"Fuck! I was so close!" Yukimura started to curse as he was on the edge of victory.
"I think we should ban Nora-chan, he's too smart at this game..." Mitsuba groaned.
"N-no... I'm struggling too... I'm just copying from you guys..."
"He copies from me, the greatest, duh." Sakigamiya laughed smugly as she referred to herself.
"Speaking of "muh greatest", what the hell is your username anyways? sQc? Can't you use Japanese letters, I can't fucking read English!" Yukimura complained.
Sakigamiya gasped and slapped her table to get everyone's attention.
"How dare you! My username is based off the best CCEUwitch streamer, xQc! He's the best Among Us player! Everyone else are smooth brains compared to him! I love all of his streams! I watch them everyday! And the best part is, HE'S FRENCH CANADIAN!"
Sakigamiya then started to speak in French... from what I could pick out using Doogle Translate, she was basically proclaiming her love about him.
"Does Sakigamiya ever shut up?" Akihiro joked.
"She's like this... a lot... right, Yukina-chan?" Katsumi laughed.
"Yes... but it's entertaining."
"How is it entertaining? I can't even understand her for fucks sake." Yukimura huffed.
I heard rumours that he was taking French classes online in the hopes that he could one day understand what Sakigamiya was saying in French.
"Takanori-san, you know English, don't you, de gozaru? Maybe you can translate what Sakigamiya-san is saying, de gozaru?"
"I can't understand what she's saying either, sorry."
"Um... what about you then, Yukimura-kun...? Why Ronaldo?" Nora asked.
"Seriously? You never heard of Ronaldo? One of the most legendary footballers? You're kidding me, right?"
"I don't really like sports, so..."
"Not even in pop culture?"
"I don't really... look at that stuff either..."
"Wow, you're more ignorant than fucking Takanori, and that's saying something."
Like always, I was the butt of the joke about being a loser.
"Sorry..."
"Basically, Ronaldo was a Portuguese football player who was around in the 2000s. He's one of my favourites, up there with Messi and Son Heung-min. Really famous dude, a sick as fuck striker too."
"Oh... I see."
Nora tried to understand Yukimura's enthusiasm, but since he wasn't a football fan, he didn't get it. Though, I'm surprised that these were the type of people Yukimura looked up to.
I thought he might have looked up to more modern footballers, but the people he name dropped are really old. They would've been at their prime when my grandparents were still alive. His knowledge on the history of football must be pretty deep.
"Shall we start the next game de gozaru?"
"Yup, let's do this!" Sakigamiya exclaimed.
I had noticed that Yukina had stayed extremely quiet throughout the game session. In fairness, she did die early on in both games, so she didn't get a chance to discuss, but even during the free talk between rounds, she had nothing much to say. As such, I sent a quick DM to her.
"Are you having fun?"
"Yep"
It was a quick reply.
"Are you?"
"Surprisingly"
I followed up with this message.
"I hope you'll live past the first round this time"
"Same... it's depressing to die so quickly"
I felt a small laugh rise to my throat, but shut it out with a cough.
"Mute your mics!" Sakigamiya shouted.
When all was said and done, me and Katsumi were the impostors.
This is going to be troublesome. I don't mind being impostor, I was glad I was, but with Katsumi as my partner, I might as well have been by myself. Well, we'll see how this plays out. I just hope she'll play to the best of her abilities.
My fake tasks were fix wiring, the common task, submit scan, divert power, and clean O2 filter. These were pretty good tasks for an impostor. Fix wiring would buy me a lot of time, since everyone would have to go around the map doing it three times in storage, admin, and security, in that order.
Divert power in electrical also gives me an excuse to go there, so I can hide in a vent and wait for people to come inside. The only troublesome one was submit scan, since as an impostor, I just couldn't do that. Instead, I'll lie and say I had download data in electric instead.
I headed towards security first to see where everyone else was. I poked my head into reactor, and no one was there. I watched everyone on cams. It seems Akihiro and Nora left admin after doing wires and were heading to storage, while Matsushita and Katsumi were in the O2 hallway.
I got off security to give Katsumi a chance to kill Matsushita. After three seconds, I went back on, and saw his dead corpse lying in the hallway. Alright, she was being more competent than I thought.
I left security and vented. I vented out into electrical and pretended to do a task. In order to divert attention away from Matsushita's body, I set off reactor so everyone would head to the left side of the map, which was opposite to where his body was, the right side.
I headed to reactor like everyone else, and saw Sakigamiya, Akihiro, and Nora there. They stabilised reactor while a few stragglers like Yukimura and Katsumi entered, but left. I followed Katsumi as she followed Yukimura, who was going to storage and heading up, probably to call an emergency meeting.
