Chapter 9: Storms Brewing
Fukawa was stalking Togami. However, this was different from the usual stalking. Usually she would be satisfied by simply basking in his presence, but not this time. Apparently recent events shook her up more than usual. Now she was interfering whenever Togami tried to interact with another human being, male or female.
However, Fukawa does not realize that characters don't have to interact to be shipped together. Not to mention, this was seriously starting to bug the crap out of Togami, and since he was already a bit insufferable, currently he was downright venomous.
"H-hey, Togami, Fukawa." Naegi meekly, holding another accursed file in his hands. "Do you want to read this with me? Should be quick, right?"
"N-no way in hell!" Fukawa shouted, standing way too close to the esteemed ear of Byakuya Togami.
Togami adjusted his glasses, trying his best to ignore her, a pointless action. "Which one is it?"
"The one with the five underaged-" Naegi started, but Togami took the file out of his hands and opened it up.
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AN: A new chapter so soon?! OuO Hai! Watashi was soooooo excited to get the trial and investigation up that watashi started writing right away!
Togami: Maizono just died, correct?
Naegi: Yeah…
Naegi collapsed in front of Asahina, Nozomi and I, and was out cold.
Naegi: Wait, which one is Nozomi?
Togami: They're interchangable, it makes no difference.
So we had to carry him down to the gymnasium for whatever announcement that dumb bear was going to give us. Probably something dumb.
Fukawa: I-is dumb the only adjective that you know? Th-there are many others, words that would be best used to describe you: asinine, ignorant, obtuse, slow-witted-
Naegi: We get the point.
Togami: Brainless numbskulls.
Maybe a distraction to get Maizono's body out of her room. Who would want to get out so badly as to kill someone...?
Togami: Everyone. Everyone wanted to get out badly. And as the following events, prove, multiple people were willing to kill each other. I never understood how you could be so naive, Naegi. People have killed for far less. Like the disappointment to my left.
Fukawa: I-I never killed anyone! Well, not me- me, but you know that is simply-
Togami: Personally, I was planning on killing Naegi, and leaving contradictory evidence to pin it on everyone else, but Celes already enacted her little scheme.
Naegi: Wait. WHAT?
Togami: It was just a thought I entertained after the second case. But of course Kirigiri would be an issue, so killing you both would probably have been in my best interest. But I am above petty things like murder.
When we walked in the gym, everyone was already there. Nozomi and I accompanied Yume, Unmei, and Mirai, while Asahina went back to Sakura, and cried on her own.
"Do you believe this?" Yume asked.
"H...Hai..." Nozomi said, almost inaudibly.
Monokuma then wandered in from who knows where.
Fukawa: If you paid the slightest bit of attention, Monokuma appeared from beneath the floorboards usually.
"Alright! So a murder has been committed, as you could probably tell from my body discovery announcement."
Chihiro started to cry fairly loudly.
"Now what you've gotta do is investigate the crime scene, and see if you can figure out whodunnit! After that, you'll take an elevator to the trial room, where you have to debat about the killer until we can get to a verdict! If you do get the right person, only the blackened is executed. But if you get the wrong guy, all of the innocents get executed, and the killer walks free!"
Togami: That is a very condensed version of the rules. Also, there's a misspelling.
"What kind of bullshit is this?" Junko yelled. "None of us asked for this!"
She walked up to Monokuma, and stepped on him.
"Oh no! Save me, Gungnir spears!"
An assortment of spears penetrated Junko's body, and her blood soon came gushing out. "What...is...this...?"
Junko collapsed, and wasn't breathing.
Naegi: This - this is - You fail to grasp the severity of the situation. You treat as if it is a fact that must be told to get to your couple pairing bullshit. This is the first time we saw someone die in front of us. We lost a treasured classmate who did not deserve her fate. This blatant disrespect makes me sick.
Fukawa: Th-that is what makes you sick? Not the complete lack of understanding of our personalities and how we interact with each other? And how me and my white knight are destined for each other?
Togami: No.
"You... Baka! Aho!" Unmei exclaimed.
"I think I did a film like that once. Except the penetration wasn't actually through my body." Mirai added.
Fukawa: … Someone's unashamed of her lack of standards.
Monokuma appeared again. "Remember, acts of violence against the Headmaster are forbidden. Bastards. Anyways, go investigate."
We all walked back to Maizono's room. Luckily Naegi woke up, so he got all the info and things. He looked around a lot during the investigation, along with Togami and Kirigiri. I found a note, and noticed a sword. There was also some numbers that Maizono was writing down, 11037. Why would she write some baka numbers?
After the investigation, we all went into the elevator to the trial room.
Naegi: Are you serious? That's all the investigation gets? What about the furnace? And Kirigiri found that note by rubbing on the indentations. There was no "note" to find. And the sheath was there along with the sword. The key in the cases were in the details.
