Chapter 23
. Leon was stunned as Celeste lowered her arm, and with it, the knife. Celeste's eyes gleamed with excitement. What would Togami do now? He couldn't get away with murdering now.
. "Not so easy now. Huh? If I don't murder Leon, then you can't murder me or Maizono without leaving a witness yourself or dying because you broke school rules. How about that?"
. Togami grimaced. "Well, well. I was wondering if you would make that call."
. "Well, I did."
. "So now what?"
. "I suggest we all just disperse for now." Maizono said, shakily, slowly rising up from the floor.
. "Are you insane?" Leon said. "Someone has just tried to kill me!"
. "Well, I'd like to point out that if you show up dead, we'd have a 50-50 shot between Togami and Celeste, or whoever isn't dead."
. "That's not reassuring. You just end up with a case of 'he said, she said.""
. "Well, then we'll just have to take our chances."
. "But even if you're right, I STILL END UP DEAD! HOW DOES THAT HELP ME?" Leon said, furiously. "Besides, what if some third party comes in and kills me in the interim. What if a third party picks me off while I go back to my dorm room? Then you get no shot. Togami blames Celeste and Celeste blames Togami."
. "What if the three of us accompany you back to your room?" Celeste said. "After all, if all four of us go together, none of us can murder each other."
. Togami pondered a moment in silence, and then he began to leave.
. "Togami! Togami! Come back here!" Leon said.
. "No. I found a different solution."
. "And that is?" Leon asked.
. "We all leave one by one."
. "What?"
. "No, it's simple. For I leave, then Celeste leaves, then Maizono leaves, then you leave." Togami said, about to stroll out.
. Leon knocked him in the back of his head.
. "Leon Kuwata. Quite the rage you got there."
. " . . .Me!" Leon said, punching Togami in the mouth, and sending him careening to the floor, leaving a very nasty bruise on Togami's face. "Excuse me if my patience level is a bit low right now!"
. Togami laid there on the floor. "Celeste tried to kill me too. I was smart. I managed to turn the tables. You know, for an athlete that supposedly being scouting for the majors, your reaction times are far too slow."
. "SHUT UP!" Leon raged. "You showed up of your own accord, I was lured here by that note."
. "Then you should have been prepared for this sort of situation. Or are you just stupid?" Togami said, as Leon angrily grasped Togami's shirt collar.
. "Note?" Celeste asked.
. Leon's eyes turned to Celeste and went wide with shock and horror.
. "Then... you didn't send it?"
. "Of course not."
. "You're lying."
. "Why would I lie about this?"
. "Whatever, fine, don't believe me. I'm leaving." Celeste replied before leaving.
. "Are you done yet, plebian?" Togami said, getting up and brushing off his pants before departing.
. "Hey, man. GET BACK HERE! I'M NOT DONE PUNCHING YOU YET!" Leon shouted.
. "Leon, let it go." Maizono said.
. "Let it go, Maizono? Just let it go? Your neck wasn't on the line just now."
. "Look, I understand. Believe me I get it. You just got put an impossible situation. And there was no way for you to get it right."
. "Impossible situation? That's putting it lightly. What do you know about impossible situations?" Leon said, angrily, as he left the room.
. Maizono stared at the physics prep room for who knows how long. The floor was hypnotizing in a way. After a while, looking nowhere in particular, she spotted a piece of paper, face down on the floor in front of the door, easy to miss if you weren't looking at it. It was written in unusually neat handwriting.
. "Now that you're in the Physics Prep Room, meet me poolside by 2:15 AM."
. She glanced at the clock. If she hurried, she could figure out who wrote that note.
. "But what if that's a trap?" she thought to herself. She tried to imagine who would be trying to summon Leon. Asahina? Maybe. There was a budding romance between the two. A murderer was the more likely culprit though.
. Maizono looked at the clock. It was almost two in the morning. She folded up the note and put it into her sock.
. "If I go, I'll have to go now."
. She stopped and hesistated. "Should I go alone or should I attempt to wake up Naegi?"
. She thought about what she had heard earlier tonight, and she decided not bring along Naegi. So she walked down a flight of stairs and over to the pool. To her surprise, no one was there yet, so she decided to walk along the pool.
. Maizono found something that horrified her. It was a pool of blood. A long metal pipe also covered in blood sat near it. A red knee compression sleeve also sat on a bleacher, torn up to bits, though Maizono missed that little detail. She was so scared by the blood that she didn't even notice that the poolside locker was missing.
. So she was completely in shock when someone whispered behind her before knocking her out.
. "I already told you earlier tonight. Don't reveal me. Otherwise I'll kill you or Naegi."
