"If we all stay in a big group like this, things are going to get complicated. To remedy that, I suggest we all break into small groups. After we're done exploring, we'll meet back up at the dorm rooms. Alrighty then, break!"
Some rolled their eyes at my apparent enthusiasm, but someone has to keep everybody moving. If we don't keep moving, we'll fall into the despair of self pity and mope around instead of getting anything done. Nevertheless, the students began to break off with other people they believed they would get along with. Hopefully, I could find someone to come with me, since I could bounce ideas off of them, not to mention that the investigation wouldn't be nearly as lonely. 'I wonder if Hiro would go with me. He seems nice and would probably notice some things that I missed.'
"HIIIRRROOO-KUUUN!"
"Ack!"
Said boy was currently being tackled by Melanie. The two brunettes crashed into each other at an alarming velocity, but luckily, Hiro was much larger than the eyepatch-wearing track racer, so he managed to catch them both before they toppled over. They did have me worried with how far forward they lurched.
"Melanzane-san, please let go of me." If anything, the white-eyed boy was even quieter than when he introduced himself to the large group of students. Instead of talking, it was more or a panicked yell-whisper.
"Aww, you're no fun Hiro-kun." After a moment of semi-hugging him, she followed his wishes and got off of him, but maintained a hold on his wrist.
"Come explore with me!"
"I-uh...okay?"
The second the words left his mouth, Melanie beamed in excitement and dragged Hiro back inside.
….
I'm glad he's making friends.
It looks like I'm on my own for this one, seeing as how everyone has already split up. Since I'm already here, I think I'll investigate the deck first. I should pay attention to all of the details so I don't have to come back here and inevitably get lost. I am slightly infamous for my terrible navigation skills. A fact that was slightly remedied by the beeping of my ElectroID.
I pulled it out of my pocket and quickly unlocked it. A new button had been added over my background picture of Himeji castle. It looked the same as the other buttons, except this one had the word "Map" on it. I tapped on it, and up came a map of the deck, along with a few icons on it. The first one I noticed was a large white dot, standing just outside the door. 'Is that suppose to be me?' Testing my theory, I stepped away from the door. The dot did the same, appearing to prove my little idea. The other icons on the map were exclamation points of a pink color. When I tried tapping on them, pictures of the other students popped up, effectively showing me their location. I suppose if this was actually Kibougamine, this setup would be kind of cool.
Well, this should make the task of navigating this boat a lot easier.
Exploration Time
[Shuffleboard]
[Handrails]
[Bar]
[Wall]
[Door]
Go Here?
[Yes] [No]
In the middle of the dark brown wood of the deck, there is a long, narrow strip of much lighter wooden planks. It was marked with several lines across it at one end and a pyramid at the other. The pyramid itself was split into several sections, each marked with numbers. The tip had a ten; the next, two eights; after that, two sevens; and finally, another ten.
I vaguely remember that this is called a shuffleboard. I think I heard about it from a former classmate when they had gotten home from a cruise. It is popular to put on recreational boats, even though there are few people that actually know how to play it. One of the many mysteries of this world I suppose.
Hm? There's a gold circle at the tip of the pyramid. Looking at it closer, it appears to be the size and shape of a large coin. Stamped on either side was Monokuma's face and something in Latin. It's weight implied that it was actually made of metal, instead of plastic as one would guess with such a silly prop as this. For whatever reason, I stuffed it into my pocket for safekeeping.
Found KumaCoin
Added to Inventory
[Shuffleboard]
[Handrails]
[Bar]
[Wall]
[Door]
Go Here?
[Yes] [No]
Isamu was casually leaning against the rails, his hair and tie slightly swaying in the humid breeze that had picked up. He seemed to be talking to Chiyaku, who seemed extremely nervous about something. Well, waking up on a boat in the middle of nowhere with no recollection of how they got there and then being told to kill someone is bound to stress anyone out.
I didn't see anything worth explicitly investigating, as I would probably have more opportunities to look at the ocean, but before I could leave to continue the exploration, Isamu turned his attention to me.
