Martial Arts Worlds

Bang!

The storeroom's door got flung open like a window by a strong gust of wind, and with a flick of the light switch, light flooded the room.

Malika and Kairo entered the room and started searching throughout the storeroom while Arin and Kiernan stayed outside.

Arin kept his eyes on Kiernan so that he wouldn't do anything rash.

"…"

Kiernan stayed silent, but he had a very serious gaze in his eyes—not because he expected them to find anything, but because he had a hunch about what was going on.

"I found it!"

Malika took out a bloody knife from behind a pile of boxes and showed it to everyone with the blood mostly dried up.

"You…"

Arin looked at him with a look of anger and shouted.

"You actually killed someone! For what? To participate in some fucking tournament? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Malika and Kairo looked over with hostile gazes.

"Hahahahaha!"

At that moment, Kiernan started laughing uncontrollably, and its echo bounced off the walls of the dark hallway.

The others didn't like the sound of his laughing. It was very eerie and sent shivers down their spines.

"W-what are you laughing for?"

Malika asked with a trembling voice.

"Ahaha… I must say that whatever you guys are doing is pretty cute. Trying to frame me? Funny how you think that would work."

Kiernan chuckled, combed his hair back, and revealed his cold, gray eyes.

"F-frame you? We found the murder weapon in the storeroom, where you slept!"

Malika cried out.

"Why would I hide a murder weapon right next to where I was sleeping? I might as well shout from the bottom of my lungs that I'm the killer.

"It's funny, that's all."

Kiernan said.

"You made a mistake! It doesn't matter what you say. All clues lead to you being the killer!"

Kairo shouted.

"You know what I think?

"I think you guys are the killers. You'd been in the ship for a few days more than me, and during that time, you guys plotted between each other to kill Ishikawa.

"You couldn't kill him beforehand because Zero Event officially only began when I came to the ship, so you guys had to wait.

"However, it doesn't make any sense to try to frame me. You guys could've just jumped me last night after killing Ishikawa.

"Thus, I came to the conclusion that one of you isn't part of the killing group. Two of you must convince that one person that I am actually the killer.

"So you can jump me with three of you and get an easy kill. Then, with only three of you left, two of you will kill the remaining person in his sleep."

Kiernan said with a creepy smile and looked over to the storeroom.

"None of you could've snuck inside the storeroom with the bloody knife, so Malika, you must've had the knife on you all this time. Therefore, you're definitely one of the killers."

"H-hah, do you think we will believe any of that shit? You're obviously the killer!"

Malika retorted, her eyes blazing with anger, and looked at the expressions of the others in the room.

With a few sweat beads on his forehead, Kairo gulped nervously, and Arin stayed silent with a cold gaze in his eyes.

"What he said does make sense…"

Arin said, then turned to Malika and grabbed her by the throat before lifting her up from the ground.

Her eyes widened in shock, and she wanted to shout something, but then Arin snapped her neck, and silence enveloped the room.

Thud!

He dropped her lifeless body onto the floor, and she lay there motionless, her eyes still wide open in horror.

The blood began gushing out in a pool around her, staining the floor a deep crimson, and it reached their feet as they stood there frozen.

"I know I am not one of the killers, and a couple of days ago, I remembered Malika and Kairo discussing something between each other.

"Whenever I walked to them, wondering what was going on between the two, they acted like they weren't speaking of anything of importance.

"I thought it was suspicious, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions. Until now, that is."

Arin said and turned to look at Kairo's bleached face.

"Y-You're lying! I haven't spoken a word to Malika alone, and I know that I am not the killer, so it must be you! Y-you can't trust this piece of shit. He is lying to you!"

Kairo shouted and turned to Kiernan with a begging gaze, but he stayed silent without doing anything.

"Meet Malika in hell, murderer."

Arin reached towards Kairo's neck, but he rolled out of the way and snatched the bloody knife from Malika's lifeless hand.

"I-I don't want to die here! I have never done anything bad. I just want to go back home!"

Kairo screamed and swung the bloody knife at Arin, but he dodged it and then wrapped his muscular arms around Kairo in a destructive bear hug.

"Supreme Suplex!"

Arin suplexed Kairo onto the hard ground, right onto his neck, and the chilling sound of the cracked neck echoed through the hallway.

With a lifeless look, Kairo plopped down to the ground—dead like a marionette with its strings cut.

"Huff…"

Arin stood back up and looked at Kiernan, who was just staring back at him without much emotion in his gaze.

"They killed Ishikawa. They deserved it."

He said.

"It was you, huh?"

Kiernan smiled.

"What are you talking about?"

Arin asked with a frown, and Kiernan just started whistling while pulling out a red-handled knife from nowhere.

It surprised him because Arin was certain that he had patted him down and didn't find anything.

"It was you plotting with Malika, wasn't it? Once you realized that she was caught as she was very careless, you thought it was better to get rid of her.

"You grabbed her by the throat, squeezed so hard that she couldn't say that it was you all along, and then killed her, so it would look like Kairo was the second killer.

"And you made it look like you agreed with whatever I said to make it look like we're some buddies, but you would just find a chance to kill me.

"You're a scary one, aren't you?

"What happened to your speech about this killing thing in Zero Event being fake and all? You've got quite the nerve, huh?"

Kiernan asked.

"Hahahaha!"

Arin burst into laughter and pointed at him with a creepy smirk that looked like it was a smile of a stitched-up doll.

"My master said to me that I should do everything in my power to get to the God Island. If I do, my future is limitless, he said. If I have to kill some random fucking guys that I have no feelings towards, so what? I'll do it!"