I couldn't allow that. Just outside admin, I murdered Yukimura. I then ran into admin, Katsumi tailing me, and we vented away. However, that wouldn't last for long, as a dead body was reported by Tanaka.
And to my dismay, it was Yukimura's body. Somehow, I was the incompetent one here...
Just as I was ready to accept my fate, the words that came flying out of Tanaka's mouth gave me a shred of hope.
"I saw white run away from the body de gozaru!"
He had boldly declared Katsumi as the killer. I tapped my fingers and drew up a plan in my head.
"White is... Katsumi? Who would've thought. Well, guess she's dumb enough to do something like that." Yukimura snorted.
"Wait, don't vote. I was in admin too."
Before anyone could go trigger happy and vote Katsumi out, I quickly made up a story to cover for her.
"Yes, me and Takanori-san were in admin!"
"So that means you two are the impostors de gozaru!"
"Wrong. Tanaka-san, you murdered Yukimura-san without knowing we were in the room, panicked, and self-reported. That's why you were so eager to accuse Katsumi-san, as she left admin first!"
"What de gozaru?! She was entering admin de gozaru! Not leaving it de gozaru!"
"No, I was leaving it! Takanori-san's telling the truth!" Katsumi exclaimed.
Thankfully, she was playing along with my story. However, I could hear the stiffness in her voice. If she didn't relax and loosen up, someone like Nora would pick up on her shift in tone.
"I sus all three of you." Sakigamiya shouted over everyone else.
"I think we should skip. If evidence comes up it's Katsumi or Takanori, yeet em out." Akihiro said.
"Same with Tanaka-san. Y'all fucking suck at being impostor." Sakigamiya agreed.
Sakigamiya, Mitsuba, Akihiro, Tanaka, Katsumi, Yukina, Nora and I voted.
Everyone but Tanaka and Mitsuba skipped vote. They voted for Katsumi.
After that close call, I stuck by Katsumi. I think we'd have a better chance of winning we did a double kill. I wasn't sure what Katsumi was doing though, as she was running around the map aimlessly. This would draw unnecessary suspicion to her.
As such, I decided to break away from her and enter electrical to camp in the triangle vent. They were the best spots to get kills in.
After about a minute, my first victim was Nora, who entered med bay to do a scan. I killed him and vented back into electrical, where I pretended to download something while my kill cool-down wore off.
I ran out of electrical and headed to admin to "upload" data. As I did, I came across Sakigamiya's dead body in storage, and had no choice but to report it.
"Where?" Yukina asked.
"It was in storage, near the wiring."
"Oh no, Takayuki-kun's dead too!" Katsumi cried.
Rather than an actual bluff, I think Katsumi was genuinely surprised he was dead. This worked in our advantage, but if she continues being air-headed, it might cost us big time...
"Was anyone else in storage?" Yukina asked.
Since Sakigamiya and Matsushita, the two most vocal players here, were dead, Yukina finally had the space to lead the discussion. Being the next most popular person in the lobby, she used her position to her advantage, leveraging an authoritative tone to discern the details of the crime scene.
Of course, I knew it was Katsumi who killed her. Talk about betrayal. However, as the other impostor, I had to cover for her when possible. I'll play upon the information that everyone shares.
"I didn't see anyone else there, no."
"Where was everyone then?"
"I was going to navigation from weapons." Mitsuba said.
"Same, I've been sticking with Mitsuba the whole round." Akihiro said.
"That made me so sus of you Aki-kun! I thought you were following to kill me!"
"Strength in numbers. Let's me vouch for you, and vice versa. If I was the impostor, I would've killed you already. There's a vent nearby in cafeteria."
"I guess. Me and Aki-kun are safe!"
I could use the fact they were together to shift suspicion towards them... it's not uncommon for impostors to stay together to get a double kill.
"I was heading to electrical from security de gozaru! Actually, Kazuraba-san, weren't you in security de gozaru?"
Good thing I found this dead body first, or else Tanaka would have reported Nora's body.
"Correct. I was watching everyone from security. Katsumi-san, where were you?"
"Oh, I was at, um..."
Katsumi went quiet.
"I was in cafeteria!"
"It's Katsumi-san." Yukina declared.
"E-eh?! What?! Yukina-chan, why me?!"
"Like Tanaka-san said, I was on security. While watching storage, I saw the doors that lead to the cafeteria and admin close, and when they opened, Katsumi-san was the first to run out. No one except Yuu-kun was heading to storage, and I know he's not dumb enough to do a self-report. Not to mention, the fact you admitted you're in cafeteria right now is verbal proof you did leave storage through those doors, the ones which were closed. This means Tanaka-san was right earlier when he said he saw you kill Yukimura-san in admin. Is this sufficient proof for everyone that Katsumi-san killed Alice-san and ran away?"
