Suspects: Mario, Luigi, Waluigi, Wario, Peach, Rosalina, Yoshi, and Birdo

Victims: 1 Toad, Bowser, Daisy

Killer:

They are all dropping like flies!

The fact that there is social discord between them all also achieves my purposes. Unless they can pull themselves together, none of them will survive this night!

Ah Daisy, what a sweetheart. I'm glad I finished her off so quickly. She was smart to tear her dress, it would have been harder for me to catch her. I guess that's why I had no choice but to target her next. However, what I'm most proud of is that she never let out a sob. Granted, that was probably the paralysis solution speaking, but she was so strong.

But was I lucky to be able to get back with the rest of the group in that short amount of time. I thought for a moment I was caught. Ah, but they're all knuckleheads aren't they? To be a killer requires more than strength. Cunning. Ah cunning, my sweet friend.

Now there is one ready to take the blame. They turn aside from me to look. This will be easy to frame. And I mean framing for a lovely photo. Ah, memories. Beautiful, lovely memories. It shouldn't take long. She won't be able to hold her defenses for long.

Two down, seven to play.

One, Two, three, four.

Counting time is such a bore.

Mario:

Mario turned to see Rosalina crouched over an orange and red mess.

"Daisy..." He whispered.

"Daisy!" Mario shouted, beginning to sprint towards the doorway of the courtroom.

As he began to pass the hedges growing on either side of the steps, Mario paused.

A dull sheen came from the bushes.

An iron blunt.

A hammer.

Mario shook his head, ignoring the weapon for a moment, and began to climb up the steps to Rosalina, tears now blending with the blood around Daisy. The edges of Rosalina's gown were now just beginning to absorb the seeping liquid, staining the flawless blue seam an irrevocable earth brown.

Mario almost reached the top stair, when he suddenly slipped on the fresh, slick, yet sticky blood.

Mario caught himself, but his flawless white gloves paid the price. He did not see it, but he could feel the still warm lifeforce clinging to his palms and sticking between his fingers.

Dazed from the sudden fall, Mario slowly looked up.

And came face to face with Daisy.

Mario stared into the empty sockets for a solid three seconds before he felt a tug from behind him.

Once again, Mario found himself tumbling down the stairs he had ran up. He attempted to make himself impact in the most defended way. Landing on his shoulders and protecting his head.

Finally, after skidding on the cool earth for a few moments, Mario came to a stop.He didn't attempt to take himself out of the fetal position he had crawled into. In the dark, his vision danced with Daisy's eyeless sockets. Bowser's scarlet eyes. The toad's slit throat and slashed cheeks. Watching him. Telling the hero to play his part. Telling him to defend them.

Protect them.

Keep them safe.

"You failed! You failed!" Daisy's voice hissed in Mario's ears, "You let me die! You watched! You watched!"

"I tried to do the right thing." Mario strangled out. "I tried to save you. All of you..."

"You're a loser, just as I suspected." Bowser's voice boomed in Mario's head, "How you bested me for so long, I don't know. I didn't even give you my all!"

"You don't even know who I am..." The toad whispered, "I'm so scared, Mario. Why couldn't you save me like you have others? I wanted to live... I wanted to survive..."

All the voices began to whisper now, overlapping over others. Shouting, hissing.

"Save me!"

"You're useless!""Why couldn't you protect me?"

Mario squeezed his eyes shut, putting his hands over his ears, trying to block out the sound. But even Daisy's blood whispered, reviling him.

"You killed me! You made me die! You! You!"

"Traitor!"

"Murderer!"

"You should be locked away!"

"Forgotten!"

"You should taste death!"

Finally, Mario couldn't take it anymore. His eyes flashed open and he shouted with all of his breath.

"ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

There was a pause. Mario panted heavily, drenched in cold sweat. It was then that he looked around for the first time.

The whole group stood around him, looking at him as if inspecting a madman. Mario's view was fading in and out of focus, but he definitely saw green coming closer to him.

"Luigi?" Mario whispered, sitting up.

