Chapter 14
. Celeste honestly didn't know what to expect when she checked the store room. Just as Naegi and Maizono had said, there were odds and ends to make their lives better. There was a vacuum cleaner.
. "Fascinating, isn't it?" She turned around. It was Togami.
. "What is?"
. "New Facilities opening upon the deaths of our classmates."
. "Do you intend to murder me?"
. "Now why would I reveal my hand yet?"
. "So you do intend to murder someone."
. Byakuya smirked.
. "Only if the right opportunity presents itself."
. "And yet, you don't see the ramifications."
. "Which line of ramifications? A failed murder for me, or the response from the rest of you."
"Both."
"Well, I would imagine if I murdered someone. You found me guilty. I'm dead. Let's follow that's line of reasoning to the end, shall we?"
"First off, I imagine Fukawa would then become a danger to herself and others."
"Well, that opens up the third floor, and maybe even a fourth floor."
"Is that really what you're thinking about here?"
You asked to consider all of the ramifications."
"Now what's on the third floor?"
"That doesn't matter. What matters more is the implications of further murdering.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we have thirteen people now. You and your victim would reduce that number to eleven.
"So?"
"So, if we have fifteen people for floor one, but thirteen people for floors one and two, and eleven people for floors one, two, and three..."
"The people spread out. So that with each failed murder, it becomes harder to use deductive reasoning to figure out the murderer using alibis and such."
"But at the same time, it becomes easier with inductive reasoning."
"Of course. But you're making the assumption that the murderer will always be one of us.
"I can't imagine a situation where it wouldn't be."
"I can."
"So it's to the benefit of everyone if you don't murder."
"I play to my benefits. No one else."
"Togami, what happens to your conglomerate if you die here? I'm curious."
"You are familiar with the old customs of European royalty when the monarchies were usually near-absolute? One Heir. One spare."
"And the Togami conglomerate has a spare?"
"Of course. Why do you think we've been so influential?"
"But I imagine, constantly having multitude of heirs would create issues with succession."
"That's why the heirdom is pruned down to the most capable."
"How many?"
"Just one. Just me."
"And who's your spare?"
"I'm not going to reveal that information."
"I see."
"So the next question is 'Among all the possible candidates, why were you the one chosen?'
"I was pited against my siblings. Never in Togami family history had the youngest one ever won. And the field of fifteen overall, including myself was the largest yet."
"So what happens to the losers?"
"The losers are cut off from all connections. They are cast off."
"I see, but you know what, with fifteen of you, choosing the heir like that seems awfully impractical."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for starters, none of you are the same age. That means your development between all of you is nowhere identical. How do you decide? Wouldn't the natural advantage go to the eldest?"
"Why do you think the youngest never won before?"
"Huh. So I must ask how the family head judges quality across so many factors."
"A series of questions."
"What?"
"Each heir is asked the same questions, phrased in exactly the same way, throughout our childhoods. There are two litmus tests. How we respond is one of the determining factors."
"And the other?"
"How our responses change over time. How did we develop? Who grew the most?"
"So personal growth and character development in just the right way could trump intelligence and cunning."
"Yes."
"How does your family head have so many children?"
"He chooses the most capable women from all over the world and sires children with them."
"So all Togami heirs are illegitimate from the start."
"Yes."
"Or to put it another way, you're nothing but an illegitimate bastard whose earned his way to the top by beating out fourteen other competitors.
"And quite proud of that too."
"Proud of being a bastard?"
"A bastard whose made himself superior. Tell me, what is the point of this conversation. Are you judging me?"
"Doesn't everybody? Doesn't everybody judge the heir? The one who is presumed to have been born with everything."
"I have earned it."
"Doesn't matter. The perceptions of most people won't change."
You know, historically speaking, there have been several important so-called 'bastards'."
"Such as?"
"William the Conqueror's 'alternative nickname' was 'William the Bastard'."
. "Really, William the Conqueror? I have only vaguely heard of him."
. "It's not as far off as you think. First of all, he was the son of a tanner's daughter and Robert I, Duke of Normandy. He earned his crown through and through. Second of all, he has the honor of being the only outside invader to successfully conquer England, winning the Battle of Hastings by defeating King Harold on October 14th, 1066."