Yukina voted.
I froze up as tingles ran down my spine. My hands became clammy as Katsumi had been thoroughly exposed in one fell swoop. I had severely underestimated Yukina's deduction abilities.
There was nothing Katsumi could do to counter this: earlier in the game, suspicion had been thrown on her from Tanaka, Yukina being at security was vouched by Tanaka, no one else was near storage at the time, and Katsumi herself admitted where she was right now.
If Katsumi was eliminated now, I know I would be next. Tanaka had called me out in the first meeting, and I had corroborated the lie that saved Katsumi the first time. I had no choice but to go with the herd.
Tanaka, Akihiro, Mitsuba, and I voted.
"If Katsumi-san is an impostor, that means Takanori-san is the other one de gozaru!"
I gripped my fist tighter, trying to figure out a strategy to get out of this mess.
"Yes. Yuu-kun made the lie that protected Katsumi-san earlier, so logically, it's him. Unless you want to explain yourself, then it's already game over for you."
Yukina sharply attacked me with a direct confrontation. I undid the top button of my shirt and put a hand over my mouth.
My fingertips clacked the table repeatedly as I tried to find the best solution to this problem.
I narrowed my eyes and started to speak.
"I didn't make up the story. I saw Tanaka-san kill Yukimura-san. When I told the story, for some reason, Katsumi-san vouched for it. I'm guessing she was trying to use me to vouch for her innocence. My theory is, Katsumi-san and Tanaka-san failed their double kill on me and Yukimura-san, so Tanaka-san tried to throw Katsumi-san under the bus since I was there to witness the murder."
"But Tanaka-san reported the body? There's no reason for him to do so. He could've let Katsumi-san kill you if he was impostor."
"That's precisely the problem: did you notice Matsushita-san was also dead when that first meeting was called? I think Katsumi-san killed Matsushita-san, and her kill button was still on cool-down."
By mixing a truth into my lie, I made it sound more believable.
"I was about to report the body, but once Tanaka-san realised she couldn't kill me, he got the jump on the report to make it seem like he was innocent. After all, why would an impostor self-report? That's one of the noob tricks in the game. He used that stigma to his advantage. If you vote me out next round, you'd be giving Tanaka-san exactly what he wants."
"That's not true de gozaru! If you were in admin with Katsumi-san, then why didn't you report Yukimura-san's dead body straight away de gozaru?!"
"Why didn't Katsumi-san report is straight away either? We both saw it. When I realised she wasn't going to report, I started to run away for my own safety."
"Takanori-san, stop..."
Katsumi's weak voice leaked in the midst of my argument with Tanaka.
"We've lost already... please, stop..."
It sounded like she was on the verge of tears. On one hand, I wanted to console her, but on the other, she had just outed me as the other impostor.
"See! Katsumi-san just said it's Takanori-san de gozaru! Ha ha! Get pwned, de gozaru!"
Katsumi voted.
Everyone, Katsumi included, voted for her.
Okome was An Impostor. (1 Impostor remains.)
My kill cool-down was twenty seconds. Mitsuba and Yukina ran off, but Akihiro and Tanaka were staying in cafeteria. I had to split them up somehow...
After five seconds, I set off oxygen. Tanaka ran off to O2, while Akihiro headed to admin. I followed him, and waited for my chance to strike. However, Yukina came running into the room, so I left to return to cafeteria. On the way, oxygen had stabilised and I saw Tanaka return as well.
I couldn't kill Tanaka, as he was the only other person suspicion was on. If I killed him, they'd know it's me for sure. So instead, I ran past him into outside weapons, where Mitsuba was lagging behind. I killed him, just before an emergency meeting was called.
"Okay, let's— wait, Mitsuba-san is dead?"
Yukina was surprised when she saw him also dead.
"Who was with him last? I was with Aki-kun in admin, so it couldn't have been us."
"It's between Tanaka and Takanori... that's annoying."
"I was in O2 with Mitsuba-san when oxygen went off, de gozaru, but we split up after stabilisation."
"I went into admin to fix oxygen, but Akihiro-san was already there, so I ran out to go to O2. When I did, I passed Tanaka-san, just after oxygen had been fixed. I was going to check O2 if a body was there, but the emergency meeting was called."
"Of course you'd be suspicious of me, but we all know it's you Takanori-san de gozaru! Katsumi-san admitted it de gozaru!"
"You're awfully eager to vote me out, and it's also really suspicious that you were the last person seen with Mitsuba-san, who's dead."
"Kazuraba, what's your verdict? I got an idea on who it is." Akihiro said.
"To be honest, it's difficult... both of them are just as likely to be the impostors. But if you want my opinion... I think it's Tanaka-san."
Akihiro laughed.
