Tsubaki POV
"Are you okay?" Clayton asked me, walking alongside her to the dining room.
I gave me a look, a look that can only describe as 'Are you serious right now?'.
"Stupid question, I know. But somebody has to check in with you, especially now."
"Not great, besides the fact that my brother is being accused of murder, said brother being in a catatonic state at the moment, one of our friends dead, being forced to participate in some psycho's game, the real killer just took my best shot at clearing my brother. If I can't pull this off then we all die," The walls started collapsing in on me, the world began spinning and I could feel vomit rising through my throat. Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders, bringing me back to reality.
"Hey, I'm not going to let you break down like this. You are so much stronger than me, but I never realized that you needed support too. I've been a horrible friend, letting you grapple with everything alone. I'm not the best person in the world, in fact, I don't like a lot of people. But that doesn't mean I don't care for anyone, I care about you. If you ever need me, I'll be there. I'll drop everything in a heartbeat, just don't be like me and keep all your feelings to yourself. We both know that it only kills you in the end," Clayton looked into my eyes, pleading with me to stay grounded. And it worked, I could feel the earth returning below me.
I stood there, in that moment of time, just taking in this moment. Clayton is not the type of person to be going around and giving emotional support, but he does do it sometimes and when he does, he's like hope personified. He always knows exactly what to say at the exact right time. Honestly, he should be the Ultimate Therapist.
"You good?" Clayton asked.
"Yeah, thanks to you," I managed to get out, guess I need another minute.
"Okay, let's get going then," Clayton removed his hands from my shoulders, I got a little dizzy but I got my bearings back seconds later.
It took only a minute longer to arrive in the dining room, with all the chairs replaced with the tubes from earlier when Monokuma gave a motive for murder. You could feel everyone's dread at the sight, the reminder, of what those tubes mean and where they go.
"Pretty obvious what we've go to do," Clayton remarked.
"You can go down there if you want but I'm staying up here. I plan on staying alive," Nora said, making her way towards the doors.
Steel walls shot out from underneath the floor and slammed into the ceiling, sending out a deafening soundwave. Once my ears stopped ringing I saw that the steel walls were completely blocking the doors, trapping us in the dining room.
"Looks to me like Monokuma isn't giving you a choice. I could be wrong, but something tells me you're not going to take your chances with the bear." Clayton said, he stepped into a tube, which slowly closed its doors and descended beneath the floor.
I followed suit, stepping into my tube. One thing I noticed was that the tube lacked a seat. Guess Monokuma is a cheapskate, I can hear Clayton in my head say 'Good to know'. The door slid closed behind me, then the tube began to shift and move into the ground below. At first it was a slow pace, but as the seconds went by the speed began to pick up. The noise of metal on metal ripped itself into the tube, enhanced by its hollow nature. Soon the tube was racing at light speed, it got to the point where I was pinned to the ceiling of the tube by the sheer force of the journey. And then it stopped suddenly, I fell to the floor of the tube hard.
I groaned, pushing myself off of the floor. The door slid open, followed by a ding like on an airplane. I leaned my back against a wall inside the tub, taking deep breaths and wiping away the cold sweat that had formed on my forehead. I pushed myself off from the wall, stepping out of the tube into a dimly lit room. Soon the others arrived, all in the same violent manner and all looking like they just went through a tornado. Guess I must look like them as well. Manson was the last to arrive, looking very pale.
Bright lights began to turn on the left side of the room, revealing a catwalk that led to a crimson door.
"Gee, I wonder what Monokuma wants us to do?" Clayton said, sarcasm laced into his voice.
"Must you comment on everything, heathen," Shinobu said.
"Kinda, if the fans want me to stop then I'll stop," Clayton responded with.
"Alright, enough you two. We have more pressing concerns." Yuushi said, gesturing to the pathway.
That quieted the group, who were now making their way along the catwalk. The catwalk was narrow, forcing us to walk in a single file line. It hung over what looked like a bottomless pit, at least, it looked bottomless thanks to the darkness in it. Thankfully the area at the end of the catwalk was larger than the catwalk itself. It allowed us a moment to gawk at the massive crimson door that stood before us. The began moving inwards, allowing streams of light to illuminate the area we were in. Inside held a courtroom with red velvet curtains covering the walls. At the center was a medieval roundtable with paper, quills and ink placed in front of large, stone thrones. A picture of Jake hung from one of the thrones, a red x painted across it. Above the roundtable were tracks, likely meant for roller coasters. In the center, and floating above the roundtable, was a platform that contained Monokuma.
