Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Day 37 19:34-Day 42 8:15


Shigeki is doing a bad job hiding his disdain. It’s one of the most coherent thoughts that Takeshi has had since coming back. It took him a few days to do much more than counting changes.

Ruiko cried when seeing Mai.

Masanari ran out of the room when he saw Miki.

Shigeki had frozen after seeing Hitomi.

Masanari quietly volunteered to explore with Manami, so Ruiko went with Nishino and Shigeki went with Mai.

Takeshi tried to stay more present.

Magic isn’t real but if he’s here then it must be. Except magic isn’t real so it must be in his head. And if it’s in his head, why can’t he tell?

This circles for a while. He breathes in and out.

He’s started to accept it though. Accept the Hitomi he’s folding laundry with is actually Hitomi. Accept Airi and Ran making friends again. Accept that he hadn’t remembered the color of Isono Miki’s hair correctly. He had thought it was more red. Takeshi listens to Hitomi speak. He knows her search won’t lead to anything, but she deserves to be listened to.

Takeshi repurposes his sketchbook from only drawing to drawing and writing. He draws the names he remembers from Ken, from Hasegawa, saying at the end. He draws each of his classmates names again. He writes down ideas on how they can help everyone. He writes down things he needs to tell Shigeki, Ruiko, Masanari, and Nakamigawa that he can’t risk saying out loud.

Takeshi has been trying to stay more present and even if the necessity of that was based on a cruel lie he is still trying to. If this is real, he cannot leave his friends to face this alone. And about his friends—

Shigeki is doing badly hiding everything, but disdain is most noticeable. Nakamigawa has been keeping him away from Hasegawa and, after one hastily written conversation, Shigeki has managed to keep his face under control, but it’s a good reminder that they’re not meant to be there. Shigeki doesn’t have a good excuse for his dislike of one of the most innocuous classmates. There’s no reason for him to hate Ken. The Shigeki who came here at first would not look at someone like that even if he hated him.

Takeshi can’t blame him. Takeshi isn’t the same person he was when he came here at first either. And perhaps Shigeki isn’t being obvious. Perhaps Takeshi just remembers him differently.

Ruiko is being friendly. Nakamigawa is being quiet. Quiet for Nakamigawa at least. Takeshi thinks both are helping with how the group is developing. Masanari sticks by Manami’s side and soon Isono, Miki now, is by their side.

Nakamigawa writes ‘we are tying bedsheets together to bring Chiba to the place where she died’ and Takeshi needs to leave for an hour. Ruiko climbs up the rope and this time everyone is there. Airi volunteers, Ran protests. Ruiko insists that she can teach Airi and a tentative agreement is reached.

They play two truths and a lie, and Takeshi’s stomach twists when he remembers what happens next.

Takeshi had gotten used to sleeping with Nakamigawa beside him, but that would be ‘weird since they just met’ according to an intensely panicking Nakamigawa who was very intently not looking around for cameras, so Takeshi sleeps alone. He feels guilty for how much he is sleeping the past few days, like he’s cheating as he knows what’s coming, but there is not much he can do. He can’t tell anyone what is coming. They won’t believe in magic either.

Maybe he should have told Airi. She might have believed him.

The Confession Game. Happens. People stop looking at Shigeki like he might be a threat and start looking at him with pity. Takeshi would hate that more, but the tension has loosened from his shoulders. It’s been four days and he looks less angry.

Ruiko and Shigeki meet them in Nakamigawa’s room. Masanari is not avoiding them exactly, but he’s invested his time in Manami and Miki. Takeshi understands that investment.

They plan. They plan ways to reduce Hitomi's stress and then Nakamigawa makes it clear they have more people to worry about than Hitomi.

That hadn’t occurred to Takeshi.

Sometimes he think he really must be naive.

Ruiko suggests they all just sleep anyway. Nakamigawa does not immediately shoot it down.

Takeshi is concerned they won’t have a solution.

Writing isn’t a perfect fix. Takeshi’s not sure how much the cameras pick up. And he is certain they’ve said more out loud than can be explained. He hopes whoever’s watching them is confused. He hopes they have no idea what to do with them.

He watches Monomoko. He thinks its eyes have changed as he’s known her. It’s not just her fur. It’s everything about her.

Shigeki wondered once if she was a prisoner too. Takeshi thinks she may be.

Shigeki helps Takeshi and Hitomi with chores. She seems warmer to him than Takeshi remembers her being. Perhaps he misremembers.

Manami still volunteers for Miki. Nakamigawa takes his own punishment. Takeshi almost volunteers for him, but he can’t manage to move his mouth. Ruiko is banished from her dorm. Okazaki makes Masanari drink cologne this time. She…may have noticed how he’d been looking at her.

Nakamigawa startles when Hitomi takes the stab to her hand. He barely stops looking at her until—

Airi is told to strangle Ran. She does. It’s almost funny, compared to the horrible sounds he remembers Manami making.

Is this a different order too? Takeshi can’t remember.

Airi reveals her own student profile. Everyone rushes to assure her no one will look at it.

Manami drinks what is most likely paint.

And Masanari is forbidden from food. Manami volunteers. Masanari shoots her down. Takeshi tells him to give him the punishment. Masanari refuses. Nakamigawa tells Masanari not to be a fucking idiot and to give it to him instead. Their voices raise. Takeshi grasps Nakamigawa’s arm. The game continues.

Takeshi exists elsewhere until it ends.

He stays in his head and dreams of sleeping.

It’s a day early when the Body Discovery Announcement goes off.

Wada Masanari is found dead in the pool.

Chapter Text

Day 6 8:15-11:30

“We should probably sleep first.” 

“Fine, but when I’m awake I’m waking everyone else up.”

The pairs and evidence proceed as follows. Notes from the list writing paper handed out by Ojima Takeshi and Hasegawa Ken at the instruction of Sasaki Hitomi. 

Tsuno Manami and Isono Miki—medical bay and incinerator room

• Missing medication 
• Bismuth subsalicylate: 1/2 empty 
• Emetics: thrown in the trash. For what reason? 
• Aspirin: completely empty and thrown in the trash. A second bottle half full. 
• Sleeping pills: half missing. 
• Naproxen: ¼ empty. 
• Hydrocortisone: opened. 
• The incinerator room appears to have been used recently enough for there to be ash. It wasn’t hot though so it can’t have been this morning. 

Hiroaki Nakamigawa and Ojima Takeshi—dining room and kitchen 

• Dishes in the kitchen. Someone left their plates out in the dining room. It’s all normal. Nothing in here, except people being filthy. 

“Takeshi, you have to at least pretend we’re investigating.”

“We could have stopped this.”

“Takeshi, please, please stay here. We couldn't, okay? We couldn’t stop it. We couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Takeshi? Fuck.”

Hama Ran, Harada Keizou, and Chiba Airi—dorm rooms 

• Kamimura Kazutoshi’s room: Really clean! He lives up to his job I guess. Chiba found a photo of his family with him as a little kid. He has black hair and it’s super cute! 
• Ojima Takeshi’s room: He has a lot of nice drawings. Both his and it looks like Hiroaki’s art. It looks like he might be designing clothes for Tamba and Wada based on these drawings. I suppose Wada’s never going to get them now. 
• Wada Masanari: Wada’s room had some unusual things. We ended up spending a lot of time here. Weird stuff: it looks like he wrote out all the things that happened to us in the Decision Game and who took punishments for other people. There’s a stash of junk food under this bed. And when Hama was flipping through some shojo manga we think was his reward we found a note that was really weird. We looked it over but we couldn’t figure out what it was saying or who it was meant for. 
• Yanagi Shigeki: Yanagi’s room looks very clean except for it there appears to be a notebook with pages ripped out of it. That seemed like it was going to be relevant but when we looked around there wasn’t anything else notable. We grabbed it just in case. 
• My room! Um, Harada Keizou’s room: Cat toys and some of Hama’s and Chiba’s stuff. Nothing strange! 
• Hasegawa Ken: It was really messy and it was hard to find stuff but nothing suspicious. 
• Hiroaki Nakamigawa: Not a lot of stuff in here which makes sense because we found a lot of his clothes and makeup in Ojima’s room instead. We did find his reward though but it seemed a bit private. 
• Hama Ran: Nothing to report!
• Sasaki Hitomi: Sorry for going through your stuff Sasaki! We saw your notebooks. It all seemed pretty normal. 
• Chiba Airi: Nothing to report! Chiba has a very nice room. 
• Tamba Ruiko: Tamba’s room is kind of empty. I guess someone was able to grab her stuff. I didn’t really think about where she was staying. Hope she’s doing okay. 
• Hayashi Mai: Hayashi’s room is really clean. I’m not sure how much she’s been in here. She has the knife she got as a reward along with some other stuff like restraints and handcuffs and stuff. It doesn’t look like any of it’s gone but I’d have to ask her. 
• Okazaki Hanano: There are a lot of very…interesting masks here. 

“We didn’t get to finish. We got way too distracted by the masks.”

“It’s okay! I’m sure there wasn’t anything in Isono and Tsuno’s rooms anyway.”

“Yeah, no way either of them did anything. Don’t worry about it.”

“And Watari?”

“It’s probably fine.”

Hasegawa Ken and Watari Nishino—auditorium and locker rooms

• Nothing was found in the auditorium. There were plenty of potential weapons but not for this particular crime. 
• The gym locker, however, had a towel with blood on it. 

Yanagi Shigeki and Tamba Ruiko—storage room

• N/A

“Why-why would he—?”

“We know why.”

“I can’t. I can’t do this again!”

Hayashi Mai and Kamimura Kazutoshi—pool and body. 

Evidence acquired:

• Details of the body retrieved from inside the pool. 
• His wrists were slit. Slight amounts of blood were found in the pool. Hesitation marks indicate that they were made by self, but those can be faked. 
• Lips and nails are slightly blue. 
• Malnourished and dehydrated: shrunken eyes and hair loss.
• Items found inside the pool room. 
• Blood found by the pool's edge.
• A bloody kitchen knife was also found at the edge of the pool. Not the most convenient knife to make those sorts of wounds, but it’s possible there wasn’t a better option.   

Sasaki Hitomi and Okazaki Hanano—laundry room

• Suicide Note? It’s difficult to tell as we don’t have any sort of indication on Wada’s general handwriting. It’s possible it’s forged, but it certainly seems like a suicide note. 
• Nothing else of note. Searched through the washing machine, dryers, behind and under everything, and through the laundry just in case. Nothing notable. 

Note found on the table of the laundry room. 

[To Manami and Isono. 

Thank you so much for being my friends. You may be the first friends I’ve ever had. Manami, thank you so much for basically making me another one of your brothers. I’m sure you’ll get to see them again. Isono, I’ve been your fan for such a long time. Becoming a Miki Monster helped me make it through so much in life. You’ll never know how much I appreciate you. 

I’m doing this because someone has to die. Someone has to die because we have to sleep eventually. If no one sleeps, someone will snap and kill someone else. I know it, so I’m stopping that from happening. 

To you. 

You know I had to. I couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t. I’m sorry. I believe in you. I shouldn’t leave you alone but I can’t do this again. Plus this way, they can live and so can you. 

Goodbye.]

Note found in Wada’s room by Hama Ran. 

[I hope one of you investigates here. Stayed in A. overnight the night before this—like that person tried to. No one came in. It must be M. who does it. I would have told you, but I don’t think I could talk to any of you today without giving myself away. 

I hope I don’t wake up to this again. I hope you don’t either.]

Chapter Text

Day 6 11:30

Masa didn’t kill himself. Miki is holding onto that thought. Masa wouldn’t do that to them which means someone here killed him. 

It’s hard to imagine though. She looks around the room. There’s Sasaki, who’s such a strong leader, Chiba and Harada who are so friendly, Hama who seems scary at first but is so sweet with Chiba, and Yanagi and Hayashi who both seem so tough, but would they kill someone? 

There’s Ken who she thought would help her and Kamimura who really doesn’t seem to like her. He wouldn’t hurt Masa over something like that.  Watari’s so friendly. Tamba, who’s right across the room from Miki, is too and has gone out of her way to check on her and Masa, Hiroaki who seems a little arrogant, but he’s been smart and helpful, and Ojima who’s been quiet, but kind when he speaks. 

So it has to be Okazaki. Miki fixes her eyes on her. It has to be. Masa clearly didn’t like her. Miki got the feeling they’d met before. Masa steps away when she comes near. He’s always shy but so much more when Okazaki’s around. She and Manami have been trying to stay away from her and you can’t read Okazaki’s face, but Miki gets the sense that she’s annoyed about something when they do. 

So she and Masa must know each other. They know each other and they don’t like each other and Okazaki killed him over it. 

Masa was a fan. A sweet fan who didn’t have a lot in his life, but he did have her. He was the exact type of person that Miki wanted to help the most. The type of person she hoped her fans would turn out to be instead of some of the creeps she met before. Miki looks at her side to Ken. She can’t stand the silence in the room. “Did you find anything?”

Ken startles. Miki focuses her attention on the rest of the room. She makes frantic eye contact with Manami and then sweeps them around the room. “Was anyone able to find anything?” This is more than just justice for Masa, Miki remembers. Their lives depend on this. 

Sasaki clears her throat. “That’s a very good question Ms. Isono. Let’s do this in an organized fashion. Let’s take this chronologically. This started after Takeshi and I located the note in the laundry room. Let’s start with who found the body.”

Yanagi clears his throat. “Ms. Hayashi and I—found, found the body. After the two of you found—found the note, Ms. Hayashi and I were speaking nearby and we came after you called out. The four of us spread out to investigate. Ms. Hayashi and I went to search the pool and found him there.” Yanagi sounds choked up. Miki remembers him and Masa chatting. Miki hadn’t thought he’d get along with such an intense guy, but they seemed to really like each other.   

Sasaki nods. “Perhaps we should stay with the crime scene team then. Hayashi, Kamimura, what did you find?”

Masa’s wrists were slit with a knife by the pool but that wouldn’t have killed him. They found blood along with a knife there. “Given how dry the blood was, I’d say he was actually killed last night rather than this morning.”

“Last night?” Sasaki looks surprised. “When was the last time anyone saw Masanari.” 

When was the last time she saw Masa? She invited him to hang out with her in her room that night and he said. He said he needed some time alone. She should have insisted. He wanted to hang out with her almost all day and she let him go a few hours before nighttime. “Maybe like, eight or so. Manami and I were going to hang out with him for the night but he wasn’t feeling up to it. Manami was especially worried because he wasn’t allowed to eat.”

“Eight, alright. Does anyone remember seeing him after that?”

A moment passes. “I do.” Miki whips her head around to Kamimura. “I don’t know when it was—I saw him coming out of the medbay. I don’t know when. It was before nighttime, but after eight.”

“Did you see what he was doing?”

“No, I mind my own fucking business.”

“…I see. Noted. Did anyone see him after that?” 

Why would Masa go to the medbay without Manami? He knew Manami would help him with whatever he needed. 

“Alright, sounds like that’s the last time we saw Masanari. Speaking of the medbay, it seems as though it might be important now. Medbay team, what did you find?”

Miki opens her mouth. She sends a panicked look to Manami who has their notes. Manami dutifully rattles off each of the medications that they found. She then ends it with. “I’m not certain which of these Masa went in there to take, but the ones that strike me as most unusual are the emetics being dumped out and the sleeping pills. The others were reduced only a bit from when I gave people medication after the Decision Game. But just to check, have you guys been taking medication?” Sasaki, Ken, Ojima, and Yanagi affirm. Surprisingly, Hayashi and Hiroaki, who also got hurt, do not. “Got it. And did anyone take sleeping pills or throw out any emetics?” No one responds. 

Sasaki writes something down. “Noted. Did you find anything in the incinerator room?”

Miki doesn’t want to make her friend do all the talking. “It looks like something was maybe burned in there, but not this morning or anything. Um, it wasn’t hot. Did anybody burn something in there?”

“Takeshi.” Hiroaki speaks up surprisingly. “Ugh, sorry he’s out.” Ojima is doing that thing he sometimes does when he can’t respond. Miki can relate a bit. “He was upset about how one of his sketches came out and I told him to burn it.”

There’s a pause. “I can totally relate!” Nishino smiles brightly. “Burning stuff that you don’t like totally improves the like, vibes or whatever.” There’s another pause. 

Sasaki. “Alright, that seems like it may be unrelated to the case. Since you just spoke, Hiroaki. Anything you found?”

“A lot of people’s dirty dishes which, gross, but nothing like. Relevant. Especially because they can’t be Wada’s cuz he couldn’t eat after the Decision Game.” 

“Noted. Storage room?”

Tamba answers which surprises her. “I’ve actually been keeping my stuff there after I got kicked out of the dorms. There wasn’t much except my stuff in there. I mean there was a lot of stuff just not relevant stuff.”

“Auditorium and locker rooms?”

Ken and Nishino found a towel with blood on it which seems like it would be very important until Hama admits he dropped a weight on his toe. 

“Okazaki and I didn’t find anything in the locker room except for the note, which I believe we should discuss after we get through everyone’s testimonies. Dorm rooms?”

It’s quiet for a moment. Miki turns her head. Harada and Chiba appear to be looking at Hama. Hama starts, sounding a little reluctant. “Alright, so, we got to look through most of the rooms except for Watari’s, Tsuno’s, and Isono’s. We really didn’t have enough time.” Sasaki looks unhappy but nods. “Okazaki’s room had a lot of masks and there’s a weird amount of stuff. It looks like she’s taken from around the school, but it didn’t seem relevant.” Miki’s heart sinks. She was sure there would be something important in Okazaki’s room. If she took stuff, maybe she stole something from Masa? “Hayashi has her knife and some restraints, but I don’t think Wada was tied up or anything and the knife was clean so it’s probably fine. Tamba’s room was pretty empty—guess her stuff’s in the storage room. Chiba’s room was fine and we got to learn that Sasaki thinks Keizou is cute from her notebooks so that’s something.”

“I—“ Sasaki is bright red and Miki wishes she could enjoy this more. “I am more than aware you have a girlfriend Mr. Harada and I do not have any interest in you that way.” Harada nods. “Yeah! I know you didn’t mean it that way! Hama’s just being super rude right now.” Hiroaki looks thrilled for some reason. 

“Then my room, just my demon salt and demonology notes. Hiroaki had some lotion and stuff but most of his things are in Ojima’s room.”

“We think they’re living together!”

“Okay, hold on—“

“Anyway, nothing relevant there. Nothing relevant there, nothing relevant in Keizou, Hasegawa, Ojima, or Kamimura’s rooms.”

Miki noticed the ones he left off. “What about Yanagi and Masa?”

“Yanagi’s room—it was mostly normal, but you have pages ripped out of this notebook you have. What’s up with that.” Hama’s voice is flat. Miki feels her heart rate increase. 

Yanagi looks uncomfortable. “After—after Ms. Sasaki mentioned that she thought maybe there was a secret door or something I, I decided it would be in our best interest to see if there is anything that can be found. So I’ve started searching.” Yanagi fumbles around in his bag and pulls out several neatly folded sheets of paper. He unfolds one and hands it to Hayashi at his side. “For—for example here’s my map of the medbay.” Miki leans over to see the map Hayashi is looking at. There’s a drawing of the medical bay with indications of the vents, each of the beds, the cold lockers, and where they checked for various possible places of entry, along with a list of all medicine and chemicals in there. “I—I checked the locations and the information while Hiroaki made the map.”

Sasaki looks over at Hiroaki who nods. “That’s very impressive you two. Once we get out of here, I believe our first order of business should be to itemize everything we have. Now Hama, about Wada’s room?”

Hama pauses and then starts. “Wada wrote down what happened to everyone in the decision game. He also has a stash of food in his room.”

“And we found a weird letter.” Chiba is giving Hama a look and then turns around to everyone. “We found a weird letter and we don’t know who or what it’s for. It’s really hard to understand. I want to know if anyone knows what it’s about.”

When the letter reaches Miki, she reads it. It doesn’t make sense. She passes it on. 

Miki catches Manami’s eye after the letter reaches her. Manami looks just as confused as her and shrugs. 

Ojima seems to be awake now and reads it and passes it on to Hiroaki. Hiroaki looks it over and sounds almost casual when he says, “if he didn’t say that thing about investigating, I’d assume this was for someone who knew him before. None of us knew Wada, right?” Miki’s eyes shoot to Okazaki. A mask won’t give anything away. Miki’s fingers twist together. 

Sasaki takes the note. “Masanari was from Sendai, right? Takeshi, you’re from that area as well right?”

Ojima nods. “I am, but I didn’t know him before we got here.” They wait a second to see if he goes on. He doesn’t. 

Sasaki looks again considering. “What does A stand for? And M?”

Okazaki chimes in. “A. could be for Auditorium right? It sounds like he was waiting for the game to be set up. Which is honestly smart. I didn’t give him enough credit I suppose.”

Sasaki stares down at the note clutched in her hand. “Is this…not the first time they’ve done this?”

“It’s possible.” Everyone turns their attention to Hayashi. “This is pretty high profile, but yeah it’s entirely possible. Wada seems like he had limited money and connections and he was physically weak.” Miki opens her mouth to protest. “It’s not an insult just a fact. If whoever is doing this is a repeat offender, Wada could well be someone they kidnapped twice.”

No one answers. Miki’s stomach clutches. The idea that Masa, that sweet innocent Masa, has been kidnapped by people. Has probably watched people die. Hayashi speaks again. “This was clearly addressed to someone. Someone in this game—someone who’s been through this before. We’re all on the same team here. If you’ve been here before, you know more than us. You can help us. Share what you know.”

It’s suffocating quiet in there. No one speaks. No one even seems like they’re considering speaking. Sasaki clears her throat. “Perhaps…this isn’t the time for this. We can discuss this later, after the trial. If we think this is related to the death, then we can come back to it later.” Sasaki flips a page in her notebook.“There’s something else I’d like to discuss. We know Masanari was last seen sometime between eight and ten at the medbay by Kamimura. We need to discuss alibis.”

Hiroaki jumps in before Sasaki could ask anything. “Takeshi and I were in his room drawing.” Sasaki writes this down. “Neither of us left until we went to get breakfast around 6 or so.” 

“Hama was teaching Harada and I about demons! We were hanging out in Harada’s room. I played with Sawa too.” 

“At eight I was cleaning up in the kitchen,” Manami starts. “Miki went to check on Masa but he wasn’t feeling up to spending time together so she came back and then we went to her room.”

Watari jumps in. “Tamba and I were in the hallway by the laundry room mostly. We saw Sasaki and Yanagi go in with some clothes.” 

“Yes, I remember you throwing sticks set on fire in the air.”

“Yeah! Hanging out!”

“As Watari mentioned, Ms. Sasaki and I started several loads of laundry, the boys side laundry in this case, after dinner probably around seven so before Ms. Isono last saw Wada. We went back in there to transfer and fold them though. In between those times, I went and talked to Mai outside the auditorium.”

“Can confirm.”

“The laundry was done I’d say before nine, though I do not have an exact time. So if anyone left a note, it must have been after that time.”

Sasaki jumps in. “Unless it was in the morning.” She pauses. “They would have about an hour to do so.”

Tamba jumps in. “Wada also went to the laundry room last night.” Everyone pauses. 

“Wada went to the laundry room. After you guys left. And then he left. He didn’t go out with anything though.”

Tamba is very quiet. It’s so different from how she usually is it’s striking. “Wada went into the laundry room. He didn’t come out with anything. I thought he was, I don’t know. I guess I didn’t pay a lot of attention. But he went in there and then he left last night.”

“He killed himself.” Hiroaki’s expression is hard to read behind his sunglasses, but Ojima next to him shudders. 

Miki is quiet, but Manami lets out a distressed sound. “No, no he can’t have.”

“He did.”

Miki’s light headed. “But there’s—Okazaki! Masa clearly didn’t like her, and she doesn’t have an alibi—she could have—“

“Tamba and Watari, what time did Wada go to the laundry room?”

They exchange a look. “I don’t know exactly when,” Watari starts, “but it was pretty soon before nighttime started.” 

“Five or ten minutes?”

“Maybe fifteen.” 

Hiroaki nods. Miki can see Sasaki taking notes. 

“Did anyone else take the sleeping pills?” 

No one answers. 

Miki can’t see his eyes, but she thinks Hiroaki might be making eye contact with her. “Wada is seen walking around sometime between five to fifteen minutes before nighttime. To kill him, someone would need to either force sleeping pills down his throat or knock him out, carry him to the pool, and killed him there without attracting attention to themself. This would be fine if they had all night. They didn’t. Did anyone see Okazaki after nighttime started?”

Hayashi. “I saw her pass by after nighttime. We talked for a bit.”

“Did Okazaki ever go to the laundry room that you two saw? Actually I should ask, did you see anyone other than Sasaki and Yanagi?”

“No.” 

“Did anyone see anyone going to the laundry room this morning? Was there anyone missing from breakfast? I’m sure everyone saw everyone at least once last night.”

“Which means no one was in the pool room with Wada.”

This can’t be happening. 

Hiroaki continues. “Here’s what I think happened. Wada concluded for some reason that someone was going to kill someone else if no one died. Maybe Sasaki’s right and he’s done this before and had seen it then. Maybe he thought someone in particular was in danger. Maybe he just knows people die if they don’t sleep. Maybe he was just tired.”

“For whatever reason, Wada decided that the best way to handle this was to kill himself. So he gets a knife from the kitchen at some point. That could really be any time during the day. He writes two notes, one for someone we don’t know, which he leaves in his room and one of the group he later puts in the laundry room. That one also addressed Tsuno and Isono. He goes to the medbay and grabs a bunch of sleeping pills. He then goes to the laundry room and puts down his note.”

“I think he did this right before night in a room that was locked at night to make sure we didn’t get the wrong answer. He made sure someone saw him going to another room that locked at night so we wouldn’t think it was someone else. If no one else could do it, we’d have to say it was suicide even if we doubted the note. He then went to the pool, slit his wrists, took a bunch of sleeping pills, and jumped in.”

Hiroaki’s voice is flat. “Does anyone disagree?”

She doesn’t, is the thing. She can feel herself crying but it’s nothing compared to the sobs she can hear coming from Manami. 

‘You’re one of the first friends I ever had?’ 

That can’t be a reason to kill yourself. 

The rabbit is saying something. 

People are agreeing. 

She doesn’t want to die. 

She votes. 

Dr. Yonekura Haruka

Session 1, log eleven. 

Today was, let’s say, frustrating. This morning, after the Decision Game had concluded, Student Six set about completing a suicide plan. He retrieved a knife from the kitchen and then went and spent the rest of the day with Students One and Eleven. This action made most of the staff assume he was intending to commit murder, but that was not his actual plan. 

Student Six set up what must be the most easily solved case possible to set up. The sort of setup that would come about if you were intending to frame someone for committing suicide, not actually do it themselves. 

The trial lasted less than thirty minutes. What a waste of time. 

More importantly, Student Six wrote a very unusual note. A note that implies he’s been kidnapped before. There is no record of this! We have done extensive background checks on all of the students. Seki did not find any sort of situation that even remotely compares to this one that Student Six has been in. 

In any case, Dr. Kan appears to be sulking. I thought at first that perhaps he was taking the betting pool too seriously, but I heard him complaining to Seki about ‘wasted effort’ whatever that means. 

It seems I have company. Monomoko is here. 

Dr. Yonekura Haruka, session 1, log eleven, end. 

Chapter Text

Day 7 

9:00

“I’d appreciate it if you’d look out for everyone.” Hitomi tells Hayashi in a low voice. “There may be a bit of tension today.”

Hayashi gives her an apprasing look. It might be the most pleasant look Hayashi has ever given her. Hitomi gets the feeling Hayashi doesn’t like her or, at least, doesn’t like her as a leader, but Hitomi feels like Hayashi may be the only responsible person she knows in here that isn’t completely falling apart after yesterday. 

Hitomi’s fellow kidnapping victims, new classmates, are an interesting bunch. They’ve gotten to know each other very well over the last few days. Too well, after the Confession Game. Hitomi wishes these people didn’t know that about her, but she’s certain they also wish she didn’t know their secrets either. 

Hitomi heads out into the second floor. First stop is the art room. Hiroaki Nakamigawa and Ojima Takeshi can be found there. 

Hiroaki is a sharp and talkative person who has bouts of clear anxiety. He alternates between arguing with and capitulating to her. It’s slightly alarming at times how fast his mood shifts, but Hitomi has started to determine something. His combative side is instinctual, and then he reminds himself not to say what he’s saying. 

Ojima is a spacy and creative individual with some similar issues to Hitomi herself. Hitomi is honestly very concerned about him. She’s concerned he’s attached himself so quickly and intensely to someone as erratic as Hiroaki and she’s concerned for his mental state with how long he spends spaced out and the fact the second day here he couldn’t seem to stop talking about magic. Still, he’s very helpful, volunteering to help with cooking and laundry. 

She checks in on the art room and sees Hiroaki and Ojima there whispering almost inappropriately closely. She needs to have a talk with Hiroaki soon. She clears her throat. Hiroaki jumps back and grabs the sketchpad in his lap. “Hitomi! Hey. I live here now.”

Hitomi opens her mouth to respond, before Ojima cuts her off. “You live in your room.”

“My room doesn’t have a bed, Takeshi.”

“Have you considered sleeping in the auditorium then? Where your bed is? Instead of my room or the art room.”

“Gross! There’s no way I can sleep in the auditorium. It’s gross and sweaty in there.”

