Entering the old building, Nagito and Hajime ran into Byakuya, who was standing guard near the entrance.
"Good, you came. Now, hold out your arms and face me." Byakuya said without missing a beat. Hajime felt his heart stop for a moment.
"Huh? Why?" He asked. He wasn't too keen on Byakuya feeling him up.
"I need to do a body check. I need to make sure you're not carrying any dangerous items." Byakuya explained. Hajime sighed, holding his arms out reluctantly. Byakuya started from Hajime's legs, going up, and when he got too close to Hajime's crotch, the smaller male kicked him, making the heir huff.
When Byakuya felt Hajime's back, he felt something hard and slightly pointy.
"And what is that?"
"It's a zipper." Hajime explained, voice slightly strained.
"A zipper to what?"
"A binder OK? That's all you need to know. Can I go now?" Hajime asked curtly. Byakuya seemed to take a moment before realizing what Hajime meant. The heir nodded firmly as he allowed Hajime to pass.
Hajime felt embarrassed. He hadn't expected to come out to Byakuya of all people, especially like that. He wandered down the hallway, finding Izuru in the hallway.
"Hajime. You're pale." Izuru said simply. Hajime sighed, knowing that he couldn't hide anything from his brother. "I'm assuming it was the body check."
"Yeah… I had to tell Byakuya I was wearing a binder."
"How long have you been wearing that anyway?" Izuru asked.
"Um… all day." Hajime replied sheepishly.
"Hajime. You know you're not supposed to-"
"I know, I know."
"You've taken some breaks from wearing it the last few days, so I wasn't too worried, but if you've worn it all day, it's not good for you." Izuru was a bit concerned for his brother's health. Hajime had been wearing the thing almost non stop lately, only taking short breaks when Izuru reminded him.
"Anyway… let's just, go in with everyone else. I'll take breaks every so often in the bathroom or something." Izuru narrowed his eyes, but sighed, knowing he wouldn't change his brother's mind. The two entered the dining hall where everyone else was.
Sonia had decorated the hall with various flowers and what looked like hand cut paper decorations. White tablecloths had been laid out over tables, atop which sat various dishes of food, ranging from Japanese all the way to American.
"Whoa… Sonia, did you do all this?" Hajime asked. The princess gave a tiny laugh.
"Mostly, Izuru helped me however. He helped me pick out the flowers as well as hold me up to put the decorations on the walls. He is a very chivalrous gentleman." Sonia said happily.
"That's something I didn't expect really. I guess he's not as unreliable as I thought." Mahiru said thoughtfully. Izuru had gone a little red at the girls' words. He muttered a small thank you.
"Teruteru cooked all this food by himself. I offered to help, but he literally kicked me out of the kitchen." Izuru mumbled. Hajime sighed. His brother wasn't good at knowing when he'd made someone mad sometimes. It was obvious that Teruteru was upset about Izuru's cooking skills, yet Izuru didn't seem to realize this.
"Well, it looks delicious and… wait what?" Hajime asked, looking towards the back of the room where there were iron plates on the wall. "Why are there iron plates on the wall?"
"They're probably covering windows. I'm not sure why though." Izuru said simply.
Hajime looked around the room, scanning everyone's faces. He was happily surprised to see Gundam's hamsters eating some of the garnish on the dishes. Though, there was one missing. He glanced around and saw its' head poking out of Izuru's shirt pocket. It seems like Izuru had gotten used to the hamster's liking him.
Eventually everyone else, sans Fuyuhiko piled in. They spoke for a bit before Byakuya interrupted.
"Dangerous." The man said. He stomped over to one of the tables, grabbing three dishes off the table, and began to eat them.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Hajime yelled in surprise.
"Hey! No fair, you're eating all the food!" Akane yelled.
"No, I'm not." Byakuya said with a mouth full of food.
"I don't care what you say, you're totally pigging out." Mahiru said.
"No… just, look at this dish."
"It looks like delicious roasted meat." Nekomaru said, sounding hungry.
"And just what is stabbed through this roasted meat?" Byakuya asked.
"It's an iron skewer." Peko observed.
"Exactly, these skewers are a dangerous item." Byakuya said, finishing the meat.
Teruteru suddenly walked in, happily noting that almost everyone was here. Then he saw the mess that Byakuya had made of his dish.
"What are you plotting? These iron skewers could be used as a weapon."
"Eh? Those aren't even allowed?" Teruteru said shocked. Byakuya took that as meaning there were more dangerous items hiding in the kitchen, so he dragged Hajime off to the kitchen, to search for items.
After everything dangerous was sealed in the case Byakuya had with him, the party was almost ready to begin.
"First thing's first, we need to make sure Monokuma isn't able to interfere." Byakuya said. Everyone was silent, thinking.
"... Maybe if we have someone guarding the door? And they can distract him?" Chiaki suggested.
