Chapter Three! Mostly just regular conversation and getting to know characters. Thank you so much for the reviews and follows! They give me so much confidence.

TOKAKU #2

The sky was dark with the remnants of a pink and orange sunset. Small trees planted within elegant stone cylinders rustled in the light evening breeze, and the chatter of students filled the air around them. In the midst of this beauty, Tokaku and Ichinose were walking toward the cafeteria, their shoes scraping the smooth pavement like fingertips on paper.

"I hope the food here is good," Ichinose said with a spring in her step. "Since the school has lots of money, you'd think they'd have nice chefs, right?"

Tokaku nodded absentmindedly, absorbed in her own thoughts. Had the game already started? Not everyone had arrived yet, so they couldn't have started. Besides, a game like this had to have rules- it wasn't just going to be a free-for-all.

Or maybe it was. The fact that a game like this existed in the first place was pretty messed up, so anything was possible.

"Tokaku-san?" Ichinose waved a hand in front of her face. "Are you tired? You can go back to the dorm if you want." She squeezed her hands to her chest. "I can't believe I have a dorm partner now! Aren't you excited, Tokaku-san?"

The blue haired girl showed her "excitement" by opening the door to the cafeteria wordlessly. A wonderful aroma of all kinds of flavors bombarded them as they entered the building. They made their way up to the counter where a lady stood to dish out the food.

"What are you getting, Tokaku-san?" Ichinose already had a large bowl of rice and some chicken on her tray.

"Curry," Tokaku replied, dishing out a medium-sized serving and leaving to get a drink. She was beginning to think there would be no peace and quiet around here, ever.

Without any more ado, they arrived at an empty table and began eating. Tokaku spooned the mushy beef curry into her mouth and thought of her Aunt Mako. She remembered her aunt clearly, since she'd spent most of her early years with the woman. Aunt Mako had always made the best beef curry.

Then one day, she had just vanished.

Unpleasant images flooded Tokaku's mind. A forest being whipped about in the wind and a dark, foreboding shrine flashed before her eyes. She gritted her teeth and tried to focus on the flavor of the curry instead. She'd been having those visions for years, but they still gave her the chills.

"Haru! Tokaku!"

She flinched at the sound of her own name. "Hashiri," she growled. "I told you not to address me without honorifics."

Hashiri pulled out a chair beside Ichinose and sat, her ahoge bouncing up and down. Tokaku never understood how some people's hair worked. "It's fine, isn't it?" she asked, shrugging. "You can call me Nio. We're all pretty informal here." She grinned at Ichinose, who sort-of grinned back.

"No, it's not fine." Tokaku smiled angrily and set down her spoon full of curry. "If it were fine, I wouldn't have told you not to call me that."

"Suit yourself." Hashiri winked and took a bite of the melon bread she was holding. Swallowing, she turned to Ichinose. "How does it feel to be at a real boarding school, Haru?"

Putting down her own spoon, Ichinose leaned on her elbows with her fingers intertwined. "It's wonderful. I can't wait to meet everyone else and really start classes. Mizorogi-sensei is so nice, too. He said we might go on a field trip to the greenhouse in a few days!" Her eyes sparkled. "I bet there are all sorts of beautiful flowers in there."

"Definitely!" Hashiri nodded enthusiastically. "You won't believe this, but I heard one of the regular students say there was a waterpark too!"

"That's absurd," Tokaku sighed, exasperated. "Why would there be a waterpark at a school?" And why would there be a class full of murderers at a school? She couldn't say that one aloud, though. Ichinose gasped. "Really? With a slide and everything?"

"Yep, yep!" Hashiri had that weird cat smile again. Gossiping had excited her, apparently. "There's also an ice cream stand on the school grounds. We'll have to go to the pool sometime and get ice cream after." She eyed Tokaku invitingly. "Wanna come with us, Tokaku-san?" She emphasized the honorific.

Finishing her food, Tokaku pushed her tray to the side and folded her arms. "No thank you. There probably won't be timefor me to use the pool. I plan to get things done in class, if you catch my drift."

The blonde raised an eyebrow and smiled nastily. Her unnaturally shiny, sharp teeth looked like those of a monster. "Well, if you work quickly, you might have some free time on your hands. After you finish your work, you can still appreciate the school."

It hadn't occurred to Tokaku that people might remain at the school after killing the target. Not that she planned to do so. "We'll see," she replied coldly before taking a sip of water from her glass. "Though, I will get my work done no matter what."

"That's good!" Ichinose piped up, breaking into their thinly-veiled conversation. "You should definitely study hard and get your work done, Tokaku-san!"

"I agree."

Looking up, they all saw Namatame standing at the table. Her white dress shirt and black jacket set off her crimson hair as she sat down slowly. Ichinose and Hashiri stared for a few seconds longer than they probably meant to, and Tokaku was glad she'd had a chance to meet Namatame beforehand.

"Is that the way you start all of your conversations?" Tokaku asked. "I agree?"

Namatame chuckled, embarrassed. "I say that a lot, don't I? By the way, may I sit here? Sorry I forgot to ask."

"Go right ahead!" Hashiri's friendly demeanor was back again. "Chitaru-san, right?"

So people thought Namatame deserved more respect than her. Tokaku sighed. Maybe she should be nicer to people. She just hated to lie about serious things.

The three of them ate and chatted a little, though it was Hashiri running the whole thing. The blonde lead every discussion and pressed every issue, whether it was dormitories or what they liked to do or what their favorite food was. She was milking them for every last drop of personal information that wouldn't be considered private.

Meanwhile, Tokaku observed their conversation and picked up all the little bits of info that Hashiri unearthed. Namatame didn't mention Angel Trumpet, and instead talked about how others assumed she was confident when she actually wasn't that good at talking to people. Ichinose talked about everything she wanted to do that year, and each cheerful resolution was like a twist of the knife in Tokaku's heart. She shouldn't have cared this much, but she did, and it ate away at her as she tried to fill in the holes with more curry.

Also, Tokaku was beginning to get the sense that Ichinose knew Hashiri from somewhere. It was something about the way she acted around her… the pink-haired girl's reactions to the blonde were too complicated for them to have just met.

Her eyes narrowed. Ichinose knew something about Hashiri that was making her uncomfortable.

She pondered that as she sat through the rest of the meal, willing her visions not to come back and hoping that she would gradually get used to Hashiri's god damn annoying voice.