Chapter 2: Hidden Truth! The Hope of a Gourmet (Daily Life) - Act 5

I stood in the living room facing Karen. We had been going over potential conversation topics for about an hour.

"Which is why we can never be friends. You're too weird." I said, giving an example of a response someone may give.

"Onii-san, this is a little weird." Karen timidly admitted. "Many of these conversations don't make sense."

"Be prepared for any conversation." I reminded her.

"I get that, but why did some of them start off rudely?" she asked.

"You never know when someone with a bad personality will talk to you." I replied.

"But nobody is like that, though, right?" Karen asked, wondering if someone like that existed.

"Hello there, peasants!" Michiru called out, entering the room as if on cue.

I faced Karen. "There's her for starters..."

"True... She can be foul mouthed." Karen agreed.

"Hey. Don't talk about me as if I'm not here..." Michiru complained, figuring out what we were talking about.

After some time had passed, Monokuma had set off an announcement calling everyone to the living room. Once everyone had arrived, he began to speak.

"So, uh... It's came to my attention that many of you are running low on clean clothes." he began. "To be honest, I completely forgot about laundry, so I will now open up to you all the Laundry Room! Filled with enough washing machines for you all to enjoy! It is located near the Monokuma shop! This would have been open sooner, but I just darn forgot!"

Following this, the bear left and a few people went to check it out. I'm glad that the room is now open to us, considering I was almost out of clean underwear.

Karen and I continued going over conversation topics until evening. It appeared that she was becoming more confident the more we practised. When we were done, we retired back to our own rooms.

While lying down on my bed, I recalled how I didn't see much of Kiyomi that day since Monokuma revealed the next motive. Part of me grew concerned by her lack of appearance, although another part of me was relieved that she didn't bother me. I knew that she'd freak out if she saw me and Karen together today.

With not much left to do, I decided to go to sleep early.

The following morning, everyone had gathered in the dining room for breakfast and a meeting. Well, I say everyone, but Kiyomi was strangely absent.

"Since we are all here, we shall begin the new meeting." Kou began. "I would like to discuss something Hayato had brought to my attention previously."

He's probably talking about the book. To be honest, I kind of forgot about that.

"Wait! Somebody is missing." Mamoru reminded everyone.

"He's right. Kiyomi is missing." Sakuya remembered.

"Who cares about her? She's a threat to us." Michiru complained.

"Which is why her absence is... unsettling." Kyo commented.

"W-well it's not like somebody tied her up and locked her in the gym or anything." Naoki commented nervously.

"Idiot..." Kou muttered under his breath.

"Naoki, did you lock Kiyomi in the gym?" I asked, wishing to confirm this.

"N-no!" the Basketball player quickly responded.

"Give it up, Naoki. You're not fooling anyone. Why did you do it?" Kou asked.

"Wha... But you told me to do it!" Naoki revealed.

An awkward silence fell through the room at this point, with many of us staring at Kou and Naoki. While Kou remained calm, Naoki definitely had a panicked look in his eyes. Eventually, Kyo suggested we go check in on the gym to confirm this.

Upon arrival in the gym, I immediately noticed that Kiyomi was tied up with a rope wrapped around her legs, and was tied up to some pieces of equipment with some other rope which was wrapped around her arms.

"Hayato-Darling!" she exclaimed with joy. "Be a babe and untie me, will you? 3"

To be honest, I don't know which is worse. How casual she is acting about this, how oblivious she is to everything, or how creepy it was to put that heart at the end of her sentence.

"Told you we should have taped her mouth shut." Naoki complained.

"Well, how would you explain this situation to everyone else then?" Kou retorted.

"Both of you shut up. This is still bad." Yuki commented.

"I understand why you two felt the need to do this, but couldn't you have discussed this with everyone before taking matters into your own hands?" Lucas questioned the two culprits.

"Look, when the next murder doesn't happen, you'll be thanking us." Naoki remarked, with a smug look on his face.

"Do you ever think about what you say before saying it?" Kou argued to the basketball player.

"But that's assuming Kiyomi is the only person with intent to kill." Lucas reminded them. "Any one of us could become the next killer. Do you intend to detain us all?"

"Listen, you." the Gourmet began. "The whole purpose of this was to make sure the one who almost committed murder doesn't get the chance to do so."

"But Lucas has a point..." Sakuya commented. "All of us may have a reason to kill with the new motive given to us."

"Unlike many of you, some of us shared our secrets." Kou impatiently ranted. "That eliminates us as suspects."

"Not really." Sakuya replied. "How can anyone be sure someone didn't lie?"

Lie? Could it really be possible someone lied about their secret? It's true that it could throw suspicion off of them in the case of a real murder if everyone believed that they had no real motive after all, but still...

As the argument continued, I looked over at Karen, who was quietly keeping to herself at the back of the room.

"Karen? You okay?" I asked, approaching her.

"Wahh... Onii-san?" she nervously replied. "Y-yes! I'm fine!"

It was probably just my imagination, but she sounded more nervous than usual.

"It's just that... after what happened yesterday, I don't feel comfortable around her..." she continued.

Right. That's understandable. Kiyomi did threaten her. At this moment, upon realising that this argument among the group would not end soon, I suggested to Karen that we leave and go do something else.

The day continued as normal from this point. Karen and I spent most of the day together, as I helped Karen with her confidence boosting and conversation skills, although she did seem a little out of it for most of the time. Shortly before getting dinner, I confronted her about it.

"Hey, Karen?" I asked. "Is everything okay? You seem quieter than usual today."

"Oh, uh... Yeah? Everything is fine..." she timidly responded, as if she wasn't sure herself.

"Karen. You know you can talk to me about anything, right?" I reminded her.