"Hmm… that's a good idea. Perhaps we can enlist Monomi's help, her and Monokuma don't seem to get along, so her distracting him would work well." Hajime added.
"Yeah, I was thinking that too." Chiaki agreed. "I'll do it then."
"You? Why?" Izuru asked.
"I want to make sure this party is perfect, so I don't want Monokuma to ruin it." Chiaki mumbled with a casual tone.
"Very well. We also need someone to guard the case with the dangerous items. I've already locked the key inside the other case, which I will keep on my person." Byakuya declared.
"I shall do it. Situations like this are not my strong point." Peko offered.
"The office would be a good place. The storage room is still rather crowded with boxes. I dusted and such, but the boxes I left alone, mostly due to the fact that all of them were filled, and there wasn't any room to move them." Izuru notified.
"Good. Chiaki will guard the door, while Peko will guard the case in the office."
"I wish to take some food with me, it would be a waste if I did not." Peko put in. "Would that be alright?"
"Of course! Here, let me." Teruteru cried happily, piling food onto a plate for her. Peko and Chiaki left, going to their respective posts.
"Now then, let's eat!" Byakuya shouted.
The party began in full swing. Byakuya and Akane were of course the first to dig into the food, while everyone else went slower, savoring the food.
Izuru, Hajime and Nagito were talking to each other when they suddenly heard someone give a wheezing cough. They turned to look at the source.
"I… do not feel so good." Sonia said, looking a bit red in the face. She was drooling a bit as well. Her body was twitching a bit as well.
"Sonia? Are you OK?" Hajime asked, approaching the girl. She began to sway in place, then doubled over, clutching her stomach. Mikan suddenly rushed over, checking on Sonia.
"Ah! Her pupils are severely dilated, and-and it seems like her muscles are swelling!" Mikan put her hand to Sonia's wrist. "H-her heart rate is much too fast and-" Mikan was cut off as Sonia vomited.
"Wh-what's wrong with her?" Kazuichi yelled.
"It-it seems like poisoning but I don't-" Sonia collapsed, her body going limp, her eyes rolling up, and she fell unconscious. "AAAH! S-Sonia, stay with us!" Mikan began giving Sonia CPR but, it was too late, eventually, her heart slowed down, and she stopped breathing.
"She… she's gone…" Mikan whispered, sobbing.
"She's… gone?" Hajime whispered, more to himself than anything. Izuru was shocked as well, however, he was taking deep, slow breaths to calm himself down.
"Wh… why? How did this?" Mahiru asked, whimpering. "AAAAAAAAH!"
"Ahahahaha!" The high pitched, familiar laugh echoed through the dining hall, as Monokuma appeared. "Finally! A killing just like I wanted!"
"You… Are you serious? Someone… someone…" Mahiru whimpered, her face pale.
"Yup yup! One of you bastards killed little miss Snow White over there!" Suddenly, Peko came inside, along with Chiaki, both of them had heard the screams.
"Is… is that?"
"Why… Why is Sonia?" Both girls were shocked, and pale.
"Well, looks like almost everyone is here, except Fuyuhiko, and I would hate to leave him out soooo" The bear disappeared.
*Bing bong bing bong*
"We've got a corpse here! After a certain amount of time, a class trial will occur." The bear disappeared from the screen, and reappeared in the dining hall.
"Class trial?" Hajime asked, he remembered Monokuma had said something about it before, but… he didn't believe it.
"I explained it before, didn't I? When a murder occurs between you bastards, you are required to reason out who the culprit among you is." Monokuma explained again.
"Y...You want us to find the culprit...? We're just high school kids! We're not the police!" Hajime protested.
"I don't care! You guys need to find the culprit or you die!" With that, Monokuma disappeared, leaving them all in shock.
"I… failed." Byakuya whispered, looking defeated. "I failed to protect you all."
"Byakuya… you couldn't have predicted something like this. I mean, did you even consider poisoning or whatever it was?" Hajime asked.
"No… but…"
"Then it's not your fault. The most you can do now is find the culprit, and bring them to justice." Izuru commented dryly. Byakuya took a deep breath, and calmed himself.
"You're right. I swear on my name, I will not let this crime go unpunished."
"But… did one of us really kill Sonia? I mean… this-this could've been an accident or something. L-like, Teruteru accidentally put in something poisonous, or-or Sonia was allergic to something in the food!" Mahiru yelled.
"That's still murder!" Monokuma screamed, appearing directly in front of the redhead, making her shriek and stumble backwards. "The only death that doesn't count as a murder would be dying of sickness!"
"That's… so cruel." Monomi cried out. No one had noticed that she was there until she spoke. "Y-you shouldn't doubt each other…"
"We cannot deny the fact that Sonia was killed, and from everything that has happened, someone is responsible." Byakuya retorted, looking serious as ever.
