I picked up a leaflet of one of the sheets that Monokuma had left behind, and read over it. It was freshly printed, and looked like it had just recently come out of the copy machine.
MONOKUMA FILE #01
The Victim is Hisoka Arai.
The body was discovered in the dining hall at precisely 7:42pm, matching the time of death.
The exact cause of death cannot be ascertained, but Hisoka did die due to an inability to breathe.
There is an external injury on the upper right thigh, but this is not related to the cause of death.
The victim attempted to vomit before dying, suggesting that something he consumed caused his demise.
Monokuma File #01 has been added to the Truth Bullets Section.
The Monokuma File, despite all the hype that the bear had led us to believe in, was surprisingly blank. In truth, it contained almost nothing we didn't already know, and in truth seemed to make us only more uncertain about the case at large. As I skimmed through it, it answered no questions, and only seemed to raise more. The others glanced at it as well, and soon realised that Monokuma's precious file was nothing more than a hollow mockery thrown at us. One would've thought that something as basic as an investigative report from a nigh-omnipresent bear would at least be helpful, but apparently not.
The truth was, it helped very little. We could've identified the time of death ourselves, as we were there when it happened. We could've identified the injury, as Yamato had made it with the Epipen. Finally, we could've obviously seen Hisoka vomiting up his guts before he died. It told us nothing.
"How could this happen?" Chizuko said. "Shit, what have we done to deserve this! What did he do to deserve to die like that! Why! Why did this have to happen!"
"Calm down," Yamato said. "Look, we might not be able to change our destiny, but we can sure pin down the person who did this to Hisoka. Wouldn't that be what he'd want us to do?"
"He'd want us to fight, he'd want us to work together and get through this," Hoshi said. "We've got to do that for him!"
"Yeah, we'll avenge him, and find out what really happened," Kenji said.
"I couldn't save another," Erika muttered to herself. "They died... under my watch."
Erika seemed to blame herself for this, perhaps believing that if she had been a better rescue worker that this disaster would've been avoided. I wished right then that I could tell her to stay strong, I wish I had consoled her, but I did none of those things. I simply let her be.
"Alright, I want everyone to search for whatever clues they can find," Yamato said. "We'll go in pairs of two, with an extra group of three." Yamato didn't clarify the reason why, but everyone knew it. Hisoka was the one that trusted everyone here, and he had wound up dead in a pool of his own vomit. Yamato wasn't the sort of man to make the same mistake.
Yamato continued. "Chizuko, you go with Yoshimi. Hoshi, go with Hitomi. Leiko, go with Ryoma. Samuru, you can come with Seita and I. We'll be the group of three. Mayu, go with Akemi. Kotaro, go with Hiroyuki. Kiyoshi, go with Kenji. Yona, go with Jitsuko. Erika, go with Kumi. Sora, go with Goro. And that leaves... Daigo to go with Noriko. If any of you leave your designated partner for any reason, I'll consider it an attempt to falsify evidence. Got it?"
At this point, nobody had the willpower to argue back, and accepted Yamato's orders as word of law. It seemed I had been grouped with Hoshi: not the worst pair I could've asked for, at least.
"Alright, you and me are a team now," Hoshi said. "We're going to nail this fucking bastard to the wall."
"Yeah," I said hesitantly, and searched around. Hoshi was right. No matter what, we had to find the person who did this, and make them pay for taking away Hisoka. The truth was, we didn't have the luxury of mourning right now - we had to stay alive for Hisoka's sake, and avenge his death. We had to bring the true criminal in this case the justice they deserved. A few things caught my eye on a glance, but one in particular stood out. It was a small tincture placed next to the soup, on Yamato's side of Hisoka's bowl.
"What's this?" I asked, as I lifted it up with hesitation. It appeared to be a poison bottle of some kind with a green tint. Oddly enough, I hadn't seen it placed there before the commotion with Hisoka.
Hoshi took the bottle from me, and peered at the label. "Not fit for human consumption, use only as directed. Can cause swelling and irritability upon human ingestion, and can lead to cardiac arrest or death," Hoshi said. "This shit's strong, and the bottle definitely seems to be open. Whoever it was, they probably killed Hisoka with this shit."
"You think they'd just leave the murder weapon lying around there like that?" I asked.
"They probably dropped it, and didn't get a chance to pick it back up when Yamato started ordering everyone around," Hoshi replied.
Somehow, I wasn't quite sure of that.
Bottle of Poison has been added to the Truth Bullets Section.
I continued to look around. Everyone seemed on edge, each and every person investigating every nook and cranny of the dining hall for a little chance at finding the truth behind this case. In most cases, no one knew what they were doing, and they were just staring at the walls and objects scattered around the room in the hope it would do something or expose some hidden meaning behind everything. It was to no avail, and in most cases simply served as a distraction from the cold truth of reality. I scanned the room, taking a look at anything that stood out in particular - then I noticed it. Hisoka's soup seemed off somehow, and as I stared at it, I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong.