Perhaps the art room can wait for when they aren’t here. “I’ll leave you two be then.” 

Ojima nods at her. “See you, Hitomi.”

AV room. Tsuno Manami and Isono Miki appear to have set up here. Tsuno Manami is a kind and selfless individual who has similar issues to Hiroaki Nakamigawa, but appears to have gone to rehab. She’s one of the people Hitomi was most certain would be able to help her, but was hit hard by Wada’s death, so Hitomi is not planning to ask her for assistance. Isono Miki is an internet idol, a profession Hitomi barely understands, but comes off as a sweet and fairly anxious girl. She is also taking Wada’s death hard. 

In the AV room, Isono is crying. Tsuno catches Hitomi’s eyes over her shoulder has she hugs her friend and shakes her head. Hitomi does not go into the AV room. 

All four of the people Hitomi has seen have been greatly affected by Wada’s death. Hitomi had briefly considered whether Hiroaki had been the person Wada had been kidnapped with previously, but he was simply too famous for that to make sense. As is Isono. Perhaps it was Tsuno, but the beginning of the suicide note indicated that he was speaking to someone else in the latter part. 

The mysterious “you” the person Wada had been kidnapped with previously, if their theories are correct, did not want to reveal themselves. Hitomi can respect that to a certain extent, but it is making her life harder. 

Her best bets right now are Hayashi Mai and Kamimura Kazutoshi. Hayashi has made several strange comments indicating that she’s familiar with the situation they’re in and Kamimura is nervous and standoffish and is one of the people Sasaki imagines would never say if they’d been in this situation before. 

Her only other thoughts are possibly Okazaki Hanano and Ojima Takeshi. Ojima’s strange reaction to being found here could be a response to what he believed to be a flashback. But there’s no reason to refer to that as “magic.” Also, Okazaki Hanano and Wada Masanari seemed to have some kind of connection as Wada showed a surprising amount of dislike towards her. However, given how much he seemed to dislike her, it would be strange for him address a note like that to her. 

Those are the four she feels are most likely. Possibly more than one of them. 

As for the others: Isono Miki, Chiba Airi, Hiroaki Nakamigawa, Tamba Ruiko, and Yanagi Shigeki are all celebrities. Their disappearances would have almost certainly made the news. Possibly Hasegawa Ken as well. And Sasaki hasn’t seen any signs that would point to Harada Keizou or Hama Ran as the other victim. 

Hitomi continues her rounds. The second floor has a good amount more extracurriculars and enjoyable areas, which is exceptionally helpful. They’re going to be stuck here until either Chiba reaches the vent or the police come so keeping the tension low will be an important priority. Watari’s voice comes in on the intercom and Hitomi heads to the staff room. 

Watari appears to be in an argument with the rabbit in regards with roleplay she was engaging in. Once the rabbit leaves, Watari bounces over to her. “Sasaki! Hey~ As headmaster, I have a question.” 

Hitomi closes her eyes for a brief moment and then opens them. “What is it.”

Watari starts walking out of the room. “Well, as headmaster, I’ve been thinking that it’s such a shame that this school doesn’t have a student council. It’s an absolute disgrace for the school! We don’t have a student council when we have a perfectly good student council president right here.”

Ridiculous. “Watari I—“

“Hey! Listen to the headmaster okay.” Watari’s voice goes a little quieter. It’s as serious as Hitomi’s ever heard her. “People are depressed after yesterday. It might be good to get them something to focus on, okay?”

Hitomi nods. 

“Okay! By order of the headmaster, you are going to form a student council. I want papers on my desk on your members.”

“Watari—“

“Headmaster Watari! Bye-bye~”

Hitomi sighs. Watari Nishino seems like a frivolous girl who isn’t taking the situation seriously enough, but she does have a very good point. Reducing tensions and cheering people up is going to be very important, after the last few days. Especially yesterday. 

Hitomi continues along. She finds several more classrooms that are empty and one that is not. Yanagi is in one of the last classrooms in the hall, the one designated 4A. Hitomi sees him knock on the wall and press his ear against him, clearly attempting to find any hollow areas. He whips around when he hears her open the door, tenses, and then relaxes. 

Yanagi confuses her. He speaks politely, supports her plans, and is constantly assisting everyone. He also comes across as extremely angry, especially in the first few days. Given how much he’s calmed down since then, Hitomi has started to think that perhaps that is just how fear looks on him. Everyone’s walls look different from one another. 

“Ms. Sasaki.”

“Have you found anything?” He looks extremely frustrated so she assumes not, but it’s important to be sure. 

“No. Whatever is behind these walls appears to be solid or else they’re just very thick.”

“I see.” There’s a pause. “How can I assist you Ms. Sasaki?”

She sighs. “I haven’t seen the whole floor yet, but it’s certainly a more interesting one than the basement. More to keep people distracted at the very least. Speaking of distractions,” he tilts his head at her words, “Watari seems to believe we need to form a student council.”

Yanagi appears to think for a moment. “Well, it will certainly make it easier to organize things in the future.”

Hitomi thinks for a moment. “That is true. Alright. We’ll make one. How do you feel about Vice President?”

He looks started for a moment, which is strange to her. He’s the one who’s been volunteering since the beginning to take care of things. Him, and Manami but she’s in no state at the moment to be taking on extra responsibilities given how many she’s already given herself. “I would be honored.”

They continue to explore the floor. As Yanagi takes detailed notes of each area they’re in, eventually waving down Hayashi for assistance, Hitomi thinks that it might not be bad to have a little bit of help going forward. 

Chapter Text

Day 44 

7:15

Let it be known that Hiroaki Nakamigawa is not a fucking coward. “Here.” 

They slept in Nakamigawa’s room for once. Nakamigawa wakes up to Takeshi pressed against his back, his arms wrapped around his stomach, and the memory that Takeshi got to see him without his glasses last night. It’s embarrassing enough that he wants to do something to stop Takeshi from talking about it. And he knows what he needs to do before the adrenaline hits. 

So he gives Takeshi his cigar box. Takeshi’s looking at him wide eyed. “It’s expensive as hell so I feel weird about throwing it out myself. So you do it.”

Takeshi doesn’t say anything. He has this soft look in his eyes that makes Nakamigawa feel gross so he turns around and throws Takeshi’s clothes at him. There isn’t nearly as much of Takeshi’s stuff in here than his in Takeshi’s room, but that’s the advantage of being the Ultimate Fashion Designer. Lots of clothes. He really has the best talent. 

As Takeshi turns to leave, Nakamigawa calls after him. “Grab the other two. There’s something we need to talk about.”

“Okay.”

Nakamigawa has made a resolution. Chiba Airi won’t die here. 

When Tamba and Yanagi enter the room, Nakamigawa has his presentation ready. “Alright! What’s the most important thing we need to ask ourselves for the immediate future?”

No response. Nothing. Unfortunate, but not unexpected with this group. 

“How do we kill, disappear, or otherwise distract the tiger so it doesn’t kill Chiba? Without, I should note, just murdering a tiger in front of them and coming across like total evil freaks to our classmates.” 

A pause. “Oh shit! I forgot about the tiger.” Of course she had. “What do we do about Sawa?” Nakamigawa stops thinking about anything Tamba is saying and starts looking at Yanagi. 

Yanagi pauses for a moment. “We can try and…lure her out when Harada’s sleeping?”

“We can’t get into his room.”

“The Phantom Thief of Nagoya might be able to?”

“Tamba, she’d murder him. Also how would we even ask her.”

Takeshi is in his thinking mode. “Maybe we make a toy that she’d really like and she’d play with that instead of attacking Chiba.”

“Harada already has toys. Come on Takeshi.”

“Oh! I can volunteer to help watch Chiba climb! Then when Sawa attacks—I’ll just grab her!”

“Tamba, your plan is to get attacked by the tiger?”

Yanagi. “Maybe once we have the secret passageway figured out we can knock Harada out and take her.”

“No chance we’re going to be able to figure out the secret passageways in the next, what, four days? We have four days max before this happens, right? Also what are we even going to do with her if we get her?”

“Kill her?” Yanagi looks disgusted to suggest the idea. Nakamigawa is sure his face looks the same.

Tamba actually jumps up. “I don’t want to kill anything!”

“We can just leave her there can’t we? Without killing her?”

Nakamigawa examines his nails. “Maybe if we let her loose in the secret passageway she’ll find the staff and maul them.”

They all consider the idea for a moment. Takeshi raises his hand. “Takeshi, you don’t have to raise your hand! Just talk. What’s up?”

“Why don’t we just…ask Harada to keep Sawa locked up while the adrenaline motive is happening? Or have Hitomi do it; he’ll probably listen to her.”

Nakamigawa is quiet. 

“Y-yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” says Tamba who was clearly thinking no such thing. 

Yanagi looks defeated. “Let’s, let’s put the other ideas in the back just in case we need them, but presumably Harada would be agreeable. We’ll discuss it with Sasaki perhaps on the first or second day of the adrenaline motive.”

Takeshi perks up. “I still want to make a cat toy! I think Harada would appreciate it.”

“You know what? Sure.”

It’s not a productive day, compared to them mapping out the building and looking for crawlspaces and secret passageways. It’s not important like making sure everyone didn’t snap from the motive. But sitting there completing an art project with Takeshi, a sturdy cat toy rope that can mimic the bedsheets that Chiba died on, Nakamigawa still feels like they’re doing something significant. 

Chiba Airi won’t die. They’ll kill a tiger if they have to. 

But they might not have to. 

Isono stops by in the afternoon and they tell her they’re making a present for someone. Manami is busy in the kitchen so she sticks around and makes a semi-decent drawing of some flowers. 

In the center of them is a lily. 

Takeshi says it reminds him of Masanari and Isono cries. They stay with her through the afternoon. Takeshi shows her how to use watercolors. 

Takeshi volunteers for kitchen duty. Tamba had asked him to help keep Okazaki away from Watari so Hiroaki loudly asks her questions about mask making and finds him surprisingly interested in the answers. Not that it makes him forget what a psycho she is, but she does seem to have some artistic talent. 

Nakamigawa takes a moment to take Chiba aside and warn her about playing with tigers. She nods more seriously than he expected and his heart lightens.

By nighttime, Takeshi has managed to twist the string they found together into a rope that can be tied to the ceiling. Loops of pink and yellow and black all together and knotted, except the one point in the middle they had to get out the hot glue gun. They haven’t figured out how to make it move without a fan yet, but they will, or they’ll set it up with a fan. 

They head to Takeshi’s room. Hiroaki already knows this won’t be a night where he’s able to sleep. He sits leaning against the bed, finalizing his drawing of Tamba’s outfit. It’ll be easier to make once the sewing room is open, but if he could make Wada’s outfit then he can certainly make this one with what’s in his room. 

Takeshi’s eyes are closed, but he can tell he isn’t asleep. Hiroaki thinks about his cigar box. He wonders if it’s in the incinerator already. Maybe Takeshi just hid it. 

He closes his eyes. It’s fine. He doesn’t need it. He doesn’t even feels sick. He spent so long last game in so much pain that it’s easy to ignore the slash on his back. He runs a pen down the silhouette of Tamba’s shirt. He’s thankful that Takeshi can sleep with a little light. He can finish this as long as he stops thinking about his cigar box…

Which he got as a reward. 

Nakamigawa’s head shoots up. 

“Takeshi!” Takeshi sits up on and stares at him, half asleep. “Wha?”

“Wada didn’t fall asleep, so we didn’t swap rewards. Okazaki still has a gun!”

He’s awake now. “Oh. Fuck.”

Chapter Text

Day 9 

10:20

Nishino, Headmaster Watari now, thinks she’s done a pretty good job with this student council. Or, she’s done a pretty good job in ordering Sasaki to make one, which is basically the same thing!

It’s a surprising group around the table. Sasaki has gotten Yanagi as her vice president, which was easy to guess, but the other members are Isono, Ojima, and Hama. Apparently both Hayashi and Hasegawa turned a position down.

“Why didn’t you invite Tsuno?” Watari asked when they came in. Sasaki told her that she thought Tsuno was doing too much. Watari thought back to watching Tsuno cleaning out the kitchen again and agreed.

They’re in the staff room which isn’t where a student council would usually meet, but this is a very special meeting. Not just because it’s the very first meeting of the student council, but also because they are here to do something very important.

“It’s lovely to see all these new faces around! I have brought the student council here for a very important reason.” Sasaki and Hama look annoyed, Ojima looks like nothing, Isono is smiling, and Yanagi looks like he wants to run out of the room. So the usual reactions! “And that is to introduce you to the staff!”

“And who are the staff?” If Sasaki clenches her teeth any harder, Nishino thinks they might start to hurt.

“Staff! Introduce yourself.”

Hanano steps forward. She was the first person to volunteer to be staff under her. Ruiko had overheard them talking and decided to join as well. This would be such a good time. “Hall Overlord, Okazaki Hanano.” Hanano gives a theatrical little bow and Nishino claps. 

Ruiko steps forward next. “Uh, yeah, hi, I’m Tamba Ruiko. I’m the gym teacher.” Don’t look so bashful Tamba! Aren’t you a performer?

“If anyone wants to work out, I’m your girl!” There she is! That’s way better. 

“Do we have any questions for the staff?” Isono raises her hand. “Yes, miss? Please introduce yourself.”

“Oh! Sure! I’m Isono Miki. Looking at the roles here I appear to be the… treasurer of this club! So, uh, question. I understand Tamba helps us work out, but what does the ‘Hall Overlord’ do?”

“I stop people from running in the halls.”

A pause. “That’s it? Okay.”

“Hama Ran. Secretary. You guys aren’t actually in charge of us, are you?” 

Headmaster Watari takes over for Nishino for a moment. “Of course we are! We are the faculty after all.” Hama turns to Sasaki who shakes her head. Rude!

Nishino looks around the room. “Any other questions for the staff while we’re here?” No one answers. “Alright then. Staff meeting adjourned!”

“Student council. Stay for a bit. We’re going to be discussing the subject of ‘Ultimates’ again. Unless the staff want to stay for that?” That sounds super boring to Nishino, so she doesn’t. She’s already learned that she was the Ultimate Fire Dancer and that’s basically all she cares about Ultimates-wise. Staff dismissed! 

13:50

It’s later that day when Nishino starts to hear raised voices coming from the drama room. It’s extremely strange to hear said tone coming from a staff member, so she has to check it out. Contrary to popular opinion, Nishino is very sneaky. So she sneaks. Not that it’s hard to hear Ruiko normally, but right now she seems like she’s trying to be quiet, so Nishino hides behind a wall and listens in.

“I’m telling you, Mai- she had a gun!”

“I know, I believe you. I promise I believe you. I just need to know where she put it.”

“I- I don’t know. I didn’t see. When she was left it was still in her hand.”

“Okay that’s. Fine. Look, just sit tight, okay? I’ll handle this. We’re going to have a conversation—“

“Don’t! Mai! Please, she’s dangerous. I don't want you getting hurt.”

“Look, she’d be pretty stupid to shoot me out in the open when someone else knows she has a gun. I’ll be fine. I’ve dealt with way more dangerous people than Okazaki before. It’s fine. Don’t make that face. I’m going to be fine.”

Mai walks off in the other direction, leaving a crying Tamba behind who sinks to the floor.

Hanano has a gun?

And Ruiko knows about it? 

Part of her wants to follow Mai- find out what the fuss is all about- figure out what Mai will do to make Hanano give it up. But the other part of her-

Ruiko is crying on the floor when Nishino approaches her. “I’m going to get her killed.”

It strikes Nishino, in that moment, how serious this all is. They're here to kill each other. That’s what they’re meant to do. Ruiko is crying on the ground because she thinks she said something to Mai that is actually going to get her killed because Hanano will actually shoot her. She searches her mind for something to say. 

“You won’t.”

“I will. She’s going to die again, and it’ll be all my fault.”

“She’s not going to die. Listen, Hanano isn’t just going to shoot her. Like Mai said, that would be stupid.”

“She’s going to die. I don’t know how to save her.”

Nishino watches as Ruiko falls to pieces in front of her. She sits on the ground next to her and wraps her arms around her.

Ruiko cries louder, but she hugs her back. Ruiko’s cold, but she starts to feel warmer. Nishino thinks about going after Mai, and then wraps her arms around Ruiko tighter.

19:00

It’s much later in the day than normal when she next sees Hanano. Nishino went and played dress up in the drama room with Ruiko to cheer her up. Eventually they dragged Ran, Manami, and Miki in to play with them and forced Ran into a prince role, which was very funny. Nishino decided to play the dastardly villain who kidnapped Princess Tamba this time. She could be a princess later.

Nishino hadn’t forgotten about Hanano. She’s still surprised when she knocks on her door though. Hanano waltzes in the moment that Nishino opens the door. She sits down like she owns the place. Hanano exists at a level of shamelessness that inspires Nishino.

“Hanano! Hey. Heard something might have, uh, happened today?”

“Oh. You already heard?” She sounds so disappointed. Oh no! 

“Well, I mean, you can still tell me!”

“No, if you already know then there isn’t much point. Except, I have no idea how Tamba knew about my reward.” That’s- what?

“You mean you didn’t show it to her?”

“I didn’t.”

There’s a pause. Nishino doesn’t really know if she can believe that. 

Hanano sits for another minute. The silence seems to stretch out longer.

“Strange things are happening here, Nishi. Very strange things.”

Chapter Text

Day 10 

0:10

Epinephrine is going to fuck him up more than sleep deprivation did. Kazutoshi knows that this isn’t true for basically anybody else in the room, but it is true for him. He’s got to be prepared for what’s going to happen in the next few days.

God, he’d rather just stay in this room. Passing out in front of everyone and Ken having to carry him was making him as irritable as the motive. 

He and Ken are walking back towards his room. 

“We’re lucky in some ways.” Kazutoshi looks up. Ken looks distant, contemplative in a way Kazutoshi doesn’t tend to see him.

“Lucky how.” Kazutoshi doesn’t feel particularly lucky.

“This motive shouldn’t be immediately fatal.” Kazutoshi stuffs his hands deep into his pockets and squeezes them.

“Last time, well. Humans don’t deal well with a lack of sleep. Someone would have snapped and killed someone eventually. Wada was right,” Kazutoshi is quiet. Ken starts talking faster. “I mean obviously I wish he didn’t do what he did, but even if no one snapped, someone would have died anyway. With the lack of sleep. This time they did guarantee that they’ll stop the adrenaline from being raised once it’s reached fatal levels. So at least this time, no one will die.”

Kazutoshi doesn’t want to hear this. He doesn’t want to think about Wada; he wants that so far out of his mind that he never has to see his stupid face again. He especially doesn’t want to think about what Wada did.

He starts to walk away from Ken. “Kazutoshi! Wait up. You look a little, um, unsteady.”

Ken reaches out for him. “Don’t fucking touch me.” 

His hand hovers. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“Kazutoshi, you’re really unsteady.” 

“Get off my ass about this, I'm fine.” 

“Just let me help-”

“If I want your help, I’ll ask. Right now, I want you to fuck off.”

He’s back in his room. He lays down and thinks. It’s been on his mind a lot lately- the same question over and over again in his head because he just can’t remember.

What was he doing before he came here? It was something important, wasn’t it?

He can’t even think properly, his head and his vision swims so badly. It’s psychosomatic, he thinks. It has to be. It can’t be affecting him already. He presses his face against his bedsheets.

There’s blood all over the room. Kazutoshi steps into it. His feet are smaller and then larger. There’s a little girl in the middle of the room, her white hair cut off and splayed out next to her. She’s wearing red. Her eyes are red.

Kazutoshi steps into the room. He wears his mask and his gloves, and he examines her body. She’d been kicked in the stomach several times and her ribs had fractured. He leans down to start to clean the blood and—

He’s in a pool. Drowning. Some boy above him is pushing his head down. The water isn’t even cold. It’s boiling him alive. He hears someone laughing. He can’t tell if they’re laughing at him or someone else.

His vision is blue and then it is black. 

He wakes up. 

He closes his eyes. There’s something important he needs to remember. He sleeps again.

11:38

Kazutoshi is raiding the kitchen when it happens. First, he hears voices from the dining room. 

“You did the right thing. You had to tell her. It was important.”

It’s quiet for a minute. Kazutoshi wonders who Ojima is talking to. He’s hardly ever even heard him talk. He’s surprised when Tamba’s shrieky voice replies. “I know. I know. And it seemed to go well. But that’s this time! I don’t want to put her in danger or have to keep relying on her.”

“Well, yeah. And it’s not like Mai can beat a bullet. But they were in public and it’s not like Okazaki is going to shoot her in broad daylight in front of witnesses or anything.”

“Besides, it wasn’t like she was that mad last time. We already know what sets her off, we just have to avoid that.”

He starts to feel lightheaded. He puts a hand down against the kitchen counter to steady himself. “Kazutoshi!” 

Shit, he made Ken worry. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“You looked like you were going to pass out there!” His head goes down. 

When he regains consciousness, he finds Ken leaning down to carry him. Sharp humiliation courses through him. Bad enough he had to do this last night. He pushes him away. “I’m fine. Get off.”

“You nearly hit your head!”

He balls up his fists. “You need to listen to me when I tell you I’m fine.” Kazutoshi sees Ojima and Tamba lingering, looking like they’re going to come over, and he heats up. Don’t look at him. He holds his hands up. 

“I don’t need your help. I’m fine.”

He doesn’t know if he wants Ken to ignore him or not and that makes him burn hotter. 

12:03

He makes it back to his room alone. It still feels like someone is watching him. 

He barely makes it to the bed. 

Chapter Text

Day 47 

8:53

“Because Sasaki thinks I’m some pervert creep who’s taking advantage of poor innocent—“

“I’m entirely certain she doesn’t think this.”

“Takeshi, like he isn’t the one that keeps insisting I sleep over—“

“If you’re so concerned, I’m sure you could explain this to Ms. Sasaki.“

“Like I haven’t been a perfect gentleman! I’ve been keeping my hands to myself and everything.”

“Nakamigawa, I’m certain I don’t want to hear about—“

“Takeshi’s the one that gets grabby!”

“Nagawa, don’t tell me these things!”

“Right.” Shigeki turns to him and Hiroaki actually looks more upset than he thought.

This morning Hiroaki grabbed Shigeki insisting that they had to go to his room to have Shigeki’s nails painted. Shigeki assumed this was a rather solid cover to discuss how they should approach Sasaki about the Sawa issue, but instead Hiroaki had a whole separate discussion about Sasaki in mind. 

She had apparently taken him aside out of concern for his relationship with Ojima.

It was, clearly, not a conversation that went well. 

The adrenaline probably didn’t help. 

Shigeki realized too late that he was now trapped in this conversation by the virtue of wet nail polish. Shigeki wishes Hiroaki would use his intelligence for good and not evil.

Hiroaki starts applying nail polish to his ring finger. He has opted for white this time, and Shigeki thinks it actually looked rather nice on him.

“I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“I know that.”

“She doesn’t get that it’s because we know each other from before.” 

“She doesn’t. Sasaki has similar experiences to Takeshi. It makes sense for her to want to be certain that he’s alright, especially since I’m sure this looks much stranger from her perspective. Ojima asked to sleep with you on the first day in front of everyone. It’s not surprising she’s a little concerned.” Hiroaki is quiet while painting another finger. Shigeki is starting to get concerned himself.

“What’s wrong?”

“Takeshi keeps hugging me at night and it’s getting weird.” Shigeki raises his eyebrows.

“If you don’t want him to, tell him to stop. You didn’t have any trouble in the Cage Game doing that.”

“Don’t remind me of that.” 

Hiroaki is painting the pointer finger of his right hand. Shigeki is getting concerned this conversation is going to last past the finger painting. “Takeshi is into me, right?”

Shigeki does not know how to respond to that. 

“He has to be. He has to be right? He can’t possibly be this oblivious. Nobody is this touchy-feely with someone they’re not into. He felt me up when he was drunk—he told me he loved me twice—he keeps holding me while he’s sleeping. I mean, he touched my ass. That isn’t skinship, Shigeki!”

Shigeki is attempting to formulate a response. “That all seems to be fairly solid evidence, yes.”

“But what if he isn’t. Takeshi told me himself he’s never been into anybody. He couldn’t even figure out that you were into Mai which everyone in the universe knew.” Shigeki doesn’t even protest. “He’s probably not even gay. What if it’s in my head and I am just some…perverted creep who gets turned on when his friend needs a hug to deal with the fact that our friends are dying.”

Shigeki takes a moment. Ring finger of his right hand. “Well, a somewhat wise man once told me I shouldn’t ask anyone out in a killing game. I went and confessed my love anyway. So, I’m not certain if said person would follow my advice. But perhaps this isn’t something you ought to put off until after the killing game and should perhaps address now.”

He’s on the last finger. 

“Speaking of which, enough about me, let’s talk about you.”

“I thought it was always about you.”

“It is! But enough about me for now. How are things with Mai?”

Shigeki feels nauseous. “Don’t joke about that.”

“I’m not.” Hiroaki is using his ‘serious Nagawa’ voice. “She liked you, you know, enough the first time. It seems like she likes you again. I don’t see why you can’t just, I don’t know, not come on too strong and ask her out when you guys get out of here.”

Hiroaki says this like it’s easy. Like his relationship with Mai wasn’t effectively erased since coming back. It’s the same Mai. Just a thirty-six-day difference in who she was then and who she is now. But those thirty-six days were perhaps the most eventful of Shigeki’s life and he’s certain it was the same for Mai too. 

It’s not that Mai isn’t the same person. She is. But in so many other ways she’s not, the same as he isn’t the same person who came in here. The Mai who watched him dress up with Ruiko is replaced with one who mapped out the school with him. The Mai who promised to protect him is replaced with one who evaluated him with confused eyes. It’s a different relationship. A different set of memories.

Still, every moment he spends with her here is a blessing. And every part of her that he loved is still there. He’s been trying to banish this from his mind. The parts of him that love her can return when she’s safe. When they’re home.

Shigeki is such a hypocrite. 

Hiroaki paints his last nail. Shigeki looks up at him. “Let’s figure out how we’re going to deal with Sawa.”

12:45

Dealing with Sawa turns out to start with Sasaki calling an after-lunch student council meeting after Yanagi approaches her with his concern.

It ended up causing a debate that ended up lasting about ten minutes and Hama eventually slamming his hands against the table and declaring, “Keizou can handle it!”

“Are we sure?” Ojima is looking down at his hands, his fingers interlaced. “It’s not like he’s had to deal with a tiger that’s on adrenaline before. It’s not exactly a normal situation. What if she hurts someone?”

“He wouldn’t let—“

“He might not be able to stop it and then how could he live with himself afterwards?”

Ms. Isono’s eyes dart between Takeshi and Hama before snapping her attention towards Sasaki. Sasaki takes a deep breath and releases it. “I’ll talk to Harada this afternoon. I will suggest a potential course of action for him to take, but I will not require it. What I will insist is that if he does decide to take Sawa out in public, she will be properly restrained while the adrenaline gas is affecting us.

15:00

Shigeki gets to inform the others that Harada will be keeping Sawa in his room while the gas motive is active, that no one will be allowed in Harada’s room except for himself and Sawa, and Harada would take full responsibility if he allowed her to escape.

He and Hiroaki might check in periodically to make sure nothing’s gone wrong. 

Overall, it was a very productive day. 

Chapter Text

Day 12

7:00

Manami wakes up bright and early. The epinephrine gas is making it difficult to sleep, but at least she’s allowed to sleep when she wants now. She’s been trying to look on the bright side of this motive- it’s given her a lot of energy to do what needs to be done!

First order of business: breakfast. She has a fairly consistent set of kitchen helpers in Takeshi, almost always, and Hitomi and Mai who switch out. Manami likes to make breakfast for everyone. Hitomi told her to limit herself and take every two days off to avoid overwork and Manami agreed, but really she does enjoy it. 

Breakfast plans: Thirty eggs: scrambled. Fourteen pieces of bacon. Large bowl of fruit salad with a separate part for Kamimura. She’s also started a larger pot of miso soup for him that she’ll bring him afterwards. Manami has Takeshi start on the miso, Sasaki watches the bacon, and starts scrambling eggs herself. 

After breakfast, she starts to clean up, but Mai shoos her away. She needs to bring Kamimura his food anyway.

After Kamimura didn’t come to breakfast the day before, she promised she’d bring him food today. Manami walks in carrying two bowls after Kamimura eventually unlocks the door. “Miso and fruit salad. Nothing exciting- I don’t know what you can eat so I played it safe. Feel free to let me know what you like and I can make it for you!”

He mutters, “it’s fine. Thanks.”

“There’s more miso in the kitchen. I’ll bring it for you by lunch with some more water bottles.” Kamimura makes an expression she’s not sure how to interpret. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”

“I want to! I promise. Like I said before, you’re doing me a favor.”

13:30

Visiting the student council to talk to Miki and Ran was fun! They’re two of Manami’s favorite people here, and it’s cool that they have an activity to do together so they’re getting a little closer. Yesterday, there was some tension, because they decided to lock up Sawa, but even Keizou seemed to agree it was a good idea after Sawa started to act a little rowdier than usual last night. So it seems like everyone made up after that, which is good. Apparently Takeshi and Nagawa even made her a toy, which is lovely!

15:00

She hangs out with Hasegawa in the library who tells her all about jellyfish. He seems a little sad though. After she asks him about it, he says he had a disagreement with Kamimura. He won’t say anything more after being pressed.

