May 4

Ashbrook Academy

12:40 PM

Yuri Rinko

"The incident took place a few years ago now, a little under six years ago if I recall correctly," Headmaster Oakley began. "At the time, our sixth grade class was heading off on a field trip to a factory near here, and while they were there... They were met by a tragedy nobody could have ever anticipated. The incident was... It was far beyond anyone's imaginations, and even now, the school can still feel the sting of it. The teacher who took care of the field trip is gone, and many teachers quit after the fact due to not feeling safe here at the school."

"They didn't feel safe because of the incident," Lily concluded, and Headmaster Oakley nodded. She paused in thought before glancing back up to meet his gaze. "About how many students are in each class?"

"Twenty or so, though most of them tend to be smaller than that," Headmaster Oakley replied. "We primarily accept the best and brightest to attend classes here, and we keep our classes small so that each student has the chance to cultivate their skills with teachers who can spend a lot of time with them."

"This class would be seniors now, right?" I questioned even though I already knew the answer. If Angelica, Kyle, Jordan, and Nanako were going to graduate soon, they had to be seniors, and they seemed to be the ones at the heart of all this. Headmaster Oakley nodded once more, and I crossed my arms. "So... How many people are going to be graduating now?"

Headmaster Oakley hesitated before shaking his head. "Four," he said softly. "You've already met all of them, as a matter of fact. They're the ones who have been at the heart of this case as witnesses. Those four have seen more than anyone should ever have to suffer through, and I wish there was something I could do to help them given recent events... They've lost someone else they cared about, and we have no way of fixing that."

"What about Aubray Venia?" Mr. Morix chimed in. "We heard from her that she was the public relations manager taking care of the graduation because of everything that's coming up. What do you have to say about her?"

"I've been working with her for a few years now, though we haven't spoken in quite some time," Headmaster Oakley explained. "In fact, the last time we were there together face to face was when the incident had just taken place and she was coming to manage everything after the students returned to us. I needed help managing it, and she was there to help. We haven't had as much time to talk now though. She's simply been too busy with getting ready for the graduation for us to be able to sit down and have a conversation, and I don't want to add to her load of stress. She's already done so much for this school, and I don't want to put undue pressure on her shoulders."

"I see... Thank you for talking to us," Mr. Morix said with a nod. "It's good to know that Ms. Venia has been working with the school for quite some time. We weren't certain how long she had been affiliated with the people here, and it's nice to have the truth of that in our hands."

"Of course. I may not be able to talk to you about the incident itself for the sake of maintaining the privacy of the students, but I do want to do what i can to help in other places," Headmaster Oakley smiled gently. "Niamh... I know she's innocent. She's a bright young girl, and she would never resort to murder, especially when it was someone like Ms. Thompson. The two of them got along incredibly well when she still attended classes here."

"Niamh left because of the incident six years ago, right?" I asked with a small frown on my face, and Headmaster Oakley nodded once again, though there was a bit of hesitation to the motion. "Is there something more to it than that?"

"I suspect the incident was simply the start of her reasoning to leave," Headmaster Oakley replied softly. He seemed to realize what he had just said a moment later though, and his eyes went wide before he shook his head. "Don't mind me. I'm simply rambling to myself."

"There was another reason for her to leave the school?" Lily questioned. "What was it?"

"It has to do with the incident. It may not have been directly caused by the specific accident that took place at the factory, but it was still part of the aftermath. I don't think she would want me to share the truth with you without consent, and I still intend to protect the privacy of my students," Headmaster Oakley told us, his eyes hardening ever so slightly. "Many people who fashion themselves investigators have come here to try and uncover the truth."

"I think I know what you mean," I remarked. "There are a lot of true crime investigators who get money from sharing stuff like that online, and they probably thought the incident here at the school was the perfect scoop for them to boost their reputations."

"That does seem to be their motive... But I never let them learn anything they do not already know. The incident from a few years ago left so many students traumatized and struggling, and I refuse to contribute to that," Headmaster Oakley frowned. "If you choose to investigate more, that's your decision to make. I'm not going to involve myself with it."

We already knew what needed to be done given the circumstances, and I glanced up to Lily and Mr. Morix with a small frown on my face. We were going to have to go and talk to the four students and see if they were willing to tell us anything about what happened a few years ago. We hadn't heard any direct details about the incident, but this would hopefully be enough to push them to share the truth with us. Whatever it was, the incident had taken away most of the students from the class, leaving behind only Angelica, Kyle, Jordan, and Nanako. Getting them to talk wasn't going to be easy, but it was the only choice we had.

