in working condition… and also had a small GoPro attached to it.
As much as he needed to hurry up and get Ban Hammer out of the basement storage, what if the killer saw the drone and destroyed it?
…Just a minute or two longer would be fine, right?
He would start recording himself with the camera, where he then started his last ditch escape plan.
“Greetings, you may know me as the Blackrockian Head of Department for Robotics, Subspace T. Mine, or you may also recognise me for my participation in the Phighting Tournaments which are hosted by the Flipside, who brought us all here to their mansion and were suddenly shot dead. Now there’s a rampant murderer running around this mansion killing everyone and we don’t have any means to escape. We don’t know exactly who is behind all this, but if this plan works, this drone will fly to the nearest Police Station from our current location. I’m currently in the middle of getting an axe to get your Warden out of a locked basement storage room, so, I’ll end my message here.”
He was about to stop the recording before adding on one last thing:
“Please send any sort of help you can!!”
And with that, he took both the drone and the axe with him, heading back on track to get Ban Hammer where after rescuing him, he could then send out the drone to get help.

Scythe was just as disorientated as her co-worker when the rotating wall separated the both of them, where she was now exploring the new area the wall left her in and trying to find any passage ways that would lead her to re-group with Medkit.
As she was making her way around, the ground would suddenly give way under her as a trapdoor was activated, and by the time she realised what happened, she found herself in the fireplace of the mansion, thankfully with no active fire, but still. It was large enough for her to stand comfortably but was still a claustrophobic space and the front had also been blocked off by some large and heavy object, and the walls were impossible to scale or climb, which she effectively had no way to escape…
…and the killer seemed to be leveraging off that to their advantage, as a single lit match stick was thrown into the fireplace from a small gap meant for maintenance access. 

The first thing she noticed was the layers of creosote.
The second was the smoke and heat. 

The last thing she thought of being the events of the Scorch and just maybe, the memory of someone she loved holding her one last time.

Who was Scythe thinking about for the last time? That’s for you to sit with as this chapter is done with the laundry detergent being an indirect weapon.
——  
Breakdown:
“Much to their name”- Known for being the Most Wanted…
“and a deadly aim”- and also a reference to her job
“Went down in a dancing flame”- she died being trapped in the fireplace + one of her notable hobbies is dancing
—
Irony:

Rattlesnakes are known for living in hot climates (desert) and she dies to a fire. Another one for Scythehook fans as you would know that she had her arm amputated thanks to the Scorch (and also had a very messy lesbian divorce with Grappling Hook due to the Scorch as well) so her dying to a fire also ties into her past.
——
Hints:
-The shadows on the walls are described to be “dancing”, once again a reference to her.
-A bottle of liquid laundry detergent was accidentally spilled in the previous chapter, and it was powdered laundry detergent that was used.
-During the conversation about the makeshift beacon, Medkit mentions being able to use a blowtorch (fire) to solder things together if desperate.
—
Red Herrings:

-none

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 10: 5 TO 4

(Warning: There will be no more clues from this chapter and onwards! All of your guesses will have to be based on the Addendum itself, you have been warned.)

As he finally arrived outside the basement storage room once again, Subspace was only greeted by the sight of the door open and the Warden who was very much not there inside the storage room. Did he manage to break himself out while he was gone? He didn’t even take that long to show up-
Nevermind. Whether Ban Hammer was still alive or not wasn’t his priority anymore. Rather, the drone in his hands was.
As he made his way back up the stairs and to the main doors of the mansion, he would pass by someone else, side-eyeing the Inphernal from Thieves’ Den, before they went their separate ways, with Katana going off to continue investigating and Subspace to release the drone and get help. Thanks to his knowledge, after a bit of fiddling around with the drone’s control panel, he was able to create a set route for the drone to follow such that it would fly to the nearest police station from the mansion via a locator app installed on the drone.
Watching it slowly fly off into the distance, Subspace would head back inside the mansion. The only thing left to do now was to just wait for help to arrive.