. "Ah. I see. Now just one more question. What happens if you stumble?"
. "What?"
. "You heard me. What happens if you mess up? What happens if the great Byakuya Togami screws up, not 'is killed', but screws up."
. For the first time, Byakuya looked shocked.
. "I never considered it."
. "I would have thought you would have figured that out. What happens if Byakuya Togami isn't as infallible as he believes himself to be?"
. "I suppose I would lose my position as heir and one of my siblings would get the title from me."
. "So, what would you do then?"
. "What else, work my way up independently of the Togami family. Sure, it would be difficult, but not at all unmanageable."
. "You'd certainly have to swallow your pride."
. Monokuma had an ear to the door. "How interesting. How bear-y interesting. This is a development for Togami I never would have expected."
"Celeste."
. "Yes."
. "What have you earned? What were you truly born with?"
. "I, myself, have earned everything."
. "Is that so?"
. "Do you doubt it?"
. "While I believe you started from little, saying that you've earned everything you've gotten is probably stretching it a bit too far. After all, there is a reason you're
called the Queen of Liars."
. "Yes. I am known as the Queen of Liars."
. "And what makes you title so effective is what it is built upon."
. "What is it built upon, Togami? Tell me."
. "The title itself is a misnomer. It's all built on half-truths. Manipulation and deceit. But not outright lies. The problem comes in when you don't have complete control any more."
. "And?"
. "And? I mean, just like now."
"Do you ask if I intend to murder someone, Togami?"
"Far too obvious now at this rate."
"What?"
"It's too obvious. If you were to murder, it really wouldn't be entertaining now would it? The culprit would be far too obvious."
"Using that inductive reasoning?"
"As always. There are only a few people smart enough to pull off a pre-planned murder, and you and I consist of two of the three possibilities."
"Who's the third?"
"Who else? Kyouko Kirigiri."
"The mystery girl who's conveniently been removed from play right now. You still think she's capable."
"Without an idea about her background, habits, or talent, she's an engima at best."
"You think she could be the mastermind?"
"It's certainly possible."
"How so?"
"Why did Monokuma wait for Ishimaru to leave? Why not trap Ishimaru instead of Kirigiri?"
"Well, perhaps Monokuma doesn't believe Kirigiri to be as capable of murder as we do."
"That's a possibility. But why isolate her? Was it because she was close to discovering something?"
"I don't know. We'll have to ask her next time we see her."
"Assuming Monokuma doesn't kill her off."
"I doubt that."
"Why?"
"It wouldn't work. Monokuma can't kill us off directly as shown by Oogami."
"Sure, but he has the ability."
"Yeah, but it undermines the principles of this 'game' he's trying to set up."
. Makoto Naegi was not as impressed with the second floor as he thought he would have been. While there had been a library, he was not as a vivacious a reader as say Togami, nor as much of a swimmer as Asahina. The classrooms, while an improvement, were not quite what he wanted.
. "What were you expecting?" Maizono asked. "This is a school after all. Or at the very least, it's set up like one."
. "Yeah. I know. It's just I was expecting something more."
. "Like what?"
. "I don't know. More than a couple of classrooms, a library, and a pair of bathrooms. Speaking of which, I need to use one. I'll be back in a moment."
. "Alright, I'll wait for you here."
. Naegi walked into the bathroom on the second floor. There was a couple of urinals, and a janitorial closet.
. "Oh yeah, we are going to have to clean our own bathrooms as some point. Or does Monokuma clean them for us? See the more I think about this, the more logistical problems I start to come up with. I mean, it's the minor things like that that start to bother me. Are we cleaning our own bathrooms? What comes next?"
. Naegi used the urinal and left.
. "So how was the bathroom?"
. "Eh. Same as the first floor. There was a janitorial closet though."
. "Really?"
. "Yeah, I think we have to clean our own bathrooms. Scrub our toliets, wash our showers, etc."
. "Ah. I'm not very good with cleaning bathrooms."
. "Well, that makes two of us."
. "Find something interesting, either of you?" Leon had arrived.
. "Not really." Naegi replied. "There's just some cleaning supplies in the guys' bathroom on this floor. It looks like we're responsible for our own upkeep."