"Thank you again for talking to us," Lily smiled as she started towards the door. "We're going to do everything we can to show that Niamh didn't do it. That much you can consider a promise."

"I'll trust you on that then," Headmaster Oakley said softly. "I want her to be freed as soon as possible... The school is struggling enough as it is, and the last thing I need is for our reputation to sink even more because of this trial dragging out too long."

"We'll take care of it," I assured him. "You don't need to worry about a thing." Headmaster Oakley nodded once more as we moved out of the room, closing the door softly behind ourselves. I turned to the others once we were out in the hallway, a sigh on my lips. "So... I guess we know what we have to do now. It's off to go and see what we can hear out of those four students."

"Given what we've heard from Headmaster Oakley, we should be able to push them to open up now," Lily said. "It's not much, but it's at least a push in the right direction, and I'm going to consider that a victory for now."

"They're probably going to be in the dorm hall. We should head back to the area of their rooms," Mr. Morix suggested. "Let's get to it." He was already turning on his heel and walking away before the sentence could even finish, and I took that as my cue to trail after him with Lily taking up the rear. We were getting closer to the end, and all of us could feel it.

Navigating to the dorms was much easier the second time around, and we didn't have any issues with figuring out where we were supposed to be headed in the minutes between us leaving Headmaster Oakley's office and arriving outside Jordan's room once again. I wasn't entirely sure how excited I was to talk to him given how confrontational and defensive he had been the day before, but it wasn't as if we could hold this off forever. We had to hear the truth from his lips whether he wanted to talk or not and whether we wanted to approach him or not.

Lily knocked, and it wasn't long before we heard a muffled voice from within the room. "Come in," Jordan said, though I didn't hear anybody else moving around. I shrugged it off and moved towards the knob, turning it and pulling the door open a few moments later.

Jordan was sitting on his bed and looking down at what I could only assume was the same picture from the day before, the frame pressed gently between his fingers. He didn't bother to look up even as we entered the room, too focused on the item before him. "I'm glad you're-" He cut himself off as soon as he glanced up and realized who we were, and his expression immediately twisted. "You're not Kyle."

"I'm afraid not," Lily said with a weary smile. "But we are here to talk to you, if that's alright."

"I don't want to hear it. I already know exactly what it is that you're trying to get out of me, and I'm not going to just cough up the truth because it's going to be most convenient for you," Jordan snorted. "You want to hear about the incident from a few years ago, but I'm not going to say it. You're going to have to go somewhere else if you want to hear about it."

"We just came from the headmaster's office," I told him. "He told us as much as he could about the incident, but he said that if we were going to find out anything else, we were going to have to approach you and the other students in your class. So... Here we are."

"None of us are going to just cough it up," Jordan snorted. "I think we've already made that perfectly clear, so you should just save yourself the time and stop before you can get too deep into all of this. It's certainly going to be easier for you."

"But you care about Niamh, right?" I countered. "In order to free her from suspicion, we need to explore every avenue of intrigue, and that starts with hearing what you can tell us about that incident from a few years ago. It sounds like it must have been pretty important for everything in this case to go right back to it."

"It's not important!" Jordan snapped, his eyes filling with rage. "I thought I already made that clear, but apparently I haven't said it enough! I don't have anything to say to any of you, and I would appreciate it if you would drop this before you can waste even more of my time!"

"Jordan? Are you okay?"

I turned around at the sound of a voice behind me, and I was met with none other than Angelica, Nanako, and Kyle. Nanako was the one who had spoken, and she firmly refused to make eye contact with any of us, instead staring down at the ground quietly. "Oh, um... Hello," she said softly.

"Hello, you three," Lily smiled. "We were asking Jordan what he would be willing to tell us about the incident a few years ago, but... He doesn't seem to want to discuss it."

"None of us want to talk about it," Jordan huffed. "You should back right up and leave. I'm not in the mood to put up with this crap, and you're really not going to like it when I get angry."

"Did... Did you guys mean it when you said before that you thought this was going to help to get Niamh out of the detention center?" Angelica questioned as she looked up to Mr. Morix.

