Akio

As soon as we'd decided that we were going to try and explore the school as a start to our investigative efforts, we'd decided to split up. For some reason, even though they seemed to hate each other's guts, Mitsuhide and Rieka had gone together, and Akemi had decided to go with them-the decision had quelled yet another mini-spat they'd been about to have, so it was probably a good thing. This had left me with Akagi and Otsuka, and we had been going through the different classrooms that we'd been allowed to see.

"I don't think that there'd be anything here that we can use, really." I concluded after peering into the cubbyholes for schoolbags.

"I don't really think that private information would be left so plainly in public either." Akagi commented.

I straightened, and headed towards the door of the classroom again, where Akagi was waiting. I really wanted to talk to him properly about our mothers, have that kinship for a little while before we shared our link with the others. I wondered if Akagi would have wanted to talk to Eizo Amai too. I wished I could have, but no, he'd left. He'd had a bandage on his ear, too, and I'd heard some of the other students-to-be speculating about it back in the canteen. But he hadn't seemed scared the way Mum had when she'd come home. Maybe a little sad, maybe a little stressed, as far as I could tell from a fleeting glance. Not scared, though, not unless he was hiding it well. I wish I could have asked though, since he seemed like he would have answered.

Maybe one day, though…

"Information can be found in unlikely places, so it was worth looking anyway." Otsuka decided bossily. "We'll try a recreation room, next."

"There were books and things there, weren't there?" Akagi asked. "Perhaps something was slipped in there."

Akagi sounded vaguely sceptical, and indeed he was frowning as he said this. I was inclined to agree with that judgement.

"Pretty sure those were fake books, though." I answered. "But then that'd make it easier to hide things…but would they really?"

"As I said, unlikely places. But hey, you clearly have a brain, so let's go."

I sighed heavily and shook my head. Akagi turned his head to me and gave a half-nod. In lieu of a look back, I patted his arm briefly in solidarity, and we followed Otsuka as we headed to a recreation room. As we did, our phones buzzed, and I took mine out, as did Otsuka. Akagi did so too, but took a moment longer to put in some wireless earphones.

Akemi Koizumi: The classroom Principal Munakata uses as an office was locked, and since there were a lot of other people around, we decided to not try and get in. It was locked, in any case.

Akemi Koizumi: There doesn't seem to be much else to report at the moment, though I think this Hope's Peak is going to set itself apart from the old despite the name, from looking around at everything. They're not overly dependent on their old image.

"Phone, compose message: What do you mean by that?"

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the message popped up on my screen.

Akagi Benbow: What do you mean by that?

Otsuka Jihara: Save it for when we regroup.

I put my phone away at this, and then had to scramble to catch up with Otsuka, who had naturally already ended up striding off. But Akagi was not scrambling, and eventually I decided to match pace with him.

"They're an interesting bunch, aren't they?" he asked.

"Yeah, they are." I agreed. "Quite…intense, too. I think we're in for quite a time."

"Yes, yes. Do you think they already know? About our mothers? It would not be completely impossible to dig out."

"I've told Koizumi-san, already." I admitted. "But that was about me, not you. So maybe…but still, it's not like it's a real secret. We'll tell them, eventually. Though, I hope they'll be kind to them, when it comes to it."

"Mmm."

Akagi frowned at that, features tight and worried.

"It must be a heavy burden, mustn't it? The memories of something so traumatic." He mused eventually.

"I suppose so. I mean, just on the surface it sounds horrific…but hey, maybe there'll be some closure now, since they're re-opening it, and there's new technology and stuff. That's what happens with cold cases generally, right?"

"Not sure I'd know, but maybe."

"Ah, yeah, I don't know either. But yeah, I hope so."

"Oi," Otsuka called down the corridor. "What are you two nattering on about? Are you helping me or not?"

"We'd better speed up then." Akagi said, one side of his mouth quirking up slightly.

I laughed and nodded, and then said.

"Yup, yup."

We sped up accordingly until we reached Otsuka, and then we continued on into the recreation room. To our surprise, it wasn't empty-there was one other person in there, a short, green-haired teenage girl fiddling around with one of the tablets. I stopped, uncertainly, but Otsuka did not seem bothered and just went straight to the big screen. When the girl didn't even look up, I eventually stepped over the threshold and went to one of the bookshelves, and started skimming the different titles, picking one up to study the contents. Akagi followed me, and he also picked up books, but felt them over instead, as if looking for something unusual within the pages, or perhaps a hidden compartment, or something along those lines.

None of us in the room really said anything as we worked our way around the room, but eventually, I found myself near to the girl at the tablet, and I happened to glance at the screen, which seemed to be filled with code.

"Are you coding something on there?" I asked incredulously before I could stop myself.