"Yeah, same here. Katsumi's pretty thick, but she's not thick enough to out her impostor friend."
Unfortunately, yes, she is.
"She pinning Takanori as impostor was her last ditch effort of trying to get a kill for her buddy, Tanaka!"
"Yes, I thought that too... it's also very convenient Tanaka-san was with Mitsuba-san, and Mitsuba-san's dead."
Somehow, Katsumi's mishap became the one thing saving me. Her blunder was secretly a blessing in surprise. I could hear Tanaka breath heavily into his mic as Yukina and Akihiro ganged up on him.
"Like I said, Tanaka-san and Katsumi-san failed their double kill and tried to get me out due to my knowledge."
"Sorry for doubting you Yuu-kun. I should've trusted you."
You should've never trusted me.
I felt sorry for Yukina, as I continued to blatantly lie to her face. This was probably the hardest thing for me to do... yet somehow, it was also the most natural thing to do.
"What de gozaru?! I literally saw Takanori-san kill Yukimura-san in the first round de gozaru! You can't be serious de gozaru?!"
"Writing's on the wall. See ya later alligator!" Akihiro laughed.
Yukina, Akihiro, and I voted. Tanaka followed shortly.
Obviously, we voted for Tanaka, while Tanaka voted for me. The final stage of my plan was ready.
Cao Cao was not An Impostor. (1 Impostor remains.)
When we returned to cafeteria, I waited five seconds before sabotaging lights. Immediately, I ran to electrical, tailed by Yukina. It seems she was going to risk her life and give Akihiro the honours of calling the emergency meeting.
Entering electrical, followed by Yukina, I shut the door.
The hardest part of this game had come.
I had to kill someone to get the win.
As much as I didn't want to, Yukina was the one in front of me, fresh for the taking.
She stood in front of the switches innocently, trying her hardest to fix the lights.
My yellow coloured body gazed upon her pink coloured body lustfully.
We squished against each other in this locked room surrounded by long, thin wires.
It was completely dark. Neither of us could see past each other.
It was like we were isolated in our own little world.
If this was in real life, I'd probably be dripping with sweat.
Not because of the task I had, but because of our closeness in this moment.
A rare intimate moment for us.
In my delusions, I could hear her rough breathing as she struggled to fix the lights, while I stood behind her with my gun in hand.
I pointed it at her head. My hand was shaking.
It was strangely atmospheric, albeit gruesome.
I didn't want it to end.
If I had the choice, I'd stay like this forever.
No one but myself could get in my way.
My finger hesitated. It twitched as it reached the kill button.
I took a sharp breath, forcing my stiff thumb down.
To win the game, I had to kill the one person I didn't want to.
I wanted this person to live until the end.
But I don't end her life now, then...
I'd have lost.
What was more important?
Seeing her alive... or winning...
No... it wasn't just my win on the line.
It was Katsumi's too.
She may have been my clumsy partner, but she was also counting on me to kill her.
I couldn't betray her easily either.
I tightened the grip on my phone.
She even sacrificed herself for me.
If I didn't have her and her mistakes by my side, I wouldn't have gotten this far.
Killing Yukina... it was also for her sake.
Even if I didn't want to... I was the impostor.
This was my duty.
Nothing more, nothing less.
I'm sorry, Yukina.
I'll avenge you, Katsumi.
I released that tense breath.
I imagined myself pushing the cold barrel up against her silky hair.
I'm sure Yukina was aware of my lingering presence too.
She probably didn't trust me either. I don't blame her.
I've deceived, lied, and tricked my way through to the end.
It wasn't a clean win, but it was nevertheless a route cobbled together and laid out before me so I could achieve my goal.
I couldn't back down from something I've committed too.
In a split second, my brain rifled through all of those previous and useless thoughts.
I let go of all those unnecessary thoughts for this moment.
My usually heavy mind became light and free as it went blank.
I discarded everything.
My feelings, my thoughts, my morals.
Nothing else was holding me back.
It was pure instinct driving me forward from this moment onwards—
A faint voice emerged from the darkness in my heart.
Winning is everything.
I pulled the trigger.
Blood tainted my hands as the bullet ricocheted through her body, splitting her into two halves.
I hit the kill button, and murdered Yukina.
...
Victory.
"Takanori-saaaaaaaaan!"
Katsumi started to scream my name while crying happily. Everyone else was frustrated, groaning about the misplays they made.
"If Katsumi-san didn't kill me, I would've told everyone to vote out her and Takanori-san! Damn it!"
Sakigamiya was obviously the most vocal. She started to flexing the reasons why she thought it was us, but I ignored her babble. After all, I had won, and wanted to indulge in this hard earned victory.
"Good game... you were really good at Impostor, Takanori-kun." Nora said.
