Teruko Kamisaka, the Ultimate Toxicologist, had been murdered in a brutal fashion.
Her body was suspended by her feet, her arms and legs found together. If this were a regular chapel, the body would sway back and forth with a gentle breeze, but instead it stayed still, the only motion coming from the occasional drop of blood.
Even still, I didn't have time to mourn or freak out. Another body was yet to be seen by me.
Hiroyuki had his face buried in Ryuji's chest, and Ryuji's eyes were wide with terror.
"Huh?" He said, voice shaking. "Why did...it play twice?"
"Focus." I spat. "The first one called us to the chapel, and the second..."
"I think it was to the lounge." He said determinedly.
"Okay, you guys stay here, I'll go to the lounge and see what's going on." I announced, swiftly making my exit from the chapel and leaving Teruko's body hanged upside down.
I ran down to the lounge all the way on the second floor of the compound, taking the stairs two or three steps at a time. I turned the corner and was greeted by Inaya. Her face was grim and she looked as if she had been crying. "In there..." She said. "There was nothing we could do..."
I fiercely swung the door open and saw...
Mayumi Shinjo, the Ultimate Prophet, was also dead, slumped over in a chair, absolutely drenched in blood.
Mayumi and Teruko...both were flawed, but very kind when it came down to it. And now...both were gone forever.
"There's nothing we could do." Kotomi, who had also found the body explained morosely. "But what's this about the chapel?"
"Teruko..." I said, and she bowed her head in disappointment.
"FINALLY!" Yukie cheered, raising her fists triumphantly. She was the third person who also discovered the body, some of Mayumi's blood was smeared on her leather blazer. Kotomi scowled at her.
"Don't be disrespectful. Mayumi's body is right there."
"That is true..." Her face turned to anger. "Someone...did this to an innocent. I can't excuse that. But whoever killed Teruko is fine by me!"
"They aren't fine by the rules." Inaya said. "Actually...what do the rules say about a situation like this?"
"We'll cover that when everyone is together." I said, silencing them all. "Okay, since Teruko's announcement played first, we should all go to the chapel."
"Um...is it really okay to just leave her here?" Kotomi asked.
"I think she'll be fine." I said, leading them out of the room and to the chapel.
I warned them beforehand that it was...unpleasant. Upon seeing the body, Kotomi screamed in fear.
"W-What?! Who could have...done this to someone?!"
"Someone who reeeeally had it out for her." Yukie said with a smile.
"So, you?!" Hiroyuki said, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"Everyone, calm down. Someone should find everyone else and bring them here."
"We went down to the lounge and saw Mayumi." Hannah began, Atsuji following behind her. "What's...happening...he...re..."
"Holy shit. Holy...shit." Atsuji said, eyes wide.
"I came as soon as I heard!" Sota said, tripping around the corner. "WAAAAAAAAHHHH?!!"
"Good timing." I remarked. "Hannah, we should go get Haruto."
"Good...good point." She said, still shaken up from the discovery. We both walked down to Haruto's room, not saying a word the whole time.
Hannah put the key in the lock and turned it. Haruto was sitting on his bed nervously tapping his foot. When the door clicked open, his head turned towards us, asking who it was without using words.
"Teruko and Mayumi." Hannah revealed sadly. Haruto sighed disappointedly. "Why two...? Why..."
"Everyone's in the chapel, come on." Hannah said to him.
We made our way back to the chapel. When we did, everyone stood silently, stunned by the state of Teruko's body.
Hiroyuki was the first one to break the silence. "Who did it?" He asked.
Everyone looked at each other as if they were expecting somebody to confess. Of course, nobody did.
"Who was it?" He raised his voice slightly. "She was trying with all of you! She was trying to make it up to you!" His voice raised even further.
"Saki, calm down." Ryuji said to him. "We'll solve it together, okay?"
Hiroyuki ignored him, and continued to shout. "FINE! OKAY, SHE KILLED MEI. SO FUCKING WHAT?! SHE WAS SCARED FOR HER BROTHER, AND HIDETO MANIPULATED HER. HE WAS THE ONE WHO WAS EXECUTED, NOT HER, SO WHY THE FUCK DID EVERYONE HATE HER SO MUCH?!"