The girl turned around, and her dull amber eyes flared in surprise before she swore under her breath and briefly turn back to tap at the tablet, returning it to the home screen and then she looked at me, assessing me with a shrewd glance.

"Nope, she was probably hacking."

I jumped.

"Jihara-san, I thought you were on the other side of the room!" I exclaimed as Otsuka seemed to just appear.

"You must be Ritsuka Nishimiya, SHSL Hacker."

The girl narrowed her eyes, and then nodded slowly and warily.

"Yes, that's right." She said simply.

"I'm Akio Arisato," I said quickly. "SHSL Lucky Student. Jihara-san's the SHSL Journalist and Benbow-kun's the SHSL Archer. Were you really hacking?"

Ritsuka frowned again, and then rubbed a hand over her face.

"I was just messing. I suppose you could say curiosity got the better of me."

Her voice had a slight drawl to it, somewhat tired sounding and jarring with the otherwise general girlishness of its tone. It was also at odds with the utterly blank yet somewhat piercing expression she had on her face as she regarded us all.

"Did you see anything when you were 'just messing'?" Otsuka asked.

"…define anything."

"Oh, you know, something that seems out of place…suspicious, that kind of thing." Otsuka said airily.

Again, that blank yet piercing look.

"Is that what the three of you are looking for?"

I blinked in surprise at that, and even Otsuka looked a little taken aback for a moment before slowly, her face broke out into a huge grin, though she said nothing to confirm or deny Ritsuka's suspicions. Ritsuka regarded us all-at this point, Akagi had walked over-for a moment before she nodded.

"I'm guessing you're looking for stuff about twenty years ago." She said. "That's really the only thing to be 'suspicious' about."

"Isn't it just?" Otsuka replied with a half-grin.

"I'll take that as a yes, then." Ritsuka said simply.

Nobody responded to that initially, as we just stood there, clustered around the tablet on its stand.

"Do you want to join us?" I blurted out.

Ritsuka stared at me, and didn't answer. But her look-poorly concealed surprise-more or less said it all for me: why?

"Oh, that would be a good idea." Akagi said.

"Yes, we certainly could do with someone who knew their way around things like this." Otsuka waved airily towards the tablet. "Like someone who is the soon-to-be SHSL Hacker."

Hacker? Oh, wait, of course. That does make sense. For her part, Ritsuka's eyes briefly widened once again before her expression smoothed out again, and she yawned slightly before asking.

"Are you investigat-oh, wait. Are you with that girl, the Booktuber?"

"For my sins, yes." Otsuka said, and I had to stifle a chuckle at that. "Though don't worry, she isn't running the show."

"Ah."

"Are you not curious?" Akagi asked curiously.

"I suppose I am. " Ritsuka answered with a shrug. "So…alright."

Otsuka had opened her mouth to say something else, but now her jaw dropped open. A good few seconds passed before she shook her head in amazement.

"Oh, that's great!" I exclaimed. "We should probably be going back to meet with the others soon, right? Then we can talk about what we…well, what we didn't find."

I gave a sideways glance to Ritsuka, wondering if she might have actually found anything, crazy as it seemed, but she didn't seem to notice, instead just waiting for Otsuka to remember to respond. And after a moment, she did, chuckling to herself and then saying.

"Alright then, let's go."

…

Eikichi

"The room's kind of tidy, isn't it?" Ayuna asked me as we finished looking around. "For a workroom, anyway."

"That could just be because not many of us used it," I pointed out. "Only the siblings, and of course Yuri would be the type to tidy up, wouldn't she?"

I looked across the room, where Kimiko had now taken Yuri off of the chair with Eizo's and Teiichi's help, and had now laid her on the floor to examine her. Apart from the mottling around her neck and the surprised look now permanently frozen on her face, she did not look as if she had suffered much. Even the clothes she was wearing-peach dungarees, with grey tights and rollerskates-rollerskates, of all the things-matching the dungarees seemed neat and unruffled. It was not so strange, if thinking about it, that Yuki couldn't believe that she was properly dead. She looked as if she was playing.

But this was the fourth time this had happened. There was no way she couldn't be dead.

Just then, the door opened, and Friede and Takaaki came back in from helping Sadie with Azami and Yuki.

"He basically cried himself to sleep, but I still don't think he gets it." Friede said with a frown.

"We're all meanies, apparently." Takaaki interjected wryly. "Because we're still playing the game when he doesn't like it anymore."

I groaned and rubbed my forehead.

"What now?" Friede asked the two of us. "What do you want me to do?"

"We probably need to figure out where everyone else at the estimated time she died," Ayuna said, looking on her Electro-ID. "According to this, that was 6:30pm or thereabouts. Where were you, then?"

"Oh, Sadie-san and I were preparing dinner at that time, with Kazama-san and Yamamoto-san. Azami-san was sitting with us, too, but of course, that was all she was doing. And she didn't move the whole time, so you can rule her out."