"Gg." I replied.
"Takanori-san, you scared me so much at the end! You didn't kill Yukina-san straight away! I was so scared Aki-kun was gonna call a meeting! Waaaaaaaaaaah!" Katsumi cried.
"Yeah, what the fuck was that hesitation? You seriously got lucky!" Yukimura huffed. "And Kazuraba, why the fuck did you take so long fixing lights?! If Takanori wasn't such a slow brain, he would've killed you quicker!"
He sounded annoyed, probably because I got him out so early.
"Sorry, it was my first time fixing lights... I didn't know what I was doing." Yukina apologised.
Even if she did, I was also on lights, undoing her work while waiting for my kill cool-down to finish.
"You flip the switches to make all the bulbs turn green! It's not fucking quantum physics!"
"Next time, leave it to me. I know how to do it." Akihiro said.
"Katsumi-san, my kill was still on cool-down. That's why I didn't kill her straight away."
I tried to logically explain my delayed actions, while hiding the real reason why I struggled.
"Oh... whoops." Katsumi sniffled. "That was really cool of you though Takanori-san! I can't believe you managed to turn around our situation, he he!"
"I'm more surprised you were dumb enough to actually state your partner's name. Yukina-san, Akihiro-san, you should feel ashamed for thinking she was lying. We all know Kou-san couldn't pull something so complex like that off!" Sakigamiya laughed arrogantly. "You could hear in her voice she was being truthful. Earlier, when she lied, it sounded stiff. C'mon, don't fall for this kind of crap!"
Even though she had a condescending way of playing, Sakigamiya was really good at sniffing out lies. One would think she's some kind of bloodhound or something.
"I panicked! But it worked out in his favour, so it doesn't matter!"
"I can't believe I got voted out, de gozaru... why doesn't anyone believe me de gozaru?!"
"Welcome to Among Us. I could probably count on my hand the number of times someone trusted me." Mitsuba said.
Isn't that because you're not a trustworthy person? I would've asked this question out loud, but it was a bit too snarky for my tastes.
"By the way, Takanori, thanks for not killing me bro." Akihiro said.
"No problem..."
If I had the choice, I would've murdered Akihiro without hesitation.
"Sorry guys to interrupt, but real quick, I got a message from Rinbayashi-san saying she wants to play with us!"
Matsushita excitedly shared this with our group.
"Eh?! That Rinbayashi-san? I thought she didn't play!" Sakigamiya exclaimed feverishly.
"WAHEYYY! LET HER IN, LET HER IN (DE GOZARU)!"
Both Mitsuba and Tanaka started cheering like wild dogs hearing that the secretive cold beauty Rinbayashi Amou wanted to join us.
"Geez, you two are fucking horny." Yukimura said.
"Boys will be boys." Yukina laughed awkwardly.
"Bro, did you see the size of her—"
Just as Mitsuba was about to expose himself, Akihiro cut in.
"Yeah, the size of her feet are pretty impressive. Her shoe size is bigger than Takanori's, would you believe that?"
"This is true." I shamefully admitted.
Well, it's not my fault my feet are strangely small for someone of my age. I was about a size 6, while everyone else was much larger. I didn't know if Rinbayashi had bigger feet than me, but... it's probably a lie made up by Akihiro to protect Mitsuba.
"Oh yeah, her feet are massive. Ain't that right, Yukimura-san, Tanaka-san, Nora-chan?"
"P-please don't ask me about this stuff..." Nora whimpered.
"They're fucking gigantic. Nearly as big as Kazuraba's." Yukimura slyly said.
"Humph, humph, de gozaru!"
"My shoe size is about the same size as Yuu-kun's though..."
"Can we stop talking feet you gross fetishistic perverts! If you continue, I'm gonna kick you out and have Rinbayashi-san replace you! So shut up for a second!"
Sakigamiya scolded us justifiably, before returning to her talk with Matsushita.
"Okay, we were going to ask Takanori-san to leave, but Rinbayashi-san said she doesn't want to play if Takanori-san isn't in the lobby..."
Well, I was prepared to leave, but Rinbayashi saying she'd play only if I was in the lobby made me feel strangely scared... Why me? I've barely interacted with her. Did she want to see me fail in specific? Considering her personality, this might actually be true...
"So, instead, we're just going to be blunt and ask someone other than me, Takanori-san, Tanaka-san, and Matsushita-san to leave. Any volunteers?"
The voice chat became eerily quiet. Then, two voices emerged.
"Um... I'll leave..."
"I'll go, since I can just watch Takayuki-kun play!"
"O-oh, Kou-san, it's fine... I'll leave, you don't have to..."
"Noooo! This is your first time playing, you have to play more than three rounds! I'll sit out, I've played plenty!"