. "Where's Asahina?" Maizono asked.
. "Eh, she went back to her room." Leon replied. "Said she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep over the last day and a half."
. "Ah. That makes sense."
. "Yeah, Celeste went down to the store room. And Fujisaki is still in the library reading that xkcd stuff."
. "So has anybody seen Ishimaru, Oowada, Yamada, or Hagakure?"
. "Yo, Naegi." Hagakure had shown up.
. "Well, that's awfully convienent timing." Leon commented. "What up? You seen Oowada or Isihmaru? And where's Yamada?"
. "I haven't seen Ishimaru or Oowada since we split up to search the second floor. And I left Yamada in a classroom. He was bothering 'Kawa."
. "Yeah, he may not be there anymore."
. "What makes you say that?"
. "Because we've seen Fukawa since then."
. "Oh. Yeah. That makes sense. Yams was consistently bothering Fukawa about how she didn't read manga or watch anime or stuff like that. And about how he wished he had the money to finance his own series without any sort of executive meddling, that sort of thing."
. "That's perfectly in-character for Yamada." Maizono sighed. "What else?"
. "Not much."
. "Hey, do either of you know what time it is?" Naegi asked.
. "It's about 4-ish." Leon replied. "Dude, there's a clock right over there."
. "There is?"
. "Yeah. My sense of time is off. How many days have we been in here, exactly?"
. "Well, let's see." Maizono said. "There was the first day where Oowada punched you. The second day where the two of us and Enoshima had a conversation at four in the morning and ended with Oogami trying to kill you. We had the class trial that evening, which ended with Oowada and Ishimaru holding a contest in the sauna. After which, most of us went to sleep. We're now in the middle of the third day. I think."
. "Oh boy. I could have sworn there was another day in there somewhere." Naegi said.
. "That might be just cause there's been a running gag of you getting knocked out." Leon commented.
. "I would hardly call that a 'running gag.'" Maizono objected.
. "Alright, 'running occurrence', then?" Leon compromised.
. "Dude, we've only been here three days." Hagakure said. "That's messed up."
. "Yeah, I know." Naegi said.
. Naegi's eyes narrowed. "But have we been in here for only three days? What about all that time we were knocked out? How long was that?"
. "Speaking of which, where's Ishimaru and Oowada?" Maizono asked.
. "And Yamada?" Leon added.
. "Should we look for them?" Naegi asked.
. "Eh. Why do we even need to look for them? " Hagakure replied.
. "Because that way, we can confirm if they're alive." Naegi replied.
. "You don't think they're be another death?"
. "Well, what I'm saying is that it narrows down potential times of death. How do I put this? You're assuming that if there's a murder, we'll find the body and commence another trial almost immediately. But what if we go whole days before seeing the murder victim. That makes the investigation even more difficult. Plus, it gives the culprit time to get rid of evidence, and let things change."
. "Oh, I see. I get ya point."
. "Since we've obviously covered the second floor," Maizono said, "Why don't we check back on the first floor? I'm sure they're in the gymansium or something."
. Leaving Fujisaki behind, the four of them decided to split up on the first floor. Maizono and Naegi had decided to check the gymansium half of the first floor while Leon and Hagakure went over the dorm half.
. "You don't seem to worried about them." Maizono said.
. "I'm not actually." Naegi said. "I don't think there's a murder anyway."
. "Hey, Naegi."
. "Yes?"
. "What would you do if I was murdered?"
. "I-uh-I-uh-I don't know. I don't really want to deal with that scenario. Generally speaking, I'd probably freak the hell out. No luck here. I wonder if Leon and Hagakure found them."
. Leon and Hagakure found them. All three of them.
. "There you guys are." Leon said. "We shoulda known, those two would continue their sauna battle."
. "Yes." Yamada said. "I was roped into being their judge, since Naegi wasn't anywhere to be found."
. "How long have they been in there?" Hagakure asked.
. "Not too long."
. "Geez, they'll get dehydrated." Leon commented.
. Hagakure flipped the switch off, and Oowada and Ishimaru both came out.
. "What the hell, man?" Oowada screamed.
. "You're both going to collapse from dehydration." Leon said. "Call it a draw."