We all shuffled uncomfortably, shocked that someone as seemingly wholesome and innocent as Hiroyuki could be so angry and dominant.
When nobody replied, he stompted away from the chapel, crying. Ryuji assured us he'd check up on him later.
Breaking the silence, the monitors came to life with Monoissei and Monomeiko.
"GWAH-WAH-WAH-WAH?! TWO BODIES??" Monoissei screamed in shock. "WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED THIS???"
"Us...because we can see everything that's happening everywhere in this compound..." Monomeiko pointed out.
"Ah. Good point." He laughed. "Now, let's get into it! In the case of two separate culprits, only the culprit who killed the victim discovered first will be eligible for execution! Of course, there's always a chance that the culprit is the same for both victims. By the way, any further murders that get committed will be met with immediate punishment. We can't be dealing with everyone dropping dead."
"Wait, so if they're different, what happens to the second culprit?" Haruto asked, concerned.
"Oo! I'll take this one!" Monomeiko announced. "They get to continue the game as any other participant, and if they aren't found by the rest of the participants there is no obligation for us to reveal them! What we're saying is that they have a possibility to remain anonymous."
"So, we're looking for Teruko's killer?" Ryuji asked. "And not Mayumi's?"
"If you want to, we won't stop you from finding Mayumi's killer, and they may or may not be related to the first one. Find out during the trial, and good luck!" Monoissei smiled. "The Monokuma files are on your eHandbooks now!"
"Good luck!" They said together, and disappeared from the screen.
"Okay, we should look at Teruko's first and investigate them as separate incidents, don't you think?" Inaya suggested.
"Agreed." Hannah said. She pulled her handbook out of her pocket, and everyone else did the same.
"Holy fuck." She said. "Over 50 various wounds and lacerations..." She quoted the file.
"And the cause of death isn't really clear."
Truth Bullet Added - Monokuma file 03
"It definitely seems excessive..." Kotomi agreed.
After giving it a quick glance, I returned my handbook to my pocket, saving Mayumi's file for later.
"Hey, look!" Haruto shouted, picking up a piece of paper from the floor. "It looks like...a suicide letter."
"Show me." I took it from him and began reading.
It read:
'I'm sorry for what I have done. Looking at it now, she did not deserve what I did to her. I was overtaken by a strange feeling and couldn't stop myself. I'm so sorry, and as a result I'm planning to take my own life.
Goodbye, everyone.'
"Something doesn't add up here." Ryuji said, pointing out the obvious. "This doesn't look like a suicide at all."
"You think?" Yukie said sarcastically.
Truth Bullet Added - Suicide Note
I continued to look around, and noticed a large pool of blood on the floor down nearer the door, which I had walked through in the dark. There was also a smaller pool further up the red carpet and many smaller spats of blood dotted around underneath Teruko's hanged body. The odd part was the lack of consistency in the shape and size of the pools.
Truth Bullet Added - Chapel Blood Pools
Atsuji held up a strange device in his hands. It was a mouse trap, but much bigger. It had obviously been used, and was covered in blood.
"What is that? I've never seen it before." Yukie said.
"Me neither..." Hannah said, walking towards it.
"Could it be? This was her last place perk?" Inaya suggested, looking at it intently.
Hannah took it from his hands. "That would make sense. When was it used, though?"
Truth Bullet Added - Last Place Perk
We did some more investigating, and discovered that the rope used to suspend her was the rope that was used to ring the bells. It had been cut into pieces and used to hang her upside down.
"Upside down seems like a weird choice." Ryuji noted, looking up at her. He hesitated to get closer, and inched towards the body for a better look. "Hey...don't you think a lot of these cuts are kinda weird?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like...they look like the clothes are more ripped than they'd normally be. I dunno. And look in some of the cuts...there's, like, brown bits."
"Splinters." I confirmed, looking at the splinters in most of the cuts on her upper body.