"But you have more experience than me... that's more important for the crew-mates, right?"
"She's also incredibly dumb. Nora-chan, you can stay, since you have a brain. Thanks for offering yourself, Katsumi-san, ta-ta."
"No problemo Alice-chan! Takayuki-kun, I'm coming innnnn~!"
Katsumi left the game and voice chat. As she did, Rinbayashi entered voice chat. Everyone went silent as we waited for her to speak.
"Good evening."
I had goosebumps listening to her deep dulcet voice. It should be a crime to have a voice this pleasing to listen to.
I wasn't the only one. Mitsuba openly moaned, Tanaka said "de gozaru" as if he was melting away, and even Matsushita made a weird noise no one else had heard before.
"Can someone give me the code?"
I felt my leg twitch as she continued to speak. I quickly blurted the code, feeling my body tremble as I conversed with her.
"Thank you, Takanori-san."
It was extremely rare for Rinbayashi to say this much, let alone socialise with her classmates. It was honestly a miracle that she wanted to join us in this party game. I wanted to ask why she joined, but Matsushita got ahead of me.
In the game, her colour was black, and her username was just "an". A strange name, but it was more normal than "God" or "sQc".
"So, uh, Rinbayashi-san, it's really great to have you join us! Um... so, what made you want to play? Since, you haven't played before, right?"
"My friend is playing."
"Oh? Who's your friend? Is it me, perhaps?"
Matsushita cheekily suggested himself. I was more surprised Rinbayashi had a friend. The only logical conclusion I could draw to on who it could be was Yukina, but even then, they barely interacted.
Rinbayashi's mic picked up her long black hair rustling, probably signalling she shook her head no.
"They're a special person to me. I want to have fun with them."
"Oh, is it your crush? Is that why you can't tell?"
Matsushita was barging in the way of anyone else's responses. Not even the loud mouthed Sakigamiya could get a word in as Matsushita hurried to be the first to speak.
"My friend knows who they are. I don't need to say. Please start the game, Tanaka-san."
Keeping her words brief, snappy, and cold, Rinbayashi lived up to her reputation of being an anti-social ice queen.
"Y-yes de gozaru!"
Rinbayashi's overwhelming presence even affected me. If she really wanted to, she could easily take the front stage with her looks, bust, and voice, but she chooses to stay in the background and blend in with everyone else.
Maybe she was just shy of others, and only joined because her friend asked her to in private. Who was Rinbayashi's friend anyways? That question lingered in my head, even long after the games of Among Us we played tonight.
Lost in my thought, I came back to my senses seeing I was crew-mate. The common task was card swipe, while my other tasks were aligning the engines, charting course, and stabilise steering.
Since I had two tasks in navigation, I headed there first. Rinbayashi followed me. She went to download data, while I moved the crosshairs onto it's target, and slid the rocket ship to it's destination. Banging out two tasks, I left navigation, and Rinbayashi followed me again.
It seems she wanted to stick together, so I headed to admin where we could do card swipe together. However, an emergency meeting was called, and it was by Yukimura. No one had died yet, so he may have seen someone vented and wanted to report it.
"What happened?" Sakigamiya asked.
"Just wanted to call this meeting to tell all of you sweaty ass motherfucking cucks that I had the most smooth card swipe of my entire fucking life! My cock is THROBBING. It took ONE swipe! It was in one way and out the other. It was smoother than Sakigamiya's sweet bubblegum ass and faster than fat loser Takanori losing to the son of Mikazuchi-sensei in that dumbass rigged as hell war. Y'all got nothing on me. That sick move is living proof God exists, cuz I am him, bitch! Suck my fucking 12 inch God dick, and jerk me off harder than Nora does when he sees Katsumi's naked tits, cuz card swipe in one go feels so fucking good!"
"...vote him out." Sakigamiya coldly said.
Sakigamiya, I, Yukina, Matsushita, Rinbayashi, Akihiro, Mitsuba, Tanaka, and Nora voted.
"Wait, the fuck? Guys, you can't be serious, right?! I'm only messing! I'm only messing, I swear!"
Yukimura voted.
When the results were revealed, everyone but Yukimura voted for him. Naturally, Yukimura skipped, but it didn't matter.
"YOU GUYS FUCKING SUCK, HAVE FUN INTING YOU STUPID FUCKING DUMBASSES! I HOPE THE IMPOSTORS KILL ALL OF YOU AND YOU TAKE THE FUCKING L YOU FUCKING LOSERS! I'M NOT DOING MY TASKS, YOU CAN EAT MY ASS INSTEAD CUCKS!"
Even though his mic was muted afterwards, I could hear him malding from his room, rage screaming and punching walls like an angry preteen. It's things like this that make me glad our dorm rooms are far apart from each other.
