Death Shudder

The third girl's body had been found in a neighborhood, about 10 minutes away from the other man's apartment. She had been sliced into halves hanging from a power line. To Timeline would knock out power to the entire neighborhood, so they waited until late that night to Timeline it.

Near the time of death, the girl's corpse entered. She matched her picture. Slowly and unsteadily, she climbed up the power pole herself, then grabbed what was presumably a live power line before she was sliced in half. As the two halves fell, Iris crouched down and examined them: again there were those ultra-precise cuts. Something seemed off again, however, so she reverted to when the girl had begun to climb.

The corpse was shuddering, and Iris looked away for a few moments. Generally she could handle it by herself, but she let Olivia examine this one: too readily did some corpses bring back to her the image of Natasha's pieces shuddering.

"It's trying to move the burnt skin." said Olivia.

"That means she was dead before she climbed up this pole." Iris glanced up and scanned the previous states of the electrical line. "…doesn't feel like the electricity traveled through more than one body, though."

"Think we should try to find witnesses tomorrow?"

"I doubt it would help. They should've already been questioned; most likely their memory's already been pasted over by whatever the police suggested to them." muttered Iris. "We don't know the range on this Revenant yet, either. Might follow the wrong lead if we're not careful."

There was nothing else of note, however, and so they went back to their hotel. On the way there, Olivia noted to Iris that there had only been noticeable evidence at the river kill; it was likely that the others were to get the police's attention and the blue jacket to give them hope of finding the killer. She remarked that in her dealing with civilian police, they believed story after story easily seen through, and if one were to correct them they would either disregard it coming from a woman or accept the new story with no introspection.

The next morning, Iris received a call from Roy. "Hello?"

"Kronos, come speak with me. The police have made an accusation against us; you, specifically; that I would prefer to speak with you in-person about."

"What about?"

"The possibility that your ability removed critical DNA evidence."

"I-"

"Kronos, in-person. I would like to ask a few questions, myself. If you say you are innocent, I believe you. But, in-person."

"...alright. I'll be there in a minute." muttered Iris. "And I mean literally a minute."

"I am aware how fast students drive. Goodbye."

Iris sighed and looked to the blue jacket. She had not exactly been wearing gloves while handling it; she had not even really considered that it was likely in police evidence before reversion. As she got into her truck with Olivia, she tested something with her, then drove to Roy's office.

They saw a woman at the front desk, and as she saw them she became wary. "Are you the Urasaria students?"

"Yes. Roy asked us to meet with him."

"Stay right there." She got up from her seat and left to the other room, her eyes on them the entire time.

Olivia mouthed: 'Bitch.' Iris rolled her eyes.

Roy called them in, and the woman left the room, then went to another until Iris & Olivia had passed through to Roy's office. He nodded to Iris, whose Kairos closed the door. "I see you've met my paralegal, Diana."

"She doesn't seem to like us much."

"With all due respect, Kronos, it's slightly disconcerting to know that the person you are speaking with could kill you both easily and legally. Such prejudice is wrong, of course, but Diana views you two as men do grizzly bears."

"Or women do men." said Olivia.

"Precisely."

Iris was in thought, for whenever the topic of women fearing men came up there was a moment where she had to remember why they did so; much of her interaction with women recently had been with hosts. But Olivia had not been a natal host; she had picked Baal at 15 primarily because she was tired of sexual harassment. It was an effective strategy, too, because everyone was terrified of the fucking thing.

Olivia snickered to her about something and Iris was again in afterthought. "Shithead."

"Mm?"

"She was relaying some intimidation you did recently."

Iris had no clue which one she was talking about. Without Natasha there to scold her, she had admittedly reverted back to her poorer habits here; when she was given a reason to dislike a civilian, she would let them know and not with kind words. Why Olivia did not scold her she did not know: if it were truly wrong she would, so Iris figured, neatly removing all blame from herself. "I wouldn't be hosting two Revenants if I wasn't meant to instill fear."

Roy laughed. "While I won't pretend to know the intricacies of the lesbian psyche, I highly doubt they are too impressed by a braggart: no?"

"Some women like that." said Olivia.

Iris smiled. "See? She agrees."

Roy sat amused by the strutting peacock before him, then remembered. "Regardless, the police accusation. They claim that they have lost -- presumably, the jacket you're currently carrying -- and that you are planning on using your ability to remove DNA evidence off from it. Which does bring me to a question I should have asked: can Kairos be used to remove DNA?"

Iris sighed and explained how she had gotten the jacket. Timeline formed its own domain of time; objects teleported in & out as required, and when Timeline lowered, all objects Iris did not wish to stay, reverted to their present location & state. She had stayed the jacket, but would now need to Timeline again to return it. "As for the DNA, it... theoretically could, but not via Timeline. I tested it with my regular ability on the way over."

"Yeah." said Olivia. "I kissed the window, and she chronoshifted my lipstick mark off and back on."

"Then your claim is that the police are lying."

"Yes." they said in unison.

Roy nodded. "That would not surprise me. Given the unusual circumstances of this case, they will find whatever theories necessary to discredit you. Attempting to attack your hosthood, which they shall surely repeat in front of an uniformed jury, is pitiful, but not unexpected."

"I can test with Timeline in about a hour." said Iris. "But I've checked before. It always returns things back to how they were."

"If I might ask: if you are able to revert human biology, then-"

"She isn't." said Olivia.

"I was about to ask if she could revert voices."

Iris shook her head. "Nope. There's some things that, I suppose, are considered part of human biology. Voices are too closely linked for me to recreate, but a kiss on a window or a fingerprint on a door-knob, reflection in a mirror; those leave traces on an object."

Roy nodded. "Then I will tell the police this is another baseless attempt at harassment. Notably, they waited until this morning to call; perhaps some scheme to make you appear more malicious and themselves innocently naive." He leaned back. "…but, during the trial... 'The prosecution has such a weak case against my client, they now attempt to vulgarly besmirch the characters of two upstanding young women who selflessly lent their time to ensure justice is delivered...' Hmm. Might either of you have a few accolades I could refer to as proof of your character?"

"None I would feel comfortable referring to in a courthouse." said Iris.

"Or under oath." said Olivia.

"Roy, you ever think some of that flowery language goes over the cops heads?"

"Of course, but one can't expect much out of a profession whose qualifications include not scoring too high on an IQ test." He shook his head. "How has your investigation gone so far?"

"Nothing much yet." Iris frowned. "So far it seems to be a failed framing. The blue jacket on that girl's corpse belonged to another man who refuses to speak to us, but he's a civilian; the way those girls are mutilated indicates a host. Do you recall what Thomas's Revenant was?"

"Rocketeer. The ability is supposedly telekinesis."

"Not what I was hoping for." Iris sighed. "We can't exonerate him based on ability yet. I've seen precise cuts on the bodies, corpses moving and electrocuting themselves; telekinesis could still cause that."

Roy mused a while. "…hmm. Kronos, tell me if this is a laughable suggestion; I don't wish to diminish your experience in such matters. You say that you have seen corpses moved about, potentially by telekinesis."

"Walking or climbing, yes."

"If a host were to move a body telekinetically, would it not appear weightless?"

Iris was impressed. "That... is a very good question, actually. I... I need to go recheck that."

Roy nodded. "By the way, I've nearly finished with something small that may be useful to you; I've asked Thomas to fill out an itinerary of all his known locations for the times of the girls' deaths. While unreliable, even one that places him elsewhere at the time of a girl's death would be greatly helpful. I will let you know once there is a lull in your investigation."