prologue
The snow was finally melting and Junko had been dead for several weeks before Hajime came to realise the gravity of their situation.
She'd been dead for ten days before they found her. All the search parties had walked over her, unaware of how the snow had perfectly covered her body, how they were all packing the snow into hard ice. They'd filed her as a missing person three days before they found her corpse. Odd how Hajime was struck by this harder than her actual death. Odd how the smallest of details hit his ribs harder than they used to.
It was unbelievable for Hajime to think, even after all these years, how much Peko had planned everything, how it had worked and yet hadn't in a way.
It had been so long since Hajime had seen any of them but all he had to do was blink and there they all were. Chiaki with her nails bitten harshly to the quick, Nagito with his pale and watery eyes that had darted around the room as though looking for an exit, Fuyuhiko with his flushed face and dark scowl. Peko with her crimson eyes, trying to light a cigarette.
"Are we really going to do this?" Hajime had asked.
"I don't see any other solution," Peko had replied, and struck a match.
(They'd stood on the path above the ravine for an hour before Junko had shown up.
"God," she'd said. "What are you all doing up here?"
"Why," Peko had replied. "Picking some berries." And she stepped forward.)
