Here it was, at last. Finally, somebody had given into the pressure and had made the first kill. Finally, the unfortunate victim had been found. Finally, the game was truly starting. There was something to be said for the satisfaction of things going as planned, but Mizuki couldn't say that this was truly something that pleased her.

Though Soutarou Lee's attack had not been all that sustained, he had bled out profusely. On the screen, he had taken a good few minutes to die. It had been easier to stomach when it had happened under the dim lighting of the night but now it was daytime, even on a small screen all the details seemed to crowd in on her.

In all fairness though, the class had it worse.

Mawa was still hyperventilating, and her brother trying to calm her down as he stared in horror at the body. Leah and Ai huddled closer to them, both looking a little green, though they at least hadn't thrown up, unlike Masao Kishitani, who had at least managed to stumble away before he'd started heaving and retching. Most of the other hovered around, wide-eyed and unsure, clustering close to each other. The exception to this was Inori, who stood a few steps away while she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, muttering under her breath.

Minah, on the other hand, knelt down and immediately tried to check for a pulse, or any other signs of life, over and over and over, stopping only when Shuuhei knelt down on the other side of the body and reached out, putting a hand over hers. Of course, Mizuki couldn't hear what they were saying, but it seemed like he was telling her that there was no point, that Soutarou was most definitely dead. And of course, Minah would have known this-it was the entire point of the situation, after all-but deep down, Mizuki couldn't blame her for wanting to try and help. Still, she was relieved when she saw that Minah accepted this and got up while Shuuhei looked over the body, though without touching. She watched the other students processing what had happened, becoming restless and jittery before she turned around to face the others.

"Alright," Mizuki said. "We all know what to do now."

Azuki sighed and put on his headphones. After pressing a couple of buttons he leaned into the microphone. On screen, Mizuki saw that a corresponding screen at the other end of the corridor in which everybody was now clustered light up, but nobody had noticed it yet.

"Upupu, I see that a body has been found! Oh my, oh my, I wonder who could have done it!"

Immediately, everyone around jumped and startled, looking around. Azuki winced, and Mizuki presumed it was because many of them-Hiro, Minah's friends, Tama and Mai amongst others-had shrieked loudly. Masao glared, putting his hands on his hips and staring up arrogantly into the camera before asking something.

"Where'd you think I am? Watching you all, of course! Now, I'm sure that you want to find out what has to be done next, so get yourselves over to the hall, stat!"

Shuuhei had since left the body and had started looking around, so it did not take him very long to realise that the screen had lit up. He exclaimed and pointed down to the corridor, making the others look at what he was seeing.

"Yes, well done, reporter boy, you spotted me!" Azuki spoke, not missing a beat. "Now, get yourselves down there!"

Mizuki watched as Shuuhei started down towards the screen, which had gone dark. Emlyn put a hand on his shoulder to stop him, and then beckoned him down the corridor. Minah had already persuaded her friends to also head to the hall, and they were followed by Teruya. Masao seemed to refuse to budge, but an annoyed Minori started to shove him and continued to do so even as he protested and attempted to fight back, and the others all moved along cooperatively enough.

"Daaamn, I actually kinda like that Minori girl now," Shino commented absently as they watched. "I mean, not enough to save her or anything."

"You know what you have to do now." Mizuki told her simply.

"Wait until they're actually all definitely in there first," Azuki snapped. "It will do us no good if one of them decides to sneak off."

Shino rolled their eyes but Mizuki realised that he was right, and gestured to them to wait-which they did. A few moments passed, and Azuki switched camera feeds and confirmed that they were all gathered in the hall. Mizuki then gave Shino the thumbs up, and they grabbed a coat. Mokomichi followed suit. When they'd gone, she turned back to the screen.

"Want to listen in?" Azuki asked.

"I think that would be a good idea, yes."

Mizuki looked at the others to see what they thought. Riku and Hatsumi just shrugged, but Mihoko appeared to stare right through her. With her new appearance, she seemed even more remote. Mizuki couldn't think about that now, though, so she turned and nodded at Azuki who, after fiddling about for a bit, pulled out the earphones. Azuki gestured at them to keep quiet, though he didn't need to, and then concentrated on the scene.

"Okay then," Masao demanded. "Are you going to tell us what is happening now? How did you manage to do that to him? I swear you will feel the full force of the law when we get out of here!"

Played out loud, Masao's voice sounded tinnier, and somehow even more annoying. Clearly, Azuki felt this too, for he rolled his eyes as he made his response:

"Oh, you think you're going to get out of there, do you? How come, did you do it?"

"M-me? That's outrageous!"

"But none of us would really do something like this!" Leah exclaimed. "We just wouldn't, right?"

