DAY ONE ; 12:00 A.M.
Nagito Komaeda had, quite literally, been caught by himself.
He'd decided to catch a quick nap between killing Hanamura and lunch. He'd woken up with the need to urinate. He'd stumbled toward the door, completely forgetting about the rope trap, and now he was strung up by the ankle with absolutely no hope of getting down.
And he still needed to pee.
Something crackled, and then the noon report started. At least he wouldn't be bored while he slowly rotted alive next to the corpse of Teruteru Hanamura.
"That was quite an exciting morning," the man who had put them all in this situation said. "One… two… three… five deaths."
Komaeda glanced at Hanamura's body.
"The boys, first. Boy Number Seven, Yasuhiro Hagakure. Boy Number Thirteen, Kazuichi Souda, and Boy Number Fourteen, Teruteru Hanamura. Also, two girls! Girl Number Twelve, Mahiru Koizumi, and Girl Number Fourteen, Mikan Tsumiki."
Komaeda nodded, thinking about these deaths. No Hinata. That was good, at least.
The man went on with the danger zones and Komaeda was glad that he'd remembered that his area was in F6.
"Now, danger zones. Get out your maps."
Or hope you remember, Komaeda thought to himself.
"From 14:00, C4. That's the shrine, so get your shrine issues done fast. From 15:30, G6, and from 20:00 we've got A8. I'm only adding three because of the stellar performance this morning – as the deaths go down, the danger zones go up."
With that, the announcement was done, and Komaeda decided that it was time to try and get down. He bent at the waist, climbing his own leg to try and get at the knot. He was flexible, and that was good – he hugged his leg with one hand while picking at the knot with the other, and it was absolutely killer on his hamstrings. Flexible back, flexible stomach, flexible joints, and the hamstring decides to be uncooperative.
It was also being quite painful on his abdominal muscles, which weren't quite used to so much exertion. So Komaeda tried to hurry it up, picking at the knot as fast as he could. Without warning, it gave way and he toppled to the ground, barely missing going straight back up again.
After going to the bathroom, he reset the trap he'd fallen into and picked his way around Hanamura's body back to the back. He glanced out the small window. There were stormclouds forming, he noticed with delight. He was going to get his rainwater.
He picked his way to the front and put the bucket under an open window. He'd rather collect his rainwater under an open window at the front than leave one open in the back – he'd rather have all routes inaccessible from that side. No… no, he'd leave it at the front.
He wondered if he would be able to handle it once Hanamura's body really started to rot. It was already beginning to smell a little, though Komaeda knew that it could only get worse.
He reassured himself with the thought that he would most likely be dead before that happened.
Either that, or he would be on a boat home.
Though that was a stupid thing to think, because even if his luck had worked out for now, it could only get worse from here. It always got worse.
26 STUDENTS REMAINING
Next week we'll get back to Naegi and Hinata's group. I was going to have them hear the announcement, but the thought of Komaeda accidentally catching himself was… funny to me.