Lily nodded. "We did. We need to gather as much information as we can. Even if it doesn't feel relevant to you, we need to know about it so that we can decide how to use it in the trial," she explained. "Everything has the potential to be important, and we need to make sure we have as much at our disposal as possible to make sure that we can prove her innocence."

Angelica shared a brief look with the other three students before she sighed. "In that case... I think we're going to have to tell you," she muttered. "I don't exactly like the idea of having to talk about it again, but it's not as if we have much of a choice. I feel like us going through a somewhat miserable conversation is worth it if it's going to do something to help get Niamh out of trouble. I can't just sit back here and be selfish."

"Angelica!" Jordan snapped. "We can't just tell them about all of this! It's-"

"It's going to help Niamh. That's what it's going to do," Kyle pointed out. "I don't want to admit it, but I think Angelica is right. We can't keep this hidden forever, especially if it's going to help Niamh. I don't think any of us would ever be able to forgive ourselves if something happened to her because we didn't just cough it up when we were asked."

"You can trust us," I assured Jordan. "We're not going to talk about this in the courtroom unless we absolutely have to. We don't want to intrude on your privacy, but we also have a duty to help Niamh as much as we can... And all of you are going to be able to help us with that."

Jordan hesitated for a long moment before sighing and gesturing for us come in his room a bit farther. Kyle closed the door once we were all inside before he moved to sit beside Jordan on the bed. "You can show them," Kyle told Jordan, nudging his friend lightly with his shoulder. "That seems like as good a place to start as any."

Jordan sighed heavily at that before he slowly turned around the picture in his hand so Lily, Mr. Morix, and I could see it. I took a step closer to get a better look and realized that it was a class picture of some kind. There were seventeen students all gathered together with a teacher standing off to the right, a smile on her face. The background was familiar, but I couldn't quite make out what it was supposed to be.

However, I could say for certain that four of the students were Angelica, Kyle, Jordan, and Nanako. They were scattered throughout the group, though Angelica was standing just beside a girl who appeared to be a young Niamh. All of them were smiling brightly to the camera as if they were on top of the world.

"This... This is what our class used to be," Nanako began softly. "Six years ago, there were sixteen of us all attending classes here. We all got along well, and everything seemed to be fine. We had been going to school here ever since we were young, and it was like... We were family."

"Sixteen students..." Lily frowned under her breath. She did another quick count just to make sure only to come up with the same results as before. "But there are seventeen students in this picture. Where did the last extra student come from?"

"Just before everything happened, an extra student transferred in. She was only with us for a few weeks, but... She was there," Kyle replied. "The field trip where everything went wrong had us going to Sparx Factory. We were supposed to get a tour, and it was nice to finally go out and do it. I mean, the trip had already been postponed once before because of other reasons nobody told us about, so we could finally go and see what it was like."

Mr. Morix went tense from his place nearby, but he didn't comment openly on the postponement of the field trip. He already knew exactly why it had been held off, but he didn't dare to say a word on it. "I see... What happened while you were there?" he eventually asked.

"We were there with our teacher at the time, and we were just going about our planned business of exploring the factory. There were two scientists who were showing us around, and we thought everything was going to be fine," Angelica murmured. "That was when we realized our teacher had stepped out for a moment, and we couldn't find her anywhere. We split up to search, and..."

"Everything went black for all of us. When we next came together, we weren't in the factory anymore. Instead, we were on this... Island, I suppose," Nanako said softly. "This voice came over the intercom and said that this was a test of some kind. We didn't understand what it was supposed to mean, but... Over the course of the next six days, we were trapped in a nightmare."

"The people responsible for kidnapping us decided to put us through a series of 'trials' as they called it to test how much a talented young mind could be pushed before it broke," Angelica went on. "Over the course of those six days... It felt like an eternity passed. Ten of us died because of the trials, and there were only seven of us left. The plug was pulled abruptly just as we were confronting the scientists behind all of this in the virtual reality space, and when we next woke up... We were back at the factory."

"Wait, back up," I instructed with a shake of my head. "You were originally in the factory, and you were hooked up to some kind of virtual reality program for all of this? And when it was done, you were back in the factory?"