15:30 

She runs into Ran in the library as well and he tells her all about demons. She wasn’t expecting to learn so much today! She takes some time to study herself—she’s no doctor, but a little more medical knowledge certainly can’t hurt. 

18:00

She brings more soup and water for Kamimura. He won’t tell her what else he likes so she doesn’t know what else she can make him other than miso soup. When she approaches he looks… bad.

“Kamimura. Let me take a look at you.” He refused before. Surely he won’t refuse now?

He does. 

“…what about Hasegawa? Do you want me to go get him? Would that make you more comfortable?”

Kamimura makes a low noise. “Both you and him are so far out of line, it’s not even funny. I’m fine! I don’t need you babying me.”

“I’m not—“

“He tried to carry me again today. Do you know how humiliating that is?”

“I don’t—“

“Get out. Don’t bring me food tomorrow, I’m fine and I can handle myself. I don’t care what you say about it.”

Manami leaves because she would not be allowed to stay. 

Day 13

9:00 

Everyone has their own breakfast today so Manami attends Ruiko’s gym class in the auditorium. It’s actually extremely helpful with the adrenaline, Manami thinks. It’s been helping people burn off a lot of their excess energy. And aggression. Jumping jacks and running around the pile of beds in the middle of the floor; Manami’s certain it makes a funny sight.

Ruiko checks with her after the gym class on how Kamimura is doing, as he apparently won’t let her in the room. Manami lets her know she isn’t sure, but she and Yanagi will handle getting him food. 

Even if he doesn’t want to be helped, it’s not as though he doesn’t need it. 

11:00 

She and Miki stick around after gym to cheer on Chiba. Manami decides to make her soba like she’s been requesting and while she’s sure it’s not great, she hopes Chiba will like it.

12:00 

Chiba likes it very much. 

13:14

Manami sees Harada in the medical bay. Sawa got a little aggressive with him and he has a nasty scratch on his arm. Manami doesn’t lecture him to be careful- he surely knows how to handle a tiger better than she does- but she does tell him to make certain that he doesn’t reopen the wounds or take off the bandages after she treats him. 

Ran and Okazaki have apparently both volunteered to help him take care of Sawa, but Harada thinks it’s best for him to do alone. 

13:40

Shigeki stops by and helps her out in the medical bay, cleaning up after Harada has gone and helps her to organize the medical bay a bit better for her to have an easy way to get ahold of painkillers and bandages right when she comes in, which is usually the thing she needs immediately. 

Shigeki offers to help her out in the medical bay more permanently going forward, instead of just bringing things to people. Manami graciously accepts, because how can she turn down an offer like that. 

14:25

She and Miki go to the art room and hang out with Takeshi and Nakamigawa. Takeshi is still helping Miki with watercolors and Manami gets a chance to talk to Nakamigawa again. Mostly they don’t talk. Mostly they just enjoy the silence. It isn’t something either of them is good at, so it’s good to do on occasion. 

16:00 

She is in the library with Ran. Nagawa tags along. Manami giggles at something Ran says and Nagawa doesn’t say anything, but she can tell he’s thinking something very judgmental.

She runs into Hasegawa in the library as well. He looks extremely down. She tries to talk to him, but he doesn’t seem to be inclined to talk. 

18:00

Manami is invited to a sleepover. Nishino, Ruiko, Okazaki, Miki, and herself all get on their cosiest pajamas and have fun the whole night. Nishino puts on a fire dance. Okazaki teaches them a card game. Ruiko tries to teach Nishino to do a backflip until she hurts herself. Miki sings a song and then they all do karaoke. 

It’s easy to forget where they are on nights like this.

Chapter Text

Day 14

02:34

It’s nighttime when Airi finally reaches the vent. Hama is downstairs. He told her she should give it up hours ago, but it’s hard to sleep and she was still wired. Harada left before nighttime so he could be with Sawa in his room, but Hama’s still up when she calls out to him.

“I did it! I’m here!” 

Hama yells at her to keep going. Keep going before someone stops her. And she goes. She climbs through. She unties the bedsheet rope and lets it fall back down. She crawls and crawls and crawls, letting the adrenaline that she’s feeling fuel her, determined to make it to the end.

And she makes it to a fan. A fan and a smaller grate going to the right that she couldn’t possibly fit through.

There’s no way forward. 

Airi cries. 

04:37

Airi wakes up. She isn’t certain if she passed out or fell asleep. She manages to turn around and starts the journey to crawl back. As she crawls, she’s looking down, seeing little openings from the grates. And through one she sees. Something off.

Through one of the grates closest to the entrance she sees a metal hallway behind the walls of the medical bay. It’s small, but she can see it. She crawls until she gets to the entrance and shouts, “Hama! I found something!”

07:30

Airi is stuck with her own thoughts when Hama leaves to go tell everyone what she found after the doors unlocked. She wonders what happened to her last time. Hiroaki warning her about Sawa- was that because Sawa hurt her last time, or did she maybe hurt someone else and Hiroaki only warned her because they’re friends? It’s hard to tell. Hiroaki has done a lot better hiding that he came back than Yanagi and Ojima. So, if he’s warning her, that means it must be important.

Airi’s mostly glad morning is here, because she doesn’t want to risk going back down in case she can’t get back up, but she’s also getting hungry, and she wants to see if someone will bring her food.

8:00

Tamba’s going to bring her an egg sandwich. Yay!

8:20

It’s a complicated process to get food for her. Tamba climbs up and leans up to the vent and hands her the sandwich and then swings back away. Maybe complicated isn’t the right word. Maybe it’s dangerous.

They’ve been talking for a bit now about how they’re not sure how to get Airi down from the vent. She’s trying not to think about that. Airi hears Isono calling from downstairs. “Sorry we couldn’t get you much, Chiba. We needed something that would be easy for Tamba to bring up.” Airi’s mouth is full of fried egg, so it takes her a minute to swallow. It’s so good. One of the nicest things about being here is she can eat whatever she likes, and no one tells her she can’t. She swallows. “It’s great! Thank Tsuno for making it for me!”

“Of course!”

Sasaki has been talking on the other side of the auditorium with Yanagi and Hayashi. Airi can’t see them from where she is, but she can hear their voices. Not enough to make out the words, but enough to know that they’re talking. So, it doesn’t surprise her that, when they cut off, Airi can finally see Sasaki as she walks over towards the vent. “Chiba? How would you feel about filming what you see in the vent?”

9:10

The hallway is by the cold lockers where they put Wada’s body. Airi hasn’t been over there at all. She doesn’t like thinking about the fact that Wada is dead. 

The hallway is thin and mostly metal and she can see when she focuses in with the camera that there’s some sort of latch that must connect to a door in that hallway. Moving from the grate behind the hallway to the first grate in the medical bay, Airi can see that it’s behind one of the lockers, but she can’t tell which one. 

When Tamba comes back up to retrieve the camera, Airi is very thankful, but there’s something that’s started to bother her. 

“How do I get back down?”

 9:33

It again takes Hayashi, a ladder, and a weight to get the rope to Airi. After getting it to her, though, it was easy enough to get back down. 

Hama is waiting for her when she gets down there. Airi thinks that maybe he’s about to cry. “You did it. You did it.”

“I did!” 

Hama doesn’t seem like he can say anything else. Yanagi chimes in. “I knew you could, Ms. Chiba.”

Airi knows that too. 

11:45

The student council has found a latch by the upper cold locker at the far right of the room. It’s been almost two hours since they’ve been trying to get through it. They haven’t yet. 

12:30

“Ojima?”

“Airi! Congratulations on getting to the vent.”

“Thanks.”

Airi’s very tired at this point, but she has some important things she needs to know before she takes a nap. They’re alone, so. Most importantly:

“Were we able to get into the secret passage last time?”

“One person was, but I don’t know how.”

Takeshi makes her a sandwich. It’s a very good sandwich. 

It became pretty obvious to Airi after Wada died that he’d done this before after seeing the note. It was also pretty obvious to her that Yanagi and Ojima did too. 

It was equally obvious that Harada and Hama didn’t believe her when she told them. 

So she went to speak to Ojima about it, because Yanagi was scarier. She’s seen Ojima sneaking the rabbit some food when no one is looking.

Ojima, who prefers Takeshi, said he couldn’t tell her much without asking people, but that he’d be happy to answer her questions as much as he could. 

“Do you think they’re doing something to block it?”

“Maybe… Monomoko?”

“Yes?”

Monomoko pops up the way she always does. It’s always amazing and surprising and distracting. Airi doesn’t get distracted though! “Are you stopping us from getting through the door in the medbay?”

“I am not.”

“Is someone else?”

“I cannot share that information.”

“That’s a yes, right?”

“Probably.”

“That is not a yes, it is a statement that I cannot share that information.”

“Sure, right. Want some of my sandwich? 

“…yes.”

12:50

Tsuno is making miso soup again. Airi thinks Kamimura must be getting sick of it, but she guesses if he was really tired of it, then he’d tell her what else he could eat. She’s chatting with Isono while she cooks. “He seems like he’s doing a lot better today. Yanagi’s going to try and bring him dinner later and Hasegawa’s going to try and see him too. Not looking forward to telling him about the vent though; he kept asking how that was going.”

Airi curls her fingers against her palm. It isn’t her fault that the fan got in her way. Takeshi notices and puts a hand on her shoulder. “I had to patch up Harada again today. Sawa is getting a little… aggressive.”

“Is he okay?”

“Oh! Chiba—yes he’s fine. Barely even broke skin, he’ll be right as rain in a bit! Promise.”

That doesn’t help much. Takeshi squeezes her shoulder. 

13:00

Harada won’t let her in. He says it’s dangerous. Airi is getting so tired. 

14:00

Hama promised to wake her up if anything important happens. Adrenaline can only keep her up so long, so she goes to sleep. 

It’s meant to be a nap, but as she falls asleep she can already tell it’ll be much longer. 

Day 15

8:00

Airi wakes to a commotion at the far end of the dorm hall as the terrible announcement from Wada’s death plays.

Chapter Text

Day 15

8:15-12:15

Kamimura Kazutoshi is found dead in his own room at 8:00. They find Isono comforting a hunched Hasegawa. 

Sasaki determines the teams with precision, allowing several volunteer pairs and cutting off a few others. She divides the rooms quickly as well. It was clear she had prepared for the situation. 

Notes made by each of the pairs on notepads provided by Ojima Takeshi and Sasaki Hitomi proceed as follows.  

Hiroaki and Tamba—incinerator room, medical bay, and pool

“He liked me more when I argued with him. He liked the me that gave him my punishment and apologized for it more than the one who never hurt him in the first place.”

“Tamba, you have to focus. We don’t know who did this.”

“He’s gone. Again.”

• The medicine cabinet seemed like it was messed with a bit. We weren’t sure what was taken so we went and compared everything that was in there to the list that Sasaki had Tsuno make. Several painkillers have been slightly used, which isn’t unexpected. What is unexpected is that one of the bottles is completely missing. Don’t even think of accusing me for this. 
• Incinerator is cold. Doesn’t seem anyone has used it since last night.

Chiba and Watari—music room, drama room, supply closet, av room, dark room, first floor bathrooms east, pool balcony, staff room, and main office

“Did you get the feeling that Sasaki wasn’t expecting us to find anything here?”

“Yeah.”

“Rude! We’ll find something.”

• N/A

Harada and Hayashi—Kamimura’s room

• Details regarding the body
• Kamimura was found in his bed, body still warm. The bottoms of his legs were under the sheets. 
• Fingernails and lips were purple. 
• Bruising across his chest. Possible that ribs were broken. 
• Small amount of blood in his mouth. 
• Details regarding the room 
• Remarkably clean. 
• One bottle of water knocked onto the floor between the desk and the bedside. A second bottle of water empty on the ground. 
• Nothing else was found in the room. It’s nearly sterile. No signs of any weapons and all medications seemed untouched compared to expected based on Hasegawa and Tsuno’s testimonies.
• Room key not found. Pockets on the body empty and it’s nowhere in the room. 

Sasaki and Tsuno—all other dorm rooms

• Ojima’s room: A lot of Hiroaki’s things which is not unexpected, after Harada’s report last time. There are also several esoteric drawings. Much more alarmingly, there’s a drawing of Wada Masanari holding a lily, looking very peaceful. This may just be therapeutic, but then there was one of Isono with her eyes closed surrounded by primroses, Chiba with blue hydrangeas, and what looks like a started sketch of Kamimura. Ojima’s reward was a sketchbook, confirmed here. 
•  I think it might just be that he drew Wada to remember him and then decided to draw our other classmates in a similar style. They’re such pretty pictures! Ojima is a really talented artist. 
• Wada’s room: Wada’s room is untouched since last she saw it, according to Tsuno. Wada’s reward appears to have been several manga. 
• I haven’t been back here. Maybe I should have. 
• Yanagi’s room: Yanagi’s room appears to be in much the same condition as described by Harada’s previous notes. His bed, notably, appears to be cold. Yanagi stated his reward was a locket, which I found on his desk. 
• Harada’s room: We, unfortunately, had to interrupt Kamimura’s room’s investigation in order to investigate this room. Hayashi and Harada came over to allow us. Fortunately, Harada was able to handle Sawa well and we were able to investigate the room. A slight amount of blood was found on Harada’s sheets. Harada’s reward was a locket with his girlfriend's picture in it. He is wearing it. His bed is warm, though that indicates nothing as Sawa was on it when we came in. 
• Sawa is adorable, but has made a bit of a mess in Harada’s room. 
• Hasegawa’s room: Hasegawa’s bed is made, but is warm to the touch, indicating he most likely slept in it last night. His room is horribly messy, but there’s nothing inherently suspicious in it. 
• Hiroaki’s room: This room has very little in it, outside of the closet with way too many outfits, and it’s clear no one slept here last night. We’ll have to confirm Hiroaki’s alibi. 
• Hama’s room: Hama’s room is messy, but otherwise unremarkable. His reward—so-called ‘banishing salt’—can be found here. His bed is warm. 
• My room: Primary investigation of this room is done by Tsuno Manami
• Sasaki’s room is organized, with her notebooks and journals only making her desk a little messy. She’s making a map of the school which is really cool! Her bed is warm, which means she slept there last night. 
• Sidenote from Sasaki Hitomi. A warm bed means it was slept in last night, not necessarily that I was the one who slept in it. 
• Chiba’s room: Nothing of interest here. Reward confirmed to be a stuffed animal. Bed was slept in last night. 
• Tamba’s room: Nothing of interest here. Reward confirmed to be a trophy. Bed was slept in last night. 
• Hayashi’s room: Nothing of interest here. Confirmed with Hayashi specifically that both her knife and Okazaki’s gun are on her at all times and where she secures them when she sleeps. Bed was slept in last night. 
• Okazaki’s room: Okazaki fortunately no longer has a gun so no rewards can be found here. Okazaki’s room is filled with masks, paints, and woodworking tools that appear to be used. Her bed is warm. 
• Watari’s room: Watari’s room does not appear to have relevant information. Her reward was her fire sticks and there were several different ways to start a fire. 
• Tsuno’s room: Tsuno’s room is set up with a mix of helpful items such as hand sanitizer, wet wipes, masks, hair ties, and bandaids, and superhero paraphernalia. Also workout equipment. Her reward is a picture from when she was young. Her bed is cooling, but clearly warm enough to indicate she slept there last night.  
• Isono’s room: Isono’s room is messy. It was difficult to sort through, but it appears that there’s nothing particularly relevant or suspicious. Isono’s reward was a hoodie which she is actually wearing this morning. 

Hama and Yanagi—first floor classrooms, library, art room, and first floor bathrooms west

“I don’t understand why Ms. Sasaki wouldn’t let me help Mai with the body.”

“I mean, weren’t you one of the only ones Kamimura was letting in his room?”

“…”

“It was just you, Tsuno, and Hasegawa, wasn’t it?”

“That—that’s true.”

• Several books were left out on tables in the library. None of them seem relevant but writing this down. 

Ojima and Hasegawa—auditorium and locker rooms

“Breathe in. Breathe out. I’ve got you. I promise; I have you.” 

• N/A

Isono and Okazaki—kitchen, dining room, storage room, laundry room, and basement bathrooms

• Kitchen was messy from breakfast prep. Manami and Ojima were working on it and they didn’t get a chance to clean up once the body was found. Nothing in the trash of note.
• Dining room was also pretty messy. Looks like a couple of people were eating. 
• There’s cleaning supplies next to one of the sinks in the men’s room. Someone appears to have cleaned one of the sinks out. Okazaki is clearly thinking something about it, but she won’t tell me what. 
• Found where the cleaning supplies came from. Looks like someone grabbed them from the storage room.

Chapter Text

Day 15

12:30

Hanano is fairly excited for this trial. The last one was rather dull and boring—suicide was not what she was expecting. So she was looking forward to a real trial this time. 

Good choice on whoever took Kamimura out as well. He was one of the only people who could handle crime scenes and it put Hasegawa in a bad position mentally. When she decided to reveal her true identity, he was going to be on her list, but there were honestly so many good options! Based on how things were going, it doesn’t look like they’re escaping anyways.

Sasaki clears her throat. She’s so good at demanding attention, it’s honestly a bit annoying. “Let’s start with what everyone found. Then let’s examine everyone’s alibis. I’m not certain how many of us will have any as, while many of us were in the kitchen or dining hall waiting when the body discovery played, most of us were in the dorms without one directly before that. But we should check anyway. First, let’s find out if anyone found anything though. Let’s start with the upstairs teams.”

Yanagi, Hama, Chiba, and Nishi found nothing useful upstairs, just some people being messy. That wasn’t particularly surprising to Hanano, as she’s fairly sure it wasn’t surprising to Sasaki either. What was more surprising is how little anyone else found. 

Ojima and Hasegawa—nothing. Was there actually nothing in there or was Hasegawa so upset and Ojima so stupid? Or did one of them pretend to try and hide information? Important to consider. Hanano sees Hasegawa looking at the rabbit while Ojima is talking and wonders what he’s thinking. 

Hiroaki and Tamba found nothing in the incinerator or pool, just that the incinerator hadn’t been used, but did find something very interesting in the medical bay. A missing bottle of oxycodone. Hiroaki continues. “Checked it against the list Tsuno and Yanagi made to be sure. There were several that were used, but only one missing. Pretty stupid of them to hide the bottle honestly. Leave it in his room and they could pretend it was another suicide.”

“Alright. That’s very helpful. Crime scene team—is an overdose consistent with the cause of death?”

Hayashi shrugs. “Pretty sure. I’m not an expert on it or anything, but it’s pretty clear that it was some kind of poison or drug. Purple fingers and lips. If that’s the only thing missing, it would make sense that it was that.”

“Isono and Okazaki—was there anything missing from the storage room or the kitchen?”

Isono jumps in before Hanano can speak. Rude. “Nothing was missing in the kitchen. We checked it against the items list. Same with the storage room except for some cleaning supplies we found in the men’s bathroom.”

“Someone was sick last night.” Hanano says in a sing-song voice. 

“It wasn’t cleaning supplies that killed him,” Hayashi confirms, not that Hanano had any doubt. “Had to be the oxycodone. Fits with the purple fingers and the empty water bottles in the room—you stop breathing, dead in minutes once that happens.”

Hayashi continues. “Regarding the rest of the body—his chest was bruised and his ribs seemed cracked. Those injuries could be caused by chest compressions, or just someone deciding to break his ribs while he went out. Don’t think that part killed him, would probably take too long even with his blood issues or if they got his lung, but confirms a second person was around.” Poor Harada shudders. Hanano wants to pet his hair and tell him everything’s going to be okay. You think he would be used to blood though. He apparently spent last night bleeding through his bandages after a slash from cute little Sawa. 

“I don’t think he took the drugs long ago. An hour or two at most from when we found him, but probably more recently. It tends to work fast. And he died way more recently than that, possibly minutes. The body was warm, even though we checked him after the room.” Well now, that’s very interesting. Whoever did this really didn’t give themselves much time, even with the delay between dose and death. 

“It looks like someone knocked over some stuff on the desk, like the water bottles I mentioned. Otherwise, nothing really found in the room. The medications he keeps in his room weren’t tampered with, according to Tsuno and Hasegawa. Though we couldn’t find his room key.”

“Alright. Time to move onto the dorms, which Tsuno and I examined. There are a few things that may need to be discussed outside of this trial, but most importantly—Yanagi, can you confirm where you were last night? Yours was one of the only beds that wasn’t slept in, and you weren’t waiting for breakfast.”

Yanagi stutters. It’s hilarious. “I—I—um, well, that is. I was, um. I mean—Okazaki saw. I was cleaning the bathroom.”

Manami cuts in. “Were you sick? Are you okay?”

“Um, well, I’m fine.”

Sasaki stares at him for a moment before sighing. “Well, no one else is saying they were doing that, so I suppose that makes sense. Hiroaki, please confirm your whereabouts.”

Hiroaki is quiet. 

“Were you in Takeshi’s room again?”

Still quiet. “Takeshi, please confirm.”

“Uh.” Ojima looks even more confused than usual. “Not when I fell asleep?”

Hanano’s eyes flick to Hiroaki and watches as he takes a deep breath in. “Yanagi didn’t get sick last night. I took some of the other bottle of oxy and then made myself throw it up in the sink. Yanagi found me doing it and stayed with me in the bathroom for the night. That’s it.”

Tamba makes a sound. Yanagi’s head is down. Ojima lets out a, “Nakamigawa.”

That group. Again. Always those three. 

It’s a conspiracy. If only she could figure out what kind. 

There’s a moment of silence. “Good job, Nagawa.” Manami looking like that is… irritating. “Seriously, good job. You didn’t do it. You threw it up. Good job.”

Another moment. Sasaki clears her throat. “Was the other bottle of oxycodone there when you took it?”

“Yeah. I don’t know exactly when it was—a couple of hours after nighttime started. Then Yanagi found me in the bathroom.” Hiroaki sounds dead. All that fire is gone. It’s disappointing. 

“Alright. That’s all the evidence done over. We should go over alibis.”

Chiba, of all people, speaks up. “Is anyone even going to have an alibi though? Most people were sleeping when he got poisoned. I know I was.”

Hanano notes Tamba twitching slightly. Strange. 

Hama. “Chiba’s right. I mean, I was waiting for breakfast, but that was what? Thirty minutes before his death? I don’t have anyone to vouch for me before then.”

“I found him fairly early, yes.” Hasegawa has been quiet this whole time. 

“Well, when was the last time anyone saw him?”

Manami jumps in. “Yanagi and I saw him when we brought him his food last night. We brought him his mattress too now that Chiba’s probably not going to be climbing anymore. I know we all agreed to wait for Chiba to make that decision, but…”

Chiba shrugs. “That’s fine! I probably won’t find anything else up there anyway.”

Sasaki clears her throat. “Anyone see him after that?”

There’s silence. Hanano sees Manami glance off to her right in the direction of Kamimura’s empty podium before looking back forward. Interesting. 

“We’re sure he was killed in his room, right?” Oh poor Nishi. Not a critical thinker. Hama answers so Hanano doesn’t have to. “Of course he was. What, you think someone poisoned him and broke his ribs out in the open?” 

“There’s no need to shut down any line of thinking. Let’s explore and see where it leads us. Is there any chance for Kamimura to have been brought into his room?”

“If they have his room key, I guess, but I don’t think that he could stay out of his room long if he wanted to.”

“Tsuno and Yanagi. Can both of you confirm?”

Manami and her little medbay sidekick look at each other. “I don’t think there’s any way Kamimura could have left without being noticed, no. I’m not sure he was even in much state to be standing long, and he didn’t seem interested in leaving either. It took him a while to let us in yesterday.” 

“Agreed. There is no chance he left of his own volition.” Yanagi kind of bows at Manami. It’s honestly really funny. 

“Okay. If so then that means whoever killed him had to have been let into his room, or they had to have stolen his key at some point when he was still going out.”

“Kamimura would have absolutely made a fuss if his key was stolen before we last saw him!”

“Agreed.” Sasaki pauses. She really is a master dramatic pauser. Hanano should honestly be taking notes. “I remember during gym class; Tamba said she tried to get into Kamimura’s room and he wasn’t letting her in. Is that correct?”

Poor little Tamba looks so heartbroken, it’s gross. “Yeah. He told me I should just leave him alone. I tried some more times, but he never let me in.”

“Who all was allowed into Kamimura’s room?”

Well. This suddenly got much more exciting. Hanano smiles under her mask. “As hall overlord, I have been watching the dorms to a certain extent. I believe the only people that Kamimura has allowed into his room are Yanagi,” he looks sick, “Hasegawa,” anxious, “and Tsuno.” Absolute panic. “He absolutely was not allowing anyone else in.”

What a wonderful look on her face. 

“It can’t be Shigeki. We were together the whole night and morning. He didn’t have an opportunity.”

Is no one going to point out the obvious solution here?

Sasaki is interrogating Tsuno about when she started cooking. Several people are getting into debates about whether Kamimura would have let anyone else in. 

Is Hanano the only person here with a brain?

She clears her throat. “Excuse me. I have something to say.”

“Okazaki, what is it?”

“Well, we searched the whole school. And I’m sure some people were better at it than others, but we had a partner system and I’m assuming we checked out all the rooms.” They have no idea where she’s going with this. She is the only smart person here. 

“We never actually found the oxycodone bottle. Or the room key. And the incinerator wasn’t used,” She pauses, “Which means someone has them on them.”

They look at Manami. “You can pat me down! Check me—I don’t have them.” They look at Hasegawa. 

He’s wide-eyed. “Hold—hold on a second.”

“It’s not—“

“I didn’t—“

What an unexpected solution. Hanano just knew she was going to love a real trial. 

Chapter Text

There’s not a chance in hell Hasegawa killed Kamimura Kazutoshi. Not even if their fight was way worse than Ruiko thought it was. Anyone else and it would make sense to her. She’s not sure when their Hasegawa started hating them all, or even completely why. If it was Toshi’s death or something else that made him want them all miserable and dead.

But surely, nothing that’s happened so far that would make him want that, right? And even if he did—

Not Toshi. 

He loves Toshi. 

So what happened?

Hasegawa pulled out the bottle from his pocket about a minute ago, and other than protesting that he didn’t do it, he hasn’t said much. 

Hiroaki looks contemplative. “Hasegawa, quick question. Was it you who found the body? Or was it you and Isono?”

Hasegawa looks like he’s going to start crying. Ruiko’s heart aches. “Just—just me. Isono just came in very quickly after the body discovery went off.” Miki nods. 

It takes a moment before it clicks what Hiroaki is getting at. Oh! The body discovery rules. That means it can’t be Hasegawa! But then—

Nobody else would know about how the body discovery rules work. 

Because Wada killed himself. 

Everyone else is arguing about if Hasegawa would do this, hardly thinking of how he could have, while Sasaki tries to maintain order. Takeshi and Hiroaki are whispering. Ruiko meets Shigeki’s panicked eyes from across the room. 

How do they explain something they can’t know? They didn’t have any proof! 

She doesn’t understand why Hasegawa’s barely even trying to defend himself.

“He wouldn’t!”

“But he’s the only one who could.”

“I saw him in the kitchen this morning—he said Kamimura told him to get him food once it was—“

“You didn’t think to mention this earlier?”

“This was right before the body discovery—he left just a few minutes before to tell him we were making it!”

Hayashi cuts in. “That doesn’t mean anything, Tsuno.”

Watari sounds hesitant. “I mean, it really does sound like he might have killed him.”

“I didn't, I-I swear I didn’t.”

Sasaki rounds on Hasegawa. “You’re the one with the pills. Why grab them if it wasn’t you? You’re one of the only ones who could get into the room, and the other two people currently have an alibi and are defending you, respectively. Is there anyone in this room other than Manami who honestly thinks he didn’t do it?”

Ruiko knows he didn’t. But how can she explain? And even if she didn’t know it logically, she knew in her heart—“He wouldn’t.”

No one else says anything, but he turns a surprised glance at her before she looks away. Nagawa and Takeshi’s whispers are starting to be loud enough that others can probably hear. Ruiko can hear Hiroaki say, “—just tell them you asked the rabbit—“ 

“Monomoko wouldn’t tell me something like that—“ 

She hopes nobody else does. 

“Something to share, Hiroaki?” The voice is dry. 

Hiroaki jumps away from Ojima. “Yeah, yeah, I’m. I’ve got something I’m worried about.”

“I—don’t actually think it can be Hasegawa either.”

Mai cuts in there. “What the fuck are you even talking about? It’s obviously him.”

“No, no, hear me out. Isono wasn’t with Hasegawa when the body discovery announcement played. Why would this game be set up so that the killer would set off the announcement? Wouldn’t that just, like—get them killed immediately?”

Ruiko is nodding forcefully. She opens her mouth to say something when Hiroaki gives a quick shake of his head. Okay, whatever. She keeps her mouth shut. 

Manami loses the slump in her shoulders. “That makes perfect sense! It wouldn’t make any sense for the killer to set off the alarm.”

Sasaki looks at Monomoko. “Is that how it works? Does the killer not count towards the body discovery?”

“I cannot answer that.”

Okazaki gives a soft, “Hm.”

Harada goes in. “What if it's just bad game design or something though?”

Hama. “Or the rabbit just fucked up.”

“I think maybe you guys should listen to Hiroaki. I think he might have figured out some of the rules.” Chiba cuts in. 

Isono clears her throat. “Listen, I think we should listen to what Ken has to say, right? He’s been saying he hasn’t done it, but we haven’t actually asked him any questions.”