. Maizono next heard Kirigiri's voice.
. "Maizono! Maizono!"
. She opened her eyes. She was in the infirmary.
. "Oh, you're awake."
. "Where's Naegi?"
. Kirigiri calmly pointed her finger over the side of Maizono's bed. Naegi was there in a sleeping bag.
. "We found a sleeping bag in the storage room. Naegi's been in here ever since."
. "Awww. That's so sweet of him." Maizono replied, gazing at Naegi with affection, running her finger over his face.
. "Now I need to know what happened. We found the pool of blood. So naturally we assumed you were..."
. "Dead?"
. "Yeah. But you suffered no injuries, no sign of a concussion or that sort of thing."
. "Wait, did you happen to see a metal pipe?"
. "No. Was there supposed to be one?"
. "Yeah."
. "Do you know what time you got knocked out?"
. "A little after 2 AM."
. "When everybody was supposed to be in bed?"
. "Yeah."
. "So nobody has an alibi."
. "Well, Naegi sorta does."
. "How?"
. "Kirigiri, can I trust you?"
. "Yes."
. "Before they knocked me out the person said 'I already told you earlier tonight. Don't reveal me. Otherwise I'll kill you or Naegi.' "
. "And you don't remember what the voice sounded like?"
. "No. I don't really remember much of last night besides those words."
. "Interesting. So we can rule out Naegi. And there was a missing pipe you say?"
. "Yeah. Oh yeah, one more thing."
. "What is it?"
. "Could you try to get a handwriting sample from everyone?"
. "Why?"
. "Do you see this note?"
. "I see it. And where did you find this note?"
. "In the physics prep room. But I wasn't the intended recipient."
. "Do you have any idea whom the intended recipient might have been?"
. "Leon."
. "What makes you say that?"
. "The note was addressed to someone who had been summoned to the Physics prep room. From Celeste's words, Togami doesn't fit the profile, and I know I wasn't summoned."
. "What about Celeste?"
. "She was talking about finishing Leon in the Physics prep room. There's no reason to try and get him to a new location. I mean, too many things could get wrong."
. Naegi opened his eyes, and weaseled his way out of the sleeping room.
. "Maizono! You're awake. Thank goodness."
. "Yeah, Naegi. I'm fine."
. Fujisaki went into the cafeteria. Leon was having a bagel with cream cheese and yawning.
. "Good morning, Leon. Did you sleep well?"
. "No, I hardly slept at all thanks to..." he paused as Celeste entered the room.
. "About what happened last night, I'm sorry to have bothered you." Celeste said, attempting to be sincere.
. " 'Sorry to have bothered you.' No you weren't. After what happened last night, Togami wasn't supposed to be there to turn it into a threesome."
. "Well, it's a good thing. I brought some extra firepower, then wasn't it?"
. "No, it's a good thing Maizono happened to come in last night. She saved my ass."
. And at this point, Fujisaki started darting eyes back and forth.
. "About what happened last night? Was it a lovers' quarrel?"
. Celeste choked on her tea. Leon spat out his bagel.
. "Fujisaki, no, dear. You don't need to worry about what happened last it night."
. "What, no!? Like I would ever date her."
. "What? Are you implying I'm not attractive?"
. "Damn straight. With those side-attachment drills of yours, like hell you're attractive. What kinda of guy would be attracted to those? Yamada?"
. "How dare you!" Celeste screeched as the two continued to get into each other's faces.
. "Hey, Monokuma." Fujisaki said, sheepishly. "You think they notice we're here?"
. "I doubt it." the bear said. "But you should have seen it last night. I was this close from seeing some action." Monokuma replied.
. "No, you weren't." Celeste and Leon said in unison.
. "I didn't mean that kind of action." Monokuma said indiginantly.
. "Oh, yeah." Celeste said, quietly.
. Fujisaki's mind wandered. "I wonder what would have happen if Asahina were here. She probably just hand doughnuts out to both parties..."
. "Hey, have either you seen Asahina?" Fujisaki said.
. "Why, do you need to talk to her?" Leon asked. "I haven't seen her, but when I knocked, I heard her voice come out of her room."
. "No, I haven't seen her either." Celeste said.
. "Alright." Fujisaki said, quietly leaving the cafeteria. Monokuma chuckled before taking his leave.
. Fujisaki walked around the first floor, aimlessly. Chihiro passed Yamada sans backpack.
. "Hey, Yamada, have you seen Asahina?"
. "No, I have not."
. Chihiro went up to the second floor, expecting to find Togami and Genocider in the library. Sure, enough they were there. Togami was intently reading some new biography. It was as if whatever Celeste and Leon had mentioned last night had had no effect on him.