"And did any of you leave the kitchen during that time?"

Friede frowned curiously.

"I think maybe from time to time, toilet breaks and things, sure. I think I did once, but I wouldn't be able to tell you off of the top of my head when exactly."

"That's fine, that's good information anyway, right?"

Ayuna gave me a sideways look, and I nodded.

"It is. Aozaki, if you go to check Sadie's whereabouts, then I can stay here and ask Kazama and Yamamoto. "

"Gotcha!"

Ayuna mock-saluted me and gave a wavery grin, but her expression became grim once again, and she rushed off quickly. The Electro-IDs went off, multiple beeps causing a ripple across the room, and when I checked, the truth bullets for the case had been updated with Friede's statement. I so badly wished I could be comforting, the way some of the others could be, so easily and instinctively. But I could not, so instead, I had to be strong.

And so, after taking a deep breath, I went to do just that.

I blinked, slowly, and groaned slightly as the world around me came back into focus, and I attempted to sit up. For a moment, my head seemed to spin, but the feeling soon subsided, and my surroundings took shape and made sense again.

"Aha, sleeping beauty is awake!"

I startled and looked to my right to see Shion sitting on a chair pulled right up to my bed. She grinned at me, but then her expression softened out and she reached out for my hand.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah…." I realised that the brightness in the room was not just the lighting, and I glanced to the window. "It's already tomorrow?"

"Mhm. You seemed to need to sleep it off, and you became a little agitated when you almost woke up earlier, so I guess the rest was good."

"Agitated?" I asked sharply. "In what sense?"

Shion frowned.

"I'm not really sure, just restless and upset. I think you were remembering something."

"Did I say anything?"

"Woah, Eikichi." Shion shook her head. "No, no you didn't. The police did come to check on you, but I told them to buzz off, essentially. You'd just come out of surgery to get a tracking bug out of your ear-that's hardly the prime time for questioning."

I reached up to the side of my head, just behind my ear, and touched the neat bandage. It didn't hurt, or at least not very much. But all the same, it was an irrevocable reminder.

"Look," Ayuna said. "That's the dance studio on the second floor, right? And we know that Sadie and Lao are both there. And there are two dots."

She leaned over Seiko's shoulder and pointed to the relevant section of the map.

"So this cluster here is…us?" Seiko asked.

She turned her Electro-ID to show us. It was open on the maps, and there were a number of pulsating dots in different places. Two in what seemed to be the dance studio, a small amount representing me, Ayuna, Seiko, Fumiaki, Kimiko and Sen'ya, and the rest elsewhere.

"How are they doing that?" Sen'ya asked. "Like, we haven't even got phones."

"Perhaps it is these." Kimiko said, holding them up. "After all, we are required to carry them."

"Maybe…" Sen'ya said. "But the girls are hardly gonna be having theirs while dancing?"

"We can always ask them later, once they're done." Fumiaki said.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes tiredly.

"What about the others? Do you know anything?"

"Haven't seen them. Then again, it'd be kinda awkward to be meeting my fiancé's friends while said fiancé is out cold. "She smiled wryly.

"They are-"

I stopped. I had been about to say, they aren't my friends, but that was a lie if I had ever thought of one. But of course, it wasn't even that straightforward to simply call them my friends. Not with tragedy and secrets and two decades worth of distance between us all. Of course, Shion couldn't know precisely what I thought of them, but she caught enough to narrow her eyes at me and scrutinise me carefully.

"I would like to meet them, by the way."

"Why?"

"Oh, you know, to find out more about what you were like in high school. Like, were you even more of a twit than you were at uni? They must have some funny stories."

Despite myself, I couldn't help but smile at that.

"I was a teenager, I probably was terrible."

Shion laughed at that, and let go of my hand momentarily to brush back some of her hair.

"Oh my, some self-awareness." She grinned, clearly teasing. "No wonder I'm still in love with you."

"WHAAAAAAAT? YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TO KARAOKE?"

I winced at Katsuya's almost shriek. Moeka, too, seemed a little ruffled by his over-sized reaction, but she also seemed surprised.

"Who's never been to karaoke?" Akari called from across the table.

"Hanamura-kun hasn't!" Moeka said. "We were just asking if he wanted to come with us on Sunday."

"Oh man, you really haven't?" Eizo exclaimed. "Like, I expected that from Lao, she grew up in that hippie commune thing, right? But seriously, you're a city boy, right, and you haven't?"

"Is it really such a big deal?" I huffed. "That's just not something I did."

"Well, now's a good time to try it, right?" Azami asked with a smile. "You might as well."

"Oh yes, do come, Hanamura-kun!" Moeka exclaimed.

