Hello! Here we are with the fourth chapter of the New Game. I've decided to split off the latter half of the chapter; it'll be up in a week or two.
Thank you all for sticking with me thus far. I'm really, really grateful for it and I hope I can make you proud.
The New Game, Part Four
Hinata couldn't tell what he was supposed to be seeing when he woke up.
He wasn't in his room, or in any kind of bed. His sore back and stiff neck told him that much. But the blankness above him… was that the night sky? He didn't know what else it could be. But he'd never seen anything quite like the columns on either side of his head, and even if he had, he couldn't understand why he'd be sleeping in the middle of the path. But he wasn't on the beach anymore. If he was he'd be feeling sand underneath him, instead of…
He turned over to examine the spot where he'd been sleeping. A bundled mass of what looked like clothing had been placed under his head, but otherwise he'd been lying on a grey stone floor. It didn't look anything like the outside road, or indeed like anything he'd ever seen on the island before.
Had the others brought him somewhere to rest? He knew it wouldn't make sense for them to just leave him outside. But if they had, then why not take him to his cottage, instead of wherever this was? And come to think of it, where was he? And where was everyone else?
He sat upright and scanned the area. There weren't just two columns, he saw now – there were several rows of them, extending to either end of… whatever this place was. It had to be a building. But the ceiling was extraordinarily tall, and the room unfathomably wide. He couldn't think of any building he'd ever entered before with those kinds of dimensions, let alone any on the island.
Besides the ruins, he thought, but he dismissed the idea. Even if they had the password, he couldn't think of any reason they'd be sleeping in there.
But there had to be a better clue somewhere. He got to his feet, stretching as he stood. The back of the hall was just a few paces from his head. A high, vaulted window with divisions that suggested stained-glass hung over an odd tableau of items – four long spears, surrounded by four European-looking shield crests. They were far too high up for Hinata to reach, and he wasn't accomplishing anything just by looking at them. So he turned away, leaving this odd discovery for the moment, and stepped, cautiously, down the long center aisle.
It was the only part of the room that was in any way illuminated, though the light was dim and he couldn't see its source. Everything beyond the first row of columns was shrouded in darkness, and the only thing he could see in the aisle was more empty stone. He was starting to feel concerned. Were the others here? If not, where had they gone…?
No, no. He couldn't get caught up in that kind of panic, not until he knew for sure what was going on. But he still wasn't getting any answers – at least, not until he looked down and noticed that one of the stones he'd just stepped over was much bigger and wider than the others. It looked more like a plaque than a floor stone, and it had some kind of inscription across it.
From his vantage point the writing was upside-down, so he stepped across it in order to read what it said.
To All Subjects:
The password that will bring you into the future is
11037
Hinata reread the inscription, and then read it a third time. Maybe it was his head, or the sleep he hadn't gotten, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it. Was this something he was supposed to know the meaning of? "Subjects?" The "password"? The word "future" was the only one that struck a chord with him. But the only thing he could think of that required a password was –
"Hinata-kun!"
Hinata turned sharply, nearly losing his balance. Nanami was standing just a few yards away, looking at him with a mix of shock and confusion. Her jacket was missing, but Hinata didn't have the time to care where it had gone.
"Nanami!" He ran down the hall and stopped just short of her. He felt the urge to hug her, but hesitated – and then he went for it, pulling her close and ending up with a face-full of her hair.
"Hinata-kun –" Nanami froze for several seconds, and then Hinata could feel her hands at his sides. "What are you –"
"I've been looking all over for you," Hinata said. "You and –"
"Shhhh!" Nanami pulled back, but only far enough for her to hold a finger up to her lips. Her left hand still rested lightly on his hip. "Keep quiet. Everyone else is asleep."
"Everyone else?" Hinata relaxed his hold on her. "Then…where…"
"They're around." Nanami looked back and forth, and then pointed to the columns near the end of the path, to his left. Sure enough, he could see Koizumi and Saionji lying against a column, very near each other, and the faint outline of Souda against an adjacent column. On the right Kuzuryuu snored on the floor, and Mioda had formed a protective circle around the Four Dark Gods of Destruction. "They're taking the chickens," she was mumbling. "They're in the hands…and the fridgerator's…"
"They are here," Hinata said, speaking in a whisper. "I thought I was alone, but you guys – you scared me half to death!"
He grinned at her, but she didn't return it right away. She stared at him, wide-eyed, the same way she always did when she was thinking, but he thought he could detect something different – something that felt like an examination. "I'm sorry, Hinata-kun. We would've woken you up, but…" She hesitated, and then smiled. "But, never mind that. I'm just glad you're okay."
Hinata couldn't help but think that, as dim as the room was, her smile had made it look just a little brighter. But he couldn't tell her that, not now. "Anyway, listen," he said, pointing back at the plaque. "This thing on the floor –"
Nanami looked down at the plaque. "Yes, it's –"
"It's the ruins password!" Hinata said. "The 'future'… 'the password that will bring you into the future'! The ruins had the word 'Future' on the door! Don't you see?"
"I do," Nanami said, though she did not look nearly as excited as he would have thought. "That's exactly what it is."
"So, what are we waiting for? We can go through them now!" Hinata paused. "Or, is that why we're inside? Wait, no…it wouldn't make sense for the ruins password to be…inside the ruins, would it…"
"We're not in the ruins, Hinata-kun," Nanami said, looking down the hall. "We're…there's a lot that we need to explain."
Hinata looked in the same direction, and was surprised to see what he hadn't seen before. He could have called it a door, but it was more like a gaping hole in the wall, surrounded by the wreckage of what looked like a door. Outside he could see two tall stone walls extending toward a sea of flashing lights, just below the actual night sky.
Hinata took a step closer to the hole. "That's…"
"We can't leave." Nanami interrupted, taking him by the arm. "Come with me. We shouldn't be anywhere near it."
"But –" Hinata said, then remembered his volume and stopped. Nanami was pulling him towards the nearest pillar, right next to where Koizumi and Saionji slept. "We can't leave? Why not? And where are we, anyway?"