A shooting pain went though the back of his head. Mario yelped and touched the painful area. A bump the size of a small red mushroom awaited him.

Mario's vision began to clear as the green and blue blur extended something scarlet towards him.

Numbly, Mario reached for the item.

His fingers grasped the stiff brim of a hat.

Carefully, Mario took his hat from Luigi, whose face was creased with concern.

"You were out for a solid five minutes. I thought for a moment that you were a goner, hitting your head so hard." Luigi said, bending down to his brother.

"Who pulled me away? Who knocked me down the stairs?" Mario whispered.

The whole group looked at Mario silently.

"Someone must have! Who was it!" Mario shouted, ignoring the throb in his head. If anything, it made him even more enraged. He stood up, nursing the bump.

"No one knocked you down, Mario." Peach said, helping Mario regain balance.

"Maybe it was ghosts." Waluigi wiggled his fingers, "Maybe Bowser still hunts you from the spirit world."

Bowser's bloodshot eyes flashed before Mario's for a moment and he dug his fingers into his crown, trying to shake them away.

"Look War! He's being possessed! Run away! Run away!" Waluigi goaded.

"I'm NOT possessed!" Shouted Mario, "And mocking the dead is low, even for you."

"Looks like he still retains his tongue, though." Birdo said, hugging Yoshi around his neck.

"Enough of this." Mario said, pushing his antagonists aside, "We still have work to do. And if anyone interferes this time," Mario turned and pointed at the Wario brothers, "especially you two, I will kill you myself. I am up to here with your nonsense." Mario put a hand over his head.

"You heard him Waluigi." Rosalina said, also breaking away from the group to join Mario. "You are pushing the line. When I told you lighten the mood, I did not intend macabrely."

Mario began to walk away, dishearten by the three deaths already at hand. Daisy had been dear to him. She had always understood his wild bouts of temper and how to tame them. And while Peach was Mario's true love interest, Daisy had been like a guardian spirit.

Now Mario began to reach the marble stairs, trying to cleanse his fingers of the stickiness that had been Daisy's. Her blood no longer glittered on the steps, instead appearing to be dull mud staining the smooth marble. Now Daisy had to be a true spirit. Whether his guardian or no.

Mario made his way carefully up the steps again. He glimpsed over towards the bushes where he had seen the hammer.

It still lay there.

Ignoring it again, Mario continued up the steps until he came to the corpse.

Daisy's eyeless sockets were not the worst of it. The killer had been much, much more brutal.

Daisy had been laid on her back, but the tips of her ribcage could be seen tearing through her back and the orange dress. Her spine was angled in directions not natural in nature, and it appeared as if her neck had also been broken. As well as this, Daisy's head and ears were bleeding profusely and both of her earrings were missing. Another trinket the killer must have taken from the victim.

Wario knelt next to Mario, also looking at the broken princess.

"You really think we should still take refuge in a dingy place like this?"

Mario nodded.

"It's still our best chance." He said, assuring himself more than he was Wario.

"Hey." Wario said, pointing to something on Daisy's side, "It looks like there's something here."

Mario stared at the bit of scrawl beneath the princess' head. It looked like the word 'night'.

Without waiting for Mario to make a comment, Wario reached over and snatched Daisy's head, flipping her onto her back.

Mario took one look and turned to the bushes, his reflexes taking over as he retched into the shrubbery.

Luigi:

Luigi watched as Mario cleansed himself of the mushroom soup they had had that night.

"And they say I have the weak stomach." He whispered as he mounted the stairs.

As he made his way up, he couldn't get over the feeling he was being watched. He had never been fond of the spotlight, and being placed into it suddenly made him jumpy.

"What happened now?" Luigi asked, looking at Mario, who had now recovered and was attempting to clean his face with a sleeve. Luigi grimaced as he saw the crimson stains on Mario's glove now taking the place of previously said dinner.

"This happened." Wario said as he pointed to Mario, "This guy decided to get sick and left me to do the dirty work." Wario rolled his eyes.