"Yes, yes, join us!" Eizo exclaimed.

Moeka, Eizo, Katsuya and the others on the table all stared at me, some of them almost puppy-eyeing me.

"…"

"Awww, come on! It'll be fun! You don't even have to sing if you don't wanna, just being out with friends is a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Trust me, you're gonna love karaoke!" Moeka said.

"And you're not going to let up asking me, are you?" I asked.

"Nope!" Katsuya said immediately.

This made the Kishinami twins giggle and Eizo laugh heartily, and I sighed and mentally face-palmed before nodding.

"Sure, whatever. I'll see what the fuss is about."

The simple, casual admission of love took my breath away for a moment. It was truly a good life to be living, where I had someone who could just say that to me, and who I could honestly say that to. It was so much more than what the likes of Teiichi, Kiran, Sen'ya and the others had ended up getting. Once everything came out, would that still be the case? Would Shion be able to look me in the eye and tease and laugh about her love for me with both of us knowing it was solid? Or would it crumble, along with anything and everything else that could possibly crumble with it?

I took a breath once again, rubbed my eyes again, and did my best to not let it show. I could not let it show.

"Funnily enough, I'm still in love with you too." I said, briskly. "But Shion, you don't need to be here now."

Shion narrowed her eyes at me.

"Seriously," I ploughed on. "I'm fine now, and you don't need to be here just sitting around while they question me. "

"…but if you end up needing representation."

"I'm not a suspect. I've never been a suspect."

But if they ever found out even the slightest of what went on, then it'd be different, wouldn't it.

"Yeah, and?" Shion glared. "You might still need it, or anything really. That's why I came!"

I wanted you away from this though. You're the good in my life, you're not meant to be here. I so badly wanted to order her to go home, draw on the strength I'd found to order the others around back then when we were trapped and pretend I didn't care about how cold I surely seemed. But Shion was the good in my life, the life I was still hoping I'd be able to go back to if and when this all blew over. Please, blow over.

"The hotel isn't that far, anyway. And at the very least I'll be allowed to phone you, if something happens. Or they will, depending. Just….go for now. I'll see you soon, alright."

I could not quite add the please, could not show just how desperate I was. But all the same, Shion's eyes softened again, and she nodded slowly.

"Alright. But I'm getting a doctor though, just to make sure you're alright on that front." She declared as she got up. "Don't stretch yourself."

She gathered her things and left, and for a moment, I just sat there, remembering.

Teiichi walked into the room looking fairly composed, but when he scanned the room and spotted us sitting at the table, he didn't smile, instead just nodding and walking over. When he got closer, I noticed that his eyes were red-rimmed. He also looked incredibly pale.

"You need to get something to eat." Fumiaki said almost immediately.

"Mmm…"

"Actually, I will go and get it." Fumiaki decided before Teiichi could respond further.

He went off to do just that, and Teiichi blinked for a moment, before sitting down next to me. There was a moment where he just watched me eating my noodles, and then he sighed and asked:

"The girls cooked?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Oh." Teiichi rubbed his eyes, looking concerned. "I think I was supposed to be helping with the cooking today."

"I wasn't aware of that, but more than likely you were excused." I said, simply.

At that moment, Fumiaki came back with a tray, followed by Sen'ya with his own, and the last of those who had been in the kitchen, presumably cleaning up the things they'd been using to cook.

"Kazama, are you holding up?" Sen'ya asked immediately.

Teiichi quietly thanked Fumiaki and took his tray from him before turning to Sen'ya and giving him a watery smile.

"I…..I'm not sure."

"I mean, Nanakai was your best friend, it's natural that you are experiencing complicated feelings. Grief is supposed to be a complicated thing, so I've heard."

"Yeah, that sounds about right to me." Sen'ya said. "Like, it's not the same thing, but I was a complete mess when Ma split up from my sperm donor and we had to move-like, everything was upside down, you know? Of course my feelings weren't going to be straight. But yeah."

"Mmm….but, it's not just Kiran I miss, it's Komiya-kun too."

There was a moment of silence at that, as we all looked at each other uncomfortably.

"That, too, makes sense." I eventually said. "He's dead too, after all."

"Yeah, but…" Teiichi sighed, playing with his food restlessly, breaking the noodles into tiny pieces. "It's simpler to miss Kiran, isn't it?"

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Well…whichever way you cut it, he was a victim. But Komiya-kun….he…."

"Because of what he did, he isn't such a sympathetic victim?" Fumiaki asked, eyes lighting up with sudden understanding.

"Woah, that's bullshit!" Sen'ya burst out. "Like, yes that's right, technically, but come on!"

"Calm down, Ochiai." I said mildly.

"Yeah, because in the entirety of human history telling someone to calm down has always worked." Sen'ya snarked.

