AN: Holy cheese! An update that didn't take two weeks to come out! Wow! Noah got attacked in the last chapter, so that happened. As always, thanks for the reviews, everyone!
Shibehus: Lol, Noah, c'mon baby, you can trek through this.
Reven228: I think the cliffhanger did give me a dose of inspiration.
FateOblivion: We shall see...
Kizi1999: That was convenient, wasn't it? :P
Ode30: Sorry about that though. Some of your favorite characters might make it.
DarkNite88: Thank you! Glad it was worth the wait for someone!
TheRoseShadow21: That's good, thanks for your review. I was worried that my quality was dipping, but hopefully it's not.
Sushii-Sushii: I don't think he has a gun on him, no, lol. Good for you for thinking out of the box though, lol.
Soundtrack: OST 1-19 Despair Syndrome
...Hikaru?
"You think I stabbed you..?" Hikaru asked Noah. "I most certainly didn't."
"Don't try and hide it!" Noah yelled, struggling to maintain his breathing.
"Do you have any proof of that..?"
"Lay off, you murderer! It's in your blood!"
"Um, you should probably calm down," Mirai interrupted. "It's not good for the fact that you're on the ground bleeding."
To be honest, I was finding it hard to believe Hikaru would ever even stab anybody. His personality is just too calm. He doesn't radiate any hostility.
"Are you sure it was him..?" I asked.
"I know who attacked me," Noah responded. "I'm not an incompetent fool who would just place the blame on someone who doesn't deserve it."
"But Hikaru wouldn't hurt a fly..." Yoshinori said. "Would he..?"
"No, I wouldn't," Hikaru replied. "And I would never stab anybody."
"I would like to point out the fact that you were arrested for something, right?" Kaito asked nervously. "Could we ask what that is, Hikaru..? Er, unless you're not up for it, which in that case..."
"What I was arrested for has nothing to do with this current situation. What's happening right now though, is that Noah is trying to frame me for someone's actions."
"I'm telling you all, this dirtbag did this to me..!"
"Why are you acting so hostile to Hikaru in the first place..?" I asked. "It was even before now, you were sort of angry when Hikaru came back to us."
"Irrelevant," Noah stopped me. "I want to know why Hikaru attacked me though."
"How long are you going to keep that up..?" Mirai sighed, changing Noah's towels. "What do you want us to do about it then..? Lynch Hikaru..? We wouldn't do that."
"I just want a proper explanation," Noah said. "And an apology would be nice."
"Despite the fact that it wasn't me who did this to you?" Hikaru asked.
"We should all just calm down and sort this through," Shougo said. "Y-you all need to just calm down a little bit..!"
"I can't calm down when my attacker is right here in front of me!" Noah snapped.
"Alright, this is enough," Kaito sighed. "It's not doing anyone any good in staying here. We need to just leave Noah and Mirai alone."
"For all we know, there's another killer among us!" Unmei protested. "You really think it's a good idea to go back out there?"
"Well, there obviously shouldn't be a problem if I go alone then, right?" Kaito asked.
"We need to figure this out!"
"You're a 'problem solver,' aren't you?" Yoshinori asked. "The answer to this equation is no solution. None of us is gonna speak up and say they were the one who tried to kill Noah. So let's just all calm down, and maybe do a little investigating ourselves."
"M-maybe we can find some clues," I said. "We can just treat this like an ordinary class trial..."
"A class trial..?" Kaito asked. "You want us to have another class trial..?"
"This isn't going to be a class trial, doofus," Unmei snapped. "We need to figure out who attacked Noah, right?"
"How is this any of your concerns right now..?" Hikaru asked. "Things like this never turn out well."
"You're just saying that because you don't want your secret exposed," Noah laughed. "The fact that you tried to kill me, perhaps?"
"Do you really want to keep pushing that?" Hikaru asked politely. "I am telling you, whoever stabbed you wasn't me. Did you happen to physically see my face?"
"How else would I have found out..?" Noah asked, even more polite. "Is there any other way I could have accused you of this?"
"Perhaps you could have claimed you saw me and fabricated this whole thing," Hikaru said, the politeness reaching a cynical level.
"I'm a police officer. I would never do something like that. You on the other hand..."
"What makes you think I'd do anything like that..?"