“..so it WAS on the first floor!”
Skateboard and Coil were currently looking at a map of the mansion, and to their frustration, the beacon has actually been on the first floor this whole time. They just managed to miss the room it was in since it was in a hidden corner of the level.
“Dude- see I told you that there was a chance we were the ones who missed it!”
“I know, just, nevermind. Let’s just go there now, activate the beacon and get outta here.”
“Nevermind? We could’ve saved so much time if we weren’t running around on the first floor for that long and just bothered to check the map first instead of-”
The two of them would follow the route they had memorised from the map, half bickering and half joking with each other as they made their way over to the room the emergency beacon was in.
“...come on, where is it?”
They would eventually find themselves searching in a small dark room, before they finally caught a glimpse of a big cone-shaped machine with a flashing lightbulb on it. The emergency beacon! The both of them would feel relief for a second before quickly jumping out of the way as a long, blood-covered and thin metal pole with a sharp end came out of the wall, smashing through the bulb of the beacon and destroying it.
“Huh-”
“...What was that?”

They both fled the room to try and find out where the blood was coming from, and when they had finally found the source, nearly fainted.

The Warden of the Banlands himself, pinned to the wall by a flagpole with a flag that had a skull and crossbones in it. 

A rather short chapter this time, but it’s the end, with Ban Hammer dying to a flag(pole) of all things.
—

Breakdown:

“A mystical creature” - Komodo Dragons (the animal representing Ban Hammer as stated in the admin page) are heavily regarded to be the “divine twins” of humans in some cultures and are animals that are heavily used in mythology.
“yet with such poor manners”- Referring to, as quoted by the wiki: “an egotistical and extroverted inphernal who loves showing off his superior abilities to others”
“went down in a star covered banner”- “star covered banner” refers to the American FLAG, which is a clue to the actual weapon being used for his murder.
—
The Irony of the Death:
Ban Hammer is known for being the Warden of the Banlands, and yet he, an authority figure, ends up dying to a symbol of authority, being the flags.
—

Hints from previous chapter:

-The doorframe is red, white and blue, which is a reference to the American FLAG
-“a large patch of blood (red patch) staining the middle of a white carpet” is mentioned in the previous chapter, which is reminiscent to the Japanese FLAG
-In basement storage, a FLAG with skull and crossbones is mentioned, and also it was alongside Ban Hammer which is foreshadowing to how he dies in this chapter.
—

Red Herrings from previous chapter:

-none

Chapter Text

After Ban Hammer’s death, something funny started happening to the drone.

It would suddenly stop mid-air, and a red dot of light would start blinking on the drone, before it quietly flew back in the direction of the mansion. The drone then flew into the mansion through an open window, where it picked up a glass soda bottle left on a table and flew into the hallways.

Skateboard and Coil had just been standing there, having given up on trying to find ways to call for help, and deciding that the only way to stop this madness would be to find and murder the killer themselves, but as they were about to leave, they saw the drone flying towards them with the soda bottle and got nervous…
…Except that the drone flew right past them, ignoring them completely.
“...wha-? But who else could it be going aft-”
“No time- just follow that thing until we figure out what it’s doing!-”
“-It could be a trap!”

As their conversation slowly faded out in the distance, the drone would keep on flying until it found who it was looking for. The drone would sneak up on Katana. Due to the noise from its propellers, he would of course turn around to try and find out where the noise was coming from.

But not before the drone hit him, and with a single, forceful strike, that was all it took to send him collapsing onto the floor, dying almost immediately.

Back with Skateboard and Coil, the two of them would still be in that room, debating whether or not they should follow the drone when knockout gas would start filling the room, and they soon fell to the floor, world going black as they noticed that the knockout gas had a faint hot pink tint to it.

Another short chapter with Katana dying with the soda bottle as a weapon.
—
Breakdown:
“A nightly figure” - Katana, as stated in the admin page, is represented by an owl, which of all the animals of the roster, is purely nocturnal
“distancing from mentos”- we all know what happens when you put mentos in coke dont we
“felt pain fizzing up to a few hundos”- referring to the murder method + the mentos and coke experiment once again.
—
The Irony of the Death:
Actually we were kinda running out of ideas for irony at the time of writing so, uh, i apologise to the katana fans. I'm sorry but I couldn’t think of anything good.
—
Hints from previous chapter:
-none
—
Red Herrings from previous chapter:
-none
—

Now, I know all of you are probably screaming (whether internally or externally), so… I shan’t delay any longer for the last chapter.