Thankfully though, he did, and we all focused on Teiichi, who'd gone a bit red, and was hunching a little, looking down. A little like he had done around most of us at the beginning of last year, when we were all still getting to know each other and he was more easily embarrassed by our attention. He did eventually speak though:

"I don't hate him though, that's the thing. But it feels like I should…because of Kiran..."

Fumiaki nodded slowly and thoughtfully, but didn't say anything. I didn't either, thought privately, I did agree. But what difference will saying that make? It wouldn't, really.

"Well, either way, we'll need to start doing something to make sure that Nanakai's and Komiya's deaths are one-time events. " I said. "We'll need to set up a meeting of some kind soon. Maybe after dinner."

"Could it be tomorrow? I know it's important," Teiichi apologised. "But I think I'd have a clearer head tomorrow."

"I agree. You should confer with Aozaki, though, Hanamura."

"Aozaki? Why?"

"He's been trying to find a way to get out, I think, and while that hasn't been fruitful so far, his heart is clearly in the right place when it comes to trying to keep us safe. Despite the somewhat foolhardy exterior."

I looked over to see Ayuna pulling a face at Eizo, who was clearly describing something that was meant to be amusing and studied her for a moment, before turning back to the three of them.

"Maybe." I said, simply.

I shook my head bitterly at the memory. Escape. Yeah, right. In the end, we'd been completely helpless until whatever machinations outside had led the police to randomly burst in one morning when we were all sombrely eating breakfast. If they hadn't found us, more than likely we would have….

My brain stopped itself abruptly as it reached the natural end of that line of thinking. It was obvious, and logical, but I did not and could not believe it. Or at the very least, I didn't want to. Because after all, right at the beginning, we'd all tried to be positive. We'd called bullshit on the situation, we'd drawn on our friendship to support each other, and we'd tried to look for ways to work around the situation. We had hoped. I had hoped. And look where that had gotten us. It was useless, utterly useless.

In the end, I was utterly useless.

I leaned back, stared at the blank white ceiling and the flickering lights, allowing myself to be briefly distracted at the stupidity of them being on when there was perfectly good daylight outside. Then, I groaned, and tentatively got up, making sure I was steady on my legs before smoothing down my clothes, and leaving the room, with the intention of perhaps walking down the corridor and back up again, before whoever Shion had managed to find got here.

But the moment I stepped through the doorway, I bumped into someone.

"Who are you?" I asked the incredibly rumpled looking boy in annoyance, though he hadn't seriously hurt me from walking into me.

"Now, that's an interesting question, isn't it?" the boy mused sombrely. "It's more contextual than one would think, really. Who am I…in this moment? In other moments? To a particular person? To say nothing of what is 'I' in this case?"

I simply stared. I was perfectly awake, but it was far too early in the morning for this. The boy, for his part, suddenly smirked, the sparkle in his dark green eyes intensifying.

"My name's Takaaki Jinsai. What's yours?"

"Eikichi Hanamura. " I said simply. "What class have you been put in?"

"78-B."

"Oh, great."

The words were out of my mouth before I could even consider them, but in truth I wasn't about to hide my absolute bafflement and irritation. But Takaaki Jinsai didn't seem even slightly offended. Instead, he just nodded.

"I take it from that that you are also 78-B?"

"Unfortunately."

I stumbled back, and then simply gawped at him.

"Jinsai." I said, instinctively, as if this were back then.

"Yes, that is still my name."

"I…"

Lost for words, I simply studied him. I was completely gobsmacked by his t-shirt, which seemed to have German words in a god-awful neon pink emblazoned across a picture of what looked like some ancient Greek sculpture. I wasn't too sure about combining it with a brown-and-cream-striped button-down shirt, though that at least was a normal item of clothing in itself. Then again, in the few professional photos I had chanced across whenever a few of my students happened to talk to me about their future university choices, his clothing choices hadn't been that much more coherent, so this seemed fine. Likewise, his longer hair with the random dyed streaks was objectively terrible, but also not that surprising to me. But the hollow look to his face was more pronounced in reality-his eyes, bags and all, seemed to almost protrude-and so was the paleness of his skin. But at least the eyes themselves had that same gleam to it as they scrutinised me just as openly.

"When did you get here?"

"Not sure exactly."

"Last night? A couple of hours?"

Takaaki shrugged, then opened his mouth. Quickly, I jumped in:

"And please do not go off on a tangent about the nature of time or whatever."

Takaaki's mouth quirked up slightly.

"Why? Is the possibility of time itself being a mere social construct too much for you to handle?"

"At this point in time, yes."

"Ahh, but if not now, then when."

I was pretty sure that was meant to be a question, but it didn't sound like it. I simply groaned, wondering how it was that our first meeting in twenty years had somehow ended up exactly like our first ever meeting. I was not sure if this was a good thing, or a bad thing.

