Judgement
"Alright, which one of you attacked me?!" Yuri demanded, batting Serena's hand away as he tried to stem the bleeding with his own hand, eyes glaring at them all with hostility.
"I-I don't understand" Yuto breathed "You was right there next to me. Right there!"
"The lights were only out for a few seconds!" Sayaka yelped.
"I hate to say this, but the killer has to be among us" Serena said, glancing intently at everyone.
"Gee, I figured that out myself!" Yuri snapped "One of you better come forward or I will personally rip the clothes off of your bodies until I find the bastard with the knife myself!"
"E-Either that or…" Sawatari coughed awkwardly "That, or it was…Yugo."
"Why do you guys keep accusing Yugo?" Yuya demanded as Yuto offered Yuri his tie to use as a make-shift bandage for his arm "We don't even know where he is! I highly doubt that within the few seconds that the lights were out, he could have sped past us, attacked Yuri, then ran off without us even hearing him!"
"Fine, then let's start accusing you!" Serena decided "You tried to kill Yuri and missed in the dark!"
"What?" Yuya stared at her, shocked and hurt "How could you—!"
"Guys, stop!" Sayaka cut in between them. With the new attack, tempers were flaring and the last thing they needed was an all-out brawl "Someone else was attacked, and Yuri was lucky he wasn't killed! We can't keep fighting like thi—!"
Sayaka was cut off by Serena's phone ringing. Still glaring at Yuya, Serena received the call and put it on speaker.
"What do you want, Dennis?" she asked, voice scarily calm.
"Oh thank god, please tell me you're all alive!" Dennis sounded like he'd been punched and was struggling to get his breath back.
"What do you mean, we're all alive, of course we are" Serena frowned "Did something happen to you guys too?"
"Y-Yeah! Someone stabbed Sora when the lights went out!"
Everyone in Yuto's group gasped.
"W-what?!" Yuya stuttered "N-no way!"
"Is he dead?" Sawatari asked, all the colour draining from his face.
"Yuzu says he is" Dennis confirmed, sounding like he was about to cry "Please tell me you found Yugo."
"No, but…" Yuto considered his words carefully, looking at Yuri as he did so "Somebody attacked Yuri."
Both groups reunited again in the foyer on the first floor, which was the original plan in the first place, but no one realised that they would be down another person: Sora. Yuya hadn't stopped crying since hearing the news, moping that he should've been there to watch out for him, that he had already lost Gongenzaka and now he had lost Sora too. Even Yuzu found it hard to comfort him as he held tightly onto her hand with the intention of probably never letting go. Not that anyone could blame him – his friends were dropping like flies around him.
The remaining twelve people, these excluded Yugo whose whereabouts in the mansion were still unknown, stood in silence for a few good minutes, the only sounds being choked sobs from Yuya and little hissing noises of pain from Yuri. No one had any idea what to do now. Even staying in a tight group didn't make any difference. Another person was dead but with this happening, a few more things were evident.
"It's obvious now that, whether Yugo is a killer or not, there are two killers among us" Shun decided "At least."
"Yeah" Rin agreed "There's no way that one person alone could have attacked two people on completely different floors within the fifteen to twenty seconds the lights were out."
"Which points out, how in the world did the lights go out in the first place?" Serena asked "Could it have been the blizzard?"
"Doubtful" Yuto shook his head "The timing was too perfect. Besides, if it was the bad weather, the power probably would have been out longer."
"So it was timed?" Allen questioned.
"I'm sure it was" Yuto nodded "Sawatari, do you know where the breakers are in this mansion?"
"Er, I think so" Sawatari scratched his head with his free hand. His other was holding Sayaka's, as she refused to let go of it. "It's on the other side of the house, near the garage. We all gonna go together?"
"Yeah" Yuto nodded "As cheesy as this sounds, I think we should all hold hands with at least one other person."
Agreement was the general consensus.
On the order, everyone began linking hands. Shun and Yuto held hands while Sawatari and Sayaka did the same. Yuzu continued to hold Yuya's left hand and Yuri held Yuya's right hand since his right arm was out of action ("I'm not holding your hand!" "Just shut up and hold it Yuri!"). Serena kept tight a hold of Dennis' right hand whilst holding Reira's left one, seemingly terrified she was going to lose someone else whilst she was powerless to do anything. And Rin and Allen just awkwardly held each other's wrists. Sawatari and Sayaka took the lead as they walked through the many rooms of the first floor toward the opposite side of the house.
When they reached the breaker room, Shun and Sawatari checked the main power switch.
"Everything looks fine to me" Shun announced "My guess was that maybe someone came down here and flipped the switch themselves then turned it back on, but if that was the case…"
"That would mean that there are three killers!" Sayaka gasped.