Nanami took a seat by the pillar, and Hinata sat down next to her. Nanami pulled her Electronic Student ID out of her skirt pocket; Hinata moved to do the same, but found, to his surprise, that it wasn't on his person. "On the map, this place is known as the Mouse Castle," she said, holding the ID out in front of him. "You see, it's right here."
Hinata took the ID from Nanami's hand and looked down at it. The area they were in was indeed labeled Mouse Castle, and all seven of their personal icons lit up when he touched it. But that didn't solve the problem of where exactly the Mouse Castle was. The entire map was full of unfamiliar locations. Roller Coaster, Haunted House, Fun House…
"Is this…" Hinata looked at the corner island map. "This is the fourth island. But how'd we get here? We would've had to go past the Monobeast –"
"And we did." Nanami was silent for several seconds. "Hinata-kun, do you remember anything that happened after you passed out?"
"Passed out?" Hinata pressed his hand to his forehead. "So I did pass out…"
"You did." Nanami rummaged with something at the other side of the pillar, and then turned back with a full plate of takoyaki, to Hinata's surprise. "Here. I don't know if you've eaten since yesterday."
"I...wow, okay." Hinata's stomach rumbled as he looked at the dish, and he took it carefully from Nanami's hands. In the absence of chopsticks, he picked the takoyaki up with his fingers and popped it into his mouth. It felt stone cold and tasted just the same, but it still reminded him of how hungry he was. "Where did you find these? I've never seen them at the restaurant."
"There's a line of food stalls just outside the castle," Nanami said.
"I thought you said we couldn't go outside," Hinata said.
"We can't. And we shouldn't have at all, if not for the food." Nanami looked back at Hinata. "But I'll get to that. You haven't answered me yet."
Something about this situation felt off, but he knew he wasn't going to get any more information out of her. "Well...I don't remember anything. I was on the beach, and then I was here. It looks like a few hours went by…"
Hinata suddenly became aware of a short blast of hot breath at the back of his neck. He turned slowly to find himself at waist-level with a yellow kimono, and looked up at a very cranky-looking Saionji. "Er –"
"If you make another noise I'll pull so hard on your tie you'll stop breathing," she hissed, just as Hinata felt a sharp tug at his neck.
"Saionji –!"
"You already woke me up, and if you keep making noise you'll wake up Big Sis Koizumi," Saionji said, tugging again on his tie. "And if you do –"
"Saionji-san, you're making more noise than any of us," Nanami whispered.
"Yeah, well…" Saionji stopped for a second, working this out in her head, then scowled even more. "We're still trapped in here because of you. So I'm not letting go until you get us out."
"Because of me?" Hinata was more confused than ever. "What are you talking about? I don't even remember coming here."
"Saionji-san, he's back to normal," Nanami said. "There's no need to make a fuss."
"Back to normal?" Hinata looked from Nanami to Saionji, uncomfortable with their stares. But the pieces were starting to fall together for him, as unbelievable as their solution was. "Nanami, Saionji…what happened while I was out?"
Nanami fixed him with a nervous look. "Well…"
"Huuuh?" Saionji said, dropping Hinata's tie. "You really just forgot about breaking the door down with a bazooka?"
Breaking the what down with what? Hinata wasn't even going to entertain this notion until Nanami could deny it for him. When he turned to face her, however, she avoided his gaze. "After you passed out on the beach, you… well, you stood up without opening your eyes, and started walking." She hesitated after most of her words, as if she were unsure whether she should be letting this information on. "You led us to the fourth island, smashed the door in as Saionji-san said, and then passed out as soon as you were inside."
Hinata blinked several times, and looked around him. He saw the rubble of what had once been the doorway, the open air, the night sky, the others curled around their posts…and then he turned inward, trying to dredge up some kind of memory that could match what he'd been told. But the effort was only making his vision spin. "I…I didn't…" he started. "I don't…"
"If you don't remember… well, we can discuss that when everyone is awake." Nanami gritted her teeth, and slumped back against the pillar. "For now, we should inform you about our current situation."
"Situation?" Hinata clutched at his forehead with his hand, and looked back at the door. He remembered why it'd caught his eye. "You said earlier that we couldn't leave. Is that what you meant, or…"
"Yep!" Saionji snatched the takoyaki dish out of Hinata's hands and ate one quicker than Hinata could object, making a face after each bite, but still licking the sauce off her fingers. "Nothing can go in, and nothing can go out. We're stuck in here forever."
"Forever?!" Hinata turned to Nanami. "But, that's impossible –"
"Well, no," Nanami said. "It's not quite impossible. If you wanted to walk through the entrance, then nothing will stop you from getting outside. That's how we got all this." She gestured toward the takoyaki. "Koizumi-san, Mioda-san and I left to search for food not long after we arrived. But we could only get a few dishes of takoyaki and some water bottles before –"
"Before Porkfeet showed up!" Saionji said, eating another takoyaki. "They're so greedy they even wanted our food."
"No, not exactly. At first they just stood at the end of the row of stalls, staring at us. And then…" Nanami's eyes went wide. "I felt as though the air had gotten heavier. And we heard a rushing sound, coming closer and closer…"
"And then you ran back like scared babies," Saionji said.
"We ran for our lives," Nanami said, sternly. "We didn't want to lead them to the Castle, so we'd planned to hide somewhere else until they left. But as we passed the Castle, they stopped, right in their tracks. They wouldn't cross in front of the building, and…" She knit her brows. "They looked terrified."
"Terrified?"
"Big Sis Koizumi said they were shivering all over," Saionji said. "And they said something about…mice?"
"'It's full of mice… it's full of mice...'" Nanami looked over at the entrance. "They wouldn't cross the threshold either, even when we stepped across and ran inside. They just stood there, staring in, for hours. After a while they ordered us to come out, but they wouldn't step in or do it themselves. And then, at ten o'clock, they left. We haven't seen them since."
"A direct order," Hinata said. "So if we step outside…"
"We'll die," Saionji said. "We'll be squashed flat like Mr. Ant."
"So we have to stay here," Nanami said. "For who knows how long."