"Children! So glad you could make it. And I'm especially glad that the killer didn't flee. Please, take a seat."
We all took our seats, the cold stone of the thrones biting into our skins. On the roundtable, small pieces slid away to reveal a usb cable. Clayton took out his Monokuma Drive and connected it to the usb cable. The rest of us soon followed.
"Good, now in case this is unfamiliar to you let me explain the rules. One of you has committed murder, and it's up to everyone else to decide who the killer's identity is. There is no time limit. You can accuse anyone you want, you don't even need evidence. though having evidence does help win people over. Especially since, when the group indicates, there is a voting process. If the majority of you vote correctly, then only the killer gets punished. However, if the majority of you vote incorrectly then everyone besides the killer gets punished," Monokuma explained.
"Then let's get started," I said.
"So where do we start?" Manson asked.
"Let's start with the location in which the villain committed the deed. The lobby area, and I accuse Kaikane Itsuka as the murderer," Shinobu said.
"My brother is not the murderer, and your wrong about the location of Jake's death," I responded to Shinobu.
"Of course the sister would defend her brother, villainy runs in the family. How dare you accuse me of being wrong, a paragon of justice can never be wrong," Shinobu stood up abruptly and slammed down her hands.
"I trust Shinobu, Kaikane has to be the killer," Nora said.
"Calm down Shinobu, let's hear her out. We need all to absolutely sure before we vote, and if that means hearing Tsubaki out in order to prevent all our deaths then I'm in," Manson said.
"Thanks, so the body itself was placed in the lobby but from the evidence I've gathered Jake was not murdered there. If you examine the floor of the lobby you'll notice a trail of smears leading from the elevator. There are smears because the killer attempted to clean up the blood trail that likely appeared when Jake's body was dragged from his place of death. This was likely done to confuse the place of death. Also, if you get really close to the smear you notice a smell, a sterile smell. This would suggest a cleaning agent was used." I paused to that sink in "And it would not make sense to drag the body to somewhere else only to drag the body back to the lobby."
"I do hope you have a new place of death to replace the lobby, otherwise we're lost," Aki said.
"Actually, I do. Since Jake was last spotted alive in the dining room, I decided to move my search to there. And I found several things of interest. Like this crossbow missing its bolt and these nails placed in the wall with frayed rope tied around it, indicating these nails and were rope were used to hang something. And the missing bolt in conjunction with the way that Jake died has led me to believe that the crossbow was used as the murder weapon. This is my theory, after Jake was knocked out by the gas the killer hung him up by his arms and fired a bolt into Jake's heart, killing him," I finished my statement.
"Impressive, there's just one hole in your theory. If the crossbow was used as the murder weapon, why aren't any of the bolts covered in blood. I've searched both the dining room area and the weapons storage area and found no bolts are arrows covered in blood," Toboe said.
"I thought of that, and I have another theory. But I do have evidence to back me up. I think the killer swapt bolts from the crossbow with one from the storage room. The Monokuma file states that Jake has an exited wound not consistent with the entry wound. The killer switched out the original bolt from the crossbow and replaced it with a bolt from weapons storage. Toboe, if you examined the weapons storage area then you would have noticed those bolts subpar quality," I stated.
"You do raise a good point," Toboe responded.
"To add to the evidence, I found a shard embedded in the wall where Jake's body was hung on. A shard covered in a dried up red liquid, blood. My guess is that when the bolt struck Jake, in shattered inside of him. Most of the fragments must have remained in the body, but one one managed to exit the body and embed itself into the wall," I finished relaying my evidence.
"I can back Tsubaki up, I conducted a experiment of my own. I took a crossbow bolt from the weapons storage area and fired it, the bolt did not shatter and instead impacted on the wall I fired it at. This proves that the bolts were swapped as the bolts in the dining room area don't shatter," Yuushi added.
"That's all when and good but we still have a problem, who's the killer?" Airi pointed out.
Airi's right, despite all the evidence I've brought to attention I haven't made any headway toward the killer's identity. There's one piece of evidence that can prove who the killer is I just don't have it anymore. The log book of who used the chemical mixer, whoever used the mixer created that knockout gas and is the killer. I just can't prove it without my drive and that's gone. Everyone's looking at me, expecting something from me. I have to guide them to the log book otherwise we are going to backslide into nothing. Here's to hoping.