"Either that, or Yugo is just the sneaky accomplice for the other two" Sawatari commented.
"What's with the wire?" Dennis asked "Is that supposed to be there?"
"What wire?" Shun frowned "There's no wire. Stop trying to trick me, Fusion Scum."
"No, wait a minute" Sawatari inspected the breaker closer "There is a small wire attached to this main switch."
"Huh?" Shun looked at where Sawatari was pointing "He's right!" Shun removed the barely noticeable wire from the switch. "It's been yanked off. And there's a small rock attached to the end of it."
"Look at this!" Yuzu called, directing everyone's attention to a small table under the breaker. "There's a candle here, and something else is melted next to it!"
"The other end of the wire" Shun realised "This was set up."
"At some point, someone put a candle in here under this wire, which was also tied to this rock piece and when the wire melted, the wire with the rock piece forced the switch down and turned off the lights" Sawatari explained.
"So anyone could have set this up?" Serena asked.
"But wait, how did the lights come back on?" Allen asked, quite proud of himself for thinking of the question.
"If there's a power outage, the backup generator automatically turns the power back on after about a few seconds" Sawatari reached for the main switch. "So this is actually still turned off. With any luck the backup generator should keep working throughout the night, in case the killer tries to turn this off again. But with the blizzard…"
"S-Sawatari?" Sayaka stuttered as he flipped the dead switch back on. He glanced over at her.
"What is it, 'Yaka?" he raised her eyebrow. Her shocked expression was troubling him.
"Sawatari...aren't you one of the few people who know that?" Sayaka whimpered.
Everyone was now facing the birthday boy.
"W-What?!" he spluttered "Are you…accusing me of the murders?!"
"Well" Yuto frowned uneasily "Besides Shun and maybe a few others, who else would know that? Besides, weren't you the one who came up with the idea to split us up into two groups to look for Yugo by using cards?"
"Hang on a sec, what about the other killer?!" Sawatari demanded, outraged at being accused of murdering people at his own party "If I'm one of the killers, who is the other?! Can you really just prove that I'm a killer just because I know about how the breakers work in my own home?!"
Everyone nervously glanced at one another. No one spoke up.
"We're all beginning to turn on one another" Yuya said solemnly "It's hard not to when at least two of us are murderers…"
The room fell deathly silent. Yuzu began crying and clenching her arms.
"Yuzu?" Rin turned to face her "Are you okay?"
"Let's move to the kitchen and get her something to drink" Yuri suggested, sick of bickering and crying women "And I'm sure we could sit down and take a break. Maybe get the tears to stop before they give me an even worse headache."
Per Yuri's suggestion, the group made their way to the kitchen. Sawatari grabbed a glass and filled it with water from the sink for Yuzu. Yuri paid close attention to him as he filled the glass.
"What?" Sawatari took notice of this and voiced his discomfort toward the injured boy's stern glance. "Do you think I would slip something harmful in her drink to kill her?"
"I'm just keeping a watchful eye" Yuri told him.
"If I wanted to kill Yuzu, why didn't I just do it when we were all split up? Huh? Since you guys seem to think that I'm one of the murderers and all!" Sawatari was obviously very upset, even glaring at Yuto and Sayaka. Then he turned his attention back toward Yuri. "What about you?! You've been pretty bossy since all of this started! I may have had the idea to use cards to split us into groups, but I didn't choose them directly! I wouldn't put it past you to do something as sick as this!"
The hand attached to Yuri's uninjured left arm grabbed the collar of Sawatari's jacket, not unlike what Shun had done to Yuto earlier, and hissed: "Say that again, Prissy Boy! There's no way I could-"
"Is there now?" Rin put in, looking up at them both "You both keep accusing Yuya or Yugo of being a murderer, but you could be saying that just to keep the spotlight away from you!" On a roll now, she spun around to face Sayaka. "And what about you?! You've been pointing fingers at them as well! Isn't Yuya one of your best friends? And how come you're still here when your precious best friend Ruri was the first to get butchered?!"
"W-What?" Sayaka gasped, utterly horrified "R-Rin! I-I—"
Seeing she was about to cry, Reira split from Shun and threw his arms around her waist in an attempt to hug her comfortingly.
"And what about you, who got spared when your brother was hacked to death in the same room as you!" Rin turned her rage on Reira, the little boy's legs shaking. She then rounded on Serena. "And you! How come you're always at the scene of the crime whenever someone's murdered? Ruri, then Reiji, then Gongenzaka and you were even there when your Fusion buddy over there got a chunk of his arm taken out! Not to mention any time someone brings up Yugo you're pretty quick to change the subject!"
"Hey, don't you be trying to pin this on me just because your boy-toy's out of action!" Serena shot back.