Hinata couldn't answer her with more than a grunt. He wanted to sort through everything he was thinking, and come up with something brilliant to reassure her, but he felt as though it was out of his hands. He'd only been sleeping, as far as he knew… but he'd never had a reason to doubt Nanami before, no matter what kind of impossible things she'd said. Had he really led them somewhere the Impostor couldn't enter? And why did such a place even exist in the first place? And on top of everything else…
Nanami looked across the floor, toward the plaque in the ground. "Whatever this place is, we're safer here than were before. Not as safe as we'll be when the Future Foundation comes, but for now…"
"As long as we're here, the Impostor can't hurt us," Hinata finished for her. "That's…"
"That's the best we can hope for right now," Nanami said. "Or, at least, that's what we decided last night. But between seven people, I don't know how long this food will last..."
She turned to Saionji, who was just about to take her third takoyaki from the plate meant for Hinata. Saionji caught her eye and scowled at her, but then unexpectedly shoved the plate back into Hinata's hands. There were five left, but despite his clear and present hunger, he couldn't bring himself to eat.
"So we're stuck," he said. "And either we leave, and the Impostor attacks, or-"
"Or the Future Foundation will come to help us," Nanami said. "We can't forget about that."
"They're not gonna come for us, dummy," Saionji snapped. "If they were going to they would've done it by now."
Saionji was right, as much as Hinata hated to admit it, but it was a much more hopeful option than the one Hinata had been about to offer. "I don't understand," he said instead. "I led us here…and I kept us all safe, but…"
"We'll figure it out in time," Nanami said. "But until then, do you really not remember anything?"
For a moment, Hinata wasn't sure how to answer her. But then he shook his head. "I don't think so. I think I was dreaming, but... I feel like it was a dream about my childhood."
They sat in silence for several seconds after that. Then, Saionji shifted her legs, and gave a big yawn. "I'm tired," she said. "And Big Sis Koizumi is all alone…"
She cast a forlorn look at Koizumi's pillar. After several seconds, she got up, wiped her sticky hands on her kimono, and walked back, without saying goodnight to either Hinata or Nanami.
Nanami yawned, and rubbed at her eyes. "There's still several hours until morning," she said. "You need to…ah…get some rest."
Hinata nodded, slowly. "You go ahead, Nanami. I don't think I could get back to sleep if I tried."
"At least try, if you can. We'll talk more in the morning." She hugged her knees close to her chest and closed her eyes. Within seconds, she was snoring faintly.
Hinata envied her that, he really did. He tried to lie back and close his eyes, but they stayed stubbornly open. He didn't want to sleep, but he didn't want to move, either, and the thoughts in is head weren't cohering themselves into any kind of decisive speculation or insight. So instead he stared up at the ceiling, examining the stonework, or down at the floor, where the 11037 plaque lay just out of his line of sight.
At about six-forty-five, Kuzuryuu lifted his head, but he just squinted into the sun, grumbled, turned himself in the opposite direction, and lay back down. After a few more minutes, Mioda started giggling in her sleep, but stopped when she opened her eyes. As she sat up and stretched, Koizumi stood and did the same while looking down at Saionji, who was still out like a light. Then Souda slowly shuffled across the room into his sight, clutching at the bandages around his chest. He and Koizumi looked at each other, but Hinata couldn't hear if they'd said anything.
After a few seconds of waiting, Hinata cleared his throat. "Er," he said. "Morning."
They all turned and gave him identical shocked looks. "Hinata," Koizumi said, taking a step back. "You're awake –"
"Dude! Hinata!" Souda turned sharply, wincing at the pain, though he still took off at a good pace for the pillar where Hinata lay.
"Hajime-chan!" Mioda scooped the sleeping Dark Gods into her arms and ran across the hall, stomping loudly on the stone floor.
They reached Hinata at about the same time, but Mioda stopped just short of him, while Souda set himself down nearby. "Uh, you're back to normal, right? No more weird sleepwalking or bazookas?" He reached out for Hinata's shoulder. "W-what was all that, anyway –"
"Aaack! Don't touch him yet! He could just be pretending not to be possessed!" Mioda pulled Souda's arm away, and turned back to Koizumi. "Does anybody have an ofuda?"
"Nobody just carries ofuda around, Ibuki-chan," Koizumi said, cringing in secondhand embarrassment. "And they don't work like they do in anime –"
"Then Ibuki will move on to Plan B!" She pointed to Hinata. "Tell Ibuki your name, date of birth, and favorite kind of mochi!"
Pretending not to be possessed? It sounded like the most ridiculous thing in the world, but he could see from the look in Mioda's eyes that she was deadly serious. "Hajime Hinata, January 1st, um, kusamochi...?"
"Ding ding ding, we have a winner!" Mioda dropped down on Hinata's other side. The Four Dark Gods of Destruction were spread out across her lap, still asleep.
"Well…that's good." Hinata was amazed that all the racket hadn't woken Saionji or Nanami, or thrown Kuzuryuu into a fit as he was clearly awake. "I think I'm back to normal," he said, to answer Souda. "I don't remember anything. I just thought I was asleep the whole time. Nanami explained everything to me last night. It's still hard for me to believe…"
He tried to look for signs of relief in their eyes, but he wasn't sure whether he was reading them correctly. They'd definitely looked afraid before. He supposed it was hard to get rid of…whatever had happened. "I saw it myself and I still don't believe it," Souda said, hugging himself. "That was some scary stuff…"
"And now it's just another thing we don't understand," Koizumi said, her tone dark. "But, at least now we're safe. Even if we're –"
"Imprisoned and starving," Kuzuryuu finished. He'd gotten tired of trying to sleep, apparently, and was making his way across the hall.
"Right," Hinata said. No one else looked inclined to deny Kuzuryuu. He stopped at the edge of the pillars, even further away from Hinata than the rest. There was a long, long silence, punctuated only by Nanami's snores, as they looked back and forth at each other. Mioda rocked back and forth on her heels, but she was the only one that was moving.
"Well…" Koizumi rubbed at her arms. "As long as we're awake, we should get some breakfast. And then…we can…"
Make a plan? Try to escape? Hinata was sure he could tell what Koizumi was thinking, and as she looked at Kuzuryuu he knew she didn't want to say it. "We can figure out what to do next," she said.
"It'll be a whole lot of nothing," Kuzuryuu said.