Rosalina spoke from behind Luigi, making him jump. He hadn't even heard her coming.

"Mario has been through a lot. We should not judge him harshly because of it."

"Ah, the morality speaker. How refreshing." Birdo said sarcastically, now joining the rest of them.

Luigi looked around, taking his own short head count.

"Where's Waluigi and Peach? Weren't they right here?" He asked, gripping the brim of his hat.

Waluigi poked his head out of the doorway.

"We're in here. We couldn't wait out in the murder scene any longer."

"How did you get in there before us?" Wario growled, "You were just at the square a moment ago!"

"I climbed. Apparently these "giraffe legs" are good for something." Waluigi said pointedly, looking at Birdo.

Luigi shook his head, ignoring the pair's shenanigans, and looked down at Daisy, who was laying on her back.

As if the view from her back was bad enough, her ventral side was no better. Like her back, ribs tore through her stomach and in places, even held the fabric, skin, and muscle aside to reveal internal organs.

It was obvious that most of the bleeding was derived from Daisy's heart. It was both pierced by ribs and crushed by the impacts of the weapon in question. In fact, that was the most dominant detail of the corpse. That, and the fact that the killer had removed Daisy's eyes and earrings.

There was one other detail that Luigi noticed.

Reaching down, careful not to touch anything, he grasped the silver barrel of the revolver.

It was hardly in poor condition. Blood was smeared throughout its sleek form, and it seemed tarnished in some respects, but it was in perfect condition.

Luigi turned the firearm in his hands for a few moments, admiring its shine in the light of the moon, before showing it to Mario.

"This is what I thought I saw Daisy carrying. It's a revolver."

Mario was barely shivering. Why, Luigi didn't know.

"Are you okay, bro? You look pretty banged up." Luigi said, withdrawing the gun.

Mario shook his head, lips moving in an inaudible response.

Rosalina tapped Luigi on the shoulder.

"Do you know anything pertaining to this weapon?" She asked, gesturing to the firearm.

"Daisy and I inspected it earlier when we got split up from you all. We were lucky to get back with you."

"So what did you find out?" Peach asked, also stepping out of the courtroom doorway.

Luigi fiddled with the chambers for a moment, opening them. "They're all empty." He said, showing it to the whole group. "Whoever is the killer has just that, a killer aim. They must have used just one bullet."

"That is strange." Rosalina said, "Why would the killer risk missing the shot? Especially at Bowser. That could have been their undoing."

"That was the other thing." Mario said softly, beginning to stand shakily, "The killer must have shot Bowser from behind. I found the bullet." Mario fished around in his pockets for a moment, finally revealing the bullet he and Luigi had found on the planks.

"How could the killer have shot Bowser from behind? The whole of his back is a spiked shell." Waluigi asked, tipping his head.

"Exactly." Mario nodded, putting the bullet back into his pocket, "The killer has lethal aim. And it appears that it doesn't mess around."

"Wait a minute, though." Luigi said, lifting a finger, "What if the killer had been up front? What if they were in the very back of the gazebo where no one else could see them? If the bullet went straight through, could it have hit the wood planks on the other side? We don't know which direction the bullet went through."

Mario paused, putting a hand on his chin. "You said that Daisy found the gun, right?"

Luigi nodded, "I did."

"Then there's that," Mario said, snapping his fingers. "In order for Daisy to have found the gun, it must have been thrown to her by the murderer. Getting rid of evidence. Obviously Daisy wasn't the murderer, or she'd be alive right now. So the question is asked," Mario looked at everyone.

"Where did the gun come from? Was it thrown to Daisy from someone on the ground, or did the killer hedge a bet and try to throw it over the side to where Daisy was?"

Wario shook his head.

"Why is this important? Are we going inside or not?" Wario tapped a foot impatiently.

Luigi mulled over Mario's thought process. He had never thought to ask Daisy where the gun had come from. Should he have?

Luigi looked down at the broken form of the princess. He now saw words on the ground around her.

"Hey guys, look." Luigi pointed to the letters, "What are those?"