You could almost feel the sense of despair radiating off of everyone.
Togami: I personally felt no despair. I was confident I- we, would find the killer.
Naegi: You all thought I did it.
"Upupupupupupu! Who's ready to get this show on the road?" Monokuma exclaimed. "So right now is just a free debate time, where you all talk it out, and then we vote, and chose your fate."
"It has to be Naegi! He was the one who was with Maizono the most, right? Plus he was late to breakfast." said Hagakure.
"That's wrong! I wouldn't do anything like that! And I was being harassed by a certain bear..." Naegi countered.
"Sorry, couldn't help myself!" Monokuma giggled.
"Anyone else find any evidence?" Kirigiri asked.
"I traded rooms with Maizono last night, because she was scared someone was going to kill her. But somehow, the nameplates were switched!"
"Then you have to be the guilty party!"
"That's wrong! The damage to the bathroom door was done because they didn't know how to open it, whereas Monokuma told me about my defective door beforehand."
Togami: The proceedings were not this swift. Someone took his sweet time figuring out the obvious.
Naegi: That's unfair and uncalled for!
Fukawa: Who even is saying what? None of the dialogue indicates who is speaking. Not that it matters, no one had anything worthwhile to say, except for my white knight.
Togami: Your attention continues to disgust me.
"And I found a note, telling some mystery person to meet Maizono in her room."
"I found a bunch of shattered glass, and a piece of a bloodstained shirt."
"And there were some numbers written in blood... What, was that like, her iPhone passcode or something?"
"I think I've got it." Kirigiri said. "Maizono pretended to be scared, and switched rooms and nameplates with Naegi. She then told the killer to come to her room, and he couldn't help but oblige. But Maizono attempted to kill him, and so he ended up chasing her into the bathroom, where she was stabbed. The killer got blood on their shirt, so they wrapped it around a little glass ball, and threw it into the fire."
Naegi: YOU GOT THAT WRONG! Kirigiri put the burden of proof on me so I could figure out the truth for myself so I could accept it!
Fukawa: Sh-she was coddling you.
"We still don't know who it is though..." Nozomi said.
"I'm just getting to that. You see, the message Maizono was trying to convey wasn't numbers, but rather the name of her killer. Because if you flip the numbers upside down, it says the name Leon."
Togami: This takes all the fun out of it. Nips the mystery right in the bud.
"N-Nani?" I said.
"This would also explain why he threw the ball into the fire, because no one could have accomplished that but the SHSL Baseball Player."
"What? THIS DOESN'T ADD UP! AHO! AHO! AHO AHO AHO AHO AHO AHO AHO!"
Naegi: I can't- I can't handle this. This kills all of the emotion during the trial, it's meaning, it's significance. This lacks the respect that Maizono and Leon deserve!
"Well, I guess it's time to vote for our killer!"
Everyone voted, and it was nearly silent, with the exception of Leon.
"You bastards actually got it right! Good for you. Game over for Leon Kuwata!"
A metal cuff clamped onto Leon's neck, and dragged him away.
He was then strapped onto a pole of some sort, and appeared to be in a baseball field. Monokuma stood in front of him, with a ball launcher. All of the sudden, balls started shooting at Leon.
Fukawa: Narratively, this fails in keeping our attention, going way too fast to process the information being provided, assuming that we already know everything going on. This further proves that the addition of these extra… I can't even call them characters, changes nothing!
Mirai turned to me and whispered, "Basically me."
Naegi: … No, just no.
Leon was beaten and bruised, his blood everywhere.
And we have already lost two students in one day.
Togami: And you don't seem to care. Sociopath.
Naegi: You're one to talk, Togami.
Fukawa: My white knight can't bother with useless emotions that detract from him being absolutely perfect!
Togami: I am not perfect. I have to deal with you.
Naegi: That's… rather harsh.
AN: So yah! Watashi am so happy I could get this up today! Watashi kibou you enjoyed! OwO
Fukawa: H-how can anyone enjoy this?!
Naegi: It's all in poor taste.
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Back in the Towa City Alleyway…
"How's the latest recruit doing?" One of the girls asked, walking towards the group, holding a bag of food.
"She's still upset and refuses to talk to us. I told you kidnapping was a bad idea."
"We still need more people working on this. It's tiresome trying to make something so bad."
"Bad? Bad?! We are creating works of art!"
"Art? That's what you call it! It's offensive and it hurts the people we care about!" She protested.
"Quiet." The girl currently sitting at the laptop said. From the way the silence fell, it was clear she was the leader. "We do this because we care. We cause despair to show our appreciation. Also, it's a great excuse for wish-fulfillment."
"Then how come Togami's still alive?"
The leader did not have an answer to that.
