Rot

Chapter One: Iggy Koopa

The first sign of the coming horrors was a bloated, fat corpse floating its way down the usually clear blue river that ran through the center of Toad Town. It was either an unfortunate coincidence or a disgusting plan that the day that Iggy Koopa's corpse came floating through town was the same day that the local children's fair was being held. The first person to spot what used to be Iggy was a sixth grade toad girl trying to find colorful shells in the water. She'd never forget what she found instead.

Mario and Luigi were called, of course. Luigi denied the request, being too horrified by the sound of the crime. He was a hero to deal with the dangerous work, not the terrifying. Mario was the same, but over the last year he had felt something beginning to stir within him, a need for a life beyond rescuing Peach.

It was 3 PM, about two hours after the body was found, that Mario reached the shore that the body had been dragged to. The soggy net used by the local police force lay nearby, brine and sand mottling the discolored rope. Lying on his back, parts of his arms and legs nibbled away by cheep cheeps, was the former Koopa Kingdom prince Iggy Koopa. Half of his face had been chewed off; if it wasn't for the hair it would've been incredibly difficult to identify the corpse.

Iggy's body had been through a lot. The fifteen-year-old koopa had absorbed a lot of water, giving him a bloated appearance. Half of his face, half of his right arm, parts of his left arm, parts of his right leg, and his entire left leg had been eaten away. The left half of his face, the part that was still there, was missing its eyeball: being the softest part of the exterior body, it was likely that the cheep cheeps had eaten it first. The edges of his mouth were eaten away as well, so his teeth were stuck in an eternal grin. His nostrils had been eaten away to form one hole.

The smell was absolutely unbearable. It was the smell of rot, a smell almost indescribable to those who had never experienced it. One could only hope to imagine the smell of vomit, and then imagine that smell completely enshrouded in death. On top of that, one then had to imagine the smells of sea weed, mud, expired milk, and overwhelming feces.

"Are you 100% sure it's not Larry?" The irritating penguin detective Pennington had arrived at the scene slightly before Mario and was apparently taking it upon himself to be the leader of the investigation.

"Yes, I'm sure," Mario said as patiently as he could. He had dealt with the penguin idiot three times before: once in a train mystery involving a bomb, and twice in isolated murder cases centered in Toad Town. Each time Pennington had been far more of a nuisance than a help. "This is clearly Iggy's green hair. Larry's is blue."

Mario drew his glove up as far along his arm as he could before he gently grabbed the sopping blue mesh of hair that emerged from the corpse's head. Pennington continued to argue; Mario ignored him.

Captain Toad, the head of the local police force, approached Mario slowly. He was a spineless coward but he was also a lot smarter than Pennington. "W-w-w-we ch-ch-ch-checked the body q-q-quite thoroughly, sir, and we believe the cause of death is… strangulation."

"Oh? Thank you, Captain Toad." Mario kneeled down and moved slightly the half of the head that was left. A quarter of the neck had been eaten away by hungry fish just the same as the rest, but the lacerations and unnatural shape of the remaining body part was incredibly evident: Iggy Koopa had indeed been strangled to death. And by the dragging cuts lining his neck, it was likely that the strangling was achieved by either a weapon or by some kind of rope.

"I thought Iggy Koopa had glasses." Pennington declared, as if the lack of glasses confirmed that the body was Larry's. "This is clearly Larry Koopa- in fact, the signs point to IGGY being the murderer!"

"Jesus Christ you're an idiot, shut up," Mario wondered if the little blue idiot had done anything useful in his life. "The glasses were washed away to god-knows-where, if our murderer didn't remove them himself."

Mario looked into Iggy's gaping eye hole and wondered quietly. I've fought this little bastard for a long time- or at least, it feels like a long time.

Me and the Koopa Troop have been fighting over Peach for years now…but it was always just a game between us, I suppose. As time went, we started to not really care about what we were doing, playing our stupid games. Peach never really cared either, or maybe same as us, she just grew to not care the same. Why would someone kill one of Bowser's children anyway? What's the point? The little brats can't do anything. And why Iggy? Fuck, I always feel like he's the most forgettable one.

Mario sighed and stood up.

"Someone'll contact Bowser, right?" Mario zipped up the brown coat he had brought with him. It felt like it was going to rain soon.

"B-B-B-B-Bowser?" Captain Toad trembled.

"God damn, shut up." For what felt like the hundredth time that year, Mario wanted to scream at everyone: Bowser is not a threat, Bowser is not really a monster, Bowser doesn't really care, just like I don't really care. We are both just stuck in the roles we started out in, never evolving past them to something better. We don't even care, none of us do. It's a stupid joke that any of you still take any of this seriously. "Just contact Bowser, and don't be an idiot about it. The guy just lost a son." He would've added that he wanted to talk to Bowser, but he'd get the chance once the big guy came to pick up his son's body.

Mario started walking away. Pennington started blabbering some nonsense to the others nearby, Mario prayed that the no one would listen to him. He didn't have time to stand around and get angry.

He could still remember the last murder case that both Mario and Pennington had been interested in. Mario had almost completely lost it.

But then, a voice in the back of Mario's head laughed, you aren't actually a detective, are you? You're the Royal Hero, and it's your job to play your part in the grand theatre of life as the person who rescues Peach again and again. It's not Pennington's fault that you're sick of it- sick of it all to the point of suicide- and that the only way you can get your kicks is by coming to these gruesome murders.

You really have no idea how these things work, and yet you're taking it upon yourself to become head investigator now, more and more. Who are you, anyway? Do you honestly think you're more than a puppet? What a joke. You think Pennington's an idiot, and yet you're the one who can't stay in line.

The crime scene was out of sight now, and it had begun to rain. Mario treasured the cold droplets falling from the infinitely gray sky and landing all over his body. It was like getting touched by God: continual taps of cold unfeeling.

The best part of this whole grand joke is that the toad's respect you too much to tell you that you're no detective at all. You don't know anything about solving crimes.

Indeed, the last two murders that Mario had tried to solve had been indicative enough of his personal skills.

But they wish to humor you. It's the least they can do, what, with everything you've done for them. They're willing to let you help, forever, despite the fact that your own investigations are a waste of time for everyone. You couldn't solve the last two crimes, you can't solve this one.

But it wasn't to be just one. This was the beginning of something that no one in the Mushroom Kingdom would ever forget. A crime that would make Mario actually care about what he did again.

Mario had almost reached Podley's Place, his favorite bar, when one of Captain Toad's lackeys came running up behind Mario.

"Mario! Mario! By boogity, there's been another murder!" Toadbert was beginning to stutter wildly. "The Princess-!"

Author's Notes: My laptop's harddrive crashed a few days ago, and I've been hoping that my numerous amounts of story notes have not been lost. It looks like it's going to be another week for it to get repaired (at which point I'll find out the status of my papers) so while I wait I'm going to do little updates for this completely unplanned new story here. Thanks for reading!