Noah laughed at this remark, as if it were painfully obvious.
"You are a prisoner, aren't you? You got here to this school because of some mercy program that went on at your jailhouse."
"...I -"
"Don't say that you were falsely accused," Noah interrupted. "That's what you prisoners always say, isn't it?"
"Calm down!" I demanded. "Hikaru hasn't done anything so far! Why are you egging on him so much?!"
"Anyhow, we don't know who did this, and we likely won't find out until we do some investigating on our own," Mirai followed up. "So...yeah, you're all getting pretty unreasonable."
Noah clicked his tongue in response and turned his head away from us.
"You can decide not to believe me if you want. It's your life."
I couldn't take my eyes off of Noah and his...brute aura. What was with him..? I'm beginning to think that Hikaru didn't end up hurting Noah like that.
But then...who did do it, and why would Noah lie about it?
"Is there really that much more to investigate anyways?" Kaito asked. "You know that the only evidence that's around right now is that knife in Noah's chest."
"All we have is Noah's word," Unmei followed. "Maybe...we can find out where the culprit got the knife?"
"The only knife that could be found around here would be at the food stand," Mirai said. "But that's not even definite. Maybe we can ask Meowykins about it..."
Soundtrack: AoE Second Suite Movement 5P+3P
"Absolutely not!" Meowykins cried, popping up from behind the stand. "If I tell y'all just one thing 'bout what happened here, Monokuma's gonna smash my face in! I can't handle the pain, y'know..! I just can't..!"
"U-Um, so, did anyone touch the food stand..?" asked Unmei.
"Did your bitch ass just hear what I said?!"
I walked over to Meowykins and looked at the back of the food stand where all the supplies were held. I couldn't find anything other than plastic knives, meaning that the silver blade in Noah's chest right now had to come from somewhere else.
"Well, there's no metal knives here," I called from behind the stand. "Meaning the knife was from somewhere else."
"The department store isn't too far from here," Shougo pointed out. "Maybe that's where the killer got the knife."
"I'm still leaving before you guys start anything funny," Kaito said. "It's way too hot right now...I feel like the heat is escalating..."
"It is getting a little hotter," Unmei admitted.
"Too bad you fleshbags feel heat," Yoshinori teased. "I don't really mind the heat that much at all."
Looking down at Mirai, who was crouched over Noah, I noticed sweat trickle down his face.
"Maybe we need another trip to the wave pool..." I said. "The heat is too much."
"Where the hell do you want me to go then?" Noah asked.
"You would be coming with us, you know."
"Alright, well, then we just need to find swimsuits?" Yoshinori asked. "But wait a minute, if we all just up and leave like that, what are we going to do about the investigation?"
"We're all going to the pool at once, right?" Kaito asked. "If you're all so hung up on the investigation you can do it, but it's too hot for me to focus on anything right now. We have time. We can also look a couple hours later."
"It's kind of late though..." I said. "Is the wave pool even opened now..?"
Soundtrack: Monokuma Sensei's Lesson
"Of course it is!" Monokuma snapped, appearing from behind us. "What the hell kind of pool do you think I run..? It's a top tier facility that's open for twenty four hours!"
"Well, what about nighttime?" I asked.
"That doesn't really apply here when there's not much shit you can do here. Aren't I a generous bear..?"
"Yes, yes," Hikaru said. "So I suppose we'll just split off and try to find a swimsuit then..?"
"We'll have to meet up at the wave pool entrance," Kaito said. "But Monokuma...there are swimsuits around here though, right..?"
"Of course..!" Monokuma chuckled. "But they're a bit more vague than normal..!"
"Alright, so I'll stay here and watch over Noah then," Mirai said.
I nodded. "I'll find a swimsuit for you then."
"Upupupu..." Monokuma chuckled. "Flock around like birds then, my poor bastards! Enjoy finding your swimsuits!"
Music Halts
"What the hell was that all about..?" Yoshinori asked, as Monokuma disappeared once more.
"I don't know," I sighed. "Anyways, I'm heading off now. I'll meet you guys at the wave pool later."
"Oh, how would we know when to meet you guys up there?" Mirai asked.
"I'll just come fetch you when I find everyone's there," I shouted as I left the boardwalk, out into the third dome.