In the stretching-out silence, Takaaki idly played with the strands of his hair, and as he did, I caught a quick glimpse of his ear, which was bandaged.

"Oh, you've had it remo-"

As Takaaki switched strands, he revealed his other ear, which was also bandaged. Wait, what?

"Jinsai," I asked, slowly. "What did you do?"

Takaaki's eyes went wide, and he stared at me with a hundred-yards stare, but he did not say a word.

"Jinsai." I repeated.

"Does it matter?" he asked, eventually.

"Yes it bloody matters!" I said. "Show me, what did you do?"

Takaaki lapsed back into silence, but he slowly pushed away his hair on both sides, holding it into a loose, sloppy approximation of a ponytail with his hands so that I could see that both his ears were bandaged, but in a haphazard, sloppy way, a little of the gauze on one side hanging like some insane idea of a decoration. It took a few moments for me to realise that a little part of each bandage was stained with red.

"Did you…did you cut your own ears?" I asked.

Takaaki simply shrugged, then let go of his hair again, letting it half-cloak his ears once again. I didn't know whether I should lecture him, or run for help, or what. Before, I wouldn't have known as such, but I would have decided something, and then done it. But now…what right did I have? I looked away for a moment, then made eye-contact.

"Your ears are bleeding, Jinsai-san." I said slowly.

"Jinsai is fine, like before." He replied, automatically.

"Okay, fair, fine. But your ears are bleeding. You need to go and get that checked out. My fiancée sent a doctor up here, so someone should be here soo-"

"Jinsai-kun!"

I turned around, startled, and saw that two of the detectives-Matsumoto-Fujioka and Kurosawa-were coming down the corridor from the other direction.

"Jinsai-kun, you should have asked for us!" Matsumoto-no, wait, he said Detective Matsu, didn't he? - said almost immediately, reaching him. "We need to-"

"His ears are bleeding." I said immediately, interrupting him this time.

Matsu whipped around to stare at me, and then turned to Takaaki again.

"Is this true?" he asked.

Takaaki pulled a face.

"Did you try to take the bug out yourself?" Kurosawa asked, scrutinising Takaaki carefully.

Once again, Takaaki didn't respond for the longest time, before eventually shrugging like a petulant teenager.

Finally, we managed to get a good grip on her, and were able to pull her back from Eizo. Almost immediately, Sadie and Friede rushed over to help him, though he was at least able to get up unaided. But Lilian continued to wriggle and spit and rage, and though I could more than handle her weight, her motion was a different story.

"How dare…how dare you…." She twisted so that she was facing the bear sitting in it's throne. "You told me that I would be protected!"

"Upupu, but you know the rules my dear Lao-san! If you're the blackened and you get figured out, then you're the one who has to die!"

"I WORKED FOR YOU! I DID YOUR BIDDING FOR MY SISTERS AND THIS IS WHAT I GET?" Lilian writhed in rage, and I tightened my grip instinctively.

"Keep holding onto her." I told Teiichi and Takaaki. "She'll hurt someone else if we let her go."

As if to underline this point, at this moment one of Lilian's feet connected with the side of my leg, and I couldn't hold back the gasp of shock that escaped my mouth.

"They weren't meant to figure it out though! Ochiai-kun and Tsukuda-san were the smartest ones of those left!" Lilian exclaimed. "You must have rigged it!"

"Nope, I didn't. I'm a fair bear, don't you know?" the bear burst into peals of giggles. "Don't you know, Lilian Lao, this is what you get for being a traitor?"

Lilian's face contorted more than I thought possible, going red and making the tattoo on her cheek look like it was pulsing. When she opened her mouth to speak again, the words that came out were not Japanese.

"Is she cursing us?"

I startled at the sound of Takaaki's voice, so much sandpaper, as if he hadn't spoken for a number of years, as opposed to since early on this trial. Though it was hard to pinpoint what it was exactly, since strange was basically what he was, there was all the same something very strange about the fixed, unreadable expression he wore.

"Well, it's mostly curse words, so in a way, yes." Friede answered. "But honestly at this point it's just rage."

Lilian was undeterred by Friede's interpretation, and continued to rant. I puffed out a breath, and then looked to the bear, waiting for the inevitable. And hating myself for hoping for it, so that finally I could let go.

Once he said it, it all came together and made sense. I ran my hand through my hair.

"Jinsai, why?"

"You wanted to get yours out too, right?"

Matsu and Kurosawa exchanged a look, and then Matsu put what I presumed was meant to be a comforting hand on Takaaki's arm.

"Come on," he said, with miraculously mild exasperation. "Let's get you checked out. Hopefully not too much damage has been done. I'll be bringing Detective Hirawa down and we'll go through what happened here afterwards."