. "Hey, Fujisaki. Here to study some more Calculus and Physics?" Togami asked.
. "No, I'm not. I wonder if you had seen Asahina."
. "'Fraid not. What do you need her for?"
. "Piss off, Cherry. I'm here enjoying some alone time with my White Knight. And no, I haven't seen Mrs. Mammaries either." Genocider said, putting in her two cents.
. "Mrs. Mammaries?" Fujisaki said, hesitantly, repeating Asahina's nickname. "That's not a very flattering nickname."
. "Well, it's not for a very flattering person. Unlike my White Knight." Genocider replied.
. "Please, just shut up, Genocider. I'm trying to read." Togami said, exasperatedly.
. "As you wish, my White Knight." Genocider said, rather pleasantly.
. "You know, most of the time, it's the girl that has the boy whipped." Fujisaki said, smiling. "I wonder why's the reverse here."
. "How should I know?" Togami said. "I don't have the faintest idea what's going on in her head."
. "Well, you're holding the leash to a serial killer. That's kinda of impressive. She'd make a kickass bodyguard." Fujisaki said.
. "Please, no. Don't even suggest such a horrible thing." Togami said. "Now, look at what you've done. I have to listen to her bouncing up and down like that." Byakuya pointed at Genocider hopping on one foot with the biggest shit-eating grin on her face.
. Fujisaki sighed, and went up to the third floor. There was still no sign of Asahina. The physics prep room was clean, and so was the Physics lab itself. The air purifier continued to loom like a tower within the room.
. "What am I doing, going through the drawers like this?" Fujisaki thought personally. "None of these drawers are big enough to hide a body." Opening the drawers and the cabinets, Chihiro noticed that there was a thin layer of dust on the motion sensors.
. "Seems one is missing." Fujisaki thought pensively. "I wish I had my PDA though. I could use it to take notes on my surroundings so I can remember them later. Oh wait, hang on. I wonder if my Student ID has a notes section."
. Fujisaki fiddled around with the ID, and finally found the notes section.
. "Day 9: Around 11:30 A.M., noticed that there was a layer of dust that indicated a missing motion sensor."
. There wasn't much else to take note of in the Physics Lab. Everything else seemed to be normal. Nothing else seemed to have happened in the Lab since they had originally entered it after the second trial.
. Fujisaki continued to scan through the third floor. The classrooms were dull, and lifeless.
. "We couldn't have been trapped on a tropical island or something? It would have been so much more open."
. Chihiro was forced to give up. It was possible that Fujisaki just kept missing Asahina. Chihiro went down to the first floor. Nobody was in the gymnasium.
. Fujisaki passed Yamada again.
. "Hey, Fujisaki, have you found the body of the personage yet?"
. "'Fraid not. Asahina is still unaccounted for."
. But as Fujisaki attempted to open the door to classroom 1-A, something seemed off.
. "Hey, Monokuma! Why is this locked?"
. Monokuma popped out.
. "I can assure you that it's not locked. Try putting in a little more force."
. "I have a better idea."
. Fujisaki went to the kitchen, and got a knife and stuck it through the door gap.
. "Hmm, there seems to be something blocking the door. Almost like glue."
. It took a few minutes, but Fujisaki was able to force the glue out from the door gap, and finally open the door. And at that point, Fujisaki found something horrible, something regrettable.
. It was Yaushiro Hagakure's body. With a bloody vase lying beside the dead shaman, Hagakure's mouth was agap. His head was drooped forward, and his eyes were shut from death. His fingers were clean, as was most of his clothes where the blood hadn't run down. The leopard-colored classroom, which Naegi had woke up in, now contained a corpse.
. Fujisaki screamed, a loud, blood-curdling scream that echoed throughout the halls. Immediately, four students came rushing into the classroom besides the small student. Kirigiri was first on the scene. Yamada opened the door for Naegi before entering himself. with Maizono a split-second behind them.
. "Ding Dang Dong. We've got a corpse here. After a brief period of investigation, we'll be commencing a class trial."
. "SHIT!" Leon had arrived.
. "Oh, dear." Celeste said, a hand over her mouth. " So much for my plan."
. "Oh, look it's another dead body. This time, Hagakure." Togami said, completely unaware of the horror sprawled out in front of him.
. "Well, well, well." Genocider said. "Looks like someone went for the quick and easy route. How boring."
. "Is this everyone?" Togami asked, looking around. "Our numbers are decreasing."
. "Save for Asahina." Leon said, clinching his fists.