…
That was the last thing I could say to Mirai before something awful happened, not only to me, but the whole dome.
Location: Beach House | Time: 11:05 PM | Chapter Four | 20 DAYS LEFT
About half an hour had passed since the others and I split up at the boardwalk. It was a bit worrisome to wander around alone in the dome, considering that Noah had just been attacked, but we all agreed it was probably best to go alone so we could defend ourselves. If we partnered up, it might so happen our partner was the one who attacked Noah.
Walking into the beach house, I figured I might find a swimsuit around here. I was reluctant to enter inside though. The hallways were smoking hot. I touched the glass wall at one point, and it was hot enough to burn the tips of my fingers. I didn't know how hot it would be at the beach house, but to my surprise...
It was kind of frigid.
"Why is it so cold in here now..?" I asked to myself while searching around the beach house.
I rubbed my arms to give myself warmth, but it was literally freezing. The weather was like dancing nude out on a white Christmas – it wasn't able to be done.
"It's...it's too damn cold," I said. "I'm leaving."
And as I began to step out...
Blackness.
Location: ? | Time: ? | Chapter Four | 20 DAYS LEFT
Soundtrack: Aria of the Soul
"...Puhuhuhu."
"...So Nanako's still not here, huh..?"
"I suppose not," said a strange woman.
I looked up at her dark silhouette, and memories began to flood into my head. She was the one who warned me about the deaths of Takayashi and Ryoko, wasn't she..? It was Nanako before who usually gave me the subtle hints, but...
"This is getting quite interesting," the lady said. "You see, I've always had...well, you could call it an interest, with you. But I never thought that you would go and kill someone for fun..! How crazy, right..?"
"You called Nanako a personal friend of yours, right?" I asked. "I remember now..."
"Yes, but, I wouldn't perceive that as truth anymore," the lady said, chuckling a bit devilishly. "In fact, it's probably in your best interests to dispel that comment as a lie."
"But what would lying do..?" I asked. "There's really no point in that, is there?"
"I suppose not," the lady said. "I just thought it'd be easier to coerce you to discovering the bodies of your so called 'friends.'"
Discovering the bodies..?
"Have you noticed that before a dead body is found, you are summoned back into this reality for a brief warning about what's to come next? Isn't that strange for you..?"
"I-I guess, but -"
"You possess no memories of this reality on that reality, so how is it possible for you to briefly remember enough about your past conversations..?"
"Do you mean how I remember...where the dead body is?"
"Mostly that," the lady smirked. "So, now that you know why you're here..."
"Is someone else going to die?!" I asked shocked.
"I believe someone already has!" the lady laughed. "This is very fun..!"
I looked at the lady, my eyes widening. She...was much different from Nanako. It was clear her intent wasn't to help me at all.
"S-so, who was it?" I asked. "Where was it..? Isn't that why you called me here?"
"I have finished my preparations," the lady said. "I have been able to dispel of those fools who have communicated with you in the past before, though not to the degree I would have liked."
"What..? You mean you did something to the man and Nanako?"
"You dub him as 'the man..?'" the lady asked. "He has a much more notorious name. You should know that."
"But I don't..!"
"Well, that's a different subject matter. Anyways, yes, I have summoned you to adhere to the tradition of warning you about the dead. It makes things much more interesting, I find, though a bit more risky for your body."
"My body..?"
"The man was correct in saying that your mental state would soon enter extreme fragility, should you not be able to switch between those two realities."
Why not..? Why won't any of these people give me any answers?!
"Why would that affect me, huh?"
"Anyways, I am sending you back now," she said ignoring me.
"Stop ignoring me bitch!"
"Bye bye, Keiko..!" the lady laughed.
Baked in a white light, I gritted my teeth as I entered back into that...reality, as she called it.
"Looks like it's already been found..." I could hear the lady muster.
Music Halts
Location: The Beach House | Time: 11:14 PM | Chapter Four | 20 DAYS LEFT
N-ngh...
"W-what happened..?" I asked. The room was...smoking hot again.
*Ding, dong! Ding, dong!*
"Attention! A body has been discovered! We'll be holding a class trial soon, so please investigate to the best of your abilities!"
And that was the end of our peaceful days. Not just for the moment, but for the rest of our time here at "Hope's Peak Academy."