Wario crossed his arms. "I pointed those out earlier, genius. Then your brother decided to play 'What did I have for dinner?'."

Luigi glanced over at Mario, whose electric blue eyes barely sparked with rage. Luigi looked between the two rivals. Mario was never used to being insulted, and when he was, his fuse could become shorter than a Bob-omb's. Wario was really risking his own neck to put something like that out on the sly.

However, Luigi did hear soft giggles coming from one of the two princesses, and he had to prevent himself from snorting by biting his knuckle. Laughter was the one thing that got Luigi every time. It was so contagious.

Clearing his throat to silence himself, Luigi now got on his knees to observe the writing, which was now barely becoming obscured by fresh blood.

"Right, everyone focus. We don't know when the killer is going to strike again, so pay attention." Luigi said, taking the lead.

"I think I can make out 'Stars Tonight.'" He said, trying to make out the scrawl. Luigi didn't want to attempt to clean anything away, for fear of ruining the message and for completely soiling his gloves. Then again, what was the point of doing that, especially in a murder case? The point was to get down and dirty. Yet, Luigi couldn't bring himself to do it, especially if he was next.

Next to him, Rosalina stiffened.

"What about the stars? What will happen?"

Wario added upon Luigi's findings.

"I think I also saw 'will be.'" He said, tracing the letters in the air above the gruesome red ink.

"I do not like where this is leading." Rosalina whispered. Luigi looked up at her and found her face to be extremely pale. Combined with the light of the moon, she looked like a ghost.

"What are we waiting for, Darlio?" Birdo said, stepping over Daisy and into the courthouse. "Let us commence the search within!"

Mario looked after the fuchsia creature, Yoshi trailing behind. Finally, he hung his head.

"Right... Let's go." He extended a hand to the doorway, ominously darkened on the other side.

One by one, everyone filed in.

Luigi followed last, and as he stepped in, he remembered one other thing.

The killer was now within as well.

Peach:

Her dearest friend was now killed, Bowser was finished. How many more deaths was she to take?

Peach gently crossed her arms, rubbing them to obtain feeling once again.

Next to her, she could hear the soft breathing of Rosalina, whose hand was barely glowing with faint starlight.

With the scarce light, shadows crept over the walls of the courtroom and small mirrors reflected the light, scattering it to other places in the room.

"Are there any candles? Lights? Anything?" Peach whispered, feeling a little more than frightened of her surroundings. Being in the dark was the worst thing that could possibly happen, especially with a killer who would take every opportunity presented.

"Perhaps..." Rosalina murmured, circling her hands around each other. Within her hands, the faint starlight began to grow, becoming a moderately sized orb, pulsing with cerulean light.

"Illumino." Rosalina said, throwing the ball into the air.

The light hung in the air, suspended by nothing. Now the room was much easier to see, and Peach could see the awe reflected in everyone's eyes as they stared at the majestic orb.

Rosalina rubbed her hands.

"I cannot expend much more energy. Choices must be made in this matter. My power to obtain the light will last only for ten minutes. We must collect as much information as we can in this time."

"Are there any other options?" Mario said, looking away from the enchanted starlight.Rosalina nodded.

"There is one other option, but it must be used with great caution. If we become aware of whom the murderer is, I can release my hold on this light and protect every innocent in this room. However, there is a catch." Rosalina said, lifting a hand, "My ability to protect will only be fleeting. I will not reveal for how long I can protect, for sake of confidentiality to the killer, but it will last for a much shorter span than I can control the light. As well as this, I am not certain I can cast both necessities. It shall be one or the other. You cannot pick and choose."

"And how do we know you aren't the killer?" Waluigi asked. Peach looked between the two. For the first time in quite a while, Peach sided with Waluigi. What if the Queen of the Stars could not be trusted?

Rosalina bowed her head.

"I understand your fears, friend, and I will do my best to assure you that trusting in me will be the correct thing to do. Yet, it takes your trust in order for me to successfully defend you. I cannot protect the ignorant. And if I am to die tonight, as the letters in my friend's blood were written, I shall do it defending those who can continue my story."