"Hi, Nozomi-chan. How goes the investigation?"
Chiyaku then turned to me and gave me a bright smile.
"H-hello, Z-Zomi-chan!"
"Hey guys! The investigation is going fine. I mean, We just started, so I haven't really found anything yet besides a shuffleboard and a weird coin, but like I said, we just started and you guys are the first people I've talked to."
"Well, if there's anyway to help, I'd love to do so."
"S-s-so w-would I!"
"Thank you. That would be really nice."
I meant it. While I can certainly try, solving this mystery by myself would be really difficult, especially when we could all possibly be in danger. Plus, we need every side to this story possible.
"Actually, can I ask you guys to describe the past twenty-four hours or so? Maybe we can figure something out."
Isamu decided to go first. "Well, I spent almost all of yesterday packing." He gave a light chuckle before continuing. "I kind of forgot about it, so things were a little hectic. I ate dinner with my two older sisters, then at about 11 o'clock, I retired for the evening. I woke up a bit late, so I had to rush to get to school on time. The weird thing was, the second I passed through the gate, I got really dizzy and got knocked out. When I came to, I was in the dining room with Kagura-chan. I would up coming out here. In fact, I was one of the first to arrive."
I wished I had my recorder with me. I had the little black recorder for years, and it had been with me through thick and thin. My mom had got it for me when I first became interested in detective work. She had heard me talking to myself while poring over files and told me to record myself so I wouldn't forget anything. I usually carry it around everywhere in case I need to remember something, but I didn't have it with me when I woke up. It would be helpful to have it while interviewing everyone, but I guess I just have to remember the details myself.
I turned to the short girl next to me. "What about you, Chiyaku? Can you recall anything?"
She nodded her head very quickly. "W-w-well, I-I l-live in K-Kyoto so I h-had to take a l-long train ride. I-I got to T-Tokyo a-about an hour b-before school s-s-started, so I d-decided to g-go early. W-w-when I g-got there, I fell a-asleep and w-woke up on the d-deck."
"Thank you for your help. I'm going to go check out the rest of this place."
As I turned around and walked away, I thought about what they said. Both said that they passed out when the got on school grounds, same as me. I can guess that something similar happened to the rest of the students.
[Shuffleboard]
[Handrails]
[Bar]
[Wall]
[Door]
Go Here?
[Yes] [No]
There's a counter by the door, with a sign overhead reading "A Bit of Paradise." There are bar three blue bar stools lined up in front of the counter and shelves set up behind it. The shelves are full of bottles filled with liquids of all sorts of different and pretty colors made soft by the frosted glass. All of the labels on the bottles have extremely cheesy, tropical-themed names pertaining to their colors. They appear to be some kind of booze, but the labels say non-alcoholic in small italics.
On the smooth countertop is another one of those weird coins. I wind up stuffing it into my pocket just like the last one I found. I had to wonder what they were for and how many I could find. Finding these gold coins should pose an interesting challenge while I'm here.
Found KumaCoin
Added to Inventory
[Shuffleboard]
[Handrails]
[Bar]
[Wall]
[Door]
Go Here?
[Yes] [No]
The sun was getting higher in the sky, and I could feel the heat increasing, the bright light bearing down on me. I should hurry up and check out the rest of the deck and head inside, where there's hopefully some air conditioning. The other side should just be around this corner-
…
Well then.
A gigantic, inflatable wall stood in my path. It had to be at least fifteen feet tall (though it might just appear bigger with my short stature) and was obviously squished between the wall and the handrails. The rubber mass was the same orange color as a life raft and was mostly smooth, with the exception of a few stickers that had various warnings or Monokuma's face on them.
Xiang and Charlie were standing next to it, Xiang reading the various warning labels in focused silence, while Charlie was glaring at the horribly colored rubber, obviously pissed.
I walked over to the railing, stepped on the bottom rung, and leaned almost precariously over the water to try to see where the wall stopped. The thing was, it didn't seem to. The rubber wall appeared to wrap around the rest of the boat, so I couldn't see a definite ending. What on Earth? I stepped down off of the railings, so I wouldn't be leaning over the ocean a ways below.