"Yeah. None of it happened in the real world. It was all a simulation, and it was only possible because of the advanced technology the factory had," Kyle explained. "We learned later on that the virtual reality program wasn't exactly what we thought it was. Hell, the factory we visited wasn't what we thought. The factory had already been cleared out and almost captured by the people who abducted us. They killed our teacher in order to put all of us in the simulation and push us until we broke. Three scientists made our lives hell, and they were never even caught."

"You said there were two scientists before... What's the story there?" Lily asked, her expression shifting to mortified confusion.

"The two who initially captured us were Sapphire and Justin Desmonds. They were working with some other blonde woman, though I don't know as much about her. None of us really do. She was always elusive, and as far as I can tell, Sapphire and Justin were working for her. She was the one in charge of it from start to finish," Jordan chimed in, speaking up for the first time since the conversation had started. "By the time we woke up, all three of them had already fled, and we never saw them again. Niamh called a few years ago to say that one of them had been taken care of-the top dog, from the sound of it-but she didn't share any details beyond that with us."

"That makes sense... In fact, that fits in with something that happened a few years ago," Mr. Morix remarked, and Lily and I both glanced up to him in confusion. "It was during the murder at Interpol when Sakura Rai was a hostage. One of the members of that group said something at the time that Prosecutor Wood responded to immediately. It was a minor detail in the grander scope of that case, but the leader of the group was caught and put in prison."

I snapped at that, my eyes going wide. "Hey, you're right!" I realized. "The name Ashbrook did come up back then, didn't it? Occisor mentioned how Ghunshotte had been working with a few other scientists at the time to try and test the limits of the human psyche, and Niamh got really antsy and upset after that... We even heard that a spare version of that virtual reality program was used by Occsior to push people over the brink."

"I guess Niamh was right then... The main person behind it was caught, though I guess the other scientists are still out there," Angelica sighed with a shake of her head. "Even after six years, we still don't understand so much about it all... The virtual reality program was a hellscape and a nightmare, and ten of us didn't come out of it to tell the tale. All of them are still there at Sparx Factory, and I know that's the reason Ms. Thompson wanted to go there."

"Wait... They're still alive?" Lily questioned, her eyes shooting open in surprise. "From the way you made it sound..."

"They were left comatose because of it, but they're still alive," Kyle replied. "The factory and a few medical workers have been keeping them sustained all this time, and we're hoping that they're going to wake up one day. When they died in the simulation, their brains seemingly shut down and went comatose. It was a complex program, and it had a lot of awful impacts on all of us. We were in physical therapy for a few weeks after the simulation because of how much it wore on our bodies."

Lily nodded at that, and I glanced down to the photo in Jordan's hands. "So... Your teacher was killed that day to get to all of you, and now, another one of your teachers is gone," I murmured. "What do you think could have happened to her?"

"I don't know, but she's been trying to find the truth behind what happened all those years ago for quite some time," Nanako answered. "She was the teacher all of us had the year before the incident, and she cared a lot for us. She didn't want us to have to suffer with all of that, so she tried to learn as much as she could about the incident."

"What about the other students then?" Lily asked. "You said there were ten students who fell into a coma, there are four of you, and Prosecutor Wood seems to make for fifteen when added together. What about the other two?"

The four students looked to each other before Kyle sighed. "There were seven of us who managed to escape, but... That simulation ruined all of our lives," he muttered. "It put all of us in therapy paid for by the school, but... It wasn't enough. One of the other students ran away and hasn't been seen since. She just vanished overnight."

"She... Vanished?" I echoed, tilting my head slightly to the side.

Angelica nodded. "Her name was Akari Hinata, and she was the transfer student who joined our class just before we set out for the field trip. She was here for maybe a week before the field trip. She was really nice and kind to everyone, and... She became pretty fast friends with one other kid in our class, Susumu Toshi. They were practically attached at the hip, but... He died in the simulation, so he's still in a coma now."

"Akari remained here at the school for two days after we came back," Nanako continued. "She didn't seem to focus fully on anything, instead simply detaching herself almost completely from reality. She hid away from the world because of what happened. Then... When morning came the third day after we returned, she was gone. Her room was completely empty, and there were no signs she was even there at all. The only proof we have that she existed to begin with is the picture we all took together in front of the factory the day of the field trip."

Jordan held up the picture and pointed to a girl with red hair off to the far right side. She stood beside a boy with brown hair and a white scarf wrapped around his neck. I could only assume the boy beside her was Susumu, the one she had become such fast friends with. I frowned at the sight, wishing there was something I could do to understand all of this.