"How do you know that you're next, darling?" Birdo asked as Yoshi paced behind her.

'I think Yoshi is scared of the dark...' Peach thought, 'Poor thing, he must be terrified.'

"Because I saw the last word which was written." Rosalina looked at everyone. Peach caught something glistening with the orb's light.

"The last word was 'orphaned.' The stars will be orphaned tonight." Rosalina dropped to her knees and buried her face in her hands. Peach knelt beside the distraught mother and wrapped her arms around her. Rosalina sank into Peach's embrace.

How could the killer be so heartless? Killing the mother of the stars? It must be brought to justice.

Luigi also came up to the two princesses.

"Alright," He said, putting a hand on Rosalina's opposite shoulder, "If were going to crack the case, we must begin, shouldn't we?" Luigi looked up at Mario.

"Bro?" Luigi lifted an eyebrow.

Mario looked at the small group before nodding. Silently, Peach admired how Mario's eyes would glitter when he thought of something or if he was determined to act.

"Yes." Mario said, turning in a slow circle, taking in the whole room.

It was rather compact, they must have been in a corridor. Yet, the roof was very high up and domed, making every sound reverberate off the ceiling and create echoes. There were two giant doors right ahead of the party, and two smaller doors beaching off of opposite ends of the hallway. Lamps, all of them snuffed, aligned on the hallway silently, and since no one had anything to light them with, the only thing the lanterns accomplished was making the room more terrifying than it should.

Peach, whispered into Rosalina's ear.

"Come on Rosa, maybe we can stop the murderer yet."

Gently, supporting herself on Peach, Rosalina allowed herself to be stood up. As she stood, she shuddered, supporting herself on Peach more.

"I lied to you all..." She whispered to Peach. The group was forging ahead, still scouting out the passageway, "The light will not last ten minutes, it shall only remain for five. I will try my best to support it longer, but I cannot make any promises."

Peach stared at Rosalina with shock. Rosalina met her gaze evenly, if not a little melancholically.

"Discover as much as you can." Rosalina whispered at last. "Be the starlight in the darkness."Peach nodded in silence and together, the two princesses staggered down the hall with the rest of the group, the cyan light above them slightly dwindling.

Birdo:

They had survived this long. Who was to say that they couldn't survive for any longer?

Once again, Birdo stood by Mario, gently holding Yoshi's arm. The walls seemed cavernous, lightened only by the faint blue lights of Rosalina's conjuring.

"Couldn't you have chosen a better color Princess Rosa? Purple would suit this room better than blue." Birdo looked around, observing everything.

They had entered the double doors, which had given them a loud groan in protest. They now stood in the courtroom. The jury stand was just to their right, directly next to the witness podium. Looming over them all was the judge's chair. A large chestnut gavel sat on its pedestal, intimidating despite its actual usage.

Yoshi began to whimper and Birdo traced a finger down his spines, relaxing him as best as possible.

"It's alright, Sweetheart. Shadows can't hurt you. You're safe." She whispered.

Yoshi purred and his eyes softened, seemingly relaxing as he gazed at Birdo.

It was at this point that Mario leapt forward, mounting the witness stand.

"Alright. Here we are. Welcome..." Mario spread his arms out widely, as if trying to encompass the whole room, "to the courtroom."

"Mario, this is great and all, but what are we doing here?" Luigi stepped into Birdo's line of sight.

"We are collecting clues." Mario said, jumping down. "We already have an assortment of ideas, but we need to link them altogether, yes?"

Birdo nodded and she heard the Wario brothers laugh.

"You think?" Waluigi snickered.

In the blue light, Birdo could barely make out the flushing in Mario's cheeks. Nonetheless, it was apparent enough.

"Listen you two. I'm trying my best. Would you two like to take the initiative?" Mario extended a hand to the brothers in a mock bow.

Wario puffed up his chest and sauntered forward.