Truth Bullet Added - Splinters
I turned to look at Ryuji. "Hey, would you mind telling me what happened leading up to you finding the body?"
"Oh, sure. Well, me and Saki were gonna go to the sauna together, but it was already occupied and the little window was all fogged up. We decided to come up here 'cause we figured nobody would be here."
"And was the door to the chapel locked when you got here?"
He raised an eyebrow. "No, I don't think the door even can lock."
Truth Bullet Added - Ryuji's Account
"Um...so, is that everything here?" Kotomi asked.
"I think so." Sota said. "But why are we even investigating as a group? We haven't done this before..."
"Well, there are two bodies, and we don't wanna mix up the cases in the event that they're separate."
"Hmm...but is that really smart? What if the killer wants to go on a murder spree?!"
Hannah kicked him in the back of the shin. "Shut your mouth, loser. Monoissei and Monomeiko have already made it clear that can't happen. You're just trying to cause an argument. Again."
"Even if that's true...why should we blindly trust each other? Kotomi said a couple of days ago that she thinks the group was super close apart from Teruko...and now someone did this."
"Well done, Sota, you explained the basic premise of the killing game. Want a fucking medal?"
"I'm just saying!" He defended himself.
"Well, I gotta to talk to Saki, so I'm gonna leave this investigation to you, Nycas!" Ryuji patted me on the back as he walked away and down the hall.
"Maybe it's best if we split up and look for clues separately." Inaya suggested. "Especially since these cases may not be connected."
"Good idea!" Kotomi triumphantly declared. "For now I'm going to investigate Mayumi's body!"
"I'll come with." I said. Kotomi, Inaya and I began to make our way to the lounge. Hannah nudged Atsuji and they both came running up behind us.
"Oi, don't leave us out!" Hannah joked.
"I don't see why I should include you guys, especially since Atsuji completely ditched me..." Kotomi grumbled, earning a gasp from Atsuji.
"Ah, shit! Sorry, Kotomi. Hannah and I were in the sauna."
"Um...I thought you didn't want to go to the sauna. I asked you if you wanted to come and you said no..." Kotomi said dejectedly.
Atsuji scratched the back of his neck. "Um...I dunno what to say. I'll make it up to you."
By the time the conversation ended, we walked into the lounge to see Mayumi's dead body resting on the chair. Yukie was already there.
"How did you get here so fast?!" Inaya asked her. She waved her hand in dismissal.
"Doesn't matter. What does matter is the body. Let's get to it!"
I opened the Monokuma file.
Hannah hummed in confusion. "This is weird. There's a time of death listed for Mayumi, but not Teruko."
"And it says the body was discovered immediately upon her death...who was it who discovered the body?"
Truth Bullet Added - Monokuma File 04
I remembered that the ones to discover the body were Inaya, Kotomi and Yukie.
I walked up to Kotomi, who was staring sadly at the body. "Can I ask you a couple of questions about what happened leading up to you discovering the body?"
"Oh, no problem! Basically, Inaya and I were looking around for Atsuji, but we couldn't find him. Then we came to the lounge, and Yukie came in with Mayumi propped up on her shoulder. She was still alive, and she sat down on the chair. We asked her a few questions and she didn't say much...just something about guilt and losing belief in her religion."
Inaya joined in with this conversation."Oh, and we asked who attacked her, she said she doesn't want to cause trouble like Teruko did. I...suspect she genuinely believed herself to be unkillable."
"Yeah, she said something kinda sad before she died..."
FLASHBACK START
Inaya and I were sat in the lounge as the door clicked open, to reveal Yukie helping Mayumi walk.
Mayumi was covered in blood, and some had rubbed off on Yukie. "I found her in the hall." Yukie explained.
"Mayumi!! Who did this to you?!" I shouted as Yukie helped her onto the chair.
"I...don't wish to cause trouble. I saw what happened to Teruko after she did what she did...and I don't want to put you all through this."
"How do you feel?! Are you dying??" Inaya asked, inspecting the large wound on her stomach.