Ronaldo was not An Impostor. (2 Impostors remain.)
I headed to admin swipe with Rinbayashi. I was pretty sure she was safe, so if we stuck together, we could vouch for each other and that would help narrow down the suspects. I swiped card, taking about maybe three tries.
Just as I was about to move, I noticed something very peculiar. Rinbayashi was standing directly on top of me, her "an" name directly aligning with the "an" portion of my name, "Takanori". We were so aligned, you couldn't tell that I was underneath her, and that her username was hidden in mine.
I wondered why Rinbayashi did this. It must've been stupidly difficult to coordinate this, especially on a phone. Did she have a plan up her sleeve? Should I move? Was this why she set her username like that? It's such a niche play to do though... a perfect overlay to hide one person.
Unless... that's the point of it? To hide the other person? What purpose would that have...
I wanted to do my last task, but at the same time, I'd feel guilty if I moved and wasted Rinbayashi's time trying to get us aligned like this. So, I'll move when or if she does.
Though, doing this play made us the equivalent of sitting ducks in admin. It was really easy for an impostor to come by and kill us.
A click of realisation snapped in my head.
That's what Rinbayashi wants - someone to kill us while we're idle and exposed.
That way, the person who didn't die can report the body and say who the impostor is.
It's a clever way of catching them out, especially when you consider my standing in the class meant they paid less attention to details regarding me, such as username and colour. Even though the username displayed was "Takanori", the colour displayed was black, meaning Rinbayashi.
Unless the impostor honed in on small details like these, they'll be caught off guard as we're basically handing them a free kill. It did require a sacrifice though, but considering there are eight crew-mates (seven now), our lives were more disposable. I'm sure Rinbayashi recognises this too.
Furthermore... since she's on top of me, that means if the impostor does kill, she'd be the one to die first. She was willing to sacrifice herself to out the impostor... that's more selfless than I'll ever be. As such, I hovered my thumb over the report button so if this does happen as Rinbayashi plans, then I could report before the impostor gets away.
This will also make the impostor transfer their bamboozled behaviour into the discussion, weakening their ability to argue or communicate information. The psychological carry-over was like a cherry on top to the main strategy.
This plan now hinges on an impostor going into admin and seeing us. It was a good spot to pick, as an impostor may check admin table to see where everyone is.
We stood there for about three minutes, until Matsushita entered admin and approached us slowly. He ran around us for a bit, then left admin. That was some strange behaviour. He didn't even do a task. He just zipped in and out of admin.
Was he trying to signal that he wanted us to go with him? I felt like that was likely, but since Rinbayashi didn't budge, neither would I. I grabbed a cup of water sitting besides me and drank it, before nearly spitting it out when purple killed Rinbayashi.
Simultaneously, I slammed my cup on the table and the report button immediately. It was a bit finicky and I made a mess due to panic, but it worked, which is all that mattered.
It really caught me off guard. I wiped my damp lips with the back of my hand and cleared my throat. Aside from Rinbayashi, Nora was also dead. Lowering my voice to make it go deep as possible, I cast exile upon the impostor.
"Akihiro-san. Akihiro-san."
The voice chat went silent as I declared his name, banishing him to the shadow realm.
"Jesus, who knew you could lower your voice that deep." Mitsuba said.
"Cut it out, it's creepy! Just like you!" Sakigamiya exclaimed angrily.
"Akihiro-san. He killed Rinbayashi-san."
"Where?" Matsushita asked.
"Yeah, Sakigamiya-san's right, that's scary as hell dude. I'm gonna have nightmares of that voice..." Mitsuba shivered.
"Akihiro-san killed in admin."
"Uh... I was in weapons, so it couldn't have been me." Akihiro weakly lied.
"But I passed weapons earlier and didn't see you?" Sakigamiya said.
Since I didn't want to let Sakigamiya take control of the meeting like she always does, I decided to show them how serious I was by lowering my voice further, cupping my hands around the mic, and speaking closely into it.
"Akihiro-san."
The voice chat went into an uproar over my harmless prank.
"Yikes, alright, alright, stop, we don't need the ear rape! It's me, okay!" Akihiro sighed.
Somehow, Rinbayashi's trap worked. I cast my vote.
"You heard him."
"I hate it when people try to act like a smart-ass. You could provide your case in a less roundabout way, can't you, dumbass?"
Sakigamiya hurled a criticism my way, but I rebuked with the ultimate comeback.
"Leat fingies."
"Pffft, leat fingies." Mitsuba giggled like a schoolgirl hearing that.
"What's that supposed even to mean? Is your tongue twisted because you can't properly reply to me? Pathetic."
If she had no intentions of stopping, neither did I.
"Leat fingies."