"And if it is, then so be it." She gave Kuzuryuu a cursory glance, and turned back to Nanami. "Well…"
"Oh, yeah," Souda said, looking back. "Should we wake them up, or…"
"Shhhhhh."
When Hinata looked back at Mioda, she was standing up, with her back to him. The Four Dark Gods of Destruction were still on the ground, and she was slowly stepping towards the door, leaving them behind her. "Listen," she said. "It's coming from outside…"
In the silence that followed her words, he heard a whisper. It was indistinct at first, just a breath of air behind his ear, but then it grew louder, just loud enough to be heard.
"Mice, mice, little mice…swarming and squirming and gnawing at scraps…"
Hinata scrambled to his feet, ignoring the strain in his back and his limbs, and stepped forward just far enough to look out the door. There was no one anywhere in the entrance corridor, and certainly not anyone close enough to be heard, but they could still hear their voice echoing through the hall.
"Crawling over and over…nibbling at your eyes, tearing off your ears…"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Kuzuryuu muttered, not much louder than the voice itself. Souda had taken his hands off his sides and clamped them over his ears, while Koizumi clenched her hands into fists. Mioda's reaction was invisible to Hinata, as she stood with her back to him. Saionji and Nanami were stirring at last; Saionji was shivering, and hadn't dared stand up, but Nanami was pulling herself up and rubbing her eyes.
"You won't survive for long in there… the mice are hungry…they're very, very, very hungry…"
Hinata stood with bated breath for several more seconds, but the voice didn't continue. Then he took a frantic look around the hall, but he saw nothing in the immediate area but themselves, and certainly not any mice. But they were safe. Imprisoned, as Kuzuryuu had said, but safe.
"They're just trying to scare us," Nanami said. "But unless we step outside, there's nothing they can do."
"I don't like this at all," Souda said, shaking as he removed his hands from his ears. "We need to find a way to get out of here…"
"We will get out, Souda-kun, but not yet. For now, we'll have to stay here." Nanami stared ahead for several seconds, and then turned back to the food bags. "So now would be a good time for breakfast… I think."
Their entire remaining food supply turned out to be seven bottles of water and seven plates of eight takoyaki each, plus five more from the plate that Hinata had left unfinished and a supply of seeds for the Four Dark Gods of Destruction. Nanami and Koizumi distributed one full plate to each of them, cautioning them that they shouldn't have more than three. Hinata had the feeling that they'd made the more difficult rationing decisions while he was asleep. There was a definite undercurrent of discomfort, and a low whine from Souda as he looked down at his food, but given the state of affairs no one gave any further protest.
Hinata was even hungrier now than he'd been last night, and still was even after his third takoyaki was gone. He washed them down with a swig of water, then passed his plate and bottle back to Nanami. He didn't want to look at them anymore. The others did the same, at varying rates. Mioda poured several capfuls of water for the Dark Gods before she passed her meal back.
They tried to talk about their options, but none of them could think of any options to speak of. They were trapped in the Mouse Castle, and they would be until the Future Foundation arrived – if they were coming at all, and if they could last that long. It was nothing any of them were happy about, least of all Kuzuryuu, who alternated between directionless anger and dull, silent listlessness throughout the meal. But they could find no way around it, no matter how much they talked.
Still, none of them could deny that they were safer in the castle than they'd ever been outside, even during the mutual killing game. Nobody could guess why the Impostor couldn't come in, or why the thing they'd chosen to be afraid of was mice. It was the Mouse Castle, but none of them had seen any mice, or other rodents, or anything else that was alive. There wasn't even any mouse imagery in the castle interior, and with the door blown open the Impostor could certainly see that.
It was, as Koizumi had said, just another one of the many things they didn't understand.
After about an hour the conversation petered out, and they sat together in silence for some time. They all looked very tired, Hinata thought, and not just from a lack of sleep. They were tired of being angry, and being frustrated, and being scared. They hadn't given up – but he could tell that they were close.
Eventually the group began to drift apart. Kuzuryuu returned to the pillar where he'd slept, Mioda followed the Dark Gods to a distant corner, and Nanami stepped up to the castle's back wall, to examine the crests and the spears. Hinata felt awkward just staying with Saionji and Koizumi, so he and Souda moved away as well. They tried to talk about happier topics, but they weren't able to sustain them for very long.
They spent most of the rest of the morning at the same pillar, largely in silence, trying to conserve as much energy as they could. When Hinata's legs started to ache he took a short walk around the castle, joined by Kuzuryuu and Nanami. They exchanged a few words about what they saw – pillars, blackness, spears, crests, rubble – but ultimately found nothing new or interesting about the interior.
So Hinata returned to his pillar, sat back down, and pressed the back of his head against the stone. Souda had fallen back to sleep while he was gone, and honestly, Hinata couldn't blame him. He was still recovering from serious injuries, and all this moving around wasn't helping him any. He just wished they had something more comfortable for him to rest on. Of course, there were a lot of things he was wishing for right about then, and each was just as impossible as the last.
Across the hall Kuzuryuu and Nanami sat together, still talking, though he couldn't hear their conversation. Mioda was some distance away from them, tapping her foot rapidly against the stone floor. Saionji had fallen back to sleep, curled up near the food supplies. And Koizumi was on the opposite side of the pillar, cradling her camera in her lap.
At first Hinata thought she was just staring at it, but then he saw that she was tapping a button on its side every so often. She didn't seem frustrated at all, so it did appear to be working, but she looked more and more distressed as time went on. As he watched, she looked up from the camera, closed her eyes, and took several steadying breaths before she looked back.
Hinata considered the consequences, hesitated for a moment, and then pulled his knees to his chest and used the pillar as a support to stand. Then he walked across the room, stopping just a few paces from where Koizumi sat. "Uh, hey," he said. "Your camera's working again?"
Koizumi took her hand off the button, stared at the camera for a moment, and then looked back at Hinata. "It was just the lens that got cracked," she said. "The pictures are still here."
"Oh. I didn't know. That's good." Hinata took a glance down at the viewscreen and saw a photo of Saionji, taken somewhere on the third island at sunset. It was simple, but still very beautiful. Even nostalgic, given the circumstances. "Can I look at them?"