Hasegawa’s eyes are closed. He opens them and looks up at the host. “Monomoko, I need a rules clarification, if you can. I wasn’t able to ask you before. Isono came in too quickly. Who is responsible for a death in this game, particularly for poisoning? How is it determined?”

Ruiko can hear Okazaki make a sound that’s between a sigh and a groan. What’s her problem? 

“That may vary case by case. In the event of poisoning, it is whoever introduced the dose that crossed the lethal threshold that counts.” 

Hasegawa looks lost in his own thoughts. “I—I didn’t want to die. But Hiroaki’s theory is convincing. And—and based on what you just said, I don’t think I count as the killer.” 

Hasegawa takes a paper and a room key out of his left pocket. The one without the bottle in it. Ruiko sees Isono starting to lean over to see and Hasegawa tenses. His hands shake with the letter in his hand. They twist. He tears at it a bit. 

And then he starts ripping. Ripping the entire thing into pieces just shredding until he bends over and starts to sob. It’s a loud ugly noise that lasts far too long. Ruiko starts to cry as well. She tries to keep it silent, but she doesn’t think she succeeds. 

“I can’t. I- I don’t want you to look at it. No one is allowed to look at it. I wish I never looked at it.”

Hasegawa lets out a choked sob and leans up. He continues. 

“He said—he said it was like I said. That it was better that Wada killed himself. That wasn’t what I said. I swear it wasn’t. I don’t know how that was what he heard when that wasn’t what I said. It’s my fault—”

Manami cuts him off. “I know you didn’t. You would never say something like that.”

“I think I understand what happened, Ken. I think I understand it… really well. Let me try and explain for you. Please correct me if I’m wrong about anything, okay?”

Hasegawa looks at her like she’s the only person in the world who can help him. He nods. 

Manami starts. 

“Kamimura was in a lot of pain. A lot of physical pain and a lot of mental pain. This motive caused a lot of us some issues, but most of them were pretty manageable. He didn’t like feeling helpless and the motive kept him stuck in his bed. And every day it got worse.”

“Then, there was Wada. Wada killed himself and it sounds like, based on what was just said, that put the idea in Kamimura’s mind. That this was the right thing to do. It wasn’t, but—he got the idea in his head. He was probably thinking about it for a while. But—I don’t think Yanagi and I telling him about the fact that the vent plan failed helped. Did it?”

Hasegawa shakes his head. 

“I should have noticed,” Manami continued, “how much calmer he was that day. It’s a sign, you know? But I sort of just…thought he was feeling better. Which was stupid, but I just didn’t think about it that much. I was thinking about the vents and the secret passageways and—yeah. That was probably when he thought the only way out was to play the game, and I… guess he thought this was better.”

Ruiko trembles. She went to see him. She tried to see him so many times. But—she didn’t get close to him the way she did before. What did she do wrong?

Manami continues. “The actual death was pretty simple. I just want to make sure—Ken, he asked you to go get the pills, right? That’s why you had to ask Monomoko?”

“Right.”

“Okay, so in the morning, some time before the morning announcement, Ken went to see Kamimura. Kamimura must have given him his room key at some point. Kamimura asks him for painkillers, probably the whole bottle so he wouldn’t have to keep going back.” Hasegawa just nods, “Then Ken goes to the medbay and gets it. He must have already written the note at this point. Then Ken returns. He probably opened the bottle up for him and—I’m guessing, if you thought you might count as the killer, you gave it to him right?”

Hasegawa nods again. “He asked me to crush up the normal dose and put it in the water. It makes it work faster, but he told me to, and I trusted him—so I did it and gave the bottle to him.” 

“Right, so Kamimura drinks the water with the medication in it. At some point, probably right before that, Kamimura asks Ken to go get breakfast, knowing it would take some time for us to make it… probably so Ken wouldn’t be there. So Ken goes. And that’s when he took the rest of it, after Ken left. Takeshi and I were still making everyone else’s breakfast then, so it took me a bit to even start making his food, and I remember you leaving before we finished to go tell him. When you got back there, Kamimura was still alive. From his injuries, I’m guessing you noticed he stopped breathing.”

“He wasn’t breathing, and his pupils were- I knew he took too much, there wasn’t time—I thought I could—” Hasegawa cuts himself off. Manami picks it back up for him. 

“Then Ken tried to do compressions against his chest, but it didn't work. It’s something easy to mess up even if you’re trained—and I don’t think Ken is—and often doesn’t work anyways in these situations. Then Kamimura dies, and the body discovery goes off. Ken probably didn’t get to read a lot of the note, or have a lot of time to think, but he managed to grab the note and the bottle before Miki came in. He…probably wasn’t thinking when he grabbed the bottle. He was worried he would count as the killer because he didn’t get a chance to ask Monomoko about the rules. But he wasn’t. Kamimura willingly took the pills that killed him, so he counted as the killer.”

“You’re wrong.” Hasegawa’s voice is dead. “I did get to read it.” 

Hasegawa’s eyes are on the ripped up note below him. “He said he remembered. What he was doing before he came here. He didn’t know how, but he remembered he tried to kill himself.”

“He said that must be why he was brought here. To do that here, instead.”

Manami starts. “It’s not your fault—“

“It is.”

“It’s not! Not anymore than it is mine.”

Ruiko remembers—she remembers him telling them they’re terrible people and they deserve to die. 

They do deserve to die, she thought afterwards too. Hasegawa was right. He’s going to think we deserve to die. Ruiko is frozen with that thought. 

Like Toshi—like Wada—like the people they couldn’t stop from dying. 

It’s all going to happen again. 

The traps, the poisoning, the notes, all of it, again, Mai’s dead body in the water. 

But they can stop him! They can stop him if he starts. They can tell everyone. There’s no need to be afraid. 

Hasegawa looks miserable. 

She did this. 

It’s very quiet when they start to vote. 

Dr. Yonekura Haruka

Session 1, log twenty-six

I’m beginning to regret implementing the suicide rules as they are. It seems to be becoming a pattern and I don’t like it. Nevertheless, it doesn’t violate the terms or purpose of the game, so I suppose we’ll have to live with it.

Shortly before the morning announcement, Student Four, who was showing a rapid decline in his mental and physical health, tricked Student Fourteen into bringing him oxycodone to kill himself with, as he was no longer physically able to retrieve it. While not ideal—I think we need to do better incentivizing the students to actually kill one another rather than themselves—this did allow a distraction from the hallway incident. See logs twenty-three through twenty-five. Dr. Figueiredo has successfully managed to seal off the passageway to the medical bay more securely while the investigation was ongoing, so that’s one decent outcome of this situation. 

The interns have been acting strangely. I’ll have to get Seki to figure out exactly what their issue is. 

Monomoko came by and suggested a change in the way the body discovery occurs based upon the evidence the students were able to gather on Student Fourteen discovering the body. We are currently determining how it will be changed. 

More importantly, Dr. Kan is a problem. He seems very upset that there was another suicide. He was trying to argue that Student Fourteen should count because he put the first dose in Student Four’s water, at Student Four’s direction mind you, despite that dose certainly not being lethal. He was also very excited at the moment it appeared they were going to vote for Student Fourteen, but it seemed unlikely to me that they would get the wrong answer on this one. I told him to just get back to work, but he seems inclined to act out.   

Everyone around me is useless. 

Dr. Yonekura Haruka, session 1, log twenty-six, end. 

Chapter Text

Day 16

10:40

The second floor is designed to kill them. 

There’s a chemistry lab with a bunch of weird chemicals that she’s pretty sure are just there to kill someone. Mai doesn’t know what half of these things are, but she knows they’re all bad. 

Tsuno and Yanagi have the medbay on lockdown right now. They check the medication in there against what they have on the list every time they go in and Tsuno’s started keeping the more dangerous medications in her room. Mai wonders if she should do something similar for the chem lab. There’s no reason for anyone to have access to any of this shit. 

Then, outside of the chemistry lab, there’s a woodshop. Basically a one stop shop for all murder needs. Want to kill someone? Just go to the place where the walls are literally lined with everything you’d need to dispose of a body. Real comforting. 

The rest of the floor is a lot less stupidly fucking dangerous. A council room for Sasaki’s group to meet up in; a recreation room she’s actually going to be spending some time in. A guidance counselor's office that looks way too familiar and a server room that Okazaki was lurking in so Mai left immediately.  A computer lab with computers that do basically nothing, an engineering lab that’s weirdly boring, and another incinerator room. 

Then there’s the door. 

A weird locked door that she finds Yanagi staring at when she approaches it. 

“Sup.”

“Mai—happy, very happy to see you.”

Yanagi’s a bit weird. He’s helpful and kind of funny, but the way he looks at her is kind of intense and he always seems like he’s hiding something even when he isn’t. Still, he’s a nice enough guy and has been one of the people who’s trying to get them out of here the most. “What’s with the door?”

“The, um, door?”

“Yeah, the door.” She points at the door they’re standing in front of. “What’s with it? You’re staring.”

“What with the—? Nothing, it's just a normal door.”

“Okay, but it clearly isn’t so what’s with it?”

Yanagi isn’t even trying to meet her eyes. Not even an attempt. “It’s just a—a—a door.”

This is exhausting. “Why do you keep lying if you’re this bad at it?”

“I’m not b—I’m not lying. Obviously. Why would I know about it at all?”

Yanagi is standing in front of her. Trembling. God, this is embarrassing. “God, this is embarrassing.”

Whatever. She doesn’t care that much. Let Yanagi keep his weird secret door. She’ll figure it out later. 

Mai sees Sasaki approaching to talk to Yanagi and gives a quick nod before heading out. 

12:15

Mai is cooking when Tamba stops by. “Oh, Mai, that looks so good! You’re such a great cook.”

It’s kinda flattering how everyone around here thinks that. Embarrassing too, though. 

“You should cook for us, Mai! Like you did—I mean, you like learning about places and stuff right? You should cook things from wherever everyone was from! It’ll be really nice. Like a restaurant!”

Mai opens her mouth to blow her off and looks at Tamba. Her eyes are red.

Well. If it’s like that. “I mean. I guess I can.” 

Tamba blinks, clearly surprised she gave in that easily. She probably should have put up more of a protest. Can’t let people think she’s soft. Tamba bounces a little. “Great! That’s so great. Hey, um, I bet Shigeki will love to host! I’ll go tell him you’re okay with doing it.”

“Whatever. Fine.”

“Oh! Mai, do you want to go to a sleepover tonight? The girls and I are going to. It’ll be a lot of fun!”

“Don’t push your luck.”

“Got it!”

Tsuno walks in and heads toward the kitchen. Tamba rushes up to her. “Mai’s going to be cooking dinner in the next couple of days for us! Shigeki’s gonna host!”

What the hell. She didn’t even ask him. 

I mean, he probably would. But still. 

Was this a setup of some kind?

Nah, this was Tamba. She couldn’t lie to save her life. 

14:25

After talking to Sasaki about it, Mai decides that it would probably be good to clear out the chem lab like she was thinking earlier. She gets a crate from the storage room and goes upstairs to start boxing up chemicals. She figured she can put them in the back of her closet. If they don’t use them, they probably won’t be replaced. 

Kamimura would have loved this place. 

It hit her yesterday that he was gone when she carried his body to the cold lockers and put him next to Wada. They were both so small. Almost everyone’s small compared to her, but those two especially. She thought about that when she put him into the cold locker and she was still thinking about it when dragging people’s mattresses back to their rooms. It’s a thought that she couldn’t escape even when she had laid down that night to sleep. 

This horrible fucking place made them think they needed to do that. 

She’s going to get everyone out of here. 

But first, she’s got a meal to plan. She knows the kind of things she likes to make. Maybe she can get some tips from Tsuno about who all likes what exactly. Tamba’s probably already telling everyone about it and getting requests. 

Mai continues packing the chem lab and leaves thinking about warm food and planning a menu in her head. 

Chapter Text

Day 16

18:50

They’d already planned on having a sleepover before everything happened yesterday and dammit they’re still going to do it. Miki is not going to let herself get dragged down into despair. She can’t. 

So she puts on a brave face. She plays a prank in the student council room, replacing the candies that Sasaki got from the storage room with erasers. She laughs when Ojima almost eats one. She stays out of her room and hugs Manami after she cries when she comes back from the medical bay. And she makes sure not to make excuses to hide and goes to this sleepover. 

She and Manami meet up with Ruiko and Nishino in the rec room. Airi is already there trying to figure out how to use a cue stick. “Alright, everyone—let’s play!”

“Do you even know how to play, Nishino?”

“Hush, you!”

They play a few rounds and lose badly to Ruiko and, at one point, Manami. Nishino hits a ball so hard one time it goes over the edge and Airi shrieks. Miki doubles over laughing. 

They try darts which Nishino is weirdly good at this time. Miki actually does decently. Airi jokingly whines when she does badly. Ruiko promises to practice with her. 

Nishino challenges them to a best of three. 

21:30

It’s decided that the sleepover should take place in Ruiko’s room. After gathering sheets and snacks, they sit around in a circle with sodas. Airi tells them she’s never had this drink before. Miki wonders how someone goes this long in life without having Sprite. Miki and Manami trade sips of their ramune: peach for strawberry. Nishino is teasing Ruiko for losing against her. 

This is where she should suggest doing a party game right? Like the King’s Game or Truth or Dare? But the thought of the Confession Game stops her. She can’t stand the idea of reminding anyone of that. 

Miki casts about in her mind for something else she’s seen in shows and books about what’s supposed to be done at sleepovers. She looks over at Manami who has a mischievous look on her face. “So, Ruiko—what were you and Yanagi talking about in the kitchen earlier today? I noticed he was super red when talking about it.”

Ruiko almost jumps away from Nishino. “What? Nothing! We weren’t talking about anything!”

“Really? Cuz I heard he’s going to play host for us when Hayashi does the restaurant in a couple of days.”

Ruiko looks less nervous. “He told you about that?”

“Yep! And he looked really excited about it too.” Oh! This is about love, isn’t it? This is a great sleepover topic! “Wait, wait. Does Yanagi like Hayashi?”

Miki continues excitedly. “That’s it, isn’t it! It’s super obvious! Isn’t it, Ruiko? Is that what you two are talking about all the time? Are you giving him advice?” Ruiko looks totally panicked. He confided in her and she doesn’t want to give away a secret—that’s so sweet! 

Manami cuts in here. “You don’t have to tell us anything if you don’t want to, Ruiko.”

She finally seems to relax. “I guess he is a little obvious, huh. I’m just letting him get his feelings out.”

“Not faaair, Tamba.” Nishino cuts in. “Not fair, not cool. You should be supporting me! I’d be way better for a pretty, cool, awesome girl like Mai than Yanagi.” 

Nishino continues to poke at Ruiko who’s saying that she can support whoever she likes and Miki lets her mind drift. Nishino is just so open about these things. Like she doesn’t care what anyone says about her. Well, it’s not like she’s a public figure. Maybe she can afford to be open. 

Nishino starts actually, physically, poking at Ruiko who leans away and blushes and Miki thinks she needs to step in. She turns on Manami who is way too easy to tease with little chance of it backfiring. “Speaking of romance—how goes things with Hama, Ma-na-mi?”

Airi, who previously seemed content to pay attention to her soda and nothing else, suddenly sits at attention. “You like Hama, Tsuno?” 

Ruiko works on regaining her composure as Manami spits out excuses to Watari’s teasing and Airi’s excited questions. Miki meets her eyes. Ruiko looks… down isn’t the right word. Pensive, maybe? Considering? Whatever it is, it doesn't suit her face. She looks away and focuses on teasing Manami. Ruiko will say what she needs to when she’s ready. 

Airi seems to notice too though. “Tamba…?” She lets the word hang there. 

“Guys, um, I have something I want to talk about. Well, I guess two things actually. They’re kind of serious though.”

Manami is sitting up and Nishino has a strangely serious face on. Manami’s voice is gentle. “Go on. We’re listening.”

“Okay, well first thing. I’m worried about Hasegawa.” Ruiko looks down. Manami and Nishino are back on each side of her in a second. Miki knows Ruiko wanted to be closer to Kamimura. Miki never tried because of how obviously Kamimura disliked her, but she saw Ruiko try and talk to him several days in the last week. All to no avail. “I don’t think Hasegawa likes me much, but I think he’s okay with some of you. Could you guys check on him for me? Make sure he’s doing okay?”

“Of course we can! Nishino and I had already tried earlier today,” that’s news to Miki. Maybe she was still asleep—Manami wakes up early, “but we can absolutely give it more effort tomorrow.”

Miki nods. “I’ll try too. And, if it doesn’t work, I’ll bring it up at the meeting later tomorrow and see if any of the council members have any ideas.”

Ruiko gives a soft smile. Miki didn’t know Ruiko could smile like that. “Thanks a ton, guys. I really appreciate it. And the other thing. Uh, Manami. This might be a weird question, but did you know Okazaki?”

What?

“Oh! No, I don’t think so. Why?”

This is—

“Well, it just seems like she might know you. Just, some of the things she’s said and how she acts around you.”

Miki knows what it means. 

“Oh? I mean, I haven’t seen her face or anything, but if I knew her I think I’d recognize the sound of her voice.”

“Maybe Hanano just thinks Manami reminds her of someone?”

“That could be it!”

Miki knows what it means when a person knows you and you don’t know that person. 

Nishino and Manami talk with Airi putting in asides. Miki meets Ruiko’s worried eyes with her own. 

Okazaki Hanano is someone dangerous. 

Chapter Text

Day 17

12:30

This morning Tsuno Manami asked Ran to call her Manami. The name is still sitting strangely. It’s not like calling Chiba “Airi” or Harada “Keizou”—it’s embarrassing is what it is. It shouldn’t be embarrassing. Manami is just a very sweet girl. But it’s what she wants, so he’ll do it like any decent guy should. 

It’s time for the student council meeting. They’ve started meeting every day right after lunch. Ran never imagined doing something like student council, but it’s a weirdly interesting change of pace. He didn’t think he’d end up enjoying it when Isono and Sasaki came to ask, but it’s not bad. After Airi got up to the vent, most of the meetings have been talking about who should search where for the next secret passage. Hama didn’t find shit in the second floor hallways this morning and tells them that when it’s his turn. He writes down where everyone searched today and starts to make the list for tomorrow. 

When it’s finally his turn for tomorrow’s plan. “Hama, you okay with a first floor hallway search tomorrow?” 

Ran nods. “Sure, but I’m not sure we’re going to find anything in the hallways.” 

“Check anyway!”

As secretary, it’s Ran’s job to take notes during the meeting. He thinks Ojima takes notes too, but sometimes he can’t tell if he’s doing that or drawing. Ran wasn’t expecting the title of “Secretary” to come with actual responsibilities, but it’s not cool to pass off his job to someone else, so he doesn’t.

Besides, he sees Yanagi looking at Sasaki’s hand sometimes like he’s responsible for it or something. Best not to bring up writing too much. 

They talk about a couple of other things: who’s on laundry duty that night (Yanagi and Hayashi), whether Keizou can bring Sawa out of his room now (vote was Yes—three to two), and how they can help out Hasegawa and raise the general group morale. Isono says Manami has actually gotten to talk to Hasegawa today after he didn’t respond all of yesterday, which is a good sign. Ran stopped by himself once, but wasn’t let in. It was really important to make sure things didn’t repeat. 

The meeting wraps up on a more cheerful note at least. Ojima brought some cookies he and Manami had baked earlier that day. He says he didn’t do much other than measure stuff, but Ran is just glad someone’s helping Manami. 

The cookies are really good too. 

The council breaks and Ran starts to head out to tell Keizou the good news when Isono stops him. “Hey, um, Hama, can I talk to you for a sec?”

Isono and he get along well enough. It’s not weird for her to be talking to him. It is weird for her to be this nervous about it. “What’s up?”

She had her arms crossed over her chest like she’s hugging herself. “I need your help with something. Or at least, I need backup.”

13:00

Turns out what Isono needs backup with is Okazaki. It isn’t the first time Ran has just had to stand there and look intimidating, though it isn’t his favorite thing to do. Still, he’s more than happy to stay there if it eases Isono’s mind, especially if Okazaki is as dangerous as she seems. 

They set up in the library. Ran set up the way he normally did at one table with his demonology books and his notes. Isono is sitting at another one flipping through a magazine Ran didn’t recognize. Okazaki patrols the halls pretty frequently. They didn’t have to wait long until she showed up. 

“Okazaki! Hi! There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you about.” Isono bounces up like she’s happy to see her. Ran keeps his eyes on his book. He's not meant to respond unless Isono signals him to. 

What follows is a pretty innocuous conversation about dyes and watercolors. Isono’s using her new hobby to lull Okazaki into a false sense of security, Ran guesses. 

They’re a good few minutes into the conversation and sitting at a library table nearby. Ran risks a glance. Isono looks engaged and happy, but he can see her hands, laced together and twisting under the desk. 

Ten minutes in. The conversation appears to be winding down when Isono very casually changes the subject. “Oh, Okazaki, there’s something else I’ve been wondering.”

“Yes?”

“Did you know Manami before the game?”

There’s silence. 

“Sorry?”

Isono laughs, uncomfortably. “I was wondering—if you knew Manami before the game.”

The silence lasts for a bit longer this time. 

It’s uncomfortable.

“Did Manami say that she knew me?” Okazaki’s voice is quiet. 

Isono takes a moment this time. “Would it be surprising to you if she did?”

A chair scrapes against the floor. Ran turns a page and writes down some more notes. He doesn’t look. Isono’s badass and can handle herself. She’ll call if she needs him. 

Ran can barely make out what Okazaki says there. “Did Manami say something, Isono? About me? Or… did someone else say something?”

“I—”

Ran can’t hear anything. He risks a glance. Okazaki’s face is still hidden to him, but it appears she lifted up her mask enough to lean down and whisper to Isono. Isono’s face is stone. Okazaki is facing away from him. Isono meets his eyes. She doesn’t signal him to come over. 

A few more seconds. Okazaki straightens herself. “Everything fine here, Isono?”

Isono gives a very slight nod. 

“Good! Let’s talk about paints again. It was fun.”

Okazaki walks away. Out the hall, out of sight. Isono joins him at his table. “Hama. We need to keep Manami away from her.”

14:00 

Ran stopped by to see Keizou to give him a warning about Okazaki. Airi probably wasn’t in danger from Okazaki if she was fixated on Manami, but just in case—one of them needed to be looking out for her too. 

18:00

Ran spent the rest of the day with Manami. Which was nice. Even if it was to make sure her possible stalker didn’t get near her, they had a good time. Even just sitting in the medbay was nice with her. She’ll listen to him talk about demons for as long as he wants and she has such a nice laugh. 

Ran offers to help her cook that evening and they walk to the kitchen together, when they run into someone already cooking in there. Sasaki is standing in the doorway with a slight frown, but steps aside for them. Hayashi and Yanagi have claimed the entire kitchen area—the whole place is completely full. Hayashi barely looks up. “Out.”

Manami steps forward. “Oh, Hayashi, let me help—”

“Nope.” Hayashi doesn’t even take her eyes off her chopping while she’s talking. It’s pretty badass. “I’ve taken this place over for the next two days. My kitchen now. You want dinner, you take what I give you tonight.”

“Think of it like a preview!” Yanagi jumps in. Ran has never seen him this happy. It’s honestly really fucking weird. “Mai is preparing a preview of tomorrow’s dinner tonight.”

“It’s just udon.”

“A delicious ketsune udon that you’re all certain to love.” Isono and Hasegawa walk in and Yanagi turns around and starts chatting with Mai again, moving a couple of plates into the fridge. Manami bounces over to Isono and Hasegawa. “Apparently, it’s udon tonight!”

Well. Ran isn’t going to say no. 

23:30

It’s hard to sleep in here. It’s not the first time he’s woken up this way, but it might be the first time he didn’t wake up from juvie, but from hell. He thinks it must have been hell. There’s nothing else that would have made him pray like that. 

He’s surprised to find someone else awake, but maybe he shouldn’t be. He vaguely remembers Hiroaki saying he was an insomniac. Maybe he wouldn’t be if he wasn’t drinking coffee at this hour. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Hiroaki’s quiet this time of night. He’s a lot more tolerable like that. But it’s hard to tell what he’s thinking when he’s stone faced, especially since he always hides his eyes. It’d be better if people stopped hiding their faces. 

“So,” Hiroaki still has that blank look on his face. Hama thinks it’s the same look he had in the first trial. “I hear you guys let the tiger out of the room.”

Hama thinks for a minute about the votes from earlier. “You the one to tell Ojima to vote not to let her out?”

“Please. Takeshi didn’t need me to say that was a stupid idea.”

Hama thinks for a minute. He can’t just snap and defend his friend. He’s got to explain this rationally. “The adrenaline gas is gone and Keizou’s a professional. He knows how to control Sawa and she won’t be out of his control now. It’s fine for them to leave the room.”

“And when she kills someone?”

“She won’t. It was a good idea to lock her up when the adrenaline was active, I’ll admit that now, but that’s gone and it would just be punishing Keizou to leave them locked up.” Hiroaki is looking down at his coffee, frowning now. Hama keeps his voice gentle. “Are you afraid?”

“No.”

“If you are—“

Hiroaki stands suddenly. “What do you know, you stupid fucking del—” he stops and collapses in his seat. “Whatever just. Keep an eye on it, okay.”

Ran isn’t sure what he was planning to say, but he stopped so Ran’s going to let it go. “Fine. I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Fine.”

They sit there until Ran can’t remember what he dreamt about. When he can’t remember screaming and crying out for his mother and for the Lord. 

Chapter Text

Day 18

11:20

Sasaki asked for his help measuring the walls and he supposed he didn’t have anything against that. It was hard to get out of bed this morning. Hard to move, hard to walk, hard to pretend he was still asleep and couldn’t hear her, but…lying there staring at the wall wasn’t any easier. 

So he leaves. 

Locating dead spaces will be difficult with the limitation that they’re unable to damage school property, but he had heard the area in the medbay had a latch, so they should be able to locate one with something other than just dead space. There can’t only be one. There has to be a door somewhere. 

The medbay. By the cold lockers. 

Maybe if he had—

“Hasegawa.” Sasaki’s voice is gentle. It’s usually sharp. “Hasegawa, I apologize. I can ask someone—“

“It’s fine.” Cutting her off is rude, isn’t it. He needs to be more polite. “I’m sorry. I mean, I can do it. I… ought to be doing something.” 

She looks at him for a few seconds, clearly evaluating something. What? His stability? She then nods and says, “Okay. You start on the far end. We already looked around here for any visible latches. Right now we’re measuring for the map.”

13:00

Ken waits for Sasaki outside the student council room. He considered not going when she invited him along, but there wasn’t much better for him to do. Still, it’s not like he really wanted to participate. Listening in on the meeting from outside was interesting enough.

Sasaki presented their conclusions about the auditorium—that there was almost certainly an entrance behind it on the same side as the medical bay entrance—to the group and listened to the much less productive reports of the others. Ken concluded that, at least in the basement, whatever hallway there is must be connected along that wall, but it’s harder to tell from the upper floors. Sasaki shares that conclusion as well. From there, she discusses the locked door, which she believes is some sort of last resort option of exploration. Ojima brings up that it might be a future motive of some kind. From there, they divide up the chores for the next day

Ken wonders if he should volunteer for some, but he can’t summon the energy.  

The meeting ends and Isono, Hama, and Ojima leave, looking surprised to see him. There, but then Yanagi asks Sasaki to stay. 

This is a private conversation. He probably shouldn’t listen to it. 

“Ms. Sasaki, there’s been something that I—I’ve been trying to say for a while, but I haven’t been able to manage it.”

Ken hears an inhale. 

“I’m sorry about your hand.”

“Sorry?” Sasaki sounds as confused as Ken feels. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t—I didn’t volunteer to take your injury. I’m sorry.”

Sasaki is slow to respond. “I, well, I honestly wasn’t expecting you too.”

“Still. I wanted to say it.”

Ken hears movement and moves to leave. He doesn’t exactly want to be there when Yanagi leaves when he hears Sasaki call out. “Yanagi!”

Nobody’s speaking. Ken is staying very still. “Yanagi, you aren’t—responsible for that.”

Ken feels overwhelmed with this conversation. He leaves. He can find Sasaki later, if he needs to. 

17:30

The restaurant was a good idea. Sasaki is to his right, and he’s never seen her so relaxed. Hiroaki and Isono are sitting right across from each other to his left and clink glasses as miso soup comes out. Ken eats it. Kazutoshi would have loved this. 

He pushes him away and focuses on food. 

They pushed a couple of tables together to get everyone in there. Ken doesn’t think they’ve ever all eaten together at the same time. There’s so many of them. 

Next course: nishin soba. Chiba audibly cheers and starts talking excitedly to Hama who rolls his eyes. Yanagi places it directly in front of Chiba so she can have the first bit. She’s so excited that Ken almost feels bad for taking some. 

Toriten. Spicy toriten for some reason. The toriten mostly stays on the other side of the table and Ken resists the urge to try and eat it. He’ll regret it later if he does. 

Gyutan. Ojima reaches out, but Ken is struck by hearing Wada’s name again. If he just didn’t…

But it isn’t fair to blame him. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s Ken’s. 

Hiroaki takes some, but doesn’t eat it. “Let’s leave this out for Wada.” Ken sees Tsuno press her hands against her face and looks down and eats her food. 