"Who'd you think killed him then?" Tama snapped.

"I….that is…"

"Yeah, surely it can't have been any of us…." Ai agreed tentatively. "It just can't have been!"

"It was probably you," Inori said, pointing at the screen. "Wasn't it? You trapped us here in the first place."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you," Azuki said as the bear. "But I can assure you that it was most definitely somebody in this room."

"HIM!" Mai yelled immediately, pointing at Teruya. "IT WAS HIM!"

"What the fu-no it wasn't! It most definitely wasn't!" Teruya yelled back.

The argument that followed was one that was very familiar to Mizuki, just a rehashing of the same tensions that had been building over the past few days. They all sat and watched until Azuki cleared his throat irritably and then leaned into the microphone.

"Okay, okay, shut it! Enough! ENOUGH!"

The room fell silent almost immediately, but only for a moment as Minori stepped forward:

"You said that the only way to escape is to kill someone. Therefore, if one of us really killed our classmate, why are the rest of us still here?"

Azuki snorted, shaking his head and then started to laugh. It was not quite as maniacal as Shino's laughter as the bear could get, but it certainly did the job, making Minori flinch violently.

"You really aren't that clever, aren't you?" he said. "Not just kill…but get away with it!"

"You said that before," Shuuhei demanded. "Have they not by definition gotten away with it by doing it?"

"And you're supposed to be the crime reporter?" Masao said, unexpectedly beating Azuki to it. "We don't know who did it, even if we do have strong suspects. We need to expose the killer!"

None of them had been expecting that, and Azuki looked over to Mizuki for a moment before blinking and returning his attention to the microphone and screen.

"Oh finally, someone has sense! Yes, you have a crime scene on your hands, and you must investigate it and use that and any other evidence at your disposal to determine who has done it. Then you will get to gather in our oh-so-special courtroom to hash it out and reveal the truth! Or what you think is the truth! And then…."

Azuki left a dramatic pause, and immediately Shuuhei bit:

"And then what?"

"Well, what do you think?" Azuki snapped. "Use your brains, those so-called special Ultimate Brains, and see if you can figure it the fuck out! But first, you better see if you can solve this crime-after all, your lives depend on it! Now get cracking, because your time is ticking!"

With an angry motion, Azuki cut off the feed and muted the microphone, leaning back and rubbing his forehead. On screen, Mizuki saw the class exclaim at the empty screen and then look around each other in confusion, shuffling around and wondering what to do.

"Isobe-san will just keep accusing Kasai-kun, won't he?" Riku asked after a moment.

"Well, it's clear that she's not a rule follower." Mihoko pointed out.

"Ah, well, I mean Shino put the fear of God or whoever into her last night, and to the brother too." Hatsumi said. "Look, see, she's accusing him again but look at her face, she's being all shifty, avoiding explanations."

True enough, on screen Mai had picked yet another fight with Teruya, with Minori getting in between them and apparently viciously interrogating the girl. Masao and Shuuhei also seemed to be getting into a heated conversation, but whatever that was, the journalist clearly won as he turned and clapped his hands decisively to gain attention before rattling off a few instructions. Then, the students started to drift off, though Teruya kept turning back to look at the screen, his eyes looking too large for his face as he shivered and trembled. When the hall emptied, Azuki changed the feed to show the corridor in which the body lay, as well as some of the other rooms.

"Kasai-kun is probably going to cooperate though," Riku said after a few moments. "I mean, he certainly seemed worried about what would happen if it was discovered that he'd taken a knife too."

"Well, this is along the lines of a locked room mystery, right?" Mizuki said. "Only more…"

"Twisted? Depraved? Hideous? I mean, we could go on, there's an entire dictionary's worth of words."

"In any case, even if we've made sure that they're not directly able to say that they saw who attacked Soutarou Lee, there are plenty of clues around and I am sure at least some of them will figure out what happened."

"And then the fun will truly begin." Azuki said sarcastically.

Mizuki nodded and returned her attention to the screen to watch the very first investigation unfold.

…

Mokomichi knelt by the mangled body and considered it for a moment. In a state like this, it was almost unrecognisable as the person who had once been Mai Isobe. Much, much worse than what had been done to the students who had been lured to what they'd thought was safety and then abducted. He gulped and then gritted his teeth as he began to take her down from the chair, avoiding really, truly looking at her. If he didn't look, then it was easier to believe what was true. That this was justified, what they were supposed to do.

Shino was talking on the walkie-talkie, far enough away that Mokomichi couldn't quite hear what it was they were saying. After a few moments though, they came over and began to help.

"It's kind of a shame that we can't personalise the executions beyond the signs." Shino remarked.