Koizumi gave Hinata an uncertain look. Carefully, she pulled the camera away from her lap and out of sight. "Looking at them isn't going to help anything," she said, pushing the camera under the food bag. "I shouldn't have this out at all."
Out of the corner of his eye Hinata saw Mioda turn to look at them. "Well, alright," he said. "I understand."
He put his hands in his pockets and moved away, but stopped after some distance and rocked back and forth on his heels instead of going back to his pillar. He didn't want to be relieved or disappointed, but somehow he was both, at the same time. If he could just get away, then perhaps that would be best.
But instead he looked back, and when he did he heard footsteps from across the hall. Mioda emerged from behind one of the nearby pillars, crouched down to Koizumi's level, and said something in a whisper that Hinata couldn't hear. He did hear Koizumi's response – "I know, but I don't want you to make yourself mi –" before she was cut off by another inaudible whisper.
"You...you really want to. Then…" Koizumi fixed Mioda with a look that Hinata could only describe as pity, and then shifted herself slightly to face Hinata. "Hey. I'm taking the camera out if you still want to look."
"Oh –?" Hinata's eyes went wide. "Alright, I'll be there in a second."
Koizumi retrieved the camera from under the food bags while Hinata approached and took his seat next to Mioda. Koizumi pressed several buttons next to the screen, and then handed the camera to Mioda. "You press the arrow button on the right to advance it," she said, before she pushed herself back against the pillar. She kept an eye on the camera, but made no move to look at the viewscreen.
Hinata was sure his nerves would've been shot to bits if he'd had to hold Koizumi's camera, but Mioda was looking very steady, even solemn, as she cycled through the photos. The earliest shots were mostly landscapes taken on the first and central islands, with only an incidental human presence. There were a few portraits scattered between them, but only of the girls. Mioda chuckled when she got to hers, in which she was throwing up a peace sign and holding a can of SPAM in her other hand, but that good humor didn't last for long after she'd moved on. Hinata's heart gave a jolt as he saw a picture of Pekoyama, and he knew it wouldn't be the last. Mioda skipped over her quickly, and did the same with Sonia and Tsumiki.
There weren't any more photos before the ones Koizumi had taken at the lodge party. Hinata had already seen them, before the first trial. That had been torturous enough when the memories were fresh, but now it was even worse, and not just because the enormous spreads of delicious food were twisting his empty stomach in knots. There were so many people in those pictures. So many laughing, smiling people…
"Hey, look, it's Hajime-chan," Mioda said, pulling Hinata out of his thoughts. "He looks pretty psyched up about that orange juice!"
Hinata's face burned with embarrassment at the sight of himself. The very first picture the Super High School Level Photographer had taken of him, and that was the expression he had on? Of course, if he could have a glass of orange juice now, he'd probably have an even more intense reaction. But that wasn't something he could focus on for long, because Komaeda was directly behind him, right next to the table where he'd hidden the knife. It was just where Hinata had found him not seconds after the picture had been taken, in one of the last moments of his life. He looked so relaxed, so serene, that Hinata could hardly believe that he'd been about to orchestrate his own murder, or that he'd even died at all…
And then Mioda clicked ahead, and Komaeda vanished. The next picture had been taken across the room, just seconds after the last. Hinata remembered seeing this with his own eyes, so vividly that it felt unreal to be exposed to another angle on the scene. Nidai was straining and bellowing on the left, Tanaka roaring in anguish on the right, and in the middle, and Togami - no, the Impostor, the person who'd never been Togami - was yelling at them both just as Hinata had remembered. In the moment he'd thought they were only frustrated, or scared. But now he could see the desperation in their eyes, and the fear, and the determination to do as they'd promised, to keep them all safe.
Mioda moved to skip ahead of the image, but then she stopped, and she stared down at the Impostor. She set the camera down, then picked it up again, as if she were willing herself to push ahead. Hinata was sure he couldn't have done the same. Then she chuckled, and clicked ahead.
The next images were mostly portraits of the island residents going about their daily business - Sonia reading in the library, Owari aiming a high kick at Nidai's face, Nanami teaching Tsumiki to play video games, and so on. The crowd around the camera grew as they progressed; Souda and Saionji arrived as soon as they woke up, and together they added a more lively running commentary than before. ("Wait, is this from the girls' beach trip? This is from the girls' beach trip, isn't it!" "Hey, who cares about that?! Shut up!") Nanami joined them at about the same time, but she'd chosen to sit in silence, staring down at the pictures with her hands folded in her lap.
And then he saw the ruin of Pekoyama's cottage, smoking slightly in the early morning sun. There were several pictures of the scene, in varying levels of light; it was the only series without a single human in sight. At about the third picture Hinata heard a sharp intake of breath behind his right ear, and turned to find that Kuzuryuu had somehow snuck up on him without making any noise.
He turned around. "Kuzu –"
"Shh." Kuzuryuu put a finger to his lips. Hinata paused, then nodded and looked back to find that Koizumi had turned away from the crowd altogether, hugging her arms close to her chest. Kuzuryuu pushed past Hinata and gave Koizumi a look that Hinata couldn't see, before he focused on the screen again.
There were only a few exploratory shots of the third island taken over the following two days. The atmosphere was tense until Mioda clicked ahead to a moment Hinata remembered very well – a shot of himself, looking up at a particularly colorful firework. "That's the festival," he said, stating the obvious. "I remember, I told her to take that picture..."
"Wait, Mahiru-chan took pictures of the festival?" Mioda waited for a response, but all she got from Koizumi was a nod. Apparently satisfied, Mioda looked back down at the screen and examined the rest of the shots with growing interest. They saw Nanami and Saionji, Tsumiki and Tanaka, Nidai, Owari, and Souda… and Kuzuryuu, whose portrait caused a bit of a stir, as none of the others had known he'd been there. Hinata had honestly forgotten it had been taken at all.