"Yo Hitomi, your soup's still full, right?" Hoshi asked me.
"Yeah, I think so," I replied. "Why?"
"Bring it over," Hoshi said. "I wanna see something."
I brought the bowl of soup over to Hisoka's place on the table, and sat the two bowls next to one another. That was when I noticed it.
"You're right," I replied. I stared down at the soup. Both Hisoka's soup and my own looked virtually identical from a distance, but I noticed something interesting looking at Hisoka's soup. Inside the soup, brown particles floated around in the broth, giving the soup a strange appearance. It was not the sort of thing you'd notice unless you looked really closely, but surely enough it was there. I stared down at the soup for a while.
"Brown particles," Hoshi said. "So what, did someone shit in his soup or something?"
"I highly doubt it, Hoshi," I said. "But still, we have no way of knowing what that stuff is. What did you guys use to make tonight's dish?"
"Nothing special like that," Hoshi said. "We just dished up tinned soup, and prepped it so it was edible."
"So, what's that stuff then?" I asked.
"Maybe it has something to do with the poison bottle?" She replied. "I mean, we know the bottle's green, but there's no way for us to tell what colour the poison is."
"Pour it into a cup perhaps?" I said. "We can explain it later to everyone."
Hoshi grabbed a clear glass from the kitchen, and poured a small amount of the poison into it. The bottle was dyed green, and the poison that came out was green as well. She then put the poison back where it was, and resealed the lid.
"Green, huh?" Hoshi said. "Probably not poison then."
"I wonder why Hisoka's meal doesn't have a green tinge to it then?" I asked.
"Maybe it was just a small dosage," Hoshi replied.
"That might be the case," I said.
Last Meal has been added to the Truth Bullets Section.
Bottle of Poison has been updated.
I looked around some more. Leiko was rummaging around the bin, trying to find anything that could be incriminating, and had scattered a pile of trash across the floor and was sifting through it. She looked frantic as she tossed things around, and I approached her.
"You find anything?" I asked.
"Argh, it's useless! It's all useless!" She exclaimed. "Here I was thinking I could find a murderer, and what have I gone and done? I'm just rummaging through a trashcan. This is pathetic, more pathetic than my sex life..."
"Well, at least you're doing something," Hoshi said. "Kiyoshi's just been staring dumbfounded at the fucking wall. Kenji's trying to help her out, but it looks like that's getting a little difficult for him."
I noted that it might be wise to check in with Kiyoshi, and see whether she was alright. This had probably taken a great emotional toll on her, as it had with all of us. Truth was, it was probably taking as much of a toll on Hoshi as it was on Kiyoshi, it's just that Hoshi was better at adapting and pushing forward. She may have been quick to adapt, but it seemed Hoshi wasn't the best at understanding the weaknesses of others. I stared at the garbage pile, then noticed something.
"Hey, what's that?" I asked, as I pointed down at an 8 centimetre in diameter circular piece of cardboard with a string attached, dangling from the end. It had been dirtied with what looked to be soup on one side.
"I... don't know,' Leiko said. "Do you think it's relevant?"
"I don't know yet," I said. "But maybe it is."
"What's that on the other side?" Leiko asked me.
I flipped it over. Clinging to the other side of the cardboard was a fine brown dust.
"I have no idea," I replied. "But we'll find out, that's for sure."
Circular Cardboard Piece has been added to the Truth Bullets Section.
I stood up. Hisoka still lay dead on the floor. Someone had draped a cloth over his face to cover him from the eyes of those who had just witnessed his death, but I couldn't help but feel as if inspecting the body would help. Monokuma had said there was no sign of external injuries asides from the epipen injection mark, and that was relatively consistent. The epipen lay next to his leg, near the area that it had been injected to. The head was extended. I think that meant that the injection had been successful, but I wasn't sure: I didn't know too much about epipens. Noriko and Daigo were already looking down at the corpse.
"Did you guys witness the whole ordeal?" I asked.
"Yeah," Noriko said. "I was pretty close to Hisoka when it happened. He'd stopped talking at one point, and eventually he fell out of his chair. At first we'd thought he was going silent, but we realised after that - something was wrong."
"What do you mean stopped talking?" I said.
"I don't know, he just stopped engaging in conversation about a minute before he fell to the floor." Noriko said. "Maybe his throat seized up, but I don't know. He wasn't really acting all that strange, he seemed pretty chipper and perky until a minute before what happened."
"So, did you witness Hisoka fall?" I asked.
"Yeah, I saw it," Noriko said. "He fell off his chair, and couldn't breathe. Yamato came to his aid, and everyone gathered around him. Hisoka pulled the epipen, Yamato injected it, and then Hisoka died."
"Did you see anything, Daigo?" I asked as well.
"I am afraid I did not witness much," Daigo said. "I was on the far side of the room, so when Hisoka died I was quite a distance away. I was not able to see much."