"We can use it to wrap her up, though. Are we clear to leave?"

"Yeah, it's getting dark out and Matsushita will let us know if anyone is lingering in the route we need to take out."

"I doubt anyone's going to want to be near where they saw a classmate die in such a horrific way."

"Yeah, it was pretty horrific, huh?"

Shino grinned, then glanced at Mai Isobe's battered form and grimaced.

"Damn. It's different up close."

"Let's just get it done." Mokomichi said, shortly.

Shino nodded, and they finished cutting the body down, before then taking down the sign and using that and the other blankets to wrap her up firmly before then debating briefly whether to clean up the area or leave it as it was. In the end, they decided to only scrub down the worst parts. After all, the place would not be staying clean for all that long.

As they prepared to lift up the wrapped body, however, something occurred to Mokomichi:

"We might have to leave her here instead."

"Uh, why?"

"You do remember what Sawada told us?"

"Yeah, but where are we going to leave it? It'll stink to high heaven and I don't fancy hiding around in this cupboard while eau de corpse floats up my nostrils."

Despite himself, Mokomichi sniggered at eau de corpse, but sobered quickly and thought about it.

"We'll ask Mizuki-"

"Ah, yes, of course we're gonna ask her-"

"But I suppose we can try and mask the smell-I'm sure the convenience store has air fresheners. And we can take some of Yanagi's stuff. She basically bought an entire shop." Mokomichi quickly interrupted Shino's interruption.

"Okay, at least check if there's anyone out there. If there isn't then this time we can go dump her somewhere. And I suppose that by the time we go back to get Lee, we'll have to dump him here instead anyway, won't we?"

"Most likely, yes."

Shino stood up and stretched, giving Mokomichi a sharp look. He sighed and nodded, before also getting up and heading to the door that took them outside. He slipped outside and saw that it was the middle of the day, the sun shining in defiance of the smoky sky and the horrific death that had just happened. Closing the door and keeping to the walls of the warehouse, he did a quick circuit of the perimeter and saw that things were indeed quiet.

Well, it makes more sense that they'd been sneaking around at night so…

He did one more circuit and decided that they could go as planned, but they'd have to be quick. Thankfully, the dump site they'd planned was not too far away-though not near enough that someone might assume that the actual killings had happened on the Artificial Beach.

"Alright, let's go."

…

The mood was sombre that evening as they ate their dinner. Minah sat with her friends, along with Teruya as they all picked at their food. None of the other groups of people were talking to each other either, though at least Soutarou's friends were doing a better job of getting food down them.

She'd hoped it wouldn't happen. She'd known that something was going to happen, sooner or later, especially with the message that had been left in the kitchen area and the increasing suggestions that Teruya was suspicious in some way. It was only going to get worse from now, she knew it.

"I'm finished." Mawa said suddenly.

"But you've barely eaten!" Leah said.

"Neither have you!" Mawa retorted.

"Yeah…."

Leah sighed, swirled her spoon around, and then took a few more experimental mouthfuls. Knowing it would do no good for her to go hungry, Minah tried to do the same. To her, it all tasted like cardboard.

"Ah, fuck it. Teruya, come on!"

"H-huh?"

"Let's take the food back to our room!"

"O-our?" Teruya asked.

"Um, yes?" Mawa said. "You're coming to stay with me, now. I can tell that everyone still thinks that you really did it, even though we proved that that bitch did it."

"Mawa!" Ai said.

"What, it's true? She should have just sucked it up and not snuck around at night to get snacks!" Mawa said hotly, making more than a few of the others stare. "Then none of this would have happened!"

Tama got up abruptly, her chair scraping as she pushed it back.

"Perhaps some of the blame should go on your brother! He went to get a knife!"

"Yeah," Mawa said, also getting up. "Because he was scared, because of what SHE did!"

"Oh, come on, if our captor put that note there even though Kasai hadn't even been sneaking around before, how do you know he or she or they would not have done that anyway, just to mess with us? Even if Isobe had been following the rules?" Satoshi yelled out from across the room.

"Why are you defending her?" Mawa yelled. "She was a killer! She killed your friend!"

"Yeah, our friend! Not yours!" Satoshi yelled back.

"Yeah, well my brother almost got killed. And there's no way in hell I'm letting him become the next victim, even though I know you all want to! Teruya, come on!"

With that, Mawa grabbed up her bowl with one hand, and Teruya's wrist with the other, and she stomped out, dragging him along and spilling food as she did. Minah barely had time to react, blinking in the wake of their hurried exit.

"What the hell's wrong with her?" Ichiro muttered. "Like her brother's the only victim."

"It's because she knows that he's no good." Masao said haughtily.