After that, there were only two pictures left. Hinata had never actually seen them before, though he remembered when they were taken. He'd just been posing for the first when the final volley of fireworks had gone off. Hinata looked like was screaming, and Mioda's mouth was wide open, mid-snore. The second must have been taken as Hinata was falling, because only the end of his right leg was in the photo, and Mioda's head was thrown back, as though she were sneezing. And Togami…
"Byakuya-chan," Mioda said, her voice trembling as she spoke. "Look at them…they're smiling."
Hinata could hardly believe it himself. He certainly hadn't seen it at the time, given how busy he'd been falling into the sand. It could have been another grimace, or one of their knowing smirks, or maybe something Mioda was only mistaking for a smile. But no, it was real, full-bodied mirth. Their smile was wide and open, their eyes bright and sparkling, their shoulders low and relaxed. He'd never even imagined they could be so carefree, let alone that he'd ever be able to see it.
"Is Byakuya-chan really gone?" Mioda whispered into the silence. "No… there was never any Byakuya-chan at all, was there? That's what Fuyuhiko-chan and Chiaki-chan said…"
"Mioda-san…" Nanami gave Mioda a pained look, but Mioda didn't look back to see it.
"But Byakuya-chan was right there," she said. "Ibuki could hold Byakuya-chan, just like this…"
She set the camera down on the floor and then wrapped her arms around her chest, tightly clenching what skin she could hold. She stared at the ground for a moment, and then shut her eyes tight, shuddering and pulling her head down between her knees. Hinata could swear he saw something welling in the corner of her eye, but if it was a tear, it never fell. He couldn't tell whether he'd imagined it or not.
And then he started slightly, as Kuzuryuu got to his feet and approached Mioda, standing at twice her seated height. Mioda did not look up, not even when his shadow fell over her. After several seconds of staring he sat next to her, crossing his legs and setting his hands in his lap.
He took a deep breath and looked up, staring again at Mioda, before he exhaled, and let his head drop. "So," he said, then cut himself off, holding his haphazardly bandaged hand to his face. "What are you getting out of all of this, anyway?"
Mioda tensed, and her eyes flickered toward Kuzuryuu's face. By Hinata's reckoning she looked legitimately curious, but he could feel the tension doubling in the rest of the room. "No, really," Kuzuryuu continued, once it was clear he wasn't going to get a reply. "It's a serious question. I want to know." He set his hand back in his lap. "This entire time I was thinking… even though I know you think the sun shines out their ass –"
"Hey, if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all." Koizumi turned to face the rest of the group, her eyes wide with fury. But Kuzuryuu paid her no mind, and neither did Mioda.
"You still know that they're…they were a sneak," he continued. "A sneak and a liar. And now they're even less than that. But you, you're still…" He fumbled, unable to find the words to finish that sentence, and then started again, his volume rising. "You didn't even know them for more than two weeks. None of us did. What does it really matter if they're gone? There's no point getting attached to someone if they're just going to –"
"Get out."
Koizumi stood between Mioda and Kuzuryuu, blocking their view of each other, and holding her hand up high, as though she were about to slap him. "Get out," she repeated, looking down on him with death in her eyes. "And don't you dare ever speak to her again."
"Get out?" Kuzruyuu pulled himself up to his feet. Hinata had expected him to be smirking, or looking confident – but to his surprise his expression was grave. "And go where? Outside?"
"I-" Koizumi froze, as though she'd only just recognized the gravity of what she'd suggested. Saionji and Souda had both trained furious eyes on Kuzuryuu, and Hinata readied himself to stand as well, though he had no idea whose side he should be on. The last thing he wanted was a fight, but if Kuzuryuu and Koizumi were going to go on the way they were...
"Mahiru-chan," Mioda said. "Fuyuhiko-chan wasn't finished."
Koizumi whirled on Mioda, a pained look in her eyes. "H-Huh? But…" She took a deep breath, and then spoke very fast. "He's just trying to get a reaction out of you, Ibuki-chan. Don't let his words –"
"Ibuki isn't upset," Mioda said. Looking at her Hinata could believe it – her voice was level, and her gaze steady.
Koizumi stared, bewildered, for several seconds. But then she nodded, and lowered her hand. She stepped away from Kuzuryuu without a word, but didn't go back to her previous position – she sat close to Mioda, next to the camera, and kept a careful eye on Kuzuryuu.
The rest of them relaxed as well, Kuzuryuu included. He shuffled closer to Mioda again, making hesitant eye contact. "I'm not trying to get a reaction out of you," he said. "Or make you upset, or anything. If I sound like I'm insulting them, it's because…well, that's my perspective. And yours…well, it's different. I wanna know why."
He shrugged. "Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. I'm just talking to fill the time you're not using, really. I mean, you don't have to answer. I'm not going to die if you don't."
Mioda didn't speak right away. She pursed her lips, and loosened her grip on her own back, and then extended her hands behind her, leaning against the ground. Around her Koizumi and Nanami still looked ready to interfere, but they were holding back, for the moment.
"Ibuki was scared, the first day she was here." Her voice was cold, and still, and low, as though it had come from someone much older than her. "She was so happy to meet everyone, and learn so many amazing things about all their talents and hopes and dreams. But then Monobear started the mutual killing…and no matter how many jokes Ibuki told, or songs she said she'd sing, everyone was still sad in a way that Ibuki couldn't fix. And Ibuki was sad, too. She...thought she was going to die. She was thinking so hard about it she couldn't even sleep…"
Her voice had trailed off to a mumble, but it picked up again as she lifted her head. "Byakuya-chan was sad, too," she said. "But even if they were, they still knew exactly what to do and say. They knew we wouldn't have to kill anyone to get out. Not even when we lost Nagito-chan. Even if they were sad, they still picked themselves back up and they still wanted us to work together. They used their sadness to protect us. Even when… they left… they did it because they thought it would be better for us. Ibuki didn't want them to give up on themselves… but they never gave up on us. Not even once.
"Whenever Byakuya-chan spoke, or whenever they were around, Ibuki knew she was safe. And even though she knows Byakuya-chan wasn't really Byakuya-chan, Ibuki knew Byakuya-chan's emotions when she saw them! She knows who they are, deep down inside – and when they cared about us, Ibuki knows they weren't pretending!"