"You all just think he's running around killing people like some kind of psycho!" Rin raged.
"But you seem to be defending him so much!" Yuya remarked, jumping in "Ruri, Reiji, Gongenzaka and Sora are all dead, but you only seem to be concerned about Yugo! With him missing, the both of you could have done this!"
"Are you serious?!" Rin stepped closer to the boy, forcing him to lower his chin to look her in the eye as she was shorter than him "I can't believe you're pointing fingers at me! You said you saw the murderer twice, but was that really the case?! Or maybe you murdered Ruri and Gongenzaka yourself and then hurt yourself on purpose in the bathroom so that we could find you!"
"Why you—!" Yuya – very uncharacteristically and in a move that completely blindsided everyone – suddenly threw a fist at Rin, Rin leaning back to avoid the punch.
"Hey!" Yuto lunged at Yuya and pinned him to the ground while Shun grabbed Rin's arms from behind.
"Get the hell off of me!" Yuya flailed beneath Yuto, clearly angry beyond anything any of them had seen in him before if he was resorting to swearing, but Yuto refused to move.
Yuya couldn't complain anymore after that though because Yuzu brought her fan down on top of his head.
"No, you listen to me!" she yelled "This is not the time to be fighting! Shut up and calm down!"
Rin didn't yell. She just kind of made an unnerving rattling noise in the back of her throat as she shoved Shun backward.
"Alright! I get it! I'm done, I'm done! Just let me go!" Yuya stopped moving, and Yuto finally got up. Yuzu offered to help him off the ground, but Yuya ducked away from her. It appeared the deaths of most of his friends were getting to him. Everyone was just praying Berserk Mode wasn't going to be coming out any time soon.
"Guys, us fighting isn't making things any easier" Allen finally deemed it safe to voice his thoughts. He moved over to Sayaka and put his arm around her shoulder "This is pointless."
"It's hard to stay focused on much else when we know that at least one of us is a killer" Dennis also spoke up "I don't know what to say about Yugo. And I don't need any death glares from you, Greenie."
That last sentence had obviously been directed at Rin, who had glanced at Dennis sharply for just the mention of Yugo's name.
"Well, I'm not sure if there's any point in asking what we should do now…" Serena yawned.
Sayaka yawned right after her as if cued. "What time is it?"
Yuri glanced at his watch. "Close to two."
"I'm so tired…" Reira slumped to the floor, Serena sitting down next to him as Reira had left Sayaka with Allen to go back to holding her hand. Dennis let go so he wouldn't be dragged down with them.
"Without knowing where Yugo is and the idea that there are two killers left in this mansion, well, that makes the idea of sleep impossible" Shun grumbled "Unless several of us stay awake and maybe switch in an hour or something."
"I'm not tired" Sawatari shrugged.
"I'm staying awake" Rin said immediately "All night if I have to."
"Same here" Yuya nodded.
"Sayaka and Reira need sleep the most" Yuto decided "Who else is really tired?" Dennis, Serena and Allen all raised their hands. "Okay, so Sayaka, Reira, Serena, Allen and Dennis will sleep first. That leaves Shun, Sawatari, Yuri, Rin, Yuya, Yuzu and myself to stay on guard. Are we gonna just stay in here? I don't think it would be comfortable."
"I don't want to be the one to suggest anything else, because I really don't want any fingers pointed at me" Dennis said, holding up his hands as though defending himself from an attack "But we could stay in my room. It's one of the biggest rooms on the third floor, and there are plenty of blankets and pillows so we can relax and be comfortable. We need to remain in one place until morning."
"That's fine" Yuto agreed "Lead the way. And hold hands with someone else."
Because of the previous arguments, the hand-holding groups changed. Sayaka, Reira and Serena all held hands. Dennis was holding onto Yuri's elbow, Yuri's free hand clenched over his injury, whilst Allen looked like he wanted to break free of Rin's grip and run for the hills, as she was still trembling with rage and worry from the fight. Yuya was holding Yuzu's hand with Yuto holding on to his other whilst Sawatari and Shun was awkwardly holding wrists.
Some people shuddered as they passed the second floor, where Ruri and Sora's bodies were. At least Dennis' room was right next to the stairs on the third floor, so they didn't have to go near Reira's room where Reiji's body still was.
"Okay, we're here" Dennis announced, letting go of Yuri's elbow. He reached for the doorknob and turned it. The group stepped inside while Dennis flipped the light switch.
There was no time to relax. Dennis may have been tired, but his eyes widened upon the sight before him. Reira and Sayaka both screamed behind him.
"Oh, here we go" Yuri groaned.
Sure, they had found Yugo. But not alive. He had been killed different to the others, this time with heavy bruising around his neck where his killer had prolonged his death by strangling him.