"Well, thanks anyway," I said.
"I apologise that I could not be of more assistance to both you and Hisoka," Daigo said. "If there is anything you need, feel free to talk to me."
"Will do," I replied.
I stepped away from the body. I didn't want to stand next to a dead man for longer than I had to, but it was impossible to envision Hisoka as truly dead. He had been alive up until the last hour, brimming with the same vigour and life he always had. It was impossible to imagine him dead, but I didn't have to imagine: his corpse was there on the floor. I stepped away from the dead body. I hadn't quite wiped the tears from my face, and I rubbed my sleeve against my eyes.
"We have to find whoever did this," I said.
Moments Leading up to Death has been added to the Truth Bullets Section.
I was about to wander into the kitchen, but I was stopped before entering. Kumi and Erika had returned from the Inventory Room, with Monokuma in tow. "Alright guys, here comes a special announcement from yours truly!" Monokuma said. "Since some of Hisoka's stuff was still in the room, I've given express permission for you guys to take it out. Now, here comes the fun bit, the Midnight Bar is now officially in business! Take the load off with a nice bourbon, or maybe a cider, or maybe even the double-barrelled Winchester hidden behind the counter! Puhuhu, you'd be surprised how cathartic the sweet release of death can be!"
"Don't you talk about death, Monokuma!" Chizuko roared. "Especially not with a victim of yours in the fucking hallway!"
"A victim of mine, you say?" Monokuma chimed. "Hey, you got any proof, bucko!?"
"No, but I'll damn well find it," Chizuko responded.
"Still, a double barrelled Winchester?" Mayu asked. "Why isn't that in the Gun Locker?"
"Ahahahahaaaa!" Monokuma cackled. "That's for me to know, and you to never, ever find out!"
"It sure seems suspicious, I'll admit," Yamato said. "Kumi, go back with Erika and check out the Midnight Bar, see what you can find in there. If you find anything, tell me immediately."
"Understood," Erika said.
"Y-yes!" Kumi added. "Will d-d-do!"
We crowded around the table where the contents of Hisoka's inventory had been set down. On the table there were 4 epipens and a birthday card, addressed to Hisoka from his mother. I read the contents of the card.
To my dearest son Hisoka,
Happy Birthday! Each year on this day, I am reminded of the wonderful and admirable son I have raised. You truly are growing into a fine young gentleman, and I wish you the best as you continue into your second year of study.
I hope today is a special day for you, and I hope you get the chance to follow your passion.
Yours Sincerely,
Mum
It was an incredibly heartfelt and loving card, which made it seem all the more odd that a streak of black permanent marker had been made in the corner. The streak was small, near the corner of the card, and seemed awfully strange. I wondered why it was there? Maybe the streak had some importance, but I did not know. Apparently it had raised a few eyebrows among the other eyewitnesses as well. I then turned my attention to the epipens. I looked down, and then counted them. One, two, three, four. There had not been much in the way of sentimental items in his locker, but either Hisoka or his parents must have been incredibly paranoid to warrant packing so many EpiPens on his person.
"So, does anyone know anything about why this mark might be here?" I asked.
Everyone shook their heads. They were all at a loss as to why Hisoka might mark a sentimental item that reminded him of the outside world with black permanent marker, and for good reason: it simply made no sense. The items had been taken out of his pigeon hole by Monokuma, meaning that mark had to have been made before the deadly dinner, and perhaps even before the game itself. I wondered whether it had any significance at all, but I presumed that time would tell.
Hisoka's Inventory has been added to the Truth Bullets Section.
I think at this point, I had investigated all that I could in the dining hall. There was nothing really left of interest in here, and if I stuck around here for too long I might just end up wasting time.
"Where to now?" Hoshi asked.
"I think we should check out the Kitchen and Storeroom, in addition to the Inventory Room and the Midnight Bar," I said. "Maybe something in the Kitchen or the Storeroom might shed some light on what happened to Hisoka in terms of his food. The Inventory Room might have something to do with this as well, and might help shed some light on why Hisoka's card was marked. Also, I don't know why, but the whole thing about the Bar does seem conspicuous."
"What do you think happened?" Hoshi asked.
"I still have no idea what the hell happened," I said. "I've seen exactly the same stuff as you, and I've come to exactly the same conclusion: I don't know what is going on at all."
"Well, I'm sure we'll figure it out," Hoshi said. "For Hisoka's sake, we've got to get that fucker."
I agreed with Hisoka, and together we headed to the kitchen to investigate further. However, the truth was that neither of us had any idea what we were looking for, nor did we know anything about what had happened. The majority of the case was still shrouded in mystery - and here we were, fumbling about in the dark, trying to play detective. This was the beginning of it all, the terror of the Tsubaki Trip, and the madness that was the Killing Round Robin.
And here I was, trapped hopelessly within it.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Now that the investigation is underway, feel free to speculate about who may have murdered Hisoka on the new poll.