Miso katsu. To his left, Ken can see Isono staring directly across to the other side of the table. He can’t tell what she’s looking for though. There doesn’t seem to be any interesting conversations happening over there. Maybe there’s something he’s missing…?

Satsuma-age. It’s honestly delicious. Ken starts to notice his glass is getting empty, but doesn’t exactly want to engage Yanagi to get him more. Sasaki notices though and flags him down for him which is, honestly, embarrassing. But he has more water now and that’s what’s important. 

Yakitori. Hama and Tsuno start a conversation about their moms and Ken decides he’s going to join in. Because why not. He should probably make an effort.

Kenchin-jiru. Hayashi is apparently feeding Yanagi in the other room and Watari whines about it. If she wanted to be fed so badly, she should have volunteered. Sasaki invites Ken to continue searching for passageways with her going forward each morning. He agrees. 

It’s his turn next. Takoyaki. He missed this. He missed being able to go out to buy this any time he liked. Eating going home from school, by himself, with his sister, before going onto a show. He missed the outside and walking and being free enough to eat and do whatever he wanted. 

Gyoza. Hiroaki and Ojima start to whisper something to each other right across from him. He stares at them. 

Unagi no seiromushi. Tsuno advises they do this again. 

Udon hotpot. For Kazutoshi. Ken. 

Ken. 

Ken doesn’t want to eat it. 

Ken sees Tamba holding a pot out and looks over towards the left. 

Isono re-starts a conversation they were having earlier about color theory with him and brings Ojima into it. Ken lets himself think about that instead, lets his mind work over something he’s comfortable with, and eats takoyaki. 

18:30 

Isono asks him to help her with the laundry. She says it’s fine if he doesn’t want to. That he can go back to his room or hang out with someone else if he prefers. But he goes with her anyway. 

When they reach the room though, the laundry is already out of the dryer and piled up on top of it. Over on the folding table, there’s Isono’s sweater she got as a reward, sliced and covered with red paint that’s still dripping onto the ground. 

Chapter Text

Day 54

19:07

It was rare for anyone but Sasaki to call a meeting. In fact, it hasn’t happened before. Shigeki can’t help but be concerned. Isono stands in the front of the room next to… Hasegawa. Shigeki looks around the room. Sasaki and Takeshi are already there. Sasaki typically doesn’t sit during meetings. 

Shigeki takes a seat as Hama enters the room. Isono goes right behind him and closes the door, then walks back to the front of the room. Shigeki keeps his eyes on her. 

Time to find out what has her so scared. 

It turns out: a fairly clear threat. Shigeki’s eyes flick to Hasegawa, but dismisses it. It’s clear who did this. 

Isono continues. “I think Okazaki did this.”

Shigeki always knew Ms. Isono was a very smart girl. Out loud he asks, “Why do you think that?”

Turns out Isono had taken Tamba’s warning very seriously and had gone and confronted Okazaki about it. Which is… not how Shigeki was hoping that situation would go. To his left and across from him, Shigeki sees Hama and Takeshi taking furious notes. Sasaki is looking down, frowning. She then looks up at Isono. 

“Alright,” Sasaki has her eyes narrowed. “So, Okazaki might have been stalking Tsuno prior to being brought here. Additionally, she is more than likely threatening you. We can’t prove that it’s her… but it must be her, right? Not exactly her first incident.” Hasegawa raises an eyebrow. 

Shigeki ought to back that up. “Almost certainly.”

“Alright.” Sasaki stands and turns to the group, her face morphing into that serious and confident look that made Shigeki believe in her so much the first time. “Let’s discuss how we can protect Isono and Tsuno going forward. We need to make certain that this situation does not escalate.”

Isono collapses into a chair beside Shigeki. Hasegawa awkwardly lingers in the background, and Sasaki takes her place at the front of the room. 

20:15

Sasaki sighs as Hasegawa and Hama escort Isono out of the room with Takeshi following. “Well, at least we know what happened to the resin for the 3D printer.”

The 3D printer was discovered by Isono and Sasaki during their search of the floor. Shigeki, who had stayed on watch while Nakamigawa and Takeshi had thrown the resin in the incinerator, makes a noise of agreement and moves to get out of the room before Sasaki starts talking about it. Before he leaves though, Sasaki calls out to him. 

“Yanagi. Shigeki. I know this is off-topic, but I’ve been thinking a lot about our conversation from earlier.”

Shigeki had too. He nods. She continues. “I know we talked a bit about how you want to protect women. And based on what we’ve discussed, I understand. But I hope that you can follow my lead regarding handling the Isono situation. We’re going to keep her safe, but we need to do that collectively.”

Shigeki agrees and moves to head out when Sasaki stops him again. “If you ever want to talk more about anything else as well—I’m here.”

It’s—it’s easy to remember how much he’s admired her in moments like this. “You as well. And we’ll take care of everyone, Sasaki, I swear it.” She smiles. 

The problem is, Sasaki has no idea how dangerous Okazaki actually is. So Shigeki has to go to the people who do. 

20:50

It doesn’t take long for him and Takeshi to explain the situation. They’ve been waiting for Okazaki to start trouble for a while now. Hiroaki’s room has become their default meeting place. It’s rather convenient as a lot of it has been cleared out. They’ve hung a white board at the wall where Hiroaki is now writing. He underlines The Okazaki Problem and starts writing two columns underneath. Kamimura and Tsuno. 

Hiroaki turns around to face them. “Let’s start with Tsuno.” 

None of them have any idea how to stop Okazaki from going after Tsuno. So they focus on what they might be able to handle. 

“Let’s clear out the woodshop! Take all the weapons back to our rooms!”

It’s hard to tell if Hiroaki rolls his eyes. “We’ll get accused of murder next time it happens, Tamba.”

“We can put them somewhere… other than our rooms?” Takeshi offers. 

“And let Hall Overlord Okazaki find them?”

“I’ll suggest to Ms. Sasaki at the next meeting that we secure them. So people don’t get any ideas.” No one has a better idea so they write it down. 

Takeshi is looking at his notes from the meeting. “We… should probably also watch out for Manami, like we are for Miki. In case Okazaki decides to just go for her herself instead of making a trap.”

Shigeki nods. “I’m with her on medbay duties—I can look out for her there.”

“Takeshi and I will have to invite her to hang out in the art room with us more while Isono’s drawing with him. Tsuno likes sewing—I’ll see if she wants to sew with me.” It’s a surprisingly kind offer from Hiroaki—but then, he’d liked Tsuno, hadn’t he. 

Takeshi nods. “I help her at meal times already. I’ll start helping her more with her chores then. …I’ll have to tell Hitomi I’ll be focusing on that instead of the council’s chores though.” Takeshi looks a little scared, but Shigeki doesn’t think he’ll have any issues. Sasaki thinks Tsuno’s working too hard as well. 

“I’ll see if she’ll hang out more with me and Nishino! Well, when Nishino’s not with Okazaki—but Nishino knows Okazaki and I don’t get along so we don’t hang out when Okazaki’s around.” Hiroaki writes these down and then nods. 

Shigeki is still a bit concerned. “I mean—I’m sure these will be useful, but Okazaki was able to get to Kamimura even when he was almost always with Hasegawa.”

Hiroaki gives an annoyed sound. “Kamimura got drugged by food made specifically for him. Tsuno doesn’t have anything like that. Plus, even if the drugging didn’t work, Kamimura was super weak. It’s not like Okazaki couldn’t take him down if she needed to. Tsuno’s way stronger than he was—I don’t think we need to be as worried about her being alone for a couple of minutes and more like, longer periods of time that Okazaki could pull something in.”

Ruiko mutters, “Toshi wasn’t weak,” but then nods. 

“Anyone have any more ideas on Tsuno?” 

They didn’t. 

“Okay. So we need to figure out who Okazaki is going to target other than Tsuno.”

“Well. Isono—” Shigeki starts and Hiroaki makes a rude sound. “What, Hiroaki.”

“I’ve been thinking about it since you guys told me what happened. Okazaki’s targeting Isono because she threatened her, right?” Shigeki nods, not certain where Hiroaki is going with this. “And she’s someone close to Tsuno that Tsuno will be upset about being hurt, right?” Shigeki nods more confidently. “Then—Isono’s the Wada of this scenario. Not the Kamimura.”

“Right! Because Okazaki targeted Masanari because it made Manami upset. And she targeted Kazutoshi because it would make Hasegawa upset and he was the smartest.” Takeshi pauses. “But then—who would she target for Hasegawa this time? Miki?”

“Isono might actually be in danger in that case.” Hiroaki rewrites Isono Miki where he had erased her previously. 

Ruiko sounds hesitant. “Ken isn’t nearly as close to Miki as he was to Kazutoshi though.” 

Hiroaki considers for a moment. “What if Okazaki just goes for Hasegawa instead?” He writes Hasegawa Ken down under the lefthand potential victims side of the board. “She might just decide to take out the smartest instead of incapacitating him. Would make her job easier, since she thought the rest of us were a bunch of idiots.” Hiroaki thinks for a minute. “I should probably put down anyone useful for the trial actually. I don’t think it’s as likely, but it’s possible.” He writes down Sasaki Hitomi and Hayashi Mai underneath. He pauses for a moment and writes, Chiba Airi. “She might just go for a relatively easy target.” He explains. 

Ruiko is clearly thinking. “What about Harada? Okazaki’s really… weird about him.” Hiroaki considers and then shakes his head. “I don’t think Okazaki would want to risk dealing with the tiger.” 

“I wouldn’t either.” Ruiko shoots up. “Wait! What about me? She’s probably pissed off because she got her gun taken away!”

“She’s not going to go for someone who’s that bad at trials, Tamba.”

“Hey!”

Hiroaki looks at the names on the board. “I think the most likely targets are Hasegawa and Isono though. I think Hasegawa might be slightly more likely.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll take each other out.” Shigeki murmurs and then feels unworthy. Hiroaki stops writing and clearly considers it. Shigeki doesn’t want anyone dead. But, if Hasegawa dies, if he dies then maybe Mai will—

He can barely hope for it though. 

“We—we probably shouldn’t let anyone die just because it’s convenient. Right?” Ruiko sounds hesitant. “We—shouldn’t be those kinds of people.”

Mai wants them all to get out. Shigeki wanted that too, once. He should want it again. He should do whatever he can to want that again. “You’re—you’re right, Princess Tamba. My apologies.”

Hiroaki nods. “Okay. I’m not going to fight on this one. Let’s keep an eye out for Isono and Hasegawa. Especially when they’re alone together.” He pauses. “Though they might actually be safer like that. Okazaki isn’t going to want to kill more than one person, because then she can’t kill Tsuno. So—safety in numbers. Fortunately, we don’t need to try hard to get someone to look after Isono. Hitomi’s doing that for us.”

Hiroaki steps back from the board and looks at them all. “The problem is—even if we stop Okazaki… someone still needs to die for this one.” Ice hits Shigeki in the heart. “Adrenaline, we could deal with. The cold though—someone’s going to die. We all know this.”

Hiroaki turns back to the board and writes Harm Reduction in his stupid flashy handwriting. “This is about getting through this motive without more than two people dying. So unless someone wants to take one for the team,” he continues writing, finalizing everything they talked about, “and kill Okazaki themself,” Shigeki thinks about it and wonders if he could do it if it came to it, “and face whatever sick fucking execution these freaks come up with for us,” Hiroaki caps his marker and faces them again, with his hands on his hips, “then I say that Shigeki had a good idea earlier. And if Okazaki wants to go for Hasegawa? We let her.”

Takeshi makes a noise. Shigeki realizes he must have been out. “Still—” his voice breaks, and then he clears his throat and his voice is steady. “Nakamigawa. Let’s save who we can.”

“Right.” Hiroaki’s voice goes softer. “Who we can.” 

Chapter Text

Day 54

23:50

Takeshi spends a bit of time in his head after their meeting, but he’s back again soon. He thinks a lot about everything that was said. Does he really want to risk his life, risk everyone’s lives, for a person like that? Someone who threatened Ruiko, gave Nakamigawa back his drugs, killed Mai, waited until Takeshi was—who made him think he was going to hurt people? But then he reminds himself. Hasegawa Ken hasn’t done those things. He might never do those things. 

Takeshi has been wondering about that. If he doesn’t kick Monomoko tonight (and he doesn’t think he can, the righteous fury that had compelled him to do it the first time can’t come to him now), will it change anything? 

What if it had helped them somehow? Takeshi doesn’t know how kicking her would make her like them more, but maybe it did somehow. What if she doesn’t help them this time? What if someone smart like Hasegawa tricks them again and this time Monomoko doesn’t do anything about it?

Takeshi is back in reality by the time they’re outside the auditorium. Hitomi stops in front of the door and Takeshi nods at her. She smiles, just a bit. “I’m guessing you two think the motive will be announced in a minute as well.” Nakamigawa nods. Hitomi studies them. 

“Anything either of you two want to say before the alarm goes off?”

“Like what?”

“Any thoughts on what we’re going to hear?” Takeshi doesn’t really get what she’s asking for. Nakamigawa seems to—he smiles and gives a quick, “Nope!” 

Hitomi watches them for another minute before nodding. “Alright.”

The sound blares for them to report to the auditorium and Takeshi walks in and prepares for the cold. 

Day 55

00:23

Nakamigawa steals the blankets from his room and combines them on Takeshi’s bed. Takeshi looks at him and thinks. “Do you think that not kicking Monomoko will cause issues in the future?”

“What?”

“I mean like, do you think not kicking her will make her less likely to help us?”

Nakamigawa looks at Takeshi like he’s crazy. “Don’t be stupid. It’ll like us better if we don’t hurt it.” 

That does actually make him feel a lot better. Takeshi pats the bed next to him. He really hopes Nakamigawa can get some sleep tonight. Nakamigawa lies next to him hesitantly. Takeshi wraps his arms around Nakamigawa who holds them limply at his side. But that’s okay. He’ll keep him warm. 

8:00 

It’s Manami’s off day, so Takeshi helps Mai with breakfast. He resolves to put himself on Manami duty after this, until the student council meeting. He’s not going to let her be alone. 

Inviting her to sew in the art room does the trick. 

13:30

Hitomi took the suggestion of securing the woodshop well. She added her own suggestion of getting all the wood in there into the incinerator rooms which seems like a pretty brilliant plan to Takeshi. Takeshi starts moving wood, Hitomi starts collecting the dangerous parts of the woodshop in order to put them in her room along with Ran, and pretty soon everyone is helping move things, not just the student council. 

It’s pretty inspiring to see everyone work together. 

Or maybe they’re all just cold. 

16:05

Takeshi is finishing the final load of wood to the downstairs incinerator as Nakamigawa whines about manual labor for the seventh time today, when he notices Manami is alone again. He waves her over to walk with them. They really need a better plan to keep her safe. 

17:00

“Do you think we should bring Airi in on the protecting Manami plan?” Manami went off with Keizou, Ran, and Airi earlier and it had made Takeshi think. That group would be super helpful in keeping Manami safe. They’re back in their room and Nakamigawa has just finished showering and is picking out a new outfit (apparently his current one is “ruined” but Takeshi thinks it’ll be fine after a wash). Nakamigawa turns around and Takeshi averts his eyes for some reason. He’ll appreciate Takeshi not looking at his eyes at least. 

“Why Chiba?”

“Well, I mean, we can tell her that Okazaki killed Manami previously. It’ll scare her, sure, but it might be good for her to be scared of Okazaki? I figured I should ask if you thought it was a good idea.”

Nakamigawa is quiet. That’s never good. He’s clothed and right up in Takeshi’s face when he next speaks. 

“Takeshi. Does Chiba know we’re from the future?”

“Y-yes?”

19:00

It would be weird for them to skip dinner, so they don’t. Nakamigawa gets Airi away from Ran and Keizou saying they want to talk about cosmetics and Takeshi goes and gets Shigeki and Ruiko. They’re all under blankets in Nakamigawa’s room by the time he gets back with Airi. 

“So,” Nakamigawa is the only one standing. “Takeshi says that you figured out we were from the future.”

“Right!” Airi goes on to explain what she had presented to Takeshi previously—that she thought it made the most sense based on Wada’s note and how he and Yanagi were acting. “I didn’t know you were from the future until you told me about Sawa. And I didn’t know Ruiko was either until the sleepover! Don’t worry, Takeshi didn’t tell me anything private.”

The look on Nakamigawa’s face is so funny that Takeshi bursts out laughing. Shigeki chuckles beside him. Ruiko chimes in. “That’s really smart, Chiba!” 

“There are so many more logical explanations!” 

Warning Airi about Okazaki isn’t fun, but having one more person who is with them, who they don’t have to hide from and can share things with, is wonderful. 

Chapter Text

Day 20

09:00

Hitomi is on a mission. That mission is to get everyone warmer. The incinerators were a good first step, but that won’t be enough and it’s already getting colder. They need to get out of here before things escalate. Wherever the passages lead to will have to be warmer so they need to redouble their efforts on getting through them and getting out to a place where they won’t be at imminent risk of death. 

In order to do that though, they need to be warmer and there aren’t a lot of ways to do that. 

Fortunately, Hitomi knows someone with far too many outfits. 

09:40

Hiroaki is agreeable despite how generally possessive and whiny he is about his clothes. Hitomi knows he’s able to grasp the seriousness of the situation, though, so perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise. They load up coats, jackets, sweaters, gloves, undershirts, socks, and headwear into a couple of laundry baskets and head out on a mission. 

09:50

First stop is for Hasegawa and Isono in the basement incinerator room. Hitomi had suggested that they do the wall measurement there and she’d join him later, partially because it needed to be done and partially because Isono is clearly extremely cold. Fortunately, they’re able to deliver her a coat, a better jacket than Hasegawa’s, a slightly too large sweater, and some gloves. Hasegawa only takes some headwear and gloves and then says, “I’m not sure we’re going to find anything here. I think we should concentrate on the rooms on the same wall as the pool. Or, on the upper floors.”

“Fair enough. You should keep checking though, just in case.”

“Of course.”

10:05

Tamba, Yanagi, and Hayashi are still doing their morning workouts in the auditorium and are leaving when Hitomi finds them. Tamba’s “gym classes” only really lasted through the time period of the adrenaline, though Hitomi thinks perhaps she should start to encourage people to attend them again. Activity will help a significant amount against the cold. Yanagi is demonstrating what appears to be a step sequence to Hayashi who is still wearing a tank top for some ungodly reason. 

“Hayashi Mai! You are going to get hypothermia. Go put on more clothing now.” Hitomi realizes this might not be the best way of approaching the situation, but she’s already said it and there’s no going back now. 

“I’m sorry? You’re not in charge of—”

Hiroaki giggles, then clears his throat. “I have some socks, but I doubt anything else I have would fit you. You’re like, huge.” Hitomi opens her mouth to berate Hiroaki, but Hayashi replies, “Thanks.”

There is not a single person in this room that Hitomi understands. 

“You’re better off looking at your own clothes to cover up. Or borrow Hama’s. I doubt he’d mind.” Hiroaki looks over at Yanagi when he says this. Immature. Hiroaki then picks out a specific jacket at the bottom of the pile and hands it to Yanagi. “This matches your hair and doesn’t go terribly with your uniform. Pick out anything else you want from Hitomi’s basket or the top half of mine. Go to the bottom part and I’ll destroy you. Same for you, Tamba,” he says as Tamba comes over. He then goes back to his basket and retrieves one more piece of clothing. 

“Tamba. Here.”

Hiroaki throws a shirt at Tamba which she catches and stretches out. It’s womenswear, which Hitomi wasn’t aware Hiroaki made. Tamba examines the piece of clothing and then looks up. Hitomi is alarmed to see her eyes watering. 

“You… made this for me.” 

“Yeah.”  Hiroaki stuffs his hands in his pockets and Tamba runs forward. 

And hugs him. 

“Gross!” Hiroaki starts to push her off. “Get OFF of me.” Tamba lets go, giggles, and holds the shirt up. Then rushes away, telling Shigeki to grab something else for her as she heads for the locker room. 

Hitomi stands there. “What was that about?”

“No idea.”

Yanagi is busy attempting to convince Hayashi of the basic wisdom of putting on a shirt. They may be there for a bit. 

10:50

Ojima and Tsuno are busy with meal prep when they finally manage to convince Hayashi that perhaps wearing a shirt when it is literally below freezing is something that she could maybe do. They walk into the room to find Ojima peeling potatoes and Tsuno stirring broth. “Hey guys! We figured stew would be good for today. Nothing fancy—nikujaga. Look forward to it!”

God, Hitomi is thankful Tsuno is here. Well, she would rather not have her in a killing game, but otherwise she’s very thankful. Tsuno lifts a ladle to a small saucer and hands it to Ojima who drinks it and says, “soy sauce.”

“That’s what I was thinking too!”

Hiroaki calls out, “Neither of you even think of touching raw meat until you’ve gotten your clothes from me. Tsuno, this sweater is yours. I don’t want it back, ever. Takeshi, this coat and this jacket. It’s the one you like with the teal. As long as you don’t have raw beef on your hands, you can pick out anything else if you want.”

“Let everyone else pick first!” “I don’t really need any more—you can give them to other people.” Hitomi actually thinks her classmates could maybe stand to be slightly more selfless like these two. Between them and Hayashi, Hitomi is really starting to worry about people. 

“Manami,” Hama comes into the room. “Chiba was wondering about lunch. Would you mind telling me what the plan is? Sorry, she’s just whining.”

Tsuno turns. “Niku—um.”

Hama is not wearing a jacket or shirt. For some ungodly reason. Hitomi takes a deep breath in. “It is below freezing in here! What the hell happened to your jacket?”

Hama crosses his arms over his chest. Hiroaki makes a sound next to her. “Someone was cold, get off my ass about it. Besides, I have supreme control over all forms of fire, remember? I don’t get cold.” 

Hitomi is a mature person. Throwing jackets at Hama won’t help the situation anyway. Hiroaki’s jackets won’t fit him. “You’re staring.”

“I was just—looking at your tattoos! And thinking you're stupid for saying you don’t get cold.” 

“No—not wearing a shirt in the kitchen is a health code violation, Ran. I-I was just thinking you should put one on for that reason! That’s all!”

Ojima is still peeling potatoes. “You should probably stir, Manami, I think it’s bubbling.” His voice is very even. “We’re having nikujaga stew. I hope Airi likes it.” Tsuno’s face is flushed as she turns back to the soup. Nakamigawa has fully turned around and is picking through the clothes. 

Hitomi gives him a disgusted look. That sort of reaction. And in front of Ojima and everything!

11:00

They follow Hama back to his room where they find Chiba and Harada. Hiroaki and Chiba get into a lengthy discussion about what clothes would suit Harada best as he demures. Hitomi goes on a long and arduous attempt to get Hama to put on a fucking shirt. It’s unclear if they’re stuck there longer because of the fashion show or because of Hama. 

11:30

Lunchtime comes and they manage to get their last two students more clothes as they approach the dining room. It’s the first time Hitomi has really gotten a chance to talk to Okazaki since the report from Isono—yesterday was exceptionally busy. 

Hiroaki is trying to take a jacket away from Watari that he says won’t fit her and then shooing her away the basket, so Hitomi thinks she might as well take the opportunity to ask Okazaki about her recent activities. 

Okazaki feigns ignorance regarding Isono’s sweater, poorly. Hitomi begins to wonder if it was meant to be more of a prank than a threat, if Okazaki isn’t even attempting to get away with it. It isn’t until she mentions the resin that her reaction seems to change. 

Okazaki stands there, impassively. There’s several seconds of silence. Then, in a surprisingly high voice, “I’m being framed.”

It’s gotten much quieter over by the laundry baskets. Hiroaki turns to her. “Sasaki, I’m hungry. Hurry up or I’m leaving without you. Chop chop.”

“Yeah, uh, I’m just gonna. Go.” Watari flees the room too. 

Hitomi decides to stay. She has enough time to eat before the student council meeting. She faces Okazaki who’s facing slightly away, towards the backs of their two retreating companions.

“You’re saying you didn’t do this?”

“I’m saying I didn’t do that, yes.” She pauses. 

No matter what Hitomi says to her, she won’t say anything further and Hitomi leaves with the impression that perhaps she’s missing something important. 

Chapter Text

Day 56

12:15

Lunch was really good today. Manami and Takeshi aren’t as good as Mai, but they’re still good cooks, even though Takeshi says he isn’t. Sasaki asked her if she’d be willing to help out with dishes and Ruiko guessed that’s fine. It’s good to get her hands under hot water. Between this, checking the woodshop this morning for traps, and working out with Shigeki and Mai, Ruiko feels like she’s actually been sort of productive! It’s a good feeling. 

Ruiko puts another couple of pans in the oven now that the kitchen’s free. She’s wrapped in blankets and wearing the cute new shirt Hiroaki made for her. 

She can’t believe he did it. Even after everything that happened but—they’ve already apologized to each other. And they’re working together, so she guesses it makes sense. He must have started as soon as they got back for it to be ready already for her. Hiroaki knew that this was coming after all. He probably started on Wada’s too. 

Wada. She should go and see him and Kazutoshi. 

The lockers are colder than other rooms though. She doesn’t think she’ll stay long. 

13:15

Ruiko doesn’t spend long by the cold lockers, but she does try and get through the passage. It’s not that she thinks she’s stronger than Hama, but still she thinks she ought to try. She can’t stay long though, not if she wants to feel even a little okay. She heads back to the kitchen and lets the oven warm her for a minute and then takes her pans from the oven and wraps them in her blanket. 

She wants to feel warm. 

She goes to see Nishino. Nishino is playing with fire in her room and she’s happy to let Ruiko in. Hama’s there as well and Ruiko watches her from the other side of the room. Normally, Ruiko would be scared, but with how cold it is she’s grateful for any sort of heat she can get. 

Nishino lets her sit on her bed and Ruiko watches her dance. It started as her playing around, but now she’s dancing, properly. Ruiko’s never loved dancing herself, but—

The dance is beautiful. 

Nishino’s beautiful. 

She leans one hand up and gives a flourish with the other and it’s over. Hama gives some polite applause. It takes a few seconds for Ruiko to bring her hands together. When she does, she claps loud and firm. 

She feels warm, for the first time all day. 

15:20

“Tambaaaaa Ruuuuikooo.” Ruiko wakes up to a laughing Nishino. 

“You got soooo comfortable you fell asleep. That’s so cute.” Ruiko knows, she knows, she knows Nishino is making fun of her. So there’s no reason to think anything else about it. Ruiko splutters. “I was tired! Leave me alone.”

“Fine, fine.” Nishino’s smile is soft and sweet. “I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to fall asleep. How are you keeping so warm?”

“I’ve got hot pans in my blanket.”

“…you might be a genius, Tamba.”

“I know, right? It’s a good idea!”

18:00

Ruiko finally drags herself out of the room for food and only food. She feels a little bad for making the guys handle most of the watching people alone, but she’s been with Nishino and keeping her busy is important too! 

Ruiko hums as she eats udon, and her eyes widen as she sees Okazaki and Nishino approaching Tsuno. That’s definitely something she needs to keep her eyes on right now! They’re sitting a few chairs away though so it might be hard. 

“I see Isono hasn’t come to dinner.”

“Y-yeah. She’s not super hungry and she was feeling pretty cold when I checked on her. No need to worry—I’m making sure she gets something to eat later.” Manami’s voice sounds a little strained. And is it just Ruiko’s imagination, or are they talking a little loudly? She can hear them just fine even though Hama and Harada are talking in between them and her. 

“Does she need some of my fire? I can hang out with her tomorrow—that might help.”

“Maybe! We can ask her.”

The conversation moves on. Shigeki smiles at her from across the table. 

Don’t worry, the smile says. I heard too. 

19:45

Dinner is great, but Ruiko is tired and cold enough that she heats up her pans and goes to bed right after it. 

It’s shocking, then, to wake up to shouting. 

Ruiko bounds out of bed leaving behind her blanket. Did she miss the BDA? Sleep through it somehow? She can’t have, right? 

Was that Miki’s voice? 

Ruiko is in the hallway. Miki is banging on Okazaki’s doorway. “Don’t leave! Get back out here.”

Okazaki says something muffled through the door, Miki makes a frustrated sound and steps back where Sasaki loops an arm around her shoulder and leads her away. 

Most everyone is out in the hall. Ruiko hurries over to Ojima and Hiroaki who are standing to the side. Sasaki’s talking to Shigeki and Miki. Hama and Nishino are arguing, so over to the guys seems the safest. “What happened?”

Ojima’s voice is low. “Okazaki put a board full of nails in the front of Miki’s door. We’re assuming she stole it from the woodshop when we were busy moving everything. Okazaki says she’s being framed. Everyone’s arguing about it.”

Nishino is shouting at Hama that ‘he can’t say Hanano did it when she’s saying she’s framed’ and Hama is yelling back at her. Ruiko never saw those two on such bad terms last time. 

Miki goes back to her room and slams her door. Shigeki’s trying to speak to her through it until Sasaki pulls him away. Ojima continues. “Hasegawa came out and then went right back to his room. I haven’t seen anybody else—I guess they aren’t near the dorms.” 

“It’s not—someone other than Okazaki, right? Like, it can’t be anyone else, can it?” Ruiko is stuck on other traps in another world. Ojima pauses. “I don’t… think so.” 

Fear seizes Ruiko’s heart. “What if it’s someone totally different? What if someone else is messing with her, not Okazaki and not even Ken?” She’s not even sure how Hiroaki heard her while she whispered it to Ojima but it seems he did because he butts in. 