"So...what exactly is this?"
"Upupupu! Wouldn't you bastards like to know?"
"Gah!" The little animatronic bear spoke up from right behind me, startling the crap out of me. It really was a good thing I had gotten off of the railing or I would have plummeted to my death. Seriously though, where did that thing come from?!
"Upu, let me try to put this in a way you'd understand. That would be boring! B-O-R-I-N-G! Nobody likes a story where they know everything! Especially not a mystery story! The audience will stop tuning in, and then how would everyone remember my lovely face?"
...He doesn't seem to realize that he left a tiny scrap of valuable information slip. Either that, or he (well, I assume it's a he) doesn't care. But, he's going off about keeping this in the dark. Coupling that with the fact that we can't underestimate the mastermind in this situation, we have to assume everything is intentional until proven otherwise.
"Not to mention that you dumbass teenagers constantly break stuff for the heck of it, and I don't have the patience to babysit all sixteen of you and watch you stumble around like blind old men."
"So basically, you can't keep track of al-"
And the two-toned bear was gone again. Where on Earth does that thing go? Does it hide under the floorboards? And it left in the middle of my sentence! How rude! I vowed to figure out this bear and all of it's little secrets.
I turned to look at the orange wall and the two boys that looked nearly as confused as I did. Creepy bear aside, the area is impossible to get to. The inflatable wall is really tall, taking the ability to boost someone over out of the question, and completely smooth. It would take someone in far better physical shape than I to climb this thing. Until then, I should probably just leave the area alone, though the thought of clues on the other side were certainly tempting.
"Hey Xiang, Charlie, could I ask you guys a couple of questions?"
"Of course. What would you like to know?"
"I just need you to describe the last twenty four hours. I'm trying to look for similarities and confirm some things."
Charlie stepped up and shared his story first. "Well, I was on a plane from Scotland to Japan. Between the damn airplane security an' the eleven hour flight with the little shit behind me kicking my seat, it was not well good. I got in about midnight, an' slept in a hotel. I went to the school, passed out, an' woke up here."
I thought about that for a moment. "Did you pass out when you first got to the school, or feel dizzy at all?"
"Yeah, an' a wee bit."
I turned to look at the Chinese man. I don't know how he wasn't melting in a leather jacket and scarf under the scorching sun. "What about you, Xiang?"
He was quiet for a moment before beginning. "I arrived in Japan four days ago. I have spent that time either reviewing the language or preparing for school. Last night I went to bed at 9 P.M. and woke up at 5 A.M. I trained for two hours and then got ready for school. I went to Kibougamine at 7:45 and was knocked unconscious when I stepped through the gate, but I did not feel dizzy before. I woke up in the dining room with Hashira."
"Thank you for your cooperation! I'm just about finished out here, so I'm going inside before I have to be scraped off the ground with a spatula."
With that, I left. Their stories coincide with the other ones I heard. We go to Kibougamine, get knocked out the second we step on the grounds, and wake up on the Hope's End. The dizziness aspect was a bit weird as Isamu and Charlie were, but Xiang, possibly Chiyaku, and I didn't. It might have been a side effect of whatever it was that knocked us out.
[Handrails]
[Bar]
[Wall]
[Door]
Leave Area
[Yes] [No]
Standing before me was a pair of large glass doors. Inside was a new area to explore and students to interview. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the doors and stepped in.
O-Hinku here!
Guess who's back?!
After a long break, I'm finally back with a new chapter! I wasn't able to get Word to work, but I did figure out Google docs, so I'll be using that until further notice.
Thank you guys for all of the support you've given me. Seriously. Without it, who knows how long it would have taken to get this chapter out. You guys seriously picked me up from the depths of despair.
In DR related news, I saw the first trailer for DR 3. It honestly looks like Threegami might actually be a thing. I also wore my Kirigiri cosplay to SLC ComiCon, and took pictures with Junko Enoshima and Celestia Ludenburg, so that was extremely awesome.
Can't wait to see you guys next time! (hopefully next week.)