Takaaki didn't resist this, and I watched for a moment as the two of them left. Then, I turned to Kurosawa.

"You probably want to question me now."

"Actually, yes. We can do it in your room, if you need to. Has a doctor been?"

"Shion asked for one on her way out."

"Oh." He cocked his head curiously. "You didn't want her with you?"

Of course not.

I simply shook my head, and in response he nodded.

"Alright then, we'll take it in here, until the doctor gets here. Don't worry, alright?"

It was a bit late for that, but I nodded. And then we went back inside.

…

Takaaki

To my relief, Detective Matsu didn't say anything as he took me to a different examining room and gave a rundown of 'the situation' to the doctor, who then unpeeled my attempts at bandaging and examined my ears.

"Yes, this could have got infected if you hadn't come here." The doctor scolded. "You're old enough to know better, you shouldn't have done this."

"I said tomorrow." I said, simply.

"It would have been fine for you to come before," Matsu said, his voice with that same trying-to-reassure cadence it had all those years ago. "in fact, it would have been even better if you'd come last night, then everyone would be done. But, at least we can get you bandaged up now. Doctor, could you scan Jinsai-kun once you're done, and see if he did manage to get it out?"

"Of course."

At this point, I zoned out and tried my hardest to not think about anything. I tried my best to pretend that I was not here, that nothing was happening, that I was just in my apartment, reading or sleeping or something. I did not want to remember this. But in simply going through the motions here, I found myself remembering much worse.

I followed Teiichi to the toilets mutely, suddenly far too tired to argue. My hands still felt sore, and I was reeling with the news. Not just Sen'ya, but Kimiko too? I didn't want to believe it.

"Here." Teiichi murmured. "She's…here."

He stepped aside, letting me go inside. For some reason, now of all times, I heard a little voice shrieking 'but these are girl's toilets'. But if ever there was a time to not care about that, it was now, and since I'd never cared about that if it was empty, I forced myself in. And then, all I could do was stare.

When, and how, did life begin? That was something I had been trying to explore in various papers, drawing on old philosophers thoughts and re-examining in a new light, or trying to find completely different angles. It was a question with no easy answer, much like everything in life. I'd thought, then, that the end of life was much the same. But of course, I was so stupid. I should have seen it before, all these times over. But it was only now I realised it.

This, right here, a young girl in a comfortable black cardigan, sprawled across the floor, the blood from her wound more than half-dried already, someone who would never respond to her name ever again even if I did decide to say it one more time. This was the end of life. It was that simple, and I hated it.

"Woah, woah, breathe, you're fine, Jinsai-kun."

I blinked, blearily, and stared at Matsu, who was looking at me in concern. I remembered that concern well. He'd hovered around us a lot, I remembered. I thought he'd been sent by whoever our captor had been, checking on us. Even after he'd used the windows to show us we were free, it'd taken me a while to warm up to him even though even Eikichi had seemed okay with him eventually.

"Come on, let's get you sat down again."

I let him steer me, and then push a glass of water in my hands. I gazed at it for a moment, looking at the ripples in the surface. I found myself thinking of Sadie, or Mai as I was supposed to think of her now, guiding Azami's hands, coaxing her to drink in the same way you would a baby. Except, of course, a baby would at least respond in some way. I took a deep breath, and slowly lifted the glass to my lips, chugging it down until it was completely empty, and then shoving it back at Matsu. He put it down, and then beckoned to the other detective-I assumed he was a detective-who I assumed was the Hirawa that had been mentioned earlier.

"This is Detective Hirawa, Jinsai-kun. It's just been confirmed that you did manage to get the bug out, so we do need to ask you some questions about that."

My shoulders slumped with relief, and I made a gesture with my hand to indicate that they should go on.

Matsu and Hirawa both took seats opposite me, as the doctor finished clearing up and made himself discreetly scarce.

"Could you tell us what made you decide to take it out?"

I shrugged, feeling petulant.

"Wouldn't you?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to know that I might have possibly been tracked all these years, but I would have still waited for a doctor to do it." Matsu said diplomatically.

"Did you plan to do this all along?"

This, I could at least honestly answer.

"Nope."

"Riiight…"

Hirawa considered this. I couldn't tell if it was the lack of familiarity or not, but I didn't take to him. I wanted Detective Matsu to ask all the questions, not him. He was not the one who had opened a window and tried to make me feel the air. He hadn't been there before. What did he know, about anything?

"Can you tell us how you did it?"

"I took a knife to the bathroom, and leaned over the sink, and then I cut. "

"Was there any reasoning in where and how you cut?"

I stared, tried to get my breathing under control.

"Define reasoning." I said, trying to be flippant. "What is the criteria for being considered reasonable by society? And by which society are we defining this by?"