"There is one area that can prove the identity of the killer, the lab. The gas that was used on us, it could have only come from the lab. And I found a used bleach container in the lab. Bleach is a cleaning agent that could have been used to clean up the blood in the lobby. The chemical mixer, it logs whoever uses it," I explained.
"So then you must know who the killer is, you know about the log," Toboe said.
"I know about the log, but it was encrypted and stored on my drive. Which is now gone," I explained.
"So we're back to square one. She's just trying to cover for her brother," Nor said, glaring at me.
"I wouldn't say that, Nora. Because I have the log too and my decryption program should be finished now," Clayton held up his drive, it's screen was flashing a green thumbs up "I did my own investigating and found the logs at the lab. I downloaded one of my decryption programs and I sat back and waited." Clayton pressed the screen and it displayed the log books.
One name was the only one being displayed, Nora Hamakawa.
"Nora is the killer," Clayton stated.
"You can't prove that, I'm being framed! I'm being targeted because I'm just a poor, defenseless girl," Nora yelled out her defense.
"Except you were awfully friendly to Tsubaki during the investigation, a stark contrast to your normal, paranoid filled personality that your demonstrating right now," Yuushi pointed out.
"That doesn't prove anything," Nora once again yelled.
"Maybe, but the motive also factors into this. You're extremely paranoid, something like Monokuma telling everyone that one of us was now planning on murder would have pushed you over the edge," Clayton added.
"A coincidence," Nora continued to yell.
"There's one more thing to prove this, I managed to injure my attacker earlier. Nora, you're head is wrapped up in bandages. The attacker was injured in the head, in the front of the head. I'm willing to bet that if we pull those bandages off then it will prove you're the attacker and killer." I said, walking over to Nora.
Nora tried to get up, to run, but Monokuma hopped down and pinned her to the table. I reached over and pulled off her bandages and inspected her wounds. The back was dried up, which meant that it was not where the blood originated from. I lifted up her face and saw that beneath her hair was a gash, it was starting to scab over. That was where the blood came from and that is where my attacker was injured. Nora was standing right next to me when I was attacked. I gestured for the others to come over and inspect the wound.
"That settles it, Nora is the killer," Yuushi said.
"GOD DAMMIT, YOU ALL BELONG IN HELL!" Nora roared as Monokuma continued to restrain her.
"Alright it sounds like you all are ready to vote. But I wasn't paying attention so could I get a recap?" Monokuma said.
"Let me: This all started when Monokuma showed us a message, that someone had finally decided to be the killer. This, however, was a false message, designed to fool everyone. The message managed to trick at least one individual, who's extreme paranoia caused them to plot a murder out of a sense of self preservation. They went to the lab and manufactured a gas that would knock everyone unconscious, allowing the killer to go about their business without interruption. They chose Jake Alexander, likely because of his pacifism. They killed him with a bolt from the storage room for weapons, she dragged his body to the lobby. She did these things in order to confuse us when we investigated. But something went wrong, the gas was starting to wear off so the killer had to rush with their job, leading to several mistakes. Then the killer laid Kaikane next to Jake in an effort to divert suspicion to him. Then she cozied up to the person whom she thought would be a lead investigator in an effort to sabotage their investigation. Just like they did with Tsubaki's drive, which contained definitive proof of their deed. What the killer didn't know was that I had already downloaded the evidence into my drive and installed a decrypting program, isn't that right Nora Hamakawa."
"I WILL BURN YOU ALL!" Nora responded with.
"Let's us vote and punish the evil that is Nora," Shinobu said, anger rising off of her.
"Very well, the papers in front of you contain the names and pictures of your fellow classmates. Simply put a check mark next to their name and that counts as a vote," Monokuma gestured to the items in front of us.
I took the piece of paper in front of me and I found Nora's name, I promptly put a check mark next to it. Monokuma took the paper out of my hand as soon as I was done, as he did with the others.
"Mmmmmm, you got it right. The majority have spoken and are correct, Nora is the killer. And since I promised punishment, that's exactly what I'm going to deliver. IT'S PUNISHMENT TIME!" Monokuma raised his hands to the skies.
"PLEASE DON'T, I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Nora leapt out at Monokuma.
Game Over
Nora Hamakawa, The Ultimate Seamstress, Has Been Found Guilty.