"Anyway, I also wanted to give you this! It's the Monokuma file! It gives you all the details about the body and how she died. C'mon sis, we gotta leave these bastards to their investigating!"
"Ow! Don't pull on my ears! You'll rip them off!" With that, the two stuffed animals disappeared under the floorboards.
"We need to investigate, if we do not, we will be killed. Mikan, can you an autopsy on Sonia?" Izuru demanded. It seemed as though he had put himself in charge.
"Y-yes… I can… b-but I'm not sure if I'll be able to find the kind of poison that was used… es-especially without equipment." The girl stuttered.
"We also need people to guard the crime scene, Nekomaru, Peko, do you think you can do that?"
"I believe so. I will not let anyone tamper with the scene." The silver haired girl replied.
"HEY! KILLER! IF YOU TRY AND PULL ANYTHING I'LL DESTROY YOU!" Nekomaru promised loudly.
"The rest of us will take care of the investigation."
INVESTIGATE
Hajime pulled out the Monokuma file, which displayed Sonia's information, as well as a picture of the crime scene.
The victim was Sonia Nevermind, the Super High School Level Princess
The victim's body was discovered in the dining hall of the Hotel Mirai's old building
The time of death was around midnight.
The cause of death was respiratory failure from an unknown poison
"That's it?" Hajime asked.
"It'd be too easy if they told us what the poison was." Nagito wondered aloud.
"True… But if it was poison, I guess that means it was in the food or drink?" Hajime suggested. "What did Sonia eat or drink?"
"She drank some soda poured into wine glasses, and a salad. She didn't eat anything else as far as I'm aware." Izuru said, walking over to the table where Sonia had her food. He started picking through all the various leaves and vegetables, looking for anything. "I don't see anything unusual here though. Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, scallions, spinach…carrots… parsley…"
"Sounds like a normal salad…" Hajime mumbled.
"And since the soda came from the bottle, it's unlikely that the poison came from the drink." Izuru muttered. After finding no other clues in the dining hall, Hajime, Izuru and Nagito entered the kitchen, where Teruteru was pacing anxiously.
"Teruteru, we need to ask you something." Izuru's voice seemed to startle the chef, as he jumped.
"O-oh, it's just you guys. Ooh… why? Why did this happen? I-I-I didn't put anything bad in the dish so why did Sonia die?" Teruteru whimpered.
"Teruteru, listen, I don't think you killed her. Can you tell us what you put in the salad?" Hajime asked curiously.
"U-um… sure! I put in lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, scallions, onions… and that's it!"
"What about carrots and parsley?" Izuru questioned.
"Eh? I didn't put that in! Who messed up my dish! Who added things without my permission!?" Teruteru yelled looking angry.
"Interesting…" Nagito muttered. The trio left the kitchen, and talked to the others, getting information about the incident.
"Poor Sonia… I saw her earlier picking flowers from around the hotel, Monomi got mad at her until Sonia explained what she was using them for. Monomi and Sonia were so happy! Though, I didn't see some of the things she picked at the party, maybe she threw them away?" Mahiru wondered.
"What else did she pick?" Hajime asked.
"Well, most of them were flowers but a few other things weren't flowers. Just some regular plants. One had a really weird smell. It smelled like a mix of a mouse and parsnips." Mahiru mumbled. Izuru, who had been writing down everything at that point, paused for a brief moment, before writing again.
*Ding dong bing bong*
"Attention everyone! The class trial will be beginning soon, so please, head over to Monokuma rock on the central island!"
"I guess that's all the time we have… we should go then…" Nagito sighed.
"We barely have any clues! This is going to be a disaster…" Hajime mumbled. Izuru rolled his eyes and smacked his brother upside the head.
"No it's not. We have all the clues we need."
With those final words of comfort, the three ran off to the central island, where a deadly trial awaited them.
Truth Bullets:
Monokuma File #1
Salad
Soda
Teruteru's account
Mahiru's account
(A/N: OK, a few things I want to mention. Yes, Hajime is a trans male, no, I did make it up on the spot. I was planning it and wanted to put the tag once it was revealed. Hajime and Izuru are fraternal twins. Hajime was born with two X chromosomes, while Izuru was born with an X and a Y. More will be said later.
Also, Sorry Sonia fans.
The flower's meanings from last chapter
Buttercup: Humility
Hemlock: You will be my death
Oleander: Beware
Iris: I have a message for you
Monkshood: Beware, A Deadly Foe is Near
Daffodil: You're the Only One
Tulip, mostly yellow: Hopeless Love
Coriander: Concealed Merit
Celandine: Joys to Come
Calendula: Despair
Hyacinth (purple): Please forgive me, Sorrow
Hyacinth (white): I'll pray for you
Cypress: Despair)