“Occam’s Razor.” Ruiko stares at him blankly. “Not surprised you’ve never heard the term. It means, the simplest solution is normally the right one.”

Ruiko thinks about Harada’s trial, about Nishino’s, about everything that happened with Ken. “But—that’s not true!”

She can’t tell what Hiroaki’s thinking. “You’re right. It isn’t.”

He frowns. “Don’t overthink. You’re not good at it.” Ruiko opens her mouth to protest. He clicks his tongue. “Stay on track.”

Ruiko stands and watches as arguments fizzle. People head to their rooms. She stands there until she can’t stand the cold for a second longer. 

20:30

Even under all her blankets, with the candles and the hot pans, and her layers, it’s still not warm enough. 

Chapter Text

Day 21

10:00

He tries not to think about Yukino, but it’s hard not to when he’s cold and alone. He woke up this morning and reached out for his phone to text her, only to be hit with cold. He didn’t get even a second to forget where he was.

So, he goes about his day not thinking of Yukino. 

Instead, he worries for Sawa.

If she was older he wouldn’t be worried, but cubs don’t handle freezing temperatures as well as adults. She’s not in danger from the cold yet, but she will be soon. They all will be. Unless one of them kills, they’re all going to die and Keizou shivers at the thought. He can’t stand the idea of dying here with everything he has outside, and he’s trying hard not to hope for someone to follow the examples of Wada and Kamimura. It’s a terrible thought, but as he shivers and watches Sawa wilt that desire grows in his mind.

He feeds Sawa and microwaves udon and wonders how long it takes for cold to kill you.

13:20

After lunch, Keizou decides to spend some time in the incinerator room with Airi. Airi decides to go back to her room after a bit, but Keizou waits upstairs for the heat and for Ran to finish his student council meeting. He’s surprised once it’s finished, and it’s not Ran who comes in. 

“Keizou!” Tsuno smiles at him and Keizou smiles back.  Being around Tsuno is always pleasant and she and Ran have gotten very close. “Tsuno, hey! Not in the medbay yet?”

“I’m just heading there—but Ran and I had a good idea we wanted to share with you and Airi! She’s…?”

“Back in her room.”

“Ah, okay! Ran’s still talking to the council— meeting’s going a little late, but we thought it might be good to set up in the incinerator room for tonight. There are issues of smoke inhalation, of course, but I think it’ll generally be better for us to be warmer. We were planning on the two of us and then you and Chiba? In this one, not the one downstairs to be more considerate. A lot more people use that one.”

Keizou agrees. 

“Great! I’m off to the medbay then.”

Keizou thinks of Okazaki. “I’ll walk with you! Then I’ll go ask Chiba if she’d like to.”

Tsuno’s smile gets a little fixed. “Okay! If that’ll make you more comfortable, we can walk together!”

Keizou sees Tsuno looking around as they walk, as if searching for something or someone in particular. Whatever it is, she doesn’t find it and they part at the medbay. 

13:35

After waving goodbye to Tsuno and Yanagi, Keizou heads out. He knocks on Airi’s door and is surprised when he finds someone else in the room.

“Keizou, hi! Come on in.”

“Hi, Airi, um—”

She looks behind her. “Oh! Nakamigawa can’t find his nail polish remover and he came here to use mine.” Hiroaki stares at him cooly, and then goes back to concentrating on his hands.

Airi loves the idea as much as he thought she would. He smiles as she does.

“I’m going to go get Ran to help me move my bed!”

“Oh—okay!” 

Airi rushes out of her room. Keizou gathers his things and moves to follow her when a venomous voice comes from behind him.

“You’re going to kill her, you know.” Hiroaki sits there, filing his nails. Keizou must look confused, because Hiroaki continues. “Chiba, I mean. Sawa’s not going to do anything in the cold, maybe, but unless we all freeze to death here there’s going to be another motive. And you’re going to be stupid again and keep leaving your room and hanging out with the smallest, most vulnerable person here with a dangerous predator. And now you’re sleeping in the same room at night. It’s like you want to kill her.”

Hiroaki isn't even looking at him. Keizou’s hands ball into fists. “And what do you think will happen to Sawa then? If the rabbit doesn’t kill her, we will.”

How dare he. “Sawa’s not going to do that! She’s not nearly as dangerous as you think. I’m not endangering Airi.”

“But you are~ You’re just too stubborn or too stupid to admit it.”

Keizou opens his mouth to argue, and Hiroaki stands and starts to walk away. “Just stay in your room. It’ll be better for everyone.”

Keizou doesn’t follow him. Hiroaki really is the worst. 

16:00

It takes a while for him and Ran to get all four beds upstairs. Tsuno has an interview, so they do hers last after they’re actually able to get into her room. It sounded like maybe she had more interesting questions than he did.

It occurs to Keizou halfway through, that Ran and Tsuno don’t think anyone’s going to die anytime soon. There’s no reason to do this if they aren’t going to need to be warm for a long time. Keizou tries to think if he believes the same and his mind blanks. 

He waits until they finish before asking about the meeting. Ran had seemed tense after they’d met back up and he’s been wondering what happened.

“How was the council meeting?”

Ran rolls his head, letting his neck crack. “Bad.”

“Should I be scared to ask what happened?”

“Nah. Lotta stupid shit. I mean, some of it wasn’t stupid, but a lot was.”

Keizou looks at him, waiting for him to continue. Ran sighs, then does. 

“Manami and I got Isono out of her room, but she was freaked out even being outside. I told her I’m going to get her during dinner, but she’s not leaving without somebody else. She doesn’t think Okazaki’s trying to kill her, but she’s worried she’s going to escalate and do it accidentally.” Ran is moving around the beds to make room for people to get to the incinerator behind them and also to the wood. 

“Then Yanagi decides to go and play white knight and says that they have to check Okazaki’s room for stuff. He seems pretty convinced she stole something when we were bringing stuff in here. But Sasaki says we don’t really have a way to make Okazaki open her room. She also said that while it’s probably Okazaki, it might not be Okazaki.” Hama pauses. “And she’s right—it’s probably Okazaki, but it might not be and if it’s not Okazaki, then who the hell is it?”

“So Yanagi and Sasaki are arguing about if they can break into Okazaki’s room and, if not, what they can do and Sasaki’s arguing that we should be focusing on finding passageways because otherwise someone’s going to die for sure. Then Sasaki suggests we just have Hayashi watch her, because that’s close to what she does outside this place and Yanagi flips out completely.”

“Ojima’s checked out completely at this point and Isono looks like she’s going to book it so I suggest that we just have someone be with Tsuno and Isono all the time. Which we’ve basically already been doing. Yanagi calms down and Ojima starts to say something, but I’m not sure what it is because he stops saying it and even Sasaki couldn’t get him to share.”

“So yeah. Shitty meeting and I think if another incident happens, Isono will only leave her room for food going forward.”

Keizou feels bad that he can’t say anything more than, “That sucks.”

“Yeah. Sure fucking does.” Ran looks over at him. “You want to talk about what’s got you down?”

Keizou thinks. He thinks about Yukino and Sawa, about Hiroaki and Chiba, about the sinking, disgusted feeling in his stomach that someone’s going to die soon. 

He looks at Hama and shakes his head. “No, I’m good.”

Ran looks at him like he sees right through him. “Okay, you’re good.”

“Yeah.” 

Chapter Text

Day 58

6:30

Nakamigawa does not need to wake up in the morning. He’s been up all night again and he simply decides when everyone else is going to get up too. 

He nudges Takeshi awake with his foot. 

6:45

He knocks on Yanagi’s door and is glad to find him with a shirt this time, and goes to get Tamba. 

They’ve got a very important job. Tsuno is not dying. 

7:35 

Waking Tamba takes way too long today, but it’s happened and now they’re going for another check on the actual day it would have happened originally. They’ve got about a half-hour before breakfast and anyone thinking it’s strange that they’re not there. Takeshi and Shigeki are going to make sure nobody comes up here. They don’t want Okazaki catching on and figuring out some new way of murdering Tsuno while they’re taking down this one. 

Now, if only Nakamigawa thought he could open this door without dying, since today probably actually is the day if last time was any indication. Tamba turns to him. “You do it.”

“We already agreed you would today because you took too long to wake up.” He folds his arms. He’s not giving in on this. Just because he thinks that hiding behind the door will work doesn’t mean he feels like risking his life about it. 

“You can’t hold me to that! I was basically still asleep! Nothing I say then counts! We had to wait anyway!”

They’d determined it might be best to make sure Tsuno was safe before rushing off to do this. They’d seen her going downstairs with Hama and then went up towards the woodshop. 

“Tamba, the sooner we do this, the sooner we’re done with it.”

It takes a bit and a staring contest, but Tamba gives in eventually. She must not actually think this is going to kill her if she does. 

The woodshop door opens outwards so it’s easy enough to hide behind. Nakamigawa stands by the wall nowhere near the entrance and Tamba hides behind the door as she opens it—ready to spring out of the way of hiding behind it doesn’t work somehow. 

And so she opens it. 

And nothing happens. 

“…Opening it would make the trap happen, right?”

“Maybe she made it motion activated somehow?”

They throw Tamba’s blanket in. Nothing happens.

“That crazy bitch didn’t make a tripwire trap, did she?” She didn’t. He wonders if this is the wrong day, if he miscounted.

Staring into the woodshop, it hits Nakamigawa at once. There’s no reason Okazaki needed to trap the woodshop specifically. It only had to be the woodshop the first time because of what she put at the crime scene. If she puts something different at the crime scene, it could signal them to search a different room, which Tsuno would then volunteer for. 

Which means literally any room could be trapped. 

Nakamigawa’s head shoots to the right as he hears chatting from the incinerator and Harada and Chiba leaving it. Nakamigawa has a vision of a stake in Chiba’s skull and calls out. “You two—come with us right now. And don’t open any doors!”

It’s best not to risk it. 

“Wait, what are you doing? Hiroaki we can’t leave!” Nakamigawa turns back to a confused Harada, scared Chiba, and angry Tamba. “Keep up, Tamba! There’s nothing in the woodshop. We need to figure out where it could be.”

7:45

An immediate problem is presented when they reach the chemistry lab. The door won’t open. He and Tamba stand off to the side so the wall protects them and attempt to open the door, but are unable to. After Nakamigawa can't, Tamba tries. 

Harada cuts in. “Why can’t you open it?”

Tamba shouts back. “I don’t know!”

“Why don’t you stand…in front of the door to open it?”

“Because I don’t want to die, Harada!”

It’s only Chiba’s pleading that keeps Harada with them after that.

7:54

The engineering lab, on the other hand, opens. And it’s good that they’re all standing off to the side because a crutch slams down into the empty space where a person would be entering a room through. The crutch with several sharp knives attached to it. 

Tamba bursts into tears. Chiba is hyperventilating.

Harada goes, “Wha-what?” 

Hiroaki blinks. He supposes it’s good to know Okazaki’s gotten more creative in the absence of more obvious murder weapons. 

“We need to make sure it’s safe now.” Tamba shouts back. “You do it!”

It isn’t. There’s a tripwire too. Connected to a hammer meant to swing down and hit them. 

8:40

Harada knows how to deal with the tripwire, fortunately. Unfortunately, he asks a lot of questions that Nakamigawa has to dodge, and Tamba has to be reminded not to answer. They keep Chiba away from the door and manage to get down the hammer and crutch and secure the rest of the room. 

It’s when they’re leaving that Nakamigawa thinks of it. He grabs Tamba and whispers to her. “What if she set up more than one?”

“She’d want to kill someone herself, right?”

“I don’t know! The chem lab isn’t exactly meant to be shut either!”

Nakamigawa thinks. Harada is stuck there, staring. Nakamigawa comes to a decision. “Chiba, go downstairs and see who’s on kitchen cleanup. Get them to stay there. If you can’t, tell them they can’t go into any new rooms. Tell them about the trap if you have to. Don’t open any new doors and get anyone in a public area to stay there. If you end up alone with Okazaki, scream. Actually, scream if you see her at all.”

“Right!”

Nakamigawa turns to Tamba. “Let’s go.”

9:10

Harada seems to think he’s also involved with this, but Hiroaki can’t deny they do need more hands. They try to balance speed and carefulness going through the rest of the floor. A few more rooms are shut the same way as the chemistry lab was. The guidance office, the storage closet, and two of the classrooms. Fortunately, there weren’t any traps anywhere to murder them. 

Unfortunately, Nakamigawa had to put up with, “How did you know about the trap?”, “Why are these all shut?”, and “Why didn’t you tell anyone about this?” the whole time. He’d almost rather just have Tamba. Which is horrifying. 

They make it down to the first floor to check there when they hear a banging coming from the main office. Tamba starts to rush forward and Nakamigawa puts a hand on her shoulder. This could easily be a trap. 

“Can anyone hear me? Hey! Are you back?” 

“Sasaki?”

“Tamba? Sorry, we thought it was—nevermind. Look, um, we need some help.”

It turns out Hasegawa and Sasaki got stuck in the main office after they went in to look for passages. Nakamigawa shivers, from the cold and from a memory. 

“You guys okay?”

“We’re fine; it’s just annoying. Can you get us out of here?”

“We haven’t figured out how to open any of the doors yet.”

“Any?”

Harada starts to explain the situation and Nakamigawa gestures for Tamba to come with him to check the staff room. The pool balcony. 

Men’s toilets. Women’s toilets. 

Harada joins them again. The music room. 

The supply closet, which is glued shut. 

The av room. 

The darkroom. 

The drama room. 

The body. 

The-

Blood. 

Nakamigawa leans to the side and throws up. He’s glad no one can see his eyes. 

Chapter Text

9:43

Monomoko appears out of nowhere and all at once as she always does. Sasaki jumps. Hasegawa shudders. Monomoko does not speak to them though, she speaks into the microphone. 

A body has been discovered. 

9:44

Yanagi Shigeki hangs by his wrists. He’s been stuffed into a prince costume and a prop sword has been shoved into his back. A plastic crown has been placed on his head. Cuts had been made under both of his eyes leaving red streaks down his face. 

Tamba is crying. Hiroaki is standing off to the side facing the wall. Harada is staring and staring until he screams. 

10:05

Team Divisions—started by Okazaki Hanano and taken over by Hiroaki Nakamigawa. 

Hayashi Mai and Watari Nishino—drama room. 

“Are you gonna be okay, Mai? I can—“

“It’s fine. I can handle it.”

“Okay, just—”

“I said it’s fine. Let’s do this.”

• Notes on the body.
• Jumper cables have tied his wrists above his head to the top of the drama room ceiling
• The prince costume has been put on over his regular clothes. Kinda sloppy—you can still see a lot of his outfit under it.
• He was hit by something towards the top of his head. Eyes half-open with uneven pupils. The cuts under his eyes are still sticky, meaning he was killed recently.
• They must have swung down to get the part of the head they got. 
• Wound in his back was a stab wound. The fake sword must have been put in there afterward, the wound’s not very deep nor is the prop an actual blade.

• Notes on the room
• The costumes have been disturbed.
• Found a sledgehammer with blood on it. Likely the murder weapon.
• Markings on the floor. Blood on the floor too. Think he was on the ground at some point. 

Isono Miki and Tsuno Manami—second floor

• The engineering lab is really weird. There are a bunch of hammers hanging from the ceiling. A few nails and string up by the door. There’s a crutch with several knives taped to it. The floor’s incinerator room ladder is in here. There’s an empty wall hook next to two of the big hammers that aren’t in the toolbox. 
• There’s a cut wire on the ground and a couple rolls of duct tape in the engine compartment of the car the school had in here. The whole toolbox is a total mess too.
• The chemistry lab is stuck like the main office that Hitomi and Ken are stuck in. 
• So are the guidance office, the storage closet, and classrooms 5 and 6B. 

Ojima Takeshi and Chiba Airi—first floor

“Who was it?” Sasaki’s voice is high but collected. There’s silence on the other side. “Please, just tell me.”

“…Shigeki.”

“Oh.”

First Floor Examination

• Hasegawa Ken and Sasaki Hitomi have been trapped in the main office. According to them, there doesn’t appear to be anything relevant in there. 
• The supply closet has been sealed off. Also sealed off: The art room. 
• All the classrooms, the library, and the bathrooms as well as everything checked before are open. Nothing unusual was found in any of them though. 
• Books are out in the library. 

Tamba Ruiko, Harada Keizou, and Hiroaki Nakamigawa—basement

Dorms

• Sasaki’s room: Sealed up the way the other doors are above.
• Chiba’s room: Same as the previous investigation. 
• Tamba’s room: Messy bed, lots of candles. Otherwise, same as previous. 
• Hayashi’s room: Chemicals are stashed in here. Seems to be from the chemistry lab. Nothing opened. 
• Okazaki’s room: Sealed. Again. 
• Watari’s room: Minor fire damage. Also has Yanagi’s tape player, which we had to turn off. Sounds like she ran out without shutting it off. Otherwise same as previous. 
• Tsuno’s room: Sealed.
• Isono’s room: Messy. Even more than usual. 
• Kamimura’s room: Same as previous. 
• Ojima’s room: Sealed.
• Wada’s room: Same as previous. 
• Yanagi’s room: We looked through this one pretty thoroughly, but it seems like usual. 
• Harada’s room: Hiroaki and Tamba examined. Messy, but it seems to be because of Sawa. Bed missing. 
• Hasegawa’s room: Way messier than last time I saw it but nothing suspicious. 
• Hiroaki’s room: Most of it is cleared out, but there is a whiteboard in here, which is strange. Otherwise it’s really clear. 
• Hama: Sealed! Ran won’t be happy. 

Hama Ran and Okazaki Hanano—alibis, spot checking at requests, and searching for solvents to free Hasegawa and Sasaki. 

Alibi list:

• Hama Ran: After breakfast, went to the library. No alibi. 
• Okazaki Hanano: After breakfast, wandered the halls as hall overlord. Corroborates Isono and Watari being in their dorms at the bda. No alibi. 
• Tsuno Manami: In the kitchen with Ojima and later Airi the whole time after breakfast. Before breakfast, was with me (Hama Ran). Last saw Yanagi at breakfast. Complete alibi. 
• Isono Miki: Showed up for breakfast and then went back to room before leaving for the BDA. No alibi. 
• Chiba Airi: Was with Keizou after waking up, then with Tamba and Hiroaki with Keizou, then in the kitchen with Ojima and Manami until the body discovery. Mostly complete alibi. 
• Ojima Takeshi: Was with Hiroaki early in the morning and then with Tsuno in the kitchen the whole time afterwards. Complete alibi. 
• Main Office: After breakfast, Hasegawa and Sasaki searched for passages in the main office until they ended up sealed in the room. They say nothing was in the drama room yesterday when they searched there. Last heard Yanagi through the door telling them he’d be right back after a bit of silence. Complete alibi for both. 
• Hayashi Mai: After breakfast, wandered, then went to the auditorium. No alibi. 
• Watari Nishino: Was practicing fire dancing in her dorm. No alibi. 
• Hiroaki Nakamigawa————

“How dare you.” 

“I don’t know why you’re being so hostile. I already said that I didn’t do it.” Okazaki Hanano has her hands crossed over her chest. Tamba Ruiko has her hands balled into fists. 

“Just because Toshi wasn’t there—just because you didn’t have him you went for Shigeki. How come? Why him?” Okazaki doesn’t respond. Hiroaki and Harada have already backed away. 

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Don’t you like talking?”

Still nothing. Okazaki doesn’t respond. 

“I’m going to kill you!”

Tamba’s fist meets Okazaki’s mask once, twice before it breaks. Okazaki looks up with wide, gray eyes and covers her face. 

Hama has to drag Tamba off in the end. Tamba shouts as she is pulled off her until she suddenly stills. “Fine! Whatever—you’ll be dead soon anyway. Enjoy your face melting off again.” Hiroaki opens his mouth before quickly shutting it. 

Hama and Okazaki’s search takes a detour into the medical bay, giving up the surprisingly unproductive solvent search, and the basement group’s search takes a minute to recover from Harada avoiding the other two. 

It’s 13:45. Okazaki is throwing a fit in the medbay with Hama watching. The rest are searching frantically, or awkwardly, or tirelessly, when Monomoko frees Sasaki and Hasegawa and calls everyone down. 

This is how the investigation ends.

Chapter Text

Well.

Hanano can admit that, perhaps, this morning didn’t go perfectly. And it started out so well. She’s a little tired, she’ll admit, from setting up the trap and the engineering room, but! She figured it would be worth it. A fantastically ironic ending for a superhero medic—killed by medical equipment, like her little sidekick who had fancied himself such a prince hanging dressed up as one for his coronation. Catching Hasegawa and Sasaki by surprise was perfect and Yanagi’s death was so elegant. She’d been so proud of herself! 

So, all she had to do was wait for the body discovery to go off. So, she waited. And waited.

And nothing.

Then Tamba went and ruined her mask and her handsome face and now she has to sit through this booooring trial proceeding. At least Nishi got mad on her behalf when the big guy brought it up. 

When’s the good part? She’s ready for her debut. Stop with the boring catching Hasegawa and Sasaki up and get to the murder!

Finally, they’re doing it. Hayashi keeps her cool when describing the body. Hanano can’t believe she ever thought she was one of the conspirators. Even if she’s close to Yanagi and Tamba, that doesn’t mean anything. 

At least other people gave her the reaction she was looking for. In fact, Hanano thinks she might have underestimated how many people taking out Yanagi would affect. Hiroaki looking away from her, Tamba’s clenched fists, Chiba’s tear-streaked face, Isono’s fear and disgust, and Sasaki’s self-recrimination. 

The forlorn expression Manami lets fall on her face for just a moment when discussing the body. 

Manami and Isono are talking about the engineering room. Hanano tunes in to try and figure out what on earth went wrong. The answer is basically what she expected. Her beautiful traps that she had spent hours on, taken apart. It’s nice that Manami got a chance to see her work, but she was only supposed to see it if it killed Isono rather than her! Not like this, all deconstructed and lame.

She needs to be patient. Wait for the right time. 

It seems to be coming. Harada is testifying. “Airi and I ran into Tamba and Hiroaki this morning. We—”

Tamba and Hiroaki—of course. She’d noticed them checking the woodshop, of course, but every other day they had just stopped there. How did they know? How? They hadn’t checked any other rooms any other days. Why now? Why today?

Is today the day her nemesis is meant to die?

It must be. It must be today. Today is the day evil was meant to finally triumph over Tsuno Manami.

Hanano wishes she had a better outfit. No mask to take off and an open coat isn’t exactly elegant, but it’s what she has to deal with. 

Hama is speaking. “You guys seem really sure it’s Okazaki. I mean, Tamba even attacked her over it. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but—I mean. Couldn’t it be anybody? Technically.”

Hasegawa stutters his way into the conversation. “I-I mean, it can’t be anybody. Yanagi was alive this morning. We heard him in the main office. So, we know anyone with an alibi for the whole time after breakfast can’t be the killer. Myself, Sasaki, Harada, Tamba, Hiroaki, Ojima, and Tsuno all were consistently with another person, like we went over. So, it would have to be one of Isono or Watari, who said they were in their rooms, Hayashi or Okazaki, who said they were wandering, or Hama, who said he was in the library. There was technically a period of time where Chiba was separated from Harada before she found Tsuno and Ojima, but it seems extremely unlikely she’d have been able to kill Yanagi in that short period of time, especially given her size. I don’t believe she would even be able to do this.”

Hayashi chimes in. “Think we can rule out Isono on that too. Whoever killed Yanagi probably had to be his height or taller. If Isono did it, the wound on his head would be further down, or he’d have been kneeling, or for her to be standing above the ground. The only things in there were some rather flimsy chairs.”

“You can’t just say Hanano did it though!” Nishi… so sweet. But she doesn’t understand. Maybe one day. “It doesn’t have to be her.”

“Then who is it, Watari? You? Hama? Or Hayashi? Because those are the only people who could have done this.”

Hanano has been listening for her chance to go in. It sounds like now might be the time.

“Unless, of course, one of the alibis isn’t as solid as they’re pretending.”

Sasaki flicks her eyes to her. “What do you mean?”

“This is a conspiracy. It’s a conspiracy between those three,” she points at Tamba, Hiroaki, and Ojima, “in order to frame me.”

Tamba is shaking. With anger? With fear? “Are you seriously accusing me of killing Yanagi? Seriously?”

She isn’t. But she has to lay proper groundwork. Hanano turns to the rest of the room. “How would Hiroaki and Tamba know about those traps? Why would they be so scared of Chiba or Harada opening new doors? It doesn’t make any sense, right~ How could they know?”

All eyes are on her. They’re waiting. She has their attention—all their attention. 

“This conspiracy, I should say, was not about killing Yanagi. In fact, Yanagi was a member of said conspiracy. As was Wada Masanari.” Hanano sees Hayashi open her mouth and she speaks loudly in order to stop her interrupting. “Allow me to explain.”

“I had questions for so long. How did Tamba know about my gun? I didn’t show it to her, and I doubt she could spy on me. It’s not like I was showing it off or that Tamba’s very sneaky. Why did Ojima think it was magic that brought him here? Why did Wada know Monomoko’s name in the note, or at least that it started with an M before it told us what it was? Why did Hiroaki know about the body discovery rule? Why did they keep going to the woodshop every morning? Why was Yanagi so very insistent on Sawa staying inside and no one going in that locked door?” Hanano glances over to Sasaki. “You might want to work on the security of your council meetings.”

Sasaki starts, “It’s not as though we’re hiding—” Hanano talks over it.

“It took me a while to figure it out, but I did. And, I had my suspicions regarding why they were doing everything, but I didn’t realize I was being framed until Sasaki mentioned the missing resin. A 3D printer would have been a bit useful, but I guess some people just want to ruin things for everybody.” That resin framing had made her change her plans with the board and nails. She could have done a much cooler trap if she wasn’t pretending that was part of the framing. She wonders about everything she could have done with a 3D printer. There are so many interesting ideas she can think of. 

Isono crosses her arms. “First off, it doesn’t make sense for anyone to cover for anyone else. They’ll get executed as well. Second, why should we believe you? You really think I’m going to be convinced that you didn’t do this? You did it! You did the traps; you killed Yanagi. Who cares how they knew?”

Hanano reads the room. A lot of people care. They’re very curious. Manami is looking at her too.

Hayashi sneers at her. “Tamba and Hiroaki are both shorter than Yanagi. It doesn’t make any sense for either of them to be the killer. And Ojima was with Tsuno the whole time after breakfast, who’s not part of your so-called ‘conspiracy.’ You should have saved your bullshit and tried to frame me or Hama. What the hell are you even talking about?”

“I’m talking about what they’re hiding from us. What they’re all hiding from us. It’s not that they’ve been in a different game. There wasn’t a previous game! It’s not that they shouldn’t have known about the rules, it’s about how much all of them shouldn’t have known about all of us. Unlike you simpletons, I figured it out! Those three, no, those five, are actually from the future.”

There’s silence.

She sees Sasaki is actually shaking. “Okazaki. Are you genuinely insane?”

Hanano continues. “It took me a while to figure it out as well! ‘Time travel,’ it didn’t make a lot of sense.” 

“Obviously it doesn’t make sense! What—” Hanano isn’t going to let Isono interrupt her. She continues. “But there were so many things that just kept adding up. Everything I listed before and so much more. Why was Yanagi so certain there were secret passageways? Why did Ojima have his pathetic little panic attack and act like he already knew people? Why did Wada Masanari kill himself?”

She continues, “I’ve got to ask. You guys were so freaked out about the woodshop. Who’d I kill last time?” Hiroaki sneers, Ojima stares blankly, and Tamba shouts, “Shut up!” Predictable, all of them. If they weren’t dirty cheaters, they’d never have beaten her here. 

“I got Manami, right?” Hanano faces her; her rival, the most amazing perfect heroic figure. Her lifelong enemy who’s still alive right in front of her while Hanano is about to die and that isn’t fair, it isn’t fair even a little. Manami isn’t supposed to be alive without her. Manami was supposed to die then.

“Manami, did you like the trap I set up for you?” She searches Manami’s face, sees the disgust and fear and her heart soars. “It was really good, right? I had to get a little creative with everything, but I think it came out really well! I was sure you would have volunteered for the second floor if everything went well. I put so much effort into it. Surely you can appreciate—“

Hama. “Shut up, don’t even look at her.” Oh, here comes the big strong guy here to save the day. Manami can handle herself, moron. Hanano doesn’t let herself get distracted, not by that, not by Hayashi saying, “Okay, but she just admitted to doing it.”

“Isono, you didn’t answer me before. Did Manami tell you about me? Or was it one of those time travelers?”

She doesn’t answer. Hanano tightens her fist inside her pocket. Answer, damn you. Answer. Give her an answer. Did Manami talk about her or not?

Nothing. She won’t say anything.

“Manami. I wanted our final showdown to be different from this. The hero against villain—superhero vs. the Phantom Thief of Nagoya as it was always meant to be. But, alas, it was interfered with. Still, I killed your sidekick. And I won’t let anyone interfere this time.”

She starts to run the moment she says that. Knife out from her pocket, rushing forward. Past Tamba who jumps to one side, past Hiroaki who falls to the ground.

And her blade meets flesh. But not where she intended.

Chapter Text

Day 22

15:05

Manami watches as Takeshi moves in front of her. He’s frozen there, in front of her, and she sees blood dripping down from somewhere, by his feet. Okazaki clearly pulls back and the knife doesn’t move and Manami realizes Takeshi must be gripping it. Hayashi finally reaches them and she’s grabbing onto Okazaki, hauling her off. Manami finally gets a look at her face which just looks defeated. She can’t be paying attention to her, though. Mai has that handled. 