She stood then, her passion clear in her eyes. "Whoever this is now, they're not Byakuya-chan, not at all," she said. "But as long as Ibuki remembers Byakuya-chan, then Ibuki knows Byakuya-chan isn't gone!"
Her words echoed across the ceiling for some time after she'd finished. Hinata couldn't see the look he was giving her, or interpret his own feelings. But there was something that felt raw inside him now, something that hadn't been before she'd spoken. Maybe it was a memory he'd repressed, or a desire he hadn't wanted to voice. "Mioda," he said, though he hadn't any idea how he'd finish his thought.
"You really…" Koizumi didn't take her words anywhere either, but unlike Hinata she seemed to be trying, turning her tongue around in her mouth as she attempted to form the next sentence.
"You really want that to be true, don't you?" Kuzuryuu was sitting now, and looking down at the ground, away from Mioda. "You want to just...think you can bring them back by looking into their eyes and wishing really hard."
Souda opened his mouth, but changed his mind before he could speak. He shut it again, and looked down into his lap. "They said it themselves," Kuzuryuu went on. "Whatever they did, and however strong you thought they were…" He shivered, and buried his head in his knees. "They're not gonna survive everything, okay? They can't… they're still… they're not any different, or any stronger…"
"Kuzuryuu-kun?" Nanami said, getting to her feet.
"I thought she was invincible," Kuzuryuu mumbled. "I'd never… I'd never even seen her cry, you know? I thought we'd be together all our lives, just the way we'd always been. And then she was just… she just… burned away and died. Right in front of me..." He sniffed, loudly. "All her hair… was gone… she didn't even look like herself…"
He pressed his eyes closed, and then exhaled. Nanami took several steps forward, and Hinata felt the strong urge to join her, but before he could, Mioda had approached Kuzuryuu, and knelt by his side. She patted his back, but with such an enormous level of awkwardness that it looked more like she was trying to force him to breathe. "There, there. Don't be cry."
"I'm not crying," Kuzuryuu grumbled.
Mioda nodded, but kept slapping him on the back until, grumbling, he shifted away from her. She lowered her arm and sat back down, but she held her head high this time, and rocked slightly back and forth with her arms wrapped underneath her legs.
The awkwardness lasted for a time Hinata couldn't measure. Mioda rocked, Kuzuryuu shook, and Hinata fiddled with his fingers, examining each knuckle as he lifted it and set it back down. Nanami sat motionless, Koizumi hunched her shoulders, and Souda took quick glances back and forth between Hinata and Kuzuryuu.
Saionji seemed to be the most animated of the bunch. She was kicking her legs back and forth, and tapping her finger against her chin. "You know," she said, "according to the rules, if the Future Foundation doesn't show itself, we're all going to die in about five days. And that's if we don't starve to death in here. So I'm not wasting the rest of my life listening to everyone whine about dead people."
Hinata felt a shiver run down his spine, and the look on Mioda's face wasn't making things any better. "W-Was Hiyoko-chan listening to anything Ibuki said?" she said. "We don't know if Byakuya-chan's –"
"Yeah, yeah, we all get it," Saionji said. "You never got to suck their face. Big deal. We're all going to be just as dead as they are if we don't stop moping around."
For the first time Mioda's expression faltered; she didn't seem to have a retort at the ready. Koizumi, however, was faster to act. She turned to face Saionji, her face inches from hers. "What were you thinking of doing instead?" she said.
"Well…" Saionji folded her arms. "We'll… we're…"
She kept her mouth hanging open, as if that would fill the silence that ensued. Then she gritted her teeth, and averted her eyes from Koizumi, looking distinctly nervous.
"We're doing more than we were," Hinata said. "I mean… we were just sitting around doing nothing until now, weren't we?"
He was surprised at himself for speaking up, but he knew even before he'd formed the rest of his thoughts that he believed every word he said. "I think that this was good. Our goal right now is survival, like you said. But survival isn't just physical. It's emotional. And even if we hardly know the Impostor… well, we could say the same of the rest of us. Or… any of the others. And we're still feeling their losses. Even if we tell ourselves not to. I mean, I know this is very different, but…"
He wasn't sure he believed his own words, or even if he was making any sense to the others. But something was burning inside him, and forcing him to speak. "We can't just shove this away," he said. "We'll just destroy ourselves if we do."
"And if we destroy ourselves," Nanami said, surprising Hinata slightly, "There's not any way that we're going to be able to get out of here at all."
The others' stares were softer, now, as if something that he'd said had gotten through to them. But it wasn't enthusiasm that Hinata saw – not by a mile. "But what are we supposed to do?" Souda said. "How is this gonna help us?"
"We can examine everything we know about them," Hinata said. "Look at everything backwards and forwards. Try and see what it is we haven't wanted to think about."
He smiled, but he wasn't even sure why he was. He was hoping the others would make more sense of his own words than he did – but they still weren't looking inspired. "And… what does that even mean?" Kuzuryuu said.
"It sounds like something the Impostor would say," Koizumi said. "Something that's really only reassuring."
"Next he'll be making some kind of ridiculous speech," Saionji said.
Hinata's cheeks burned with shame. "I-I don't know, I don't have that answer," he said. "But…"
"You're trying. You really are sounding a lot like them now." Koizumi sighed, and then pulled her knees up to her chest. "That's one thing they did right. They got us all to listen. They had passion, and a lot of fancy words, but none of the experience or skill they needed to make it work. But it's not like any of us did any better..."
"Koizumi…" Hinata felt a wave of nervousness wash over him as he looked at her. "It's a rough job. It's good that you tried. You both did. And… I don't know about anyone else, but I appreciated it."
He gave a small smile. Koizumi only gave it a cursory glance, but he could swear a blush had crept across her cheeks. "I… I don't need any pity," she said. "But, thanks."
"Yeah." Hinata sat back, and directed his head toward the ground.
He couldn't tell if any of the others agreed with him, apart from Saionji, who'd whirled on Koizumi in distress. "Big Sis, you don't have to listen to them! You didn't lie to everyone about who you were, and that already makes you better than that piece of shit."
"That's…" Koizumi glanced back at Saionji, looking conflicted. "That's a raw wound you're hitting, Hiyoko-chan."