"As a matter of fact, I would. Thank you, Stupid Scarlet."

Mario closed his hand and frowned. Then he smiled, tipping his hat to them in yet another mock salute.

"By all means. Begin, detectives."

Mario walked away, leaning against the doorway and crossing his arms.

Wario snickered.

"Well, now that Scarlet is out of the way, we can get down to business." Birdo watched as Wario began to pace, obviously trying to mock Mario's signature strut. She heard a snort.

"I do not walk like that." Mario said.

Wario stopped, tapping his foot.

"You're not the detective, are you? No, that is my job now, and I get to do what I want to do. So too bad, Watson."

Mario rolled his eyes.

"I thought I was Watson." Waluigi smacked Wario.

"Yeah right," Wario rubbed his head, "You don't have the acting for it."

"As if you do!" Waluigi retaliated.

It was at this point that Rosalina literally flew forward, knocking the brothers apart. Rosalina swirled around and Birdo could have sworn she saw a glint of vengeance in her eyes.

"Enough." Rosalina growled, "You all act like children." Her voice had dropped and she now glared around the room at everyone, including Birdo.

"We do not have much time. You have wasted all of it bickering. My light is about to dissolve and we still have not gotten any further in this playtime "investigation." If you are not going to grow up and take control of yourselves, we will all die tonight!"

As if on cue, the blue light above everyone's heads began to flicker.

"See what you have done? This is the end of five minutes! No we will have no light!" Rosalina sounded choked up. "The killer will strike again!"

The light sputtered once again, fading in and out.

Birdo heard the sound of something being drawn out of a sheath and she saw the glint of metal reflecting the faint light.

The whole group was plunged into darkness as a scream echoed throughout the cavernous courthouse.

Rosalina:

Her power was draining quickly. Far too quickly.

She had bluffed the prospect of being able to defend everyone in the proximity. She had even known that the small party would not have been able to uncover the killer in time.

It was only a matter of when death would knock upon her door.

Now as her starlit orb began to sputter, Rosalina knew that the time had come.

She was not afraid, not angry, not even upset.

She was sad.

Who would watch over the stars in the heavens when she was gone? Who would teach them the way of the cosmos? Who would be their mother?

Who could replace her?

Exhausted, Rosalina released her hold on the light as she crumpled to the ground.

A pair of arms waited for her there.

There was no doubt in Rosalina's mind that this was the killer, and the one seemed to notice as well, for it almost seemed to cradle the broken Queen of the Stars.

Rosalina could not stand, let alone speak. She remained mute as she heard the sound of a blade being drawn.

A searing bolt of fire went through her back and she now was able to utter a sound. A high pitched cry, the same as when she had first beheld the corpse of the princess, Daisy.

This was not how Daisy was killed, however.

Was the murderer being... merciful to her?

Rosalina felt the silky touch of a glove caressing her gently, trailing over her cheeks and her lips, feeling the rigid rise and fall of her opened breast.

She felt her heartbeat as she laid her head on the shoulder of her attacker.

"Rosalina..." the killer whispered, "Queen of the Stars... Are you to become a constellation now? I shall observe the sky for you forevermore."

The killer's bold blue eyes stared into Rosalina's with shocking softness as she felt the blade being slipped out of the opening which was created in her.

Rosalina's sight began to fade, but the bold peacock eyes of the murderer remained bright.

"You..." She whispered, slumping completely.

"Yes," the killer traced fingers over Rosalina's cheek once again, "Me."

Rosalina exhaled as she closed her eyes.

She was prepared for the final sleep.

The killer propped her upwards, but Rosalina could hardly feel it anymore.

A similar flash of fire tore though her throat and moments later, right above her hips.

Rosalina, now weakened more by loss of blood, began to strangle for want of air.

Violent and bloody. Who could have imagined?

"Sleep well, Queen of Stars. Perhaps in the next world..."

Rosalina stared into the ocean eyes of her killer until the world faded at last.

...

End of Part Three

Til' we meet again, Keep Rockin'

-Shamrockin13