Time For Punishment
Punishment: A Needle And A Thread
A roller coaster comes rolling overhead, a chain leaps from one of the seats and wraps itself around Nora. It yanks her into the seat in the roller coaster, she's now trapped in the seat. Monokuma jumps into the front car and pushes a lever, sending the roller coaster flying forwards. The roller coaster spins upside down and the chains release Nora. She falls onto a mattress, hitting it with a thud. She starts to get up but a needle flies down and impales her in the abdomen, pinning her to the mattress. Suddenly, more and more needles fall from the sky, each one striking her in a different part of her body. The last needle drops, but by this time her body is covered in them and the mattress is soaked in blood.
End of Punishment
Clayton POV
After that whole experience Monokuma took us back to our rooms, but I needed something first. I rummaged through the kitchen and finally I found it, I lifted up a bottle of scotch and took an empty glass cup with me. I went back to my room and poured the scotch into the glass, filling it to the brim.
"You really shouldn't be doing that," Manson walked out of the bathroom.
"Feels right," I took a massive sip.
"No, you're just blocking out the pain," Manson took the glass from the hand.
"I didn't want this to happen, despite everything I said. I really hoped that nobody would die, but here we are. People are just one big disappointment, you get your hopes up but all they do is turn around and give you pain. Tsubaki's in Kaikane's room, taking care of him because he's still not responding to anything. And I'm here all alone, so alone. Everytime I try to reach, to feel connected, all I get is pain. Pain and suffering, that's the motto of my life," I reached back and snatched the glass back, taking another sip from it.
"Why do you push everyone away?" Manson asked as I downed the rest of the glass.
"Aside from the obvious. I begged my father for years to show me and any kind of affection, he never did. Anything I tried, there was always something wrong I did. He would get angry and yell, he never hit me. He just made me feel worthless, a mistake, he made me feel dead. Eventually I got use to feeling dead, it was all I ever felt. Then he found out my sexuality and sent me to Japan, he sent me note when I got there. It said 'We're done'. Then I hacked into my dad's security cameras and found out that he adopted a son. A son that he was playing with, that he should up to school for, a son that he told that he was proud of, a son whom he tucked into bed every night and said 'I love you', a son he comforted when he woke up from nightmares. He never did that with me," I picked up the bottle and chugged some of it down.
"What did I ever do to deserve what he did to me? What kind of father puts his own child through that? And now look at us now, at each other's throats and looking for blood," Manson snatched the bottle from my hand.
"I get that you've had a hard life, but don't do this to yourself. Don't destroy yourself, if you do, then your father wins. Pain is not something anyone wants to go through, but if you go through it alone then it only gets worse. Pain lets us feel empathy, pain lets us connect, pain helps me us who we are. If you shut down then you're shutting yourself down. So please, let someone in," Manson placed his hand on mine, it felt warm.
I leaned in, scanning his face. I leaned in closer, and kissed him. The kiss felt sweet and warm, like the sun was rolling over me. I leaned in more and pushed Manson onto my bed with me on top. He felt safe, he felt secure and he felt right. Like he connected me to something more, something greater. I could feel a dam in me break, like all the emotions I held back all these years came rushing out. But I wasn't afraid, I had Manson here with me.
End
Of
Chapter
Students Remaining: 14
Boys
1. Clayton Chase, Status: Alive
2. Deacon Castellanos, Status: Alive
3. Kaikane Itsuka, Status: Alive
4. Jake Alexander, Status: Deceased
5. Manson Andres, Status: Alive
6. Toboe Kureshi, Status: Alive
7. Yuushi Akeru, Status: Alive
8. Haruta Utsuki, Status: Alive
Girls:
1. Tsubaki Itsuka, Status: Alive
2. Shinobu Takeda, Status: Alive
3. Lova Eriksson, Status: Alive
4. Nora Hamakawa, Status: Deceased
5. Airi Noriko, Status: Alive
6. Myako Himura, Status: Alive
7. Lavender Vargas, Status: Alive
8. Aki Kawaguchi, Status: Alive
Author's Notes
I've been sitting on this for a while, I've been working on other projects and dealing with life. With life things can chaotic real fast and I finally have a handle enough to write this. Next up is probably a Pokemon update.
Sidenote: Clayton and Manson scenes are quickly becoming my favorite to write. Let me know what you think.
Until Next Time