"The other one who's no longer with us... His name was Zach Moore, and he... He was Niamh's cousin," Angelica sighed. "The two of them were always really close, but soon after we got back from the factory, he... He left behind a suicide note. We never found his body. Everyone believes now that he killed himself because of the pressure left behind by the simulation."

"That's the reason Niamh left the school, you know," Jordan whispered. "She was tired of us not having any justice over the incident, and she was convinced that Zach had to be alive. She set out to try and find him-or find any evidence that he was gone-but she hasn't found a thing over the last six years. She hasn't been able to track down the ones who worked with the leader of the simulation either. She became a prosecutor because she was determined to understand the truth behind all we had been through, but... I don't think she's even come close."

"I see..." I said softly, uncertain as to what could even be said at all. How could anyone know how to respond to this? It was just... Awful. It was beyond that, even. This entire class had suffered so much, and even years later, they still didn't have the peace they had spent so long searching for. I couldn't help but wish there was something I could do to help them, but I knew it wasn't going to be that simple. It never seemed to be.

"That's the incident," Angelica sighed. "Everybody's been scrambling to keep it covered up since then. A lot of people want to know what really happened since it was swept under the rug so swiftly, but we haven't told anyone. A bunch of teachers who worked at Ashbrook back then quit because they couldn't stand to be in a place like this after... All of that happened. Now, Headmaster Oakley wants the culprit to be found and the trial wrapped up as soon as possible to keep us out of the eye of the media. We've seen enough negativity."

"The four of us are the only ones who made it to graduation," Jordan muttered. "The others are all still in comas, assuming they're not outright dead like Zach and Akari. Niamh has hope that they're still alive somewhere since we never found any bodies, but I'm a bit more doubtful. If they really were out there, they would have said something over the last six years, but it's been complete radio silence. They're both dead. Niamh just hasn't wanted to admit it."

"Thank you for sharing all of this with us," Lily smiled to them gently. "I know me saying that isn't going to fix everything you've been through, but... I still appreciate that you trusted us with this."

"Just... Use that to try and help Niamh, okay?" Nanako asked softly. "We've all been through enough at this point, and... She's suffered enough. I don't want her to have to deal with being arrested on top of everything else. It's... It's a lot."

"We will," Mr. Morix assured her. "Before we go to talk to her... Is there anything else you want to talk to us about?"

"I don't think you should trust Ms. Venia so easily," Kyle frowned. "I know that she's been acting all helpful, but... I don't think she's as good a person as she wants to appear. Maybe I'm just overly suspicious after the incident. I don't know. It doesn't matter. You should choose your words carefully around her, and all of us agree on that."

"Thank you for the advice," Lily smiled with a small nod. She started towards the door with that, waving over her shoulder. "We'll show Prosecutor Wood didn't do it. I promise."

"Thanks. We're all counting on you," Angelica waved back as we stepped out into the hallway.

As soon as the door was closed behind us, I sighed and looked up to Lily and Mr. Morix. "Well... I guess we finally understood what happened here a few years ago," I said softly. "Though I never would have imagined that Tammy Ghunshotte would come back quite like this."

"That's not the only thing that's coming back here," Lily frowned. "Did you hear the name of that boy who was in the class? Susumu Toshi. I heard about that name from Victoria after the last case she solved with Chrysalis and Pieter. One of the witnesses was named Hiroko Toshi, and she mentioned losing her son in a horrible incident a few years ago."

"It seems like we've found our answer to that then," Mr. Morix murmured. "Though I think it might be for the best if we leave it at that for now. We have others to go talk to, and I believe we should start off by seeing what Ms. Venia can tell us."

"I have a bad feeling about all of this," I sighed. "After what Kyle said... I don't know. I guess I'm not sure we can trust her as easily as the headmaster is making it seem."

"We'll have to see for ourselves then," Lily told me simply. "For now, let's go and see what we can get out of her. She's got to be around here somewhere. I know I have a few questions for her now... Especially given all we understand about the incident."

I nodded before following her out of the hallway. I never would have imagined Niamh to have a past like this, but now that I knew... I needed to tell her that I was sorry. It wouldn't fix anything, but I still needed to say something.

It was the least anyone could do after something that catastrophic.

the lore is here at last

-Digital