. "Myself, Naegi, Kirigiri, Maizono, Leon, Togami, Genocider, Yamada, and Fujisaki. That's nine out of the ten." Celeste said.
. "90% attendance rate." Togami said. "Oh, fair enough."
. "What about Asahina?" Leon asked. "We have to get her."
. "Who cares about some girl that continually moped because her 'pickup basketball' game fell apart a couple of days ago?"
. "Why you!" Leon said, getting himself a fistful of Togami's shirt.
. All of a sudden, there was a pair of scissors at the pointing up into his head.
. "Hands off my White Knight or else I'll kill you." Genocider said.
. "And condemn yourself to death because you did it in front of all these witnesses?"
. "Guys!" Naegi said. "Another murder wouldn't solve anything! If anything, it would only make things worse."
. "Naegi's right." Kirigiri said. "Let's get moving. Who's going to guard the body?"
. "Naegi, myself, and Kirigiri can take turns." Maizono said.
. "Maizono, you were just in the infirmary." Celeste said. "Are you sure you want to do it?"
. "I have no choice." Maizono locked eyes with Kirigiri.
. "I understand." Kirigiri said, her arms folded in front of her.
. "Well, first off. Does anybody seen any clues that suggest that there's any other location that needs investigating?" Celeste said.
. As Kirigiri began to investigate the body, everybody looked around. There was nothing out of hand. Kirigiri began feeling around Hagakure's skull, and through his clothes.
. "Kirigiri, how can you do that so calmly?" Leon said. "It must be disconcerting as hell."
. "Eh, I'm used to it. Or at least I think am."
. "What's that supposed to mean?"
. "Nothing."
. "Doesn't sound like nothing."
. Just then Monokuma showed up. He was dancing with glee.
. "Here you go guys for discovering another body. Here's the Monokuma file three."
. Kirigiri held up some wood chunks. Some were thin, some were fat. Some were long, and some were short.
. "Guys, I found something. They were embedded in his hair."
. "It's look like a piece of wood." Leon said. "I think I know where they came from. The wooden pool cues from the recreation room."
. "Indeed, that's one place to start." Kirigiri said.
. Leon silently nodded and left to explore the recreation room. Celeste contemplated on whether she should follow but ultimately decided against it. Fujisaki was undeterred and followed Leon to the recreation room.
. "So you want to come along, huh?" Leon asked.
. "Well, I just figured that two pairs of eyes were better than one." Fujisaki replied.
. "Alrighty, then. Onward to the third floor!"
. Togami stared at the desks for a moment, and thought of something."Perhaps those wood chunks came from somewhere else?" Now might be a good time to make use of Genocider's affection for him.
. "Genocider?"
. "Yes, my White Knight?" Genocider looked pleased to be called upon by Togami for a task.
. "I want you to check the desks in every single classroom on all three floors. Please count how many there are, and if any are missing any wooden parts."
. "Yes, my white Knight!" Genocider said, saluting.
. "What do you have in mind?" Kirigiri asked, eyes not looking up from Hagakure's corpse.
. "Those two idiots think that the only wooden objects in this school are the pool cues. I'm simply covering their rear ends for the trials."
. Celeste left the classroom.
. "Yamada, come with me!"
. "What, why?"
. "You're going to make me some royal milk tea. It's on the menu."
. "But there is no menu."
. "Oh, Yamada, please do it." Maizono smiled. "We all know Celeste needs her calories to function."
. "Alright." Yamada acquiesced. Naegi glared with jealousy.
. Celeste stopped. "Maizono, are you calling me fat?"
. "Save the cattiness for later, girls." Kirigiri said, standing up, arms crossed.
. "You know. I really miss my cat." Celeste said as she strutted out of the classroom with Yamada in tow.
. Leon and Fujisaki climbed the staircases up. They went through the second floor, and onto the third floor. Directly in front of them was the recreation room.
. Leon opened the door, and immediately glanced over the pool cues. Sure enough, one of them was missing.
. "Well, there we go. Those pieces of wood appear to be pool cue shards. See a couple of them are missing." Leon said, confidently, and made to turn around.
. "Wait, Leon."
. "The culprit has been confirmed to be here, don't you think we should take a look around for some more?"
. "I see. That makes sense. I didn't really think about that. Good call!" Leon said, giving Fujisaki a thumbs up.
. Fujisaki smiled in relief. The suggestion hadn't been rejected at all. If there was anything Chihiro was used to, it was being talked over. A lot. Growing up, Fujisaki was hardly ever able to get a word in over peers.
. Leon scoped around the pool table and found a spilled bottle of glue.
. "Hey. I found something over here." Leon said, motioning to Fujisaki.