"Do not be ridiculous. O-Of course I am not. Haven't I said? I cannot die. I'm being told by Her to not tell you who did this to me. It would be wise to...disobey her now..."
"Mayumi! Please!" I shouted.
"Why...am I cold? This should not be...happening..."
"Please..." I begged one last time. "Just...tell us."
"Is this...karma? No, maybe....maybe this world I've been living in....was built on deceit. Yes, that must be...the case..." She went limp in the chair, and that's when the announcement played.
Truth Bullet Added - Mayumi's Last Words
Kotomi shuddered. "That's how it happened..."
"God, that's depressing." Hannah sighed. "Luckily, I don't think we have to stay here for much longer. There isn't really anything useful here.
"I think that's almost everything. Apart from...maybe Mayumi's bedroom." Atsuji suggested.
Hannah, Atsuji and I left Kotomi, Inaya and Yukie in the lounge to see if there were any useful clues, and made our way to Mayumi's bedroom.
I opened the door, and saw that her bed was drenched in blood, and there was a bloody kitchen knife haphazardly thrown on the floor.
"Jesus." Atsuji whispered to himself. "This...must be where she was attacked, right?"
Truth Bullet Added - Mayumi's Bedroom
"What's this?" Hannah said, keeling down and picking up a tray filled with plates.
"That's Teruko's food tray." I answered. "Why did Mayumi eat the food...?"
Truth Bullet Added - Teruko's Food Tray
Next, we decided to have a quick look in Teruko's bedroom for clues.
The only thing we found was a small note, summoning her to the chapel. The bottom of the note was ripped off. The top half read:
'Teruko,
Come to the chapel so we can discuss your reintroduction to the group dynamic. We must all become friends. You should come at-'
"The time calling her there was ripped off. And look, there's blood on it. If she got this letter before going to the chapel, why is it bloody?" Atsuji pondered.
"Maybe the killer brought it back here after killing her..." Hannah suggested. "Yeah, that must be it."
Atsuji sighed. "Okay, so maybe next we should-"
He was interrupted by the chime of the monitors, calling everyone down to the elevator. "Oh. Well, that sucks." He scoffed. "Um...we should get going then."
"Yeah. Come on, let's go." Hannah and Atsuji left me in Teruko's bedroom.
We were about to face another class trial...another execution...another life or death game.
Then I noticed the lack of Kimika's guidance. Since she could hear my thoughts, she noticed that too.
"Wondering where I've been, huh?" She asked.
"Sort of."
"I've been preparing for the days ahead. The final class trial."
"The what?"
"I know how these killing games work, and I'll tell you this. After this, there will be three more trials. There's no way to prevent the killing, Nycas."
I was shocked. I didn't take Kimika as the kind of person to insist that the killing game must continue.
"And I don't care what happens, you have to reach the final trial with Hannah and Atsuji. They can be your supports, okay? If you need someone to rely on, they'll be there, alright?
"I..." I didn't know what to say. "Thank you for the advice, Kimika."
She smiled warmly. "You're welcome. Good luck with the trial."
I slowly walked down the hall and opened the door into the elevator lobby.
"You took your time." Yukie scolded.
I looked at the group. Everyone's morale was completely shattered after losing two people. Dare I call them friends? Did we know them well enough?
Maybe...
The elevator door closed behind us and started whirring loudly down the shaft.
Then it opened, revealing the trial grounds for the third time.
"Welcome baaack!!" Monomeiko sung, waving over the screens.
"Did you miss it? Oh, of course you did." Monoissei joked. "Take your seats, and let the third class trial commence!"
We stood at our podiums.
Teruko was killed.
And then, so was Mayumi.
But were the cases related?
Or was it two murders colliding into one despairful incident?
Be it the same culprit or someone else, we had a double murder to solve.
The game was getting serious.
And I felt myself caring more and more about the outcomes of each class trial.
Still, I wasn't participating because of some feeling of friendship.
I was taking part because I had to to survive. If I left them to themselves...
There's no way they'd be able to do it.
CLASS TRIAL START
Tiny A/N: This fangan is now officially 50% complete!