Karen sighed. "To be honest, I need some advice. You see, I recently learned something about someone that contradicts something they had previously said. This... something is important to someone else and I wanted to ask them about it, but I don't know how..."

"If you want, I can help you talk to them." I suggested. "But you'd need to tell me more about it."

Karen nodded with a smile. "Thank you, Onii-san! But I think I'd rather talk about this tomorrow. I'd like some more time to think of what to do.

About an hour or so following dinner, there was an incident in the Laundry Room. Upon entering the Laundry Room, I noticed Sakuya was frantically searching for something. Karen, Michiru, Mamoru and Lucas were also in the room.

"Hey Sakuya! What's up?" I asked.

"Hayachii!" she said in a somewhat aggressive tone. "Someone has stolen some of my panties!"

"Wait, what?" I said, concerned. "We have people stealing underwear now?"

"It gets worse." Lucas commented. "It seems incredibly likely it happened before they were washed."

"W-we have no proof of that!" Karen reminded. "And besides, maybe you left them in your room, Onee-san..."

"I didn't! They were in with the rest of my laundry!" Sakuya reminded. "Somebody stole my dirty panties!"

Many of us were trapped in that room for a good hour before Sakuya finally calmed down.

Following that incident, the rest of the day was uneventful. By the nighttime announcement, I had already showered and prepared for bed. I found myself quietly drifting into sleep after a short while.

"Morning!" I greeted everyone as I entered the dining room. Sakuya, Lucas, Kyo, Yuki and Naoki were already gathered in the room.

"Ooh! Hayachii! Just in time!" Sakuya eagerly greeted. "Kou is about to share with us one of his special menu pieces!"

"Special menu pieces?" I questioned.

"Being a gourmet, I have had plans to create my own cookbook for a while now." Kou commented, entering the room with a tray of food. "I believe you already know about this."

Upon providing an answer, Kou gently placed the tray on the table in front of us. On the tray was a variety of different food. Meat, vegetables, and so on. Many of which were in unique combinations. They way many of each were cut were also in unique shapes. Some pieces of meat were also cut in very thin slices, while others had a more jagged edge.

As Sakuya took the first bite, I could tell from her expression that it tasted good. Curious as to what it tasted like, I went to have a taste too.

"Oh, Hayato." Kou commented. "I appear to have forgotten some of the spices needed to truly make this meal taste great. Would you mind fetching them from the storage room? Naoki, you go with him."

Almost reluctant, I headed into the storage room with Naoki.

"Aw man. I really wanted to try that food..." Naoki complained. "Let's just hurry up and find those spices. I'll check the shelves, you check those boxes."

Although I wasn't pleased by this task I was given, I decided to complete it regardless. As I was checking the boxes, I accidentally knocked a few of them over. As I reached down to pick them up, I noticed something... that should not have been there.

"Whoa! Hayato! You oka... HOLY SHIT!" Naoki screeched as he noticed the same thing I saw.

The out of place something had created a smell that was too familiar. Reminiscent of what I had discovered a few days ago. Glancing over, it was definitely a dead body. Flesh had been cut from their thighs and arms. Hair had been pulled from their head. One hand was even missing a finger. Looking at their face, it appears their left eye was pulled from it's place. Blood was also dripping from their mouth. The very sight of this was too disturbing. One of us actually did this? It terrified me.

At this moment, all I could think about was her. She couldn't know about this. But she'll have to find out eventually... I turned around, prepared to find her and share the news. But it was too late. Standing behind me, was Sakuya, staring at the corpse in front of us.

"NOOOOOOO!" she screamed. "KAREN!"

Sakuya ran up to the corpse as embraced it in her arms. That's right. Sakuya's younger sister, the timid Karen Minakami, had become the next victim.

Chapter 2: Hidden Truth! The Hope of a Gourmet (Deadly Life) - Act 5

DING-DONG-DING

"Upupupupu... It appears as if a dead body has been discovered! You will now be given a set amount of time to investigate! After a certain amount of time has passed, we will be holding a class trial! Good luck!"

I could barely hear the announcement. A combination of my own shock and Sakuya's tears appeared to nearly drown it out.

Following shortly after the announcement, Kyo, Lucas, Kou and Yuki ran into the room. Upon noticing Karen's body, Kou instructed Naoki and Kyo to gather everyone else. Following a short amount of time, everyone else (par Kiyomi) was gathered in the storage room.

"Well... This is a rather disturbing sight." Michiru complained. "I will be waiting outside while you all continue with this. Naoki. Tea."

"Yes, Michiru-sama!" Naoki eagerly responded as the two left the room.

"Well, how cold. It's almost like they don't care." Monokuma commented. "My bets are on them doing it. Upupupupu..."

"Could you please stop with the jokes?" I asked.

"But what if I'm serious?" Monokuma replied. "I could very well be giving away the answer right now!"

"But that makes it easier for us if that were true." I responded.

"But maybe I'm trying to trick you into thinking I'm telling the truth, when really I'm not, because I want you to think I'm lying even when I'm not because I really am!" Monokuma added.

"W... What?" I asked, confused.

"I don't even know anymore..." Monokuma replied, slightly disappointed.

"If you two are done with your comedy routine, could you please give us that?" Lucas asked in frustration.

"Yeah, sure." Monokuma quickly recovered, and handed me a small file. "Ta-da! It's... The Monokuma File!"

With that given to us, Monokuma quickly left. Before I got the chance to check the file, Sakuya stood up. Her clothes and face stained with her sister's blood, and tears running down her face.

"Hayachii." she said with a serious tone. "I want you to bring the fucker who killed my sister to justice."

To Be Continued...

Another victim! To be honest, it kind of hurt to write that part. Killing her off wasn't easy, but it is necessary for the story I have planned.

And yes, the part with the Laundry room introduction was written in because I genuinely forgot to write it in sooner. XD