. "It looks like some spilled superglue." Fujisaki said, hands on knees.
. "Really?" Leon said. "Perhaps it's important." The two searched around the recreation room some more. The magazines seemed undisturbed, and while the locker was open, the dust collected looked undisturbed.
. "Hey, Leon. I wonder how long it's been since the locker was used?" Fujisaki asked.
. Leon inspected it, putting his finger on the interior of the door.
. "Judging by this amount of dust, quite a while. I'd say several months." Leon replied.
. "Oh, you didn't lick your finger." Fujisaki said.
. "Eww, no. Why would I do that?" Leon replied, off-handily. "Oh... wait, that's a television cliche where someone weird gains information by tasting the substance."
. Maizono was pacing back and forth, scanning the classroom, trying to see the classroom at different angles.
. "Kirigiri, Naegi. I'm going to go search somewhere else." Maizono said.
. "All right."
. Maizono left the first floor classroom. She decided to go check the trash room. Sure enough, the gates were raised. She checked near the incinerator. Sure enough, there were some wood chips on the floor. The wood chips were slightly burnt on one end.
. The last time Maizono had been in here, it hadn't gone so well. And it wasn't something she wanted to tell Kirigiri or Naegi or anybody else, for that matter. She had gotten up to go look at the video of her idol group once again. It was a personal torture, but she had gone through every frame, trying desperately to see any clues as to what had happened to her idol group. So far she hadn't seen anything, and that bothered her. All there had been was a jump cut.
. On her way out, when the lights were dimmed, she had noticed a shadowy figure going into the trash room. The dim lights had distorted the person's shadow into no one Maizono recognized. Like an idiot, she had followed said shadow into the room. Hoping to catch someone red-handed, she barged in by about two and a half steps. But she hadn't seen any one.
. Turns out, they had indeed noticed that they had been followed, and had just been standing by the door, waiting for her to come in by the sound of her feet. Curse her constant idol dancing for once, her footsteps had been a dead give away. The person behind her had muttered in a low, deep growl, slightly above her ear.
. "Well, well, well, something tells me that I shouldn't kill you. After all, I might have to kill another person in-between now and the class-trial. And I don't want to waste it now. But say nothing of what you've heard tonight or else you or Naegi will be murdered before the class trial. I guarantee it. But nothing says I can't knock you out in the meantime."
. Whap! Just like that Maizono had been knocked out, without ever knowing who had attacked her. When she came to, she was horrified, and a bit dazed. Her first thought had been to bang on Naegi's door but then she remembered her attacker's words. She got up, and immediately looked around. As she stepped out of the trash room, she noticed someone climbing the stairs, it was Celeste with a knife. Could it have been Celeste who had attacked Maizono? At that point, Maizono wasn't sure, so she followed Celeste, taking care to only move on her tip-toes, and when Celeste had led her unknowingly to the Physics Prep room... well, she, Leon, and Togami knew what happened there.
. Maizono sighed, and continued to look around the trash room. The third trial was really going to strain them. Was it going to be routine? The murder, the death, the agony? She went back to the classroom.
. "Well, Maizono, did you find anything?" Naegi asked.
. "Yeah, some wood chips that were burnt on one end." Maizono replied, shakily.
. "Where?" Naegi asked.
. "Save it for the class trial." Kirigiri said, that could come up important depending on the results of Leon and Fujisaki's examination of the recreation room. Sure enough, Fujisaki and Leon came in soon enough to see Maizono resuming pacing.
. "Sorry, Maizono, but you can't parallax scroll the classroom." Fujisaki said.
. "What?" Naegi said.
. "You know how 2-D zones like Ice Cap appear to have three-dimensional backgrounds?" Fujisaki explained.
. "Oh, I know what you're talking about." Naegi said. "Yeah, that makes sense, what with the layers and everything."
. "What just happened?" Kirigiri said. "Oh, never mind. Leon, Fujisaki, did you thoroughly investigate the recreation room?"
. "Yep, and we're going to be able to present it at the class trial." Leon said. " I was right though. There were missing pool cues."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was originally going to have Monokuma just open the door for Fujisaki to find the body, but I figured you guys would want to see the action. So I wrote it in. Side note: I am making a reference to a scrapped case where a body is found inside one of the first floor classrooms. I've been delayed with this chapter, because I wanted to get everything straightened out before posting the next chapter. I hit my relatively new 4000 words per chapter mark, and then I still had more to add. (I hadn't accounted for what Yamada, Togami, Genocider, or Celeste were doing during the first half of investigation.)
Please review. Include your WMG Theories. I'd like to see where the readers think I'm leading them.