Takeshi is completely out—it’s easy to tell. She turns his hand towards her and pries open his fingers, dropping the knife and making blood begin to pool in his palm. His hand is sliced from the middle of his pointer finger to the knuckle of his middle to the bottom of his ring and pinky finger down to the edge of his hand. His palm has filled up and is flowing onto the floor. Manami looks around frantically. “Someone get me some cloth!”

The room is loud. Hiroaki is shouting at the rabbit to hurry things up and it does seem to be talking rather quickly. Ken gets her part of a torn shirt which, while not as helpful as what she can get in the medical bay, is doing something to slow the bleeding at least. Manami can hear screaming and crying from her classmates around her, Okazaki’s gone, but she can’t pay attention to that. She has someone she needs to save. 

It's not long before the doors open and Manami manages to rush Takeshi to the medical bay. She hears people fall into step behind her and she’s grateful when Hayashi opens the door to the medical bay and doesn’t enter behind her. Someone else does, though, but Manami can’t focus on him at the moment. 

Manami finally gets the bleeding under control, swapping out the shirt for a large cloth with enough pressure. She cleans the wound, puts antibiotics on it, and bandages it. There’s only so much she can do here. The bleeding stopped, but it can start again, so she lays Takeshi’s arm on an elevated tray next to the bed she placed him in. She knows he can’t move now so she makes sure he’s sitting up before sighing and falling back into a seat. 

She sits there a moment before standing and goes to wash the blood off of her. 

Hiroaki is there. He’s standing, facing the wall, and Manami remembers his disgust at blood. 

Manami wants answers. She wants them badly, but… is Hiroaki the person to get them from? When he’s like this? He won’t even face her. 

It might be better to think about that—about what she should ask him than to think about Okazaki. Okazaki, who she didn’t watch die, but she can remember her friends screaming. Okazaki, who was apparently stalking her before she came here, maybe for years, under the idea that she was an actual superhero? That Okazaki was a supervillain? And that Okazaki expected her to have noticed? She thought she knew her? 

It might be easier. To think about Okazaki’s claims more than Okazaki’s actions and her death. 

Shigeki died today. Shigeki died today and Okazaki claimed he came from the future to conspire against her. It should be something so easily dismissed, but the problem is Manami can’t think of another reason why he and everyone Okazaki mentioned knew these things that they couldn’t have known without some level of foreknowledge. The only other way any of that makes even a remote amount of sense is if they were working with the people who put them in here. Manami thinks about Shigeki hanging there, dead, and thinks of Takeshi who had just grabbed a knife so she wouldn’t be stabbed. Thinks of Ruiko who had tried to warn her about Okazaki and thinks of Hiroaki, talking so softly about Masa killing himself and she thinks that time travel—time travel of all things makes more sense. 

Manami takes a deep breath in and one out and starts. “Hiroaki.” No response. “Nagawa. I think you should know his bleeding stopped.”

She wants to ask about what happened. She needs to ask about it—about the past, about what they know. About if Okazaki was actually right, but instead what comes out of her mouth is, “You should have told me about Okazaki.”

Hiroaki stands there, still facing away. “We figured—if you confronted her—it could have set her off.”

Manami thinks about that for a moment. “Still. I’d have wanted to know.” There’s silence. Manami takes a moment to center herself. She looks at Ojima. This is the moment where Shigeki should be there to ask if they should be doing something about patient pain. But, she’s not sure there’s much more she can do for Takeshi with him being unresponsive. 

Manami thinks for a minute. “I’m just going to ask a couple of questions if that’s okay.”

Nagawa stays still for a moment. Then a slight nod. 

“Were Shigeki and Masa—from where you were?”

He barely moves his lips. “Yeah.”

“Okay, then, Nagawa… was I going to die today?” 

A moment. Then, “Maybe.”

“Thanks, then. For saving my life.”

Nagawa’s voice cracks. “Yeah.” He says. “Anytime.”

18:15

Takeshi still hasn’t woken up. Nagawa warned that he might pick at his bandages when he headed out to get her food, so Manami is watching him when Nishino enters the medbay. Manami turns to her.

Nishino looks distressed. Of course she does. Manami doesn’t know if she has it in her to comfort her at the moment. She does what she can, though, and puts on a soft smile.  Nishino steps forward. Manami has never seen her so hesitant. 

“I’m sorry.” 

No. Manami doesn’t need this from her.

“I’m so sorry—Tsuno. Manami, I didn’t think she was doing it. I didn’t know—I’m so—”

Manami rushes forward and hugs her. Nishino pauses and lets out a small sound. Manami rests her forehead on her shoulder and lets herself cry.

Yonekura log

Dr. Yonekura Haruka

Session 1, log sixty-six

Today’s case was a disaster in a completely different way from the previous two. Early this morning, around 3:50, Student Nine took advantage of the engineering lab–a room the other students had neglected to clear out–to set up a pair of traps and steal a murder weapon. 

Student Nine then went about sealing various doors on the second floor, before traveling down for breakfast in order to avoid drawing suspicion to herself before heading back up around 8:15. She then sealed Students Seven and Fourteen into the main office, using them to lure Student Sixteen into following her into the drama room, where she was hiding in the costume racks. She then hit him from behind with a sledgehammer, killing him instantly. She dressed the body in a mocking display—a prince, how original. She then continued sealing doors around the school until the body was discovered, still being in the dorm hall at the time the announcement went off. During all of this, the engineering room traps were disabled by Students Two, Three, Twelve, and Thirteen. The latter two had been searching for days in another room, but expanded the search today which also led to them discovering the body. 

During the investigation, Student Thirteen assaulted Student Nine under the assumption that she committed the murder, which then set Student Nine on a fit in front of Student Ten after—though, personally, I think she was more upset about her failure to kill Student Eleven. 

After going on a deranged rant about five of the living and dead students being time travelers during the trial, Student Nine tried to rectify her failure by attempting to kill Student Eleven with a knife, only to be stopped by Students Eight and Five.

Not appropriate! Not even remotely appropriate! Not what the trial is for. 

And that’s not even beginning to get into that sorry excuse of an execution. Why not just shoot her? What’s wrong with a gun, Dr. Kan? Would he have spent all of our budget if the first two deaths hadn’t been suicides or would he still feel the need to pour molten gold on Yume’s face?

And that’s not even getting into her excuse! Time travel, of all things. Honestly, Yume.

What do you mean it’s “probably true”?! Seki—

*Click*

Chapter Text

Day 23

8:30

Miki knows she should be more upset. Or maybe she should feel more relieved. Mostly, she just feels numb. Yanagi is dead, but the danger is gone. Okazaki is dead, but Miki had to watch her die. It balances into a horrible feeling in her stomach that dissipates until she feels nothing.

Manami invited her to check out the new floor with her. She should go with her. She should see what’s up there. So, she goes to breakfast. And she follows Sasaki up to the new floor.

Takeshi mentions that Nakamigawa’s excited to see the sewing room again. Ran nods. Hitomi has a strained smile on her face.

They’re missing someone. Miki tries not to think of him.

Takeshi’s hand is no longer bleeding, fortunately enough. Miki had watched it happen, too far away to help, when her closest friend here was almost stabbed by a deranged stalker. So, she’s grateful, so grateful to Takeshi in this moment. She’s also had questions about him raised that she’s not certain how to ask.

So, she doesn’t.

Instead, she climbs up to see the new floor.

9:05

Not everyone is on the new floor. Several people are still downstairs clearing off the glue on doors. Airi used her nail polish remover to get into Okazaki's room last night and that’s where Nagawa’s nail polish remover was found, as was some rubbing alcohol from the medbay and a few similar supplies. They’d managed to get all of the dorms opened last night, but had decided to save the first floor for today. 

Miki wanders. This floor is nice, at least. There’s a student cafe that she’s sure Nishino will want to play around at, once she’s up for it. A school store with a bunch of generic supplies. And a vast balcony that feels far too large for her, so she ducks out of it quickly. A resource center that Hitomi is already looking through and an archive that holds Ken. She sticks around for a few minutes with them and wanders off. The sewing room that Takeshi mentioned. Nagawa is already in there with him and Miki ducks her head out quickly. She doesn’t really want to talk to those two at the moment. 

The third floor is nice, she thinks, exiting the home ec room and then examining the supply closet. 

Up and towards a new room. A dance studio. Tamba is there and staring at some spot by the bars. She seems like she’s thinking very hard, which is unusual for Ruiko. Miki decides to leave her to her thoughts. 

To the right, another supply room, except Miki realizes it isn’t one of the generic ones she’s grown used to. It’s a garden supply room. Which is very unusual. A garden supply room implies a garden, but there’s nothing like that here. This doesn’t seem to be the type of place where things grow. 

She searches and finds something very strange. In the room, there is a plant. One lone and singular living plant. 

A lily. 

Miki sees watercolors in her eyes and a beautiful picture of Masa with a lily. 

She’s certain, more than anything, it’s this lily. 

Miki leans her head against the cool wall of the room and breathes heavily. 

9:30

It takes her a bit to recover, but when she does she decides to make her way downstairs. It’s when she’s heading over to the resource center to let Sasaki know she’s heading back down that she hears it. It’s a faint sound from the women’s bathroom. She opens the door slowly, carefully. 

Manami is crying. 

Miki waits for a second. It hits her all at once that Manami isn’t always strong, and she feels suddenly ashamed of the day she spent sobbing on Manami’s shoulder after Masa had died—of the time she locked her out when she was being terrorized by Okazaki—of not checking on her last night, with Shigeki dead and Takeshi injured. 

Miki takes a step forward. Manami notices her and quickly wipes her eyes. “Oh, Miki, sorry, I—”

Miki takes the next three steps as quickly as she can before enveloping Manami in a hug. “I’m here.” She tries to make herself sound comforting. How does Manami do it so effectively? Miki can do cheerful or welcoming so well, but her voice falters at comfort. So, she just tries to make it sound kind. “It’s okay, Manami, I’m here. I’m so sorry—about Okazaki and Shigeki.”

Manami’s voice is hoarse. “I didn’t know.” 

“I know you didn’t.”

“How could I know? Nobody told me.”

Miki holds her tighter. “I’m sorry.”

Manami doesn’t respond. 

“Manami, I’m so sorry.” 

10:45

They’re sitting together in the student cafe when Hitomi finds them. Manami is talking about bringing some food up there and having a proper meal together, like when Hayashi had made the restaurant, and her mind still must be on food because the first thing she says when Hitomi comes in is, “Oh! Hitomi. Don’t worry, I was going to head down and get started on lunch in a few minutes.” 

Sasaki’s face is serious though. Miki tenses. “If it’s about the student council… I’m not sure that I…” She’s not sure she’s up for a meeting today. Hitomi’s face doesn’t loosen—in fact she possibly looks more downcast. Miki considers comforting her, but doesn’t know what she can say. 

“It’s not about the council. Well, not exactly. I’d like everyone to attend lunch today. During, well, perhaps after lunch if we’d all prefer, I want to have a meeting with everyone.”

She continues and Miki’s stomach clenches.

“We need to talk about everything Okazaki said.” 

Chapter Text

Day 23

11:30

Ran feels pretty accomplished this morning. He, Airi, and Keizou had finally managed to get all of the rooms open. It’s also a good chance to apologize to Airi for not believing her. She lit up when he did, and he’s glad for it, because she’d been scared before. He knew—she was hiding it, but she was scared. 

Other than apologizing to Airi though, he really didn’t think about yesterday. Seeing Okazaki that way—it was better to concentrate on fixing things.

It’s around lunchtime when they finish, so they go to the kitchen instead of checking out upstairs. Manami smiles at him when he comes in and shuffles close. Her eyes are red. “Hey, guys! Hitomi just went to get you all. Food’s almost ready. Nothing fancy today. Just some of the chicken from last night with rice and some side dishes.” 

Manami’s been upset since yesterday, but now she seems tense. She keeps her voice low, but loud enough that Ran’s sure he and Airi can hear fine. Keizou turns his head and leans in a little closer. “Hitomi wants us all to talk about everything that Okazaki said yesterday.”

“The time travel stuff?” Keizou looks back at them. “We’ve talked about it a bit. I mean—she was obviously, uh. Not well. But we think she’s probably right? I mean, Tamba knew how Okazaki was going to die.”

“I know she’s right!” Airi chimes in. 

Manami looks down. “I don’t have a better explanation for what’s going on. But I feel like some other people might not be super convinced. Plus, there’s probably some other things we need to talk about as a group.” Ran looks down at Manami. He doesn’t take her hand. It’s not badass to take advantage when a girl’s upset. 

It’s especially not badass to take advantage when a girl’s friend died and she found out she had a stalker. Possibly for years. 

Okazaki’s face will haunt Ran forever, but perhaps it’s a comfort to know she’s still burning in Hell. 

Ran closes his eyes. I turn to you Lord and ask for strength. He opens them and sees Airi watching him. He smiles at her and offers to help Manami set the table. 

11:45

It’s quiet before Sasaki clears her throat. A few words about the food, a thank you to Manami, but otherwise quiet. Ran doesn’t want to break the silence—he’s sure most of them don’t. He’d hoped maybe someone who went upstairs could tell them about it, he could use the distraction, but nothing. 

Watching Takeshi struggle with his chopsticks is funny, at least until you remember why he is. He glances at Sasaki. 

Sasaki is sitting at the middle of the table and her voice carries when she begins. “I know this is uncomfortable for everyone. But we need to discuss the events that occurred yesterday. Though, firstly, is there anything else anyone would like to bring up before we get to the main topic?” 

No one responds. Manami opens her mouth at his side, but then closes it and shakes her head. Sasaki waits for a moment, then. “Alright then. The reason for this meeting. We need to discuss Okazaki’s accusations. Obviously she was… unwell and her actual explanation for what she observed was nonsense, but she did observe several points that are important to discuss. You three obviously know more than everyone else and, while I know this might be uncomfortable, we need you to share with the rest of us what information you have.” 

Ojima and Tamba look over at Hiroaki. So does Airi. Hiroaki’s always hard to read when he isn’t letting his emotions show all over his face. His sunglasses do a lot of the work—Ran is pretty sure Hiroaki wears them for that. 

Hiroaki taps the table. “It’s going to sound so stupid to say it out loud.” Hiroaki is quiet for another second. The silence stretches. 

“We went back in time!” Tamba’s voice rings out. “We woke up and we were back to day one! And everything was the same, except everyone who lived was obviously different than last time, so we all talked. Or, I mean, I guess we wrote things down so people didn’t hear us and think we were totally nuts. So we were all trying to figure out what to do, but Ojima and Yanagi were both acting crazy. And then the games were kinda different and we didn’t know how to fix the sleep motive and we were worried that everything would be the same and then Wada killed himself.” 

A moment passes. Another. She spoke very quickly. Maybe a little too quickly. 

“Tamba, what the hell are you talking about.” Mai does not phrase it as a question. Hiroaki’s hands are under his sunglasses rubbing his eyes. 

“Unfortunately, she gave a pretty good summary of our first week back in time.” He finally says. 

The commotion that follows is pretty loud and pointless. Mai and Tamba are yelling at each other from across the table. Hasegawa is protesting how ridiculous this is while Airi is trying to assure him it’s true. Takeshi clearly zones out until Manami tries to talk to him. And Hiroaki—

Hiroaki slips Sasaki something from across the table. Ran looks up and realizes it’s a note. She reads something, quickly and impassively, before slipping it into her pocket. Ran turns away—he doesn’t want anyone noticing just because he was noticing. If he needs to, he’ll ask Sasaki about it later. 

Sasaki catches his eye and asks him to get everyone’s attention. Ran shouts. “Hey! Everyone, listen to the Pres.”

“Thank you, Hama. We are going to take this in an orderly and calm manner. I’m going to start at the end of the table and call on each of you in order. Don’t speak out of turn. Let’s take one question or comment at a time from everyone who wants to speak. Hayashi.”

“Time travel is impossible.” She doesn’t say anything else. 

“Very good point, Hayashi. Time travel is impossible. Does anyone have anything to say about Hayashi's comment?”

“It didn’t make any sense to me either.” Takeshi says this quietly. 

“Alright, if that’s all, Watari?”

“…did I die? How did I die?”

It’s very quiet. Then—

“You killed yourself.”

Ojima flinches and Tamba makes a distressed sound, but neither contradict him. Ran tries to imagine bright, cheerful Watari killing herself like Wada and Kamimura did. It’s hard to picture, but he knows for a fact that means very little.

There isn’t any follow-up to that question. Sasaki is next. “Do you all know where the secret passageways are?”

Ojima shakes his head. Hiroaki says, “Hasegawa got ahold of the blueprints last time, but none of us did. We knew there was one in the medbay, but not where it was until Airi found it. Same with the auditorium. There has to be one under the resource center, one in the pool, and one to the locked door—which, I should probably say now—that’s an arsenal.” 

“Like, with guns?” Watari sounds frightened and it’s a testament to the fact Sasaki must be too that she doesn’t interrupt her. 

“Guns, knives, bombs—I don’t know all of the details. The inventory was done by Wada and Hayashi.” Mai jolts at her name. Ran can see her fairly well from across the table. “I didn’t—“

“You didn’t this time. You did last time.” Ran sees Mai looking down at her plate and gripping it. He thinks she might make a break for the door. He wonders what bothers her the most—the implication of time travel or what it implies happened previously. 

Ran needs that confirmed though. Just because he has a theory doesn’t mean he’s right. He thinks Tamba might have confirmed his suspicion earlier, but she was talking way too fast. 

Hiroaki continues. “If there’s an exit through them, though, either he never found it or never told us. Or there just isn’t one.”

Manami’s next. She looks as though she already has a question in mind. “Did Okazaki kill me last time? With a trap? And—who else did she kill?”

Ran doesn’t know how Hiroaki can look so damn calm. He can already feel blood rushing to his head. “She killed you and she killed Kamimura.” Manami ducks her head. Her hair covers her face and Ran has a hard time seeing her reaction. 

“Kazutoshi lived? He didn’t kill himself?” Hasegawa sounds nearly frantic at this. Ojima shakes his head quickly. “No, don’t think—it wasn’t better. It was worse.”

“Worse? Worse than him killing himself?” Outrage. Ran needs to calm him down. He cuts in before Takeshi can reply. “It was Okazaki who killed him. I can’t imagine what kind of sick thing she did. So, yeah, it was probably worse.”

Ran doesn’t know if that helped or not. Hasegawa is quiet. 

It’s his turn now. And he needs to know. “We all died last time, right? That's what I’ve been assuming, but confirmation would be good. Also, how did you guys go back? Like, how is that even possible?”

This time Hiroaki hesitates. Like he’s not totally sure how to answer. “You all died, yeah. We finished the fifth trial. We were told we reached the ‘ending state’ of the game. Then we were told we were going to be released to go home. Wada was grabbed first. Then we woke up on the first day.”

Ojima has a far off look in his eyes. “Wada said he was in some kind of interview room then suddenly he was here. There was apparently some guy with black hair and glasses who asked him a bunch of questions. Apparently he asked him about ‘his experience with the game.’” 

Sasaki wears an expression of displeasure. The expression is mirrored in several others—Keizou, Isono, Mai. Airi looks more sad than anything. 

“Hiroaki. You mentioned an ‘ending state.’ Are you proposing that this is a reset?”

Hiroaki shrugs. “It’s the best theory we’ve been able to come up with.”

“So this just—keeps happening? Forever?” Watari sounds horrified. 

Tamba’s quiet. “That’s what we want to know. If it’s a fluke or…”

Hasegawa speaks up. “It—it’s my turn now, right? I think it is.”

Sasaki nods at him. 

“Right—okay so. I don’t have a question, I have a theory. Who says any of this is even true?”

It seems like the entire room turns to him. Ran knows he does. 

“I mean, it’s like Hayashi said. Time travel is impossible. Like, scientifically speaking time travel to the past is impossible. So, that’s not what happened here, right?”

“There’s a talking bunny, Hasegawa!”

“Chiba, let him speak.”

“Right, so, if time travel is impossible. Then—then we have to consider what could be happening instead. And I know we had a previous theory about people being kidnapped before and that made sense to a certain point, like sure, that would explain why they knew about the body discovery rule until—until you get into some of the things that happened more recently. Like, how did they know about Okazaki’s traps? Or that she was stalking Tsuno? That implies a familiarity with her behavior and Okazaki herself, rather than just the layout or rules of the game.”

“So, what’s your theory?”

“They have to be working for whoever’s running this game.” Ran knew that would be his conclusion. It’s something he’d considered himself. It’s the most cohesive answer anyone can come up with if time travel isn’t possible. “I’d be open to hearing other theories, of course! But that’s the one that seems to fit the most with the evidence—“ 

“I don’t want to hear that from you, you pathetic, manipulative little creep.”

Hiroaki almost hisses out those words. The attention that had been focused on Hasegawa swung over to him in an instant. 

“Just because you’re the type of person who’s willing to, I don’t know, cut yourself to get some light doesn’t mean the rest of us are as willing to self-mutilate ‘for the cause.’ Or did you forget about the Decision Game? Then again, you are the type of person to lock yourself in a room with your dead friend to murder someone so really—I shouldn’t be surprised!”

“Hiroaki—!”

“I’d really advise shutting your mouth about all of your stupid, pointless, sick theories unless you want me to keep talking about everything you’re capable of doing, Hasegawa.”

Ran stands, wondering if he’s going to need to interfere, but Ojima is already standing, with a hold on Hiroaki’s arm and whispering to him. Hasegawa’s standing as well, fists clenched and trembling, but he doesn’t seem to be making any steps to move forward and there’s an entire table between him and Hiroaki. 

Most people are still sitting. Ran looks beside Ojima and catches sight of Tamba who looks increasingly distressed the longer that he looks at her. She has her hands on either side of her face, almost like she’s going to cover her ears. Her focus is on Hasegawa though, not Hiroaki. 

“Tamba.” She looks at him. Ran thinks maybe he should talk to her like he talks to Airi, then thinks maybe that isn’t what she needs. “You’re being pretty quiet.”

“What am I supposed to say?” Tamba stays where she is. Doesn’t rise or yell or anything Ran might have expected her to do. “He was right. We did deserve to die. I’m not sure about… about the notes or the poison or anything or Wada’s food being stolen but. We did deserve it. Except Mai. Mai didn’t deserve it. She didn’t deserve it at all.” Tears are streaming down Tamba’s face now. Ran feels like he shouldn’t have asked, or at least he should give her some privacy, but everyone’s still here and there isn’t any privacy to be found. 

“Mai, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I messed it up. I messed up your whole investigation. I almost got everyone killed, including Shigeki. I fucked up, Hiroaki fucked up, the only one who didn’t fuck up is Wada and now he’s dead too.” 

Tamba is apologizing to someone who can’t forgive her. Ran understands that at this very moment. Tamba has been looking at them and seeing someone else this entire time. He’s sure that’s true for Hiroaki and Takeshi as well. He thinks about Yanagi, who loved Mai, and Wada, who died for Isono and Manami. 

Ran hates the idea of someone looking at him and seeing someone else. But he can’t help but feel sorry. 

Tamba is crying so hard now she’s barely intelligible. “You deserved so much better, Mai.” 

Mai looks lost. “It’s—okay, Tamba. I forgive you.” Because what else can she say?

Does Mai even understand what she’s forgiving?

Tamba rushes across the table and flings herself into a hug to a now standing Mai. Mai pats her back awkwardly. Sasaki opens her mouth and closes it then gives Hiroaki a look across the table who gives her a nod. 

“It’s my turn now, right?” Isono’s voice comes out clearly. She’s still seated. She doesn’t even wait for a response. “I want to know how I died.”

Hiroaki, again, doesn’t hide anything. Ran would respect it if it wasn’t so cold. “Hitomi killed you.”

“What…?” Sasaki’s shock mirrors Ran’s. Ran hadn’t been making assumptions but, if he had, he’d have thought someone killed Sasaki, probably to make it easier to win a class trial. Not that Sasaki killed someone, and certainly not someone she seemed to rely on like Isono. Isono’s eyes are wide. 

“It was inevitable.” Hiroaki continues ruthlessly. “The sleep motive,” Isono’s shoulders drop like suddenly she understands what happened, but Ran can’t. He can’t imagine how not sleeping could lead to him killing someone who trusted him. “The sleep motive lasted a bit longer. I think Wada killed himself early to make sure no one snapped. Hitomi was pretty high strung last time, and someone was always going to do it. Isono and Sasaki were cooking and apparently Sasaki just snapped and hit her in the head with a frying pan.” He looks at the wide-eyed and quiet Sasaki and the hunched-over Isono. He puts more force into this last part. “It was always going to be someone.”

Ran can’t imagine it ever being him, but he knows he’s a sinner, and that might be the limits of his imagination. If a good person like Sasaki could, then he could. 

Sasaki seems to have lost the confidence to call on anyone. Or perhaps she’s just thinking. And the vice president is dead. So Ran steps up. “Keizou. You have a question or a comment?”

“Oh, I…I think I need to keep thinking about something. Can you…come back to me?”

Ran nods. “Airi?”

Airi nods. “I’ve known for a bit that those guys came from the future. I asked Takeshi about it after the first trial.” Ran sees Hasegawa open his mouth and he sends him a glare not to interrupt Airi. He closes it. “I think…it’s probably important to remember that even if things happened previously, I’m not sure that’s. Um. What I’m trying to say is—I think that just because something happened before doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again. Takeshi and I talked a lot about this. I mean, it’s important to know what happened, but it’s not.” Airi looks a little frustrated with herself. “I’m having some trouble saying what I’m trying to say. Takeshi and I talked about the butterfly effect—”

Ran has been dividing his attention between Airi, who’s speaking and deserves to be listened to, and Keizou who Ran only now has noticed has clearly been thinking very hard for the last couple of minutes. He slams his hands on the table and stands up, a wild look in his eyes. “Wait, wait, I have an idea. What if it’s a simulation?”

“A…simulation?”

“Yeah! What if we’re not physically here but our brains are connected up and we just think all of this is happening? That would make sense; that would make everything make sense! Monomoko, those guy’s memories, everything. It didn’t happen; they just think it happened. Or—or it happened in the simulation previously and it ended up restarting somehow.”

Ran thinks this all feels pretty real and he doesn’t think that sort of technology exists yet. He thinks time travel is way more likely, but he can see Sasaki’s eyes light up and he knows she’s settled on a theory she can accept. 

“That would make a lot of sense. They reached the ‘ending state’ and were presumably meant to be released, but something went wrong with the ‘exit interviews’…which were presumably related to them being disconnected to the simulation. And instead they ended up at the beginning of the simulation instead.”

Hasegawa still looks troubled. “That sort of technology doesn’t exist yet, if it ever will.”

Ran nods. “I agree with Hasegawa, there’s no way.”

Hayashi chimes in. “Makes more sense than time travel.”

Their eyes fall back on the three who came back. Hiroaki is rubbing his eyes under his glasses. Takeshi looks blank and Tamba confused. “I don’t know.” He says. “I hadn’t considered it. Maybe.”

“Well.” Sasaki says decisively. “It’s the best theory we have.” 

12:45

The meeting ends gradually, with some leaving quickly. Airi and he volunteer to wash dishes. He watches her, still struggling with a thought that she can’t verbalize. 

Ran can empathize with that feeling. 

14:50

Sasaki asks them to meet up, though not exactly for an official meeting. Ran doesn’t think he can handle one. He receives the extremely unsurprising news that Isono has quit. 

Three people isn’t a council. Ran wonders if they should just disband when Ojima says, “Watari needs something to do.” Ran thinks about what he learned earlier and nods. “I think,” he says carefully, “Manami wants to be more in the loop.”

And so the council is reformed. 

It’s stupid how much better it makes him feel. 

22:30

He’d barely seen Manami all day. She’s spent most of the day with Isono, he knows, and he’s spent most the day with Airi, Keizou, and surprisingly Watari, who he expected to be with Tamba. But then, he thinks Tamba might have locked herself in her room. 

So, it’s surprising when Manami knocks on his door this late at night. 

She’s wearing a soft smile. 

“Ran, hey, can I come in?”

He moves aside for her and she walks into the room, more confident than he’d seen her in days. She turns to him, eyes bright. “Ran, I was hoping to talk to you about something important. Is that okay? If it isn’t, I can wait until tomorrow.”

“It’s fine.”

“Okay then.” She laces her fingers together in front of her. “So, yesterday…I was going to die unless those guys saved me. Which—wasn’t what I was expecting. I mean, I knew that I might die in this game, but I wasn’t expecting such a—such a visceral look at what that would be like, you know?”

Ran doesn’t dare interrupt her. “Then I found out that I’d already died before. And you’d already died. And it had me thinking about. Well, about a lot of things. And I was thinking. I was going to ask you out when we got out of here.” His eyes widen. “But I’ve been thinking. Life is short! So I want to do it now.”

She’s standing there and he opens his mouth to ask something if she’s sure. Does she actually want him or is she just worried about dying? 

But, her eyes are bright and clear. She’s staring up at him when she says, “I like you. I want you to be my boyfriend. Please go out with me.” She bows. 

His face is hot. He’s never been confessed to before. 

It takes him just a moment to say yes. And he doesn’t stop her when she pulls him down into a kiss. 