"That is….not really the point here." Hirawa huffed. "The point is that you've just potentially washed away important evidence down the drain."

"Evidence."

"But we saw for ourselves, right? His door lock had broken, so he was definitely trapped for a long time at the very least." Teiichi pointed out. "He wouldn't have been able to get out."

"It isn't clear if the lock was already broken, or if he himself broke it trying to open the door, as he initially stated. That is what you said, isn't it, Jinsai?"

"Yes….." I started. "It is the assumption I made, considering that was the first time today I'd tried to use the door."

"And you did say it wasn't locking at all when you did actually go to bed last night." Eikichi continued.

"That in itself doesn't even mean anything!" Eizo pointed out. "Most of us had trouble with the locks at some point, right? And Akari and Azami got trapped too, before, remember?"

"That is true, but until we can pin down the exact timings, it doesn't take Jinsai out of the frame for either murder, especially not Tsukuda's. It's essential we do that first."

"Jeez, it's almost as if you want him to be guilty." Ayuna muttered.

"I'll pretend that you didn't say that," Eikichi responded coldly. "But the quicker that we pin down the guilty party, the better it will be. We won't have to drag this out-presumably, you don't want that."

Ayuna glared at him, but then slowly shook her head.

"Yes, evidence. That could have helped us work out what happened to you and your friends."

"At the very least," Matsu intervened. "It could have been a vital clue. We do have others, but all the same, that was a reckless thing to do, you do understand."

"I didn't think of it like that."

"Then, what did you think?" Hirawa asked.

"You saw, didn't you? What it was like in there?"

I directed my answer to Matsu, who blinked, taken aback.

"I…yes. What are you talking about in particular, Jinsai-kun?"

"The locks, the cameras. You saw."

"I….yes….?"

"Upupu, look at you, all domestic and boring!"

Azami, Sadie, Lilian and Eizo all shrieked with varying intensities as that damned bear appeared out of nowhere as we were all eating breakfast.

"Porridge and fruits, and some chocolate-it's looks so ordinary and boring, nobody can tell you're in a killing game."

"I'm not eating boring things!" Yuki declared. "I've got chocolate cereal, which is waaaaay better."

"Oh good for you, fluffykins. It's still not murder, so I don't care!" the bear said, jumping on the table and knocking over both Eikichi's and Fumiaki's juice in the process.

"Oh, fuck off." Sen'ya responded, to the point as always.

"Hey, is that any way to talk to your principal?" the bear seemed to pout, then recovered, bouding further along the table. "Especially when I've come to tell you how disappointed I am?"

"I mean, come on? No murders? I would have thought that the first one would have whetted your appetite for blood!"

Monobear paused to consider, then seemed to acquire a reddish tinge to his face, and a slightly sneaky slant of the eyes. It was almost as if he was…blushing? It certainly made it seemed like he was more creature than robot.

"Even if you don't wanna shed blood, couldn't you at least shed your clothes or something? You're teenagers, you're meant to be all hormonal and shit. You could at least give me a good show. Especially you two!"

He pointed both his paws at Azami and Eizo, who were sitting next to each other. Akari was on the other side of Azami, and she glared threateningly.

"What do you mean, us two?" Eizo asked, quizzically.

"You're the class couple, right? But all you do is just giggle at each other. What are you, old people in the 1950s? If you're so in love you should at least be past the kissy-kissy stage. "

Monobear made squelching noises, puckering up his lips and getting in both their faces, making them recoil.

"Leave my sister alone." Akari said, coldly, trying to create a barrier between them using her arm.

"Oh come onnnnn, tell me you don't want to. Especially you, lover boy. I bet you want to take her to your bed and strip her of all her clothes and then pu-"

"Enough!" Sen'ya slammed the table. "Jesus bloody crikey, enough! That's disgusting, and we don't want to hear it. Besides, even if they were doing it, that's a PRIVATE choice, between THEM and therefore none of our fucking buisness. Fuck off with your creepy voyeurism."

Both Eizo and Azami were, for their parts, completely tomato-red and speechless, Azami chewing a hangnail and Eizo just looking plain aghast. Akari whispered something to Azami before putting a comforting arm around her.

"Oooh, big words!" Monobear mocked. "But fiiiiine. I've got something that might make you change your minds later, you brats, so all of you'd better get your butts down to the gym by 10, you hear me?"

With that, he whizzed across the table, jumped down and ran away. For a moment, we stared, and then Ayuna rapidly got up.

"I'm going to see where he goes. Seiko, want to come?"

Seiko shrugged, before also getting up, and proceeding to follow her friend out of the room.

"Can you imagine," I asked. "What it was like? Living like that?"

Matsu and Hirawa exchanged a look, and before either could answer, I seized on that look.

"You can't, can you? You just can't. So, there you go. That's why."

And that is all I will say.