. "Fine." Ishimaru said.
. "Ishimaru, Oowada." Celeste walked in. "Don't tell me you guys didn't actually explore the second floor."
. "Hey, we do what we want." Oowada replied.
. "Yes, but you guys should still know the layout of whole school. It might come in handy. Now I regret mentioning my sauna discovery."
. "Whatever."
. Both Ishimaru and Oowada were severely panting.
. "You guys should re-hydrate. I found some sports drinks in the storeroom."
. Celeste turned and walked away.
. "Wait, the store room is open." Hagakure said. "What's in there?"
. "How should we know?" Leon asked. "We've been exploring the second floor all day."
. "Should we go to the store room now?" Yamada asked.
. "Yeah, sure." Oowada said.
. "Give me a moment." Ishimaru said.
. Two moments later, Ishimaru was fully dressed once again.
. "Well, we might as well as go check out the storeroom."
. The four found the storeroom underwhelming. After exploring it for a few minutes, they all decided to head back to the cafeteria with the sports drinks they had found.
. "I wonder if Monokuma restocks on them." Ishimaru wondered.
. "Maybe, he restocks the fridge." Leon said.
. "When did you find that out?" Oowada asked.
. "I was going to the cafeteria after the first trial to get something to eat, and that's when he told me."
. "Is that so?"
. Ishimaru glanced up.
. "Is it possible that a light bulb might be procured from the store room?"
. "Why?" Hagakure asked.
. "Because the bulb above us is no longer lit."
. "Oh yeah, that's been out already. I think Oogami might have damaged it when she attacked Naegi."
. "What makes you think it was Oogami?" Oowada asked.
. "Well, the rest of the bulbs work fine, and that's the only incident I can think of that might actually affect a single lightbulb."
. "Or you know, it could have just burned out." Hagakure said.
. "Clearly, you have never heard of Occam's Razor, classmate." Ishimaru said.
. "Occam's Razor?" Leon asked.
. "Occam's Razor states that the simpliest solution is usually the correct one. But regardless, the light bulb is out."
. "You're going to go OCD all over it, aren't ya?" Oowada said.
. "Dudes, does it even really matter?" Leon asked. "Clearly, it's been out already. And nobody noticed that the room got any darker."
. "Still, I must unscrew it." Ishimaru said as he got up on the table, and stood on his tip-toes. "I can just barely reach it. It's been dislodged. I'm screwing it back in. Yaaa." Ishimaru tumbled as he screwed the bulb back in. He hit the top of a chair before falling to the floor.
. "Hey, dude, are you all right?"
. "I think so. But I think I'm going to go to bed now. My side hurts like crazy now."
. "Well, the bulb's been screwed in now." Oowada said.
. "So, it wasn't burned out." Leon said. "I guess my Oogami theory suddenly gains a bit of credence."
. Naegi walked in with Maizono.
. "So we just passed Ishimaru grimacing in pain. What in the world happened?"
. "He was changing a lightbulb." Leon said. "Or rather screwing in what turned out to be a loose lightbulb."
. "Hey, Naegs..." Hagakure asked. "Have you ever heard of Occam's Razor? Ish mentioned it before he took his tumble after fixing the bulb."
. "The theory that the simpliest solution is usually the correct one?"
. "See, how do you know that?" Leon asked.
. "It's amazing what you can find when you aimlessly browse Wikipedia long enough."
. "I'll take your word for it."
. "Well, I'm heading to bed now." Naegi said. "I still feel like sleeping. See you guys later."
. Maizono slipped out as well. There was something she needed to check in the A/V Room.
. "Here it is. Naegi's video. Sorry about this breach of privacy."
. She slipped the video in... And she saw three people on the couch. Clearly, it was Naegi's parents, and his younger sister.
. And then a staticized cut later, the couch they sat on was ripped to pieces. Gone in an instant.
. "Oh no. What happened to them? And do I tell Naegi now about these videos? Say Monokuma takes the videos away before I can show him. Would Naegi even believe me? Or would he just say I'm being paranoid and Monokuma's getting inside my head? It was bad enough about my video, but now there's his as well."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have most of Chapter 15 written, but I'm waiting for audience reactions (and time) to further edit it. Please leave a review.