Chapter Text

Once Coil woke up again, he would find himself sitting on a chair but his hands were tied to the backrest. The room he was in had no defining features other than a single monitor that was currently showing nothing but black on the screen since it was turned off.

“Greetings, Gravity Coil.” A voice would be heard as footsteps were heard approaching him from behind.

He recognizes that voice.

“You-”
“Are you ready to go over the live feed of another death?”
.

.

.

Skateboard awakened, only to find himself tied to a chair somewhere in the mansion’s garden. He would have tried to assess the situation if it weren’t for the fact that a tree branch fell onto him seconds later, killing him as a chainsaw fell alongside the branch and into the grass.

…and as you saw, Skateboard was indirectly killed by the chainsaw.
—
Breakdown:
“Construction from a tree”- Construction itself should have pointed towards the axe, chainsaw and powersaw, but with the axe left behind, the powersaw confirmed to be a red herring, that leaves the chainsaw as the remaining weapon that fits this part of the line.
“meeting with a flighty friend- Taken from Skateboard’s wiki page: “Though he can be flighty, he values his loved ones more than anything, and will put his life on the line to protect them.”
“a bloody stump was how the twelfth met their end”- quite literally just referencing his death.
—
The Irony of the Death:
Skateboard is confirmed to do humanitatarian work around Craterdust Capital which does involve rescuing others from collapsing buildings, and he dies due to a branch collapsing onto him and falling ruble is a very common way for people to die in collapsed buildings. 
—
Hints from previous chapter:
-none
—
Red Herrings from previous chapter:
-none
—
And with just Subspace and Coil left… I think you know where this is going.

Coil would now be struggling with the ropes. It would be much easier for him if he had his gear, but why did it feel so hard to summon it?

"Oh look at you struggling… Something seems terribly off, doesn't it??"

Coil stays silent, continuing to pull at the ropes binding him.

"Can't summon your gear, huh?"

There was a short silence.

"... What?"

"Haven't you noticed?? Your inability to summon your gear?"

"..."

"Where's your aggressive fire now? Ah right-”

"... How."

"Ah, I am incredibly glad you're asking!"

Subspace giggled a little, before stepping back to reveal the gear suppressor.

"My magnum opus."

"..." 

"Gear suppressors."

"... You... You-"

"Silence, now! Be a good audience, and let me tell my story!!"

And with that, he would begin to- hey- HEY GIVE IT BACK-

Greetings, peasants! I managed to get my hands onto this “note-turned-story”, so I thought that, despite being a ghost, it would be easier to explain my plan to you myself as compared to having someone else doing it for me.

Like I said, this all began when we received the invites to come to the mansion for the dinner party, where thanks to Blackrock’s technology, I was able to get myself into the mansion without being seen the previous night to set everything up. I first set up the bowling ball, farming hoe and pistol traps to prepare for the actual night before moving and repositioning some items here and there to leverage on the way people would react to them in different situations and rigged the entire house up to a system of gear suppressors to stop everyone from using their Gears.
On the night of the dinner party, I enacted my plan by intentionally arriving earlier to set the pistol and egg timer trap off and quickly slipped back into the living room with the rest of the Phighters without being detected, where as planned, would go on to kill both Valk and Dom.

Now, I had always intended for that Traitor’s brother to die first, but with him leaving to call for help, I had to improvise. So as the three of them climbed the stairs to reach the balcony, I silently stole the flashlight from them, and since I was the one who had initially left it there when setting up, knew it was bright enough to temporarily blind someone and so I did exactly that to get rid of the sparrow.

You may remember that after we found his body, I accused Rocket of being the murderer when he found the powersaw I had left there on purpose. That was purely to cause distrust amongst the rest, and I knew dear old Meddy would be busy crying for his brother, which gave me the perfect set-up to make everyone break off in smaller groups or on their own, which would make it much easier for me to slowly pick off everyone… with Rocket being next. I set up the laptop to show an overview of Sword’s body which I knew would distract him for enough time for me to push him out the window without the chance of being met with resistance.

After that, I “found” the axe I intended to use to kill Boombox and went to go find him, but since I needed to use the axe under the guise of “self defence”, I had to improvise and ended up grabbing a feather duster that had been left behind to finish the job off, which worked.