Chapter Text

Day 24

9:00

Time travel is fucking stupid, Mai knows that. So that’s definitely not what happened. And Hasegawa’s theory that those three are working for the staff is dumb as hell too.

So, obviously, it’s something else. Probably that simulation thing Harada was talking about. 

Mai will figure out what that is eventually. 

Only half the people are there during breakfast. Tsuno cooked, but only she, Hama, Harada, Chiba, Watari, and Ojima showed up. Mai is pretty sure Sasaki is still obsessing over the supposed passageway in the pool, but she has no idea where everyone else went. 

Usually, after breakfast she wanders around a bit and then goes and works out with Shigeki and Ruiko, but. Clearly, they can’t do that. And Mai isn’t sure that she can deal with Rui at the moment. So she lingers. 

“Mai?” Takeshi’s there. “Do you want some tea? Manami doesn’t want me doing dishes, but I wanted to make some.” She’s about to accept when he continues. “There’s…something I wanted to talk to you about, too.”

She feels a lot less like accepting now. But she still does. 

Ojima struggles a little with the tea, but he doesn’t seem to be in danger of burning himself so Mai lets him do it. He offers her sugar and gets some for himself when she says no. They sit there and drink. 

Mai can’t imagine he wants to talk about anything good. 

“We talked last time,” Takeshi begins, “About you getting kidnapped.” Mai sets her cup down and waits. “I’ve felt bad, this whole time. Because I knew about that. And you didn’t know I knew. But I didn’t think you’d believe me if I said anything. So, I didn’t.”

Mai nods. She doesn’t know why she would tell Ojima, but apparently she did. Which is fine, she guesses? It’s not like she has a problem talking about it. She figures the apology is over, at that point. “It’s cool. We’re good.”

She finishes her tea and stands and sees Takeshi with a half full cup and a distressed look on his face. Okay, apparently the conversation isn’t done. Cool. “I’m going to get more tea.” His grip loosens on his cup, and he nods, grateful.

It takes him a while to talk. Mai is more than happy to drink her tea in silence. “You told me I could decide to be strong.” Takeshi’s eyes are still on the cup below him. “By telling you. After I told you how much I admired what you did. You also told me it would be easier to talk to someone who understands. I…I understand, Mai. If you want to talk about anything, about any of it, I’m here.” She doesn’t. A moment passes. Then another. 

“I don’t feel very strong, Mai. But I think you’re amazing. So, I’m going to try. If you want me to. If you don’t, then I won’t.” Mai thinks she had a conversation like this with Chiba. But instead of teaching him how to be tough, Mai sits and listens. 

Ojima Takeshi’s personal history is more horrifying than she imagined. But she’s seen and heard a lot of the most awful shit before, so she sits and listens. 

When he’s done, she makes him a promise. “Don’t worry,” she assures him. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

Ojima snaps his head up and meets her eyes for the first time since the beginning of this conversation. “Don’t worry,” he shoots back. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

Mai hadn’t laughed since Shigeki died. But she does now. “Okay, okay. We’ll both get out.”

11:30

Isono, at least, is around for lunch. She’s looking at Hama and Tsuno, who are chatting in the kitchen, with a small smile. They’re making rice balls with the leftover fish from last night. “Aren’t they cute? I’m happy for them.” Mai looks at them. “What do you mean?”

Isono gives her a look like she’s crazy and lets out loud laugh before covering her mouth. “Nevermind! It’s not important. Just that those two are dating now.” Mai looks at them. She guesses it looks like they’re dating. Seems a little stupid to do in a killing game, but if it gets their mind off of everything that happened then Mai imagines it’s probably good for them. 

Mai looks down to Isono who appears to be studying her for some reason. “Are you…holding up alright?” Isono’s face has the same worn expression that it has had since Okazaki started harassing her. Mai gives a stiff nod.

“I’m fine.” She says. Isono goes back to hugging herself. Mai decides to continue. “You don’t have to be so scared anymore. Okazaki’s gone.” Isono gives a slight nod. “I know. But still. After everything…I’m not sure how much that helps.”

Mai thinks for a moment. Thinks about how she promised to help Shigeki and how he went off on his own anyway. Thinks about yesterday, when Isono was told she was killed by a friend. “Listen, Isono. You have a problem—come to me. I promise. I’ll protect you.”

Isono looks up at her and she sees someone who’s just been given a lifeline. She sees hope. “You promise?”

“I promise.”

When Isono hugs her, Mai doesn’t keep her arms stiff and doesn’t pull away. She pats Isono’s back as she takes in a breath that Mai thinks she might have been holding for a bit too long.

14:00

Mai finds herself walking towards the medbay to go see Shige before remembering he isn’t going to be there. 

She goes anyway. To see Tsuno. Check in. Nothing strange about that. 

Instead, after stepping inside and looking around, she sees Ruiko. Ruiko is turned away from her and appears to be speaking with the bodies. Mai hears her softly from across the room. “You would have gone absolutely crazy, even more than Nagawa…”  

Mai turns to leave. 

“Mai!” 

She should have known that wouldn’t work. Why would it. She turns around to see Ruiko standing there, staring at her. 

At least she’s not crying. 

“Are you here to see Shigeki?” Ruiko almost sounds hopeful. Mai hates to let her down, but she can’t tell her she’d forgotten, even if it was for just a moment. 

“I was looking for Tsuno.” Ruiko nods vacantly. Mai begins to turn again in the hopes that she can escape this conversation. 

“Shigeki loved you.”

Mai stops. She feels so cold. Ruiko is staring at the cold locker with a look of such utter devastation that it makes her heart clench and her stomach turn. Mai remembers Ruiko giving her a look like that the first day that they met, but that look had had hope in it. “He loved you so much Mai. He told me that last time he told you that—he said he loved you and he was going to love you forever. It’s the kind of love where you want to marry someone. And. And I don’t know if Mai, if Mai back then loved him. And I can’t ask her. Because she’s dead.”

Mai didn’t think a lot about romance. She didn’t know that. Shigeki…was fun and funny and vulnerable. He was the type of person Mai really liked. But she didn’t love him. 

Could she have? With more days and more time and knowing that Shigeki loved her?

Maybe. Maybe she could have. 

He probably would have told her when they left. 

He was brave like that. 

“I thought we’d get out of here together. The three of us. Even after losing Toshi…I thought that maybe I’d get that.”

Mai doesn’t know what to say. She clears her throat. “Sorry I yelled at you yesterday.”

“Oh, Mai!”

And for the second time today someone flung themselves into Mai’s arms. This time, Mai hugs back, as if somehow, someway, this will make her warm, and let her forget. 

Chapter Text

Day 60

14:30

So, yesterday, Nakamigawa may have said more than he was planning to. 

Clearly. 

Not that there’s much he can do about that now. An apology will hardly help the situation and he’s not sure he wants to apologize. 

The sewing room was as nice as he remembered it. It made it easy to finish up his project. Tamba’s took priority, and was also frankly easier to make, so the long blouse ended up on the backburner and he only started working on it in earnest after clothes had already been distributed. 

He didn't assume the cold motive would last long enough for him to be able to give it to Tsuno during it. 

He did assume Tsuno’d be alive to receive it. 

People have been keeping their distance from him since yesterday, he noticed in the brief time he was out of the sewing room, but Manami has seen him in a much worse state before and been fine with him. He’s not super worried she’ll reject the gift or anything. 

If she does, he doesn’t know what he’ll do. 

14:50 

Nakamigawa eventually finds her in the AV room. He watches in the doorway for a moment. Manami stands there with pictures laid out on the table. He can’t see them from the angle he’s at and his curiosity wars with his sense that perhaps this is private and that he should leave her alone before curiosity wins. 

He approaches silently and ignores Tsuno’s small jump before looking down. 

Nakamigawa sees a photo of Hama and Chiba chatting with Harada, and sees them playing with that stupid tiger. He sees Chiba, Isono, Tamba, and Watari sending peace signs at the camera. He sees Hama and Hasegawa reading, apparently totally oblivious to the camera; sees himself and Takeshi in the art room with Isono and he frowns when he notices his body turned toward Takeshi completely, while his attention is on teaching something to Isono. He sees Isono and Tsuno together with Tsuno clearly holding the camera out as far as she can to get them both into the picture. 

His stomach turns when he sees Shigeki and Hayashi in the kitchen. Shigeki clearing bandages off the floor that he must have bumped into, next to an overturned box. Shigeki, Watari, and Tamba playing dress-up. 

There’s no pictures of Masanari. Manami must not have had the camera at that point. 

There are no pictures of Kamimura. 

There is a picture of Okazaki, who appears to be miming something with her hands next to a laughing Watari. 

He looks at Tsuno. She gives him a soft smile. “I keep wondering if I should throw it away. Or tear it up or burn it or something. Do I actually want a picture of her? Should she be remembered with the rest of us?”

Nakamigawa wouldn’t. But— “It’s your decision.” 

“I know.” She moves the picture to the side and continues looking down at them. “I think I’ll give this one to Tamba,” she moves the dress-up one to the side. “And give this one to Mai,” the picture of Shigeki and her in the kitchen. “Do you want this one? Or Takeshi?” She holds out the picture of Shigeki with the bandages. 

He does. He wants it. But he can’t imagine it will help him at all. He’s spent way too long talking to the dead. “You keep it.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.”

Tsuno nods absently and puts the picture back into the pile. “I kept looking after Kamimura died. For any pictures I had of him for Ken. But I didn’t take any.” She sorts them back into a pile that she leaves there, taking the two she’s planning to give with her. “Actually, wait, what were you looking for me for?”

He hands her the shirt. It feels so meaningless now. “I didn’t have it done in time for the cold motive. But, as interesting as your costume is, I thought you could still use, like, an actual shirt.”

Manami’s eyes are soft. “Thank you, Nagawa. Do you want to come with me? To give them to them?”

He doesn’t. 

It’s all he can do to shake his head before he leaves. 

17:20

Nakamigawa doesn’t hide in the sewing room. That would imply he’s hiding and not working. Obviously, he has a lot to get done. 

A few people stop by for a bit. Tsuno to thank him for talking with her, for some reason. Airi, just to hang out. Watari comes in and does some sewing of her own, fixing a small tear in her coat. She’s a decent sewer, Nakamigawa can acknowledge, though not particularly fast. But being thorough is more important than being fast for non-professionals. 

Takeshi sits down there and attempts to draw for about an hour while Nakamigawa is sewing until, for some reason, the rabbit appears. Nakamigawa turns to stare at it while it appears to be watching Takeshi draw. 

It just sits there for several minutes until Takeshi finally puts his pencil down in defeat. “What.” It’s not even a question. 

“Ojima Takeshi. I would like to ask you a question.”

Takeshi sighs. “Go ahead.” 

“Why did you kick me last time?” 

That question has implications. The most important of which is something that Nakamigawa has been thinking of for a while. Monomoko doesn’t remember the previous timeline. Which means, more than likely, whatever doctors are involved don’t remember the previous timeline either. 

Takeshi, at least, appears to be thinking on the surface of that question. 

“…You gave us the cold motive. I was mad.”

The rabbit seems to be thinking about that response. Nakamigawa notices it’s less dark than last time, at the same time. It really does seem to correspond with the deaths. “I see. Were you not equally angry when I provided that motive this time as well?”

Takeshi doesn’t answer. Nakamigawa almost wonders if he’s out and won’t answer, but after several seconds he replies. “It’s not that I was less mad. It’s just that…I couldn’t do it when thinking about doing it. If that makes sense.”

“I see.”

Nakamigawa wonders if it does. 

18:30

It’s around dinner time when he and Takeshi finally leave the sewing room. The rabbit fucked off about five minutes after questioning them leaving Nakamigawa with over an hour of blissful silence before food. 

When heading out, he sees Sasaki leaving the archives and grabs Takeshi’s wrist to stop him from moving forward. 

His first thought after seeing Sasaki was wondering if she had managed to interpret his note yet. 

The second was a panicked realization that he’d forgotten something very important about the archives. 

He was so stupidly busy that day preparing for what he would say when they inevitably got questioned. He barely even looked at the third floor, leaving it for Takeshi and Tamba. 

He drags Takeshi with him and tears the archive apart. 

He’s so goddamn stupid. 

The profiles are gone. 

19:00

Nakamigawa doesn’t eat dinner. He goes and shuts himself in their room and waves Takeshi off when he offers to bring him food. He paces and paces until he’s tired and flops onto the bed. Closing his eyes doesn’t help. 

22:30

Takeshi’s doing his best to avoid using his right hand. In an effort to do this, he’s stopped putting on a shirt when going to bed. Nakamigawa spent last night imagining kissing his neck, his chest, then going lower and—

Gross. 

Don’t be gross, Hiroaki Nakamigawa. 

He watches Takeshi come out of the shower and tries to keep his attention on his face. He can’t take another night of this. 

“I think I’m going to sleep in my own room tonight.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Takeshi has stupid big blue eyes that get stupider and wider and bluer without glasses and when he’s confused about something. Dumb eyes, bad eyes. 

“Look I just…need to sleep alone, okay? With your hand. I might disturb it. So we should sleep separately for a bit, okay?”

Takeshi looks at his hand and looks back at Nakamigawa. “That’s not why you’re saying this.”

Why! Is Takeshi only smart! At the most inconvenient times! Like when Nakamigawa’s trying to get away with something. “Look, I just can’t do it anymore. I’m not a teddy bear Takeshi; you can’t just hold me to sleep better. I only want you to hold me if you want to…hold me.” Forget gross, he’s gone straight to creepy. 

Eyes wider. Bluer. 

Hot with shame, Nakamigawa leaves. 

23:50

The oxy is in Tsuno’s room. His cigar box is in flames. Coffee it is. 

He doesn’t sleep much that night, after, wondering if he should go back, and resisting the impulse. 

Chapter Text

Day 61

7:45

This morning, without Nakamigawa there to stop him, Takeshi attempts to pick up his paintbrush. The pain hits his hand in an instant and he drops it. Then he puts his head on his desk and goes away for a bit. 

He slept poorly last night. As badly as the first few nights back, and he wonders how he’ll sleep again tonight. His room is crowded with someone else’s things. It doesn’t feel like his anymore and he didn’t notice until last night. 

He feels sick. 

Takeshi realizes at that moment, halfway into his headspace but not quite there, that he likes that Nakamigawa wants him. That he has liked it, even at the beginning when he wasn’t completely sure he even liked Nakamigawa himself. He knew he liked not being ignored, not being talked down to, knew he liked that Nakamigawa spoke to him without pity or censorship, but he didn’t realize he liked being wanted until Nakamigawa made himself plain. 

He remembers thinking, then, you already know I love you. Isn’t that enough? 

That isn’t kind. That’s not how you treat a friend. 

Last night was more of a confession than when Nakamigawa told him he loved him. Takeshi remembers Nakamigawa telling Shigeki how a killing game wasn’t a place for a relationship—that he should wait and he wonders why Nakamigawa even said anything at all. 

Then Takeshi remembers he started this. 

He’s got no one to blame but himself. 

8:30

Takeshi is late for breakfast, but Manami and Ran are still doing dishes. Takeshi watches them as he eats. Manami and Ran are very happy together. They’re both kind, mature people who suit each other. 

Takeshi isn’t sure he can handle being around them at the moment. Just as he can’t handle being in the art room, or with Miki who reminds him of painting, or with Ruiko who reminds him of Shigeki, or Mai who reminds him of the past. But he can’t go away at the moment either. They’re so close to the dark and Takeshi needs to be able to enjoy this last day in the school while it’s bright. He needs to sear the image into his mind to survive the hours or days or weeks or months that are coming. He wants to be able to close his eyes and imagine light. So he wanders the school. 

10:00

Takeshi thinks about going into the sewing room, but he doesn’t know what he’s going to say to Nakamigawa. He hovers for a minute before turning away. 

He heads to the right. A moment in each room, even the ones he’s not particularly interested in like the school store. He goes to the student cafe. He remembers joining Ruiko and Nishino one time, last time, in letting Shigeki serve them and he traces his hand against the table. Nishino joked that they’d make Takeshi serve them next time and he wonders if he should. It’s then he hears thumping. “Monomoko.” He turns to her. 

She looks at him, head slightly turned to the side. “I have been wondering what you are doing. You have been walking the school for over an hour now examining things for no discernible reason.” 

Nakamigawa says they can’t say anything about the motive. So what should he say? “I’m trying to figure something out.” 

“I see. And have you succeeded?” 

He shakes his head. “And you?” 

She hesitates. “Me?”

“Have you figured out what you’re trying to figure out yet?”

Monomoko is silent. Takeshi can wait for as long as she needs. 

“I’m…uncertain as to whether I have.” 

Takeshi nods. It’s a fair enough response. Seconds stretch to minutes as they stand there and then Monomoko disappears. 

10:20

It’s on the balcony where he finds Airi. He’s seen a handful of people around as he was wandering the school—Hasegawa in the library, Mai and Hitomi in the auditorium—but this is the first person who didn’t make his stomach clench to think about talking to. He approaches her by the railings. 

He hasn’t been to the balcony yet this time. He’s been trying to resist the temptation. He stands there in silence for a few minutes watching as Airi watches back, before it slips out. 

“I painted this balcony last time, you know?” 

Airi perks up. “Did you? I bet it was really pretty. What did you paint on it?” 

Takeshi looks at Airi. She’ll understand. Maybe she’ll be the only one. “Monomoko showed me a vision of the sky. It was a beautiful sky. The oranges in it…I painted it all.”

Airi looks up. “I can sort of see it. Sort of not though. I wish I could have, at least. Did you put any of your friends in it? I remembered there were a few that flew!”

“No. Just the sky that Monomoko showed me. More authentic.”

Airi looks at his hand. “I’m sorry you can’t paint it again.” 

Takeshi thinks for a moment. “I’m not sure I would.”

“How come?”

Takeshi walks to the spot he remembers he was painting and reaches up toward it. Without the ladder, he can’t reach it. “I was painting right up there when Watari came by. She asked what I was doing, and when she looked at it...she sounded completely devastated, Airi. Like there wasn’t anything left for her in the world.” 

“I had wondered,” Takeshi continued, “after she died. If the mural had something to do with it. She cried so hard, after looking at the sky.”

Airi makes a low, sad noise. “…I’m sorry. I didn’t really think about it. But you guys saw us all die.” Her face is so kind and sad that Takeshi can’t look at it. But when he looks away, he loses sight of her face as it is and all he can imagine is her head hanging from a rope—

???

Takeshi is talking with Tanuizuki, a gentle and friendly wolf who lives in the clouds. He leaps from one cloud to another and teaches Takeshi that they taste like sweet cream. He helps Hinaki bring up the sun in the morning, which is a very important job, though it’s still light enough even when the sun is down. Nature glows fluorescent after all, and the sun only goes far enough to become dim  

He says goodbye to Tanuizuki and steps down off the cloud and wanders forwards to the purple house in front of him. It’s a house surrounded by large palm plants that stretch far into the sky and Takeshi thinks it was once made of candy. 

There’s a girl sitting on the porch who he’s never seen before. He thinks. But the closer he looks, the more it seems that he knows her. And the more it seems that she shouldn’t be here. The sun glints on her light hair despite all the plants blocking it. 

She’s wearing a red and white dress with a bow on it and a flower in her hair. When he looks in her eyes, blue meets red. 

“Don’t worry,” she says. “I didn’t grow up either.” 

She speaks at the same time as Chiba, and Takeshi…

10:28

“We’re going to be adults soon.” Airi looks out, beyond the balcony. Takeshi realizes he missed what led into this conversation and wishes he hadn’t missed it just as he wishes he could see what she sees. “If we get out of here, we’re going to be adults. I talked to Ran about it a while ago. I can’t keep acting the way I’m acting forever. Not on TV and not here.”

Takeshi finds his words. “How come? You don’t have to do anything.”

Airi’s eyes shine. Blue meets blue. “No, I do. I don’t want to be this way forever.” 

Takeshi doesn’t want to be this way either. He looks at Mai and wants to be just like her. The same envy runs through him when he looks at Airi. When does he stop being jealous and just change himself? She makes it look so easy. 

“What do you want to do then?” Her smile dips for just a moment before it’s back. “I don't know yet! Hopefully, I’ll have time to figure it out.” 

Hope. Airi has so much of it. He desperately, desperately, needs to hold on to it as well. 

12:10 

Nakamigawa isn’t at lunch. Takeshi watches as Nishino and Ran chat and wonders how close they are this time. He can’t tell. 

He wonders if Nakamigawa has eaten anything today. 

15:16

Takeshi finished his school exploration hours ago and he finds himself lingering outside the sewing room. He can hear Nakamigawa working inside. He reaches for the door and stops himself, then presses his forehead against the cool wall outside. 

He needs to go in there. He can’t be on bad terms with Nakamigawa when the dark motive happens. He won’t be able to handle it, and Nakamigawa probably won’t be able to either. 

He can’t go in there. He doesn’t know what to say. And what if he makes things worse? 

Takeshi finds himself going away. 

But instead he blinks and keeps himself here. He needs the light while he has it.

There’s a girl with a red dress in his head now. He didn’t make her and he can’t control her. Nowhere in the world is safe. Or not unsafe. She wasn’t there to hurt him. Takeshi knows that. But there’s nothing he can do for the rest of his life to feel completely in control. 

If she can come and see him from beyond the grave, then there’s nowhere in the world that’s fully his. 

Takeshi’s hand twists on the door knob in front of him. He doesn’t leave. He stays right where he is.

Then he opens the door.  

Chapter Text

Day 25

18:15

Hitomi is writing in her journal when she realizes what Hiroaki’s note meant. She should have figured it out last night, she thinks, but she simply had too many things on her mind, between her new focused search and all the recent revelations. 

She flips open to a page early on in her notebook and reads. I feel like I’m constantly being watched throughout the day. Like his eyes won’t leave me even for a moment.

Hitomi very casually flips back to another random page, like she is searching for something. She doesn’t look for cameras.

The first line Hiroaki wrote down was, “I feel like I’m constantly being…”. Hitomi wonders how often he had reread this section to be able to remember the line off the top of his head. She feels a sudden sense of violation at the idea of him reading it. But then, she did want it published after her death. She just never expected her death to come so soon. 

She pushes the idea aside. She can think of that more later. The second was a list formatted like this:

1, You

6, 11

4, 7, 2

14

9

10, 8.

Watch for 14, 8. 

Fairly easy to interpret as they’re organized by Gojuuon and matching up to mostly what she was informed previously. The fact that Hama seems to have died separately and the fact that Watari and Hama died prior to Hayashi and Hasegawa is very interesting, though she’s been trying not to think so much about what had happened in the previous simulation. 

The third line Hiroaki wrote was “Nokonoshima Island, 2021.” She and her parents had a very nice night there one time, but looking through it she’s having trouble determining exactly what he is trying to tell her using it. The description of the flowers? Perhaps there’s something there given Takeshi’s tendency to draw the dead with flowers. What do camellias mean? Pink camellias specifically. She knows something about love. They’re used in tea ceremonies. She knows red camellias are for death. Could it be something involved there? Plum blossoms too, though she went into less description with them. Hitomi can’t remember what they mean at all. She resolves to go to the library and look into this if she doesn’t find anything else. 

It was too cold for swimming, she remembers. Hitomi reads about her mother suggesting they return in summer, though it never happened. Nothing else stands out the more she reads. She reads until she reaches nighttime and then stops.

Instead of describing the stars, Hitomi goes in a different direction. That night, perhaps, I experienced the most extreme darkness I have ever been in. There were no lights anywhere except for the faint distant stars that had shown up. While my parents were gazing at them, I could barely bring myself to look. I don’t understand why they hurt my eyes, but they did, and I felt as though any moment now I would be swallowed by the darkness.

Hitomi scribbles a note down quickly, tears it out quickly, hiding it in her hand, and shuts her notebook. She knows what the next motive will be, and she needs to work quickly.

19:20

She wishes it took her less time to figure out what the notes meant. She has such little time now. 

Hitomi tries Hayashi’s room first, but she isn’t there and Hitomi simply doesn’t have time to go searching for her. Her second try is more successful. Hasegawa is more than willing to work with her after she slips him a note explaining the next motive. They have a limited amount of time before midnight and still an extensive amount of ground to cover. Hitomi had made good progress with Mai this morning so she continues with a sort of panicked nervous energy that hasn’t filled her since the last day of the cold motive. 

They need to work fast. There won’t be light left for much longer. 

The auditorium has been searched before, but not thoroughly until after they learned that there has to be a passageway through here. They’d dismissed it before under the assumption that Monomoko set up the morning games but Hiroaki confirmed that there is one here. Hitomi and Hayashi had searched the far walls very thoroughly this morning and Hitomi was planning to search the equipment room and the stage the next day, but she needs to do it now instead. Anything resembling an irregularity in the wall. They’ll find it. 

21:18

It takes them over an hour to look through the equipment room. Hama and Takeshi had checked it previously, but Hitomi was hoping they might have more luck. The auditorium is large and pressing and examining each part of it feels a nearly impossible task. They start behind the stage. She directs Hasegawa to start on the right end while she starts on the left and thus they begin. Hitomi is frustrated with how slowly she has to go with just one hand. Her left would make this so much easier. 

She finds her mind drifting to her partner as they search. Hitomi has been making a concerted effort not to treat Ken any differently. She’s not sure she has any room to judge him. While his crime sounded considerably more pre-meditated than hers based on the limited knowledge they have…well, assuming Hiroaki is telling the truth she killed someone. Not just someone, a friend of hers, a member of the group she’s been using to replace her closest friends in reality, her council. 

Hitomi killed Miki because she couldn’t handle not being able to sleep. Wada killed himself because of this. 

It’s a harrowing thought. It means she has no real place to judge anyone else, even if she were inclined to. 

But that doesn’t mean other people haven’t been distancing themselves from Hasegawa. Manami and Ran are wrapped up in their new relationship and Miki has been so distant that Hitomi doesn’t know what she’s doing at all. And Hitomi believes those are Ken’s only friends here besides her. 

So she’ll keep herself close to him. Make sure he doesn’t drift off or feel alone. Even if it’s only by getting him to help her. 

Pressing her hand to the next bit of the wall, Hitomi fears that they won’t get anywhere before they’re unable to accomplish anything. 

22:53

Hitomi is over halfway through her section of the wall when she hears him. Ken’s nearly frantic as he shouts. “Sasaki! Hitomi! I found it!”

A quarter of the way from the right side of the wall Hasegawa’s got his hand in the inside of a latch that looks exactly like the rest of the wall. He opens the door. Hitomi rushes over there immediately. There’s a grey and metallic looking hallway in front of them. It looks cramped, but fully explorable. Hitomi almost feels like crying. “Should we go get everyone or just…go in?” 

It’s then the rabbit shows up. “I would advise you to close the door and not enter the hallway. This area is off-limits.” 

Ken looks at it. “Is that a rule?”

The rabbit hesitates and Hitomi realizes in a moment that it doesn’t actually know. It doesn’t know the rules that haven’t already been told to it and it doesn’t make the decisions here. Hitomi’s eyes meet Ken’s and she realizes he’s figured out the same. 

They run through the door. 

22:57

They take off to the right first. There aren’t a lot of indications of where they’re going, but they reach a door sealed with a removable large metal bar attached on two ends of the door by supports. It must be the medbay. Removing it might get them in temporarily but not permanently. Hitomi notes it and moves on. 

23:08

Another door. This one heads into the pool when they open it. It’s in almost exactly the center of the back pool wall. Hitomi writes the location of the door and the height of the latch—above Hitomi’s head and below Ken’s. 

They’ve reached the end of this hallway. They double back. 

Hitomi wishes she knew how much time they have left. 

23:13 

Rushing back they reach the area of the auditorium. They decide to go through the hallway going further this time. 

23:22

They’re walking for what feels like a very long time before they reach another door. It looks very different from the other doors that they’ve been before. Ken puts his hand on the door and it’s finally then when Monomoko reappears. “You are not allowed to open this door. The penalty for entering this area has been applied and added to the subsequent motive. The penalty for opening this door will be considerably more severe.”

Hitomi opens her mouth, but Ken beats her to it. “Is there someone in there?”

“I cannot answer you. Be aware that the penalty for opening this door will be immediate, personal, and severe. I do not wish to inflict this upon you. Please release the door.”

The rabbit saying that it doesn’t want to do this to them is possibly the most intimidating thing it could say. Hitomi watches as Hasegawa hesitates. 

Then drops his hand from the door. 

23:35

Hitomi thinks as they walk back a bit more slowly. The fact that the rabbit feels the need to stop them…it really does imply that there is someone or something behind that door that’s important for them not to reach. If it was a way out, Hitomi imagines they wouldn’t have been even able to reach that area. So are there people behind there? Whoever’s running the game? If so, why would they be there in a simulation? 

Her head throbs. She’s stuck in a loop of confusion. 

23:42

As they exit from behind the stage, Hitomi sees Hiroaki already there. It’s a bit satisfying to see his jaw drop. She heads over to him. “Didn’t have much faith in us finding the passages?” Takeshi lingers at the edge of the room with Tamba and Mai on the other side. Hiroaki’s eyes flick between her and Hasegawa and opens his mouth. She cuts him off. “I’ll call a meeting and tell everyone about it.” She needs to think before she explains anything. 

23:59

People have filed in over the past several minutes. Three conspirators whisper in the corner. No one is surprised when the alarm starts to blare. 

Time to find out if Hiroaki’s note was telling the truth. And what the ‘punishment’ will be.