Saionji's face fell, and she looked almost pitiful, but Koizumi still went on. "You're right, of course. And I know we thought we knew them, and I want to be fair to Ibuki-chan. But we didn't know them. Not their name, or where they came from, or even their real talent –"
"But we knew a lot more than we thought."
Koizumi's eyes went wide, and they all turned their heads at once with her to face Nanami. For a moment she looked surprised, even intimidated. But then her face relaxed, and she looked down. "I think," she finished.
"You think?" Souda fixed her with a suspicious look. "What do you think? Don't keep it from us."
"I think…" She hesitated, rubbing her hands over the tops of her knees. Was she scared? Was she unsure? Hinata could never have guessed from the look on her face. "I think Mioda-san was right. They were telling us more than they intended to let on. They might have been trying their hardest to be Byakuya Togami, but they would find themselves bending the rules of the deception here and there, for their own needs… or even their own wishes."
A long, tense silence followed Nanami's words. Kuzuryuu had started fidgeting, and furrowed his brow. "So, let me get this straight," he said. "Are you saying what you really, really want to be true, or are you telling us you know this for a fact?"
"I…" Nanami fell silent, but not for any longer than she usually did when she seemed to be staring off into space. "Well, I couldn't know it for a fact. But…"
"But even if it isn't," Koizumi said, finally turning around, "what do you mean, 'the rules of the deception'? What kind of rules would they have?"
"And how do you know what they are?" Souda said.
Nanami opened her mouth, and then closed it again. She lowered her head, and traced small circles into the stone floor, but didn't answer the questions put to her, not even after several seconds of silence.
"You don't, do you?" Saionji said. "You don't even know what's real and what's not. Do we know if they really got the Despair Fever, anyway? They're the only one that said so –"
"HEY!"
Hinata's rage had bubbled through his lips before he could take hold of it, and before he knew it he was at his feet, panting. The room fell deathly silent again, and seven cold pairs of eyes locked themselves on Hinata. There was… was that fear, on their faces?
"They weren't going to kill us. At least… they weren't in disguise to do that." He tried to sound as calm as possible as he spoke. "I don't want to claim I know it for a fact, but… they were about to tell me about it. About being the Impostor. They were going to tell everyone. The first night in the hospital, they pulled me aside, and told me they had some kind of secret. They said it wasn't dangerous, but they seemed...really scared."
The silence persisted for some time. Nanami looked shocked, in a way that almost made her looked elated, and Mioda had started shaking dangerously fast, but the others' faces were motionless. "Okay," Saionji said slowly. "And you didn't tell us about this why?"
"They told me not to tell anyone," Hinata said, a bit unnerved at the tone in her voice. "Like I said, they were scared –"
"And so what?" Souda said, his voice cracking. "They're going around killing everyone and you're just keeping their secret for them?"
"I didn't know the secret!" Hinata said. "They never told me. I just remembered and figured it out. Unless they had some other kind of secret, but that does seem like a big one." He hung his head, and felt that if he stood for another second his knees might be the next things to go. "Honestly...I only thought they were going to tell me that they were the traitor –"
"The Impostor isn't the traitor." The way that Nanami had said it, Hinata could hardly believe she'd been the one to speak. Her tone was cold, firm, and strong, and her glare was boring a hole in the back of the pillar. "They're not. That's...that's certain."
"Certain?" Koizumi's eyes were wide, but her voice was still and quiet. "Again? And why's that?"
"I…" Nanami gripped her knees, but kept her gaze level. "I don't know."
"You don't know, or you can't tell us?" Hinata said.
"I don't know," Nanami repeated. "I don't know if I can or I can't."
"I don't understand," Souda said. "If you're not sure, then why the hell did you say it? You're making a lot of big claims you can't back up!"
Nanami's eyes widened. "I just –"
"She's just being a shitty sentimentalist like Big Sis Mioda," Saionji said. "Look, we're all really sad about Mr. Porkfeet, but unless you can tell us for sure that they're not the traitor, then there's a pretty big body count that tells me they are!"
"That has nothing to do with it!" Nanami shouted. "I just –"
"A body count has nothing to do with being the traitor?" Kuzuryuu said. "'Cause that sounds like betrayal to me."
"W-we already went over this, Fuyuhiko-chan," Mioda said. "W-we don't know if –"
"It doesn't matter whether they were or not, at this point," Koizumi said. "If they were, then it doesn't matter anymore."
"That's true," Hinata said. "But the thing is, if they aren't the traitor…"
The tension in the circle thickened, even more than it already had. Each of them looked from face to face, searching, hoping for some kind of a hint or a tell. But they all seemed to be wearing similar expressions of panic and fear, enough to mask the traitor's reaction, if they'd even reacted to this information at all...
"I just remembered what they told us during the trial," Hinata said. "They said they'd made some kind of deal with Monomi, that they wouldn't harm a single hair on the traitor's head…"
"Of course," Koizumi said. "But then... It could've been Nidai. Or Owari –"
"Or T-Tanaka!" Souda said. "Yeah, it's gotta be –"
"Gotta be the guy that blew himself up?" Saionji said.
"Or they could've been bluffing and covering themselves up," Kuzuryuu said.
"They could've," Hinata said. "But they weren't. Isn't that right, Nanami?"
Nanami's eyes went wide, but she didn't answer. "You said you're certain that the Impostor isn't the traitor," he continued. "And you said you didn't know why. But they claimed themselves that they weren't, and we were all there to hear it."
"So… why is Chiaki-chan so sure?" Mioda said. "Is there another reason?"
"That's…" Nanami tensed, just for a moment. But then she relaxed, and even formed a small smile. She fixed Hinata with a look that reminded him just how long it had been since he'd seen someone look so serene, so at peace. It was as though she was expecting something out of him, some newer insight. But he couldn't think of any way to answer her. Not without…
An inside source, he realized.
The doubts he'd been harboring for ages fell into place. Her strange knowledge. Her unusual behavior around the Impostor. Her determination to keep others happy. Her sudden bursts of confidence and logic during trials. Her strong bond with Monomi, and her horrific scream when she had died...
He didn't know why he hadn't seen it all along. "It's you," Hinata said. "You're the traitor."
- Carth