I then went back to minding my own business when the Warden chose to be an annoyance, so I had to sidetrack from my original plans a little to avoid being caught, but when I noticed those Thieves' Denizens had found a way to call for help, I was forced to improvise once again, and my improvisations worked for the second time that night.

As for the traps, they had done their jobs nicely, getting rid of my mercenary and another one of the Denizens. As for the last one in their trio, I wrote the letter to him and left it in an obvious spot so that he would come down to the cellar where I could easily kill him.

Finally, it was time to carry out the part of the plan I was the most excited about. Once he and his boss were in the correct section of the mansion, I used the rotating wall to leave the Traitor on his own where I got my enjoyment at watching him flee from me in the corridor like some prey animal and finally did what I should have done to him all those years ago. Killing off the cult member was easy with the trapdoor and firepit.

As for the Warden, I simply used whatever I could find that was sharp enough to kill him. I managed to find a flagpole with a spear on the end and as I killed the Warden, the weapon also destroyed the emergency beacon in the process. Good for me, bad for the rest of them.

The drone I had found was also pre-programmed by me to execute someone, which it did very nicely with that glass bottle and after that, I then used the knockout gas I had created back at Blackrock to get that stupid kid and his friend unconscious, killed off one of them with the tree and chainsaw trap, which brings us to where we are now.

…uh- okay. It seems like he’s put the entire plan here on his own… Thanks?

“...Well, I’ll admit.. That was pretty smart of you to think of all that, except you forgot one thing.”
“Tell me, what could I possibly ha-”
“That gear suppressor isn’t turned on.”

Coil wouldn't delay, quickly summoning his gear and (luckily) had the Fusion Coil ready, freeing himself from the ropes and picking up the nearest object to him, a globe, hurling it at Subspace which was enough to at least knock him off his feet before Coil would finally push him out the window behind them, letting the killer himself fall to his own death.

The sun was already peeking over the horizon by then, which meant that the mansion’s gates had been unlocked.

That was correct, as a single shove on the gates would open them.

And as Coil walked off into the distance, he would fail to notice one last sticky note left on the mansion’s main gates:
-. . ...- . .-. / --. --- -. -. .- / --. .. ...- . / -.-- --- ..- / ..- .--. --..-- / -. . ...- . .-. / --. --- -. -. .- / .-.. . - / -.-- --- ..- / -.. --- .-- -. --..-- / -. . ...- . .-. / --. --- -. -. .- / .-. ..- -. / .- .-. --- ..- -. -.. / .- -. -.. / -.. . ... . .-. - / -.-- --- ..- .-.-.- / -. . ...- . .-. / --. --- -. -. .- / -- .- -.- . / -.-- --- ..- / -.-. .-. -.-- --..-- / -. . ...- . .-. / --. --- -. -. .- / ... .- -.-- / --. --- --- -.. -... -.-- . --..-- / -. . ...- . .-. / --. --- -. -. .- / - . .-.. .-.. / .- / .-.. .. . / .- -. -.. / .... ..- .-. - / -.-- --- ..- .-.-.-

The final chapter is done, and as you saw, Skateboard was the final victim murder, Subspace was the killer, and Coil was the sole survivor.

Here are the clues to Subspace’s identity of him being the killer:
-In Chapter 6, the light reflecting off the plate shards is mentioned to be “incardine”, which is a bright crimson or pinkish-red colour, and in all honestly, was the closest we could get to magenta without immediately giving away who the killer was.
-In Chapter 7, the card in painting he stops to admire are described as “Two of which were Aces, two were eights and the fifth card was face down, with a drop of the dead Inphernal’s blood staining the back of the card”, aka The Dead Man's Hand, foreshadowing how he was the one, well, making all the others dead.
-In Chapter 8, Subspace used a screwdriver, a pair of scissors and a pickaxe to try and open the door, all of which obviously wouldn’t work to open the door + he conveniently forgot the axe in the previous
-Also for Chapter 8, if you really took your time to look at the death methods of each Phighter, you’ll notice that Medkit’s death stands out as it is the only killing where the murderer took their time to play around with him before finally killing him, which considering the relationship between the two, makes a lot more sense in hindsight
-In Chapter 11, the knockout gas used on Skateboard and Coil had a hot pink tint
-The axe foreshadowing in Chapter 3 also counts, though this was unintentional at the time of writing, but in hindsight, is a valid piece of foreshadowing