"Is this some English word I don't understand?"
"Leat fingies."
"Oh, I see. You're going to be childish, is that it?"
Sakigamiya then started speaking French very aggressively back. I think she was insulting me with how sharp her tongue was. I sat back quietly, waiting for her meltdown over "leat fingies" to be over with.
"Alice-chan, just ignore him..." Matsushita laughed awkwardly.
"We should be voting out Ishima-san, de gozaru. Not listening to Sakigamiya-san speak French, de gozaru."
"True. Aki-kun did just admit to being the killer." Yukina said.
Yukina, Matsushita, Tanaka, and Mitsuba voted.
"Man, who would've thought you two were stacked on top of each other. Well, I got found out, vote me off boys."
Being a good sportsman, Akihiro admitted he was caught. With that secondary verbal confirmation, everyone else voted him off, including himself.
"My dying wish is to get Takanori off, so other impostor, dispose of him for me."
ladiesman123 was An Impostor. (1 Impostors remain.)
It seems that from now on, I'll have a target on my back. I should really proceed with caution.
Since my partner, Rinbayashi, was dead, I hurried to upper and lower engines to align them. I quickly finished the task and headed to security to watch over everyone.
I saw Yukina enter security on cams. I hopped off and hung around her cautiously. Statistically, it was more likely she was a crew-mate, so by sticking with her, the other impostor would have a harder time killing me as there would be a witness. They'd first have to split us up before going after me.
At the same time, I was wary of the slim possibility she was an impostor too. She could easily kill me and vent away if she wanted. That's why I stood near the exit, so I could make a speedy exit if necessary. However, this was interrupted by lights being sabotaged, casting us into darkness.
I ran to be near Yukina, but it seems she had already left security. Since the impostor was probably going for a kill in electrical, I headed to the area to check for a dead body, but it seemed someone else had already beaten me to the punch. A dead body was reported.
This time, Tanaka was dead. Sakigamiya, who reported the body, started screaming as the meeting started.
"Haaaaaaa! You botched it so hard! Haaaaaaaaaa! Isogai-san, you freaking idiot! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Sakigamiya voted.
"Wait, wait, why are you accusing me?! It could've been any of us in electrical!"
"That was such a pathetic stack kill, oh my god! You're so bad! You killed just as lights turned on and I saw it! Fu ha ha ha ha!"
Sakigamiya couldn't stop laughing at Matsushita as she seemingly caught him out. At the very least, seeing Sakigamiya act this excessively haughty was enough for me to confirm she was a crew-mate.
"I wasn't at electrical, what happened?" I asked.
"Basically, me, Alice-chan, Isogai-san, Mitsuba-san and Tanaka-san were in electrical trying to fix lights, and a stack kill happened. It wasn't Alice-chan, since I saw her standing around on the sides."
"Thank you Yukina-san. It's not her either, since I watched her scan in med bay. But I'm telling you, it's Isogai-san. I literally saw him!"
That left the two boys, Matsushita and Mitsuba to be the possible impostors.
"Hey, look, in my defence, Tanaka-san's the one dead, and he's my guy! I wouldn't kill him off, that's breaking triangle of trust!"
What would Mitsuba's triangle of trust look like? I guessed it was him, Tanaka, and Yukimura.
"That sounds like something an impostor would say... Mitsuba-san sus."
Just as Matsushita saw the opportunity to divert attention away from him, Sakigamiya dragged us back on topic by firing shots and going hard at him.
"Uh-uh, no you don't! I told y'all I watched Isogai-san kill him! You know, K-I-L-L Tanaka-san! I saw it! So why isn't everyone voting him out?! Stop eating glue for one second and do it already! I'm better at this game than the rest of you, so listen to me! I was even at the sides to watch who would die!"
It was like she was going after his neck with how aggressively she was hounding him. I kind of felt bad for Matsushita honestly.
Mitsuba voted. To be honest, while Matsushita was probably impostor, Sakigamiya's attitude the entire night has really annoyed me. In petty revenge, just for this round, I cast my vote on her.
"Oh thank goodness, Mitsuba-san and Takanori-san actually listened. Yukina-san, you better vote him too. Isogai-san, are you speechless because I got you out? Sucks to suck doesn't it!"
Sakigamiya laughed in Matsushita's face. Yukina reluctantly voted.
"Well, I guess shouting over everyone else really is enough to get someone out. Whatever, you guys win."
Matsushita voted.
"Mhm, keep being salty, my dinner really needs the sodium chloride."
Sakigamiya, Mitsuba, Yukina, and Matsushita voted for Matsushita. I was the only person to vote Sakigamiya.
matSUShita was An Impostor. (0 Impostors remain.)
Victory, but at the cost of my ears and a headache.