"Oh shut up, you. Like you wouldn't do the same if your good-for-nothing sister was in here." Minori called over from where she was sitting with Shuuhei and Emlyn.

"Can we just stop, please?"

Masao had been all too ready to respond to Minori, but Leah's pleading stopped his-and anybody else's-angry comments in their tracks. He turned and looked at her, an odd gleam in his eyes, before he silently sat down. There was a few moments of silence where they all looked at each other for a moment. Tama glared almost comically, but thankfully did not ask anyone if they were now thinking of killing her as she sat back down and hunched up in her chair. Ichiro, Ryuunosuke and Satoshi had all sat back down again and were now eating with increased vigour. Hiro, who had been sitting with them, looked over awkwardly but when Minah caught his eye he stared into his bowl.

"Isobe-san didn't deserve that."

Minah didn't realise she had decided to speak until she started, and all those who had looked away now stared at her. She resisted the urge to stare into her bowl or worse, at a camera. But nonetheless, she kept the cameras and the people behind them in her mind as she spoke:

"Mawa has a point, Isobe was in the wrong for killing Lee-san, we can't get away from that. And it's entirely possible that if she hadn't been so insistent on sneaking out at night for snacks, this might not have happened. But just like he didn't deserve to be stabbed by her, she didn't deserve to be….tortured like that for her own choices. Teruya-kun doesn't deserve to be hounded just for being from a different class. We're in the same year group…Teruya-kun is Mawa's brother. I…just. I know it'll be harder now, but I don't want this to happen again."

"What do you mean, harder?" Minori wanted to know.

"I believe she is saying that now someone has killed, the 'game' as it is being called has truly started. There is less to stop someone else from trying-after all, it has been done." Emlyn said.

"Yeah, but we all saw how….how depraved it all ended up being!" Minori protested. "Why would anyone want to risk that?"

"But why would anyone want to risk becoming a victim instead?" Emlyn asked.

"Both of you are right," Shuuhei said smoothly. "Both of you. I….I'm going to keep looking around, okay? I'm going to keep looking around, and you two can help me, and the rest of you…keep your eyes open and be careful, but try not to do anything stupid. And Kang-san is right, also. We have to help each other, not turn on each other."

Minah couldn't help but smile back when Shuuhei nodded at her, and a little more when a few of the others nodded. Not everyone seemed like they fully agreed-Tama, Inori and Masao amongst them, but thankfully no more arguments broke out. The silence was still heavy, but it was so much better than arguments. Minah managed to eat a bit more, though it still tasted like cardboard, and she gathered everyone else's dishes to wash up with Ai before then walking Leah and Ai back to their room and going to hers. She tried her hardest to not look at Soutarou's body, even as she side-stepped this way and that in order to avoid the now dried blood. She sincerely hoped that one of the others would come by soon to at least take him away, even if they didn't clean up.

I'm sorry, she thought all the way. I'm so, so sorry. Forgive me, please. Forgive me.

When she finally managed to get to her room, she saw Teruya on the floor, looking about ready to go to bed, while Mawa did the same in her own bed. Extra suitcases were now piled up at the foot of Mawa's bed.

"There's no way in hell he's sleeping with him." Mawa said viciously after a few seconds.

"Hiro's not gonna hurt me." Teruya muttered.

He didn't sound particularly convinced though, and barely reacted to Mawa glaring at him, so it was clear that he no longer really believed this. Minah couldn't blame him.

"In any case, he's staying here, with me, where nothing will happen to him." Mawa stated, a little more aggressively this time.

"It's fine, you said that you wanted him to stay here anyway, so it's fine," Minah said gently. "But he can't sleep on the floor."

"Then where?" the twins asked in unison.

Such a rare occurrence would have been funny in any other situation, but Minah just sighed and tugged at the hairband tying her ponytail together, pulling it out and letting her hair fall around her face.

"My bed. I can sleep on the floor, it's fine really."

Mawa opened her mouth to respond, then shut it again, and then sighed before saying:

"Go on then, Teruya."

"Ah…uh…." Teruya started to get up, then hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"I am, yeah," Minah said. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. And I can make sure that both of you are safe."

She got two grim-faced, silent nods in response and she gave them another smile. She stripped her own sheets and pillows from the camp bed, and then helped Teruya put his things there before she went to get herself ready for bed. When she came back, both twins were fast asleep, though neither of them seemed particularly peaceful. Sighing, she straightened out her own sheets in the space between the two beds, and then lay down. She stared right at the camera, and wondered who was watching her. Who had been watching it all, all the distress and the pain circling out and tangling them all. Dragging them down into the depths, her included. She wondered who saw it all.

She wondered if there was any part of any of them that cared, still.